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THE PERILS OF PAELLA
by Nancy Fairbanks
Berkley, January 2004
304 pages
$5.99
ISBN: 042519390X


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Food writer Carolyn Blue travels to Barcelona to visit her long-time friend Roberta (Robbie) Hecht, an art historian specializing in the works of Miro. Robbie is working at a museum, the Espirit de Gaudi i Miro in Barcelona for a few months, taking some time away from her new husband and his two children. Just as Carolyn gets to Barcelona and before she even meets Robbie, she comes across a dead body in a performance art exhibit in the museum. The fact that the dead woman looks exceedingly like Robbie only adds to Carolyn's jet-lagged anxiety.

We then meet the Spanish police inspector in charge of the case, Inspector Pujol. He's an old-fashioned man, rather prejudiced against strangers and women, who is very aware of his Catalan family history and also very much at the mercy of his aristocratic-worshiping superiors. When the body is reported to have been found along with two Americans present at the crime scene, Inspector Pujol hopes that an outsider is the murderer and not one of the famous, or infamous celebrities of the Catalan art world, including the patron of the museum.

This is the fourth in the series of Carolyn Blue books by author Nancy Fairbanks and it is a quick and pleasant read. Though the murder and finding the perpetrator takes a second place to Robbie's difficulties with her new stepson and Carolyn's constant complaint that she's tired, the mystery part of the books moves along nicely -­ although the resolution comes to light with no surprises whatsoever.

Not letting a murder or a missing child dampen her enthusiasm for sight-seeing, Carolyn leads the readers through some of the more fascinating places of attraction in Barcelona, and I found the tourist walking tour to be extremely interesting and the highlight of this book. Unfortunately her disregard for the bigger issues makes the lead character seem heartless, but as it happens, no one else in the book seems to notice that fact. Sightseeing and small pauses to taste various Catalan culinary specialties continue throughout the story.

In between bites of food, Carolyn is determined to make Inspector Pujol see that Roberta isn't the best candidate for the title of murderer with so many other better suspects to be investigated. Although danger manages to aim itself at her ­- and miss ­- quite often, readers needn't get too worried and the fun of the story doesn't miss a beat as it reaches an unflustered conclusion.

A pleasant cozy read for everyone, and a definite must for Carolyn Blue fans THE PERILS OF PAELLA isn't a tough mystery to solve or to read. Fascinating location and interesting tidbits of historical and cultural information makes this an agreeable page-turner and an enjoyable way to spend a few hours.

Reviewed by Sharon Katz, January 2004

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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