Culinary Fiction

When oyster farmer Andie Greatorex is robbed of a bucket of oyster seeds worth $35,000, she comes to Julia Snowden for help. Who wants to sink Andie's successful business? Is it a rival oyster farmer, an ex-employee, a neighbor who objects to the oyster cages floating on the beautiful Damariscotta River, a lobsterman who feels pushed out by the farm leases, or someone from Andie's personal life? Then Andie turns up dead, floating by her dock in the SCUBA gear she wears when harvesting her oysters.

Old West ghost towns are as American as apple pie. So what better place to sponsor a pie-eating contest than the Bar X, a fake ghost town available for exclusive private events on the edge of Silicon Valley. Valentine Harris is providing the pies, hoping to boost business for her struggling Pie Town shop and become a regular supplier for the Bar X. But no sooner does she arrive in town than a stray bullet explodes the cherry pie in her hands. The delicious dessert is not the only victim. Val finds the Bar X bartender shot dead in an alley.

After their mama's passing, Marygene Brown returned to Peach Cove Island to help her sister, Jena Lynn, run the family diner, renowned for its homemade peach desserts. But Mama is never too far away - her sassy spirit haunts the island, and more specifically Marygene. Lately Mama has been warning her that the dead will seek her out to solve their murders, an idea Marygene is far from peachy keen on. But that prophecy appears to be coming true when she goes skinny-dipping off the island and swims right into a woman's charred corpse floating in the waves.

During the week between Christmas and New Year's, the year-round population of Key West, Florida, faces a tsunami of tourists and snowbirds. It doesn't help that outrageously wealthy key-lime-pie aficionado David Sloan has persuaded the city to host his pie-baking contest. Every pie purveyor on the island is out to win the coveted Key Lime Key to the City, and Key Zest food-critic Hayley Snow is on the scene to report it. Meanwhile, Hayley's home life is turning more tart than sweet.

When cupcake-loving croupier Tiffany Black is asked to investigate a suspicious book club member, she never expects her client to disappear under mysterious circumstances. But when Violeta Redgrave goes missing, Tiffany and Ian find themselves trying to uncover just what happened to her, and why she hired them in the first place… Meanwhile, Tiffany is house-sitting for her friend Jack Weber, and she and Ian find themselves entangled with an unusual secret society. Praise for A.R. Winters: "Fans of Stephanie Plum, meet Tiffany Black, A.R. Winters's new heroine." - Rea, Amazon.com "You fall...

When Yale Yee discovers her cousin Celine is visiting from Hong Kong, she is obliged to play tour guide to a relative she hasn’t seen in twenty years. Not only that, but her father thinks it’s a wonderful idea for them to bond by running a food stall together at the Eastwood Village Night Market. Yale and Celine serve small dishes and refreshing drinks, and while business is slow, it eventually picks up thanks to Celine’s surprisingly useful marketing ideas. They’re quite shocked that their bubble tea is a hit—literally—when one of their customers turns up dead.

A psychic, a fashion gala and the death of a runway model. This is not what Boutique owner, Rosa de los Reyes hoped for when she organized the Colten Island Fashion Show. To save the gala and stop the killer from striking again, Rosa must use her psychic abilities, sift through the gossip at La Misteriosa Café and navigate increasing danger all while racing against the clock. Will Rosa, her familiar Raul, and Las Cubanitas find the truth before the murderer kills again? Recipes included:

As Whispering Pines’ busiest tourist season ever draws to a close, Reeva Long, Ruby McLaughlin, and the other villagers are ready for things to quiet down. Instead, a break-in and a small fire set near Hearth & Cauldron puts everyone on edge. The only clue, a melted candle stub, gives the amateur sleuths little to work with. Soon other fires flare up, threatening the entire village, so Deputy Jayne O’Shea takes charge of the investigation. Can Jayne, with Reeva’s and Ruby’s help, catch the firestarter before someone gets hurt or worse?

The Brook Ridge Falls Retirement Center is still reeling over the death of one of their own, when Lexy and her senior detective friends are asked to investigate another murder. Muriel Maguire insists that her grandson Henry has been framed for the murder of his wife, but the clues all point to Henry, and the police already have him in custody.

It's time for Addi, Sam, and Cece to set sail again on another magical cruise. This time, literally. "Winters will have you giggling into your book!" The whole cruise is set up for a magic theme. All the guests are set to enjoy a cruise they’ll never forget. It becomes even more unforgettable when one of the magician’s assistants dies on stage in the middle of a show! Addi, Sam and Cece set to finding out just what happened to the unfortunate magician’s assistant, following a path of mistruths and distractions. Praise for A.R. Winters: "The perfect balance of being lighthearted, but ...

A rude tourist dies after eating his way up and down the boardwalk, and all eyes fall on Allison, as the police blame her new macarons. The macarons have a secret ingredient that is so delicious it has customers lining up and down the boardwalk - but they are not, she knows, the cause of death. Allison, forced to clear her name and salvage her customers, has no choice but to retrace the victim’s foodie trek up and down the boardwalk, and to figure out what he ate - or who he insulted - that could have gotten him killed.

The main character in an Oscar the Doxie Detective mystery series is based on our beloved mini-dachshund Oscar. We rescued him and he rescued us in 2004. He was a senior when he came to live with us, and we had eight wonderful and loving years together. My husband and I miss that little guy every day. In the Oscar the Doxie Detective books, Oscar has his own story to tell and a murder to solve. Oscar and his furry friends of the Happy Hills Canine Detective Club put their furry heads together to make sure their neighborhood stays safe and crime free. Sit back and enjoy seeing the world ...

As local merchants unite to attract tourists for a much anticipated weekend quilting event, business is sure to spill over into eateries like Daisy's Tea Garden. Reese Masemer had been dating one of Daisy's employees, Tessa, an artist, though their last interaction was as strained as a cup of loose leaf tea. Now Reese has been found dead near a covered bridge where Tessa's been practicing her sketches.

Amateur sleuth Sloan Krause returns in The Pint of No Return, another delightful cozy by Ellie Alexander - this time investigating a movie star who's murdered not long after arriving in Leavenworth, Wash., to film his latest project. No other festival compares to Oktoberfest in Leavenworth, Washington. The whole town is buzzing with excitement over this year’s activities and eagerly awaiting Nitro’s latest offering, Cherrywizen, made with locally sourced cherries. But local brewmaster Sloan Krause is tapped out.

Daisy bakes a little murder into every pie she creates, and she and her dog, Zoe, deliver them to the town’s worst cads. Now, Daisy’s entered a televised, elimination-style competition and has a shot at $100k in prize money—but she still has a murder pie to deliver between filming. In a completely unexpected turn of events, she discovers that her intended victim is one of the competition judges, and he turns up dead before the pie even arrives. Now, Daisy has to solve the murder before someone calls foul play and exposes her murderous secret.

Since its earliest days, The New Yorker has been a tastemaker: literally. As the home of A. J. Liebling, Joseph Wechsberg, and M. F. K. Fisher, who practically invented American food writing, the magazine established a tradition that is carried forward today by irrepressible literary gastronomes, including Calvin Trillin, Bill Buford, Adam Gopnik, Jane Kramer, and Anthony Bourdain. Now, in this indispensable collection, The New Yorker dishes up a feast of delicious writing on food and drink.

Hayley Powell, food and cocktails columnist for Bar Harbor's Island Times, is...well, kind of broke. So when she's selected for that extreme coupon-clipping reality game show coming to town...she's thrilled, especially when her competition is nasty nurse Candace Culpepper. But when Haley stumbles across a face-down-in-the-snow Candace - scissors gleaming between her shoulders - she knows the next thing she'll be selected for will probably be a police line-up.

There’s bad news for Samantha Warren: the plucky Houston, Texas, reporter lost her job and her fiancé in rapid succession. But Sam has a way of making lemonade out of the bitterest of lemons.

Moving to Montana wasn't my dream, but opening our restaurant was. So moving to the one place we could find a building that would work was necessary. We very quickly realized that we love it here. Everyone found their special person here, everyone but me. I'm starting to wonder if she's ever going to show up, it's been a year since the last match was made. I'm doing my best to be patient, she'll eventually make her way here. I'm just enjoying all my nipoti while I wait for her. We have so many now, and there's no doubt that a lot more will come soon enough. I just really wish that it was my...

Riley Rhodes, travel food blogger and librarian at the CIA, makes a bittersweet return to her childhood home of Penniman, Connecticut—land of dairy farms and covered bridges—for a funeral. Despite the circumstances, Riley’s trip home is sprinkled with reunions with old friends, visits to her father’s cozy bookshop on the town green, and joyful hours behind the counter at the beloved Udderly Delicious Ice Cream Shop. When her friend Caroline's brother Mike turns up dead in the barn the morning after the funeral, the peace and quiet of Penniman seems upended for good.