Cook Up a Crime

Spinster sleuth Jane Amanda Edwards didn't have to go looking for recipes to Cook Up a Crime.Meet Jane Amanda Edwards, a self-styled "full-fashioned" spinster who complains she hasn't looked at herself in a full-length mirror since Helen Hokinson started drawing for The New Yorker. But you can always count on Jane to look into other people's affairs, especially when there's a juicy murder case to investigate.This one starts when Jane's friend, Detective Captain George Hammond, puts the idea of publishing a cookbook in her mind. That leads her to visit Jesse Nye, an irritating woman who unfortunately is the safe keeper of her family's famous recipes, Jesse thinks a cookbook a marvelous idea but immediately announces that she is far better suited to put it together than Jane.So when Jesse turns up dead, Jane decides to look for clues -- and recipes -- among the murdered woman's effects. In the meantime, Jane's hapless brother Arthur -- a true lily of the field --gets a valentine from a secret admirer and goes courting, only to find himself accused of the murder. Sister Annie warns Jane to stay put and goes off to watch female wrestling on television. Through it all, Theresa, their long-suffering cook and general housekeeper, keeps one and all well fed with tempting treats from her kitchen (the recipes for these and other dishes are included between chapters.)Set in a fictionalized version of Charlotte Murray Russell's own hometown of Rock Island, Illinois, Cook Up a Crime was first published in 1951 and was the last of twelve books featuring Jane Amanda. Russell herself published her first book in 1935 and was one of the earliest and best practitioners of the cozy malice domestic, a sort of literary godmother to modern writers like Joan Hess and Charlotte MacLeod.