Culinary Fiction

This set includes the first three novels in the Cape Bay Cafe Mysteries, starring amateur sleuth Francesca Amaro—barista, baker, and owner of Antonia’s Italian Café: Cappuccinos, Cupcakes, and a Corpse; Tea, Tiramisu, and Tough Guys; and Margaritas, Marzipan, and Murder.

Theodosia's Honey Bee Tea was an elegant affair set in Charleston's new Petigru Park amid newly planted native grasses and a community beekeeping project. But when a phony beekeeper shows up and sprays toxic smoke at the guests, the party erupts in chaos. Worse yet, a shot rings out and Osgood Claxton III, candidate for state legislature, falls to the ground—dead.

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.

Everyone agrees that the food at Ho-Lee Noodle House is delicious - unless it happens to be deadly. Lana Lee’s stake in her family’s Chinese restaurant is higher than ever now that she’s been made manager. So when she enters Ho-Lee into Cleveland’s Best Noodle Contest, Lana makes it her business to win - at all costs. But when a local food critic receives a threatening note in a fortune cookie and is later found dead, face-down in a bowl of lo mein, all bets are off....

Mia Carina has steered her Italian-American family's Astoria, Queens catering hall into becoming the borough's premiere party site, and nothing could make her happier—except her boyfriend proposing. There's just one presumed-dead obstacle in the way.

Faith is happy to have her family under the same roof and grateful for her resilient community, friends, and neighbors in Aleford. Town halls remain lively and well-attended, despite residents joining from their living rooms. It is at one of these town halls that scandal breaks out. In the midst of a Zoom meeting, damaging images suddenly flash upon everyone’s screens. Claudia, local art teacher and Faith’s dear friend, is immediately recognized as the woman who has been targeted.

Baking. It can get a guy killed. When retired cop Albert arrives in Stilton for a festival, he has cheese on his mind, but that’s not what he gets. Arriving the morning after the factory and warehouse have been raided, all the stilton is gone, and the security guard Dave, who bravely fought to stop the thieves, needs someone’s help to save the day. With sidekick Rex Harrison, the failed police dog, at his side, our aging but sprightly hero will put his ear to the ground and his mind to work as he unravels the clues to this mystery.

It’s the big finale of the Great British Baking Contest. Who will fall flatter than an eggless soufflé? And will amateur baker and witch Poppy survive to find out? Dark forces are at work in the picture-perfect village of Broomewode, Somerset. Poppy’s getting closer to solving the mystery of her beginnings, but so many questions remain. Will she finally meet her birth mother? Is the local coven helping or hindering her search? Will she and sexy Viscount Benedict finally have their first date? There are old and new mysteries to solve in this final installment of the series!

Shortly before turning the big five-oh, Cooking with Gusto! TV personality Augusta "Gus" Simpson finds herself planning a birthday party she’d rather ignore - her own. To make things worse, the network wants to boost her ratings by teaming Gus with the beautiful, ambitious, and younger Carmen Vega - the former Miss Spain, no less. But Gus isn’t going without a fight - whether it’s off set with her two demanding daughters, on camera with the vicious beauty queen herself, or after hours with Oliver, the new culinary producer.

Lana and Anna May can’t imagine things getting any better until they learn their aunt has yet another surprise in store for them―a swanky cocktail party hosted for the freelancers of Southern California. But on the night of the party, things go south when a close journalist friend of Grace’s mysteriously plunges from the roof top of the hotel. Even more suspicious is the fact that Aunt Grace’s friend is the same journalist Lana saw getting into a screaming match with the fortune cookie vendor at the convention.

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.

Laid-off journalist Lana Lewis is thriving as the proprietor of Perkatory, a coffee shop on quirky Devil’s Beach Island, Florida. She’s juggling a relationship with police chief Noah Garcia, enjoying the company of her best friend, Erica, and relishing the companionship of her golden Shih Tzu, Stanley. The only problem is her neighbor, Gus, who incessantly uses his leaf blower, disturbing everyone in the neighborhood. Lana has learned to tune it out, but Erica’s rage boils over, and she confronts Gus. Then Gus is found dead, and Erica immediately becomes suspect number one.

It's not Fourth of July on Mackinac Island without fireworks and fudge. The Historic McMurphy Hotel and Fudge Shop is supplying the treats-and Allie McMurphy has hired Rodney Rivers, the biggest name in aerial displays, to create an unforgettable spectacle. Unfortunately, it turns out to be a case of red, white, and boom when Allie finds him dead, covered with screaming chicken fireworks, just before the entire warehouse of pyrotechnics goes up in smoke. Is it arson or is it murder?

Emily Cherry may be retired, but she’s not about to roll over and die! Defying the doubts of her three adult children this plucky computer-shy grandma embarks on a unique path by launching her very own food blog. The only problem is that during her inaugural restaurant review, she stumbles upon a lifeless body.

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!

Can Roxy filter through the lies before the true culprit grounds her investigation for good? Pour yourself a cup of intrigue with "Pour-Over Predicament" and follow Roxy as she uncovers that in Honey Springs, the truth can be as slippery as black ice.

Following a trail of clues to a sleepy seaside village in the southwest corner of England, retired police detective Albert Smith aims to prove his theory of a master criminal by catching the "Gastrothief’s" agents red-handed.

Thanksgiving is Bailey King's busiest holiday weekend. This year promises to be even more hectic, since Bailey's candy shop is providing desserts for Harvest, Ohio's first village-wide Thanksgiving celebration. Yet the event's organizer, Margot Rawlings, is unfazed . . . until she discovers her mother, former judge Zara Bevan, will be in attendance. Zara's reputation as a harsh critic is matched only by her infamy as a judge. No one is prepared when she arrives with much younger boyfriend Blaze Smith. Then Blaze suffers an allergic reaction to something he's eaten and dies on the spot.

When a wealthy New York philanthropist pays top dollar for a private four-day ziti workshop, Nell Valenti wants everyone at the Villa Orlandini Cooking School focused on the task at hand. But complications abound when Nell’s boyfriend, Pete Orlandini, rushes to Rome for an unexpected business trip; Chef Orlandini is more preoccupied with a potential spot on an American cooking show than with preparing for the workshop; and an uninvited woman sneaks into the villa to inspect Pete’s olive grove.

When Sadie Hoffmiller receives a threatening, anonymous text message just days before her wedding, she's determined not to let it interfere with the celebration she has carefully planned for months. But when the threat changes from a distant fear to a frightening reality, Sadie realizes just how much she's underestimated the situation. Desperate to put an end to the game she's been forced to play, Sadie, her fiancé, Pete, and her children pull out all the stops.