Murder Al Fresco

Murder Al Fresco
Author: Jennifer L. Hart
Publisher: Gemma Halliday Publishing
Total Pages: 160
Release: 2016-03-03
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1943587310

From bestselling cozy mystery author Jennifer L. Hart comes the deliciously deadly conclusion to her Southern Pasta Shop Mysteries... Redemption never tasted so sweet… Andy Buckland is no stranger to TV. The worst moment of her career happened when a live studio audience got food poisoning from one of her dishes. But when the pasta guru is given a slot in the televised cooking competition Diced Showdown, she sees her chance at redemption. In exchange for the shot at vindication Andy and her fiancé, Malcolm Jones, are tasked to find the identity of a mysterious blogger who has a nasty habit of revealing detrimental secrets of the show’s top celebrity chefs. A little undercover sleuthing is one thing, but when her hometown is taken over by the show’s production and one of the judges winds up dead, Andy’s afraid she’s bitten off more than she can chew, and she might just choke on a dish best served cold. **Recipes included!** Southern Pasta Shop Mysteries: Murder Al Dente – book #1 Murder À La Flambé– book #2 Murder Al Fresco – book #3 Christmas Al Dente – holiday short story What critics are saying about Jennifer L. Hart's books: "A must read for all people who love a good mystery and a jolly good laugh...laugh out loud funny." ~ Black Orchid, Cocktail Reviews "Laugh out loud funny, realistic characters, snappy true to life dialog, and a sufficiently difficult mystery; all the required elements for an excellent read." ~ Manic Readers "I would not hesitate to pick up another of Ms. Hart's works as she definitely made me with one book a lifelong fan." ~ Joyfully Reviewed

Murder Alfresco

Murder Alfresco
Author: Nadia Gordon
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Total Pages: 276
Release: 2008-04-02
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9780811858175

Walking home late one night from a party, Napa Valley restaurant owner Sunny McCoskey happens upon the shocking sight of a murdered woman, bound and hanging from the tree of a local vineyard. Shortly before, she'd seen a truck leaving a local winery, driving without its headlights on. Was it the murderer? And did the murderer see her as well? Sunny's investigation introduces her to a whole new array of colorful characters and suspects, including a hardy contingent of Northern California surfers and a shady community of houseboaters. With the help of her lively and irreverent crew of friends, Sunny uncovers dark motives amid the cool chardonnays, and finds herself the focus of the killer's unwelcome attention.

Death al Fresco

Death al Fresco
Author: Leslie Karst
Publisher: Crooked Lane Books
Total Pages: 307
Release: 2018-03-13
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1683315332

It’s up to Sally Solari to serve up a killer before their family restaurant’s reputation goes up in smoke. It’s early autumn in Santa Cruz and restaurateur Sally Solari decides an open-air painting class is the perfect way for her to learn more about Paul Gauguin, the inspiration for the restaurant she has recently inherited. But the beauty of the Monterey Bay coastline is shattered when Sally’s dog Buster sniffs out a corpse tangled up in kelp. The body is identified as Gino, a local fisherman and a regular at Solaris’ until he disappeared after dining there a few nights before. Witnesses claim he left reeling drunk, but his waitress swears the old man only had two beers with is meal. And then the fingers begin to point at Sally’s dad for negligently allowing an inebriated customer to walk home alone at night. From a long menu of suspects, including a cast of colorful characters who frequent the historic Santa Cruz fisherman’s wharf, Sally must serve up the tall order of clearing her father’s name in Death al Fresco, Leslie Karst’s third delectable Sally Solari mystery.

Murder Alfresco

Murder Alfresco
Author: Nadia Gordon
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Total Pages: 264
Release: 2010-07-01
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0811870715

A disturbing murder scene makes a Napa Valley chef hungry for justice in this cozy mystery by the author of Death by the Glass. Returning from a party late one night, chef Sunny McCoskey is the first to discover the body of a murdered woman left outside a local winery. Shortly before, she’d seen a truck leaving a local winery, driving without its headlights on. Was it the murderer? And did the murderer see her as well? Thrust into the center of a crime that has rattled the tranquil Napa Valley, Sunny pursues her own investigation, a journey that takes her from northern California’s wine country to the insular houseboat community of Sausalito along the San Francisco Bay. Uncovering a tangle of secret liaisons, Sunny closes in on the murderer, who responds with one more desperate act. With Murder Alfresco, author Nadia Gordon again takes us into the heart of the food and wine culture of the Napa and Sonoma Valleys, and introduces us to an array of irreverent characters. As the Los Angeles Times said, “Sunny is a welcome, energetic heroine. . . . She and her pals are fun to be around.” Praise for Sharpshooter “[Sunny] is bright, tenacious, and extremely likable, and Gordon paints a vivid portrait of the Napa Valley and its wine-and-food culture. I’m looking forward to many more novels in this intriguing new series.” —Marcia Muller, New York Times–bestselling author of the Sharon McCone mysteries “Napa Valley, the good life, sunny skies, fine cuisine, and fleshy reds. But, isn’t there something murky at the bottom of the bottle? Yes, and it is murder, no less. The mystery of wine . . . If a wine does not have some mystery to it, we call it plonk. Sharpshooter is not plonk. A crime novel with taste.” —Kermit Lynch, author of Adventures on the Wine Route “Those of us who enjoy an authentic look into another culture while reading a mystery are going to enjoy joining Nadia Gordon in the wild, weird wine industry.” —Tony Hillerman, New York Times–bestselling author of the Leaphorn and Chee novels

Death by the Glass

Death by the Glass
Author: Nadia Gordon
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Total Pages: 290
Release: 2003-09
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9780811841801

Chef and amateur sleuth Sunny McCoskey puts her heart and her life at risk when she decides to investigate what she suspects is foul play in the death of the owner of a posh Napa Valley restaurant, and the list of suspects is topped by her new lover and fellow chef, Andre.

Murder A La Carte

Murder A La Carte
Author: Nancy Skopin
Publisher: Independently Published
Total Pages: 280
Release: 2015-12-11
Genre:
ISBN: 9781076168580

Murder A La Carte is the fourth novel in a mystery series featuring Private Investigator, Nicoli "Nikki" Hunter. Nikki lives aboard a 46-foot sailboat on the California coast and rents a ground floor office in the marina complex where her boat is docked. In Murder A La Carte, an abused nine-year-old boy comes to Nikki's office, and asks her to find out who killed his mom. Meanwhile, Nikki's significant other, Detective Bill Anderson, is investigating the homicide of a registered sex offender. It doesn't take long for Nikki to identify how these cases, and several other local murders, intersect. She's in for a wild ride chasing down a vigilante with a mission to kill as many sexual predators as possible.

Murder Most Puzzling

Murder Most Puzzling
Author: Stephanie von Reiswitz
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Total Pages: 103
Release: 2020-08-25
Genre: Games & Activities
ISBN: 1452171637

Murder Most Puzzling is a gorgeous and witty book that invites readers to play detective and solve a series of absorbing, murder-mystery-themed puzzles. Readers are cast as the faithful sidekick to amateur sleuth Medea Thorne in order to solve 20 puzzling cases. Meet a cast of colorful characters—from ghost hunter extraordinaire Augustin Artaud, to Leonard Fanshawe, a competitor in the Annual Perfect Pickled Foods Festival. • A witty riff on the classic whodunit that brings out everyone's inner detective • Each mystery is sumptuously illustrated. • The mysteries require different deductive tactics, making them a good brain exercise A body in the topiary garden, a death at a clairvoyants' convention, and the mysterious accident of the boating lake—prepare for a whirlwind adventure, laced with humor and a dash of the macabre. This book will delight fans of Agatha Christie, Arthur Conan Doyle, and Edward Gorey. • This is a collection of darkly humorous puzzles. • Features illustrations in a gorgeous gothic style by Stephanie von Reiswitz • Perfect for Edward Gorey fans, mystery buffs, puzzle addicts, and fans of true crime podcasts and TV shows • You'll love this book if you love books like The Gashlycrumb by Edward Gorey, File Under: 13 Suspicious Incidents by Lemony Snicket, and The Composer Is Dead by Lemony Snicket.

A Measure of Murder

A Measure of Murder
Author: Leslie Karst
Publisher: Crooked Lane Books
Total Pages: 336
Release: 2017-02-07
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1683310217

Sally Solari is busy juggling work at her family’s Italian restaurant, Solari’s, and helping Javier plan the autumn menu for the restaurant she’s just inherited, Gauguin. Complicating this already hectic schedule, Sally joins her ex-boyfriend Eric’s chorus, which is performing a newly discovered version of her favorite composition: the Mozart Requiem. But then, at the first rehearsal, a tenor falls to his death on the church courtyard--and his soprano girlfriend is sure it wasn’t an accident. Now Sally's back on another murder case mixed in with a dash of revenge, a pinch of peril, and a suspicious stack of sheet music. And while tensions in the chorus heat up, so does the kitchen at Gauguin--set aflame right as Sally starts getting too close to the truth. Can Sally catch the killer before she’s burnt to a crisp, or will the case grow as cold as yesterday’s leftovers? In a stew of suspects and restaurateurs, trouble boils over in the second in Leslie Karst’s tasty and tantalizing Sally Solari mystery series, A Measure of Murder.

Lethal Vintage

Lethal Vintage
Author: Nadia Gordon
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Total Pages: 308
Release: 2011-05-27
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1452103496

A Napa Valley chef turns up the heat on a killer at a billionaire’s pool party in this mystery from the author of Murder Alfresco. A decadent day of poolside sunbathing turns into a scandalous night—culminating in murder. By morning, the police are pounding on Sunny McCoskey’s door, and she is thrust into the center of a tense investigation involving a hedge-fund billionaire with a spectacular estate in California’s Napa Valley. Restaurant owner Sunny McCoskey and her usually fun-loving friends must juggle their culinary pursuits and a variety of suspicious characters in this delicious mystery. Steeped in good food, great wine, and plenty of summer heat, Lethal Vintage offers a fascinating look at what goes on in those mansions above the vines. Praise for Sharpshooter “[Sunny] is bright, tenacious, and extremely likable, and Gordon paints a vivid portrait of the Napa Valley and its wine-and-food culture. I’m looking forward to many more novels in this intriguing new series.” —Marcia Muller, New York Times–bestselling author of the Sharon McCone mysteries “Napa Valley, the good life, sunny skies, fine cuisine, and fleshy reds. But, isn’t there something murky at the bottom of the bottle? Yes, and it is murder, no less. The mystery of wine . . . If a wine does not have some mystery to it, we call it plonk. Sharpshooter is not plonk. A crime novel with taste.” —Kermit Lynch, author of Adventures on the Wine Route “Those of us who enjoy an authentic look into another culture while reading a mystery are going to enjoy joining Nadia Gordon in the wild, weird wine industry.” —Tony Hillerman, New York Times–bestselling author of the Leaphorn and Chee novels

Murder Al Dente

Murder Al Dente
Author: Nancy Skopin
Publisher:
Total Pages: 389
Release: 2019-01-22
Genre:
ISBN: 9781794630055

"An intuitive detective, a kidnapped child, and an assassin with a heart of gold ..."In Murder Al Dente, PI Nicoli "Nikki" Hunter once again gets herself in hot water when she's hired by a multimillionaire boat owner, (and sex toy manufacturer,) to find out who's trying to kill him. Nikki has barely begun her investigation when he's found dead aboard his mega yacht. The cause of death appears to be suicide, but Nikki knows better and believes it's up to her to bring his killer to justice. As she's delving into her deceased client's background, a woman calls asking for help. Her four-year-old daughter has been abducted and the police have no leads. Realizing that time may be running out for the little girl, Nikki agrees to take her case as well and embarks on what turns out to be a truly labyrinthine journey to save a child's life. Murder Al Dente is the 9th novel in award winning author, Nancy Skopin's, Nikki Hunter mystery series.