Nancy Fairbanks

by Nancy Fairbanks

When Carolyn’s husband, Jason, is invited to lecture in Lyon, France, it seems like the perfect excuse to eat in one of the culinary capitals of the world. But along with picturesque street scenes and exquisite meals, the couple is met with incomprehensible traffic, pushy locals, and a thoroughly unpleasant attempt on their lives. A colleague falls victim to a fatal foie gras intended for Carolyn and Jason. And as amorous secrets and more murderous attempts are added to the mix, Carolyn must discover who cooked the dirty dish and really watch what she eats.

by Nancy Fairbanks

Even if she must share a cabin with her mother-in-law, not to mention her disgruntled friend Luz Vallejo, whose luggage has been lost, food columnist Carolyn Blue is determined to enjoy her Mother’s Day present: passage on the Bountiful Feast, a gourmet cruise ship sailing to the Canary Islands. But when a female passenger disappears at a port stop and a corpse turns up in the meat locker, it is clear to Carolyn that the Bountiful Feast is sailing headlong into very dangerous waters. And if that’s not enough, there’s a terrifying shortage of double chocolate raspberry mousse–just when Carolyn needs all the comfort food she can get.

by Nancy Fairbanks

Carolyn is looking forward to firing up some passion with her husband-and enjoying sumptuous Italian food-in romantic Sorrento, Italy. But an air-traffic controllers’ strike strands Jason in Paris with a fascinating female toxicologist and puts him in danger of missing his chemistry conference. So Carolyn’s first day is spent sightseeing with a beautiful Italian woman named Paolina, who has been stood up by her lover. The next day Carolyn’s luxurious night’s sleep turns as sour as the lemons for which Sorrento is famous when, over morning coffee, she spots the body of her new friend lying on the bottom of the hotel’s pool. Could it have been suicide? The buffalo mozzarella? Or the president of the chemical company who just happened to be Paolina’s boss-with benefits?

by Nancy Fairbanks

While her husband gives an academic lecture nearby, Carolyn opts to spend time in Barcelona, soaking up the sights, eating out, and visiting her friend Roberta. Her first feast is for the eyes—a modern art museum where Roberta is a resident Miro scholar. There, Carolyn catches a performance art piece about death, planted a little too firmly in reality. One of the actors is not acting—she’s dead—as well as a dead ringer for Roberta. And now Carolyn is in the middle of a new investigation of a very unsavory crime, assisting the very reluctant Catalan homicide detective Ildefons Pujol i Serra, not to mention searching for Robbie’s runaway stepson Sammie and fending off local criminals.

by Nancy Fairbanks

Carolyn Blue spices things up at a post-production opera party in El Paso, Texas-where the company’s notorious artistic Director, Vladislav Gubenko, eats some bad guacamole that disagrees with him right to the death. A scorned soprano admits to maliciously mixing the dish to get back at Vlad for passing her over for her dream role. But Carolyn learns that foul play, not foul food, was the real culprit-and uncovers, in a wild, cross-border investigation, pursued with the help of retired Vice Lt. Luz Vallejo, some unsavory secrets about Gubenko, not to mention the non-culinary killer.

by Nancy Fairbanks

Soon after arriving in San Francisco Carolyn takes a deep breath and does what she has to…calls her mother-in-law to tell her they’re in town. The answering machine picks up: “You have reached Professor Vera Blue. I am not home because I have been arrested for first degree murder.”

Now Carolyn has to go directly to jail—to find out why the famous feminist was at the scene of the crime with the victim’s blood all over her. Between police and prisoners, lawyers and liars—and even a few earthquake tremors—Carolyn is truly shaken. However, while sampling San Francisco fare, she perseveres in her investigation of the murder, with the help of a motorcycle-riding, ex-pro football player private eye, who calls himself the Sam Spade of the Castro.

by Nancy Fairbanks

It’s a culinary tour of France for Carolyn Blue, her husband Jason, and their son Chris as they travel through Normandy and the Loire Valley with a group of academics. Where better to write about food than France? But before they even get out of the airport, an “accident” befalls one of the tour members. It’s a sign of bad things to come. And soon there’s a murder in their midst. Carolyn is once again investigating crime when she’d rather be investigating cuisine—and trying to stay one step ahead of a killer with an insatiable appetite. C’est la vie.

by Nancy Fairbanks

The Director of Research and Development at a large chemical company has invited Carolyn Blue and her husband to the Big Apple for some serious wining and dining. But before she has a chance to get a true taste of New York, the R & D Director is dead—keeled over after a heaping helping of pastrami. Talk about high cholesterol! Or was it high crime?

Carolyn and Jason set out separately to pursue their respective theories of what proves to be a murder, not a heart attack. After an orgy of fine food and glamorous nights at operas and plays, after excursions into industrial espionage and the machinations in the world of publishing, the Blues discover that, as detectives, they were both half right.

by Nancy Fairbanks

Forty-something homemaker Carolyn Blue is through with cooking and cleaning.  She’s finally decided to throw in the dishtowel—and take on a dream job as a food writer and traveler to exotic places.  With a contract to write a book about New Orleans cuisine, Carolyn accompanies her husband to an academic conference in the ‘Big Easy’—an event  that will mean visiting with old college pals.

But just as she gets a taste of Creole, she gets a bite of crime… Her childhood friend, Professor Julienne Magnussen, disappears from the reunion dinner.  True, Julienne has been fighting with her husband, but this only worries Carolyn more.  Now, she has to combine taste-testing with a search for the missing scientist whom no one, including the police, believes is really in danger.

The trail leads Carolyn from the streets of the French Quarter to an alligator swamp, where she’d better act fast.  In these parts, it’s eat or be eaten.