Dying on the Vine (Culinary Mysteries (Paperback))

Rating:
Summary: A delightful book about Provence and its people
Review: Although Peter King is definitely not Peter Mayle when writing about Provence, I found this to be a very good mystery indeed, hard to put down. Thank God there is no female Sergeant helping our Gourmet Detective in his investigation. The chauvinistic remarks linger on however, but they are not so overwhelming as in the other two previous mysteries.

I loved the descriptions of life in Provence, as well as the food and the wines, which for me are the best in the world. It wets my appetite every time I read about this sumptuous food.

The ending is quite surprising and full of action. I was expecting to be just carried lightly through, but instead, is quite gripping and I definitely had to keep reading through the last chapters without stopping.

Visit Provence and its vineyards. You'll encounter lots of intrigue, excellent food and high class people.

Rating:
Summary: How to make Provence dull
Review: I wish I'd read the customer reviews of "Gourmet Detective": if I had, I might have thought twice about buying -- and reading -- "Dying on the Vine." The good thing is, the book's so thin on plot and characterization, it takes very little time to get through it. Unfortunately, it's time you could spend on a better read. Besides the typos (which increase toward the end, as if the proofreader became too bored to bother reading it carefully), the book consists of a flat narrative, pale characterizations, awkward dialog and, perhaps oddest of all, lifeless action scenes. Can it be possible to write a story set in Provence and make it dull? While Peter Mayle (the reigning king of Provence-writing) may have thin plots and a feather-weight style, at the very least he's entertaining, something I can't say about Peter King.

Rating:
Summary: The Goumet Detective is in rare form
Review: The Gourmet Detective has been hired by Sir Charles Willesford to investigate why a small Provence, France vineyard desperately wants to purchase his family's much larger vineyard. The owners of the smaller vineyard remain unknown as they are protected by being incorporated in Monte Carlo. These unknown businessmen have offered to buy Sir Charles' properties for well above the market value worth of the much larger Willesford properties.

Upon his arrival in Provence, the Gourmet Detective is quickly greeted by a corpse, allegedly killed by wild boars. Soon, he is under attack from angry bees and the wild boars. The Gourmet Detective is also tossed into a vat of wine. As he travels the backroads, dining on mouth watering delights, The Gourmet Detective realizes that someone(s) wants to insure that he has his last meal.

Peter King's third Gourmet Detective mystery (see THE GOURMET DETECTIVE and SPICED TO DEATH), is a lighthearted romp through the culinary and other customs of Provence, France. The story line tastes more like watered down wine, but that shortcoming is overcome by the delicacy of great and eccentric characters, and a delicious locale. The vile villain is an especially delightful main course fit for a king. Fans of gourmet mysteries will enjoy this seven course meal, just don't imbibe on the plot.

Harriet Klausner