Author Guest Post - Linda Wiken

Welcome author Linda Wiken to M&MM today!  For 14 years, Linda Wiken owned the mystery specialty store, Prime Crime Books in Ottawa, ON. It was with sadness and a sense of anticipation that she closed the store in 2010. 

Now, she's embarked on a life of crime between the pages. Her first novel in the Ashton Corners Book Club mysteries, A Killer Read, was published April, 2012 as her alter ego, Erika Chase, and was shortlisted for an Agatha Award for Best First Novel at the Malice Domestic conference. There are now five books in the series.

She embarked on a new writing adventure this year as the real Linda Wiken with another series, the Dinner Club Mysteries, also from Berkley Prime Crime. The first book, Toasting Up Trouble, is now available.  The second, Roux the Day, is available this month.

Roux the day! Especially if that day ends in murder. It happens!

Those of us who love reading cozy mysteries know that so well. As does J.J. Tanner, my protagonist in the Dinner Club Mysteries. Roux the Day is her second outing, along with the members of the Culinary Capers Dinner Club. And this time, she’s pulled into investigating a murder that took place at a fundraising Casino Night on a harbour cruise; one that she’d organized in her event planner capacity. When her friend, Connor Mac, goes missing and then hits the top of the suspect list, with J.J. in number two spot, she and the other foodies start their own investigation.

I’ve found that writing culinary mysteries is double the fun. Not only do I get to plan murders and the numerous villains, ah, suspects but I also do a lot of food research. Which of course involves sampling. I also have a passion for cookbooks, mainly because of the visuals. How can you not be seduced by those wonderful photos of food! Oddly enough, that’s something J.J. and I share. She is trying to up her game though, and ventures into cooking dishes that are fairly complex, for her. I find myself trying the same thing these days.

Part of the reason for my increased cooking skills comes from being on the Mystery Lovers’ Kitchen blog which requires a recipe, with photos, twice a month. If you’re into culinary mysteries, you’ll want to visit the site at www.mysteryloverskitchen.com. Some of your favorite cozy authors blog there regularly. And the recipes are to die for. Oops, maybe not such a good choice of terms.

In Roux the Day, the members of the Culinary Capers Dinner Club choose a real cookbook, and each make a recipe out of it for their monthly dinner club gathering. This time around, I’m trying something different. I’ve asked the foodies to use the Mystery Writers of America Cookbook, and thus I had to scramble to get the appropriate permission from authors (Sara Paretsky, Lisa King, and Cathy Pickens) to reprint the ones you’ll find at the back of Roux the Day.

It turned out to be a lot of fun, mainly because everyone thinks it’s such an unusual idea.

I hope you’ll join J.J. and friends as they strategize, investigate and, of course, dine. And P.I. Ty Devine has her back, but his intentions may be more personal than professional. At least, they’re picking up from when they first met in Toasting Up Trouble, the first book in the Dinner Club Mysteries,

What’s a gal to do? Solve the crime, of course.

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Thank you Miss Wiken for your guest post.  I am amazed at the ingenuity of the many writers who even come up with their own recipes for books.  I reviewed the Mystery Writers of America Cookbook (click here).