Culinary capers that satisfy

For readers with an appetite for intrigue sweetened with a soupcon

of good taste, there’s hardly a more satisfying genre than food

mysteries. Laced with recipes for everything from Swedish meatballs

to a buttermilk pound cake to die for, these lighthearted whodunits

are tempting for both cooks and literary detectives.

New from Diane Mott Davidson, dubbed “the Julia Child of Mystery

Writers” by the New York Times, is “Chopping Spree.” In another

fast-paced caper, caterer-turned-sleuth Goldy Schulz returns to plan

the event of the shopping season: The Princess Without a Price Tag

Extravaganza for wealthy shopaholics.

The plot thickens when Goldy finds Aspen Meadows mall manager

Barry Dean dead in a pile of sale shoes -- stabbed with one of her

own carving knives -- and her assistant is arrested for murder.

Whether she can dig for clues between whipping up Hot Crab Dip and

Spice-of-Life Cookies is less consequential than the fun to be had

along the trail.

Descriptions of spicy Creole and Cajun treats are as captivating

as the quest for a missing cookbook in Peter King’s “Roux the Day.”

In his seventh foray into gastronomic crime, the Gourmet Detective is

tracking down an out-of-print classic that holds secrets to a

family-run restaurant in New Orleans. When a clan of female chefs

kidnaps the reluctant hero, adventures through the colorful French

Quarter ensue.

Mystery-loving chocoholics can’t help but succumb to the

temptations of “Death is Semisweet,” the latest course in Lou Jane

Temple’s food feast. Sweetening a plot launched after a blimp

advertising a chocolate shop is gunned down are recipes for Miracle

Whip Chocolate Cake, Chocolate Marshmallow Gingerbread and even

Vegetarian Chili with Chocolate. While reading about chef Heaven

Lee’s hunt for the culprit may not burn enough calories to warrant

indulging in the treats, it will provide a healthy dose of

distraction.

There’s more to breakfast than meets the lips in “Gruel and

Unusual Punishment,” the tenth offering in Tamar Myers’s popular

Pennsylvania Dutch mystery series. In her latest outing, Mennonite

innkeeper Magdalena Yoder finds herself investigating a prisoner’s

death in the local jail after consuming a meal from her inn. Recipes

for such Southern comforts as Pumpkin Grits spike the suspense, as

Magdalena munches her way through deadly doings.

Comfort food the likes of Smothered Pork Chops are the order of

the day in Katherine Hall Page’s “The Body in the Bonfire.” In her

12th escapade, New England caterer-sleuth Faith Fairchild goes

undercover to teach “Cooking for Idiots” as a guise for hunting down

the tormentor of a minority student at a local boarding school. When

human remains turn up after a school bonfire, her sleuthing turns

deadly in an inspired romp guaranteed to satisfy the appetites of

culinary mystery fans.

* CHECK IT OUT is written by the staff of the Newport Beach

Public Library. This week’s column is by Melissa Adams, in

collaboration with Claudia Peterman. All titles may be reserved from

home or office computers by accessing the catalog at

www.newportbeachlibrary.org.