Death in a Mud Flat

Taking a little detour from cookbooks here, with a mystery novel, Death in a Mudflat by N. A. Granger.

But ... it's not totally devoid of food. While the main character, Rhe, is a nurse and her husband is the chief of police, Rhe likes to cook, as does her best friend, so people actually cook things, serve dinner, and discuss events over food. Kind of like real people.

That's not a huge part of the story, though, it's all about a murder. Rhe, besides being a nurse, also consults with the police department, so she's in the thick of things, from the very beginning, when a dead body is discovered near the beach wedding of some friends.

Yup, that'll put a damper on the festivities.

Like many characters in mysteries, Rhe has lots of time to investigate murder, even though she has another job. But that's okay. It's not a medical mystery novel, and we don't need to know how many times she took someone's blood pressure during the day. Her medical knowledge does come in handy though.

As mysteries go, this was complicated enough to be interesting, the characters were likable, and the end was satisfying. What's not to like?

I received this book at no cost to me.

Cinnamon Girl

I've been making time for doing more reading these days ... and not just reading cookbooks.
But I still have a bit of a soft spot for books that have a food or cooking theme. So, I picked up a copy of Cinnamon Girl by Valerie Horowitz. And, by "picked up" I mean that I ordered it from Amazon.

Cinnamon Girl is a murder mystery, and the main character, Bonnie Emerson, owns a store that sells cookware, cooking gadgets, and cookbooks. Some of the chapters start with recipes from cookbooks, and the recipes are mentioned in the stories. There are also cookbooks and cooking items mentioned in the text, as Bonnie interacts with customers and other folks at her store.

But those are just window dressing. The real story is the dead body that Bonnie and her husband found in their back yard. Opps. I hate when that happens.

And then it gets more complicated from there. Another murder, a book signing and cooking contest at the store, and the Secret Service people lurking about, since Bonnie is the daughter of an ex-President and he's still got pull with the White House.

The characters are likable ... even the murderer, and the story is fun. Fairly light reading, but engaging enough to keep me turning pages.

If you like mysteries and food and cookbooks (there's one that was mentioned that I actually stopped reading so I could slip it into my Amazon cart) I think you'll like this one. Oh - and although this isn't really a cookbook, the recipes chosen are winners. So you just might end up cooking from it.

Oh, and this is billed a Book 1, so it looks like there will be more to come.

Dex

I read a kid's book, and I liked it. There were no wizards. But there was a lot of cooking.

Dex Rossi, the main character of the book Dex, by Sheri Lynn Fishbach, is a middle-schooler who likes to cook. He has a business in front of his house selling sandwiches before his school day begins, and he sells more at school.

A geeky sort of kid with a crush on a classmate who seems to favor jocks, Dex faces all the same sorts of problems that average kids face, but he's also got worries about the family restaurant and his desire to save money for an exercise machine that will help him bulk up to impress the girl.

A strange turn of events lands him a cooking show on television, but then everything gets even more complicated...

As as adult, there were a few times when I shook my head and said, "no, that's not likely," but then I had to step back and realize that the book is, of course, fiction. And it's written for kids who will breeze right past the little inconsistencies.

This is exactly the sort of book I would have read as a kid - I loved Nancy Drew mysteries. But the fact that this kid is really into cooking was the icing on the cake. Hehe. Icing ... cake ... get it?

This would be a fun book for kids who like mysteries or for kids who love cooking.

I received a review copy of this book from the publisher.

The Troll Cookbook

The problem with cutely-themed cookbooks is that sometimes the cuteness is what sells the book, and the recipes are less than stellar.

But still, I couldn't help requesting The Troll Cookbook.

To be completely honest, I didn't know if this was a book about cooking for trolls, cooking trolls, or for trolls who are cooks. It's actually two of those three. No trolls were eaten.

The recipes were solid. Eclectic. Something for everyone.

But let's face it, the troll theme is why people would buy this book, so let me give you a few examples of things that made me giggle.

The introduction to the Sweet Rice Dumplings says, "If the cook you've kidnapped has escaped, make your own dumplings by following this recipe." Okay, before the recipe there was a charming story about someone who was kidnapped by trolls and who cooked for them. But just I saw the introduction first and then went back and read the story.

The introduction to gnocchi says, "The trolls use their thick fingernails to press patterns into the hearty, dumpling-like gnocchi they make. The technique sometimes lends the finished pasta a peculiar flavor."

I guess the moral is that you shouldn't let trolls make gnocchi for you.

In a section about shopping, it explains how trolls are confused about our modern supermarkets: "Moving beyond the produce section, the troll is equally frustrated with much of the rest of the supermarket, with its aisles of packages plastered with photographs of the food inside, or worse,  of happy people. Trolls appreciate truth in advertising. Not once has a troll torn open a box of cereal and found actual people to eat inside. It's disappointing."

As far as recipes, you'll find instructions on making cottage cheese. paella, flavored salts, soups and salads, chili, jams, deviled eggs, and plenty more. There's information about pickling and preserving, making sausage, and even instructions for making vinegar.

The book is arranged by season, which makes sense for recipes that use fruits and vegetables, but seasonal doesn't make sense for things like yogurt, so it might take some browsing before you realize what you can make from this book. On the other hand, the pictures are fun and the text is amusing. So it's definitely worth a browse.

I received this book from the publisher in order to review it.

Criminal Confections by Colette London

One of my New Year's resolutions this year was to take some time off to relax, so for the past few weekends, I've spent time reading books. And I don't mean cookbooks, although I adore those, too.

Nope, I've been reading fiction.

My latest was Criminal Confections by Colette London. The main character is a chocolate expert who goes to a chocolate retreat where a murder is committed. Of course, the murder could be an accident, which is what most people believe.

The chocolate expert and her pal, a good-looking ex-con in the security business, start nosing around ... and then someone else dies - murder or accident.

Meanwhile, there's a lot of chocolate, so much so that when I was about halfway through the book, I wondered how anyone could enjoy that much chocolate in real life. And the next day I baked a pan of brownies.

At the end of the book, there are several recipes using chocolate. I didn't try any of the recipes, but I probably will.

This book is an easy read - I polished it off in a single day - and it's well written with just a couple hiccups that temporarily pulled me out of the story, like when the narrator broke that fourth wall and spoke right to the reader. I suppose that was used for effect, but for me, it disturbed the flow of the story for the moment. It wasn't a huge problem, though, and didn't affect my total enjoyment of the book.

The best part of this book was that I had no idea who the murderer was until the very end of the book, and once revealed, it made sense. So that's a huge plus.

I'll be looking for more books by this author in the future.

I received a digital version of this book from Netgalley for the purpose of a review.

Deadly Tasting: A Winemaker Detective Mystery by Jean-Pierre Alaux, Noël Balen

I'm trying to make more time for reading novels, so a mystery book that talked about wine seemed to be a good way to ease away from cookbooks.

Deadly Tasting was a pretty quick read, and funny along with the mystery. Translated from French, it assumes the reader will be familiar with locales, but that wasn't really an issue - no more than when I'm reading a sci-fi novel where the locations don't actually exist.

One note of humor that runs through the book (without revealing the plot, so don't worry) is that the protagonist's wife has decided he's a little too chubby, so she puts him on the cabbage soup diet.

Poor guy.

My only quibble with this book was that the ending seemed a little bit quick - when it was all done, I wished that it would have been a little bit more detailed and drawn out.

But I guess that wanting it to last longer is a good thing.

I'll definitely be looking for more of these books.

Note: I received a digital version of the book at no cost to me.