CHILE or CHILI DEATH? - Sunny reviews Susan Wittig Alberts most recent China Bayles Mystery -Chile Death.

- Sunny gets new reading glasses. So, what's this got to do with chile?
- Peanuts and chili
- References to chile pepper in Chile Death
- Chili Queen Chili Recipe

 
Chile Death: "One of the best-written and well-plotted mysteries I've read in a long time." - Los Angeles Times

I'm kicking  off the New Year outfitted in a new pair of reading glasses. "It's time," my eye doc declared.  And just how did I feel about that bit of news? Heck, over the past 48 years, I've generated "a few" face  lines, and recently let my hair turn its natural gray (which spurred many a discussion among my diehard "Loving Care" friends). Hence why not add magnifiers to achieve the aging baby boomer look?

So, what do  reading glasses have to do with chile?  Aplenty. Two weeks ago I could barely decipher words on street signs let alone those in a book, one of which I was eager to read while snuggled up next to a fire. 

Chile  Death [Berkeley, November 1998], a China Bayles Mystery by Susan Wittig Albert, is about a criminal defense attorney in a large Houston law firm. That most of the clients she was defending were guilty caused Bayles, 40, ethical  doubts about her work. Leaving her "power suits" behind, she resigns and moves to rural (fictitious) Pecan Springs, TX, where she purchases a small herb shop.

Mike McQuaid, to whom China refers as  "McQuaid," a cop and China's lover, becomes paralyzed in the line of duty. But China remains committed to McQuaid during his long recovery and moments of depression at the local nursing home, where rumors suggest foul  play is part of the home's daily operations.

In the meantime, the managing editor of the local rag asks China to pen a regular column, "Hot Pods and Fired-Up Faire" for the paper's Home and Garden Section. The inaugural column is to cover Pecan Spring's annual "for men only" chili cook-off.

Hoping to lift his spirits, China suggests that McQuaid, now wheelchair bound, volunteer at the event.  McQuaid agrees but the cook-off becomes more than a hot pod affair when one of the judges, Jerry Jeff Cody, known for his womanizing ways, dies following a severe allergic reaction to peanuts. But every Texan knows peanuts do not belong in a bowl of "red." As China strives to figure out "who done it," readers can appreciate the ink Albert devotes to chile lore, tales and recipes, some of which I share below.

Chile Death, which could also read Chili Death (as there's more talk about chili than chile) is one of the hottest, page-turning novels I've read. Not only did I discover new tales and lore about the chile mojo, but I also found a new author - not a bad way for this aging baby boomer to start the New Year, peering through her new pair of spectacles.

References to chile pepper in Chile Death:
-  "Ruby is a truly memorable person, six feet tall in her sandals and stylishly thin, with a galaxy of freckles across her nose and crimped hair that is chile-pepper red."
-  "Last year Chuck Moffett's habanero marmalade nearly melted my dentures."
-  "...chile pepper - the herb with an attitude."
-  "Your eyes will be tearing, your nose will be running, and your tongue will be on fire...a cheap, healthy thrill."
-  A T-shirt worn by womanizer Jerry Jeff Cody: "The hotter the better, honey."
-  "Her lips like ripe habaneros."
-  "And down in Mexico, folks dip whole peanuts in molido (finely  ground chile) and eat 'em while they're drinkin' tequila."
-  "He (Columbus) became the first European to blister his tongue on a hot pepper."
-  "The Aztecs believed the chile pepper to be a powerful sexual stimulant, and early Spanish priests cautioned against its use, claiming that it 'inciteth to lust'." Elizabeth Rozin, author Blue Corn and Chocolate.

Chile Death, available in hardback, can be purchased for $21.95 at major bookstores or for $15.65 from Internet bookstores such as Amazon.com and BarnesandNobel.com.

Chili Queen Chile
Traditional Texas Chile Recipe
>From the Institute of Texas Cultures

2 lb. beef shoulder cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1 lb. pork shoulder cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1/4 cup suet
1/4 cup pork fat (lard)
3 medium onions, chopped
6 cloves garlic, minced
1 qt water
4 ancho chiles
1 dried serrano chile
6 dried red chiles
1 T comino seeds, freshly ground
1 T Mexican oregano
Salt to taste

Place lightly floured beef and pork cubes with suet and pork fat in heavy chili pot and cook quickly,  stirring often. Add onions and garlic and cook until they are tender and limp. Add water to mixture and simmer slowly while preparing chiles. Remove stems and seeds from chiles and chop very finely. Grind chiles in molcajete  (mortar and pestle) or use the grind function on your mixer. After meat, onion, and garlic have simmered about one hour, add chiles. Grind comino seeds in molcajete and add oregano with salt to mixture. Simmer another 2 hours.  Remove suet and skim off some fat. Serve.