The Mystery Writers of America Cookbook by Kate White, editor, a Mysterious Review.

Review: Over 100 mystery, suspense and thriller authors have contributed recipes of their favorite meals for The Mystery Writers of America Cookbook, edited by Kate White.

The structure of the book is a typical one, with chapters for Breakfast, Appetizers, Soups and Salads, Entrees, Side Dishes, Desserts, and Cocktails. Each recipe is prefaced with a message from the author, some with personal notes, others with tie-ins to their series character. (The latter are the most entertaining.) The recipes themselves seem, for the most part, to include ingredients that would be found in most homes or readily available at the local market. The directions are straightforward and appear to be largely doable in the average kitchen.

There are a number of interstitial pages from Kate White on random topics, from "What Exactly is a Red Herring?" to "Pretty Poisons Right in Your Garden" to "Nero Wolfe on Food", all entertaining. What's largely missing, however, are photographs, of which there are precious few.

For those readers that consider the culinary arts to be part and parcel of a mystery, The Mystery Writers of America Cookbook is an essential addition to their bookshelves. For everyone else who dabbles in the kitchen a few times a month or needs something special for a family gathering or a holiday party, it's still a solid cookbook of "wickedly good recipes" that will serve the reader well.

Acknowledgment: Quirk Books provided a copy of The Mystery Writers of America Cookbook for this review.

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Harper (Hardcover), August 2011
ISBN-13: 9780061576621; ISBN-10: 006157662X

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Harper (Trade Paperback), June 2015
ISBN-13: 9780062350657; ISBN-10: 006235065X