The best books for hungry armchair sleuths who love their snackies!

Imagine you are a caterer who lives and breathes cooking. Now imagine yourself going undercover at a spa that doesn’t serve coffee or any of the other gourmet vittles you’re used to while you’re trying to unmask the killer of a local doctor. Protagonist Goldy Schulz is a savvy caterer, a tough cookie who escaped an abusive spouse and reinvented her life. I like that Goldy has that kind of depth which is sometimes lacking in a cozy mystery. She’s gritty and determined. As a west coast girl, I enjoy the fact that this series is set in Colorado and Goldy’s marriage to her second husband, a hunky cop, adds flavor. It’s fun to see how the acerbic Goldy handles a “Bridezilla” while trying not to offend her client. The book is fun and satisfying, like Goldy’s recipes! 

Similar to Goldy in the prior recommendation, Hannah Swenson knows her way around a cookie. She runs her own bakery with offerings that make the reader’s mouth water (mine sure does!) She’s got plenty of sass and a mom who is constantly trying to find her a man. I love her determination to solve the murder of the milkman but most of all I love the cookie recipes which are easy for the average baker. I am a massive cookie lover so I am always looking for new types to try and Hannah Swenson delivers. She keeps the recipes easy and accessible but always with a fun twist.

It takes guts to write a protagonist who’s hard to like. Agatha Raisin, a tough businesswoman who retires to the tiny village of Carsley, is so beautifully flawed she’s impossible to ignore. She’s somewhat of a bully, prone to conniving, and deeply competitive, which is why she buys her quiche at a shop and enters it as her own creation. Of course, someone drops dead after eating it. This crusty woman of a certain age just bulldozes her way through the investigation and her flaws are so funny and refreshing that you wind up rooting for her. She’s a breath of fresh air in the cozy mystery world.

As a young adult, I absolutely devoured all the books in Lilian Jackson Braun’s The Cat Who series. I was infatuated with the dashing Qwilleran and his sleuthing cats Koko and YumYum. Qwilleran is a foodie and he seeks out excellent vittles when he relocates from the big city to Moose County and schmoozes with all the locals. This cookbook was an absolutely geeky delight, since it features recipes mentioned in the books and snippets directly from the novels which describe when the foods are mentioned. The dishes are quite fancy, but there is a selection of easier ones included also. (Brownies, Mac and cheese, and meatloaf to name a few.) I am partial to Mrs. Cobb’s meatloaf. (It turned out perfectly!) Really though, I adored this book just because it was so much fun to rediscover Qwill and the quirky Moose County residents through this clever cookbook!

This is a nonfiction book, but it’s the late Anthony Bourdain’s expose on what goes on in restaurants from the chef’s perspective. It was both fascinating and shocking to learn about the almost savage relationships between the members of the kitchen staff, from the chef to the line cooks to the dishwashers and servers. There is a tragic foreshadowing, since Bourdain is candid about his drinking and substance abuse during his time as a professional cook. After reading this book, I no longer used jarred garlic because I recall Anthony’s scathing criticism of those who don’t use the fresh kind. It definitely gave me a totally new appreciation for those involved in the restaurant business.