Crime Brûlée

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.