Gourmet Detective 05 - A Healthy Place to Die

While relaxing at a Swiss health spa, the detective finds the treatment can be deadly

The gourmet detective realizes that the Alpine Springs health resort is not a typical spa somewhere in the middle of his first cocktail. Where other retreats promote abstinence, exercise, and bland food, this quiet little Swiss chalet preaches indulgence. Guests are allowed to eat, drink, and smoke as much as they want, and exercise is strictly optional. For this epicure, it is paradise—and it may also be his doom.

He has come from London to speak about fine dining, but while here he fully intends on enjoying himself. One night he arranges a tryst with a fellow expert, a beautiful young woman named Kathleen Evans. They are deep in the woods, about to begin enjoying themselves, when something knocks the detective out cold. When he comes to, Kathleen has vanished, and the detective begins to suspect that life in the Alps is not as healthful as it appears.

An intriguing element of the Gourmet Detective series (Spiced to Death, etc.) is the identity of the otherwise nameless sleuth. In this fifth feast of a food mystery, he agrees to fill in for his colleague, Carver Armitage, at the sumptuous Swiss Alpine Springs Spa, where he will demonstrate the preparation of a variety of exotic dishes, including duck, lobster and cheesecake. The night of his arrival, however, a planned tryst with a food columnist, Kathleen Evans, goes awry. Just as he's about to embrace her naked body, someone knocks him out. When he revives, Kathleen is gone. Things begin to look even more suspicious when the detective is almost simmered in a mud bath. Has he been mistaken for Armitage, or is someone out for the detective's hide? His own sous-detective may have arrived in the form of Elaine Dunbar, a young attorney collecting information on the use of food in crime. When the Gourmet Detective arranges a rendezvous with Elaine, he again loses consciousness and once more the woman is later not to be found. These disappearances, combined with the secrecy surrounding Elaine and the spa kitchens, indicate that all may not be so healthy at the spa. Action and suspense are ingredients used sparingly by King, but he positively stuffs the book with useful tips on food and cookery techniques. While the author provides no specific recipes, thought for food and food for thought are abundant. (June)
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