This seems to have been Bourdain’s first book, a hard-boiled gangster/restaurant novel set in Little Italy. There are hints there of the terrific writer he eventually became—black humor, ridiculous situations, and some convincing characters. However, it becomes clear to readers of Bourdain’s later work that the best characters and situations are largely straight out of his autobiography. Descriptions of food and food prep are lovingly done, and some of the horrors of the failing restaurant in wh...

I recently discovered the crime novels written by Anthony Bourdain. This was a really good one. Who knew he was such a good fiction writer! This one has a lot of details in the restaurant world which I enjoyed. It was an interesting story filled with crime, gangsters, drugs and food. I look forward to reading Bourdain's other fiction books.

I went into this with no expectations, but it turned out to be great fun. Snarky, funny and entertaining, just like his food books. But with murder most foul. RIP, Mr. Bourdain.

Libris interruptus...I was traveling on my motorcycle to see a film at the Zurich Film Festival with this book in my jacket pocket, but when I arrived at the venue, the book was gone. I was about two-thirds of the way through the book at the time of its disappearance. I guess it is a testament to how little I was engaged with the story that I did not make a search for the book after it went missing. The story was okay. The characters were okay. The writing was okay. Therefore my rating on the fi...

Clearly written as a tribute from someone who loved mafia and gangster films ‘Bone In The Throat’ has all the ingredients you would need for a thrilling story about a crime syndicate. A drug addled chef, relentless feds and a guy who doesn’t want no part of the family business. A good and easy read.

On the one hand, this novel reads like a caricature of The Godfather, like the fantasy of someone who has watched one too many Martin Scorsese movies. On the other hand, it is full of action, ribald dialogue, and asides about food that only a master chef could deliver. Not great literature--in that regard Bourdain is to Mario Puzo what Krispy Kreme is to fine French pastry, but you gotta admit, sometimes you'd really rather have a damned doughnut.

Unfortunately, this novel had too many characters. The main one(s) were not really developed effectively. I struggled to root for anyone. I knew that I was mean to root for the chef and the sous chef, but I just couldn't. However, there is an excellent moment with a meat slicer that I found fun! To be fair, this isn't my usual fare; I may be ill-equipped to judge.

Touted as a snarky mystery, this really is just fiction, almost more of a character study. This is one book I had to make myself finish. I had a hard time keeping track of the characters ("who is this guy again?") until late in the book because few were fleshed out enough to stick with me.

Enjoyed it, but Bourdain is better on tv than in the fiction section. 📚

I'm a huge fan of Anthony Bourdain. Having watched him compose beautiful stories through food and culture on his television shows, I knew he wouldn't disappoint me as a writer of fiction. His book "Bone in the Throat" was not as elegant and interesting as I had assumed it would be, but knowing Bourdain's taste for foul language and getting at the heart of a story helped me sink my teeth into this book. The story involves a group of mafia-types, police, and restaurant junkies who are playing a ga...

Shouldn't be surprised that Anthony Bourdain's crime fiction is basically like if an Elmore Leonard novel was set in the New York restaurant world instead of the Detroit underbelly. That's not an insult. This was really entertaining. Good dialogue. It's a little "big" and I wouldn't call the crime part of it "realistic," however -- the characters are all basically caricatures of guys in mob movies/The Sopranos. But it's fun, and worth it for the Bourdaininess of it all.

Even before he was big-time, Mr. Tony had a real clarity of voice and tone that help this novel cohesive and kept me reading. He does a nice job of rotating chapters through the eyes of many characters without getting bogged down by the variety; each chapter also advances the admittedly thin plot. I would've enjoyed more mystery and less novel, the ending was a foregone conclusion, though he did build some nice suspense especially during the face-in-the-meat-slicer scene, which was particularly

This was a light read. And a great one.I was watching the Sopranos and wanted to read a light novel involving the wise guys. I had seen Tony's tv shows and read his fantastic book, Kitchen Confidential. So, this book was exactly what I had hoped it would be.

As a fan of both Bourdain's television persona and his non-fiction work, I went into this with high hopes. I'm happy to say that I was not disappointed. I haven't read much crime fiction in the past, mainly due to lack of interest. This book, however, had me hooked from the prologue. Bourdain had a true talent for painting a picture with his words. This could very easily be translated into a script for film or television. The characters have heart and feel real. The story is full of twists and t...

as advertised, a good beach towel skimmer

One thing I learned from the restaurant business is, I never wanna be in the restaurant business. You'd do better to go out to the Fooking track and put your money on a horse. No Shit. The percentages are better. You might come out of it with some money.

A lot of people don't know this, but Anthony Bourdain used to write fiction, most people are aware of him for his tv shows: A Cooks Tour, No Reservations and Layover along with his food writing and his 1 cookbook. However, before all of this, back when he was still the chef at Les Halles in New York City, he wrote 3 books of fiction. Sadly they did not sell well and only due to his later fame were they rediscovered. That's really too bad, because they're great.This shouldn't come as a surprise,

In 1995, just as he was starting to get attention, Anthony Bourdain wrote this paean to NY mob fiction with a culinary twist. "Bone in the Throat" doesn't cover any new ground in the story line, but the detailed restaurant/kitchen background makes it seem fresh. And you can't help hearing Bourdain's distinctive voice narrating. Plenty of New York landmarks (some no longer in existence) get a nod and anyone who was gallivanting around the West Village in the 1990's will be sure to get a bit nosta...

An okay read, definitely not as good as his nonfiction

While I was/am a huge fan of Bourdain the travel writer and television host, I expected this delving into fiction to be average at best. While the story itself was pretty good, the dialogue between characters was rough. The characters were stereotypical especially the cops and mobsters to the point of being caricatures with everything being embellished to the nth degree. It's clear the main chef character is largely based on Bourdain, drug problem and all. Overall there is a solid plot here with...