Tangled Web UK Review August 2006
Chinese Takeout by
Judith Cutler
pbk out January 08
(Allison Busby)
at £6.99
One can always rely on Judith Curler for a good story, beautifully told.
This new one is a follow-up to her 'Food Detective' and again Josie
Welford, the rich and attractive widow of a deceased big-shot criminal, is
involved in a double murder. Josie, who runs the White Hart pub and
restaurant in a small Somerset village, is only partially accepted by the
locals, but is trying to fit herself into village life. At morning service in St
Jude'', a boring sermon by her friend Tim, the young vicar, is disrupted by a
very smelly Chinese youth rushing in and claiming sanctuary, though quite
why is obscure, as he speaks not a word of English.
Against the wishes of the two obstructive churchwardens, the vicar agrees to
house the fugitive and the villagers rally round with food and clothing. The
Rural Dean, a dishy chap whom Josie fancies, appears and agrees to hold off
telling the police, but eventually the media circus descends. In the middle of
this, the church is set on fire and both vicar and the sanctuary-seeker perish.
It becomes obvious that the fugitive must have been an illegal immigrant
working in a pirate chicken-processing plant, where condemned meat is sold
back into the food chain. Josie's platonic friend, Nick Thomas, an ex-CID
man and now a Food Standards Agency inspector, joins the plot, but it is
Josie and her Rural Dean who make the running in trying to find the place,
which puts them both in peril.
Judith Cutler writes so well that she could make the Telephone Book
enthralling reading, as her wit and perspicacity make every page a delight –
she has the gift, which Lawrence Block has in abundance, of noticing things
that the reader empathises with and wishes they had said themselves.
To put a little brake on my enthusiasm for Ms Cutler's latest, I thought that
perhaps the ending was a bit ragged, with some loose ends flapping a bit, but
still vintage stuff.
(
Bernard Knight
ex Home Office Pathologist and author of the highly acclaimed Crowner John series)
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