Little Indiscretions

The New York Times

The fluffy tone of Little Indiscretions, which won Spain's Planeta Prize for Carmen Posadas in 1998, is just the melt-in-your-mouth frosting on an otherwise tart -- and surprisingly substantial -- comic mystery about the perils of gossip. — Marilyn Stasio

The Washington Post

Once in a while, a book comes along that is sheer delight. Such is Little Indiscretions, by Carmen Posadas, translated from the Spanish by Christopher Andrews. Winner of Spain's Planeta Prize, this slender novel has it all: an elegant setting, a taut time frame, a cast of intriguing characters and beautifully crafted writing that lends both glamour and insight to the tale. — Katy Munger

Publishers Weekly

The death of a manipulative, mischievous pastry chef sets the stage for this insouciant whodunit, with its humorous and philosophical narrative voice, from Spanish author Posadas. When the frozen body of Nestor Chaffino, who had been hired to cater a party at art dealer Ernesto Teldi's Costa del Sol summer house, turns up in the kitchen "cool room" the morning of the party, the evidence, including a nonworking alarm button in the freezer, points to murder. And why was the victim clutching a scrap of paper with a fragmentary list of dessert recipes? In a series of flashbacks, the author adroitly lays out the "little indiscretions," adulterous and otherwise (recorded by the conniving Nestor in his moleskin notebook), that bind Ernesto, his wife, a na ve young Czech kitchen helper, a renegade waitress, a widowed judge and various other distinctive and unusual characters. The action proceeds with all the inevitability of a Greek tragedy to a denouement both hilarious and horrifying. (Aug. 19) FYI: Little Indiscretions won the 1998 Planeta Prize, topped bestseller lists and sold more than half a million copies in Spain. Born in Uruguay, the author now lives in Madrid. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Famous pastry chef Nestor Chaffino would still be alive if he'd stuck to writing recipes and cooking hints in his pristine little notebook. But he didn't, so someone locked him in cold storage with his chocolate truffles. Whodunit? Any one of the quirky characters could have killed the keeper of secrets, both culinary and personal-the odd but omniscient clairvoyant; Nestor's Czech body-building assistant; his young helper; the man with the old-fashioned military crew cut; or even the owner of the house where Nestor was frozen alive. This is murder spiced with humor, stirred with a light touch, and served up in a deft translation. Originally published in Spain as Peque as Infamias, this book won top honors with the Planeta Award for literature in 1998. This is an excellent addition in both English and Spanish for libraries of all sizes. The author, who has won prizes for her children's books, also writes for film and television and lives in Madrid.-Shelley Mosley, Glendale P.L., AZ Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

A secret-hoarding caterer is frozen to death inside a wealthy client's walk-in freezer: an English-translation debut that sounds like, but emphatically isn't, a case for Hercule Poirot. Nor for any other fictional detective either, since children's author Posadas begins her story with its ending: The night peerless pastry cook Nestor Chaffino's natural buoyancy turns to peevishness and finally terror when he finds himself locked inside the cold room at the Lilies, Ernesto Teldi's house on the Costa del Sol. Instead of unleashing a sleuth, Posadas charts the gravely wacky incidents that led up to Nestor's final frozen dessert and the secrets he collected along with his prized recipes. Which of them led to his murder? Was it something he knew about the checkered career of Ernesto Teldi before he settled into the safe groove of an art dealer? Or about the suicide years ago of Adela Teldi's sister Soledad during an intimate visit to her sister and her brother-in-law? Or about the motorcycle death years before that of Eddie Trias, whose grieving sister Chloe survived to become Nestor's unpaid kitchen hand and his waiter Carlos Garcia's lover? Or about the incorrigible fondness Ernesto's friend, the magistrate Serafin Tous, has for beautiful young men? Or about the clairvoyant Madame Longstaffe's advice to Carlos about how to find his love and her prediction that Nestor didn't have to worry about the lung cancer he was convinced would kill him? It all sounds very mysterious, but Posadas is writing a pastiche rather than a whodunit, beginning with the twist that the "little indiscretions" Nestor prizes so highly really are cooking secrets rather than his friends' dirty laundry. Arch concepthumor, deliberately paced yet weirdly discordant-exactly the sort of thing that will appeal to readers who like that sort of thing, as half a million readers in 12 languages reportedly have so far. Agent: Thomas Colchie