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CULINARY MYSTERIES: Davidson, Fluke, Pence, Albert
CREAM PUFF MURDER by Joanne Fluke * FATALLY FLAKY by Diane Mott Davidson * OOLONG DEAD - A Tea Shop Mystery by Laura Childs * WORMWOOD - A China Bayles Mystery by Susan Wittig Albert & Joanne Pence!
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CULINARY MYSTERIES:
The Mystery field has seen many popular Culinary Mysteries over the past few years. Here are a few of the best recent releases:
FATALLY FLAKY by Diane Mott Davidson
New York Times bestselling author Diane Mott Davidson wrote three novels before one was accepted for publication--when she was 41.
She has since written 14 more mysteries, all featuring Goldy the caterer. In addition, she has written short stories and poetry for various publications.
Davidson has won the Anthony Award from Bouchercon, and has been nominated for the Agatha, another Anthony, and the Macavity Award. In 1993 she was named Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers' Writer of the Year.
With CATERING TO NOBODY, Dividson began a series of Culinary Mysteries that has become one of the most popular series of the sub-genre. Several recipes are included in each book, and each novel title is a play on a food or drink word.
The first 12 novels in the series interwove recipes with the novel's text. When a dish is first described in the novel, the relevant recipe followed within the next few pages.
DOUBLE SHOT, the 12th novel, marked a change in the publishing of these recipes. In DOUBLE SHOT, all recipes are compiled and printed at the end of the novel.
The 15th title in the series is FATALLY FLAKY:
It's been a long, rainy summer for Goldy Schulz, who is engaged in planning wedding receptions for what seems to be all of Aspen Meadow. It's bad enough that Billie Attenborough, the bride from hell, has changed her menu six times and the event date twice. Now she wants to move the location to the Gold Gulch Spa just a scant two days before tying the knot to her doctor fiancé.
Then Doc Finn, beloved local physician and the best friend of Goldy's godfather, Jack, is killed when his car tumbles into a ravine. At least that's what appears to have happened. But Jack thinks Doc was murdered because of the research he was doing at the spa--allegations that are confirmed when Jack himself is attacked.
So Goldy dons chef's whites and goes undercover at the spa, where coffee is outlawed in favor of calming smoothies, and the fruit cocktail doesn't include fresh fruit. Add in the obstreperous owner, who years ago tried to sabotage Goldy's fledgling business, and she's got her hands full.
Above all, there seems to be a clever killer on the spa grounds, watching her every move. After what befell Jack, Goldy knows that she might be next. Catering weddings, and cooking low-fat food, could be killing her--literally.
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CREAM PUFF MURDER by Joanne Fluke
Winter in Lake Eden, Minnesota, is the perfect time to curl up by a cozy fire with something--and someone--sweet. But while bakery owner Hannah Swensen can provide herself with the confections, cuddling will have to take a back seat to sleuthing when her sometime-squeeze becomes a murder suspect...
With the launch party of her mother's novel around the corner, Hannah has a dress to fit into and a date with her sister, Andrea, at Lake Eden's new health club, Heavenly Bodies. Dragging herself out of bed on a frigid Minnesota morning for exercise, of all things, is bad enough. Discovering a dead body floating in the gym's jacuzzi?
Okay, that's worse. Nor does it help that there's a plate of The Cookie Jar's very own cream puffs garnishing the murder scene. The fact that they were purchased by none other than Hannah's part-time flame, Detective Mike Kingston, is simply the icing on what's shaping up to be one very messy cake...
Mike may be the prime suspect in the murder of man-eating bombshell Ronni Ward, but he's by no means the only one. Ronni, a fitness instructor at both the Sheriff's department and Heavenly Bodies, made a nasty habit of throwing her own heavenly body at every man, eligible or not, who crossed her path.
Plenty of Lake Eden's ladies won't miss Ronni, including her ex-fiance's former girlfriend, the angry mother of one of her would-be conquests, and even the mayor's wife. Could any of them have wanted her gone badly enough to make it happen? Mike's recruited Hannah to find out, and, as any suspended, suspected detective would, he's micromanaging her every step of the way...
Between trying to narrow the list of Ronni's enemies down to fewer than half the town's female population and resisting the urge to remove Mike from the running by throttling him herself, Hannah has her plate full. Trouble is, when it comes to cookies--and to murder--there's always room for one more...
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A Trio by Joanne Pence:
THE DAVINCI COOK
Joanne Pence was born and raised in San Francisco. A graduate of U.C. Berkeley with a master's degree in journalism, Joanne has taught school in Japan, written for magazines, and worked for the federal government. She now lives in Idaho with her family, which includes a multitude of pets.
Angie Amalfi is close to one of the biggest breaks of her rocky culinary career--a chance to co-write a cookbook with a famous chef. But as she scrambles to prepare for the impending interview, her realtor sister Cat is suddenly accused of a murder in a rich client's home. A priceless relic--an iron chain that was used to bind St. Peter while in a Roman prison--is missing from her wealthy client Marcello Piccoletti's home, and a murder was committed on the heels of the disappearance. The only person who can clear Cat's name is the client himself, and he's in Rome, tending to his restaurant, Da Vinci's.
Heedless to Angie's stern warning, the always unpredictable Cat insists on traveling to Rome to confront Picoletti, and Angie must drop everything to accompany her sister. The Roman restaurateur has the chain with him in Rome, and exonerates Cat of the murder as well. Unfortunately, the police in the states still suspect Cat and now Picoletti, the only witness, has disappeared. Angie takes a job as a cook at Da Vinci's, hoping to get to the bottom of this complex mess. And when bodies start piling up like balls of fresh mozzarella at an Amalfi family picnic, it looks like Angie and Cat's trip to their homeland may spell arrivederci Amalfis.
RED HOT MURDER
Dilettante chef Angie Amalfi doubts if she'll actually survive her engagement to San Francisco homicide detective Paavo Smith, what with her meddling mom micromanaging the whole affair. So Angie leaps at the chance to spend some time away with her fiancé in the sun-drenched Arizona desert town where he'd spent time as a boy -- and maybe explore the possibility of a Southwestern-themed wedding feast. But her groom-to-be is going back there to help a friend investigate the murder of a wealthy local -- and it seems this tiny desert community is a hotbed of deadly secrets. And when a second course of murder is served up, suddenly Angie's tasty getaway with her lover is starting to look more and more like her final meal.
TWO COOKS A-KILLING
Nothing could drag chef Angie Amalfi away from San Francisco and her beloved policeman fiance Paavo Smith -- except for a job preparing the banquet her all-time favorite soap opera characters will consume during an upcoming Christmas Reunion Special. So Angie eagerly takes off for the estate where the now-defunct "Eagle Crest" was originally filmed.
Not thrilled to be staying in the very room from which the young actress Brittany Keegan took a real-life fatal tumble years earlier, Angie is equally disturbed -- and intrigued -- when another corpse turns up in the cellar. Both deaths have been ruled accidental, but the bitter accusations flying back and forth among the reunited cast suggest otherwise. And now that Angie's a guest star in this deadly serial drama, she's suddenly in serious danger of being written out of it permanently.
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OOLONG DEAD -- A Tea Shop Mystery by Laura Childs
Laura Childs is a pseudonym for Gerry Schmitt, former owner/CEO/Creative Director of a marketing/advertising firm in Minneapolis. She's putting that knowledge to good use for extensive self-promotion. Laura Childs is the author of the Tea Shop mysteries and also launched her first scrapbooking mystery, KEEPSAKE CRIMES in May 2003.
Theodosia Browning is the owner of Charleston's beloved Indigo Tea Shop, and an amateur sleuth who can't seem to stop solving crimes. A wild steeplechase through the Carolina low-country brings Theodosia face to face with a dead woman--and sparks the return of a boyfriend she never thought she'd see again.
While riding her horse in a race through the South Carolina Lowcountry, Theodosia Browning finds her arch nemesis, Abby Davis, dead. What's more, the victim's brother is Theodosia's old flame.
Who'd have guessed they'd be reunited through cold-blooded murder? Theodosia's investigation takes her from the Lowcountry thicket to the backstage maze of a darkened theater where a maestro of murder waits for the next cue. All proving that when it comes to high drama, Theodosia can give Verdi a run for his money.
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WORMWOOD -- A China Bayles Mystery by Susan Wittig Albert
It was not until she created the plucky China Bayles and her savory mysteries that Chicago-born Susan Wittig Albert developed her trademark series. She created China Bayles, a sleuth who jumped off the fast track at a big law firm to open a herb shop. Now Albert has written twelve China Bayles mysteries. Each book is named after a favorite herb.
"Herbs are about coming home, putting down roots, making connections," Albert reflects.
An avid gardener, she cultivates her own herbs, both culinary and ornamental, and never writes about one she hasn't grown. Also an avid researcher, Albert enjoys delving into ancient lore, medicinal uses and symbolic associations surrounding each "signature" herb. She then weaves intricate narrative tangles for her star sleuth and supporting cast of colorful characters.
The stress of working in a high-powered law firm in Houston started to get to China Bayles. So she packed her bags, moved to Pecan Springs, Texas, and opened an herb shop. But China learned that even small towns are spiced with murder.
In NIGHTSHADE, #16 in Berkley (Prime Crime) series featuring China Bales, China is still reeling from her father's death and has no interest in her halfbrother Miles's investigation. But when fate forces her to get involved, China realizes it's time to bring the past to light--or else it will haunt her forever. Then she discovers that Miles may be keeping secrets himself. How deep do the layers of secrecy go? And who has a stake in concealing a long-buried truth? Now, one fresh murder and several cold cases will force China Bayles to face her dark past.
In WORMWOOD (#17), China's friends and family are urging her to get some rest--and a Kentucky Shaker village seems the ideal place for it. At Mount Zion, China can assist with some herbal workshops--while absorbing all things Shaker, from their furniture to their peaceful ways.
But the restored modern version of the village, striving to become a popular tourist attraction, is plagued with misfortune and strife-- some of it the likely result of sabotage. China and her friend Martha are hoping to get to the bottom of it.
However, much like Shaker history itself, the case appears simpler at first than it is. There is tension behind the serene exterior. And after a shocking death occurs during her stay, China will plunge into the archives of another time to connect the sins of the past with a modern-day murder.
To read more about the great Culinary Mystery series, go to A CULINARY MYSTERY TOUR: http://www.brianalanburhoe.com
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Bon Appetit!
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