By Katherine Sharma
The culinary mystery has become a popular subgenre, pleasing both crime-solving and foodie fans. Most of these nestle in the “cozy” mystery category, sport cute titles, include recipes, and form fictional series. Here’s a quick taste (pun intended) of popular foodie mysteries:
Ellery Adams writes the Charmed Pie Shoppe Mystery series, so begin with her debut Pies and Prejudice, in which heroine Ella Mae returns to her Georgia hometown to open a bakery shop and becomes entangled in the murder of her childhood enemy’s fiance, with Ella Mae’s rolling pin as the murder weapon.
Jessica Beck offers more calories with her Donut Shop Mystery series; sample Glazed Murder in which the heroine proprietor of a donut shop tracks the killer of a customer. More baked goods come with Joanne Fluke’s Hannah Swensen Mysteries; for example, Blueberry Muffin Murder has Hannah, owner of the Cookie Jar eat-in bakery, investigating the death of a cookbook author and cable TV star.
Diane Mott Davidson pens the popular Goldy Bear Mystery series featuring caterer Goldy Schultz; in The Whole Enchilada, Goldy digs into the presumed overdose death of a friend and uncovers murder. It’s not all baked goods and coffee; sometimes it’s baked goods and tea.
Laura Childs writes the Tea Shop Mystery series with entries like Death by Darjeeling, in which South Carolina tea shop owner Theodosia Browning seeks to solve a murder and salvage her reputation after a male guest is poisoned by her tea at a catered garden party. If you’re not full and want to keep grazing culinary mysteries, get a more exhaustive list at http://www.cozy-mystery.com/blog/where-to-start-with-culinary-cozy-mystery-series.html
ABOUT KATHERINE SHARMA
Katherine Sharma’s family roots are in Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas. But after her early childhood in Texas, she has moved around the country and lived in seven other states, from Virginia to Hawaii. She currently resides in California with her husband and three children. She has also traveled extensively in Europe, Africa and Asia, and makes regular visits to family in India. After receiving her bachelor’s degree. in economics and her master’s degree in journalism from the University of Michigan, Katherine worked as a newspaper and magazine writer and editor for more than 15 years. She then shifted into management and marketing roles for firms in industries ranging from outdoor recreation to insurance to direct marketing. Although Katherine still works as a marketing consultant, she is now focused on creative writing.