Aubrey Hamilton Reviews: The Pot Thief Who Studied Escoffier by Mike Orenduff

Mike Orenduff created a lively and unusual character in Hubert Schuze, who loves the pottery and art of the ancient Native Americans and searched the open land of New Mexico for it until artifact taking was labelled theft by the Archaeological Resources Protection Act. He still is not above accepting the occasional pot of dubious ownership for display and potential sale in his Spirits in Clay shop in Old Town Albuquerque. Native American pottery doesn’t sound particularly dangerous, but Hubie manages to fall into a risky predicament fairly often, spinning his amateur detective adventures into eight books so far.

These adventures have been recognized by a number of groups as outstanding pieces of mystery fiction. The first book in the series was named New Mexico Book of the Year. Both the first and second books of the series won the Epic Award for best mystery or suspense ebook, and the third book won the Lefty Award for best humorous mystery of the year at the 2011 Left Coast Crime conference.

eBook

In the fourth book of the series, The Pot Thief Who Studied Escoffier (Dark Oak Mysteries, 2011), Hubie accepts an assignment from a new upscale restaurant in Santa Fe with an Austrian theme. He even agrees to do the work in Santa Fe onsite at the restaurant, where the staff can give him ideas.

Hubie soon learns that a restaurant is a hotbed of gossip and competition and personality clashes. No one seems like anyone else. The staff all take turns concocting a dish for the group’s meals, then they have to endure the lead chef’s critique. The chef lacks tact and patience, and each staff member is embarrassed by him. Barry Stiles, the pantry chef, took the humiliating analysis particularly hard and threatened to have the lead chef dismissed. When Barry turns up dead in the back of Hubie’s Bronco in a day or two, Hubie’s thoughts naturally turn to the lead chef. The police instead are quite interested in Hubie, since it was his vehicle where the victim was found. No one can vouch for Hubie during the time the murder was thought to be committed, so Hubie scrambles to extract himself by finding the real killer.

Likable characters, smooth pacing, a plot with enough red herrings to hold my interest. An especially entertaining touch is the background on the workings of the kitchen in a fine restaurant. Recommended!

·         Paperback: 220 pages

·         Publisher: Dark Oak Mysteries; First edition (March 2, 2011)

·         Language: English

·         ISBN-10: 1610090098

·         ISBN-13: 9781610090094

Aubrey Hamilton ©2020

Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.