Spiced to Death

Gourmet Detective #2

by Peter King

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 series featuring the Gourmet Detective-a chef-turned-culinary-sleuth.

Now, in his second outing, the Gourmet Detective is on his way from London to New York to authenticate Ko-Feng-an expensive spice, lost for centuries, and lauded for its taste and purported qualities as an aphrodisiac. But when the Ko-Feng disappears under his nose-and a culinary colleague turns up dead-the Gourmet Detective becomes the prime suspect in a case more slippery than Oysters Rockefeller. As he cooks up a scheme to find the killer, the Gourmet Detective embarks on a mouth-watering romp through the ethnic eateries of New York City, tasting his way to final justice.

Genres: Mystery, Cozy Mystery, Fiction, Cozy, Culinary, Crime

304 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

Peter King is an English born author of mystery fiction, a Cordon Bleu trained chef and a retired metallurgist and aerospace scientist. Before writing full time, he operated a tungsten mine, prospected worldwide and worked on rocket engines for NASA Apollo missions. After retiring in 1991, he began writing fiction and is best known for the Gourmet Detective series and the Jack London historical mysteries. His work blends culinary detail, historical research and classic whodunit storytelling.

Reviews

[Ronna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Don't know what it is about the Gourmet Detective books that interest me so, but they definitely intrigue me. This one was better than the first one. Perhaps because the mystery was much better--a closed room type. I also love all things Asian cooking, and the spices, meals, and restaurants spoken about in this book were mouth watering and familiar to me. There was also lots of name dropping stories about the times and life in New York.

In this book, the Gourmet Detective, who never gets a name, is called from England to New York to authenticate Ko Feng. This spice has been missing from the world for over 500 years, so everyone from chefs, to pharmaceutical companies want to acquire some, and many are willing to do anything to get some. It's worth a fortune and now it's missing and one of the men involved is dead too. The GD seems to do much of his investigating with beautiful and intriguing women.

This mystery has a definite feel of Christie's mysteries, with the gathering of suspects at the end of the story, where the culprits are revealed. If you're a foodie and can stand a bit of snobbery in your characters, you'll enjoy these books.

[AngryGreyCat · Rating 2 out of 5]

Spiced to Death is the second in the Gourmet Detective series. I really enjoyed the first one simply titled, The Gourmet Detective, but for some reason this fell flat for me. There were tons of characters as our hero travels to New York to authenticate a shipment of a recently rediscovered spice. I actually put this down a couple of times and moved on to other books before finally picking it up and finishing it.

[Karen · Rating 2 out of 5]

The story wasn’t bad, and the food descriptions are great, but i never saw so many racial and ethnic stereotypes in the same book. And the only female characters with any depth to them are the beautiful ones. The whole thing was kind of appalling.

[Eugene · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good mystery, dragged a bit in the interior section, but rallied nicely with the excellent finish. Author King tends to put a bit too much into the “women as meat” characterizations - endless descriptions of their figures, hairdos, provocative costuming, and the like. It’s bearable as it never descends into physical activities but not at all contributory to the story or our enjoyment thereof; at least the educational sides about foods and their origins, preparations, and cultural significances are a decent counterweight.
This plot revolves around a particular spice (Ko Feng), known as The Heavenly Spice, derived from a plant thought extinct for 500 years but recently re-discovered in China and now harvested and imported to the US, and the crop value estimated to be worth $500 million…until the entire crop goes missing. Trust The Gourmet Detective to assist the authorities in its recovery. It’s to the authors credit that the entire thing seems fairly credible. I look forward to the next in the series.

[Rosemary · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this for the Read Harder Challenge - category: mystery where the victim is not a woman. The plot, involving a rare spice just rediscovered and then stolen, is OK. The flaw in this book was that all the women characters were beautiful, sexy, and attracted to the male protagonist. It seems like "The Gourmet Detective" sees himself as a kind of James Bond of the food world. Those of you who are foodies might enjoy the voluminous detail about food, particularly the New York restaurant scene explored by this London gourmet.

[Lisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Gourmet Detective comes from England to NY at the request of a friend who is asked to verify the authenticity of a recently found quantity of a rare and antique spice. There's a little bit of intrigue and some fun characters especially the lead NY detective but overall I found the book to be boring.

[Glen · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Spice Detective is hired to authenticate Ko-Feng, a spice that went extinct centuries ago. Nobody really knows what it tastes like. After the authenticating process, the spice disappears from an armored truck, and...Murder!


The Spice Detective tries to get to the bottom of things.

Diverting.

[Wade Alderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic Read

If you love the golden age of detective stories you will Love Spiced to Death. Peter King is amazing at how well he tells a story and the foods he notes are cute and sometimes helpful. I can't recommend this book enough.

[Daniel Kuhlman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good main character. The book read well until the very end. While the book was satisfying, the last few chapters were somewhat forced. Like he had to figure out a way to make it all work. But, don't let that stop you from reading this. It just kept it from getting my 5th star.

[Maralee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Storyline isn’t bad, and I really enjoyed all the food descriptions, however the racial and cultural stereotypes were really uncomfortable. I get that it’s an older book, but reader be warned, portions did not age well.

[VickiMNE · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable cozy mystery set in the US this time. We picked up a Kindle set of books 1-4 for cheap so will read them all, spacing them out so as not to get bored with the author's "formula" and food descriptions!

[Neely Powell · Rating 4 out of 5]

The intrepid Gourmet Detective is in New York validating a spice that hasn’t been around for centuries. When the precious cargo is stolen from a guarded van, the whole world of chefs and restaurateurs are on the prowl. Now the gourmet is once again is investigating a murder too.

[Elizabeth Desole · Rating 3 out of 5]

Slow moving mystery. But the food descriptions were absolutely mouth watering. I didn’t care at all about the plot or characters but will likely give the other book in the series a go and try to concentrate over the sounds of my stomach growling

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

The second book of this series was just as good as the first; maybe a bit better. I'm enjoying the writing and the characters.

[Gail · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was OK, a little boring; I won't continue this series.

[Ruth · Rating 1 out of 5]

I didn't finish this book. I barely made it to chapter two. In just those few pages, I can't even count how many racial and cultural stereotypes were made.

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lot of character to keep track of.

[Rune · Rating 3 out of 5]

Brilliant book , amazing food

Fantastic characters

[Barbara Cryer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice but of food info sprinkled throughout

[Quennie May · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like reading this book because it gives me this feeling that I don't want to stop reading because I was very eager to know who stole the Ko Feng.

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Delightful. I enjoyed Mr. King's wordplay, gourmet ideas, & plotting.

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay, hmm... I've read the whole series now. I'm not going to do individual book reviews, some of them are better than others, but they're all enjoyable, quick reads. Then again, throw gourmet food and wine into anything and I'm likely to add some points to it in my mind. Bizarrely, though, given that I gave all the books three stars, I don't know that I recommend them. Had they been written fifty years ago, I'd give them some more slack, but here are my issues with, well, all of them:

The gourmet detective himself, our protagonist, is an unlikable twit. He's a middle aged, pretentious white man, with delusions of self importance. He fancies himself a ladies man and, of course, manages to get one or another into bed (trailed off, never portrayed, just make sure we know it happened, wink, wink) in all or almost all the books. He's misogynistic, racist, and classist. He fancies himself a connoisseur of all things food and wine, and throws about names and terms, most of which the average reader will not have heard of, and will probably just move past without much thought. The problem is, he's pretty much clueless and the mistakes in his descriptions of various ingredients, dishes, and bottles of fermented grape juice are legion.

In short, and yes, I realize I'm generalizing and could be accused of bias myself, he's the sort of detective that a 70+ year old retired upper middle class British metallurgical engineer (who apparently at some point went to the Cordon Bleu cooking school to be trained as a chef, though my bet is he just took a few cooking classes for home cooks, then again, who knows, but it seems he did it after retiring at some point in his 70s) would reimagine himself to be if he were to become a food detective. In short, a sort of Walter Mitty alter ego.

[Morgan · Rating 3 out of 5]

So, I was trying to find out more about this series and it's really hard to find at least one book since the Gourmet Detective series has been out of print for a long time. It's not that popular until the Hallmark Channel uncovered the archives and used their eye candy, Dylan Neal, as the main lead in their movie mysteries.

It was much easier to picture the main character with Dylan's adorable face. But I found the character himself to be a complete utter ninny most of the time. His talents lie with food and being English. He's honest about not being a real detective, but I found the story to be slightly interesting. The story did lack a bit of emotional responses. The author seemed to gloss over some of the characters' reactions or jump over the gritty scenes. I get that it's a cozy, but when it comes to the critical appropriate times, it would be natural to sense the characters' feelings.

I could have wrote a lengthy review about sexism, but Peter King was kind enough to call out on his main character's "manly" assumptions on women. I find it hilarious that he is easily swayed by a pretty face and there was a dash of eroticism when he drowned in Dr. Li's mesmerizing green eyes. It was rather unconventional for the police detective to go on dates with the Gourmet Detective. I get it that they were searching for clues, but she did get cozy with him even to the end. I will be surprised if their relationship pursues in the next novel.

What shocked me was that he didn't appear fat in the stories. The GD eats a lot in this story. Peter King did describe New York City (in the 90s) and the people were engaging. I enjoyed that. Yaruba Da was my favorite. The huge black guy who cooks African food is a hero.

[Mary Corso · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love the look and smell of spices, even more than the taste. I love those pictures of open-air markets in far away places with mounds of colorful spices on the table ... There is a spice only shop in Kerrytown (Ann Arbor) that I hope is still there. I like to buy things I've never heard of before and try them out ...

So this book. The idea that there is a spice that has been extinct is fascinating. I know that heritage seeds and beans are kept in a warehouse somewhere in the US to guard against extinction, but that not all seed can germinate so people are worried about that concept. I once told my dad that I used to like apples better when I was a kid, and he responded that they used to taste better back then. All this crossbreeding and "Frankenfoods" designed to resist problems when growing or extend shelf life have changes our foods. I do eat the "superfood" of the Incas (quinoa) or was it the Mayans? They both have a superfood - one is quinoa and one is amaranth (both are ok but I usually mix with other grains) - and this is kind of the plot of this book. The descriptions of foods by cultures made me wish we had more exotic cuisines in Lansing. If you like reading cookbooks and food descriptions, you will like this book. The story line was better than the Katherine Hall Page book I think.

PS when I got to the end and found out "who dun it" I had to go back to remember who that person was. I do have a poor memory for names, but maybe too many main suspects?

[Rogue Reader · Rating 3 out of 5]

The books in the Gourmet Detective series are easy, fun reads that always bring some new aspect of food science, culinary history or tradition into play. Spiced to Death (St. Martins, 1997) concerns Ko Feng, a mythical spice long considered lost, and found by chance in a weed field outside of Saigon. The scientific analysis of the presumed extinct spice was good.

--Ashland Mystery

[Karen Hufman · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was ok - the main character was called in to verify a spice that has been missing for centuries: Ko Feng. Shortly after he and his friend do just that they go to the bank with it to transfer payment and they find out it's gone. He works to find the thief but not before his friend is murdered. I feel like he thinks he's some ladies man from the 1950's- but I have no idea how to picture him because the author never gave a description.

[Arlene Shulman/Lichtman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book very much. It was so different. It's a culinary tour through New York City while a murder suspect is being sought. The main character is very colorful. This is his second book, but not having read the first book, it took me quite a while to figure out if this person was male or female. The fault of the author. The ending gets a little messy, but it's a fun read.

[Sugarpop · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this one much more than the first in the series. I am beginning to like the Gourmet Detectives little quirks. I thought the little mind reading scene was a little too far fetched. It reminded me of an overplayed stereotype in an old book or movie.

[Susan · Rating 2 out of 5]

nteresting little mystery. It was neat to hear the talk about food and unusual dishes inspired from around the world. I liked the intricacy of the food world being described but the characters were cliche for my tastes and slightly predictable.

[Kel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quick read. The story flowed along nicely. I will try another in this series.