Recipe Mysteries

Shadow_Ferret · Jul 31, 2006

Is this a new sub-genre of mystery? I've just recently noticed them (although they've probably been around for a decade) because my wife has just fallen in love with them.

They all seem to revolve around baking or catering and each novel includes several recipes.

Joanne Fluke seems to be one of the big names in this sub-genre.

Anyone familiar with them and what do you think?

Forbidden Snowflake · Jul 31, 2006

Recipes? Are you for real? Please tell me you're kidding me!

Shadow_Ferret · Jul 31, 2006

You don't cook?

Soccer Mom · Jul 31, 2006

Yes, the culinary mystery has become firmly established as a subgenre. (actually it's more of a sub-subgenre of the cozy mystery.) There are oodles of them out there right now. They are flavor of the moment. (heh, good pun). More than enough of them to keep Mrs. Ferret busy. My mother loves them. She reads all the Diane Mott and Katherine Hall Page books.

Kate Thornton · Jul 31, 2006

I've got a Diane Mott Davidson in the car right now! I have enjoyed her books for years! (She has written 12, featuring Goldy Bear, a caterer out of Denver)

Jamesaritchie · Jul 31, 2006

Recipe

While it wasn't a mystery, I've been told that "Like Water for Chocolate," published in 1990, started the recipes-in-a-novel craze. Or at least made it big enough to get noticed and spread. Chocolate certainly won a bunch of awards, was made into a movie, etc.

I admit to having read only a couople of mysteries written this way, but I did enjoy them, and I loved "Like Water for Chocolate."

Jamesaritchie · Jul 31, 2006

Jadezuki said:
I just recently read one of Philip R. Craig's Martha's Vineyard mysteries. While I don't think it's a recipe mystery by strict definition, there's a LOT of cooking, and the process of cooking, strewn throughout the novel. To be honest, it started to wear on me, after awhile - it's enough to say a person cooked dinner, or even they cooked x food, but to read EXACTLY how they did it, over and over again, got a bit old, particularly as it really had nothing to do with the plot.

Then again, the fact that cooking's not my cup o' tea to begin with might have something to do with it.

Oh, and the actual mystery aspect of the Craig novel I read made up for the descriptions of cooking, which tended to jar me out of engrossed-reading-zone.

Oh, and Jamesaritchie: I'm not sure about the novel you cited starting a mainstream craze, but I think recipe mysteries have been around longer (though maybe not in the mainstream). My mother, when I mentioned this thread to her, cited a few novels that were at least 25 years old... and if I could remember the titles, I'd bring them up here.

Yes, I doubt much that Chocolate was the first, but it was, according to some publishers I've talked to, the one that started the craze and actually turned recipe novels into a sub-genre all its own.

And there's a difference betweek "cooking or food" novels and "recipe" novels.

Linda Adams · Jul 31, 2006

There's also a needlepoint mystery series. Needlepoint plays a key part of each story, and there's a needlepoint pattern used in the story at the end of the book for anyone who wants to try it.

Soccer Mom · Jul 31, 2006

Needlepoint? Are those the Jill Churchill mysteries?

Linda Adams · Jul 31, 2006

Nope. They're by Monica Ferris.

A. Hamilton · Jul 31, 2006

my FIL gave me a collection of short stories by several authors called 'Murder on the Menu'. each mystery had some correlation to food. there were some good reads in there. some by well-knowns and some unknown.

kayebee · Aug 1, 2006

Jamesaritchie said:
While it wasn't a mystery, I've been told that "Like Water for Chocolate," published in 1990, started the recipes-in-a-novel craze. Or at least made it big enough to get noticed and spread.

What about Nora Ephron's novel "Heartburn"? Didn't that have a bunch of recipes in it? Not a mystery, either, but it was published in the early eighties, and was made into a not-very-successful movie. That novel got a lot of attention, though not for the recipes.

Karen

Pomegranate · Aug 1, 2006

There are a number of special-interest subgenres of mystery novels. Dogs, parents, needlepoint, knitting, cooking, quilting, scrapbooking...you name it. (The quality of writing varies. ;->)

I think the recipe mysteries started the trend. I remember in the 80s there were book clubs who would read a book then cook the recipes from it and have a party to discuss the book. (That predates Like Water for Chocolate but I'm sure that book helped encourage the trend.)

soloset · Aug 1, 2006

I see quilting and needlepoint mysteries at the Houston Quilt Festival every year; seems like a perfect place to sell them.

I'm pretty sure you're right about the recipe thing starting the craze, though, I seem to recall seeing those first.

Kate Thornton · Aug 1, 2006

Jerrilynn Farmer does quilting mysteries (she used to be a neighbor of mine)

Soccer Mom · Aug 1, 2006

More and more it seems the cozy mystery has to have some specific niche to get published.

Linda Adams · Aug 1, 2006

They're targeting the women readers.

three seven · Aug 16, 2006

My book's got a recipe or two in it, but, um... well, let's just say I wouldn't recommend you try and follow them.

Uncarved · Aug 16, 2006

Mine has cooking in it. Human jerky

Soccer Mom · Aug 16, 2006

EEEEEwwwww! Soccer mom jerky is NOT a recipe mystery.

Kate Thornton · Aug 17, 2006

LOL! Well, sorta - but you'd need more than one recipe for the human jerky book to be a real recipe mystery. Have you considered adding something *baked*??

Soccer Mom · Aug 17, 2006

AAaaaaaagh! I can't hear you people! Lalalalalalalalalal *fingers in my ears*

Maryn · Aug 17, 2006

Kate Thornton said:
LOL! Well, sorta - but you'd need more than one recipe for the human jerky book to be a real recipe mystery. Have you considered adding something *baked*??

[SPOILER ALERT ON AN OLD MOVIE--READ AT YOUR OWN RISK]

Thanks a lot, Kate--I'd almost erased that image from "The Cook, the Theif, his Wife, and her Lover" from my mind, but no-o-o-o!

Recipe Mysteries

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