Culinary Fiction

As the autumnal hues of November fall over the Shakespearean hamlet of Ashland, Oregon, Jules and her team at Torte are working on their biggest event ever. They’ve been invited to create chocolate showpieces for the gala opening of a new exhibit, Shakespeare’s Lost Pages at SOMA. The museum, located on the campus of Southern Oregon University, is getting ready to unveil the Bard’s lost manuscript, Double Falsehood, which is being touted as the greatest artistic discovery of modern times.

It really is murder on the dance floor.... A new dance school opens in Whitstable run by celebrity tango champions – Tony and Tanya Ballard. Pearl Nolan knows herself to be an ace cook and a sharp private eye but has always left the dancing to her mother, Dolly, a former member of the town's infamous Fish Slappers dance troupe. But Pearl becomes intrigued by the Ballards when they visit The Whitstable Pearl restaurant, and she realises that dance classes could provide the perfect cover for her clandestine relationship with DCI Mike McGuire....

Summer has ushered in a new season in the charming hamlet of Ashland, Oregon. Torte is bustling with tourists taking in star-drenched shows at the Elizabethan, setting out to hike in the surrounding Siskiyou Mountains, and sampling the bakeshop's summer lineup of raspberry lemon tarts and mint mojito cold brews. Jules and the team are buzzing with excitement when they learn that Andy, Torte's head barista, has been selected to compete in the West Coast Barista Cup.

Former actress Becca Ransom lived her dream in Hollywood for seven years before returning to her hometown of Larch Haven, known as the Venice of North America. The Vermont town has canals instead of roads, gondolas instead of cars, and charming cottages plucked from the pages of a fairy tale. It’s also where Becca is pursuing her newest passion as a chocolatier at True Confections, the chocolate shop owned by her grandparents, Lolly and Pops.

Back in Balsam Dell to heal after the death of her husband, Carly Hale is finally pursuing her lifelong dream — opening Carly's Grilled Cheese Eatery. After only five months, business is booming as Vermont vacationers and townspeople alike flock to lunch on her Party Havartis and other grilled-cheese concoctions. That is, everyone is but Lyle Bagley, her one-time high-school boyfriend who’s now the town bully — and he just bought the building that houses her eatery and wants her out.

While Geneva Bay’s upper crust gets ready to party down at a Prohibition-themed fundraiser, pizza chef Delilah O’Leary is focused on seeing her struggling restaurant through the winter slow season. The temperature outside is plummeting, but Delilah’s love life might finally be heating up, as hunky police detective Calvin Capone seems poised to (finally) make a move. But Delilah’s hopes of perfecting a new “free-from” pizza recipe for a charity bash are dashed when a dead body crashes the party.

When Sheriff Bud Shumway’s Aunt Ginger asks him to deliver a stove to her new cafe in Sunnyside, Utah, Bud has no idea that he'll soon be in the middle of trying to solve how his Uncle Hank's friend, Jimmy Johnson, was killed, even though the giant three-toed track left in the middle of Jimmy's back points to the suspect as being some form of dinosaur. Soon Bud is dealing with all kinds of mayhem, from the robbery of the Sunnyside Mining Museum to missing rafts and a mysterious box found floating on the river. There's never a dull moment in the high Utah desert.

When Poppy and Aunt Ginny agreed to host a Wine-and-Cheese Happy Hour for a tour group at their Butterfly House Bed and Breakfast on the Jersey Shore, they never anticipated such a sour bunch. Grumpy guest Vince Baker should be in a better mood - he's filthy rich and on his honeymoon with his much younger wife, Sunny, who seems to dote on him almost as much as her high-spirited teacup Pomeranian, Tammy Faye Baker. But the honeymoon is over when Vince drops dead the next day touring the Laughing Gull Winery.

Maggie Crozat, proprietor of a historic Cajun Country B&B, prefers to let the good times roll. But hard times rock her hostelry when a new cell phone app makes it easy for locals to rent their spare rooms to tourists. With October-and Halloween-approaching, she conjures up a witch-crafty marketing scheme to draw visitors to Pelican, Louisiana.

Hedgewitch Katie Lightfoot is juggling wedding preparations, a visit from her father, and home renovations on top of her long hours at the Honeybee Bakery, where she and her aunt Lucy imbue their yummy cookies and pastries with beneficial magic. But when firefighter Randy Post is accused of murdering a collector of rarities, and his prints are on the statue that was used to kill the man, Katie steps in.

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.

The deep freeze has thawed in Ashland, Oregon, and Torte is gearing up for a busy spring. When a surprise opportunity to launch a pop-up ice cream shop comes her way, Jules jumps at the chance to showcase Torte's signature iced drinks and cold custards. But selling the desserts of her dreams comes at a price...and, before she knows it, Jules's life swirls into a nightmare.

With Angie and Tate's wedding just around the corner, it's a happy time for Melanie Cooper and the bakery crew. Not only are they finessing the last-minute details of the big day, but their bakery, Fairy Tale Cupcakes, has just been hired to bake cupcakes for the blockbuster book signing of a controversial author who wrote a steamy best seller filled with juicy local gossip. But one by one, the people Angie has hired to work the wedding begin turning up dead. As the body count rises, the best-selling author is the next to bite the dust.

Melanie Cooper has zero interest in catering her 15-year high school reunion, but Angie insists it’s only right that they bask in the success of Fairy Tale Cupcakes - and Mel’s engagement to the delicious Joe DeLaura is the cherry on top! Everything is going better than expected until Mel’s high school nemesis picks a fight. No longer willing to put up with Cassidy Havers’s bullying, Mel is ready to tell the former homecoming queen to shut her piehole and call it a night. But as Mel and Joe prepare to depart, Cassidy is found dead in the girls’ bathroom....

Devon's queen of desserts, Shilpa Solanki, has a chance to spend New Year's on a rich man's private island. All she has to do is teach a cooking class and bake an exquisite cake befitting the birthday of a spoiled young heiress. When the birthday girl suddenly collapses like an overdone soufflé, signs point to murder. With family secrets, a looming inheritance, and potential suspects scattered across the island, Shilpa's got her sleuthing work cut out for her. But will she find the killer, have her cake, and be able to eat it, too?

Preparing a midwinter's feast for all hundred residents of the little Yorkshire village of Scrafton Busk is exactly the kind of challenge Prudence Bulstrode adores. A chance to show off her braised-neck of Moorland mutton, Wensleydale tart—and, of course, her famous figgy pudding—is just the thing to shake off the winter blues. But on the night of the feast, local vagabond Terry Chandler is found dead—his body entombed in the pristine snowman standing pride of place on the village green.

The graceful domes of Sacre Coeur, the imposing cathedral of Notre Dame, the breathtaking Tour Eiffel . . . Paris is overflowing with stunning architecture. Yet for Tabitha Knight, the humble building that houses the Cordon Bleu cooking school, where her friend Julia studies, is just as notable. Tabitha is always happy to sample Julia's latest creation and try to recreate dishes for her Grand-pere and Oncle Rafe.

Hired to cater a hockey party, Goldy comes up with a winning menu featuring zesty South of the Border Appetizers, succulent Goalies' Grilled Tuna and iced Stanley Cupcakes. Yet Patricia McCracken, her client and long-suffering friend, won't be satisfied until Goldy adds a hefty side order of revenge...Patricia is convinced that her obstetrician and her Health Maintenance Organization - penny-pinching ACHMO - are to blame for the recent loss of her baby.

Cat has a full plate at her Aspen Hills Warm Springs Resort, as a group of aspiring cozy mystery authors arrives for a writer's retreat. So when baker Dee Dee Meyer stirs up trouble by filing a false complaint with the health inspector against the B&B - all because she insists Cat's best friend Shauna stole her recipes - Cat marches into the shop to confront her.

Poppy thought her toughest challenge this winter would be sticking to her Paleo diet and filling all her orders for her gluten-free goodies, but now she has to choose between two suitors. She's not the only one with boyfriend drama. Aunt Ginny's long-ago high-school beau, Royce Hanson, a retired Broadway actor, has returned to Cape May, New Jersey, to star in a Senior Center staging of Mamma Mia. Slated to open February 13th, the problem-plagued production seems to be cursed - with stolen props, sabotage, and even a death threat.