Murder on the Menu : Cordon Bleu Stories of Crime and Mystery

The Speciality Of The House / By Stanley Ellin -- Bribery And Corruption / By Ruth Rendell -- Chef D'oeuvre / By Paul Gallico -- La Specialite De M Duclos / By Oliver La Farge -- Three, Or Four, For Dinner / By L.p. Hartley -- A Terrible Tale / By Gaston Leroux -- So You Won't Talk! / By Damon Runyon -- Sauce For The Goose / By Patricia Highsmith -- A Very Commonplace Murder / By P.d. James -- A Dinner At Imola / By August Derleth -- The Feast In The Abbey / By Robert Bloch -- The Three Low Masses / By Alphonse Daudet -- The Coffin-maker / By Alexander Pushkin -- Guests From Gibbet Island / By Washington Irving -- The Compleat Housewife / By Richard Dehan -- The Case Of Mr. Lucraft / By Walter Besant And James Rice -- The Man Who Couldn't Taste Pepper / By G.b. Stern -- Final Dining / By Roger Zelazny -- Four-and-twenty Blackbirds / By Agatha Christie -- The Long Dinner / By H.c. Bailey -- The Assassins' Club / By Nicholas Blake -- Dinner For Two / By Roy Vickers -- A Case For Gourmets / By Michael Gilbert -- Rum For Dinner / By Lawrence G. Blochman -- Under The Hammer / By Georges Simenon -- Poison A La Carte / By Rex Stout -- Lamb To The Slaughter / By Roald Dahl. Edited By Peter Haining. Cordon Bleu Stories Of Crime And Mystery. "Sit down and prepare yourself for a satisfying banquet of murder. Your tastes - both literary and gastronomic - will be tantalized by this exemplary collection of stories by such giants as Agatha Christie, P.D. James, Georges Simenon, and Roald Dahl." "Throughout history, food and drink have been used as convenient vehicles for the administering of a fatal dose. Small wonder, then, that the golden age of crime fiction has seen a feast of stories in which murder features prominently on the menu. From the breakfast porridge laced with arsenic to the bedtime cocoa doctored with strychnine, no meal has escaped the determined killer. Country house parties have had a predilection for weedkiller, while many a restaurant specialty has concealed a deadly dose of cyanide in the delicately flavored sauce." "Poison is not the only weapon chosen by the mealtime murderer. Guns, knives, and the good old-fashioned blunt instrument have all been used to strike down the unsuspecting victim."--Book jacket Fatal food and drink served with an insidious smile to unsuspecting husbands, dinner guests, and gourmands feature in a banquet of stories from the golden age of crime fiction by P. D. James, Georges Simenon, Michael Gilbert, and others. Includes mystery stories on the themes of food and cooking by "P. D. James, Ruth Rendell, Roald Dahl, Rex Stout, Patricia Highsmith, Georges Simenon, Nicholas Blake, Michael Gilbert, Stanley Ellin," and others