Culinary Mystery Writers to Read

It is no surprise that I enjoy reading mysteries. I love puzzles of all sorts. Well-conceived and written mysteries allow me to think along as both true clues and red herrings are strewn in my path. It’s such fun to get a two-fer book: an engaging story with its requisite sub-plots and a puzzle to solve along with the sleuth.

When you add recipes, à la culinary mysteries, I am the most thrilled. Now it’s a three-fer: engaging story with its requisite sub-plots, a puzzle to solve along with the sleuth, and a cookbook! I can never have too many recipes, even though I almost never follow them as written. Weird, huh?

My first culinary mystery author was one that got many of us started on the sub-genre: Diane Mott Davidson. Loved reading about Goldy Bear Schulz and her horrible-then-wonderful life and how she kept tripping over bodies in her small town. My eyes (and brain) flew open.

I was writing other fiction and why it never occurred to me to put my cooking interest into a mystery is beyond me. Let’s just say that “Ah Ha!” experience re-focused my writing.

I tend to read more cozy mysteries these days. I have lost patience with the traditional mystery in which “the great reveal” comes at the end, and in which it is often hard to think along with the sleuth. I’ve read a bunch of traditional mysteries over the years and still read some on occasion, but my interest has shifted. There is something so fun about cozies. They don’t take themselves over seriously. Sure, they want to write well and tell a good tale, but cozies are about entertainment.

Part of my interest is because I’m also a word guy. I love the punny titles that are characteristic of many culinary mysteries. What’s not to love about Assault and Pepper (Budewitz), The Long Quiche Goodbye (Aames), Dying for a Taste (Karst), Scene of the Climb (Dyer-Seeley), and One Foot in the Grape (O’Neil)?

Left Coast Crime panels have introduced me to some new culinary mystery writers, and being on panels with these women (yes, all women) has been fun, enlightening, and engaging. They are smart, funny, and they love food and adult beverages, too! Here are some you may not know, but I urge you to read them if you haven’t.

Avery Aames/Daryl Wood Gerber

Sometimes, when you have more than one series, you write under pen names. This author has three series! Avery writes the Cheese Shop Mysteries. You learn about cheeses and get some recipes, too. Daryl writes the Cookbook Nook Mysteries, the soon-to-be-published French Bistro Mysteries with recipes. She also has written a number of stand-alone suspense books.

Catherine Bruns

Catherine writes the Cookies and Chance Mysteries. Book one gives the recipe for the fortune cookies that connect to the Chance part of her series. There are some weird fortunes that are pertinent to the recipient, advancing character development.

Additionally, Catherine writes the Aloha Lagoon Mysteries (culinary) and the Cindy York Real Estate Mysteries (non-culinary.

Leslie Budewitz

Leslie writes the Spice Shop Mysteries (Seattle setting) and the Food Lovers’ Village Mysteries (Montana setting) with delicious recipes! She uses her books to teach us some very interesting stuff! For example, not only do we learn about herbs and spices, but her descriptions of how to use herbs and spices in food sound luscious! Delicious recipes included. She’s a past prez for Sisters in Crime, so you know she knows her way around a mystery!

Kate Dyer-Seeley/Ellie Alexander

Another multi-series author hails from the Northwest. As Kate, she writes writes the “Pacific Northwest Mystery” series and the new “Rose City Mystery” series. As Ellie she writes the “Bakeshop Mystery” series also set in the Northwest. Both series include amazing recipes you’ll enjoy along with the mystery that keeps you guessing.

Leslie Karst

Leslie’s background as an attorney served as the basis for her protag’s previous career also. Then Leslie went to culinary school. Her “Sally Solari Mysteries” are set in Santa Cruz, California. Leaving law to return to the family Italian restaurant business is more of an escape than a life-long dream. Then she inherits a restaurant. Leslie’s recipes are delicious and elegant. Very sophisticated food here.

Kathy Krevat/Kathy Aarons

Here’s another author with more ideas than one series can hold. As Kathy Krevat she writes the “Gourmet Cat” series. Kathy Aarons pens the “Chocolate Covered Mysteries.”  Both have delicious delectations for you to make, too. Kathy Aarons worked with a professional chocolatier to make sure her chocolate candies were perfect.

Nadine Nettmann

Nadine writes the Sommelier Mystery series. She is a certified sommelier and uses that knowledge to teach us about wines while twisting our minds around her engaging mysteries. No recipes, unfortunately, but lots of wine-food pairings are mentioned throughout. Her wine-speak (descriptions of wines) set my tongue a-quiver.

Carlene O’Neil

Carlene’s “Cypress Cove Mysteries” are set along the Northern California coast in wine country. Cypress Cove is a town very like, I mean, very like, Carmel. Her MC comes home to run the family winery she inherited. With an extensive background in alcohol (Carlene is accredited by the Wine and Spirits Education Trust), she teaches us about wine production while spinning a tale for us to unravel.

The culinary mystery field is ripe with authors and their tales of mystery and food beyond these few I’ve highlighted. If you haven’t already bitten into a culinary mystery, take a nibble of these.

Left Coast Crime, 2018

I am headed to the annual Left Coast Crime conference in Reno next week. What does that entail? Part of it is prepping enough food for DH so he is nourished while I’m gone. I know, I know. Don’t go there. This is what I do, okay?

Another part is picking my clothes. You gotta look good at these things, right? I mean, there are famous people there I will interact with. So I went shopping, which I am not wild about. And I ordered stuff online, which I do like to do. And I’ve laid out clothes possibilities in the guest room so I can select the best of the best.

A third conference-prep thing is reading books by authors on my panel. Four panelists and a moderator will share perspectives on writing culinary mysteries. Our title is “Days of Wine and Roses: Culinary Mysteries.” I want to have read at least one book by each woman so I can let them know what I thought. And there are some really great recipes in the novels. I love collecting new recipes!

I went through the program and circled sessions I am interested in attending. The night before, I will select the final ones (where I have more than one highlighted) to attend. I expect, as always, to learn bunches of new stuff. The worst thing is that there’s a session I really want to attend but can’t. It conflicts with my panel. Bummer! In cases like that, I make sure to connect with the panelists to find out what I can about their presentation.

I am also doing some reading about a side trip I am taking prior to the opening of the conference. We’ll be visiting the Donner Party site and museum. I want to bone up on the event (even though I know a good bit already) just so the info from the tour guide has slots to slide into.

Oh, and did I mention I’m on a panel? Yeah, that. In my spare time, I think I should give a bit of thought to what will happen in that hour, don’t you think?

Book Review: The Inspector and Mrs. Jeffries

The “Mrs. Jeffries” books may be one of the longest-ever cozy mystery series. If there is a longer one, I am unfamiliar with it. I was introduced to these books by a fellow Red Adept Publishing author earlier this year. If you’re someone who gets into series books, start with book one and work your way through. That’s what I’m doing. The most recent book is Mrs. Jeffries and the Three Wise Women (October, 2017).

Delightful. Inspector Witherspoon, a kindly employer of an assortment of quirky household help, is a Victorian-era police detective at Scotland Yard who is an example of the Peter Principle in action. Inspector Witherspoon is not a very good detective. Not at all. But with the help of his housekeeper, Mrs. Jeffries, and her sleuthing, he is made to look like a good detective. His superior, Inspector Nivens, is thoroughly mystified as to how this bumbling detective manages to solve so many crimes, having no idea of the shadow investigations that go on unbeknownst to Witherspoon or Nivens.

The Inspector and Mrs. Jeffries, published in 1993, is the first in the 36-book series by author Emily Brightwell. Each short cozy features the clever Mrs. Jeffries, widowed wife of a police officer, nudging the Inspector toward the clues she has assembled with the help of the household staff she directed. The ensemble cast of cook, footman, maid, and driver aid her in searching out information she can assemble into a coherent theory for each crime.

The crimes in the books I’ve read are tight little mysteries that allow you to think along with Mrs. Jeffries as she puzzles out each murder, modeling her thinking and her deductive methods. The characters are engaging tropes who each fill a slot. The books remind me a bit of the “Miss Fisher” mysteries and her ensemble cast of amateurs who manage to solve crimes before the police can.

I also enjoy the peek into Victoria society, sensibilities, and scenery. Historical mysteries put together two of my favorite things.

If you’re a cozy fan, take a look at the “Mrs. Jeffries” Victorian mystery series. I predict you will find them fun and a bit different from others you might be reading.