Mystery writers like to eat. So do their characters.
Here’s an opportunity to meet and greet both without having any calories heading toward your waistline. The Mystery Writers of America Cookbook, edited by Kate White (Quirk Books, $24.95), includes 109 writers and more than 100 delicious recipes.
This is more than just another cookbook. It’s an introduction to a vast number of mystery writers, their personal backgrounds and their written creations.
Some sleuths cook exotic concoctions. Felix Francis’ (Dead Heat) chef, Max Moreton, makes Beef Stroganoff with deep-fried potato straws. Katherine Hall Page’s catering sleuth, Faith Fairchild, includes Chevre Endive Spears with Rubies, containing cheese, cream and pomegranate seeds.
Hello, Whole Foods!
Some writers are also cooks. Charles Todd, who is a former chef and caterer, gives us an updated from-World-War-I-history Chicken Oscar Roulade With Chesapeake Sauce Hollandaise. Chris Pavon, a book editor specializing in cookbooks, provides a recipe for a rich Rigatoni a la Bolognese that begs to be taken to a party.
There are those who want simple pleasures. Ben
H. Winters, who wrote the Armageddon series The Last Policeman, includes a three egg omelet. Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Millhone eats peanut butter and pickle sandwiches, which are not complicated to make.
By the way, there are no calorie counts on these recipes.
The cookbook also includes entertaining stories and tidbits about historical mysteries, the sleuths or the writers themselves. You’ll find that many writers are former press. Editor Kate White worked for Cosmopolitan, and horse racing writer John McEvoy is the former editor of the Daily Racing Form.
For those abstaining from meat, Alan Orloff provides Killer Tofu.
If you have room on your shelves for another cookbook, consider this “murderous” collection. You may find a new author to follow as well.