Spiced to Death — 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.