The
Spice Box
By
Lou Jane Temple
Bridget Heaney’s family left their native Ireland to escape
the potato famine, but now there is just Bridget left, searching
for her missing sister. Since leaving the orphanage, she has endeavored
to better herself, and now starts a job as a cook in the grand house
of department store owner Isaac Gold. Unfortunately, on her first
day at work Isaac’s missing younger son turns up dead in the
dough box. With her boss’s sanction, it is time for Bridget
to turn investigator.
This is the first in a new series
of culinary-themed historical mysteries, and if you like your crime
cozy, then this will surely fit the bill. At times it seems almost
too much so to be entirely convincing, as Isaac presents himself
as a philanthropist who at the same time is keen to play detective
with his new cook (about whom he knows nothing) in tow. Having swallowed
this, I enjoyed the descriptions of the dishes that Bridget prepares
(there are even some genuine 19th century recipes at the back) and
the images of New York as it struggles to lose its Tammany Hall
taint and go upmarket. Rich and poor, master and servant mingle
in a remarkably egalitarian manner in here as immigrants strive
to become Americans and the Civil War rages on. It is a novel of
a fascinating time in history, and I would have liked more of the
background to have intruded, but this aside, I enjoyed the story.
|
The
Book |
Berkley Prime Crime (Penguin Group USA) |
May
2005 |
Hardback |
0425200434 |
Historical
Crime [1864, New York] |
More
at Amazon US
|| UK |
Excerpt
|
NOTE:
|
The
Reviewer |
Rachel
A Hyde |
Reviewed
2005 |
NOTE:
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