‘Secret’ a tasty mystery

THE SECRET INGREDIENT MURDERS: A EUGENIA POTTER MYSTERY by Nancy Pickard, based on the character created by Virginia Rich, Delacorte Press, 2001, 288 pages, hardcover, $22.95.

Culinary sleuth Eugenia Potter has returned to take a bite out of crime.

Of course, it all starts on a dark and stormy night. Inky clouds cover the sky on the evening of “Genia’s” dinner party and a light rain starts to fall as her guests arrive, each bearing gifts and a recipe. But her co-host, Stanley Parker, is nowhere to be found. He’s late.

Really late.

Murdered.

And her great-grandnephew Jason, who was trying to stay on the right side of the law after police caught him with marijuana, is the prime suspect.

Sure, Jason knew a few secrets about Stanley Parker, but he wasn’t telling. And it seems that when the elderly Stanley wasn’t busy collecting recipes for his Rhode Island cookbook, he was collecting the secrets of most everyone in the town of Devon, R.I. Nearly all of Devon’s prominent residents had a motive. But who had the most to lose if he revealed them?

That’s what Genia is trying to figure out. She knows Jason didn’t do it, but she also knows she doesn’t have much time to prove his innocence. Plus, she’s just visiting Devon from her ranch in Arizona, answering her niece’s call to help Jason keep out of trouble. So she doesn’t know the townspeople well enough to tell if they’re lying.

In “The Secret Ingredient Murders,” Nancy Pickard has continued the legacy left by the late Virginia Rich, who spent her summers off the coast of Maine. Rich created Eugenia Potter, a rancher and sleuth who also cooks a mean lobster bisque. When Rich died in 1984, Pickard finished her manuscript for “The 27-Ingredient Chili Con Carne Murders.” Pickard’s latest effort is a fitting tribute to the award-winning mystery writer who was well-known for her Jenny Cain series.

“The Secret Ingredient Murders” is a delicious mystery, made even more mouth-watering by the rich food descriptions and recipes at the end. It is clear that the author knows food as well as she knows storytelling, which is key when the lead character is a chef and an old cookbook holds the clues to the murder.

Pickard drops little crumbs along the way for the reader, making it nearly impossible to put the book down. All the clues point to someone different: Could it be the well-dressed wife of a popular weatherman? The dapper and charming widower of Stanley’s ex-wife? The always late, somewhat rumpled mayor? The tipsy yet elegant Realtor? The son-in-law whom Stanley despised? How about the ex-husband of Genia’s niece? Or the ex-convict groundskeeper whom Stanley had fired that morning?

Stanley had secretly summoned each of them to his seaside “castle” the week before his murder. In the food-splattered pages of his favorite cookbook, which his daughter gave to Genia after he died, Stanley had written notes in the margins. Notes about what he planned to cook for whom during that fateful week. Coincidentally, Genia thinks, the initials beside the recipes all match the initials of the guests whom Stanley asked her to invite to the fateful dinner party. All, that is, except the mysterious “S.S.”

Genia cooks and eats her way around the picturesque village of Devon, searching for clues. She finds that all of Stanley’s luncheon guests had a secret to hide. And they all had something to gain by Stanley’s demise.

As she gets closer, another suspect is found bludgeoned to death. And someone breaks into Genia’s house, leaving all but her cookbooks untouched.

Though all the ingredients are there – flavorful characters, a dash of local food lore and a heaping spoonful of suspense – the final dish comes out strong, but a bit rushed, like getting prime rib a minute after the salad. The reader gets to savor everything except the ending, which is too bad, because it’s a shocker. It read like Pickard was trying to tie everything up in a few pages, like she ran out of room and needed to cram it all in.

Nonetheless, “The Secret Ingredient Murders” is a decadent, tasty read, whether you enjoy small bites or one big chunk.