Death With Blue Ribbon

Carolus Deene may be a schoolmaster at a prestigious boys’ school, but he also has an excellent reputation for his sleuthing to solve murders. This time, he is approached by a restauranteur-owner of the upscale Haute Cuisine Restaurant in the Fleur de Lys Hotel. There is a matter of pressure from a protection racketeer who is in possession of blackmail information. To keep the “information” private there needs some money to be sent to the racketeer.

Carolus’ specialty is murder, but blackmail is a very serious matter, so he takes on the case. Turns out that a couple of murders become part of the case!

The restaurant owner, Yves Rolland, has just a snobbish, pretentious façade as his restaurant, which makes it difficult for show more Carolus to tolerate.

When Imogene Marvell, a renowned gourmand, cookbook writer, restauranteur, writer, and an even more pretentious person than Rolland, comes to visit and review Haute Cuisine, things don’t go well. While enjoying “Scampi à la Rolland,” the restaurant’s signature dish, she becomes violently ill and declares she’s been poisoned. Taking to her bed to recover, she is found dead the following morning. Food poisoning or murder?

Sorting out the restaurant staff and Marvell’s connections gives Carolus a long list of suspects. He also has to find out who the extortionists are, if there are any other victims and if there is any connection between these events.

Not a simple case but one that Carolus handles with aplomb. show less