Nonfiction author Sally Andrew (The Fire Dogs of Climate Change) stirs up a satisfying mystery in her debut novel, Recipes for Love and Murder. Tannie ("Auntie") Maria van Harten enjoys writing her recipe column for the newspaper in her small South African town. When the Gazette's editors decide to nix the recipes in favor of an advice column, Tannie Maria tries her hand at mixing culinary and romantic tips. Soon the letters are flooding in, and Tannie Maria finds herself helping readers with matters of both the table and the heart.
When Martine, an abused woman who has written to Tannie Maria, ends up dead under suspicious circumstances, the cook-cum-journalist and her colleagues are drawn into a murder investigation. Against the backdrop of the vast South African veld, Tannie Maria and fellow reporter Jessie attempt to trace the killer before he or she strikes again.
Andrew has created a charming protagonist in Tannie Maria, who sprinkles her first-person narration with baking tips and Afrikaans words. "My mother was Afrikaans and my father was English and the languages are mixed up inside me," she explains. "I taste in Afrikaans and argue in English."
"We can be sure that our lives will all end with death," Tannie Maria writes to a reader. "There's not much we can do about that. But you can add love and good food to your life. That is your choice." With a dash of South African history and a pinch of social consciousness, Tannie Maria's first adventure serves up a satisfying mix of romance, humor and crime solving. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams