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Malice Domestic #14
Parnell Hall Presents Malice Domestic 14: Mystery Most Edible
The Malice Domestic anthology series returns with a new take on mysteries in the Agatha Christie tradition -- 36 original tales with a culinary bent! Included A Cup of Tea, by Parnell Hall
Brown Recluse, by Marcia Adair
A Slice of Heaven,, by Laura Brennan
The Extra Ingredient, by Joan Long
A Death in Yelapa, by Leslie Budewitz
The Pie Sisters, by Richard Cass
Too Many Cooks Almost Spoil the Murder, by Lynne Ewing
Pig Lickin’ Good, by Debra H. Goldstein
Quiche Alain, by Marni Graff
Diet of Death, by Ang Pompano
Death at the Willard Hotel, by Verena Rose
Dining Out, by Rosemary McCracken
Snowbirding, by Kristin Kisska
Up Day Down Day Deadly Day, by Ellen Larson
The Secret Blend, by Stacy Woodson
First of the Year, by Gabriel Valjan
Sticky Fingers, by LD Masterson
The Cremains of the Day, by Josh Pachter
Honor Thy Father, by Harriette Sackler
Killer Chocolate Chips, by Ruth McCarty
Sushi Lessons, by Edith Maxwell
The Missing Ingredient for Murderous Intent, by Elizabeth Perona
It’s Canning Season, by Adele Polomski
The Gourmand, by Nancy Cole Silverman
The Blue Ribbon, by Cynthia Kuhn
The Last Word, by Shawn Reilly Simmons
Murder Takes the Cupcake, by Kate Willett
Bull Dog Gravy, by Mark Thielman
Morsels of the Gods, by Victoria Thompson
Mrs. Beeton’s Sausage Stuffing, by Christine Trent
Bring It, by Terry Shames
Gutbombs ’n’ Guinness, by Lisa Preston
Deadly In-Flight Dining, by Sara Rosett
Carne Diem, by Sharon Lynn
Turn the Sage, by Stephen D. Rogers
Bad Ju-Ju, by M.A. Monnin
Brown Recluse, by Marcia Adair
A Slice of Heaven,, by Laura Brennan
The Extra Ingredient, by Joan Long
A Death in Yelapa, by Leslie Budewitz
The Pie Sisters, by Richard Cass
Too Many Cooks Almost Spoil the Murder, by Lynne Ewing
Pig Lickin’ Good, by Debra H. Goldstein
Quiche Alain, by Marni Graff
Diet of Death, by Ang Pompano
Death at the Willard Hotel, by Verena Rose
Dining Out, by Rosemary McCracken
Snowbirding, by Kristin Kisska
Up Day Down Day Deadly Day, by Ellen Larson
The Secret Blend, by Stacy Woodson
First of the Year, by Gabriel Valjan
Sticky Fingers, by LD Masterson
The Cremains of the Day, by Josh Pachter
Honor Thy Father, by Harriette Sackler
Killer Chocolate Chips, by Ruth McCarty
Sushi Lessons, by Edith Maxwell
The Missing Ingredient for Murderous Intent, by Elizabeth Perona
It’s Canning Season, by Adele Polomski
The Gourmand, by Nancy Cole Silverman
The Blue Ribbon, by Cynthia Kuhn
The Last Word, by Shawn Reilly Simmons
Murder Takes the Cupcake, by Kate Willett
Bull Dog Gravy, by Mark Thielman
Morsels of the Gods, by Victoria Thompson
Mrs. Beeton’s Sausage Stuffing, by Christine Trent
Bring It, by Terry Shames
Gutbombs ’n’ Guinness, by Lisa Preston
Deadly In-Flight Dining, by Sara Rosett
Carne Diem, by Sharon Lynn
Turn the Sage, by Stephen D. Rogers
Bad Ju-Ju, by M.A. Monnin
- GenresMystery
401 pages, Paperback
First published March 18, 2019
24 people are currently reading
95 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
June 11, 2019
This is a collection of 36 short stories originally available at the Malice Domestic conference in 2019. As the title suggests, each story revolves around food in some way. Whether it’s a poisoned tea party or death by airline food, you’ll find plenty of murder and mayhem here. Some of the authors use this to tell a story with their series sleuths. That’s the case with Parnell Hall, who opens the collection with his puzzle lady, Cora Felton. Some authors take you back in time, like Victoria Thompson. Others weave a great tale with characters created for their story here, like Nancy Cole Silverman.
As if often the case with short story collections, a few weren’t to my taste, particularly those stories where the villain managed to get out of the hot water he or she should have been in. Most, however, are purely delectable, with a fun twist or two along the way to the climax and characters that draw you in. Whether the author included their series characters or not, each story can be read on its own. There might be a wink and a nod that series fans will get, but nothing that will distract you as you sample that author’s world. There aren’t any recipes, but with a book that is almost 400 pages long, it’s hard to imagine how large it would have been if they had included some.
Read my full review at Carstairs Considers.
As if often the case with short story collections, a few weren’t to my taste, particularly those stories where the villain managed to get out of the hot water he or she should have been in. Most, however, are purely delectable, with a fun twist or two along the way to the climax and characters that draw you in. Whether the author included their series characters or not, each story can be read on its own. There might be a wink and a nod that series fans will get, but nothing that will distract you as you sample that author’s world. There aren’t any recipes, but with a book that is almost 400 pages long, it’s hard to imagine how large it would have been if they had included some.
Read my full review at Carstairs Considers.
April 9, 2024
So I picked up the three latest editions of the recently revived Malice Domestic series (because I never learn), totally unaware that the number of stories making it into the books has exploded. I gave up on talking about each of them regardless of impressions by number 19, when the review was 5 pages long and I still had another 17 left to get through. If I’m masochistic enough to review the next two, I’m going to do what I was doing for massive compilations like
100 Malicious Little Mysteries
and
100 Wicked Little Witch Stories
and just mention the standouts.
Now join me, while I tear my hair out and regret everything.
Parnell Hall starts us off with A Cup of Tea, about a crossword guru hired to investigate the death of her own hostess. The main character is brusque and abrasive, and the story features the most helpless, hand-wringing cop I’ve ever read. The mystery/murder plot was good whenever I could ignore the characters, but I really don’t have much patience for short story mysteries that use the reduced length to focus on the characters and rush through the plot. It was a good story but this writer isn’t my cup of tea.
A widow is cruelly nicknamed the Brown Recluse in this Marcia Adair story. With rumours swirling about her husband’s death, she’s desperate for a friend to relieve her loneliness, but is she trusting the wrong person? The story was great, and took a sharp turn at what you think is going to be the ending. A little too sharp, perhaps, the introduction of the third main character was out of no where and there was no reason for the widow to trust anything she said; quite the opposite. But trust her she does, and I hope they all have a fantastic cover story.
A mental health worker is tempted by A Slice of Heaven (by Laura Brennan). Hot fucking damn what a good story. Glorious, sneaky, surprising, A+. Also, it involves cats.
Welcome to a beloved southern diner, where you’ll be welcomed with good home cooking, and sometimes, if you’re one of those customers, The Extra Ingredient (by Joan Long). And thus we see the problem with acting as judge and jury. Hopefully the protagonist isn’t a murderer, but I love this idea of how the trope can go wrong.
On their Mexico honeymoon, newlyweds stumble into a dangerous situation when they uncover A Death in Yelapa. Leslie Budewitz may have been a little too heavy-handed with her clues – the reader knows the ‘who’, ‘how’, and ‘why’ before the murder ever happens – but that doesn’t stop it from being entertaining and enjoyable. I’m hoping that these characters are part of a series, I’d like to check them out.
An unpleasant family situation is righted by good home cooking. The Pie Sisters by Richard Cass is a bittersweet story and an unfortunate situation, am I’m amused by the fact that the only reason the plot worked is because everyone but the sisters are men who must leave all the cooking to their wives. Otherwise they wouldn’t have believed the sister’s feigned ignorance for a second. If you get your pie from someone else, sure, you probably wouldn’t have picked up on this obvious red flag, but these girls grow the fruit in question and prepare it themselves. I’d be curious if anyone with this fruit in their garden isn’t aware of how and why to prepare it a certain way. And it was straight up served to the doctor! Nerves of steel!
The cooking competition circuit can be cut throat, and in this case Too Many Cooks Almost Spoil the Murder (by Lynne Ewing). A damn good story of recipe theft and revenge.
After her father’s death, and every year since, a young woman’s mother swore up and down to never make another Pig Lickin’ cake again, and every year she breaks that promise. Pig Lickin’ Good by Debra H. Goldstein is a little confusing, but it’s fine. The cake sound like it might be an acquired taste, though. Mandarin oranges?
Aging star Wanda Jackson is almost finished her last role: herself, in her TV movie autobiography. The last scene is set to go, and only needs one last touch. The Quiche Alain, the to-die-for signature dish of her past lover. Marni Graff gives us a great story, great characters, and a disgusting motive. Not that I’m not all for the concept, but because the killer was hiding behind it as an excuse to play God. Great plot and you want to shake the killer until his teeth rattle.
The male face behind newspaper column ‘Cooking With Betty’ must schmooze and fake his way through a face-to-face meeting with a diet guru who he’d panned before. The plot of Diet of Death (by Ang Pompano) was pretty great, but I didn’t care for the main character’s ungrateful attitude. And the cops were... a little on the nose.
“So, there was no murder and no crime,” I said.
Officer Anderson’s voice was confident. “There was a crime. We just have to figure out what it was.”
(Ang Pompano, Parnell Hall Presents Malice Domestic: Mystery Most Edible [Diet of Death], p.-- [ebook])
There is a political Death at the Willard Hotel (by Verena Rose) during a pre-Civil War wedding reception, but there isn’t a whole lot to the story. The characters are introduced, the setting and motive, then the murder happens and… that’s the end. No satisfaction.
Rosemary McCracken gives us a delicious story with Dining Out, where a restaurant reviewer is on the verge of loosing his column and his bribes until he finds a protegee to manipulate, but the young woman is no doe-eyed dupe. Talking about satisfying conclusions, I’m loving all the revenge plots in this compilation.
A pair of older woman are planning to leave behind the bitter Maine winters for sunny Florida in Snowbirding by Kristin Kisska, but a similar scenario had played out before with unfavorable conditions. This is a clever story that jumps around between timelines.
It’s not a good day for dieters when a competition turns deadly. Not only was the story and solution for Up Day Down Day Deadly Day (by Ellen Larson) creative and entertaining, but it’s very educational about the different kinds of fad diets. I actually learned a lot from this one. Just don’t ask me to read the title out loud three times fast.
After one too many problems raises suspicions in a restaurant owner’s mind, she takes one last stab at the problem with The Secret Blend (by Stacy Woodson). This one is a damn good story of industrial sabotage.
A restaurant reviewer is invited to give a restaurant a second chance, but it’s the last meal he’ll ever have. First of the Year by Gabriel Valjan is a good mystery, but it was… an interesting choice to make an asshole cop the protagonist. All it did was make me want to see him dead, too, to the point where I wasn’t paying much attention to the plot. He was on administrative leave; from what I can find I don’t think he even could arrest someone. I hope the murderer’s lawyer destroys him in court. Dick.
A dead man’s debts come back to haunt his family in Sticky Fingers by LD Masterson. The plot is pretty sneaky, but I was expecting something more from the solution given the premise.
The Cremains of the Day by Josh Pachter isn’t a mystery at all, just a dull, silly story about a cop and her love of donuts. A crime is solved right at the end, kind of, so I suppose the editors decided that was enough for it to squeak into the collection.
A cruel man dies, and his son struggles to find a way to Honor Thy Father (by Harriette Sackler). The story is good; nothing that stands out.
Aaaaand, I give up. The collection has petered out and there’s just Too Many Stories to get through them one by one.
The only standouts past this point are Victoria Thompson’s story Morsels of the Gods about a bonfire party that turns into a beautiful example of justice over legality, and Terry Shames’s Bring It which has a similar theme but the more selfish motivation of a belittled wife getting back at her husband.
Shawn Reilly Simmons's The Last Word (a chef confronts an old friend over a cataclismic review) has a satisfying twist, and while Lisa Preton’s Gutbombs ’n’ Guinness (two traveling companions may be witnesses to a murder) nearly drove me to drink (incredibly boring protags), the killer’s motive was refreshingly mundane. I know that doesn’t sound like a compliment but it really is my favorite motive of the book; it’s so comically bratty.
Sara Rosett weaves a tale of a plane full of odd ducks and a cheerful, extroverted artist who succumbs to Deadly In-Flight Dining, and it’s an interesting, exciting story that’s one of my favorite short stories in general. There’s quite a few characters but they’re crafted very well and you never feel like the story is overloaded with them, the murder is ingenious, and the motive is cleverly concealed with careful word choices. I’m a sucker for using language to trick the reader, like the tricky title of The Murder of My Aunt .
Turn the Sage by Stephen D. Rogers could be brilliant fun, but it depends on how you interpret it (A young woman comes home for thanksgiving and the holiday ends in her funeral). Initially, it was the most absurd thing I’d ever read. The protagonist and her ‘sidekick’ invade the privacy of a grieving family whose famous daughter had just died. It’s never established if they knew the victim or just knew of her, so they could have just been allowed in because the family was being tolerant of the local support and entertaining everyone who wanted to stop and offer their condolences. Then the protag gets huffy and rude about the family’s Thanksgiving dinner menu, and accuses them of a ridiculous murder plot. I legit rolled my eyes when I read it.
But after thinking of it for the few days it’s taken me to write this review, it could be that Turn the Sage was meant to be absurd. Because there’s never an indication one way or another, it’s entirely plausible that the protag wasn’t meant to be taken seriously. That she’s supposed to be seen as a busybody sticking her nose in her neighbors’ business. This way, the murder plot makes way more sense. It goes from being a strain on the reader’s credulity, to being drama created from whole cloth for attention. I hope the police dispatcher laughs at her.
Finally, M.A. Monnin rounds out the book with Bad Ju-Ju, about a down-on-her-luck young woman come home to visit her aunt. They saved the best for last, and this story was a puzzling, thrilling ride.
EDITING:
Didn’t notice any problems.
ENJOYABILITY:
There were a lot of good stories, and a few great ones, but I’m taking a star off for how incredibly long it was. Maybe it would have been better reading it as a paperback so I could have seen the thickness in comparison with the previous Malice Domestics I own, but as an ebook it just went on forever, and there weren’t enough great stories in it to make the length feel anything but tedious.
THEME:
The theme was ‘mysteries with food’ so it stuck to it expect for one story. The Cremains of the Day by Josh Pachter isn’t a mystery. I wouldn’t even call it a crime story. It’s just a ride-along with a cop while she complains about her errands and waxes poetic about a doughnut. It doesn’t effect the score much, though, since there’re so many stories that it’s just a drop in the bucket.
THE VERDICT?
It was a good collection and as much as the length throws me off I’m glad the series has made a return.
Now join me, while I tear my hair out and regret everything.
Parnell Hall starts us off with A Cup of Tea, about a crossword guru hired to investigate the death of her own hostess. The main character is brusque and abrasive, and the story features the most helpless, hand-wringing cop I’ve ever read. The mystery/murder plot was good whenever I could ignore the characters, but I really don’t have much patience for short story mysteries that use the reduced length to focus on the characters and rush through the plot. It was a good story but this writer isn’t my cup of tea.
A widow is cruelly nicknamed the Brown Recluse in this Marcia Adair story. With rumours swirling about her husband’s death, she’s desperate for a friend to relieve her loneliness, but is she trusting the wrong person? The story was great, and took a sharp turn at what you think is going to be the ending. A little too sharp, perhaps, the introduction of the third main character was out of no where and there was no reason for the widow to trust anything she said; quite the opposite. But trust her she does, and I hope they all have a fantastic cover story.
A mental health worker is tempted by A Slice of Heaven (by Laura Brennan). Hot fucking damn what a good story. Glorious, sneaky, surprising, A+. Also, it involves cats.
Welcome to a beloved southern diner, where you’ll be welcomed with good home cooking, and sometimes, if you’re one of those customers, The Extra Ingredient (by Joan Long). And thus we see the problem with acting as judge and jury. Hopefully the protagonist isn’t a murderer, but I love this idea of how the trope can go wrong.
On their Mexico honeymoon, newlyweds stumble into a dangerous situation when they uncover A Death in Yelapa. Leslie Budewitz may have been a little too heavy-handed with her clues – the reader knows the ‘who’, ‘how’, and ‘why’ before the murder ever happens – but that doesn’t stop it from being entertaining and enjoyable. I’m hoping that these characters are part of a series, I’d like to check them out.
An unpleasant family situation is righted by good home cooking. The Pie Sisters by Richard Cass is a bittersweet story and an unfortunate situation, am I’m amused by the fact that the only reason the plot worked is because everyone but the sisters are men who must leave all the cooking to their wives. Otherwise they wouldn’t have believed the sister’s feigned ignorance for a second. If you get your pie from someone else, sure, you probably wouldn’t have picked up on this obvious red flag, but these girls grow the fruit in question and prepare it themselves. I’d be curious if anyone with this fruit in their garden isn’t aware of how and why to prepare it a certain way. And it was straight up served to the doctor! Nerves of steel!
The cooking competition circuit can be cut throat, and in this case Too Many Cooks Almost Spoil the Murder (by Lynne Ewing). A damn good story of recipe theft and revenge.
After her father’s death, and every year since, a young woman’s mother swore up and down to never make another Pig Lickin’ cake again, and every year she breaks that promise. Pig Lickin’ Good by Debra H. Goldstein is a little confusing, but it’s fine. The cake sound like it might be an acquired taste, though. Mandarin oranges?
Aging star Wanda Jackson is almost finished her last role: herself, in her TV movie autobiography. The last scene is set to go, and only needs one last touch. The Quiche Alain, the to-die-for signature dish of her past lover. Marni Graff gives us a great story, great characters, and a disgusting motive. Not that I’m not all for the concept, but because the killer was hiding behind it as an excuse to play God. Great plot and you want to shake the killer until his teeth rattle.
The male face behind newspaper column ‘Cooking With Betty’ must schmooze and fake his way through a face-to-face meeting with a diet guru who he’d panned before. The plot of Diet of Death (by Ang Pompano) was pretty great, but I didn’t care for the main character’s ungrateful attitude. And the cops were... a little on the nose.
“So, there was no murder and no crime,” I said.
Officer Anderson’s voice was confident. “There was a crime. We just have to figure out what it was.”
(Ang Pompano, Parnell Hall Presents Malice Domestic: Mystery Most Edible [Diet of Death], p.-- [ebook])
There is a political Death at the Willard Hotel (by Verena Rose) during a pre-Civil War wedding reception, but there isn’t a whole lot to the story. The characters are introduced, the setting and motive, then the murder happens and… that’s the end. No satisfaction.
Rosemary McCracken gives us a delicious story with Dining Out, where a restaurant reviewer is on the verge of loosing his column and his bribes until he finds a protegee to manipulate, but the young woman is no doe-eyed dupe. Talking about satisfying conclusions, I’m loving all the revenge plots in this compilation.
A pair of older woman are planning to leave behind the bitter Maine winters for sunny Florida in Snowbirding by Kristin Kisska, but a similar scenario had played out before with unfavorable conditions. This is a clever story that jumps around between timelines.
It’s not a good day for dieters when a competition turns deadly. Not only was the story and solution for Up Day Down Day Deadly Day (by Ellen Larson) creative and entertaining, but it’s very educational about the different kinds of fad diets. I actually learned a lot from this one. Just don’t ask me to read the title out loud three times fast.
After one too many problems raises suspicions in a restaurant owner’s mind, she takes one last stab at the problem with The Secret Blend (by Stacy Woodson). This one is a damn good story of industrial sabotage.
A restaurant reviewer is invited to give a restaurant a second chance, but it’s the last meal he’ll ever have. First of the Year by Gabriel Valjan is a good mystery, but it was… an interesting choice to make an asshole cop the protagonist. All it did was make me want to see him dead, too, to the point where I wasn’t paying much attention to the plot. He was on administrative leave; from what I can find I don’t think he even could arrest someone. I hope the murderer’s lawyer destroys him in court. Dick.
A dead man’s debts come back to haunt his family in Sticky Fingers by LD Masterson. The plot is pretty sneaky, but I was expecting something more from the solution given the premise.
The Cremains of the Day by Josh Pachter isn’t a mystery at all, just a dull, silly story about a cop and her love of donuts. A crime is solved right at the end, kind of, so I suppose the editors decided that was enough for it to squeak into the collection.
A cruel man dies, and his son struggles to find a way to Honor Thy Father (by Harriette Sackler). The story is good; nothing that stands out.
Aaaaand, I give up. The collection has petered out and there’s just Too Many Stories to get through them one by one.
The only standouts past this point are Victoria Thompson’s story Morsels of the Gods about a bonfire party that turns into a beautiful example of justice over legality, and Terry Shames’s Bring It which has a similar theme but the more selfish motivation of a belittled wife getting back at her husband.
Shawn Reilly Simmons's The Last Word (a chef confronts an old friend over a cataclismic review) has a satisfying twist, and while Lisa Preton’s Gutbombs ’n’ Guinness (two traveling companions may be witnesses to a murder) nearly drove me to drink (incredibly boring protags), the killer’s motive was refreshingly mundane. I know that doesn’t sound like a compliment but it really is my favorite motive of the book; it’s so comically bratty.
Sara Rosett weaves a tale of a plane full of odd ducks and a cheerful, extroverted artist who succumbs to Deadly In-Flight Dining, and it’s an interesting, exciting story that’s one of my favorite short stories in general. There’s quite a few characters but they’re crafted very well and you never feel like the story is overloaded with them, the murder is ingenious, and the motive is cleverly concealed with careful word choices. I’m a sucker for using language to trick the reader, like the tricky title of The Murder of My Aunt .
Turn the Sage by Stephen D. Rogers could be brilliant fun, but it depends on how you interpret it (A young woman comes home for thanksgiving and the holiday ends in her funeral). Initially, it was the most absurd thing I’d ever read. The protagonist and her ‘sidekick’ invade the privacy of a grieving family whose famous daughter had just died. It’s never established if they knew the victim or just knew of her, so they could have just been allowed in because the family was being tolerant of the local support and entertaining everyone who wanted to stop and offer their condolences. Then the protag gets huffy and rude about the family’s Thanksgiving dinner menu, and accuses them of a ridiculous murder plot. I legit rolled my eyes when I read it.
But after thinking of it for the few days it’s taken me to write this review, it could be that Turn the Sage was meant to be absurd. Because there’s never an indication one way or another, it’s entirely plausible that the protag wasn’t meant to be taken seriously. That she’s supposed to be seen as a busybody sticking her nose in her neighbors’ business. This way, the murder plot makes way more sense. It goes from being a strain on the reader’s credulity, to being drama created from whole cloth for attention. I hope the police dispatcher laughs at her.
Finally, M.A. Monnin rounds out the book with Bad Ju-Ju, about a down-on-her-luck young woman come home to visit her aunt. They saved the best for last, and this story was a puzzling, thrilling ride.
EDITING:
Didn’t notice any problems.
ENJOYABILITY:
There were a lot of good stories, and a few great ones, but I’m taking a star off for how incredibly long it was. Maybe it would have been better reading it as a paperback so I could have seen the thickness in comparison with the previous Malice Domestics I own, but as an ebook it just went on forever, and there weren’t enough great stories in it to make the length feel anything but tedious.
THEME:
The theme was ‘mysteries with food’ so it stuck to it expect for one story. The Cremains of the Day by Josh Pachter isn’t a mystery. I wouldn’t even call it a crime story. It’s just a ride-along with a cop while she complains about her errands and waxes poetic about a doughnut. It doesn’t effect the score much, though, since there’re so many stories that it’s just a drop in the bucket.
THE VERDICT?
It was a good collection and as much as the length throws me off I’m glad the series has made a return.
November 30, 2020
There were some delicious stories in this anthology that could be starter chapters for entire new books. I liked about 3/4 of these stories. The Malice team does a masterful job of getting the best authors to give their best.
The Malice Domestic anthology series returns with a new take on mysteries in the Agatha Christie tradition -- 36 original tales with a culinary bent! Included are:
A Cup of Tea, by Parnell Hall
Brown Recluse, by Marcia Adair
A Slice of Heaven, by Laura Brennan
The Extra Ingredient, by Joan Long
A Death in Yelapa, by Leslie Budewitz
The Pie Sisters, by Richard Cass
Too Many Cooks Almost Spoil the Murder, by Lynne Ewing
Pig Lickin' Good, by Debra H. Goldstein
Quiche Alain, by Marni Graff
Diet of Death, by Ang Pompano
Death at the Willard Hotel, by Verena Rose
Dining Out, by Rosemary McCracken
Snowbirding, by Kristin Kisska
Up Day Down Day Deadly Day, by Ellen Larson
The Secret Blend, by Stacy Woodson
First of the Year, by Gabriel Valjan
Sticky Fingers, by LD Masterson
The Cremains of the Day, by Josh Pachter
Honor Thy Father, by Harriette Sackler
Killer Chocolate Chips, by Ruth McCarty
Sushi Lessons, by Edith Maxwell
The Missing Ingredient for Murderous Intent, by Elizabeth Perona
It's Canning Season, by Adele Polomski
The Gourmand, by Nancy Cole Silverman
The Blue Ribbon, by Cynthia Kuhn
The Last Word, by Shawn Reilly Simmons
Murder Takes the Cupcake, by Kate Willett
Bull Dog Gravy, by Mark Thielman
Morsels of the Gods, by Victoria Thompson
Mrs. Beeton's Sausage Stuffing, by Christine Trent
Bring It, by Terry Shames
Gutbombs 'n' Guinness, by Lisa Preston
Deadly In-Flight Dining, by Sara Rosett
Carne Diem, by Sharon Lynn
Turn the Sage, by Stephen D. Rogers
Bad Ju-Ju, by M.A. Monnin (less)
The Malice Domestic anthology series returns with a new take on mysteries in the Agatha Christie tradition -- 36 original tales with a culinary bent! Included are:
A Cup of Tea, by Parnell Hall
Brown Recluse, by Marcia Adair
A Slice of Heaven, by Laura Brennan
The Extra Ingredient, by Joan Long
A Death in Yelapa, by Leslie Budewitz
The Pie Sisters, by Richard Cass
Too Many Cooks Almost Spoil the Murder, by Lynne Ewing
Pig Lickin' Good, by Debra H. Goldstein
Quiche Alain, by Marni Graff
Diet of Death, by Ang Pompano
Death at the Willard Hotel, by Verena Rose
Dining Out, by Rosemary McCracken
Snowbirding, by Kristin Kisska
Up Day Down Day Deadly Day, by Ellen Larson
The Secret Blend, by Stacy Woodson
First of the Year, by Gabriel Valjan
Sticky Fingers, by LD Masterson
The Cremains of the Day, by Josh Pachter
Honor Thy Father, by Harriette Sackler
Killer Chocolate Chips, by Ruth McCarty
Sushi Lessons, by Edith Maxwell
The Missing Ingredient for Murderous Intent, by Elizabeth Perona
It's Canning Season, by Adele Polomski
The Gourmand, by Nancy Cole Silverman
The Blue Ribbon, by Cynthia Kuhn
The Last Word, by Shawn Reilly Simmons
Murder Takes the Cupcake, by Kate Willett
Bull Dog Gravy, by Mark Thielman
Morsels of the Gods, by Victoria Thompson
Mrs. Beeton's Sausage Stuffing, by Christine Trent
Bring It, by Terry Shames
Gutbombs 'n' Guinness, by Lisa Preston
Deadly In-Flight Dining, by Sara Rosett
Carne Diem, by Sharon Lynn
Turn the Sage, by Stephen D. Rogers
Bad Ju-Ju, by M.A. Monnin (less)
February 25, 2021
Many of the stories feel like writing exercises, badly constructed and unfinished. In one story the father of the family is poisoned, the son tries to find out who did it, they find some money, end of story. Nothing is explained, no development, no resolution. In the last paragraph we are told who did it, but since this is completely unconnected to anything in the story and introduces a new character like a deus ex machina, that makes it even worse. The other stories are not much better.
June 16, 2019
Enjoyable collection with lots of good stories and interesting twists and turns
Read
October 21, 2020Read October 2020
May 16, 2023
You will enjoy every single one of these short stories involving food and murder.
February 8, 2024
Malice Domestic once again delivers a great book,
chock full of super stories--have purchased
them all! Thanks!
chock full of super stories--have purchased
them all! Thanks!
March 5, 2022
A big let down from the other Malice Domestic book (#9) that I read & rated 4 stars. Boring stories, most of which, had weak endings. The standard of writing is subpar & the overall feel is more sleazy than cozy. Also for me the book was uncomfortable, the printing was so large & spaced-out it really slowed me down when I was trying to read. Heavy rigid book added to my discomfort.
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