Off the Hook: Reflections and Recipes from an Old Salt

Book Description

Though seafood is enjoying increased popularity on dinner tables across the country, many people are still intimidated by selecting and cooking fish and shellfish. Enter seafood fanatic Roger Fitzgerald, who shares his behind-the-scenes knowledge, gleaned from his years spent researching and reporting on the seafood industry, in OFF THE HOOK, a candid, witty, and thoroughly authoritative guide to the riches of the sea. Each essay is paired with delicious recipes from Susan Volland, including such classic and contemporary dishes as Smoked Salmon Hash, Ginger-Miso Marinated Seabass, Ceviche, and a Warm Bean Salad with Smoked Whitefish and Greens. An insider's look at seafood, OFF THE HOOK is a delightful read, an invaluable reference, and an inspiration in the kitchen.

Customer Reviews:

Humorous Delight of Seafood Caught & Eaten.......2002-06-29

The subtitle says it well: "Reflections and Recipes from an Old Salt" From a young age, Fitgerald was into fish. When his father was stationed at Guantanomo Bay, he really got into catching and preparing seafood at its best. His lifetime with seafood is here reflected in over 200 recipes accompanied by delightful commentary and suggestions.

I appreciate especially the alternatives offered on most every recipe, as sometimes it's tough finding what is called for, especially fresh each time and one desires.

Favorites from this collection include: Masa-Crusted Catfish with Red Chile Sauce, Roasted Trout Stuffed with Spinach, Hazelnuts and Blue Cheese, Stuffed Columbia River Sturgeon with Sweet Corn and Jerusalem Artichokes, Halibut Marinated in Mustard and Rosemary.

These are comparatively speaking easy to make recipes and ingredients are not exotic, but the taste is unique and satisfying. A worthy addition to seafood fancier's collection.

"Catch of the Day".......2002-03-07

This is just what we've needed for a longtime. A must read!

This book has everything!.......2002-02-23

Just received a copy of this newly released book and both my husband and I have read it from cover to cover. It is over two hundred pages filled with well written, humorous and informative essays from the life and experiences of a well traveled seafood "hunter", writer, educator, as well as a large collection of the most wonderful, original seafood recipes we have found. The recipes have already enticed us to prepare two delicious and easy dishes (Snapper in Saltines and Sesame Fried Calamari), even though we have had the book for less than a week!

Food writer and chef, Susan Volland, takes all the mystery out of preparing perfect seafood with her clear instructions for handling and preparing everything we might find in our fish market. She really covers the bases with how to prepare "Perfect Grilled Salmon" to more exotic dishes like "Spicy Thai Clam Soup." Everything sounds delicious and do-able!

The problem we are having is whether this book belongs in the guest room so visitors can enjoy the entertaining essays of Roger Fitzgerald, or in the kitchen so it will be immediately available for easy reference as we work our way through the recipes, chapter by chapter. We think this book is so good that we will have two copies - one for each place.

Customer Reviews:

superb.......2000-03-20

This is a wonderful book for those who want to learn to quilt. It teaches how to accurately hand-piece and quilt each sampler block. The instructions are easy to understand and takes you step by step through the process of making any size project you wish. Excellent book for beginners and experienced alike.

Average customer rating:

My fellow Americans! You don't know what you're missing!

classic American fare from Down Under

O'Fear
Peter Corris
Manufacturer: Doubleday
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Mystery | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
General | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0385421192
Release Date: 1991-10-01

Customer Reviews:

My fellow Americans! You don't know what you're missing!.......2002-03-19

Australian fiction is the best you will ever find (and I've read everything from King to Koontz) but 99% of books from Down Under are not released here in the United States. Why? I don't know. But I DO know what I've discovered. O'Fear by Peter Corris (a Cliff Hardy mystery) is fantastic! I've hunted down more Cliff Hardy mysteries over the internet and they're all great.

Other must reads by Australian authors are:

Any book written by Robert G. Barrett! (The Stephen King of Australia)

Jon Cleary's Scobie Malone mysteries! (As good as anything written by Nelson DeMille)
Blood Junction by Caroline Carver (As good as anything written by Dean Koontz)
Every book written by Peter Doyle! (Move over John Grisham)

My fellow Americans, fight to read the books the US publishers won't let you see! You will be glad you did.

classic American fare from Down Under.......2001-07-05

Considering that the hard-boiled private eye novel is one of the distinctly American genres, it's perhaps surprising that one of the best current practitioners of the form is the Australian Peter Corris, with his detective, Cliff Hardy. If we forgive Hardy his affection for wine, which we'll assume is a cultural deal, and a long running relationship, which fortunately never quite achieved Susan Silvermanesque proportions, he's really quite traditional. Of course, it helps that Australia isn't all that different from America, particularly in terms of its cultural heritage. Corris has written 23 Cliff Hardy books, but they are not generally available in the U. S., which is a shame.

From what I've read of them, O'Fear is a fairly representative entry in the series, which is to say, it's quite good. Hardy is hired after an old friend dies in a car accident :

'Barnes Todd has left you some money.'

'Why?'

'To find out who murdered him.'

I sat back in the chair. Sackville unhooked his glasses and set them down gently on top of the file. He massaged the bridge of his nose and tried to look grave, but there was a flicker of amusement in his eyes. It irritated me, the way a lot of small things had lately. What's so funny? I thought. I'd been in this business for nearly fifteen years. I'd found murderers before, hadn't I? Well, stumbled across a couple. 'How much money?' I said harshly.

'Ten thousand dollars. His wife's not too happy about it.'

Hardy learns that with Todd's last breath he gasped the word : "O'Fear..." He recognizes this enigmatic phrase as the beginning of the name of a notorious, but relatively harmless, scoundrel named O'Fearna, who is currently in jail, awaiting trial. His bail just happens to be $10,000.

And he's off...sexy widows, unsavory secrets, random corpses, brutal henchmen, crooked lawyers, the whole nine yards. But what makes the book a real throwback is Hardy's vulnerability :

...I had strewn the contents of my wallet across the desk. I looked at the credit cards and the meagre amount of cash and the creased driver's licence and suddenly felt small and isolated. My only backup in the office was an answering machine; my only means of transport was the Falcon; I had an illegal Colt .45 and a properly licenced Smith & Wesson .38 for firepower. No helicopters, no armoured vans, no shotguns. Who was I kidding? This was too big for me.

If Corris does not quite have the comedic chops of a Robert B. Parker or a Robert Crais, he more than compensates by restoring the dramatic tension of a hero who is truly a lone knight, who can be hurt, even killed, and who has no one he can really trust.

This is good stuff, in a classic vein. Read him, if you can the books.

Customer Reviews:

Super Sleuth.......2003-02-08

I'm not usually a mystery reader, but this was excellent. I really liked Sydney Sloan. What a super sleuth! I'd recommend this to anyone who's looking for a good read.

A Winning Ticket.......2000-10-14

Taking a chance on an author you've never read can be a frightening proposition - but sometimes you get lucky; and for those of you about to purchase Brotherly Love, you've hit the literary lottery. In this, the first installment of the Sydney Sloane mystery series, author Randye Lordon explores the theme of `family' with an honesty and subtlety few writers in this genre have achieved. It's refreshing to find a mystery novel with a lesbian protagonist that actually reads like a bestseller. Not only is the writing intelligent and the plot entertaining, the characters are likeable and in the end wind up feeling like old friends.

Brotherly Love introduces us to Sydney Sloane, a New York City P.I. who, while sipping a cup of coffee on a leisurely morning at home, finds herself staring down at a picture in the newspaper of one Noah Alexander, an escaped murderer who bears an uncanny resemblance to Sydney's own brother David, a professional con man. The more she stares at the picture, the more she is convinced that the man in the picture is indeed her brother. The problem is, David has been dead for ten years. While her relationship with David had always been troubled, when she had first learned of his death, she wasn't convinced it wasn't just another con. Now Sydney is out to learn the truth: is her brother dead or alive? The quest for an answer puts her very life on the line as dead bodies pile up all around.

Deftly grasping the nuances and idiosyncrasies of familial relationships, Lordon explores the relationship between a sister and brother with unerring honesty. Sydney's struggle to reconcile her memory of David to the truth is at once painful and comforting -- because in the end we realize that we don't have to like our family to love them, and that blood and loyalty are truly the ties that bind.

Average customer rating:
Master's Mates (Cliff Hardy series)
Peter Corris
Manufacturer: Allen & Unwin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Hard-Boiled | Mystery | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
General | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

The Coast Road (Cliff Hardy series)

Taking Care of Business (Cliff Hardy series)

Saving Billie (Cliff Hardy series)

Black Tide (Jack Irish)

Bad Debts (Jack Irish)

ASIN: 1741141362

Book Description

In this hard-boiled detective novel, private investigator Cliff Hardy is looking forward to his new assignment. When rich, beautiful Lorraine Master hires him to look into the circumstances surrounding her husband's conviction for smuggling heroin on the island paradise of New Caledonia, Hardy welcomes the idea of a week on a generous expense account under a tropical sky. But his island escape proves to be anything but relaxing as he finds Stewart Master's business associates to be a difficult and dangerous bunch. The action returns to Hardy's normal stomping grounds of Sydney, Australia, where he and his client become targets in an intricate conspiracy gone seriously wrong and tangle with a tricky lawyer and a corrupt ex-cop. With punchy dialogue and exotic settings, this is a fresh adventure for a well-established character with an international following.

Average customer rating:

The Coast Road (Cliff Hardy series)
Peter Corris
Manufacturer: Allen & Unwin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Hard-Boiled | Mystery | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

General | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 1741143845

Book Description

Cliff Hardy trades the mean streets of Sydney for the Illawarra escarpment, a rugged undeveloped area of Australia, in this latest hard-boiled detective novel. First hired by the daughter of the late, wealthy Frederick Farmer to investigate his mysterious and fiery death, Hardy is then called in on a second case—the disappearance of the young daughter of Marisha Karatsky, an exotic, dark-eyed interpreter who gets under Hardy's thick skin. Questionable insurance agents and feral bikers round out the colorful cast as Hardy battles through personal turmoil on the road to justice.

Sisters Keeper (Stonewall Inn Mysteries)

Average customer rating:

Sister's Keeper is a Keeper!

Sisters Keeper (Stonewall Inn Mysteries)
Randye Lordon
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Griffin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Lesbian | Mystery & Thrillers | Gay & Lesbian | Subjects | Books

General | Mystery | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

Series | Mystery | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

Women Sleuths | Mystery | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

General | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0312141343

Book Description

After a life-long family freind is killed in a traffic accident, P.I. Sydney Sloane begins to uncover her friend's death was accidental, Sloane starts to investigate and finds herself following a trail of deceit and murder that threatens Sloane's family, her girlfriend, and her life.

Customer Reviews:

Sister's Keeper is a Keeper!.......2001-05-12

Sydney Sloane is a private investigator in New York City. But the night she and her sister, Nora, have been invited to dinner with Nora's best friend, Zoe, to celebrate Zoe's freedom, Zoe is killed. Nora hires Sydney to find out who killed her since the police are writing the death off as an accident. Sydney begins uncovering one clue after another that Zoe is not who, or what, she appeared to be on the surface. As she proceeds with the investigation, she meets Zoe's married lover, a sociopathic thug sent to scare her off the case, Zoe's friends, and Zoe's enemies. And then people begin dying. The author keeps all the subplots well balanced without subtracting from the main story. As each clue is uncovered, the reader is right there with Sydney. The denouement is a surprise and the culprit introduced early in the book. This is a well-written procedural that even a cozy reader would love. This author and this character deserve a very wide readership.

Average customer rating:

Super Read
Simply The Best
A fantastic private investigative tale

Son of a Gun: A Sydney Sloane Mystery
Randye Lordon
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Minotaur
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Mystery | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

Women Sleuths | Mystery | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

General | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0312291310
Release Date: 2005-01-13

Book Description

The shooting of an old friend has its roots in a long-held family secret New York City Private Investigator Sydney Sloane has enough drama in her own family to make her shy away from such cases professionally. But this one is different. Her friend, and the father of her godchild, Captain John Cannady of the NYPD has been critically shot in the hallway of his own apart-ment building, with few traces of the shooter left behind. Just after the shooting, John's wife Peggy gets a call from a man claim-ing to be the son she gave up for adoption after an unfor-tunate teen pregnancy. His claims and his desire for revenge chills the already upset wife. With four days to find some sort of solution, Sydney agrees to track down the long-ago child and protect the family of the man now clinging to life in the hospital. With her own family undergoing a trau-matic situation of their own, Sloane's skills are put to their ultimate test.

Customer Reviews:

Super Read.......2005-12-15

I've enjoyed Lordon's mysteries in the past, but this one is just a super read. I loved it. It's characters are interesting and fun, it's plot exciting, and it's tone refreshing.

A must for anyone who loves to read and anyone who loves to read mysteries.

Simply The Best.......2005-03-12

There is a lyric from a Bruce Springsteen Song which goes something like, " Simply The Best, Better Than All The Rest. "
That sentiment is an appropriate description of Randye Lordon's newest Sidney Sloan mystery, SON OF A GUN. While all of Ms. Lordon's novels are marvelous and entertaining, this one stands out like a sparkling diamond on a bed of perfect pearls. The reader is immediately immersed in the center of a fascinating police drama. Familiar characters from previous novels in the series are joined by interesting new personalities. Suspense builds and builds until you completely forget that you are reading. This novel is not only captivating and educational, it also contains something generally unexpected in this type of fiction. There are some poignant insights into the frailties of human relationships that we will all identify with. Ms. Lordon is at her literary peak in Son of a Gun, and we can only hope she will continue to produce these literary marvels. This one, however, will be hard to beat.

A fantastic private investigative tale .......2004-12-08

Domestic cases are the type that normally intrepid New York City private investigator Sydney Sloane avoids though not out of fear of being physically hurt. These scenes are too much like what her family life has always been, so mentally to difficult to deal with for some minor pittance. Although in reality, involuntarily Sydney seems always embroiled with dangerous scenarios involving members of her family from sister, brother, father mother, uncle to niece. She thanks god everyday that she is a lesbian or else she would add husband, boyfriend, and child to her list; so far her lover Leslie has made no sleuthing demands on her.

Someone shoots New York Police Department Captain John Cannady, the father of Sydney's godchild. Not long afterward, as John lies in a Manhattan hospital in critical condition, his spouse Peggy receives a death call from someone insisting he is the son she gave away as a teen; the sinister caller insists murder of her and her loved ones will follow. Sydney voluntarily investigates the adopted child of Peggy while vowing to keep John's family safe, not realizing how dangerous her pledge is.

This is a fabulous private investigative tale starring one of the bright lights of the Manhattan sleuthing universe. Sydney is a fantastic as she struggles with finding the lost son, keeping everyone safe, and dealing with family crisis like Aunt Minnie's latest plumbing issue all while Leslie is in California. The who-done-it is cleverly handled so that the audience sees Sydney at her best trying to resolve the case and having other woes. Randye Lordon provides another winning Sloane mystery.

Harriet Klausner

Average customer rating:

Saving Billie. Discovering Cliff Hardy.

Saving Billie (Cliff Hardy series)
Peter Corris
Manufacturer: Allen & Unwin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Mystery | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

General | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 1741146526

Book Description

Private investigator Cliff Hardy tackles one of his most difficult cases yet in this gripping detective novel that finds him in the far southwestern suburbs of Sydney. When a journalist hires him to find Billie Merchant, a woman with incriminating information about media-giant Joanas Clement and who is being tracked by both Clement and Clement's rival, Barclay Greaves, Hardy must work hard to stay one step ahead. After Hardy tracks her down, he must juggle her self-destructive behaviors while negotiating his escape from Clement and Greaves. Set against the backdrop of a federal election campaign, all outcomes are uncertain in this gritty, action-packed story full of colorful characters and close calls

Customer Reviews:

Saving Billie. Discovering Cliff Hardy........2007-08-15

Peter Corris is the writer of the quintessential Sydney crime novel. Just as Robert B Parker's Spencer is Boston, Corris's Cliff Hardy is Sydney.

It is probably safe to say that most America crime readers are not familiar with the works of Corris. This is a great pity. His Cliff Hardy series is a tremendous read. I can recommend any book in the series without reservation. In "Saving Billie" we see Cliff at work in his typical dogged manner. Life seems to through all sorts of obstacles in his path but Cliff deals with them and, to a greater or lesser degree, succeeds. Here, he is hired to locate Billie Marchant which he does without too much trouble before a whole series of other events serve to make his life more difficult. He gets beaten up, narrowly avoids death but seems to put most of the pieces together. And all this proceeds against the wonderful backdrop that is Sydney; grimy, boisterous yet beautiful all at once.

To all American readers, do yourself a large favour. Discover Cliff Hardy. Your efforts will be rewarded.

R. Holmes & Co.: Being the Remarkable Adventures of Raffles Holmes, Esq., Detective and Amateur Cracksman by Birth (Otto Penzler's Sherlock Holmes L)

Average customer rating:

R. Holmes & Co.: Being the Remarkable Adventures of Raffles Holmes, Esq., Detective and Amateur Cracksman by Birth (Otto Penzler's Sherlock Holmes L)
John Kendrick Bangs
Manufacturer: Otto Penzler Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Sherlock Holmes | Mystery | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

General | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1883402638

The Afghan Campaign of 1878-1880, Compiled from Official and Private Sources

Average customer rating:

The Afghan Campaign of 1878-1880, Compiled from Official and Private Sources
Sydney H. Shadbolt
Manufacturer: Hayward
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: 0903754002

August Nights: A Sydney Bryant Mystery (Five Star First Edition Mystery Series)

Average customer rating:

The delightful return of Patricia Wallace and Sydney Bryant.

August Nights: A Sydney Bryant Mystery (Five Star First Edition Mystery Series)
Patricia Wallace
Manufacturer: Five Star (ME)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Mystery | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

Women Sleuths | Mystery | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

General | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0786241802

Customer Reviews:

The delightful return of Patricia Wallace and Sydney Bryant........2002-09-10

It's a joy to have private eye Sydney Bryant back.

AUGUST NIGHTS is a nice blend of mystery, suspense, humor,
and romance. You will soon feel as if Sydney is a good friend
whom you've known for years.

I look forward to many more novels from the talented
Patricia Wallace.

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