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A review by leda
Take-Out: And Other Tales of Culinary Crime by Rob Hart
3.0
3.5 stars
Food and crime is an interesting combination. Meals and recipes are used to advance the plot of a story and in a way, define, and humanise the characters. These characteristics make Rob Hart’s collection of sixteen stories a provocative journey straight into the depths of a pleasurable – and less pleasurable – darkness.
Most of the stories have been appeared previously in mystery and crime anthologies and periodicals. Three of them have never been published. New York appears to be the the city where these two passions – food and crime collide. Life and death are often intertwined, you never know “when you were having your last meal,” and it is this that “speaks better than anything else could, to the gravity of a good meal.” Food becomes an important experience, sometimes a macabre one.
Hart’s world take place at the back alleys and sound-proofed rooms, at bagel shops and at food trucks, at home kitchens and street market stalls. There is a variety of interesting characters some are vicious and grotesque, others are sensitive and simple, victims of the moment and the circumstances.
All sixteen stories are witty, complex, curious, sometimes surreal, but I particularly liked the Creampuff and Have You Eaten?.
Read the full review at link: Athena Reads
Food and crime is an interesting combination. Meals and recipes are used to advance the plot of a story and in a way, define, and humanise the characters. These characteristics make Rob Hart’s collection of sixteen stories a provocative journey straight into the depths of a pleasurable – and less pleasurable – darkness.
Most of the stories have been appeared previously in mystery and crime anthologies and periodicals. Three of them have never been published. New York appears to be the the city where these two passions – food and crime collide. Life and death are often intertwined, you never know “when you were having your last meal,” and it is this that “speaks better than anything else could, to the gravity of a good meal.” Food becomes an important experience, sometimes a macabre one.
Hart’s world take place at the back alleys and sound-proofed rooms, at bagel shops and at food trucks, at home kitchens and street market stalls. There is a variety of interesting characters some are vicious and grotesque, others are sensitive and simple, victims of the moment and the circumstances.
All sixteen stories are witty, complex, curious, sometimes surreal, but I particularly liked the Creampuff and Have You Eaten?.
Read the full review at link: Athena Reads