Add Cyanide to Taste: A collection of dark tales with culinary twists

by Karmen Spiljak, Luka Rejec (Illustrator)

Overview

A sinister cook, a cursed cake, and a casual dinner between neighbours that goes murderously wrong.

This collection of culinary mysteries ascends the jagged culinary heights you've hungered to explore but could never find on a map: a family business that depends on a curse, a remote mountain village with a taste for revenge, a particularly peckish ghost. As the characters swoon over every unforgettable mouthful and sometimes bite off more than they can chew, you'll find yourself asking: What would I be willing to pay for the meal of a lifetime?

Fourteen heart-stopping stories will chill, thrill and entertain. They range from thrillers and mysteries to ghost stories and are a great gift for crime fiction lovers.

If feasting on culinary noir leaves you hungry, extend your pleasure by preparing the dishes featured in the stories. Most recipes are vegetarian. All recipes are cyanide-free.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9786500263879
Publisher:	Karmen Spiljak
Publication date:	09/30/2021
Series:	Cooking with Cyanide , #1
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	256
Sales rank:	831,765
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Karmen Špiljak is an award-winning indie author of suspense, speculative fiction and horror. She currently lives in Belgrade with her husband and their two cats.

Table of Contents

Foreword 

SHORT STORIES 

The Assistant 

Sweet like Butter 

Three Roses 

Dark Velvet 

A Damned Fine Cook 

Dash Friend 

Gardener's Sense 

Moments 

My Friend Betty 

The Recipe 

Pass the Ketchup 

Let it Rot 

The Collectors 

Be My Guest 

THE RECIPES 

Janice's Pumpkin Gnocchi 

Bert Oxley's Roast Chicken 

Hot Chocolate 

Blueberry Schnapps 

Sarah's Posh Cheese Sandwich 

Fiona's Chocolate Miso Cookies 

Apricot Pie 

Courgette Strudel 

Oven-Baked Pancakes 

The Collectors' Soup 

Stuffed Peppers Eddie's Incidental Salad 

The Forbidden Pasta 

Acknowledgements 

Before you leave 

Book Club Questions 

About the Author

More by the Author 

Editorial Reviews

01/24/2022

The 14 well-crafted culinary noir stories in Spiljak’s debut collection efficiently establish character and mood. While many are traditional narratives, the star of this feast is “The Collectors,” which recounts its ominous plot through a series of email exchanges. The opening banter between two friends turns darker with the reveal that a member of their academic team researching Neolithic mass graves has gone missing in the same Austrian location that a journalist disappeared from years earlier, both possibly as the result of food tampering by one or more persons seeking to preserve some deadly secrets. Another high point is “Dark Velvet,” which follows its effective opening tease (“All families have their secrets; ours has a curse. We rarely bring it up but it continues to exist in the shadows”) with a twisted story involving a cake recipe rumored to require human blood as an ingredient. Crime fiction readers who are also foodies will appreciate the recipe section following the stories, prefaced with the tongue-in-cheek warning, “please don’t add cyanide to any of the dishes.” Fans of Rob Hart’s Take-Out and Other Tales of Culinary Crime will feel sated. (Self-published)

Publishers Weekly

'The 14 well-crafted culinary noir stories in Spiljak's debut collection efficiently establish character and mood. Fans of Rob Hart's Take-Out and Other Tales of Culinary Crime will feel sated.'

Publishers Weekly

'Karmen Spiljak is a wonderful, welcome voice to culinary noir with ADD CYANIDE TO TASTE, a collection of delightful, delectable, twisty short stories and a cross-genre foodie delight. The stories feature strong, interesting characters, imaginative situations that range from funny to terrifying to everything in between, excellent plot twists, beautiful writing to please the senses, and great integration of the culinary aspects.'

IndieReader

'Add Cyanide to Taste definitely held a set of strong stories. Even though they were short they still had that ability to draw me in completely.'

Rae Reads

'Spiljak has a knack for the short story - not everyone has - and for creating sharp bursts of darkness.'

Cheryl M-M's Book Blog

'For fans of the Twilight Zone, Tales From the Dark Side and Night Gallery, this book will delight.'

Laura's Interests

'I LOVE THIS BOOK!!! This is not just a feast for all culinary lovers, it is a feast for all crime and murder mystery lovers. It has the feel of an Agatha Christie cozy murder magic and mayhem with a slightly more fiendish twist.'

Zoe's Book Nook

'A delectably concocted collection, which showcases the author's fun in writing it. Every story is different from the rest, and I had a hard time selecting my favorite. Each one just gets better than its predecessor.'

Tomes and Tales

'What I found especially enjoyable is the lightness of touch of her writing style, and the flow of narration with which she concocts her mouth-watering noir dishes. There are cooked to perfection thrillers, ghost stories and mysteries.'

Ewa Sherman/Nordic Lighthouse

'From the dark to the funny, there's something to cover most of the emotions in here. A fun pick-up-and put-down (but harder to put down), thought provoking and clever read.'

Nicki's Book Blog

'The most important strength of Add Cyanide to Taste is the clear enthusiasm the book exudes in mixing food and related concepts with good storytelling. This, in turn, doesn't settle for entertainment through popular themes. Its juggling act includes stories with smart, modern, and even painful depths.'

Electra Nanou

From the Publisher