First published 1996
Tarquin Winot isn't writing a cookbook—he's composing a murder manual. As he travels through the French countryside, this refined aesthete and culinary obsessive narrates a seemingly elegant meditation on gastronomy, memory, and taste. But beneath his erudite descriptions of regional cuisines and personal histories, something darker churns. What begins as a witty, digressive exploration of food slowly reveals itself as a meticulously planned confession—each recipe, each anecdote, a calculated step toward an unspeakable revelation. Winot's prose seduces with its intelligence and wit, drawing readers deeper into a narrative that is part gourmet travelogue, part psychological thriller. His true appetite, however, is not for food—but for something far more sinister.
Genres: fiction, mystery, crime, contemporary, thriller, psychological-thriller
Vibes: dark, intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: unreliable-narrator
Setting: France
251 pages · Hardcover · Henry Holt & Co
Content warnings: murder