Cooking Cozy Mystery

Culinary queen Angie Amalfi has put aside her gourmet utensils to concentrate on planning her upcoming wedding to San Francisco homicide detective Paavo Smith. What could possibly go wrong? Instead of the answer to her heart's dreams, she scrambles to deal with wedding planners with bizarre ideas, wedding dresses that don't flatter, squabbling relatives with hurt feelings, a long-suffering groom, and worries over where she and Paavo will live after the wedding. But all of that pales when Angie finds the perfect house for them, except for one little problem - the house may be haunted.

Charlie is on vacation. A cozy cabin, a diner that serves delicious guilty-pleasures, and Drake - all Charlie needs to relax and enjoy herself. But the town of Watson's Lake has a little unsolved mystery. Four years ago, a showplace home - beautiful and serene and tucked away on the mountain - blew sky high, due to an apparent gas leak. A young woman died. The owner disappeared. His gold-digging wife wants the insurance money, and his daughter wants to know what happened to her father.

Greed, Guilt and Gatherings = The perfect scenario for payback and murder. Take… A celebrity chef who brings his popular television competition to Sunrise Harbor, Maine. Seven upcoming culinary school graduates looking for their big break and a taste of fame. Scorned lovers who have waited years to right past wrongs. Mix in… Smoldering resentment for lost chances and missed opportunities. Feuding families, jealous sisters, and millions of missing dollars. Pam and Paul Bigelow, mall walking amateur sleuths, and Aunt Tabitha. (Clive) And you’ve got… A murder served up on a silver ...

[This revised edition addresses feedback from readers!] Can a young widow clear her name and save her hometown's livelihood when its beloved wine festival turns deadly? When the annual Winter Wine Festival in charming small-town Los Robles comes to a shocking halt with the discovery of a dead body, amateur sleuth Avery Parker finds herself thrust into a twisted murder mystery. Having recently returned to run her family’s vineyard after her husband’s untimely death, Avery must navigate complex small-town social politics and quirky characters to uncover clues, clear her own name, and ...

A baking competition with your archenemy… what could possibly go wrong for detective chef Guy Vanduex? It’s almost Christmas and former chef turned private investigator Guy Vanduex and his partner in crime-solving Sylvia Parker are enlisted to discover who is sabotaging a baking competition show. And it’s not just any competition, it’s hosted by Vanduex’s former business partner and archenemy Flynn ‘Barney’ Baker. But when contestants receive mysterious packages with gingerbread houses in the likeness of their restaurants and dead-looking gingerbread men in their likeness… ...

A murdered food critic… a missing lion… and chocolate covered strawberries… all in a day’s work for detective chef Guy Vanduex! Valentine’s Day is a day away and Sylvia Parker is excited to receive a box of chocolates with a note from a secret admirer. The note tells her to go to the bar at the Red Lyon Inn with a red rose – her secret date will bring a white one. But when Parker discovers everyone at the bar has a red rose, she is supremely disappointed. Especially since many chefs and former cooks received the same note, even Guy Vanduex. Vanduex and Parker were partners in ...

Beaches, sunsets and Murder! Middle aged baker turned amateur sleuth Jenny King finds her wits tested when her friend's nephew meets a sticky end. This fast paced cozy mystery novella is a great way to sample the much loved Pelican Cove Cozy Mystery Series. Summer has arrived in Pelican Cove and newly married Jenny King is testing sorbet recipes at the Boardwalk Cafe. Her favorite customer introduces her to his nephew, a young sailor who is home on furlough. In the blink of an eye, the man is found dead and Jenny's friend becomes the top suspect. Can she come to his aid before it is too ...

Charlie receives an assignment to drive a teen runaway girl back to her home in Arizona. It’s about a six hour drive each way, and all she has to do is deliver the girl back to her mother, enjoy a night in a nice hotel, turn around and drive back. She’ll be home in plenty of time to bake the Thanksgiving pies with Elsa and settle into the holiday season back in Albuquerque. Or not.

Nell Valenti is settling into her role of transforming the Villa Orlandini into a superb farm-to-table cooking school, and the time has finally come for a full taste test run. But when Chef Orlandini prepares to reveal his top secret marinara recipe for the first time to a group of American gastro-tourists, Nell realizes she might have bitten off more than she can chew.

For weeks, the residents of Springside had witnessed sightings of strange lights in the summer sky. For Carrie Williams, the sightings were similar to something she and her brother Sean had experienced as children, but Sean’s memory of those events was surprisingly different than what Carrie recalled. When Sean comes to town to visit Carrie, he quickly begins to believe that events indicate that "something" had returned and appears to be looking for Carrie. They would need the help of her friends to help investigate and try to keep Carrie safe. Carrie knew her blocked memories of that ...

It's a race against the oven timer as a culinary detective grapples with a genuine murder at a staged murder mystery party. In the charming town of Tempest, the Murder Mystery Dinner Party is more than just a social gathering. It's an event that stirs the town's imagination, a game of pretend where guests get a chance to play detective. But when Michael Sloss, the overdramatic host, fears his role may turn from make-believe to all too real, he calls upon a quirky detective—Guy Vanduex, a former chef turned private investigator. Vanduex is no ordinary sleuth. With his culinary background, ...

Thirteen bitter sweets. Thirteen bitter suspects. One unhappy ending. World-famous Chandler's Chocolates has unveiled a new storybook-inspired chocolate collection, Once Upon a Truffle. It's up to Anna Clementine, the company's event coordinator, to promote the product by hosting a fairytale-themed beauty pageant. To set the scene, contestants are invited to an abandoned castle deep in the Smoky Mountains. After all, every little girl dreams of being a princess in a palace- unless that castle turns out to be haunted. Anna soon finds herself in a cursed castle, surrounded by spoiled ...

A brand new career…another dangerous ghosts after another, and spending Halloween in the land of a vampire! FREE on Kindle Unlimited! After a harrowing start to her new job with Quest Realty’s Haunted and Hexed Property Division, accidental witch Fio Valentine is less than eager to take on yet another daunting task. As if dealing with a woman-hating ghost wasn’t hard enough, now her boss Jack Adams wants her to uncover the mystery behind a series of incidents at Quest’s new development project. The sprawling construction site in San Bernardino will have parks, malls and theaters in ...

The accidental witch, a job interview to die for—or rather, a test that could get you killed. FREE on Kindle Unlimited! In book one of an exciting new paranormal series, author Lotta Smith introduces accidental witch Fiorentina “Fio” Valentine. The Napa Valley native is desperately seeking work after yet another job goes up in smoke. Her third employer in a row has gone out of business, and her only lead for gainful employment comes from the familiar voice of her late great grandma Jane, who tells Fio in a dream to seek a position at one of the country’s largest real estate agencies...

Chloe leaps from the frying pan into the fire when she arrives for a meeting with Digger, one of Josh's friends and a rival chef, and discovers a dead body instead. Digger died of smoke inhalation from a blaze that started in his kitchen. Unable to believe that an executive chef would allow a grease fire to get so out of control, Chloe starts an unofficial search for the murderer.

Cape Cod is shaken by another murder, and it's up to amateur sleuth Chloe Cook to find the killer. But she's going to have to work fast. Not only is there a handful of suspects on the loose, but one of Chloe's good friends is wrongfully suspected of the crime by the local police detective. Can Chloe nab the real killer in time, or will the killer strike again?

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.

A chef of unprecedented imagination is discovered. How will he fare under public scrutiny? Chef Maurice Le Coq is found dead in his burned-out brasserie in France. The police are calling it a ‘tragic accident’ but the villagers of Les Andelys speculate that the fire was set intentionally. There is only one man who knows the whole truth. The latest battleground in France’s ongoing “guerres de cuisines”, The Plucked Hen is discovered by the country’s foremost restaurant critic, but Chef Le Coq remains a secretive figure who refuses to step into the spotlight, spurning the critics ...

Invitation to Magic: Cinderella and Prince Wicked He's Prince Wicked. She's clueless. Stephanie Plum jumps into the rabbit hole! FREE on Kindle Unlimited! Meet Countess Melanie de Fontaine. She’s not only nice and sweet, she happens to be a super-duper domestic goddess. While juggling house chores for her needy and demanding faux-mother and faux-sisters, she’s busy searching for her mother who’s been missing for years. Then again, sometimes, life can be overwhelming. When the invitation to the Royal Dance of the Year arrives, her faux-mother shoves it in her face, knowing full well ...

Halloween Celebrations End With a Washed Up Corpse Pelican Cove is celebrating Halloween in style. The annual Halloween party at the Boardwalk Cafe brings out the witches and superheroes in full strength. Old timers share Pelican Cove's legends of haunted houses and ghost ships. The unidentified body washed up on the beach, however, dampens the mood the very next morning. The town hires Jenny to solve the murder. With a town full of people dressed in costumes, Jenny finds it hard to narrow down a suspect. If you like clean cozy mysteries and books in the Pelican Cove Cozy Mystery Series, ...