Food in crime fiction seems as natural as cinnamon in apple pie. There's always poison which needs to be camouflaged in food or drink. And, though they are never silly geese, many a detective is a gastronome and even a gourmand.
My personal favourite is Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe. The obese detective almost never budges from his residence. He has a cook but is no stranger to the kitchen.
The layout of his flat is a key piece in the pleasure of the series. There is the kitchen and there is the orchid room, his second hobby being these flowers. Detection is tertiary but relatively swift, once his hired pair of legs, Archie Goodwin, fetches him the various clues of the case.
Wolfe is but one example. Poirot is more popular. However, they are all a bit of old hat and, I will eat mine if one of the newer ones, showcased below, don't please the palate as well. Food in crime fiction never stales, somehow.
Anne Zouroudi's Red Herrings: Food in Crime Fiction is a nourishing essay on the subject. She authors the Greek detective series.
My personal favourite is Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe. The obese detective almost never budges from his residence. He has a cook but is no stranger to the kitchen.
Stout uses food as a character in the books. It is every bit as alive, as filled with personality and appeal–visual and olfactory, color and taste as any witness, victim or villain.
Anne Zouroudi's Red Herrings: Food in Crime Fiction is a nourishing essay on the subject. She authors the Greek detective series.
Don't read this one on an empty stomach! The extensive descriptions of various food and drink items will leave you wanting some.
In her 1930 classic Strong Poison, Dorothy L Sayers had her heroine Harriet Vane stand trial for poisoning her ex-lover with a sweet omelette.
Dining with death: crime fiction’s long affair with food
Recipes for crime fiction, we note, sometimes blend in food. What happens when we also fold in some romance?
Recipes for Love and Murder, opens with Tannie Maria transforming her recipe column in the local newspaper into an advice column to pacify the paper’s sponsors. Her common sense (coupled with mouthwatering recipes) is a hit, and she soon receives mail from readers across the country. Then Tannie Maria gets a letter from a woman who wants to escape her abusive husband—a situation that mirrors her own violent past. When the woman is murdered, Tannie Maria is determined to find the killer herself. After all, suspects are more willing to talk if you ply them with food.
Sally Andrew Debuts a South African Mystery Series with Recipes for Love and Murder
These days it's never as simple as all that! You've got to watch every mouthful lest it go to waist!
Writer and columnist, Paige Nick, penned ‘Death by Carbs’ after a pasta-loving friend said she could kill the scientist for his low carbohydrate high fat (LCHF) ‘banting’ diet.
Banter’s book sees the death of Tim Noakes
Fiction, stewed in a cauldron of history, sups well with a side order of crime. The novel below sounds like a fine example of French crime cuisine.
I could go on and on about how Nicholas sounds good enough to eat, but really, Parot is obsessed with food. Crimes may be committed and deaths avenged, but Parot goes into great detail every time a morsel is mentioned. Sure, there may be a corpse two pages over, but dang, food is like another character in this riveting start to a fantastic mystery series.
The next post serves up an Indian 'thali'. Either Google is doing this to me as I'm based in the sub-continent or we're sizzling with samples of food in crime fiction!
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