Spiced to Death: A Culinary Mystery

by Peter King

Book Overview

The Gourmet Detective: He's got a gift for food, a taste for adventure-and a nose for nabbing a killer. Critics hailed Peter King's debut novel, The Gourmet Detective, the first in a delicious mystery... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312965001
• ISBN13: 9780312965006
• Release Date: April 1998
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Length: 293 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 4.2" x 6.8"

Customer Reviews

Fun Mystery

Peter King's culinary mysteries are fun reading and very enjoyable. People who look for factual errors in a book and worry about the characters libido, or any other minor flaw, are just not into enjoying the book for fun itself. Peter King shines in my opinion and I have thoroughly enjoyed all his books.

Plotting as Exotically Flavored as a Celestial Spice.

The added mysteries tethered to and woven through The Celestial Spice (Ko Feng) foundation for this plot were rich and tasty indeed, and gave this novel a heady complexity well beyond a classic mystery, actually beyond a classic culinary. Whereas most foodie mysteries are bubbly, light cozies, emulating the brightest, ozone-seeking champaign, this one is a simmering milk-chocolate, alchemizing into a dark, heavy ale, dense with hints of molasses; yeasty with hops; rich with nuance, depth, and complexity. What I felt reading the denouement scenes in SPICED TO DEATH was that Peter King (feels like a pseudonym, but one which fits the flavor of the book) absolutely relished writing this novel, like a kid in a sandbox overflowing with plots, characters, childhood impressions and schemes. After reading the delightfully dramatic heroic leaps through the culminating chapters and scenes, I began to notice the whiffs of this childlike "I did this" ecstasy underlying the well done mystery which stretches beyond that, toeing into the edge of the mystical. A reference to one of this plot's Eastern Magic characters being reminiscent of the ancient Fu Manchu stories (which Peter obviously relished with non-stop drools) was my strongest clue of this endearingly youthful trait which most authors possess, but some attempt to subdue, in order to act like grown up professionals (succeeding to various degrees). Thus, Therefore, and Whereas, another compliment I would slip to Peter King's SPICED, beyond my appreciation of the initial and continuous inducements of mouth watering responses driven by delicious prose, is that he doesn't appear to know (thank all the celestial seasonings of heaven) that he's supposed to tame or tone the wild-eyed, little-kid, absolute love of writing fiction, the mad creative soul clacking away at a keyboard, with hairs flying (or standing on end) and chuckles emerging around red-faced chagrin, exposing all face and body reflections of what each character is feeling as words tumble and toss from muse to mind to keys. Peter can say, "I did this," with thumbs in vest and a voice filled with the gleeful pride of the very young. I can say, "I felt that," with the appreciation of an author/reader who revels in untamed, untarnished, untethered, pure spirit, be it flowing from me or from the radiance of another. The Gourmet Detective, as I continued to reach for and long to know his name, is an unusual blend of character components. First, he's a native of London, visiting and observing New York from a British connoisseur's viewpoint, seamlessly blending sensitive satire on TV offerings, with barely reserved rapture at the extensive cultural availability of taste bud uptake inhibitors in the Big Apple, or The Big Bagel, as the case in time may be. Second, he's not hard boiled, nor is he a true detective, nor is he macho or forcefully, tanging-ly male. He almost comes across (in a delightful pose, to me) like a gorgeous, gregarious gay

More racist than lustful

Thought you might like some thoughts from an English reader as the "detective" is supposed to be English. All I can say is that I'm glad that the majority of English people don't seem to have so many hang ups about race. Perhaps in England we just don't refer to people by their colour and nationality ALL of the time. What I found particularly irritating was the description of the large black man who the detective assumed to be Sri Lankan. Has Peter King ever been to Sri Lanka? The people are Asian and of "typical" (excuse that phrase) Asian colouring. They are not as black as he would have us believe. Also King's detective is just so not English. We aren't all wandering around over here saying "PO'd" despite the fact that King thinks this phrase has crossed the Atlantic. Anyway, despite the above the idea was good - food and crime is an irristable combination, but I wish King would do a bit more research into what the English are really like.

Spicy Intrigue at its best

Loved this book. Felt as if I were in Casablanca looking for the letters of transit, while in the book we're running around New York looking for an extinct spice supposedly recently found, but also recently stolen. Loved all the characters and the food descriptions are wonderful. This book is really enjoyable for everyone who likes to eat. As a tee-totaling vegetarian, I would never eat or drink muchh of anything described, but it all sounds so fascinating. I plan to read this book and the Gourmet Detective a 2nd time, just for the ambience. Normally I don't care for British detectives (except for Morse and Dagliegh< sorry about the spelling) but this book takes place in America and even if it didn't (as the Gourmet Detective) it is wonderful. The only unbelievable part of the book is the authentication of the extinct spice. How could it possibly be certified as Ko Feng which no one has seen in 500 years? It seems to me that all the experts could say is that this spice is something completely new or unknown and may be Ko Feng. Anyway, this is an excellent book and makes for great reading.