SYKM


Food & Drink
Restaurants, Nightclubs, Bars, Pubs
Avery Aames
  • Charlotte Bessette: proprietor of Fromagerie Bessette, in fictional Providence, Ohio, in the Cheese Shop mysteries

Allyson K. Abbott (Beth Amos)
  • Mackenzie “Mack” Dalton: owner of a bar in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, with Synesthesia, a neurological condition enabling her to smell noises or taste color, in the Mack’s Bar Mysteries

Ellery Adams (J.B. Stanley)
  • Olivia Limoges: restaurant owner returning with Captain Haviland, a black standard poodle, to her old home town, Oyster Bay, North Carolina

Riley Adams (Elizabeth Spann Craig)
  • Lulu Taylor: owner of Aunt Pat’s rib joint, in Memphis, Tennessee, in the Memphis Barbeque mysteries

Nathan Aldyne
  • Dan Valentine & Clarisse Lovelace: owners of a gay bar in Boston, Massachusetts

Robin Allen
  • Poppy Markham: former sous chef turned public health inspector, in Austin, Texas, in the Culinary Cop series

Mary Kay Andrews (Kathy Hogan Trocheck)
  • BeBe Loudermilk: triple-divorced restaurant owner, and Eloise “Weezie” Foley, a recently divorced antique dealer, in Savannah, Georgia

Connie Archer
  • Lucky Jamieson, inheriting the By the Spoonful Soup Shop, in fictional Snowflake, Vermont, in the Soup Lover’s mysteries

Tony Aspler
  • Ezra Brant: wine journalist in Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Sandra Balzo
  • Maggy Thorsen: 40-something divorcée running a coffee shop, Uncommon Grounds, with two women friends in the small fictional town of Brookhills, Wisconsin

Robert G. Barrett
  • Les Norton: nightclub bouncer in Sydney, Australia

Jessica Beck (Tim Myers)
  • Victoria and Greg: running The Charming Moose Diner in Jasper Fork, North Carolina, in the Classic Diner mysteries
  • Suzanne Hart: proprietor of a smalltown donut shop, with an ex-husband, wacky friend, and hunky cop, in April Springs, North Carolina, in the Donut Shop mysteries

Lou Berney
  • Charles “Shake” Bouchon: professional wheelman who walks out of prison after a three-year sentence for grand theft auto determined to change his life and become a chef

Claudia Bishop
  • Meg Quilliam: chef in Hemlock Falls, New York

Miranda Bliss
  • Annie Capshaw: recently divorced, and her ex-beauty queen best friend, Eve DeCateur, in Arlington, Virginia, in the Cooking Class mysteries

Michael Bond
  • Aristide Pamplemousse: gourmet restaurant guide inspector, and his bloodhound Pommes Frites, in Paris, France

Jacklyn Brady (Sherry Lewis)
  • Rita Lucero: pastry chef in New Orleans, Louisiana, in the Piece of Cake mysteries

Lucy Burdette (Roberta Isleib pseudonym)
  • Hayley Snow: 20-something food critic for Key Zest magazine, in Key West, Florida, in the Food Critic mysteries

Alexander Campion
  • Alexandre LeTellier, a portly food critic, and his wife Capucine, a police detective specializing in white-collar crime, in Paris, France, in the Capucine Culinary mysteries

Dorothy Cannell
  • Ben Haskell: writer and chef, and Ellie Haskell, an interior decorator

JoAnna Carl (Eve K. Sandstrom)
  • Lee McKinney: divorcee who returns to Michigan to work for her aunt's chocolate business, in the Chocaholic mysteries

Sammi Carter
  • Abby Shaw: who leaves a career in corporate law and a cheating husband to return to her hometown of Paradise, Colorado, to take over her aunt’s candy shop, Divinity, in the Candy Shop mysteries

Bailey Cates (Cricket McRae)
  • Katie Lightfoot, a novice witch and professional baker working at her aunt and uncle's bakery, in Savannah, Georgia, in the Magical Bakery mysteries

Joyce Cato (Faith Martin)
  • Jenny Starling: traveling cook and caterer in England

Chris Cavender
  • Eleanor Swift: owner of pizza restaurant “A Slice of Delight” in Timber Ridge, North Carolina, by Chris Cavender (Tim Myers)

Marie Celine
  • Kitty Karlyle: gourmet chef for pets, in Los Angeles, California

Jessie Chandler
  • Shay O’Hanlon: co-owner of The Rabbit Hole, a quirky-cool coffee shop, and amateur sleuth, along with JT Bordeaux, her cop girlfriend, in Minneapolis, Minnesota

Laura Childs
  • Theodosia Browning: owner of the Indigo Teahouse in Charleston, South Carolina, in the Tea Shop Mysteries
  • Cackleberry Club: egg-themed restaurant run by three semi-desperate, 40+ women

Margaret Chittenden
  • Charlie Plato: country-western tavern owner, in San Francisco, California

Eoin Colfer
  • Daniel McEvoy: Irish bouncer working in a seedy New Jersey bar

Susan Conant & Jessica Conant-Park
  • Chloe Carter: boy-crazy 20-something gourmand, in Brighton, Massachusetts

Amanda Cooper (Donna Lea Simpson)
  • Sophie Taylor: failed New York restaurateur and chef, returning to her grandmother's restaurant, Auntie Rose's Victorian Tearoom, in Gracious Grove, New York, in the Teapot Collector mysteries

Cleo Coyle
  • Clare Cosi: manager of the Village Blend, a landmark coffeehouse in New York City’s Greenwich Village, in the Coffeehouse mysteries

Isis Crawford
  • Bernie and Libby Simmons: caterers in Longely, New York, in the Mystery with Recipes series

Camilla T. Crespi
  • Simona Griffo: art buyer for an advertising firm and gourmet cook, in New York City

Ellen Crosby
  • Lucie Montgomery: operating her family’s winery in Virginia, in the Wine Country mysteries

Grace Carroll (Carol Culver)
  • Rita Jewel, selling clothes and accessories to socialites at Dolce's Boutique, in San Francisco, California, in the Accessories mysteries

Peg Cochran
  • Giovanna (Gigi) Fitzgerald, leaving New York City to run a gourmet shop in Woodstone, Connecticut, in the Gourmet De-Lite mysteries

J.J. Cook
  • Zoe Chase: new owner of a fixer-upper diner, and running a food truck in Mobile, Alabama, in the Biscuit Bowl Food Truck series by J.J. Cook (Joyce & Jim Lavene)

Shelley Costa
  • Eve Angelotta: 30-ish former dancer, now chef at her family’s Italian restaurant outside Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Judith Cutler
  • Josie Welford: new owner of the White Hart Pub in Kings Duncombe, a West Country village, and Nick Thomas, a Food Standards Agency inspector, in England
Mary Daheim
  • Judith McMonigle Flynn: bed and breakfast owner in Seattle, Washington

Diane Mott Davidson
  • Goldy Bear: single mom and caterer, in Aspen Meadow, Colorado

Lauren Wright Douglas
  • Allison O’Neil: lesbian Bed & Breakfast owner and refugee from California, in fictional Lavner Bay, Oregon

Jerrilyn Farmer
  • Madeline Bean: caterer in Hollywood, California

Nancy Fairbanks
  • Carolyn Blue: food writer, and her husband Jason Blue, a scientist specializing in how to clean toxins from the environment, in El Paso, Texas

Amanda Flower
  • Bailey King, leaving New York to take over Swissmen Sweets, her Amish grandparents’ candy shop, in Harvest, Ohio, in the Amish Candy Shop mysteries

Joanne Fluke
  • Hannah Swensen: manager of The Cookie Jar in Lake Eden, Minnesota

Yasmine Galenorn
  • Emerald O’Brien: tea shop owner and psychic, in the Chintz’n China Mysteries

Daryl Wood Gerber
  • Jenna Hart: avid reader, admitted foodie, and owner of a cookbook store in the fictional coastal town of Crystal Cove, California, in the Cookbook Nook mysteries

J.G. Goodhind
  • Honey Driver: owner of the Green River Hotel and amateur sleuth, in Bath, England

Nadia Gordon
  • Sunny McCoskey: chef in wine country, Napa Valley, California

Pip Granger
  • Rosie Featherby: child raised by her Aunt Maggie and Uncle Bert running a Soho cafe in early 1950s London, England

Kerry Greenwood
  • Corinna Chapman: former banker, now running a bakery, Earthly Delights, in Melbourne, Australia

Victoria Hamilton (Donna Lea Simpson)
  • Merry Wynter: an expert muffin baker who inherits a mansion in fictional Autumn Vale, New York, in the Merry Muffin mysteries

Ellen Hart
  • Sophie Greenway: magazine editor and food critic for Minneapolis, Minnesota, in the Culinary Mysteries
  • Jane Lawless: lesbian restaurateur in Minneapolis, Minnesota

Tim Hemlin
  • Neil Marshall: graduate student in creative writing, struggling poet, and part-time chef and caterer, in Houston, Texas

Lee Hollis (Rick Copp & Holly Simason)
  • Hayley Powell: single mother writing the food column for the Island Times, in Bar Harbor, Maine, in the Food and Cocktails mysteries

Charlie Huston
  • Henry Thompson: former high school star baseball player, now a bartender with a drinking problem in Paul's Place, on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York City

Julie Hyzy
  • Olivia (Ollie) Paras: White House assistant chef in Washington DC, in the White House Chef mysteries

Takis and Judy Iakovou
  • Nick Lambros: Greek immigrant and cafe owner, and Julia Lambros, cafe owner and part-time speech pathologist in Delphi, Georgia

Lee Jackson
  • Sarah Tanner: proprietor of the Dining and Coffee Rooms and amateur sleuth, in 1850s London, England

Sue Ann Jaffarian
  • Madison Rose: waitress in Los Angeles, California, in the Fang-in-Cheek vampire mysteries
  • Emma Whitecastle: a divorced mom, and the ghost of her pie-baking great-great-great-grandmother, Granny Apples, amateur sleuths

Cathie John
  • Kate Cavanaugh: gourmet caterer in Cincinnati, Ohio

Claire M. Johnson
  • Mary Ryan: pastry chef in San Francisco, California
Karen Kijewski
  • Kat Colorado: bar-tending private investigator, in Sacramento, California

Peter King
  • Goodwin Harper: food consultant in London, England

Dean R. Koontz
  • Odd Thomas: fry cook who can communicate with the dead, in the fictional small town of Pico Mundo, California

Cecile Lamalle
  • Charly Poisson: chef and co-owner of La Fermette, the best (and only) French restaurant in Van Buren County, upstate New York, in the Culinary mysteries:

Janet Laurence
  • Darina Lisle: caterer-chef and food writer in West Country, England

Cynthia Lawrence
  • Catherine “Cat” Deean: part-owner of a catering enterprise in Los Angeles, California, in the the Mysteries for Food Lovers

Con Lehane
  • Brian McNulty: bartender in 1980s Manhattan, New York City

David Leitz
  • Max Addams: fly-fisherman and owner of Whitefork Lodge, a bed and breakfast in Vermont

John Lescroart
  • Dismas Hardy: ex-cop bartender and ex-Assistant District Attorney turned defense attorney, and Abe Glitsky, a black, Jewish cop, in San Francisco, California

Bill Loehfelm
  • Maureen Coughlin: 29-year-old cocktail waitress at The Narrows bar, on Staten Island, New York

Karen MacInerney
  • Natalie Barnes: inn proprietor on Cranberry Island, Maine, in the Gray Whale Inn mysteries

Dominic Martell (Sam Reaves)
  • Pascual: bartender in Old Barcelona, Spain

Jenn McKinlay
  • Melanie Cooper and Angie DeLaura, operators of a cupcake bakery, Fairy Tale Cupcakes, in Old Town Scottsdale, Arizona

Claire McNab
  • Kylie Kendall: lesbian manager of a pub in tiny Wollegudgerie, Australia, who inherits 51% of her father's private detective agency in Los Angeles, California

Carol Miller
  • Daisy McGovern: pastry chef barely supporting her invalid mother, in a small town in southwestern Virginia, in the Moonshine mysteries

Manuel Vázquez Montalbán
  • Pepe Carvalho: ex-CIA agent, former communist, and gourmet private investigator, in Barcelona, Spain

Liz Mugavero
  • Kristan “Stan” Connor, retreating from corporate public relations to bake organic pet treats, in fictional Frog Ledge, Connecticut, in the Pawsitively Organic series

Amy Myers
  • Auguste Didier: master chef in Victorian London, England

T. Lynn Ocean
  • Jersey Barnes: former marine anti-terrorist specialist turned private security investigator and bar owner, in Wilmington, North Carolina

Gail Oust
  • Piper Prescott: transplanted Yankee running a spice shop, in fictional Brandywine Creek, Georgia, in the Spice Shop mysteries
Ann Parker
  • Inez Stannert: saloon owner, around 1880 in Leadville, Colorado, in the Silver Rush mysteries

Allan Pedrazas
  • Harry Rice: 30-something tavern owner and part-time sleuth, based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida

George P. Pelecanos
  • Nick Stefanos: bartender and private eye, in Washington, DC

Joanne Pence
  • Angelina Amalfi: food columnist and restaurant reviewer, in San Francisco, California

Virginia Rich
  • Eugenia Potter: widowed chef in Maine and Arizona
(series continued by Nancy Pickard)

Phyllis Richman
  • Chas. Wheatley: restaurant critic in Washington, DC

W.L. Ripley
  • Cole Springer: former Secret Service agent and saloonkeeper, in Aspen, Colorado

Al Roker with Dick Lochte
  • Billy Blessing: celebrity chef and restaurateur, and food anchor for morning TV show Wake Up America!, in New York City

Delia Rosen
  • Gwen Katz Silver, from Manhattan, inheriting a Jewish deli, Murray’s Pastrami Swami, in Nashville, Tennessee, in the Deadly Deli mysteries

Barbara Ross
  • Julia Snowden, returning to her hometown to run the Snowden Family Clambake Company, in fictional Busman’s Harbor, Maine, in the Maine Clambake mysteries

Michele Scott
  • Nikki Sands: in the Napa Valley, California, in the Wine Lover’s Mysteries

Connie Shelton
  • Samantha Sweet: caretaker for the USDA who opens a pastry shop in northern New Mexico

Paige Shelton
  • Becca Robins, who makes jam on her farm to sell at her twin sister Alison’s farmers market in rural South Carolina, in the Farmer’s Market mysteries
  • Isabelle “Betts” Winston and her grandmother (Gram) who runs a cooking school in the fictional town Broken Rope, in southern Missouri, in the Country Cooking School mysteries

Bill Shoemaker
  • Coley Killebrew: ex-jockey turned restaurant owner, in southern California

Robert Skinner
  • Wesley Farrell: Creole nightclub owner passing for white, in 1930s New Orleans, Louisiana

Phyllis Smallman
  • Sherri Travis: self-proclaimed “white trash” and a bartender in the small beach town of Jacaranda, Florida

Mehmet Murat Somer
  • A nameless transvestite nightclub hostess, and computer technician by day, in Istanbul, Turkey, in the Turkish Delight mysteries

Rex Stout
  • Nero Wolfe: private investigator, orchid cultivator, and gourmet, and his assistant, Archie Goodwin, in New York City

Martin Sylvester
  • William Warner: wine merchant and amateur sleuth, based in London, England

Kathleen Taylor
  • Tory Bauer: diner waitress in Delphi, South Dakota

Lou Jane Temple
  • Heaven Lee: trendy restaurant owner-chef in Kansas City, Missouri

Ross Thomas
  • “Mac” McCorkle: saloon owner, and Mike Padillo, a spy, in Bonn, Germany

Gayle Trent
  • Daphne Martin: cake decorator back in her home town in southern Virginia

Livia J. Washburn
  • Phyllis Newsom: elderly amateur sleuth and pie expert, in Weatherford, Texas, in the Fresh-Baked mysteries

Wendy Lyn Watson
  • Tallulah “Tally” Jones: recently divorced and running an ice cream shop (Remember the A La Mode) in Dalliance, Texas, in the Mystery a la Mode series

Melinda Wells (Linda Palmer)
  • Della Carmichael: owner of a cooking school and star of “Della Cooks,” a cable TV cooking show, in Santa Monica, California

Michael Lee West
  • Teeny Templeton: pastry chef and cooking instructor in Charleston, South Carolina

Charlie Williams
  • Royston Blake: head doorman at Hopper’s Wine Bar & Bistro, in the town of Mangel, in the West Country of England

Ovidia Yu
  • “Aunty” Lee: feisty widow, amateur sleuth, and proprietor of a home-cooking restaurant, in Singapore

Sarah Zettel
  • Charlotte Caine: chef running Nightlife, a restaurant serving the undead in New York City, in the Vampire Chef mysteries

Home | Facebook | SYKM Store | SYKM Amazon | SYKM Kindle