Add Cyanide to Taste
A collection of dark tales with culinary twists
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- 3,99 €
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- 3,99 €
Publisher Description
Winner of the 2022 IndieReader Discovery Award for short stories
A sinister cook, a cursed cake, and a casual dinner between neighbours that goes murderously wrong.
This collection of culinary mysteries ascends the jagged culinary heights you’ve hungered to explore but could never find on a map: a family business that depends on a cursed recipe, a remote mountain village harbouring a suspicious cook, a deadly secret between old friends. As the characters swoon over every unforgettable mouthful and sometimes bite off more than they can chew, you’ll find yourself asking: What would I be willing to pay for the meal of a lifetime?
Fourteen short stories and thirteen recipes will chill, thrill and entertain. The suspenseful stories range from thrillers and mysteries to ghost stories and are a great gift for crime fiction lovers. If feasting on culinary noir leaves you hungry, extend your pleasure by preparing the dishes featured in the stories. Most recipes are vegetarian. All recipes provided are cyanide-free.
‘The 14 well-crafted culinary noir stories in Spiljak’s debut collection efficiently establish character and mood. Fans of Rob Hart’s Take-Out and Other Tales of Culinary Crime will feel sated.’
Publishers Weekly
'The stories feature strong, interesting characters, imaginative situations that range from funny to terrifying to everything in between, excellent plot twists, beautiful writing to please the senses, and great integration of the culinary aspects.'
IndieReader
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The 14 well-crafted culinary noir stories in Spiljak's debut collection efficiently establish character and mood. While many are traditional narratives, the star of this feast is "The Collectors," which recounts its ominous plot through a series of email exchanges. The opening banter between two friends turns darker with the reveal that a member of their academic team researching Neolithic mass graves has gone missing in the same Austrian location that a journalist disappeared from years earlier, both possibly as the result of food tampering by one or more persons seeking to preserve some deadly secrets. Another high point is "Dark Velvet," which follows its effective opening tease ("All families have their secrets; ours has a curse. We rarely bring it up but it continues to exist in the shadows") with a twisted story involving a cake recipe rumored to require human blood as an ingredient. Crime fiction readers who are also foodies will appreciate the recipe section following the stories, prefaced with the tongue-in-cheek warning, "please don't add cyanide to any of the dishes." Fans of Rob Hart's Take-Out and Other Tales of Culinary Crime will feel sated. (Self-published)
