Culinary Cozies: Five Delicious Mysteries That Focus on Food and Cooking

Do you get hungry when you read? I do. My readers do, too.

Little did I know that when I started writing mysteries, I’d also have to be a cook. I guess it’s a good thing that I am. I catered in college. I’ve worked in lots of restaurants. I love to bake.

My background helped me win the contract to write the Cheese Shop Mysteries (as Avery Aames). Ever since, (as the real me, Daryl Wood Gerber) I’ve been writing culinary mysteries including the Cookbook Nook Mysteries, the French Bistro Mysteries, the Fairy Garden Mysteries, the Literary Dining Mysteries, and the Aroma Wellness Mysteries.

In all of these series, even in the Fairy Garden Mysteries, I’ve included recipes! What could be tastier than a fairy cookie?  What I’ve learned over the course of writing the different series is that my readers love to read about food. Perhaps it’s because they eat food. They like food. And they enjoy foodie recipes.

In the Literary Dining Mysteries, the protagonist Allie Catt, a caterer, partners with her good friend Tegan, the owner of a bookshop, to put on literary-themed parties set around a classic novel.

In the second in the series, Murder by the Millions, the classic novel the attendees will read and discuss is The Great Gatsby. My fans should enjoy reading about food from the Roaring 20s era and imagining the costumes, like beaded dresses and tuxedos, the colorful décor including pearls and velvet drapes, and the delicious beverages and music of the era. What could be more fun?

Below are six mysteries that will make you salivate for not only the food but the solution to a tasty murder.

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Krista Davis, The Diva Poaches a Bad Egg

In the eighteenth book in the Domestic Diva Mystery series—yes, eighteenth and one of my favorites!—stylish brunches are all the rage this autumn in Old Town Alexandria, and everyone’s posting their parties on social media. But while Domestic Diva Sophie Winston juggles her event-filled calendar, she’s approached by a local designer, who thinks someone is following her.

The very next day the designer loses her best friend and business partner. The two were renovating a generations-old house where her partner died unexpectedly, and the designer fears that it wasn’t a medical condition to blame, but murder.

Kim Davis, Sprinkles of Suspicion

This is the first in the darling Cupcake Caterer Mysteries, featuring Emory Gosser Martinez. One glass of cheap California chardonnay cost Emory her husband, her job, and her best friend.

Unfortunately, more troubles ensue. Distraught after discovering the betrayal by her husband and best friend, Emory’s temper flares. Several people witness her altercation with her ex-friend. Uh-oh. To make matters worse, the ex-friend exacts her revenge by posting a fake photo of Emory in a compromising situation, which goes viral on social media. The nerve of her!

When the ex-friend is found murdered, all signs point to Emory being the prime suspect. Emory must prove her innocence while whipping up batches of cupcakes and buttercream.

Ginger Bolton, Double Grudge Donuts

This is the ninth book in the tasty Deputy Donut series featuring Emily Westhill who makes the most delicious donuts. When the Fallingbrook Arts Festival rolls into town weeks before Emily is set to tie the knot (to a delicious policeman), Emily expects talent and friendly competition at the week-long summer series to go together like coffee and double fudge.

But when a bagpiper takes first place on the first day of the festival, the fun crumbles, especially when Emily and her tabby cat find him dead. A distinctive weapon and several strategically placed items at the crime scene leave disturbing clues about the killer’s identity, including a broken piece of a Deputy Donut mug.

Leslie Budewitz, Guilty as Cinnamon

Book two in the Spice Shop Mystery series takes place during springtime in Seattle’s Pike Place Market. Have you ever been? I want to go! There will be tasty foods and wide-eyed tourists. But as always, Pepper Reece’s Spice Shop is ready for the crowds. Pepper makes incredibly flavorful combinations of spices. Even better, she’s working with several local restaurants as their chief herb and spice supplier.

Woot! Business is heating up until one of Pepper’s potential clients, a young chef, is found dead, poisoned by a dangerously hot ghost chili—a spice Pepper carries in her shop.

Lucy Burdette, An Appetite for Murder

This is the first in the Key West Food Critic Mysteries. I’ve read all fourteen of the books in this series and adored them. Hayley Snow is one of my favorite protagonists. Her life has always revolved around food, but when she applies to be a food critic for a Key West style magazine, she discovers that her new boss would be the woman Hayley caught in bed with her boyfriend! Yikes!

Sure, Hayley thinks things are as bad as they can get, but when the woman is murdered, poisoned by key lime pie, the police consider Haley the prime suspect. Before she takes all the blame, Hayley must find out who used meringue to murder.

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