Kindle Edition Amazon Unsavory Delicacies Category:  Mystery/Suspense Publisher: Independent Type: Fiction Pages: 33 Copyright: November 11, 2013 Price: $0.99 (eBook) A three-course story collection with a side-order of revenge. Crème Brûlée Rogue operative, Monique Beauvais, cons a software genius into selling her a coveted technology that would allow its user to control CIA drones while they’re in flight. And she will go as far as killing him in public in order to have it. To the Last Bite A renowned food critic—whose scathing reviews have closed down restaurants—gets a savoury surprise. Shashlyk and Morezhenoe CIA operative, Ridley Fox, leads a team against one of Russia’s most powerful crime families. He discovers secrets, but not one that he was expecting to find. Three stories with three consequences. All containing three Unsavory Delicacies.

Quite a savory read.
I received a request via email to review Unsavory Delicacies by Russell Brooks. He said he found my blog and saw that I reviewed books for authors. I was not compensated for this review in anyway and was honored that he contacted me. I appreciate the opportunity to help an author. It's because of their talent that my desire to read is so great! I'm not a fan of short stories because I always yearn for more of the story to complete it. However, these stories were well written and didn't leave me searching for more than were given. They did make me not want them to end. Mr. Brooks is a great storyteller...

In To The Last Bite we're introduced to a food critic who makes a living providing negative reviews on every restaurant he visits. His readers yearn for his negativistic reviews salivating for more of them. Periodically he painfully drops a positive review but it's the negative reviews that keep his business afloat. One day he visits a French restaurant where the meal is delightful and the owner is familiar. He provides a savory review and his pallet is not the same thereafter. The food that he ate at the restaurant never leaves his tongue and thoughts of the owner never do either.
The chef from the restaurant shows up at his home unexpectedly to offer him another meal shifting this story into an unfamiliar and creepy place.

In Crem Brûlée we are introduced to a young beautiful vivacious woman who uses her assets to acquire the things she desires. Just as she leaves a dinner with her most recent conquest she hears shots ring out killing him. Thrust into a whirlwind of danger, Monique finds that her looks won't help her out of this situation. The story makes twists and turns quickly with a surprise ending.

In the final story, Shashlyk and Morozhenoe, Ridley Fox goes undercover posing as an inspector looking for bad meat. Unbeknownst to Ridley and his cohorts, they are being watched by the Russian mafia. He contacts Dobbs but isn't sure if they can hold out until his arrival. As the secrets unfold Ridley finds a few that surprise him.

Together these three short stories make up three tales focusing on revenge. They were well written, clear and understandable. The author painted clear, vivid pictures allowing the reader to get lost in each story...

A trio of treats
"Blame it on a simple twist of fate." - Bob Dylan

Unsavory Delicacies is a delectable collection of three short stories that showcases together the author's imaginative writing, eye for detail, interesting characterization and penchant for twists and surprises.

* Creme Brulee - deals with a foxy lady who uses her beauty and cunning while engaging in a shady transaction that goes wrong

* To The Last Bite - features a food critic bent on destroying every food establishment he dines in when he ultimately gets his fill and much deserved just desserts

* Shashlyk and Morozhenoe - tells of a covert operative who finds himself in a sticky situation with the Russian Mafia

this anthology would be a great introduction to those unfamiliar with Russell Brooks. i really enjoyed the stories as much as i did reading Pandora's Succession - his first novel.

if you want something short but fun, intense though bearable, fast-paced yet well-timed, treat yourself to some Unsavory Delicacies. you might just find yourself asking for more.


Three very savory delicacies
I recently read Russell Brook's collection of three short stories, Unsavory Delicacies.

Creme Brulee is a fantastic story, and I don't want to give away the details before anyone has read it.

Let us say it has enough twists and turns (especially at the end!) to ensure you are fully entertained throughout. When you learn one of the
male character's secret identities, it all makes sense. Again, I don't want to write a spoiler-ific review of this particular story.

To The Last Bite, is a classic tale of revenge enacted on a critic - surely the dream of many a writer, actor, chef... Brooks does it in such a way that you don't see it coming, and are as surprised by the critic himself. You feel sorry for the critic as he realizes he is being made to pay for his past actions, and Brooks manages to at the same time get you to sympathise with the critic's killer as victim himself. I felt that with this particular story, Brooks writing style was reminiscent of Roald Dahl - reminding me of that Dahl story where the wife killed her husband with a frozen lamb leg, clubbing him to death with it, and then cooking the lamb leg for the police and letting them eat it.

In Shashlyk and Morozhenoe, we hook up with the main character of Pandora's Succession; agent Ridley Fox.

Again, I don't want to give this one away. It's sort of hard to write a review of the first and third stories without giving the plots away and spoiling them for readers. They really do twist and turn, in very few pages, and I don't want to ruin them for you.

Brooks certainly has a gift for packing a punch in confined spaces - the writer equivilant of Ridley Fox himself - it makes you wonder if Brooks is more like his creation Fox than even he realises! You can imagine Fox fighting three men at once with his hands tied behind his back... which is how Brook's writing leaves you feeling. I'd like to see Brooks handle something in the sci-fi genre one day. I feel he would deliver a highly detailed, yet fast paced novel that would blow your socks off. Perhaps one day he will...

Brooks sent me Unsavory Delicacies for review and I uploaded it directly to my Kindle device. I sat in bed and read it in one sitting. It is, after all, three short stories. But it is also impossible to put down once you start... and when you reach the end of the third story you wish it hadn't ended.