Another Review at MyShelf.Com

The Pink Panther's Just Desserts
An Original Pink Panther Mystery, No. 2

by Marc Cerasini and Alice Alfonsi



      The World Food Expo held in the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada is a multinational cooking competition. The premiere chefs of France are prepared to compete, but they are being murdered off by a clever and unappetizing mastermind. Dreyfus is again trying to garner attention and glory so as to be nominated for the Medal of Valor by placing himself in supreme danger as the prime target on the team. He is disguised as Marquis Marcel De Salivon, "the greatest chef in the world", who has come out of retirement to lead the French Team to victory!

Inspector Clouseau and Detective Ponton head to Sin City, USA, to guard the remaining members of the team with the help of Cassidy Caldwell; a ginger-haired New York City restaurant inspector who comes with a target painted on her back. Ms. Caldwell apparently didn't get the memo from her supervisor about how a "family" restaurant should be inspected and she shut down a well-connected facility the night it was to host the mayor's birthday party. After this insult, restaurant manager Mario Minucci is more than happy to make payback on his own.

This book reminded me a lot of Saturday Night Live meets Who's Murdering the Great Chefs of Europe. The jokes and gags fly furiously and are hilarious; the carnage is black comedy on the order of a fisherman in a human-sized Bass-o-Matic. I keep waiting for Clouseau to grab Ponton in the MGM lounge and yell, "Hello hot American foxes, we are wild and crazy guys!", and for the 21st century Clouseau, that would be in character. This Clouseau is more of a ham than the original version; he is still serious about police work, dedicated to the Surete and France, but he doesn't have the subtle grace that was a signature of the earlier, Peter Sellers image. For the current generation Steve Martin has revitalized Clouseau, Kevin Klein rages through Dreyfus, Jean Reno creates Ponton and nobody even asks about Cato. Character descriptions such as Ponton's hooded eyes and Clouseau's prominent nose are enhanced by having seen the Pink Panther movie, as is the rest of the reading experience.

The Book

Harper Entertainment
October 31, 2006
Mass Market Paperback
ISBN10: 0060793317
ISBN13: 978-0060793319
Mystery / Comic / Cozy
More at Amazon.com
Excerpt
NOTE: Violence, Disturbing Culinary/Necrophagic Images

The Reviewer

Beth Ellen McKenzie
Reviewed 2007
NOTE:
© 2006 MyShelf.com