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Delicious Mysteries: Culinary Crime




Raspberry Danish Murder (Hannah Swensen #22)

by Joanne Fluke

Hannah has felt as bitter as November in Minnesota since Ross vanished without a trace and left their marriage in limbo. Still, she throws herself into a baking frenzy for the sake of pumpkin pie and Thanksgiving-themed treats while endless holiday orders pour into The Cookie Jar. Hannah even introduces a raspberry Danish pastry to the menu, and P.K., her husband’s assistant at KCOW-TV, will be one of the first to sample it. But instead of taking a bite, P.K., who is driving Ross’s car and using his desk at work, is murdered. Was someone plotting against P.K. all along or did Ross dodge a deadly dose of sweet revenge? Hannah will have to quickly sift through a cornucopia of clues and suspects to stop a killer from bringing another murder to the table. . .

Baker's Fatal Dozen (A Cozy Crumb Mystery #2) by Lisa Harris

Baker's Fatal Dozen once again finds sixty-something Pricilla Crumb in a sticky scandal when she steps into her favorite bakery to order a baker-s dozen of her favorite shortbread cookies and finds owner Reggie Pierce dead in the back room.


A close friend of Reggie's widow, Annabelle Pierce, is now a prime suspect. Pricilla agrees to help uncover the truth, which puts her in hot water with her boyfriend, Max.



Fudge & Jury (A Bakeshop Mystery #5)

by Ellie Alexander

Welcome to Torte―a friendly, small-town family bakery where the pastries are delicious…and, now, suspicious.


It’s almost spring in Ashland, Oregon, and the town is preparing for the Shakespeare and the annual Chocolate Festival. Business is cookin’ at Torte, and the store is expanding as Jules’ team whips up crèpes filled with mascarpone cheese and dark chocolate. Torte stands a chance of being this year’s confectionery belle of the ball! Life couldn’t be sweeter―unless murder taints the batter.


Evan Rowe, of Confections Couture, makes a chocolate fountain that would put Willy Wonka to shame, and his truffles are to die for―literally? Yes, the world-renowned chocolatier has just turned up dead…right after sampling a slice of Jules’ decadent four-layer chocolate cake. Now all eyes are on Jules as she tries to find the mysterious ingredient in her own recipe. Can she sift out the truth before another contestant bites the buttercream?



By Joanne Fluke

It's been a sleepy summer for the folks of Lake Eden, Minnesota. In fact, it's been a whole four months since anyone in the Swensen family has come across a dead body. And that means Hannah Swensen can finally focus on her bakery. . .or can she? Life is never really quiet for Hannah. After all, her mother's wedding is a little over a month away and guess who Delores put in charge of the planning? Yet just when Hannah believes her biggest challenge will be whether to use buttercream or fondant for the wedding cake, she accidentally hits a stranger with her truck while driving down a country road in a raging thunderstorm. Hannah is wracked with guilt, and things get even worse when she's arrested. . .for murder! But an autopsy soon reveals the mystery man, his shirt covered in stains from blackberry pie, would have died even if Hannah hadn't hit him. Now, to clear her name, Hannah will have to follow a trail of pie crumbs to track down the identity of the deceased, find a baker who knows more about murder than how to roll out a perfect pie crust--and get herself to the church on time. . .

Dark Chocolate Demise (Cupcake Bakery Mystery #7)

by Jenn McKinnlay

The New York Times bestselling Cupcake Bakery Mysteries bake up sweet surprises, but as the series continues, Mel and Angie are in for a fresh batch of trouble…


Scottsdale, Arizona, may not be the liveliest place on earth, but it’s never been as dead as this. Hundreds of fans have gathered together for the first annual Old Town Zombie Walk, and Mel, Angie, and the Fairy Tale Cupcake crew are donning their best undead attire to sell some horror-themed desserts to the hungry hordes.


But the fun turns to fright when Mel finds a real dead body in a prop casket outside of the bakery’s truck—and the corpse looks alarmingly like a zombie of their own. Knowing that Joe, Angie’s brother and Mel’s former flame, has been working on a dangerous mob case, Mel worries that the murder is a hit gone wrong and that someone near and dear was the real target. To keep any of her friends from winding up six feet under, Mel will do whatever it takes to find a killer—no matter how scary things get...


INCLUDES RECIPES



by Joanne Fluke

Summertime has finally arrived in Lake Eden, Minnesota, and Hannah Swensen, owner of The Cookie Jar bakery, is looking forward to warm, lazy days, eating ice cream, and sharing picnics with friends. But when a family reunion takes a deadly turn, it's up to Hannah to find a killer. . .


Between baking up a storm for The Cookie Jar and unraveling the mystery of her cat Moishe's recent strange behavior, Hannah Swensen has a lot on her plate. But she'll always make time for her business partner, Lisa, who's in the midst of preparing for a big family reunion. Everyone is delighted when Lisa's long-lost uncle makes a surprise appearance. No one has heard from Gus in twenty-five years--and his arrival has everyone buzzing with excitement.


Uncle Gus is immediately the hit of the reunion, telling tales of his great success and flashing money for all to see. He's almost as popular as Hannah's scrumptious carrot cake, which is also Gus's favorite dessert. But the next morning, as the whole family gathers for the group photo, one person is missing. Hannah offers to track down Uncle Gus, but her search leads to a shocking find. Over by the bar at the pavilion, she spots two slices of her infamous carrot cake, frosting-side down on the floor--and Gus's corpse with an ice pick jutting out of his chest!


A little snooping reveals that not everyone was celebrating Gus's return. And when Hannah unearths more secrets from Gus's past, she discovers even more people with an axe to grind. Now Hannah's got to sift through a long list of suspects to find a killer--even if it could mean a recipe for her own demise. . .


Includes 12 original dessert recipes for you to try!



Once upon a Lie (Maeve Conlon #1)

by Maggie Barbieri

Maeve Conlon's life is coming apart at the seams. Her bakery is barely making ends meet, and one of her daughters spends as much time grounded as the other does studying. Her ex-husband has a new wife, a new baby, and a look of pity for Maeve that's absolutely infuriating. Her father insists he's still independent, but he's slowly and obviously succumbing to Alzheimer's. And now, her cousin Sean Donovan has been found dead, sitting in his car in a public park, shot through the head.

There was never much love lost between Maeve and Sean and she's not exactly devastated by his death, but suddenly the police are poking around asking the family questions. It's just one more hassle Maeve doesn't have time for, until she realizes that her father, whose memory and judgment are unreliable at best, is a suspect in the murder. Maeve is determined to clear his name, but is she prepared to cope with the dark memories and long-hidden secrets that doing so might dredge up?

Maggie Barbieri will mesmerize readers with Once Upon a Lie, a gripping novel about family, justice, and the choices we make that define who we are


If Onions Could Spring Leeks (Gram's Country Cooking School Mystery #5)

by Paige Shelton

With summer tourists flocking to Broken Rope, locals volunteer to keep chaos to a minimum. Old West skits are running smoothly, actors are behaving, and stagecoach rides are more popular than ever, but when a spectral visitor appears by ghost train, it’s a job only Betts and Gram can handle. (This was originally published in August of 2015 with a different cover - this is that same book.)


Gram soon starts having nightmares about their ghostly visitor’s demise. And if a ghost and the hot summer weather weren’t making things sticky enough, one of the town’s volunteers—a man notorious for having more than his fair share of ex-wives—is murdered. When Jerome, Bett’s otherworldly friend, makes an unsettling appearance, this simmering double mystery becomes a recipe for disaster.



by Nancy Picard Award-winner Nancy Pickard serves up a new and wickedly delicious Eugenia Potter culinary mystery that her ravenous fans are certain to enjoy.


In Eugenia Potter, author Virginia Rich created one of the mystery genre's most endearing sleuths--a character the San Francisco Chronicle called "one of the most delightful new detectives to appear in years." With the sad passing of Virginia Rich, author Nancy Pickard picked up pen and spoon and continued the adventures, culinary and deductive, of Mrs. Potter, first in The 27-Ingredient Chili Con Carne Murders, and now in The Blue Corn Murders.


Partaking of such treats as Cream Cheese Corn Bread and Sweet Dream Cookies, the inimitable Eugenia "Genia" Potter visits the Medicine Wheel Archaeological Camp near Cortez, Colorado, where she hopes to glean the wisdom of the ancients and see some exciting ruins. When trouble begins to brew (a busload of youngsters disappears and a pair of visitors to the camp mysteriously turns up dead) Genia shows that even out of the kitchen, she can still take the heat.



by Isis Crawford

Leeza Sharp's dream wedding turns deadly when she is murdered just hours before her trip down the aisle, and it is up to her caterers Libby and Bernadette Simmons to solve the case of the nightmarish nuptials.














by Tamar Myers

Magdalena Yoder once again ends up in the middle of a baffling mystery when Clarence Webber, an imprisoned con man, succumbs after sampling a bowl of gruel laced with arsenic, and, with the reputation of PennDutch Inn at stake, sets out to find the killer who poisoned the porridge. Includes recipes.



Dark Tort (A Goldy Bear Culinary Mystery #13)

by Diane Mott Davidson

Caterer Goldy Schulz's lucrative new gig, preparing breakfasts and conference room snacks for a local law firm, is time-consuming, but she's enjoying it . . . until the night she arrives to find Dusty, the firm's paralegal, dead. The deceased also happened to be Goldy's friend and neighbor, and now Dusty's grieving mother is begging Goldy to find out who murdered her daughter.

Just because the police are on the case doesn't mean Goldy can't do a little snooping herself. While catering a party at the home of one of the firm's lawyers, she just happens to overhear an incriminating conversation. She also discovers a few tasty clues in the kitchen. Before long, Goldy finds herself knee-deep in suspects. But one of them is incredibly dangerous . . . and very liable to cook Goldy's goose.

A Cook in Time (Angie Amalfi #7) by Joanne Pence

In this 7th delightful culinary mystery from Joanne Pence, dilettante chef Angie Amalfi gets entangled with a group of UFO–chasers and government conspiracy nuts, while trying to get her new business off the ground.

Always thinking of new and better business ideas, culinary queen Angie Amalfi is sure she's got a winner with "Fantasy Dinners," one–of–a–kind thematic feasts specifically created to suit a client's unique tastes. Unfortunately no one's biting except the Prometheus Group, a crackpot cadre of UFO–chasers and conspiracy geeks. Still, even a wacko customer's better than none, and designing an otherworldly repast should keep Angie busy while her overworked policeman beau Paavo investigates a series of bizarre murders.

But the more time she spends dealing with these alien abduction enthusiasts, the more Angie believes that maybe there is some kind of conspiracy afoot and that the Prometheans and Paavo's cases are somehow connected––which is inspiring just the kind of unhealthy curiosity that could end up launching Angie out of this world...for good


The Body in the Bouillon (Faith Fairchild #3)

by Katherine Hall Page

Minister's wife, sometime sleuth, and culinary artist Faith Sibley Fairchild is intrigued by rumors of mysterious doings at Hubbard House -- an elegant, secluded retirement home for the well-heeled Yankees of Aleford, Massachusetts. Determined to do some surreptitious snooping, she joins the pricey retreat's flu-depleted kitchen staff, only to witness an aging resident collapse face-first into a bowl of Faith's hot and savory bouillon. But it isn't until a blackmailing drug dealer turns up dead in Faith's bedroom that the amateur investigator realizes that Murder not only happens at Hubbard, it's the specialty of the house! And Faith's own demise might very well be the next item on the menu.



Killer Pancake (A Goldy Bear Culinary Mystery #5)

by Diane Mott Davidson

Her latest assignment, catering for Mignon Cosmetics, provides the answer, as Goldy heads for a showdown with a killer. Along the way, as she sleuths at the department store make-up counter, and battles with a violent animal rights group, she soon learns that cosmetics is definitely a cut-throat business!













Slice and Dice (Sophie Greenway #5)

by Ellen Hart

If all goes according to plan, Connie Buckridge's culinary empire will soon boast a state-of-the-art cooking academy and restaurant in her home town of Minneapolis-St. Paul. Unfortunately, just when the kitchen queen and her bickering entourage hit town on a publicity tour, so does a bestselling investigative writer who is hot on her scandalous trail.


Primed by an anonymous e-mail informer, Marie Damontraville is preparing to cook Connie's goose with a major expose of her strategies for success. The one missing ingredient in this unsavory stew is murder, and when food critic Sophie Greenway finds a cooking colleague stabbed with his own kitchen knife, a fire that has been smoldering for forty years suddenly bursts into flame. . . .



Caught Bread Handed (A Bakeshop Mystery #4)

by Ellie Alexander

Jules Capshaw is still chewing over her husband Carlos’s return to Ashland, Oregon. Could there be too many cooks in the kitchen? Whatever is stirring between those two will have to wait. Despite the Oregon Shakespeare Festival being dark for the winter, the bakeshop is bustling, the dough is rolling, and there’s no rest for the weary…especially when murder is thrown into the mix. When Mindy Nolan, the owner of a new restaurant in town, turns up dead, the batter at hand thickens. Jules knows that there was bad blood between Mindy and others in town, and tracking down the killer could prove to be an unwelcome treat. And to top it all off, there’s Carlos, who is pleading—with those delicious dark eyes and sexy Spanish accent—for Jules to take him back. Is home where the heart is or will she make a fresh start…and risk getting burned?

by Elizabeth Bastion

In the tradition of Diane Mott Davidson, Elisabeth Bastion gives us a delightful new culinary mystery and a wonderful new amateur sleuth, Lucille Anderson. Lucille has just been handed the special assignment of her life - the New York PR agency she works for is sending her to London. Her job is to add American ideas to the launch campaign for Sweet Whippo, a new, totally synthetic product designed to replace sugar, fat, salt, and calories. Instead, she finds herself the target of a vicious hate campaign. As soon as she sets down in England, her arrival is marked by several odd events - first food poisoning, then threatening notes and even a stalker. When the London office test kitchen supervisor dies from a fall, Lucille commits herself to proving it wasn't an accident. As she gets closer to solving the murder, she discovers her list of four suspects includes her own lover. Lucille will have to stay one step ahead of a determined, cunning killer, or she just might find her own head on the chopping block.



The Big Chili (Undercover Dish Mystery #1) by Julia Buckley

After dreaming for years of owning her own catering company, Lilah has made a start into the food world through her Covered Dish business, covertly cooking for her neighbors who don’t have the time or skill to do so themselves, and allowing them to claim her culinary creations as their own. While her clientele is strong, their continued happiness depends on no one finding out who’s really behind the apron. So when someone drops dead at a church Bingo night moments after eating chili that Lilah made for a client, the anonymous chef finds herself getting stirred into a cauldron of secrets, lies, and murder—and going toe to toe with a very determined and very attractive detective. To keep her clients coming back and her business under wraps, Lilah will have to chop down the list of suspects fast, because this spicy killer has acquired a taste for homicide...




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