Recipes For Love And Murder: A Novel

Tannie Maria (Tannie meaning "Auntie," the respectful Afrikaans address for a woman older than you) is a middle-aged widow who likes to cook—and eat. Her life as a recipe columnist for her local paper is relatively quiet until The Gazette decides to replace her recipe column with an advice column. At first, Tannie Maria is resistant, but she soon discovers she has a knack—and a passion—for helping her correspondents and including recipes and culinary advice whenever she can! As she makes her way through the questions that pile up, she ends up not only helping others, but coming to terms with her own overeating, body image and loneliness along the way.

Then Tannie Maria receives a sequence of letters from a woman trying to figure out how to escape her abusive husband—something Tannie Maria has had experience with in the past. When the woman is murdered, however, Tannie Maria and her colleague become dangerously entwined in the ensuing investigation, despite the best efforts of a handsome detective to keep them safe. Soon, Tannie Maria becomes involved in something much more sinister than perfecting her chocolate cake recipe . . .