Bon Bon Voyage

Table of Contents

 

 

“A clever, fast-paced tale sure to satisfy the cravings of both gourmands and mystery buffs. Food columnist Carolyn Blue is a confident and witty detective with a taste for good food and an eye for murderous detail. A literate, deliciously well-written mystery.” —Earlene Fowler

“Not your average who-done-it . . . Extremely funny . . . A rollicking good time.”
—Romance Reviews Today

“Nancy Fairbanks has written the best mystery of her career.”
—The Best Reviews

“An entertaining amateur sleuth tale . . . Fun.”

“Fairbanks has a real gift for creating characters based in reality but just the slightest bit wacky in a slyly humorous way . . . It will tickle your funny bone as well as stimulate your appetite for good food.”
—El Paso Times

“Nancy Fairbanks has whipped up the perfect blend of mystery, vivid setting, and mouthwatering foods.”

“Nancy Fairbanks scores again . . . a page-turner.”

“Nancy Fairbanks writes a delicious . . . amusing amateur sleuth story.”
—Midwest Book Review

“Humor, entertaining characters, and a puzzling mystery round out the mix . . . A not-to-be-missed read.”

CRIME BRÛLÉE
TRUFFLED FEATHERS
DEATH À L'ORANGE
CHOCOLATE QUAKE
THE PERILS OF PAELLA
HOLY GUACAMOLE!
MOZZARELLA MOST MURDEROUS
BON BON VOYAGE
FRENCH FRIED
Anthologies
THREE-COURSE MURDER

THE BERKLEY PUBLISHING GROUP
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Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

PUBLISHER'S NOTE: The recipes contained in this book are to be followed exactly as written. The publisher is not responsible for your specific health or allergy needs that may require medical supervision. The publisher is not responsible for any adverse reactions to the recipes contained in this book.

BON BON VOYAGE

A Berkley Prime Crime Book / published by arrangement with the author

PRINTING HISTORY
Berkley Prime Crime trade paperback edition / April 2006
Berkley Prime Crime mass-market edition / August 2007

Copyright © 2006 by Nancy Herndon.

All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form
without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in
violation of the author's rights. Purchase only authorized editions.
For information, address: The Berkley Publishing Group,
a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.,
375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.

ISBN: 978-1-4406-1914-4

BERKLEY
^®
PRIME CRIME
Berkley Prime Crime Books are published by The Berkley Publishing Group,
a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.,
375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.
The name BERKLEY PRIME CRIME is a registered trademark of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. The
BERKLEY PRIME CRIME design is a trademark of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

If you purchased this book without a cover, you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the publisher, and neither the author nor the publisher has received any payment for this “stripped book.”

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I'd like to acknowledge all the delightful people we met on this cruise (which was not hijacked and actually stopped at all the fascinating places—well, almost all— on the itinerary), but especially Carolyn and Alvin Lip-man from Queens, fellow opera lovers, knowledgeable cathedral visitors, wonderful storytellers. I wish I hadn't lost their address, and I thought of them often and fondly as I wrote this book.

Thanks also to my dear husband and travel companion; to my son Bill, who does my website; to Anne and Matthew, daughter-in-law and younger son, who tout my books to family and friends; to all those wonderful readers who e-mail me; to my good friends and members of my book clubs: Sisters in Crime, UTEP Women's Book Club, and Bookies. I'd never find so many terrific books and authors to read and pass on to Carolyn Blue if it weren't for the reading lists and discussions I attend monthly with these ladies. And finally, I'd like to thank Sandy Sechrest, who attended our Left Coast Crime Conference in El Paso in 2005 and for whom the ombudslady character was named.

Many thanks to my editor, Cindy Hwang, whose input on this book was particularly important. If it weren't for Cindy,
Bon Bon Voyage
would have been a much different, overly weird, and totally unbelievable book, although my readers may still think it's weird. But I can't help that; I have a weird imagination.

Last, I'd like to acknowledge the authors of the following books, which I used for reference: Ross A. Klein,
Cruise Ship Blues: The Underside of the Cruise Ship Industry
; Bob Dickinson, CTC, and Andy Vladimir,
Selling the Sea: An Inside Look at the Cruise Industry
; James Trager,
The Food Chronology
; Maguelonne Toussaint-Samat (translated by Anthea Bell),
History of Food
; edited by Andrew Eames, updated by Suzanne Lipps,
Insight Guide: Gran Canaria, Fuerteventura, Lanzarote
; Bradley Mayhew and Jan Dodd,
Lonely Planet: Morocco
; Editorial Director Katherine Marquet,
Eyewitness Travel Guides: Morocco
; Annette Solystz,
Timeless Places: Morocco.

1

I was sitting on my patio, enjoying a warm April day in El Paso and the sight of blooming spring flowers, whose bulbs had been planted by Hector, my recently acquired gardener. Hector had looked at my yard and announced, “
La señora
need Hector
mucho
much.” He didn't approve of my gardening skills, which had been applied reluctantly at best. After all, what did I know about desert vegetation and keeping stickery, alien weeds out of rock beds? I'd only lived in El Paso a few years.

On the table beside me was the afternoon mail—seven catalogs for things I didn't want to buy; three offers of credit cards at 0 percent interest for short periods of time;
Chemical and Engineering News
, which was for Jason, who reads me interesting tidbits at dinner; my electric bill, which I'd put off looking at because I'd already started using the refrigerated air-conditioning, which is so expensive; and—I couldn't believe it—a letter from my children.

They always e-mailed. Why were they writing? Had one or both of them flunked something? Smashed up a car? Contracted a deadly disease? Accepted or made a proposal of marriage, and the letter was an invitation to the wedding? I fingered the envelope. It was quite thick and had several stamps on it. Warily, I pried up the flap.