Culinary Fiction

In need of a change, Jenna Hart leaves the high-pressure world of advertising to help her aunt, Vera, open a culinary bookshop and cafe. Back with her family in Crystal Cove, California, Jenna seems to have all the right ingredients for a fresh start—until someone adds a dash of murder. As a marketing expert, Jenna wants to make sure the grand opening of the Cookbook Nook draws a crowd, and no one is better at getting attention than her old college roommate, celebrity chef Desiree Divine. But when Desiree arrives in to do a cookbook signing, the diva stirs up more trouble than business.

Who knew a simple trip to the consignment store would find Wendy being strong-armed by two strangers? So not allowed—especially as it could affect Doreen getting her month-end check! Trying to get to the bottom of this is one convoluted story to sort out. Corporal Mack Moreau is not at all happy with Doreen’s new male friend, Bernard, who has the money to keep her in the style she was accustomed to. However, Mack is happy Doreen is staying out of his cases. If only she could stay out of trouble! Then again, Doreen can find trouble like this without any effort on her part.

As the owner of Pie Town, Val's been tapped to judge the pie-making contest at the annual pumpkin festival in the coastal California town of San Nicholas. Things could get sticky though - her boyfriend, cop Gordon Carmichael, is entering the competition with his "special" family pumpkin pie recipe. But Val's got bigger problems than a conflict of interest when she and her flaky piecrust-maker Charlene discover another contestant crushed under an enormous pumpkin.

A poetry slam at a bakery? Why not! Even though Pie Town proprietor Val Harris would rather be spending time with her newfound half-brother, she knows her employee, Abril, is beyond excited to be hosting the event. Especially since it stars the apple pie of Abril's eye, poet and professor Michael Starke. But the evening ends on a sour note when Professor Starke is found murdered mere moments after being accused of plagiarism. Just like that, Pie Town is at the center of another criminal inquiry. At Abril's request, Val and Charlene decide to investigate Starke's death.

Business at the bakery may have slowed down, but Val Harris isn't about to eat humble pie - not until a reality cooking show decides to whip the struggling Pie Town into shape. If Val can tolerate criticism from an abrasive pastry chef during filming, the free publicity might turn the unusual opportunity into the sweetest deal she didn't know she needed. Except no one in San Nicholas has an appetite for dessert once murder steals the spotlight.

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.

Angie Turner's Idaho restaurant, the County Seat, is the perfect site for a picturesque country wedding, but the party planning skids to a halt when the groom-to-be is implicated in a murder investigation....

Melanie and Angie are taking a gamble by opening their first franchise of the bakery, and where better to hit the jackpot than Vegas? Holly Hartzmark is a former showgirl who's looking to bring Mel and Angie's sweet treats to Sin City, but Mel isn't so sure she's ready to hand her recipes over to a complete stranger - especially one as brash as Holly. But after the potential bakery location gets blown up, Mel begins seeing another side to Holly.

The governor of Colorado has commuted the prison sentence of Goldy Schulz's ultra-handsome, ultra-charming, ultra-venal ex-husband, Dr. John Richard Korman, otherwise known to Goldy as the Jerk. He's released, and soon afterward Goldy becomes the victim of threats, rumors, and violence. Then there's a murder and suspicion centers on Goldy. Suddenly, she is faced with the challenge of running her successful catering business while fending off two persistent detectives.

Food anthropologist Miriam Quiñones-Smith's move from New York to Coral Shores, Miami, puts her academic career on hold to stay at home with her young son. Adding to her funk is an opinionated mother-in-law and a husband rekindling a friendship with his ex. Gracias to her best friend, Alma, she gets a short-term job as a Caribbean cooking expert on a Spanish-language morning TV show. But when the newly minted star attends a Women's Club luncheon, a socialite sitting at her table suddenly falls face-first into the chicken salad, never to nibble again.

I can remember a time when I baked for fun. I loved dreaming up new recipes, trying different combinations of flavors. Sharing my creations with friends and family. Now? I have nightmares where the TV cameras are on me and I’m baking naked. Or I open my oven and my cake pans are empty. You don’t need to be Freud to figure out I’m freaking out. This week on The Great British Baking Contest could be my last. I am one bad bake away from being waved good-bye.

Before Mia Malone can sip tea at Time for a Cuppa, the charming new shop in Magic Springs, Idaho, her life changes course in downright supernatural ways. First her blossoming catering business and cooking school get a boost with the addition of an enchanting cake decorator. Then she catches the attention of the tea shop owner herself, local coven member Mahogany Medford, who's set on immersing Mia in a twisted mystery that appears all but unsolvable without a special kind of help . . .

Ashland is known for its Elizabethan charm and touches of Shakespeare around every corner, but the surrounding Rogue Valley draws adventure enthusiasts to its outdoor wonderland of high alpine lakes, mountain ranges, and pristine rivers. Jules Capshaw and the team at Torte have been hired to cater a weekend getaway on the mighty Rogue River. Jules is going to have to put her culinary skills to the test while baking gooey chocolate chip skillet cookies over an open flame and preparing extravagant feasts under a canopy of stars.

In a triumph for Mia's catering business and cooking school, Mia's Morsels is chosen to host a fall festival event in their Idaho mountain town-which means managing a bunch of stage moms and their social-media obsessed daughters as they get ready for the big beauty contest. There's a lot riding on the results of the Harvest Moon Festival-it's where the local coven leader is chosen for the following year.

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.

Pearl receives a surprise present from her mother, Dolly - an early summer break at a riverside manor house that has been recently transformed into an exclusive hotel - the newly named Villa Pellegrini. Pellegrini - the Italian word for pilgrims - reflects the fact that the building lies on the old Pilgrims Way into Canterbury, and Pearl is looking forward to the break. But when she discovers that she’s actually booked in for a cookery course from the Italian celebrity chef, Nico Caruso, she begins to think again.

Charlene's parents are in town for Christmas, and her mother is driving her up a tree. Her bed-and-breakfast's resident ghost, Jack, isn't fond of her either - and he's showing it with some haunting high jinks. But when Charlene takes her mom and dad out for dinner, the less-than-seasonal spirits take a deadly turn.

The Fourth of July is coming, and for professional food lover Samantha Barnes, it’s all about the picnic. Okay, and the fireworks. And the parade. But mostly the picnic. What could be better than a DIY clambake followed by the best blueberry buckle in the world? Sam has finally found the perfect recipe in the kitchen of Clara Foster, famed cookbook author and retired restaurateur, and she’s thrilled when Clara agrees to a buckle baking lesson. But when Clara dies in a house fire blamed on carelessness in the kitchen, Sam doesn’t believe it.

Winter in Balsam Dell is a snowy affair, and to add in some cheer after the holidays, Carly's former classmate Klarissa Taddeo is hosting her extravagant bridal shower at the historic Balsam Dell inn. That is, she was until a double-booking throws some mold in the cheese and leaves Klarissa scrambling. With the venue moved to the maid of honor's family mansion and Carly rinding to create a new delicious treat, it seems the group is going to pull off the shower without a hitch—until a rowdy band of groomsmen crashes the event.

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?