Murder Most Delectable: Savory Tales of Culinary Crimes from 2000 features several clever murders involving food. No anthology on this topic would be complete without a Nero Wolfe story and sure enough, Martin H. Greenberg includes “Poison a la Carte” by Rex Stout. A producer of Broadway plays is murdered at the annual dinner of the Ten for Aristology and Wolfe has to determine which of the dozen beautiful girls who served the food fed arsenic to one of the members.
I also enjoyed “Gored” by Bill Crider where Sheriff Dan Rhodes is confronted by a murder at a Texas BBQ. Edward D. Hoch plays with memory in a boy who doesn’t realize until years later he knows who committed a murder in “Day for a Picnic.” Also clever and funny, Barbara Collins’ “Dead and Breakfast” features a B&B where murder is on the menu.
If you’re looking for an entertaining anthology of murder mysteries and food–and every story includes a recipe!–Murder Most Delectable might just satisfy your hunger. GRADE: B
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Introduction / John Helfers — vii
The last bottle in the world / Stanley Ellin — 1
Takeout / Joyce Christmas — 23
The case of the shaggy caps / Ruth Rendell — 39
The cassoulet / Walter Satterthwait — 67
Tea for two / M.D. Lake — 81
The second-oldest profession / Linda Grant — 91
Connoisseur / Bill Pronzini — 105
Gored / Bill Crider — 115
Day for a picnic / Edward D. Hoch — 131
Guardian angel / Caroline Benton — 143
The main event / Peter Crowther — 151
The deadly egg / Janwillem van de Wetering — 163
Dead and breakfast / Barbara Collins — 181
Recipe for a happy marriage / Nedra Tyre — 197
Death cup / Joyce Carol Oates — 215
Poison peach / Gillian Linscott — 245
Of course you know that chocolate is a vegetable / Barbara D’Amato — 265
Poison à la carte / Rex Stout — 277
Authors’ Biographies — 333
Copyrights and Permissions — 339
Greenberg’s spinning theme wheel in action! However, if I came across this one, I’d give it a tumble, in part for the writers I haven’t tried as well as the old favorites (and some friends and acquaintances).
Todd, Greenberg was a publishing phenomenon. I still have dozens of his anthologies on my shelves waiting to be read.
I can’t remember if I’ve read this one, but I do remember some of the stories vividly – the Crider and the Hoch in particular, and the Ellin for sure.
As much as I like most of Max Collins’s work, the “Barbara Collins” stories are fingernails on the blackboard for me. I hate the mother character with a passion.
Currently reading – and very much enjoying – another Greenberg anthology that you reviewed a few weeks ago, MURDER MOST CONFEDERATE. Oustanding lineup of authors and stories.
Jeff, I’ve read a half dozen of Greenberg’s MURDER MOST… series. MURDER MOST CONFEDERATE might be the best of the bunch.
It certainly had the writers to allow for that.
Todd, it’s sad that most of those short story markets are gone today.