Culinary Fiction

It's Christmastime in Charm, North Carolina, and while Everly Swan would prefer to focus on decorating her iced tea shop for its first holiday season, Great-Aunt Fran has decided to run for mayor against her long-time nemesis. But when the other candidate turns up dead just before the first scheduled debate, all eyes turn to Fran as the suspect with the most obvious motive. Everly knows her sweet, elderly Aunt Fran couldn't have murdered anyone, but as she struggles to find the real killer, it begins to seem like this may be the last merry Christmas her family may ever have.

After her philandering husband's boat went down, newly single Mia Carina went back to Astoria, the bustling Queens neighborhood of her youth. Living with her nonna and her oversized cat, Doorstop, she's got a whole new life - including some amateur sleuthing...Mia is starting work at Belle View, her father's catering hall, a popular spot for weddings, office parties, and more. Soon she's planning a bachelor party for a less-than-gentlemanly groom. But it goes awry when the gigantic cake is wheeled in and a deadly surprise is revealed.

The Tri-County Summer Solstice Celebration has come to town, and even among local artisans, athletes, and marching bands, Hannah attracts fans of her own while serving lip-smacking pink lemonade desserts. But the mood sours when a body turns up, leading revelers to wonder if the festivities mark both the longest day of the year and the deadliest....

This box set collects books ten through twelve in the Cupcake Bakery Mysteries, a cozy culinary series with plenty of sugar and spice and murderous vice.

Every Thursday, three retired school teachers have their ‘coffee o’clock’ sessions at the Thirsk Garden Centre café. But one fateful week, as they are catching up with a slice of cake, they bump into their ex-colleague, Topsy. By the next Thursday, Topsy’s dead. The last thing Liz, Thelma and Pat imagined was that they would become involved in a murder. But they know there’s more to Topsy’s death than meets the eye—and it’s down to them to prove it.

“A series that remains as reliable and satisfying as a favorite casserole recipe.” —Cleveland Plain Dealer Colorado caterer Goldy Schulz encounters Bridezilla—and murder—in Fatally Flaky, another delectable mystery by Diane Mott Davidson. The USA Today and New York Times bestselling...

Cottages, English roses and rolling hills: that's Earlsraven. When Nathalie unexpectedly inherits her aunt's cosy inn "Black Feather", she also falls heir to her secret double life and discovers that sleuthing runs in the family. This compilation contains episodes 1-3: THE ART OF LYING There are only two possibilities: either dear old Miss Beresford from Earlsraven is suffering from dementia or there's something fishy going on at her house! But when she discovers a dead body in her garden, Nathalie and her cook Louise start to investigate.

Scottsdale, Arizona, may not be the liveliest place on earth, but it's never been as dead as this. The first annual Old Town Zombie Walk is announced, and Mel, Angie, and the Fairy Tale Cupcake crew are donning their best undead attire to sell some horror-themed desserts to the hungry hordes. But fun turns to fright when Mel finds a real dead body in a prop casket outside of the bakery's truck - and the corpse looks alarmingly like a zombie of their own. Mel worries that someone near and dear was the real target.

Embracing a sweet escape from her usual routine at The Cookie Jar, Hannah gets asked for her help in baking pastries at the local inn for a flashy fishing competition with big prizes and even bigger names. But the fun stops when she spots a runway boat on the water and, on board, the lifeless body of the event’s renowned celebrity spokesperson …

After a brutal breakup and a dramatic workplace walkout, Lana Lee figures that helping wait tables at her family's restaurant is her best option for putting her life back together. Even if that means having to put up with her mother, who is dead set on finding her a husband. Lana’s love life soon becomes yesterday’s news once the restaurant’s property manager, Mr. Feng, turns up dead - after a delivery of shrimp dumplings from Ho-Lee. But how could this have happened when everyone on staff knew about Mr. Feng’s severe, life-threatening shellfish allergy?

With the spirit of the holidays wafting through the Beacon Bakeshop, Lindsey thinks she has the recipe for the sweetest Christmas ever - winning the town-wide cookie bake-off. Low on staff and bombarded by visits from family, Lindsey can barely meet demands at work, let alone summon the confidence to face fierce competition.... Self-appointed Christmas know-it-all Felicity Stewart is determined to take the top spot in the bake-off, and she's not afraid to dump a little coal in everyone's stocking to do it.

"Écouter la voix des haricots" : tel est le secret de Tokue, une vieille dame aux doigts mystérieusement déformés, pour réussir le an, la pâte de haricots rouges qui accompagne les dorayaki, des pâtisseries japonaises. Sentarô, qui a accepté d'embaucher Tokue dans son échoppe, voit sa clientèle doubler du jour au lendemain, conquise par ses talents de pâtissière. Mais la vieille dame cache un secret moins avouable et disparaît comme elle était apparue, laissant Sentarô interpréter à sa façon la leçon qu'elle lui a fait partager.

Tearoom sleuth Gemma Rose is looking forward to a holiday filled with delicious Yuletide treats, time with friends and family, and maybe even a "white Christmas" in Oxford. But when she's snowed in at a country manor, she finds herself stumbling on a puzzling murder, complete with a body in the library, a house full of suspects, and a trail of mysterious footprints!

Just along the coast from Penstowan, the local festival has filled the area. Former Met police officer Jodie ‘Nosey’ Parker has agreed to step in and help run the Pie Hard food truck, along with her rather reluctant fiancé, DCI Nathan Withers. As they prepare for a weekend of camping and being elbow deep in shortcrust pastry, Jodie hadn’t bargained on witnessing a fight between members of the lead band. But when the body of one of the band members is found not far from the campsite, Jodie finds it hard to believe it was an accident. Especially when the other members had so much to gain…

Kate Palmer is most disappointed when renovations at her sister Angie’s new tea rooms are derailed after a body is discovered in the cellar. She was looking forward to clotted cream teas with a seaside view. Instead, she has another murder mystery to solve. If the village gossip is to be believed, the unfortunate man was connected to the wealthy Hedgefield family. Kate is reluctant to get caught up in the investigation, but a curious card in the victim’s jacket pocket sparks her interest.

It seems Carole Morganwick, the town vet, is from the old school of pet care. But when Stan swallows her pride and brings a very unwilling Nutty in for a checkup, she not only finds Carole dead under a pile of kibble...but also learns that she's in the dog house as the prime suspect! Finding the real killer and clearing her name will require some seriously surreptitious sniffing around...and hopefully, curiosity won't kill this innocent cat.

Este March runs the family-owned Lucky Pie Diner on Split Pine Island in Northern Michigan. The pies at Lucky Pie aren't just good, they're magical, with a family recipe that grants certain customers their greatest hopes and dreams when they eat the pie. The remote island is closed to outsiders over the winter months, but on the last day of the season, the unpopular new produce vendor, Jeff, turns up dead on his boat, and Split Pine Island's peace goes up in smoke.

Kate knew immediately what to do with it: open a cider house. But her hopeful plans fall far from the tree when she finds the body of the orchard manager, Carl Randolph, leaving her to figure out who is at the core of this murder. She had been in correspondence with Carl, who had agreed with her brilliant idea of opening a cider house. But not everyone is so quick to buy what she was selling—Uncle Stan’s lawyer, Robert Larabee, paints a less rosy financial outlook of the orchard’s past, present, and future.

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.

Vivian Wainwright is living her dream. The middle-aged widow owns the Misty Bay Tearoom, a quaint English-accented shop on the Oregon coast. But on the eve of the tearoom's second anniversary, the dream turns nightmarish when a man falls to his death from a hotel balcony. The body belongs to Dean Ramsey, ex-husband of Vivian's assistant, Jenna. Detective Tony Messina quickly zeroes in on Jenna as the prime suspect, since she was seen leaving the hotel shortly before the body was found.