Off My Rocker

Jean Ansley is trying to keep her new catering business for executives afloat. Her inexperienced staff and spatting partners (who just happen to be her brother and his wife) aren’t much help particularly when, having landed a very good client, Quardon International, one of the Quardon Directors turns up dead at lunch.

Ongar Manganian, a tycoon who came up the hard way, is thinking of merging his company with Quardon. Manganian likes his food – a lot- and he likes Jean, although he doesn’t trust her. But then he doesn’t really trust anyone. Manganian employs a Personal Assistant-cum-Body Guard-cum-Food Taster who, together with Jean, begins to sort out the ingredients of this mystery.

While this isn’t a great puzzler, it is a fun read with a mild romance and the usual Babson wit.

BEAUTIFUL PLACE TO DIE, by Philip R. Craig

While a Boston cop, J.W. Jackson, took a bullet which remains lodged near his spine. Although still a relatively young man, he has now retired to Martha’s Vineyard where he passes his time fishing, gardening, and cooking, and supports himself doing various odd jobs and taking on the occasional investigation.

A Friend’s daughter asks him to investigate when her brother and ex-boyfriend are blown up along with their boat. J.W.’s quest leads him to campus drug dealers and corruptors of youth.

Craig’s descriptions of life on Martha’s Vineyard, the fishing, the recipes, and the witty dialog lighten the darkness of this mystery.

BEAT A ROTTEN EGG TO THE PUNCH, by Cathie John

It takes a strong woman to run a business while fighting breast cancer. Kate Cavanaugh is that woman. She runs a catering business in Cincinnati which enables her to meet an interesting cross-section of humanity. In this book she deals with a cult, The Circle of Light, which is having a leadership retreat at the Golden Valley Spiritual Center. One of the attendees is Kate’s friend, Jaz, a middle-aged hippie. Dead bodies keep turning up, and there are way too many suspects as Kate tries to sort out whodunit while whipping up delicious food and attending to the needs of her dog, Mr. Boo-kat.

Other culinary mysteries for your reading pleasure are Death and the Epicure, by Janet Laurence, Catering to Nobody, by Diane Mott Davidson, The Body in the Belfry, by Katherine Hall Page, and The Cooking School Murders, by Virginia Rich.