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    The Devil's Feast
    The Devil's Feast
    The Devil's Feast
    Audiobook11 hours

    The Devil's Feast

    Written by M.J. Carter

    Narrated by Alex Wyndham

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Captain William Avery is persuaded to investigate, and soon discovers a web of rivalries and hatreds, both personal and political, simmering behind the club's handsome façade, and in particular concerning its resident genius, Alexis Soyer, "the Napoleon of food," a chef whose culinary brilliance is matched only by his talent for self-publicity.
    But Avery is distracted, for where is his mentor and partner-in-crime Jeremiah Blake? And what if this first death was only a dress rehearsal for something far more sinister?
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHighbridge Company
    Release dateApr 28, 2017
    ISBN9781681684000
    The Devil's Feast

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    Reviews for The Devil's Feast

    3.5/5

    42 ratings8 reviews

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    • 3/5
      In this book, Avery and Blake investigate the deaths of several men who dined at an exclusive men's club in London. The kitchen is run by celebrity chef Alexis Soyer who is not only an incredible chef but the inventor of many kitchen innovations. I learned from the afterword that Soyer was a real person. I didn't have a problem with the mystery plot, but the book was so over burdened with details that I found it tedious to read. The author obviously did a lot of research and insisted upon fitting all of it into the book. I wasn't interested in a list of every dish that Soyer cooked (including all ingredients) or of every vendor who supplied his pantry. There were also detailed descriptions of the clothing worn by all of the male characters (and there were a lot of them). Much of the book consisted of questioning people repeatedly, including every single person on the kitchen staff. I managed to finish the book, but I skimmed a lot. It was also unfortunate that Blake, who is by far the more interesting of the pair, was absent for a good deal of this book. In addition, Avery is in an unhappy marriage with a mostly missing wife, and I saw no reason at all to include her or their strained relationship in this book. Further, be warned that the book begins with a scene of gruesome animal experimentation.This was all really disappointing since I loved the first book in this series. It was a wonderful adventure set in India. However, setting Avery and Blake in London has not resulted in scintillating story telling. This book could be read as a standalone, but if I had started with this book I doubt that I would have continued with the series.If there is a fourth book, my suggestion is that the author kill off the unseen wife and child and send a grief stricken Avery and Blake back to India where the story started. I also think Blake should recover from whatever it is that kept him sickly throughout this book. His illness was not a useful or entertaining plot device.I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.
    • 4/5
      Read this without knowing it was the third of a series. Enjoyed it nonetheless and will now go back and read the first 2 books!
    • 4/5
      This historical crime novel set in the 1840s is the third “Avery and Blake mystery,” although I had not read the first two books in the series. Thus I had a bit of difficulty sorting out who was who and what was what at the beginning. Therefore I began by skipping ahead to the “Historical Afterword,” which did help me at least make sense of the characters who were based on authentic people.As the story begins, Captain William Avery is visiting Jeremiah Blake, his usual partner in detective consulting jobs. Blake has landed in jail for a debt he refuses to pay, and he also refuses to let anyone else pay it for him. Avery ends up investigating a crime on his own at first, and is feeling Blake's absence acutely. (These two appear to have been modeled on Holmes and Watson. It is Blake who is the “Holmes” of the two: very skilled at observation, forensic science, and logical reasoning.)It seems there have been a series of poisonings at the Reform Club, a gentleman’s club for radical MPs that was famous historically for its food. The kitchen was overseen by Alexis Soyer (1810-1858), who, according to the author in her Afterword, was “the first real celebrity chef, a brilliant, inventive cook and a shameless self-publicist.”Avery is pressured to find the perpetrator quickly since the Reform Club is getting ready to host an important diplomatic banquet ordered and organized by Lord Palmerston for Ibrahim Pasha, the Prince of Egypt. Palmerston insisted they not cancel the banquet because “peace depended upon it.”The situation is made more critical for Avery because Matty, a young girl Avery and Blake rescued from the streets, is now working in the kitchen, and has become a suspect. Somehow Avery has to get Blake to assist him and find out who the culprit is. In the process, Avery has to check out a lot of food, much of which would be anathema in modern times. Moreover, the amounts of food consumed at dinners and banquets (while the poor languished and starved) was pretty jaw-dropping. I wouldn't have thought some of the diners would have needed poison to expire; overeating and/or heart attacks could have easily done the trick!Discussion: The politics in the book are complicated - perhaps more so for Americans than for British readers. But I especially enjoyed learning about Alexis Soyer, who, it seems, not only invented a number of ingenious contraptions for cooking and serving food, but also developed advancements for running soup kitchens for the poor, and invented a portable army stove that continued to be in use until the 1950’s. I also enjoyed learning about the historical character of Thomas Wakley, the founding editor of the still-respected medical journal "The Lancet." I did not know he was apparently the first great campaigner against the adulteration of food, which was quite common (and in a very unhealthy way) in the Victorian era.It’s always fun to learn history while being titillated by a mystery.Evaluation: My rating wasn’t higher because I did have some trouble following this book, reading it as a standalone. The characters had a history, and the politics were complex. But now that I am familiar with the characters, I wouldn’t hesitate to continue with the series.
    • 5/5
      In this third Blake and Avery historical mystery, Blake is in a pickle, and this means that young Captain William Avery must be in charge of the investigation at the Reform Club-- something that goes quite against Avery's grain since he is politically conservative. Once again M.J. Carter has created a rich, layered mystery that's even more savory than the dishes that Chef Soyer (an actual person) was known for. The Devil's Feast kept me guessing from first page to last because it takes Avery a very long time to ascertain the true focus of the deaths. Are men being poisoned because of their politics? Is it because of that important dinner? Or does it have something to do with London's first celebrity chef, Alexis Soyer? Avery finds that puzzle very difficult to solve-- especially since he's in danger of being poisoned himself.And while Avery is trying to solve this mystery, he's trying to help Blake, and he's also being forced to deal with an increasingly difficult wife. Fortunately Avery does have the help of young Matty, the girl readers first met in The Infidel Stain. She not only provides Avery with a great deal of help (risking her own future to do so), she is a mirror in which readers can see the true Victorian London, a city with debtor's prisons and a great divide between the haves and the have-nots. Matty and Blake (who has more of his childhood exposed) are teaching Avery valuable lessons in the true ways of the world.But The Devil's Feast is no mere fascinating Victorian exposé. Foodies will love the insights into cooking for a prestigious gentlemen's club, and the fast-paced mystery will delight all those who enjoy solving a cracker jack of a puzzle. Carter's Blake and Avery series started out strong and it's getting stronger with each entry. I can't wait to see what's in store next!
    • 3/5
      The Devil’s Feast is the third novel in M.J. Carter’s successful Avery and Blake mystery series. This time Jeremiah Blake is incarcerated in the dread Marshalsea Prison and Captain William Avery is on his own. When Avery stops by the famous Reform Club to check in on Matty, a kitchen maid (who appears in a previous Avery and Blake book), he meets the renowned Chef Soyer, a culinary genius who has a penchant for flare. Avery is invited to a dinner where, unfortunately, two of the guests die quite excruciating deaths. Since this dinner precedes a famous and much publicized event for the Prince of Egypt, Avery is engaged to determine the cause of the deaths and prevent any further catastrophes from happening.Set in London during the Victorian era the street scenes are straight out of a Dickens’ novel, the tensions between the Whigs and the Tories are interesting and piqued my interest for further study, and the kitchen scenes and intrigues make those from Downton Abbey, albeit decades later, seem downright genteel. While this is a work of fiction, M. J. Carter notes in the Historical Afterword that Alexis Soyer was indeed one of the three great chefs of the nineteenth century and perhaps the first celebrity chef. There was also a Reform Club where Soyer reigned for thirteen years. The afterword itself is fascinating to read.The Devil’s Feast won’t disappoint Avery and Blake fans and although it’s not technically a culinary mystery, there’s enough “foodie” talk to interest many a fan of that genre.
    • 3/5
      I wonder if I would have enjoyed this more if I'd read the previous book(s) that featured these characters. It wasn't terrible, by any means; the immersion in a 19th century kitchen serving 300 or more was fascinating. The mysterious Blake was truculent and difficult. Avery, the first-person main character, was all right, if a bit dim at times. His dependence on Blake reminded me of a child separated for the first time from his mother, constantly seeking reassurance. It was somewhat annoying to have Avery's CV regurgitated as often as it was. Medals in Afghanistan, saved a maharajah, was with Mountstuart before he died, etc. – it seemed like every person meeting him for the first time got the rundown. At least the same wording wasn't used each time. I liked the fact that the economic situation of everyone is kept in mind. Within the confines of the club and its kitchen was a range of people, men and women and even a few children, ranging from the wealthiest men in England to people grateful for leftovers to bring home for hungry families, from men who would be financially damaged if the club were closed to people who would be destroyed if the club went down and their jobs with it. I was left intrigued by Avery's relationship with his wife. She's back home; he guiltily prolongs his stay in London, guiltily puts off letting her know, and then upon seeing her again has absolutely no idea how to behave toward her. He still cares for her; he tries; but he has no clue why she reacts the way she does and is stymied because, not knowing what he's done wrong, he doesn't know how to fix it. Her obvious mental illness is well handled in the setting. On the whole, though, it all felt like it took a bit too long, and Avery's ineptitude and extreme insecurity were a bit tiresome. And Blake was a bit too mysterious, truculent, and difficult. It would be interesting to read an entry in the series where the two of them work together; I might look into that one of these days. The usual disclaimer: I received this book via Netgalley for review.
    • 5/5
      G.P. Putnam's Sons publishersThis book has us travel back to 1842 London. (Already fell for it right there!) And back to another Blake and Avery novel! Fun!You know that Carter will leave you on the edge of your seat! I tried to read it through in a single sitting, but had to put it down for some rest. But I hated to!The Reform is London's newest gentleman's club, and a death there causes a "hush up". Avery begins the mystery alone. But soon finds himself with some help to try to solve this "who dunnit". Afraid I'll give away too much, let me say that if you're a Blake and Avery fan, you've got to read this one! And if you haven't read any of the novels, why not? Get started now. I am sure that you, too, will not want to put it down until you've devoured every page!I give this book five stars.A big thumbs up.And my personal highly recommended award.
    • 4/5
      In 1842 London, Captain William Avery finds himself inadvertently drawn into a possible murder investigation. At the end of a fantastic meal by celebrity chef Alexis Soyer at the Reform Club in the chef’s own rooms, one man sickens and dies. At first glance it looks like cholera, but a closer look at the symptoms proves it to be poison. And it turns out not to be the only incident; another death follows, and investigation turns up some possible non-lethal cases of poison before the first death. Normally Avery’s friend Jeremiah Blake would be leading the investigation, but he’s vanished from the debtor’s prison where he was being detained. Avery worries that he doesn’t have what it takes to solve the case before more deaths occur. And he’s under the gun; in just a few days, the club will be hosting the son of the ruler of Egypt in a fantastic dinner with heavy political ramifications. This is the third in a series of Avery and Blake mysteries. Blake is the brainy Holmes of this detective duo; Avery is the Watson who tells the tale. And it’s a fun tale to read if you’re a foodie. Soyer was a real historical person. He was the first chef who become a celebrity; he was not only a brilliant chef, but quite an inventor of kitchen gear and an innovator; he created tools and methods that are still used today. He was a fiend for cleanliness in the kitchen, promoted the use of natural gas for cooking, and encouraged women to become chefs. He also had an oversize personality that made him the center of attention at a time when chefs were becoming stars rather than just unseen food makers. Soyer is the heart of this novel, even more than the murders are. I loved reading this book, in large part because of Soyer and the research that went into the descriptions of the food and the way it was made. The murder investigation itself seems to take the back seat to the food, however, and I’m not sure if this is desirable in a mystery? I was fine with it, but not sure if every reader will be. There is a lot of time spent questioning everyone from meat suppliers to waiters; there is a surfeit of suspects in these crimes and it becomes a little scattered. I started having trouble remembering who was who in the kitchen. I’ve not read the first two books in this series but this seems like a fun series.