“The Pot Thief who Studied Escoffier” is the fourth crime novel in a series by J. Michael Orenduff. The book is officially debuting at the Left Coast Crime Conference in Santa Fe starting yesterday. Mr. Orenduff was nice enough to give me an Advance Reader Copy of the book.

This book, and the whole series, features Hubert Schuze, a pottery shop owner who both lives and works in the Old Town section of Albuquerque. Schuze is a little bit of a renegade. He kind of has an attitude about laws that he doesn’t like such as prohibitions about against digging up antiquities on public lands. He also doesn’t really trust the authorities too much so when he is accused of crimes such as murder he takes a very active role in proving his innocence.

This time Hubert gets himself involved in a new Austrian themed restaurant starting up in Santa Fe. He starts out as an artisan making ceramic chargers but ends up hip deep in the management and cooking after the restaurants shaky start. Oh yes, he is the chief suspect in two murders so while taking care of the restaurant he is also solving the murders.

In the meantime he heads back to Albuquerque to have happy hour with his friend Susannah to discuss life, restaurant management, crime solving, and various other matters. Schuze doesn’t really conduct his life or solve murders in a linear, logical, stepwise fashion. Things just kind swirl and eddy as he covers this and that but eventually he figures everything out.

This book is marinated in New Mexican flavor from start to finish. It is all about the journey and not so much the destination. It is a leisurely, pleasant, and intelligent read. Orenduff has a smooth writing style that makes it all go down easy.

I give it four stars out of five. You don’t need to have read the other three in the series for this one to be a good read.

Check out the Series Website.