Murder from Scratch: A Sally Solari Mystery

Competition can be murder, as Sally Solari, the owner of a French-Polynesian restaurant in Santa Cruz, Calif., can attest, in Karst’s lively fourth series whodunit (after 2018’s Death Al Fresco). Sally’s dad, Mario, has his own Italian seafood place, and a cousin of Mario’s, Jackie Olivieri, recently left a restaurant called Tamarind to open her own pop-up, the Curry Leaf, with a similar menu to Tamarind’s. When Evelyn, Jackie’s college-age daughter, finds Jackie dead, Mario convinces Sally to take in Evelyn while her home is cordoned off as a potential crime scene. Though Jackie long ago broke ties with the Solaris, and Sally has never met Evelyn, nothing trumps famiglia. A farewell note to Evelyn found near the victim’s body suggests to Detective Vargas that Jackie took a lethal dose of pills, but Evelyn swears he’s wrong, and she and Sally set out to prove it. Suspects include Rachel, who was fired from the Curry Leaf and now is starting her own pop-up, and Al, Tamarind’s volatile owner, who lays claim to all of Jackie’s recipes. This is cover-to-cover fun for culinary cozy fans. Agent: Erin Niumata, Folio Literary Management. (Apr.)