Yummy Debut for a New Series from Denise Swanson, TART OF DARKNESS

I'm late discovering Denise Swanson -- her mysteries are already well known, and she's written many! Last September she released the first in a new series, "Welcome Back to Scumble River," jump-starting an existing run of books but with fresh energy (the first title was Dead in the Water).

Now she's started a second (!) new series, and this one is has many yummy moments. The series is called "Chef to Go" and it opens with TART OF DARKNESS. Count on Swanson, a true pro in the "amateur sleuth" mystery genre, to keep the red herrings splashing and suspenseful twists multiplying. In the classic mode of, say, an Agatha Christie mystery, the tension for the entrepreneur Dani Sloan is steady from the start, but not creepy in any sense ... you won't need to check that you locked the door, or turn on extra lights. Instead, with Dani, readers can chase the clues and try to figure the killer a few heartbeats ahead of Dani's own discovery.

The opening situation fits plenty of daring young entrepreneurs today: Dani's quit her corporate job, lucked into an inherited house practically perfect for a cooking-related business, and scraped up just enough money to get her catering business launched. Except it's a bit short after all, so when three young women attending the nearby college propose to bunk in her spare rooms, contribute rent, and provide kitchen and house maintenance labor, Dani's got an ideal solution. If, of course, the "girls" behave.

She's not much older than they are, but with collaboration from one of their uncles -- a charming unmarried security pro on the campus -- things seem to be working out.

That is, until her first major catering job, for a wealthy and spoiled young woman the same age as her boarders, Regina Bourne, turns dangerous, when a drunk knocks over a bamboo torch and lights the buffet table coverings on fire:

Dani's pulse raced, and for an instant, she froze as the dried grass fiber blazed. Then instinct kicked in and she dropped to her knees. Searching under the table for the fire extinguisher she kept handy anytime she used Sterno to keep the food in her chafing dishes warm, she nearly cried in releif when her fingers brushed the metal canister.

Yelling for everyone to stay back, Dani held her breath and sprayed the flames until the foam ran out. Shakily, she put the extinguisher down and sucked air into her starving lungs.

Before she could catch her breath, Regina marched up to her and demanded, "Clear off this table, and get new trays of desserts out here right now."

Dani blinked. She'd been expecting Regina to thank her, not issue impossible orders.

But that's Regina's way -- so when Regina turns up murdered, there are plenty of suspects with motive to sort through. And Dani needs to make sure the crime is quickly solved, before word of mouth and mean rumors can take away her barely opened business in the community.

It's a pleasure to ride along with Swanson's tight plot and smooth writing, with a side plot (of course) of mild romance. She's a truly skilled mystery author, and the suspense rises just high enough to make the pages turn quickly, while avoiding anything truly gruesome. I enjoyed every page -- and by my favorite test of a book, the number of people I'd like to give a copy to, this gets a very high score!

Sourcebooks Landmark is the publisher, and knowing this is the start of a series makes the slight awkwardness at the end into a promise of plot twists to come in the second title. I'm marking the series as "get the next one ASAP." By the way, there are no recipes included -- something of a surprise for a "foodie" mystery -- but there are plenty on Swanson's website.

PS:  Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here.

Cooking Up Christmas in Cozy Mysteries: Leslie Meier, Isis Crawford

It's the Holiday season, and America's cultural connection with Christmas drives the calendar right now. Here's a to-do list that frankly terrifies me, courtesy of MyFrugalHome.com and brought to my attention in the Facebook posts of a new Vermont thriller author, J.P. Choquette: http://www.myfrugalhome.com/printables/Christmas-To-Do-List.pdf

I love J.P.'s idea that getting more organized will be satisfying. But what I want to get done before the big C celebration day is -- review more mysteries! And sample more cookies.

Here's a pair of cozy treats from two steady writers whose public personas are modest (they clearly prefer to stick to writing their mysteries instead!).

Isis Crawford is the pen name of Syracuse, NY, Barbara Block, and she offers a different series under each name. The Isis Crawford series has titles that all start with "A Catered" -- reflecting the author's life experience, ongoing, as a caterer specializing in desserts. A CATERED CHRISTMAS COOKIE EXCHANGE features sisters Bernie and Libby, owners of the bakery A Little Taste of Heaven. When their friend Amber's Aunt Millie winds up in a coma at the hospital as a result of a car accident, Bernie and Libby of course are worried for Millie; Aunt Millie was about to take part in a cookie competition that would be televised, as part of a reality TV series. What a shame she won't be able to be on camera! But her niece Amber could be, right? With Millie's cookies that she'd just baked before the accident?

Except ... the cookies are missing. And when Bernie and Libby investigate the scene of the accident, they're quickly convinced it was intentional, and their father, a retired police detective, backs up their theory. Who sets up an accident over cookies? And was it meant to be murder??

The plot twists here fly fast and furious. What I particularly enjoyed was the wry relationship of the sister bakers-turned-investigators -- if my sis and I were checking out a possible crime, we'd have a lot of the same frictions that these two have. I had a lot of fun reading this. And if the final chapter comes off a bit hasty in tying all the threads together, well, I still plan to indulge by reading the earlier eight Isis Crawford catering mysteries, and giving them with love to my sister.

Plus there are recipes at the end of the book, including "Italian Christmas Cookies." So, does reading this one count as crossing off an item on my holiday preparations list??

Leslie Meier is a little less "hidden" as an author than Isis Crawford (Crawford has no website, makes no Facebook posts to speak of), but Meier still rarely updates her website and makes few book-related appearances. I always enjoy her books -- she lives in Harwich, Mass., but sets the Lucy Stone series in "Tinker's Cove," Maine, a town so small that the local newspaper is a weekly instead of a daily. Lucy Stone is the news reporter for the tiny paper (her boss is the editor, and there's one more person on staff, to run the office). Her investigations always tangle family issues -- her kids are pretty much grown now, in CHRISTMAS CAROL MURDER -- and community quirks, as well as crime.  I can vouch for the accuracy of the small-town news life that Lucy Stone lives!

This 2013 title is full of delicious puns and coincidences related to the Dickens holiday tale, as the first page opens with miserly "Jake Marlowe" planning to evict more out-of-work homeowners, regardless of their family pain and the holiday season, and make a killing on the real estate market for Maine seacoast properties.

But Marlowe's soon to be a ghost, and Lucy, fuming at what Marlowe's been doing and his current partner's continuing business practices, tackles the details of a news story that rapidly turns into an investigation. Meier twists the fun even higher by putting Lucy into the cast of an amateur theatrical performance of "A Christmas Carol" and adding to the list of possible suspects with costumes and slippery alibis.

No recipes in this one (sigh) but plenty of cheery community spirit, clever reflection on how the American economy lately echoes the Scrooge tale, and the brisk pace of a seasoned storyteller: Meier knows how to place her "amateur sleuth" in just the right degree of trouble to ramp up the tension, but still leave room for that friendly warmth that a traditional cozy mystery carried with it. Recommended for a relaxing holiday read, with a couple of messages that linger afterward like a good holiday feast.

No need to have the earlier Lucy Stone mysteries under your belt to enjoy this one -- each is a good stand-alone. And CHRISTMAS CAROL MURDER will make a dandy last-minute gift, too, especially for anyone who tends to quote either Scrooge or Tiny Tim!

PS -- Both of these are from Kensington Books (thanks for the review copies!) and add proof to what I mentioned earlier this season: Kensington is skillfully investing in a wide range of mysteries, from cozy to dark, and the rapidly expanding list of their books is a delight.

Reading the Recipes First? DEATH OF A COUNTRY-FRIED REDNECK by Lee Hollis

Joanne Fluke has neatly tied up the major market in "cozy" mysteries with a cooking twist -- her Hannah Swenson series includes a bakery in the plot, so cookie, cake, and other dessert recipes about in the volumes. I believe it's thanks to Fluke that I now thumb through the recipes first, when one of these mysteries arrives at Kingdom Books!

It's not a new approach -- Virginia  Rich (with eventual collaboration from not-yet-famous Nancy Pickard) gave us The Nantucket Diet Murders and The Baked-Bean Supper Murders. And in Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe series, although there aren't recipes in the actual books (they are given later in a cookbook), cooking and kitchen maneuvers make up a large part of the background to gourmand Nero Wolfe's part-time labor as a crime solver.

But there's always a new twist, and Lee Hollis -- actually the brother-and-sister team of Rick Copp and Holly Simason -- brings us the "Hayley Powell Food and Cocktails" mystery series, set in coastal Maine, where Hayley's job as food columnist at the Island Times gives her a chance to jump desks and join the hunt for a killer. In DEATH OF A COUNTRY-FRIED REDNECK, Hayley fits the classic role of an "amateur sleuth" (the best definition of what are often called cozy mysteries) by stumbling into a crime when she tags along after her favorite country music star, Southerner Wade Springer. Inspired to seek a catering slot in order to meet the legendary performer (who is comfortably single!), she brushes off her country-fried chicken recipe, among others. And each time the narrative pauses to give one of Hayley's columns, there are recipes -- not just for cooking but also for refreshingly different cocktails.

Hollis focuses on plot twists and recipes, and not much on depth of character -- Hayley's eventual solution of the murder mystery in her lap depends mostly on trying out every possible combination of blame and suspicion until she stumbles onto the actual killer and motive. But it's a cute ride, with an unusual combination of New England atmosphere and displaced dishes, as well as some entertaining friction between Holly and her teenaged daughter Gemma. For a light read, stack this one on the bedside table or even in the kitchen.

But -- no, no, no -- clipping out the recipes from a real book is absolutely not allowed. Either work on them directly from the book pages, or copy them out somehow. And if you need a few more, especially for the outrageous cocktails, check out the author's very relaxed blog at www.leehollismysteries.com.