Ulverscroft series

"When Iris unexpectedly inherits her grandmother's house in the country, she also inherits the painful memories that live there. Iris gives herself a one-week stay at the old house, after which she'll make a decision: keep it, or sell it. The choice is not so simple, though, for her grandmother's cottage is an enchanting place where currant jam tastes of tears, sparks fly from fingertips, love's embrace makes apple trees blossom, and the darkest family secrets never stay buried. As Iris moves in and out of the flicker between remembrance and forgetting, she chances upon a forgotten childhood friend who could become more. The Taste of Apple Seeds is is a bittersweet story of heartbreak and hope passed down through the generations"--

This is a mystery story set in the South California desert. Charlie Chan, the Chinese detective from Honolulu, is entrusted with the safe delivery of a string of pearls to a millionaire's isolated desert ranch. Suspecting all is not well at the ranch, he disguises himself as a servant to investigate the mystery. Other characters include the jeweler's son who accompanies Charlie, a pretty location-finder connected with the movies, the millionaire's secretary, a jaded newspaperman and a mild-mannered naturalist.

This novel is a murder mystery starring Charlie Chan, the Chinese detective from Honolulu. It is set on the shores of Lake Tahoe in the Sierra Nevada during early spring - for the first time Charlie Chan sees a snowy landscape! Charlie Chan is a house guest when Ellen Landini, a famous opera singer, is murdered. The suspects include her three former husbands, her present cast-off husband, her current intended and his sister, an ex-boyfriend and his jealous wife, and the first husband's loyal Chinese servant - all of whom were present in the house at the time.

As the financial crisis tightens its grip on Europe, the gilded world of Zurich's leading restaurant, Chez Huwyler, seems immune to plunging stock markets and collapsing banks. But behind the scenes, even the rarefied world of haute cuisine is feeling the bite and so Maravan - a Tamil dishwasher and undiscovered culinary genius - and Andrea - a stunningly beautiful waitress - find themselves out of a job and needing to find another way to survive. After Maravan seduces Andrea by cooking her a dinner that fuses the aphrodisiac recipes of his ancestors with the necromancy of molecular gastronomy, Andrea hits upon a business idea: romantic catering for couples. But even culinary magic can't ward off recession and when their new company begins to struggle, they are forced to enter into a much more unsavoury business, plunging them deep into an underworld where murder and sex feed otherwise unquenchable thirsts ...

Again a practised period drama of innocence and intrigue, seasoned by elements of evil, this tells of apprentice doctor Humphrey Shadbolt's attempt to save Letty Rowan, seventeen, fragile and orphaned, who is destined for her aunt's coffee house which is devoted to less decorous forms of entertaining its clientele. On his visits to the coffee house, Humphrey is sure that Letty, while firm in her refusal to be rescued, does not appreciate the nature of the establishment.

A series of short stories connected by a moral, hardworking, compassionate family that moves into a rural California valley and, while meaning well, pretty much destroys the lives of the characters in each story. Fascinating read that pits eccentric, creative diversity against the American ”moral" ideal.