Linda Barnes: Cities of the Dead

Linda Barnes: Cities of the Dead (USA 2015)

From the Publisher:
Former PI and independently wealthy actor Michael Spraggue attends a get-together of great New Orleans chefs where the secret ingredient is murder
Sophisticated Boston Brahmin Michael Spraggue will never forget the flaky strawberry tarts Dora Levoyer made for him when he was a little boy. A French immigrant who has worked for Michael's eccentric aunt Mary for decades, Dora has an old-world sensibility, an elegant palate, and a past that cannot be spoken of. Deserted by her husband long ago, she has fought hard to put him out of her mind. But when Dora is invited to a banquet held by the finest chefs in New Orleans, she sees a man who looks just like her missing spouse. Before she can confront him, he is found with a chef's knife embedded in his heart -- and every piece of evidence points to Dora as the killer.

At his aunt Mary's behest, Michael hops the first plane down to New Orleans -- a mysterious city where the dead, like the living, have dangerous secrets.

Cities of the Dead is the 4th book in the Michael Spraggue Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

Linda Barnes: Cities of the Dead. A Michael Spraggue Mystery. Open Road Media, ISBN: 9781504014526 (July, 2015), eBook, 1.12 MB (ca. 186 p.), $7.99.

Linda Barnes: Cities of the Dead (USA 1997)

From the Publisher:
When the great chefs of New Orleans stage an elegant banquet, tempers burn hotter than cayenne pepper. Up-and-coming Cajun chef Joseph Fontenot is found with a slender French cooking knife through his heart, and all the evidence points to Dora Levoyer, sublime cook to Boston's wealthhy and eccentric Mary Spraggue Hillman.

A guest at the banquet, Mary summons her nephew Michael Spraggue, actor-cum-private detective, to the scene. And soon Spraggue is investigating a murder case that will leave his mouth burning and his mind spinning. One thing is certain: the solution to the murder will make for a spicy mystery indeed!

Linda Barnes: Cities of the Dead. A Michael Spraggue Mystery. Dell, ISBN: 0440220955 (January, 1997), 245 p., $5.99.

Linda Barnes: Cities of the Dead (USA 1991)

What can an employer do? A guest at the banquet, Mary immediately summons her nephew Michael Spraggue, actor-cum-private-detective, to the scene. And soon Spraggue is investigating a murder case that will leave his mouth burning and his mind spinning.

Who didn't bear a grudge against Fontenot? Some objected to his arrogance, others to his wiliness. Still others loathed him for his attempts to elevate "peasant" Cajun cookery to the heights of Creole cuisine. But one thing is certain: The solution to his murder makes for a spicy mystery indeed!

Linda Barnes: Cities of the Dead. Murder before Mardi Gras. A Michael Spraggue Mystery. Fawcett Crest, ISBN: 0449211886 (May, 1991), 184 p., $4.99.

Linda Barnes: Cities of the Dead (USA 1986)

From the Publisher:
Joseph Fontenot, Cajun chef extraordinaire, is dead, stabbed with a fine French slicing blade during the banquet for the Great Chefs of New Orleans, and Dora Levoyer, a quiet woman whose past is as tightly locked as the special case of kitchen knives she has brought from Boston, stands accused of the murder.

Mary Spraggue Hillman didn't want to go to New Orleans in the first place. But with Dora, her cook, in trouble, the financial wizard behind the Spraggue fortune takes time out to tangle with the New Orleans police and to call her nephew in for help.

Michael Spraggue slips off his actor's costume to don the mask of private investigator once more, prying into a spicy mix of culinary rivalries. The trail winds through pre-Mardi Gras New Orleans, from Cajun bars to hoodoo queens to hidden loot, leading to the old St. Louis Cemeteries, where the burial vaults may be above ground, but the skeletons are buried deep.

Linda Barnes: Cities of the Dead. A Michael Spraggue Mystery. St. Martin's Press, ISBN: 0312139403 (January, 1986), 184 p., $14.95.