Understand! The LA ones tend to run together in my mind, but enjoy all I’ve read. I haven’t kept up in the last few years though…
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Just finished The Family Chao by Lan Samantha Chang about a first and second generation Chinese-American family who runs a Chinese restaurant in Wisconsin… yes, Wisconsin. It’s a spin on The Brothers Karamazov. The book is sooo good, but totally bonkers. I could use some light reading, right now. 
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Sounds intriguing. I love detective novels but had a rough time with some of the bigotry in Chandler’s Marlowe books.
"‘Don’t bend your head down to the plate,’ she continued. ‘That might be appropriate if you were in Beijing eating noodles but not here in America eating grilled chicken at Denny’s – and dab with the napkin. You look like you’re erasing your lips.’
"Dodson put down his fork. ‘You know what? I’m not gonna eat anymore. It’s too stressful. The only way to make you happy is to die from starvation.’
“‘If you weren’t Cherise’s husband. I’d say that was a good idea.’”
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No mention of SamuetAt’s Roz series? 
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Do tell.
Roz was the protagonist in some threads written by a poster named SamuelAT.
Here are some of the threads:
I relate to this one, since the last time I baked an apple pie for a 50th birthday party, it was overlooked, and the guests were choosing the other baked goods that came from Costco or regular grocery store. I finally took a slice and offered some to my friend because I was getting so irritated.
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Published this February, All the Queen’s Men, is the second S.J. Bennett work featuring Queen Elizabeth (that one indeed) solving murders with very discreet help from various palace stalwarts including Billy MacLachlan. At page 220 he comments on the gastropub scene:
"Once upon a time he and the lads had been pretty scathing about ‘triple cooked chips’ and half-baked steaks, everything resting on rocket leaves and costing a week’s wages. But you got used to it. The food these days was good. He was very fond of triple cooked chips, especially if somebody else was buying. Today he was on expense from Her Majesty.
". . .
“They chose a bottle, one of the more expensive on the list, and MacLachlan neglected to mention that he didn’t drink wine anymore. It didn’t agree with him – gave him a headache. But if he was entertaining for whatever reason, he liked to keep his interlocutors loquacious. Expansive and well-oiled. A good cabernet could do that.”
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Thanks for posting this. I really liked the first book in the series, so I’m happy to see there’s another one. Just requested it from the library.
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In a different rarefied British vein, [in earlier life, she of MI-5 Big Kahuna-ship] Stella Rimington’s Liz Carlyle series hasn’t seen a new addition since the last decade. We don’t remember food playing any role, though if memory serves, Liz’s mother’s gardening might have.
Thanks for the recommendation. My local library has the series. Is it best to start with the first one? I usually do…
Yes. The characters develop as the series progresses.
Will do - thanks!
This is more “fiction totally inseparable from food” than “fiction with food on the side”, but I’m enjoying Chocolate Cake for Imaginary Lives, a short story collection published earlier this month.
(Disclaimer: the author is an online acquaintance from the days of LiveJournal, but we’re not really in touch these days.)
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Feast of Sorrow by crystal king
Historical fiction in Ancient Rome. It’s fiction but has the story of Apicius and his cookbook as part of the story.
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I have that one one on Audible! Not sure why, but I haven’t gotten very far.
In the the Fiction with drink on the side department:
From Loren D. Estleman’s Amos Walker series’s new installment Cutthroat Dogs at page 56, private detective Walker receives a home visit from a police Detective Stanley Kopernick:
“‘If you’re one of those cops who never drink on duty, you can watch me.’ I headed for the kitchen.
“He followed me. ‘My old man told me never to refuse free liquor. I love my old man.’
“From the cabinet above the sink I hoisted down the economy size jug of Old Smuggler and filled two of those glasses that come free with good Scotch at Christmas. It wasn’t good Scotch.
“This time he hadn’t grace. ‘Save the toney stuff for the gentry, I guess.
“‘I keep the high octane at the office. Get drunk at home.’”
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Christopher Reich has a new one, Once a Thief. The story immediately moves from Lugano, Switzerland to Yountville, California. Beginning at page 7:
“It was three p.m. or thereabouts on a sun-drenched August afternoon in the Napa Valley. Hamilton, Simon Riske––Hamilton’s automotive advisor and restoration expert----and an elegant Frenchwoman named Sylvie Bettncourt were seated in the private dining room of the French Laundry, the fabled three-star eatery. All were elevated by the aftereffects of eating as fine a meal as there ever was, washed down by several bottles of equally fine wine, and polished to a sheen by several flutes of Champagne. What better way to celebrate the sale of the 1963 Ferrari 250 GTO. The price: 102 million dollars and zero cents. The highest sum ever paid for a motor vehicle.
“ . . .
“The door to the dining room opened. Servers bearing dessert. Or, this being the French Laundry, desserts. There was panna cotta laced with summer fruits, chocolate cake, donuts and coffee, other pastries with names Simon couldn’t guess, vanilla ice cream. They ate in delighted silence, punctuated by the occasional sigh. This is really too good.”
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Just finished "Case Histories " by Kate Atkinson ( recommended here on HO, but can’t remember where or by whom), and finally starting " The Goodbye Coast ".
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