Gourmet Detective Books In Publication Order
- The Gourmet Detective (1994)
- Spiced to Death (1997)
- Dying on the Vine (1998)
- Death al Dente (1999)
- A Healthy Place to Die (2000)
- Eat, Drink, and be Buried (2001)
- Roux the Day (2002)
- Dine and Die on the Danube Express (2003)
Jack London Books In Publication Order
- The Jewel of the North (2001)
- Dead Man’s Coast (2002)
- The Golden Gate Murders (2002)
Standalone Novels In Publication Order
- Hangman’s Corner (2008)
Gourmet Detective Book Covers
Jack London Book Covers
Standalone Novels Book Covers
Peter King Books Overview
Spiced to Death
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.
Dying on the Vine
And the main course is…
murder. Animated by a passion for food, wine and justice, the Gourmet Detective travels to Provence to investigate a shadowy business deal between two vineyards. But before he can even sample the delights of Pate de Grives on triangles of hot, crisp toast, he encounters a corpse leaning against a cart in the vineyard. Was he really gored to death by sangliers, wild boars rumored to live in the abandoned caves surrounding the village? And why would a tiny vineyard want to buy out its enormous neighbor and competitor at any price? Has one of them developed a wine to die for? Trusting In Vino Veritas, the Gourmet Detective follows his palate through a host of Provencal delicacies and sanguinary divertisseme*nts while a brilliant killer with exquisite taste prepares to serve him his last meal…
Death al Dente
The Gourmet Detective did not expect his job to be easy. He had been sent by Desmond Lansdown, respected actor and London’s premier restaurateur, to find the best chef in Italy. But even the most difficult tasks can be savored when one enjoys his work, and the sleuth happily immerses himself in his duties, sampling the peninsula’s finest cuisine with his beautiful and mysterious guide, Francesca. But between courses of boccocini vol au vents filled with chicken giblets and truffles and strangolopreti a gnocchi and spinach dish whose name means ‘priest stranglers’ the determined gourmet begins to suspect that someone is trying to kill him. And when an agricultural magnate with whom he has enjoyed several meals turns up facedown in a swimming pool, the Gourmet Detective must dodge stampeding buffalo, a kamikaze airplane, and a killer monk, while at the same time choosing the perfect chef and solving the perfect murder. In a country where chefs enjoy a celebrity status second only to their food, would one kill to be the best? In Death al Dente, the fourth installment in the Gourmet Detective series, the discerning sleuth finds himself embroiled in a sizzling mixture of food and passion. Can he discover the murderer’s motive before his own goose is cooked?
A Healthy Place to Die
How could any self respecting gourmet turn down a few weeks in a luxurious Swiss health spa?After all, this is no dieter’s boot camp, but an exclusive hideaway for weary elites seeking a few stolen moments for relaxation, self indulgence and maybe a slight reduction in their fat intakes. And who’d ever believe that a healthy meal could sound so appetizing?Zuger Kirschtorte: a rich, saffron colored cake soaked in cherry schnapps? Duck with sliced prosciutto, wild rice, dried apricots, pistachio nuts?When not gorging themselves, guilt free, the exclusive spa’s wealthy patrons lounge in soothing mud baths and splash around in natural springs. No aficionado of the Good Life can pass up an opportunity like this. And few boast a better understanding of good living than the world famous Gourmet Detective. When he’s needed to fill in for a friend sampling and evaluating the spa’s rich delicacies the discerning sleuth can hardly say no. Every one of his assignments, consulting on menus for the world’s premiere restauranteurs, seems to end up with someone dead and someone else trying to kill him. But here, at last, is a chance to relax in the very lap of luxury. Or so the Gourmet Detective thinks…
When he arrives at the resort’s seaweed massage room for a rendezvous with one of the many attractive, leggy, blonde staff members, he finds her passed out from the heat. As he reaches for her pulse, someone bludgeons him from behind. While he’s unconscious, her body disappears, along with any hope of a peaceful vacation. Then two more women both editors at lifestyle magazines go missing. And a lawyer shows up to inquire about the stories they were writing. The Gourmet Detective suspects they had uncovered more than the tastiest recipes. Now, as a menu specializing in relaxation turns into a recipe for disaster, the Gourmet Detective may have to sniff out a killer.
Eat, Drink, and be Buried
When the world’s finest restaurateurs need assistance, they know they can rely on the Gourmet Detective’s discriminating palate to get the job done. After a family of eccentrically dysfunctional British aristocrats hires the sleuth to design a menu for their medieval theme castle resort, he anticipates a great opportunity to explore a forgotten but nonetheless mouth watering cuisine. A cake walk? Maybe not, but with the bloodshed of the Middle Ages centuries past, it should at least be safe…
Wrong again. Exploring new variations on succulent recipes for fresh venison with traditional frumenty a pudding made from wholewheat grains, chopped almonds, egg yolk and saffron the discerning sleuth finds himself the prime suspect in a murder investigation! It seems that a professional joust re enactor’s goose was cooked after he finished one of the investigator’s feasts, and authorities have determined the cause of death: poisoning. To make matters worse, the dead actor had stood in at the last minute for the scion of the infighting noble family…
had the poison been meant for him? And why would someone want to kill him? Before he can answer these questions, the intrepid Gourmet Detective will have to dodge stray arrows, escape a flooding dungeon, avoid the authorities’ suspicion, and nab the crooks all while finding a way to get four and twenty live blackbirds under the crust of a pot pie already filled with chicken, bacon, mushrooms, raisins, and cloves. Can the Gourmet Detective solve the crime, save his skin, and design an authentic assortment of medieval Europe’s most prized delicacies in the meantime? One way or the other, it won’t be a banquet.
Roux the Day
For six generations, the Belvedere family dominated the culinary landscape of New Orleans, a city that boasts what is perhaps the most vibrant, exciting, and authentic cuisine in America. But each generation relinquished control of the family restaurant best known for its world famous Oysters Belvedere only after succumbing to the madness that has plagued the dynasty since its arrival from the Canary Islands. Now, after the business’ doors have remained closed for years, the next scion of the Belvedere clan has determined to seize his birthright…
if only he can find the annotated family cookbook, which has mysteriously disappeared!Only one man can help. That man is the Gourmet Detective. Returning for his seventh foray into the bizarre nether regions where haute cuisine meets high crimes and misdemeanors, Peter King’s beloved sleuth reluctantly agrees to track down the book. But this decidedly out of print classic isn’t going to turn up on any remainder shelf! And when he finds its supposed new owner a used book dealer stewing in a puddle of his own blood, the Gourmet Detective know that, once again, he’s in for more than he bargained for. Soon, he’s ‘kidnapped’ by the WITCHES, a mysterious cadre of New Orleans’ most ambitious and talented female chefs and they want the book too. In fact, it seems like everyone does. And getting it will have the sleuth staring down con artists and book forgers on an old fashioned paddle boat, careening through the colorful streets of the French Quarter in a mule drawn carriage, and hunting down leads in the vibrant fishing shanties of Algiers. All of this, while exploring the very contentious differences between the proponents of Creole and Cajun cuisine, and sampling some of the most spicy and succulent treats he’s yet encountered: from blackened redfish, fresh from the Gulf and coated in garlic, paprika, cayenne and an assortment of spices, then seared in an extraordinarily hot cast iron pan…
to turtle soup, dark, rich, seasoned with onion, oregano, and thyme…
. to Pheasant Casserole…
. to Gumbo, catfish, crawfish…
and that’s just a taste!
Dine and Die on the Danube Express
The world famous Gourmet Detective gets a taste for scrumptious Mitteleuropean cuisine and intrigue! The stately Danube Express starts in the Alps and cuts through Austria, Hungary, and the former Yugoslavia, before pulling up on the shores of the Black Sea in Romania. Along the way, its passengers hailing from Europe’s elites sample the best and most enticing foods these countries’ cuisines have to offer, dishes as unfamiliar and exotic to American readers as they are delicious. When a celebrated Hungarian stage actress vanishes from the moving train, the Gourmet Detective finds himself enlisted in a desperate search for her abductor, or killer, and for answers in a bizarrely unfolding mystery centering on humanity’s most consuming passion: food!
Related Authors