Eight mystery stories a co-production of CBC Radio and ZBS. The stories are rather congenial, like an Agatha Christie BBC mystery, a lot of fascinating and slightly eccentric characters, wonderful dialogue, an occasional body, with a gentle humor throughout.

The hero, Jean-Claude, is a young sous-chef living in Montréal. In the first episode, A Sweet Death, the police arrest his close friend, Georges-Luc (who is from Haiti), charging him with murder. Jean-Claude proceeds to investigate on his own. A sweet death indeed, for this episode deals with the making of chocolates, all sorts, and the descriptions are heavenly.

Each story deals with a different type of food. The writer, Don Druick, is a gourmet cook from Montréal; his descriptions of various dishes and their preparation are so vivid, so enticing, there are times it’s almost painful to listen without wanting to run out and stuff yourself.

Each story focuses on a different type of cuisine. A Sweet Death deals with not only chocolates, but all sorts of sweets (and some of those sweeties are deadly). The second story, Buzz Buzz, centers around various delectable insects (and the nasty competition between two teachers at a cooking school). In Fugu, there’s Japanese cuisine; in The Ghost of Miz B, it’s Jewish cooking. And there’s also a murder to solve in every story.

Since our own writer, M. Fulton, once worked at a radio station in Montréal, and has a fondness for that city and it’s night life, he suggested we record on location; in the sidewalk cafés, restaurants, the Métro, the cobbled streets of Vieux Montréal, wherever the scenes actually take place. The sound is wonderfully rich, especially hearing Montréal in the summer ... it’s visually stimulating, the descriptions are enticing, and the smells are exquisite.

Director-Bill Lane, Jean-Claude-Salvatore Migliore, Illustration-Greg Tucker, music-Tim Clark

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