US and Canadian readers hungry for the sequel to Sally Andrew’s delicious debut RECIPES FOR LOVE AND MURDER are in for a treat, as Ecco and Harper Avenue publish the second of the Tannia Maria Mysteries, THE SATANIC MECHANIC, in North America today. It’s already received praise with a Starred Review in Publisher’s Weekly who described it as ‘sublime’, while Seattle Review of Books called it ‘something to savor’. ‘I couldn’t resist diving into this book, almost as soon as I got the copy, and have read it twice since, says another reviewer. See more praise for the series below.
Tannie Maria is the plucky and endearing recipe writer turned crime fighter – and before she has time to take her Venus Chocolate Cake out of the oven, our glorious heroine finds herself embroiled in another mystery. In this wonderful sequel to RECIPES FOR LOVE AND MURDER, Slimkat the land rights activist finds his life under threat and Tannie Maria is determined to find out who wants to kill him. But her boyfriend is keen to keep Tannie out of danger, and she's pretty sure he's hiding something so Tannie has mysteries of her own solve… Blending a perfect whodunnit with lovable characters, Sally Andrew really does have the perfect recipe for a crime series.
RECIPES FOR LOVE AND MURDER was a Kirkus Best Book of 2015, A Wall Street Journal Best Mystery Book 2015, The Bookseller Fiction editor’s Choice 2015 and A Good Housekeeping Book of the Month. It was published in the UK by Canongate, the US by Ecco Press, Canada by HarperCollins, Australia by Text and South Africa by Umuzi, and sold into 14 languages (and counting) across 5 continents. You can read here about how Sally created Tannie Maria, and here Sally writes about the appeal of ‘cosy’ crime.
Sally Andrew divides her time between the Cape Town coast and a nature reserve near Ladismith in the Klein Karoo, which she shares with her artist partner, a giant eland and a secretive leopard.
Praise for the Tannie Maria series:
‘Vivid, amusing and immensely enjoyable read about detection (and cooking) in an intriguing part of southern Africa. … A triumph.’ – Alexander McCall Smith
‘A culinary and linguistic treat … and has a pleasing bite.’ – Cathy Rentzenbrink, Editor’s Choice, The Bookseller
‘In a suspense fiction world filled with serial killers, dead girls and gratuitously detailed depravity, the intelligently written cozy is an increasingly rare bird.’ – Kate Sharper News
‘Winning debut culinary cozy. Take a pinch of Alexander McCall Smith, a dash of Diane Mott Davidson, and add a smidge of the wild veld and you’ll get a taste for this lekker story (that’s “delicious” in Afrikaans). … With a fascinating setting, engaging characters, and a full complement of drool-worthy recipes, this is sure to leave readers craving more.’ – * Starred Library Journal
‘A delightful debut, tender and funny. The mystery takes on the worldwide problem of abused women while revealing both the beauties and problems of South Africa. And the recipes will make you want to drop everything and start cooking.’ – * Starred review, Kirkus
‘An intriguing mystery in an exotic locale, a work of enormous charm.’—Tom Nolan, Wall Street Journal
‘Delectable. …Mouth-watering descriptions of food and landscapes delivered in an Afrikaans patois produce a distinctly new kind of tea cozy, one just right for curling up on a winter afternoon while daydreaming about the heat of the African sun’—Leigh Haber, O Magazine, ’16 Books to Start 2016 Right’
‘A sincere, charming South African debut…its many irresistible recipes are the creation of Tannie Maria, a gentle-souled widow who believes that good food can solve problems bigger than hunger…Tannie Maria’s painful experiences of domestic abuse give Andrew’s novel a credibility and depth that nicely ballast its many heartwarming moments.’— Charles Finch, USA Today