FORGOTTEN BOOK: MURDER ON THE MENU

 Murder on the Menu, edited by Peter Haining  (1991)

Peter Haining (1940-2007) is probably best known today as an anthologist of weird fiction and crime stories.  He was also the author of many non-fiction books on a variety of topics, mostly on popular culture and on various aspect of the supernatural.  Several of his books can still be found on the instant remainder counters of chain booksellers.

As an anthologist, he delighted in unearthing rare and often unreprinted stories, mixing them with more popular and well-known tales.  His research was sometimes sloppy but that did not negate the popularity of his books.

Murder on the Menu, as with most of his anthologies, is tied (however loosely) with food.  Among the twenty-seven stories are a number of classics such as Stanley Ellin's "The Specialty of the House" and Roald Dahl's "Lamb to the Slaughter." which bookend the volume.  Also included are often reprinted tales including Agatha Christie's "Four-and-Twenty Blackbirds," Robert Bloch's "The Feast in the Abbey,:" Washington Irving's "Guests from Gibbet Island." and Walter Besant and James Rice's "The Case of Mr. Lucraft."

Opinions may vary, but I was impressed with :Richard Dehan's "The Compleat Housewife," whose focus is on a 1773 reprinting of the all-too-real volume, as well as an underhanded ghost who tries to use the cook to have an early twentieth century bride to murder her husband.  Gaston Leroux, author of The Phantom of the Opera, contributes a farcical conte cruel explaining how a sailor lost his arm.  H. C. Bailey's "The Long Dinner" (my Short Story Wednesday contribution this week) just briefly touches on the subject of food as Reggie Fortune tackles as case of robbery, murder, and multiple homicides of children.  P. D. James questions whether one should provide an alibi for a young man falsely accused of murder or whether one should let the accused hang, while providing a decade and a half after the fact twist in "A Very Commonplace Murder."  And no anthology about murder and food would be complete without an appearance of Nero Wolfe, which Haining provides with Rex Stout's "Poison a la Carte."

The stories:

SPECIALITES DE LA MAISON:  Stories by some famous authors

• "The Specialty of the House" by Stanley Ellin  (If you have never read this one, do so now.)
• "Bribery and Corruption" by Ruth Rendell  
• "Chef d'Oeuvre" by Paul Gallico
• "La Specialitie de M Ducles" by Oliver La Farge
• "Three, or Four, at Dinner" by L. P. Hartley
• "A Terrible Tale" by Gaston Leroux
• "So You won't Talk!" by Damon Runyon
• "Sauce for the Goose" by Patricia Highsmith
• "A Very Commonplace Murder" by P. D. James

ENTREES HISTORIQUES:   Tales from the Culinary Past

• "A Dinner at Imola" by August Derleth
• "The Feast in the Abbey" by Robert Bloch
• "The Three Low Masses" by Alphonse Daudet
• "The Coffin-Maker": by Alexander Pushkin
• "Guests from Gibbet Island" by Washington Irving
• "The Compleat Housewife" by "Richard Dehan" (Clotide I. L. Graves)
• "The Case of Mr. Lucraft" by Walter Besant and James Rice (first published anonymously)
• "The Man Who Couldn't Taste Pepper" by G. B. Stern
• "Final Dining" by Roger Zelazny

JUST DESSERTS:   A Selection of Detective Cases

• "Four-and-Twenty Blackbirds" by Agatha Christie (with Hercule Poirot)
• "The Long Dinner" by H. C. Bailey  (with Reggie Fortune)
• "The Assassins' Club" by "Nicholas Blake" (Cecil Day Lewis) (with Nigel Stranheways)
• "Dinner for Two" by Roy Vickers  (with Detecive Inspector Rason of The Department of Dead Ends)
• "A Case for Gourmets" by Michael Gilbert (with Patrick Patrella)
• "Rum for Dinner" by Lawrence G. Blochman  (with Dr. Daniel Coffee)
• "Under the Hammer" by Georges Simenon  (with Inspector Maigret)
• "Poison a la Carte" by Rex Stout (with Nero Wolfe)
• "Lamb to the Slaughter" by Roald Dahl (another if-you-haven't-read-this-one-yet-what-are-you-waiting-for)

There's more than enough here to please everyone.  Recommended.