Sally Solari Mystery

After losing her mother to cancer, Sally Solari quits her job as an attorney to help her dad run his old-style Italian eatery in Santa Cruz, California. But managing the front of the house is far from her dream job. Then in a sudden twist, her Aunt Letta is found murdered in her own restaurant, and Sally is the only one who can keep the place running. But when her sous chef is accused of the crime and she finds herself suddenly short-staffed, Sally must delve into the world of sustainable farming-not to mention a few family secrets-to help him clear his name and catch the true culprit before her timer runs out. Leslie Karst serves a platter of intrigue in her stirring and satisfying debut Dying for a Taste, which is sure to become a new favorite of food mystery fans.

Sally Solari is busy juggling work at her family's Italian restaurant, Solari's, and helping Javier plan the autumn menu for the restaurant she's just inherited, Gauguin. Complicating this already hectic schedule, Sally joins her ex-boyfriend Eric's chorus, which is performing a newly discovered version of her favorite composition: the Mozart Requiem. But then, at the first rehearsal, a tenor falls to his death on the church courtyard-and his soprano girlfriend is sure it wasn't an accident. Now Sally's back on another murder case mixed in with a dash of revenge, a pinch of peril, and a suspicious stack of sheet music. And while tensions in the chorus heat up, so does the kitchen at Gauguin-set aflame right as Sally starts getting too close to the truth. Can Sally catch the killer before she's burnt to a crisp, or will the case grow as cold as yesterday's leftovers? In a stew of suspects and restaurateurs, trouble boils over in the second in Leslie Karst's tasty and tantalizing Sally Solari mystery series, A Measure of Murder.

It's early autumn in Santa Cruz and restaurateur Sally Solari decides an open-air painting class is the perfect way for her to learn more about Paul Gauguin, the inspiration for the restaurant she has recently inherited. But the beauty of the Monterey Bay coastline is shattered when Sally's dog Buster sniffs out a corpse tangled up in kelp. The body is identified as Gino, a local fisherman and a regular at Solaris' until he disappeared after dining there a few nights before. Witnesses claim he left reeling drunk, but his waitress swears the old man only had two beers with is meal. And then the fingers begin to point at Sally's dad for negligently allowing an inebriated customer to walk home alone at night. From a long menu of suspects, including a cast of colorful characters who frequent the historic Santa Cruz fisherman's wharf, Sally must serve up the tall order of clearing her father's name in Death al Fresco, Leslie Karst's third delectable Sally Solari mystery.

Santa Cruz restaurateur Sally Solari's life is already boiling over as she deals with irate cooks and other staffing issues at the busy Gauguin restaurant. The rainy December weather isn't cooling things down, either. So she's steamed when her dad persuades her to take in Evelyn, her estranged blind cousin whose mother has just died of a drug overdose. But Evelyn proves to be lots of fun and she's a terrific cook. Back at the house she'd shared with her mom, Evelyn's heightened sense of touch tells her that various objects-a bottle of cranberry juice, her grandfather's jazz records-are out of place. She and her mom always kept things in the same place so Evelyn could find them. So she suspects that her mother's death was neither accident nor suicide, no matter what the police believe. The cousins' sleuthing takes Sally and Evelyn into the world of macho commercial kitchens, and the cutthroat competitiveness that can flame up between chefs. In Leslie Karst's scrumptious fourth Sally Solari mystery, Sally will have to chop a long list of suspects down to size or end up getting burned.

Restaurateur Sally Solari has a nose for trouble, but when her sense of smell goes missing, it's not just her career on the line . . . it's her life. Restaurateur Sally Solari is a champion, both in the kitchen and on the case, but after getting mixed up in one too many murders, she's noticed her nonna's friends have now taken to crossing themselves when they see her in the street. Adding to her woes, a sinus infection has knocked out her sense of smell, making cooking on the hot line difficult, indeed. Nevertheless, Sally is determined to stay out of trouble and focus on her work. But then her old acquaintance Neil Lerici is murdered at the annual Santa Cruz Artichoke Cook-Off, and her powers of investigation are called into action once more. Could Neil have been killed by the local restaurant owner who took his winning spot at the competition? Or maybe by one of his siblings, who were desperate to sell the family farm to a real estate developer? Sally plunges headfirst into the case, risking alienating everyone she knows - including the dapper Detective Vargas, who finds her sleuthing both infuriating and endearing. And soon it's not only her restaurant and tentative new relationship that are on the line - it's her life . . . The Fragrance of Death is a non-stop fun cozy mystery that will keep your mind buzzing and your mouth watering, and contains a selection of delicious recipes to cook at home.

Chef Sally Solari has - to her own bewilderment - built a reputation as a talented sleuth who keeps tripping over dead bodies. But getting mixed up in the curious case of a cookbook killer threatens to be the final chapter in not just her investigating career . . . but her life. It's the height of the tourist season in Santa Cruz, California, and Sally Solari has her hands full, both juggling crowds of hungry diners at her French-Polynesian restaurant Gauguin, as well as appeasing her father, who's distressed at the number of homeless people camped out in front of Solari's, the family's Italian seafood restaurant out on the historic fisherman's wharf. Nevertheless, when Sally gets the opportunity to volunteer at a farm-to-table dinner taking place at the hip new restaurant and culinary bookshop Pages and Plums, she seizes the chance. Not only is it a fundraiser for an organization aiding the homeless and seniors, but up for auction at the event is a signed boxset of Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Sally's hero, the renowned chef Julia Child. But then the Pages and Plums dining room manager turns up dead - the locked cabinet containing the precious books now empty - and the irrepressible Sally once again finds herself up to her neck in a criminal investigation. She may have a sense for murder, but can Sally outwit a devious killer with a taste for French cooking before the villain makes mincemeat of her, too? A Sense for Murder is a fast-paced, super fun culinary cozy mystery that will have your brain working and your mouth watering. And if you haven't met sleuthing chef Sally yet, it's safe to jump right in.