Bøger af Janet Laurence

Discover the delights of a distinctive Scandinavian cuisine in a beautiful new book on the delicious cooking of Norway, with more than 60 stunning recipes.

Cookery writer Darina Lisle's great chance comes along with a place on a weekly food and wine TV programme. Charismatic Australian wine expert, Bruce Bennett, also comes along bringing trouble. Tensions rise till there seems hardly an aspect of the programme unaffected and even Darina's relationship with her detective partner is under strain. Then death occurs on camera. It's a suspected heart attack but Darina receives a call that claims it was murder. More death follows. Suspects are everywhere and Darina is fighting to prove her suspicions at the same time as coping with her performance on the programme, and her relationship with William. Then someone tries to break into her home. Suddenly she is face to face with a killer who has nothing to lose.

Darina Lisle is lunching at the Hotel Morgan - nicknamed Hotel Morgue for its dilapidated condition - when she seizes the chance to save the dying West Country hotel from ruin. William Pigram cannot believe she is serious and, as the hotel takes up more and more of her time, begins to regret ever inviting her to lunch there. But Detective Sergeant Pigram is soon distracted by the murder of a local waitress and by the arrival of a new recruit, in the petite form of Detective-Constable Pat James. Darina sets about turning the Hotel Morgan into a hive of activity and soon she has it fully booked for Christmas. But as she gets to know her employer, Ulla Mason; the attractive but infuriating Alex; and the other local hotelier, Adam Tennant, owner of the luxurious Manor Park Hotel, she becomes increasingly suspicious of their involvement in the killing of Sharon Fry. And, when another murder is committed, Darina decides it is time to polish up her sleuthing skills.

The Society of Historical Gastronomes is gathering for a weekend symposium on food from the past. Darina Lisle has been asked to cater for the occasion and has prepared a multitude of exquisite dishes - from salmagundis to a deepe coffyn - culled from ancient recipe books. But when the chairman is found stabbed to death with a boning knife, the professional pique of the attendant foodies takes on a more sinister meaning. Discarded lovers, jealous colleagues and a plagiarised author have good reason to resent the victim's success. Darina, too, is under suspicion and determines to clear her name by revealing the murderer's true identity.

As she struggles to make a living in a society where women have few rights and little freedom, she teams up with old friend and private investigator Thomas Jackman, who soon finds himself drawing on Ursula's investigative abilities as they battle to save an innocent woman from the noose.

Accompanying American heiress Belle Seldon on a visit to her ancestral family home in Somerset, Ursula Grandison soon discovers that the decaying stately Mountstanton House and its inhabitants has many secrets, including a crumbling marriage and a missing dowry.