The Cooking School Murders

Eugenia Potter #1

by Virginia Rich

Mrs. Eugenia Potter, an attractive widow of a certain age, arranges an adult cooking class in a small town. When classmates, some of whom are also friends, turn up dead, she needs more than a recipe to avoid disaster.

Genres: Mystery, Cozy Mystery, Fiction, Cozy, Food and Drink, Mystery Thriller, Cookbooks

203 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published June 1, 1982

About the author

Virginia Rich was the creator of the widowed culinary sleuth Eugenia Potter. She was happily married herself, to cattleman Ray Rich; their daughter Susan Rich Sheridan is a noted art teacher.

Rich's fan and fellow mystery writer Nancy Pickard has continued the Eugenia Potter "Cooking School Murder" series, working from the boxes of notes Virginia Rich had made of plans for future novels.

Reviews

[Elaine Nickolan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an enjoyable read that kept the reader guessing "who done it" to almost the very end.
After the first night of the adult cooking class three people are dead. How and why are the questions on everyone's lips in this small town in Iowa.
Mrs. Price tries to figure things out and someone is watching to see how close she might come to figure it all out.
I would consider reading another in this series in the future.

[Joan · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 out of 4 stars rating. I’ve been confused how to rate this book. It was a good cozy mystery, but not a GREAT cozy mystery. I enjoyed the homelike small town setting, charming characters, and the book’s ending with a good twist. My main problem with the book was the amount of characters introduced into the story. The book may have been set in the very small town of Harrington, Iowa population 4785. But, did I have to meet so many of its inhabitants! The author used a delightful older woman, Eugenia Potter, to move the plot forward. She is the amateur detective who questions everyone in town and goes home to write sometimes implausible murder stories on her yellow writing tablets at night. Picturing some of her scenarios will make you laugh out loud. Written card recipes are included in the book along with a few short recipes written as a few lines during the story. I do plan to read more of this series. Happy reading!

[Tammy King Carlton · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a light murder mystery - nothing graphic, or horrifying. Although also rather dull. I finished it because it was a book club read, but really had to push myself to get through it.

[Monica Willyard Moen]

This is an enchanting blend of mystery, history, friendship, and good food. This mystery includes recipes. I didn’t want this book to and because I wanted to stay in the enchanting community the author has created in this book.

[Susan]

Reread.

[Jan C · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was okay. Interesting cast of characters. Problem was that most of these people had known each other all their lives. So they thought they knew everything about each other. They didn’t.

Eugenia Potter (who seems to have more houses than the average person) gets together a cooking school to be taught by a cooking/food columnist from Chicago. Takes place in a small town in Iowa. The author is from Iowa and has worked, among other places, on a Chicago newspaper.

The day after the first meeting of the cooking school, a newcomer is found stabbed to death outside her apartment, a neighbor is found in his garage with the motor still running and an ambiguous note is found on his desk addressed to her; and a teacher is found drowned.

‘Genia thinks it is a little too neat. Everyone else thinks it is all over with. Actually, everyone is afraid of what might come out. But she won't let it go.

It was an interesting story. Not great. It does have some recipes. Not certain that I would try any of them, however.

[Laura Mitchell · Rating 1 out of 5]

I didn't "log" this book earlier because I wasn't sure I would finish it - took me AT LEAST a week to read. I had great difficulty getting into the story line, for some of the following reasons:
1. The story is told from the perspective of an elderly woman, with whom I felt no connection. So not "Miss Marple", but I think that might have been the intent.
2. There are frequent "side trips", tangental story lines, paranthetical comments, daydreams and flashbacks that have little or no bearing on the plot (unless they ARE the plot, in which case the title is misleading).
3. Although this character is portrayed as trying to solve the mystery, she is incredibly inept at gathering information, preferring instead to make up scenarios for how each of the various characters could have committed the crime. Focus is on "opportunity" rather than "who benefits".

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book took a while to grab my attention. I struggled with the formatting, the small font, and the way it kept switching from first to third person. Once it did grab my attention I was very invested in figuring out how the murders were connected, but the ending was a little much. Bertha being the killer was a surprise, but her motives were the part I struggled with. This was a case of the haves and the have nots and trying to prove yourself worthy, but really it was just sad delusions. I was a little confused about whether or not Greg and Charlie really did announce their engagement, or if it was just wishful thinking on her part. I may consider reading another book in this series, but I will not go out of my way to find the next one.

[Christine · Rating 1 out of 5]

Things I learned while reading this book - small towns in Iowa have murder rates equal to that of Detroit; the term cooking school can be broadly defined; older citizens of small towns in Iowa speak as if they live on the misty moors in England; cops in small towns have to purchase "how to" books when investigating crimes; and anyone, anyone can get a book published.

Okay it wasn't that bad, but it wasn't great. My only hope is that the author passed away after writing her second book of the series, maybe she would have improved?

[Corinne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Took me so long to get thru this book. I had a hard time getting into it & there was so many extraneous things that had nothing to do with the big picture.

[AngryGreyCat · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Cooking School Murder has been on my TBR for quite a while. Ever since I got hooked into Culinary cozies with the Diane Mott Davidson series, I meant to read the series that is supposed to be the one that started the genre and that is this series, the Eugenie Potter series by Virginia Rich. Virginia Rich published this book, the first in the series in 1982. She published 2 more books in the series before her death. She left notes for a couple more and her friend, Nancy Pickard continued the series.

The title is somewhat of a misnomer, the mystery is not really about a cooking school, the book starts off with a group people who signed up at Eugenie’s request for an Adult Education Cooking course being offered in the Home Ec Room at the local High School. After the murder(s) occur, the course is not revisited.

The good here: I loved the character of Eugenie, the food descriptions, the recipes. The crime was interesting and clever. There is an acknowledgement of classism, which was surprising for the time period. The historical context of the development of culinary cozies is easy to trace from this. Typical things we still see in modern culinary cozies occur here such as, events occur in the story and Eugenie cooks a dish or describes a dish. The townsfolk being introduced, especially in the first book in a series, and the small town “everyone knows everyone” atmosphere which are staples in many cozies. She even uses a technique I even seen in other series of writing out scenarios for how each of her “suspects” could have done it”, as a way of showing the sleuth’s thoughts.

The bad:

It does have a dated feel to it, which is understandable to a certain extent, but I was an adult in the 80s and this feels dated to me. Particularly in the discussion of homosexuality in relation to the character of Edward and to the use of the word gay. This might be because there is somewhat of a Christian bend here. Also in general some of the techniques, like her self dialogue as to her suspects “stories” are clunky.

Overall, I am glad that I read this, simply because it was interesting to see how Culinary cozies have developed.

[A.J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

53 chapters
377 pages

Very nice. Not too far into it, I had my suspect and the clue that made him the murderer. And then, about a chapter or two before the heroine, Mrs. Eugenia (Genia) Potter, came to my conclusion, I wondered if maybe it could be someone I’d suspected not of actually committing the murder but of being involved. And then Mrs. P and I learn together that my “could be involved in the mystery” was right—because the person is involved: as the murderer!

Excellent ride. Keeps you guessing. And Mrs. P’s funny, charming, a little thick (slow to realize her nephew, Greg, had fallen for “Charlie” and she him), but a pleasant new find. Unfortunately, Virginia Rich passed away after two more sequels and then one more after written by a friend of hers (I think, or maybe a fan). If the first story’s anything to go by, I’ll be sorry to come to the end of the series. I like Mrs. P—she’s the etiquette-and-cooking version of another Mrs. P (Mrs. Pollifax) without the espionage and CIA connections.

Three deaths all in one weekend: murder, suicide, accidental…or were they? The first, yes. Pretty hard to suspect a young girl being carotid (is that the correct spelling for having one’s throat cut?) as anything but murder, but the other two? Therein lie the mysteries. To find out how they relate, you’ll have to read the story, and I don’t think you’ll be sorry. Not only do you meet a new heroine who takes you back to her 1920’s/1930’s childhood on her family’s Iowan farm, meet a town replete with interesting characters (a real, um, dominatrix and her milquetoast husband and their, um, queer son; new Christians, overzealous in their religiosity (and their preacher with delusions of grandeur); an old maid married to a man with perhaps a “closeted” feminine side—just to list a few), receive entertaining and cooking advice from the various residents, but you also get recipes at the end. You’ve heard of “dinner and a movie”? Well, this is “dinner in your book”—and some very interesting recipes, too.

Enjoy the read and some additions to your food repertoire.

Grade: A+

[Stephen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I understand that it is heresy to criticize the Mother of the Genre but Virginia Rich's first novel "The Cooking School Murders" failed to hold my interest. Rich (1914–1985) is properly credited with the invention of the cozy culinary murder mystery. Hers stories are "cozy" in the sense that they do not include torture and gore and "culinary" in the sense that they involve food (and even include recipes). The writing is too intentionally feminine for me: the pattern on the place mats in the dining room, the colours of every article of clothing, the jewelry worn by each character, which flowers were in bloom. I was especially annoyed by a device which she used too liberally whereby the amateur detective takes out her yellow legal pad and writes out what she knows (or thinks she knows) about the case. While this serves the literary function of summing up what we know at each point in the story, it is too heavy handed, clunky and obvious for me. Rich was a food editor at Sunset Magazine. In the same way that ee cummings flunked punctuation, Virginia Rich flunked chapterisation: her book is one very long chapter. Rich introduced Eugenia Potter, a widow who spent part of the year on a ranch in Arizona and part on the Maine coast, in this novel. She wrote two more in the series -- "The Baked Bean Supper Murders" (1983) and "The Nantucket Diet Murders" (1985) -- before her death. Her heirs then chose Nancy J. Pickard, the author of over a dozen cozy mysteries, to complete several manuscripts which Mrs. Rich left unfinished. These were published as "The 27 Ingredient Chili Con Carne Murders" (1993), "The Blue Corn Murders" (1998), and "The Secret Ingredient Murders" (2001). I believe I will attempt the one about chili con carne, only because I already bought it and it sits insistently on my to-be-read shelf.

[Dawn Kramer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Cozy Mysteries also Culinary ones too. Lately I have been reading ones that came out in the 1980's-1990's. This book was published in 1982-1983. It takes place in Harrington Iowa in a small town where everyone knows everybody. Mrs Potter a widow in her sixties is the main character. Eleven people come to the first Cooking School Class and three are murdered at the end of the class. The mystery is about Mrs Potter visiting each of the people that were at the class (they are all people she grew up with and our her friends still). She is very descriptive of each character and goes back to when they were all younger. She also goes back to when she was growing up and talks about the way things were. She also describes the good dishes that they grew up on and what was prepared at each friend she has dinner who were at the class that night. The small town has never had anything like this happen. Just as they write the case off as solved (which she felt something wasn't right and she starts investigating it herself). The real murderer comes after her. At the end she's on a plane heading for her ranch leaving Hartwell behind. I'm going to continue with reading the series.
The author passed away before her 4th mystery was published, author Nancy Pickard co-wrote this book with her.Taking the notes the author had left for future stories Nancy Pickard wrote the remaining books 5 and 6.

[Karissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Eugenia Potter is delighted at her coupe in snagging Chicago author and chef Mr. Redmond to give an adult cooking class at the high school. Convincing many of her long-time friends and neighbors to attend, the class is a success. Until...three of the attendees are found dead. One had her throat slit, one drowned, and one was found dead in his garage an apparent suicide. Questioning all of her friends and neighbors, 'Genia finds that noone has an airtight alibi and almost everyone had a reason to want one or all of the people gone. The consensus is that it was a murder, suicide and an accidental drowning. But that doesn't set well with 'Genia and as she continues to dig, she places herself right in the path of danger. This had a fantastic surprise ending, lovely old-fashioned sense of place and time, and a truly gorgeous setting.

[Janet · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm of two minds about this book. One one hand, and in places I really liked it. It was old-fashioned, harking back to earlier times and memories of even earlier ones. With delicious descriptions of food, country cooking and gourmet some of it was very enjoyable to read. But I didn't really warm to the narrator Eugenia and her cronies who were the "creme-de-la-creme" of the small town and some of her memories of a privileged childhood showed what I think was a stuck-up and snooty child with snooty friends. Perhaps later books will allow me to warm to her but I hope recipes will be included. I feel cheated that there were none in this book.

[Denise Spicer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wealthy widow Genia returns to her Iowa hometown to spend the summer in her lakefront cottage. And she gets caught up in ----- Murder(s). Although there are interesting characters and nice descriptions of the rural, small town setting, the plot and ending are not really convincing. The Summer School Community Ed class features Genia and her friends taking a class from a distinguished cookbook author. When Genia investigates te crime, she questions both her wealthy society friends as well as working class old childhood schoolmates. And of course there is the obligatory "swishy" cook/caretaker of one of the cottages. The book includes recipes.

[Terri · Rating 2 out of 5]

Discovered this series from reading later one. I like the later ones the best, this one the least. I hate when Eugenia ('Genia) writes her own scenarios of what might have happened. Definitely a privileged life is led, this lady has at least 3 homes in different states, a big ranch in Arizona, an old- home place on a lake in Iowa, and a place by the ocean in Maine.. She's always giving dinner parties, but spends a lot of time just walking around, thinking and talking to herself. The series is started by Virginia Rich, and later written by Nancy Pickard.

[Carole Donald · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love a good classic murder mystery. Sadly this book was not one. The author spent too much time describing the scenery and not enough time building the characters. Even the recipes were bad. I found myself skipping pages at a time. When I got to the end I really didn't care who the murder was I just wanted to be finished.

[Stephanie Olson]

"There are very few small secrets in a small town, even though certain large mysteries may remain quietly buried for years."

"Everything that happens in NY happens here. The only differnce is that here you know the people."

so Tahsis

[Jane · Rating 2 out of 5]

One interesting thing about this book is that Eugenia Potter wrote out plausible story lines featuring just about everyone in the book as the murderer. Of course you know it will be someone else, but I still didn't have it figured out. It was ok but not a great book.

[Caroline · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was interesting to read this first book in the series after reading the third one. I’ve done that before but in this case, the series author only write the first 2. Not sure yet if I prefer one version of Mrs. Potter over the other but the books have been good reads

[Gloria Mccracken · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first in a pretty good series, but the pacing was rather slow, even toward the end. I couldn't find it very impelling, despite an interesting protagonist.

[Raymond · Rating 2 out of 5]

Giving up halfway through this one. I don't care how it ends.

[Barbra · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was written in the eighties, but was still a good mystery it kept me guessing until the end.

[Khanson919 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good cozy mystery with a twist ending that did not seem forced.

[Linda Wallace · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reread . first read over 30 years ago & must have enjoyed it as I bought a copy.
I found this time that it was a bit slow going. Too many characters & too much description.

[Suzanne Bratcher · Rating 3 out of 5]

An old fashioned murder mystery, "The Cooking School Murders," Revolves around cooking as much as it does around murder. Fans of Diane Mott Davidson's books are sure to enjoy this series.

[Maureads · Rating 2 out of 5]

There were more questions than answers, and perhaps more foes than friends for Genia.

[Peacefulbookery · Rating 3 out of 5]

Iconic culinary cosy mystery. Don't ask more of it than you would a Hallmark movie.