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.

The After

As I worked on Tequila Mockingbird, book five in my current culinary mystery series, for National Novel Writing Month, I knew the series was nearing an end. Book six, Cooks in the Can, will conclude the adventures of personal chefs Alli and Gina in Glendale, Arizona.

So what’s in The After?

I still want to write culinary mysteries, but I am switching it up by moving Alli and Evan to Alaska and having Alli work for a couple of small businesses there. A common joke in Alaska is that Alaska is home to both the wanted and the unwanted. Perfect spot for the cop Evan, right?

Their small Alaska town will be populated with a variety of quirky folk, some of whom run small businesses in the town. In this series, the first book will feature Alli, but other books will have her as a supporting character with other small business owners being the focus. I’m not sure how to avoid the Cabot Cove Syndrome yet, but I’ll figure it out.

I already have some titles for these “murders with taste”, but for me, that’s no big deal. Punny titles pop into my head all the time. What do you think about these to pick from: Baked Alaska, Go with the Floe, Chocolate Moose, Dead and Breakfast, Mint to Be, Arsenic and Old Mace, Thyme to Die, Duds and Suds, and Iced? More are occurring to me all the time, so who knows which ones will be in this series.

My plan, at this point, is to create a small town in Alaska with a variety of quirky characters, each of whom runs a small business in town. Each book in the series will have Alli helping to solve the mystery created around the small business and its owner.

The titles above may have tipped you that one small business owner, Maeve, runs an herb shop. She supplies residents and area restaurants with spices and herbs, but a more lucrative component is her salves and infusions made with marijuana. That keeps her bottom line healthy.

Riley is the owner of the local bed and breakfast, Riley’s Roost—Where you rise and shine! She’s the self-appointed mayor and knows everything about everybody in the town. But she’s a busybody with a heart.

Another resident is Bud, the owner of Bud’s Duds ‘n’ Suds, the local bar that has the only laundromat for 50 miles. He sees the good, the bad, and the ugly in the town, and is privy to secrets told by inebriated customers.

I need a bakery, a diner, and a local newspaper still. And, of course, there is the realtor who gets into lots of spaces. Populating a town is a challenge and great fun!

As to recipes—this is a culinary mystery series, of course—rhubarb is very big in Alaska, so there will be several recipes using the ubiquitous plant, like this recipe from the University of Alaska:

Easy Rhubarb Jam    Yields 2 pints

5 cups rhubarb

3 cups sugar

3 ounce package strawberry-flavored gelatin

Combine rhubarb and sugar and let stand one hour.

Boil until tender, 3 to 5 minutes. Add the strawberry flavored gelatin and stir until dissolved.

Let cool. Pour into freezer containers for storing in freezer or jars

for storing in refrigerator.

Jam should not be stored in the refrigerator for more than 2 weeks. Leave ½ inch

headspace.

Also, salmon is the lifeblood of Alaska, so several salmon recipes will be featured, including this salmon caviar one from an Alaskan friend of mine, Sandy Peacock that she received from her Alaskan friend, Chi Dragich. Thanks to them for sharing this absolutely delicious recipe. I ate it like a grizzly bear!

Salmon Caviar     Yields 2 quarts

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1 tablespoon sugar

1 tablespoon saki

1-3 teaspoons salt

1 tablespoon Dashi seasoning

Salmon roe from one salmon

Open the skein, flatten on wire rack, rubbing back and forth to separate eggs.

Flush with cold water, in rectangular plastic tubs, multiple times until water is clear.

Pick out bits of egg, veins, etc. Set in strainer to dry. Color of eggs will return and appear uniform.

In large bowl, mix well all ingredients except salmon roe.

Fold in eggs to seasoning mixture.

Place in sterile jars and refrigerate for up to 3-4 weeks.

Serve on crackers with cream cheese.

What do you think? Would you pick up a culinary mystery series set in The Last Frontier? Please share this post. Thanks!

Facebook: Sharon Arthur Moore is planning her next culinary mystery series. This one will be set in Alaska. Check out what’s on the horizon. Recipes included. http://bit.ly/2ASIx7M

Twitter: @good2tweat shares two #recipes from her next culinary mystery series set in Alaska. http://bit.ly/2ASIx7M