Alice K. Lambert is the owner of Lambert House, an elegant totally ADA-compliant bed-and-breakfast on Maui. She recently promoted her assistant Kaleo to manage the inn. This allows Alice to travel extensively and to increase her advocacy for victims of domestic violence and people with disabilities. Before beginning an adventure in Colorado with her young nephew, Stefan, Alice rents a cabin for a week in Estes Park where she attends a mushroom identification workshop. Her friend, Trish, on the run from her abusive and stalking ex-husband, also attends the workshop with her two protective brothers. They learn how to ID the many mushrooms from the area. Two mushrooms that look alike to most people are the honey mushrooms and the deadly Galerina Autumnalis. The group learns subtle visual differences and learn how to do spore prints, which provides a more definitive identification. Alice soon suspects that Trish's ex-husband is staying in a cabin near her own. Trish's brothers verify this and so they go on the road once again to escape him and Alice leaves for Denver to join her nephew for their trip. Several days later, Noah Dennison, Trish's ex-husband was found dead in his cabin, where the bedroom was set up with chains and shackles to supposedly restrain Trish. Soon it is deemed to be murder. Trish becomes the prime suspect, and Alice is determined to prove her innocence.
Robert Vanderburgh, Sr. was found at his desk, dead! He had been working late to see if there was a way of obtaining his chief rival’s company. There was no signs of violence and the death was considered to be natural, until the autopsy. As the investigation progressed, it became apparent that the death was indeed a murder. In fighting between family members brought about an unsuspecting romance between brother and half-sister.
Known as the meat of the vegetable world, mushrooms have their ardent supporters as well as their fierce detractors. Hobbits go crazy over them, while Diderot thought they should be “sent back to the dung heap where they are born.” In Mushroom, Cynthia D. Bertelsen examines the colorful history of these divisive edible fungi. As she reveals, their story is fraught with murder and accidental death, hunger and gluttony, sickness and health, religion and war. Some cultures equate them with the rottenness of life while others delight in cooking and eating them. And then there are those “magic” mushrooms, which some people link to ancient religious beliefs. To tell this story, Bertelsen travels to the nineteenth century, when mushrooms entered the realm of haute cuisine after millennia of being picked from the wild for use in everyday cooking and medicine. She describes how this new demand drove entrepreneurs and farmers to seek methods for cultivating mushrooms, including experiments in domesticating the highly sought after but elusive truffles, and she explores the popular pastime of mushroom hunting and includes numerous historic and contemporary recipes. Packed with images of mushrooms from around the globe, this savory book will be essential reading for fans of this surprising, earthy fungus.
Mushroom hunting in the Pacific Northwest puts a B&B manager on a killer’s trail in this cozy mystery by the USA Today bestselling author. Bed and breakfast manager Kelly Jackson is hosting a cooking class to celebrate Redwood Cove’s annual Mushroom Festival. But along with attracting guests, she also attracts some drama. After foraging for edible mushrooms in a nearby forest, a local newspaper reporter is found murdered at the same site—which also happens to be sacred Native American ground. As suspicions spread like fungi in the quaint Northern Californian community, Kelly and a savvy gang of sleuthing seniors known as the “Silver Sentinels” must uncover the truth about the secluded property. And they’d better identify the killer quick, before someone else gets planted in the ground.
'One of Singapore's finest living authors' South China Morning Post 'Simply glorious. Every nook and cranny of 1930s Singapore is brought richly to life' CATRIONA MCPHERSON 'Charming' RHYS BOWEN 'One of the most likeable heroines in modern literature' SCOTSMAN ________________ The Allies have defeated Germany in Europe, but Japan refuses to surrender the East. In Singapore, amid rumours the Japanese occupiers are preparing to wipe out the population of the island rather than surrender, a young aide is found murdered beneath the termite mushroom tree in Hideki Tagawa's garden and his plans for a massive poison gas bomb are missing. To prevent any more destruction it falls to Su Lin to track down the real killer with the help of Hideki Tagawa's old nemesis, the charismatic shinto priest Yoshio Yoshimo. ________________ Praise for The Mushroom Tree Mystery 'Beautifully written. . . effortless storytelling and sensitive character development make this a must-read novel for 2022' The Courier Praise for Ovidia Yu: 'Chen Su Lin is a true gem. Her slyly witty voice and her admirable, sometimes heartbreaking, practicality make her the most beguiling narrator heroine I've met in a long while' Catriona McPherson 'Charming and fascinating with great authentic feel. Ovidia Yu's teenage Chinese sleuth gives us an insight into a very different culture and time. This book is exactly why I love historical novels' Rhys Bowen 'A wonderful detective novel . . . a book that introduces one of the most likeable heroines in modern literature and should be on everyone's Must Read list' Scotsman 'Unassuming, brilliantly observant' SCMP 'Ovidia Yu's writing helped me peel back the layers to understand Singapore. The story and Chen Su Lin's initiative and tenacity, set against a backdrop of wartime Singapore, intrigued both the historian and the mystery lover in me' Kara Owens CMG CVO, British High Commissioner to Singapore
DIVWhen Finnish mushroom entrepreneur Jaakko discovers that he has been slowly poisoned, he sets out to find his would-be murderer ... with dark and hilarious results. The critically acclaimed standalone thriller from the King of Helsinki Noir... ***Shortlisted for the Petrona Award for Best Scandinavian Crime Novel of the Year*** ***Shortlisted for the CrimeFest Last Laugh Award*** 'Right up there with the best' Times Literary Supplement 'Deftly plotted, poignant and perceptive in its wry reflections on mortality and very funny' Irish Times 'Told in a darkly funny, deadpan style ... The result is a rollercoaster read in which the farce has some serious and surprisingly philosophical underpinnings' Guardian ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– A successful entrepreneur in the mushroom industry, Jaakko Kaunismaa is a man in his prime. At just thirty-seven years of age, he is shocked when his doctor tells him that he's dying. What's more, the cause is discovered to be prolonged exposure to toxins; in other words, someone has slowly but surely been poisoning him. Determined to find out who wants him dead, Jaakko embarks on a suspenseful rollercoaster journey full of unusual characters, bizarre situations and unexpected twists. With a nod to Fargo and the best elements of the Scandinavian noir tradition, The Man Who Died is a page-turning thriller brimming with the blackest comedy surrounding life and death, and love and betrayal, marking a stunning new departure for the King of Helsinki Noir. –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– 'The deadpan icy sensibility of Nordic noir is combined here with warm-blooded, often surreal, humour. Like the death cap mushroom, Tuomainen's dark story manages to be as delicious as it is toxic' Sunday Express 'An offbeat jewel ... relentlessly funny' Don Crinklaw, Publishers Weekly 'A bizarre, twisty, darkly comic novel about a man investigating his own murder ... a tightly paced Scandinavian thriller with a wicked sense of humour' Foreword Reviews 'Smart, sensitive, and engaging, and guaranteed to be unlike anything else in your crime fiction library ... the perfect blend of thrills, investigation, character development, and comedy' Crime by the Book 'Hugely entertaining and satisfying ... like Carl Hiassen transported to Finland. It's full of black comedy and has an unlikely hero in Jaakko, who you'll root for to the very end' Kevin Wignall, author of A Death in Sweden 'A delightful mad caper of a story, which will make readers snort out loud with laughter and would have made an excellent 1930s screwball comedy directed by Frank Capra' Crime Fiction Lover 'Combines a startlingly clever opening, a neat line in dark humour and a unique Scandinavian sensibility. A fresh and witty read' Chris Ewan, author of Safe House 'Dark and thrilling, funny and intelligent, this Fargo-like novel contains lethal doses of humour ... and mushrooms' Sofi Oksanen, author of Purge ‘A book I will never forget’ Matt Wesolowski ‘This one is a winner right from the first sentence’ Booklist ‘Antti Tuomainen is a wonderful writer, whose characters, plots and atmosphere are masterfully drawn’ Yrsa Sigurðardóttir ‘An original and darkly funny thriller with a Coen Brothers-esque feel & tremendous style’ Eva Dolan/div
Serving up murderous munchies at a church potluck social wouldn't win any popularity contests, as Jackie Hoffner discovered. Someone had laced the casserole she brought with poisonous mushrooms... and the deadly dish had fellow churchgoer and town fussbudget Alice Farmer pushing up daisies. Now the gossip–hungry townsfolk suspected Jackie of foul play. To prove her innocence, she decided to conduct her own murder investigation, and Trooper Dennis Walsh's helpful efforts and boy–next–door charm were welcome. Meanwhile, the town's mysterious poisoner seemed to have more victims in mind....
