This week, culinary cozy author Jessica Thompson joins Brook and Sarah to discuss what makes a mystery culinary.
Discussed and mentioned
Caterer’s Guide to Crime Culinary Cozy Mystery Series by Jessica Thompson
Shoot, Shovel, and Shut Up (2023) Jessica Thompson
A Caterer’s Guide to Valentine’s and Violence (2024) Jessica Thompson
To find Jessica
Instagram: @jessicathauthor2
Website: JessicaThompsonauthor.com
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Transcript
This transcript is generated by a computer and there may be some mis-spellings and strange punctuation. We try to catch these before posting, but some things slip through.
| Sarah | Welcome to Clued in Mystery. I’m Sarah. |
| Brook | And I’m Brook, and we both love mystery. |
| Sarah | Hi, Brook. |
| Brook | Hi, Sarah. How about we continue our conversations on culinary mysteries? |
| Sarah | I think that would be wonderful, and I think we have a guest to help us with that today. |
| Brook | We do. Today, Jessica Thompson is joining us, and I’ll just introduce her real quickly. When Jessica Thompson discovered mystery novels with recipes, she knew she had found her niche. Now Jessica is the award-winning author of the Amazon best-selling Caterer’s Guide to Crime Culinary Cozy Mystery Series, and the classic mystery, Shoot, Shovel, and Shut Up. She also has curated two anthologies and been included in many others. She’s active in her local writing community and volunteers as the finance chair of the Storymakers Guild. |
| Brook | As an avid home chef and food science geek, Jessica has won cooking competitions and been featured in the online Taste of Home recipe collection. She also tends to be the go-to source for recipes, taste testing, and food advice among her peers. |
| Brook | Jessica lives outside Austin, Texas with her husband and two children. When she’s not riding or cooking, she likes getting her boots dirty with the family at her parents’ nearby Longhorn cattle ranch. So welcome, Jessica. We’re so excited to talk to you about culinary cozy mysteries. |
| Jessica Thompson | Yeah, thank you for having me. |
| Sarah | So, Jessica, maybe we could get started with you sharing how you began writing cozy mysteries and culinary mysteries in particular. |
| Jessica Thompson | Yeah, great. Basically, I started writing when I found the genre or the sub- sub- sub-genre. Because I always loved mysteries and I always loved creating recipes, but I didn’t know it was a genre. I mean, that’s pretty obscure. So, when I when I found a culinary cozy mystery with recipes in it at my local library, it was like, this is it. Clouds parted. Choirs of angels. And it helps that it wasn’t very good. So, I won’t say who wrote it. So, then it was like, well, I can do better than this. So, then I went for it. |
| Brook | That’s awesome. Why do you think readers find mysteries about baking, cooking, and specialty foods so captivating? |
| Jessica Thompson | I think just everybody loves food. I mean, even if you’re not a big cook, you still love hearing about food, reading about food, looking at food. So, I think even the people that don’t want to try the recipes still like hearing about it in a story. |
| Jessica Thompson | And then I think also the kitchen is just rife with danger. So, poisons, knives, dismembering, lots of cleaning up after yourself. So, I think ah the kitchen lends itself well to murder mysteries, too. |
| Brook | Absolutely. You mentioned people who don’t even necessarily plan to cook the recipes and Sarah and I talked about that in our episode last week that we’ve known of people who like will check out cookbooks from the library just to look at the beautiful pictures and read about the recipes, but not necessarily plan to cook them. So, you have found that in culinary mysteries too, I assume. |
| Jessica Thompson | Oh, definitely. Yeah. I have friends that really don’t cook, but they still like reading about the food and how it ties in and the life of a caterer, even if they don’t plan to start catering. |
| Brook | Mm hmm. |
| Sarah | I think that’s one of the the great things about any book, right? You can read about something that you don’t really have a lot of ah experience in, but you know get to learn a little bit about that particular world. |
| Jessica Thompson | You’re right, it’s like the universal fantasy, like like any other fantasy. Ooh, I wish I could do that. Ooh, I wish I was eating that. |
| Sarah | So tell us, Jessica, have you ever prepared a recipe that’s come out of another culinary mystery? So not necessarily your books, but a culinary mystery written by somebody else. Have you made them the recipe that’s included? |
| Jessica Thompson | Yeah, I think I have. Well, I know I have, I just can’t remember which ones. It was a cookie. I think it was a cookie from a Joanne Fluke book. But usually, I just read about it and go, yeah, yeah. But yeah, I love trying recipes from anything and everything. |
| Brook | So, Jessica, I also write cozy mysteries and occasionally I’ll give away a recipe or, you know, add a recipe at the back that of a food that was mentioned in the story. But my series isn’t exactly culinary mysteries. They just mention food, right? So, what do you think is kind of that tipping point? How important is the culinary aspect? What does it need to contain in order to truly be a culinary mystery? |
| Jessica Thompson | Hmm, yeah, that’s a good question. Cause you’re right. A lot of cozies will have like one recipe at the back. |
| Brook | Mm-hmm. |
| Jessica Thompson | Maybe it’s like in mine, it’s because she is a caterer. So she’s constantly cooking. So it’s like a series of events for a weekend is why she’s involved in the mystery in the first place. So like in my first book, even though someone dies, they’re like, “Yeah, let’s keep going. let’s carry on with the wedding anyway.” So, then she’s still cooking for like the next day’s Bachelorette party and bachelor party and then the actual wedding. So, they’re talking about suspects while they like knead bread, things like that. |
| Jessica Thompson | So, definitely if, if the like setting is very culinary and what the characters are doing. Cause some places are like set in a bakery or set in a coffee shop. And I don’t think they do that much cooking, but the setting makes it culinary and mine it’s like woven into the plot. |
| Jessica Thompson | I guess that’s, I guess that’s what makes it a culinary. |
| Brook | Yeah, so that constant thread of discussing food and recipes and, you know, like you said, the setting, I think that that is it. You know, you it needs to be throughout the story, doesn’t it? |
| Jessica Thompson | Yeah, I think so. And then mine have several recipes, so really, really driving that culinary cozy mystery home. But yeah, some some are a culinary setting and just have one recipe. And those are still culinary. |
| Brook | So it’s a spectrum. |
| Jessica Thompson | Yeah, Yeah, it’s definitely a spectrum, as in all things. |
| Sarah | Well, and and just thinking about that spectrum, so where you know Brook was talking about her book isn’t, her sorry, her series isn’t a culinary series, but she includes recipes. um And there are some books that have many recipes included with them. How do you find that balance so that you’re not just publishing cookbooks, right? That there’s that there is that, mystery as well as the the food element that’s central to the story? |
| Jessica Thompson | I try to have a ah plot with a lot going on. My editor says I’m the queen of plotting and pacing. So I think having a lot going on, having an intricate mystery, ah it’s not just they cooked, then they sat down and ate. So it’s like they’re talking about the suspects and she kneads bread. And then impossibly soon after that, she’s putting the bread in the oven. You know, it kind of montages over some of the cooking. But yeah, I think it’s having a good plot. That’s what I think. |
| Brook | Yeah, I would agree that um some culinary mysteries I’ve read have focused so much on the cooking aspect that I’ll kind of lose the thread of the mystery. But I think you’re right. If the mystery is the crux of the story and it’s a great, intricate plot, then that’s what keeps it moving for me. |
| Jessica Thompson | Yeah, me too. I like ah I like a good plot. So I I start with the plot and then fit in recipes. So I’ll have a bunch of recipes over here that I just developed whenever I felt like it. And then I’ll start with a plot, like with an idea and kind of plot the whole mystery. And then, oh, I can plug this recipe into here. And then the next morning they’re eating breakfast. So they’ll eat this, that kind of thing. |
| Brook | Oh, that’s nice. |
| Jessica Thompson | Yeah. |
| Brook | Yeah, that’s a great system. |
| Jessica Thompson | Thank you. |
| Sarah | Mm hmm. So you start with your your recipes and weave them into the story. |
| Jessica Thompson | Yeah, so the the recipes are usually already made. Sometimes it’s just an idea. And then and then yeah, I usually reverse engineer the plot and then fit in recipes whenever they fit. |
| Brook | That’s fascinating. I think the fact that you develop your recipes from scratch is fascinating. I would venture to say that not all of us are that creative in the recipes that we include in the books. Um, do you test all your recipes then I would assume? |
| Jessica Thompson | Oh yeah. Um, usually two, maybe three times if the second time didn’t go well. So, uh, if it goes well two times, if it doesn’t go well, I don’t know. It could be up to like 10 times. I think the cookie recipe in my first book, I tried lots of times to get it perfect. |
| Jessica Thompson | aSo yeah, usually I’ll start with a ah jumping off point, an idea, and then I’ll kind of write a rough idea for the recipe and then try to make it. And then after that first time, it’s like, “whoa, this goes totally different.” And then I’ll make it a second time and it’s like, “yeah, there it is.” |
| Brook | That’s great. That’s great. That’s some experience in the kitchen right there. |
| Sarah | And is there a particular type of recipe that you prefer to specialize in? |
| Jessica Thompson | Yeah, I’ll do like baking and cooking, sweet and savory, complicated and simple. I think there was one, like my bread recipe, I think has four ingredients, but there are ones like French macarons that have pages of instructions. Because if you want to get it right, those are finicky. So, I don’t know, whatever fits into the plot right then, you know If she’s whipping up breakfast for herself, it’s probably gonna be simple. But if she’s making something for a wedding, it’s fancier. So yeah, everything. |
| Brook | That’s really fun and I bet your friends and family were thrilled when you and began writing these stories so that they can help be your taste testers. |
| Jessica Thompson | That’s right. Yeah. Sometimes for my writing group, sometimes I’ll bring a recipe that I’m like, I don’t know. Is this it? What does it need? |
| Brook | Oh, that’s wonderful. So, you said that you do include both cooking and baking recipes, sweet and savory. What’s your favorite kind of things to to cook or bake? |
| Jessica Thompson | I think I like savory. I’m a savory person and I’m now supposed to be avoiding sugar. I guess I’ve been testing too many recipes. But yeah, um, so yeah, I like savory cause I really like spicy and foreign foods. Yeah. Like the second book, the Christmas book had a lot of like savory noodle dishes and a lot of gluten free options. Yeah, savory. Asian foods, that’s my favorite. |
| Brook | Fun. So, Jessica, when we talk about readers of culinary mysteries, do you think that they expect like the murder ah method um or the plot line to really revolve around the kitchen or culinary, or can it just be a backdrop? Do you know what I’m getting at there? |
| Jessica Thompson | Hmm. I don’t know what they expect because I’m just happy with whatever. Yeah. I should probably ask my newsletter people that like send out a poll. “Do you expect it to be really kitchen centric?” |
| Brook | Mm hmm. |
| Jessica Thompson | Cause like, like my Christmas one, they’re all at a mountain retreat and get snowed in. So, then they think it’s poison, but it’s not. Or it’s not in the food. Anyway, so, I don’t know what they expect, but I don’t expect that. |
| Brook | I like that the culinary aspect can turn into the red herring, because that’s what what you said. |
| Jessica Thompson | Yeah. |
| Brook | Like basically so the expectation is, oh, this is going to be a poisoning. And then you turn that on its head. So that’s really fun. |
| Jessica Thompson | Yeah, it was a good way to make everyone kind of freak out. And then and then like, oh, wait, no. Okay, we can calm down. |
| Sarah | So Jessica, you spoke about you know how kitchens are rife with danger. Is there anything in the kitchen that you think you would not include in a culinary mystery? |
| Jessica Thompson | Ooh, okay, so there are some poisons. They are not cozy, because I I try to keep it realistic. So I’m probably never going to use arsenic because… How do I put this? It’s messy. If you know what I mean. Out both ends. So that’s not cozy. |
| Jessica Thompson | So, so, uh, probably the heavy metal poisons. Well, I guess someone could have it slowly administered to them over time. Anyway, so some poisons, I tried to go for the poisons that like suddenly strike. In my second one, it’s this poison that if you get a small dose, it’ll have messy consequences immediately. But if you get a really big dose, there are documented cases where it’s like 12 hours later, you just drop dead. So, it was like, “oh, I’m doing that.” |
| Sarah | Oh wow. |
| Jessica Thompson | That’s cozy. |
| Brook | Yeah. Well, good for you for having the research you know behind you because I think that’s also something that can happen in amateur sleuth, cozy stories is that there isn’t enough research and you know background. And we just say, oh, arsenic without looking at what would that really do to a person. So, I think that’s really smart. |
| Jessica Thompson | Thank you. |
| Sarah | So, Jessica, where can readers find you? |
| Jessica Thompson | My books are all on Amazon. They’re the Caterers Guide to Crime series and good place to start. The first in the series, I wrote them out of order. So, it’s the most recent to come out, but it’s the first book in the series in the character’s lives. The first book is A Caterer’s Guide to Valentine’s and Violence. And you can find my website. It’s JessicaThompsonauthor.com or the social media I’m on the most is probably Instagram because pictures of food. And that’s JessicaTHauthor. And I had to add a number two at the end because of Incidents. |
| Jessica Thompson | Anyway, so jessicathauthor2 on Instagram. |
| Sarah | Well, that’s wonderful and and we’ll make sure that we include links to those in the show notes. |
| Jessica Thompson | Thank you. |
| Brook | Yeah. Thanks so much for joining us today. This has been really fun talking to um someone who writes culinary mysteries. |
| Jessica Thompson | Yeah, thank you. |
| Brook | and And thank you listeners for joining us today on Clued in Mystery. I’m Brook. |
| Sarah | And I’m Sarah, and we both love mystery. |
