The Olympics represent something deeper—patriotism, enthusiasm, commitment, sacrifice, and sheer joy.

One can’t help but being inspired by the endless parade of young people so happy to be representing their countries, knowing the sacrifices they had to make to get where they are. The parties, friendships, the childhoods, the family functions they will never get back.

And yet, in those glorious moments when they are at the Olympics somehow are vindication, and even more so when they win. The swimmers and the gymnasts are awe inspiring, and even a nonsports person like me will watch. The Olympics make me understand what Slap Maxwell meant by “Sports is a morality tale.”

This year’s Olympics, which end Sunday, Aug. 12, 2012, also are showing us the beauty, history, and intrigue of London, one of my favorite cities.

And the United Kingdom continues to bring us some top-notch mystery writers.

If you have Olympic fever, or want to spend a bit more armchair travels in London, here are some insightful authors who have written compelling crime fiction set in the United Kingdom. I can’t include all my favorites so I am hoping readers will add a few more names.

Val McDermid: I would probably read a grocery list that McDermid put together; I have been a fan of her novels for years. Her A Place of Execution, set in an isolated village, remains one of my favorites. McDermid’s novels about crime profiler Tony Hill and Det. Chief Inspector Carol Jordan, which has become her most successful series and were the basis of the long-running Wire in the Blood TV series aired on BBC America. The Retribution (Grove Atlantic) is the latest in this series. McDermid’s next book The Vanishing Point, due out in September, is set in America. Her A Trick of the Dark also is a favorite.

Mark Billingham: I would also happily read a grocery list from Mark Billingham, whose British police procedurals featuring Det. Insp. Tom Thorne are complex studies in taut suspense and imaginative plots. In Billingham’s hands, the unconventional becomes believable, from the villain putting his victims in a comatose state in Sleepyhead to Bloodline’s killer targeting families of serial killer victims. His latest is The Demands, a tense hostage situation that explores guilt, cultural differences and injustice.

Jane Casey: Casey is a new author to America, and one to keep an eye on. She made her U.S. debut in 2011 with The Burning (Minotaur), a taut police procedural that delved into the psyche of three women at the crossroads of their lives, each dealing with identity and self-esteem issues. Her latest novel The Reckoning (Minotaur) brings back Detective Constable Maeve Kerrigan who is investigating a series of murders of sex offenders.

Deborah Crombie: This Texas author shows vivid views of the vagaries of London neighborhoods in her series about Scotland Yard Superintendent Duncan Kincaid and Detective Inspector Gemma James. The couple’s chaotic, happy home sharply contrasts with the often messy police business. Recent novels are No Mark Upon Her (Morrow) and Necessary as Blood (Morrow).

S.J. Bolton: Bolton has written novels set in English villages and the Shetland Islands. Her 2011 novel Now You See Me uses the Ripper legend in ways that many authors have not. In Now You See Me, Bolton delicately weaves contemporary crimes, illustrating how of young girls in some of South London’s poorest neighborhoods feel as powerless and invisible as did the prostitutes that Ripper preyed on.

Elizabeth Haynes: Haynes’ gripping psychological thriller Into the Darkest Corner chronicles an abusive relationship as a young woman tries to rebuild her life in London, complete with a new identity.

Penny Hancock: Kept in the Dark combines a spooky, historic house on the Thames, an obsession with a teen love and dark fantasies. A respectable voice teacher holds a 15-year-old boy captive in her home for reasons she doesn’t understand but can’t seem to avoid. The Thames’ putrid waters that bring up all sorts of flotsam and jetsam add to this modern gothic.

Louise Millar: The Playdate will make you think twice about that new friendship with that overly friendly woman down the street who is always willing to help you with child care. Suzy Howard and Callie Roberts live on the same London street and appear to be best friends. The Playdate begins quietly, but soon builds into a gripping psychological thriller.

And let’s not forget British history.

Jacqueline Winspear: Her elegant Maisie Dobbs novels look at post-World War I England and how that war changed the face of British society. Winspear's latest is Elegy for Eddie.

Charles Todd: Todd has two series, both of which deal with WWI with solid, tense plots. The Bess Crawford series take place during the middle of the war as Bess, a nurse and amateur sleuth, deals with the wounded and killers who use the war to cover up their deeds. An Unmarked Grave is the latest Bess Crawford novel. Todd’s long-running series about Scotland Yard detective Ian Rutledge show a decorated soldier whose post-traumatic stress continues long after the Great War. The latest Rutledge novel is The Confession.

Stieg Larsson and his heavily tattooed Lisbeth opened the floodgates for unusual women characters and an insider's view of Europe. Larsson showed the real Sweden, making us feel as if we had actually walked those neighborhoods and visited the countryside.

But Larsson wasn't the first to make a splash with a contrary, asocial heroine or show us a part of a country even the well-traveled tourist may not have seen.

That would be Danish writer Peter Hoeg and his Smilla's Sense of Snow.

It seems hard to believe that Hoeg's story about his complicated, unlikable heroine celebrates its 20th anniversary.

Published in 1992, Smilla's Sense of Snow was named best book of the year by Time, People and Entertainment Weekly magazines and won the Crime Writers' Association Silver Dagger Award. The 1997 movie starred Julia Ormond, Gabriel Byrne, Robert Loggia and Richard Harris.

Smilla's Sense of Snow was one of those books that has stuck with me. I hadn't quite seen such an unusual heroine or been taken to such exotic lands before Hoeg's novel.

The woman with the sense of snow is Smilla Qaavigaaq Jaspersen, a glaciologist living in Copenhagen. For her, the snow and ice are more important than the sun.

The daughter of a wealthy Danish doctor and his first wife, an Inuit hunter, Smilla is a stranger to all. She is uncomforable living among the Danes. She also doesn't fit into the Inuit community due to her dependence on her father's generous checks and her fondness for stylish clothes.

Depressed and alone, Smilla's only friend is her 6-year-old Inuit neighbor, Isaiah, who is neglected by his alcoholic widowed mother.

When Isaiah is found dead, face down in the snow with his footprints on the roof of a neighboring warehouse, Smilla's "sense of snow" kicks in. The snow patterns show, to Smilla, that Isaiah was not alone. But neither the police nor Isaiah's mother seem to care.

Like Lisbeth, Smilla often is discounted by others. "My weapons have always been the small details that no one knows about. My identity, my intentions," Smilla states.

Smilla's investigation of Isaiah's short life leads to his dead father, a thwarted expedition of a Danish mining corporation, and an uninhabited island near Greenland.

In the review I wrote for the Sun-Sentinel, parts of which I have quoted above, I said that Smilla's Sense of Snow "dramatically explores alienation, the loss of identity, cultural diversity, exploitation of the environment, science and the intricacies of love."

More excellent crime fiction is coming out of Europe and I highly recommend The Absent One by Jussi Adler-Olsen (Danish); Midwinter Blood by Mons Kallentoft (Sweden); Frozen Moment by Camilla Ceder (Sweden).

But let's also remember what started it all and Smilla's Sense of Snow.

Is Philip Marlowe’s comeback really a good thing for crime fiction?

I tend to think not.

This past week it was announced that Raymond Chandler’s creation, who is one of the world’s most identifiable private eyes, will return in a novel to be written by John Banville; publication date is slated for 2013 by Henry Holt. (Chandler is at left.)

The novel will be published under the name of Benjamin Black, the psydenum that Banville uses when he is writing a mystery. The Chandler reboot will be set in the 1940s in Marlowe’s fictional town of Bay City, Calif.

My first question was, “Why?” And that also was my second, third and fourth question.

Chandler left us seven solid novels that looked at society and the ills that men do through the eyes of Philip Marlowe. These are iconic novels that never go out of style and are still read by crime fiction fans.

Those books are: The Big Sleep, Farewell, My Lovely, The High Window, The Lady in the Lake, The Little Sister, The Long Goodbye and Playback, his final novel published in 1958, the year before Chandler’s death. I have read each of them several times and each time I have found something new I hadn’t noticed before.

Chandler’s prose was lovely, crisp, to the point and his characters believable.

Snippets from Chandler’s novels continue to inspire us, amuse us and entertain us:

“It was a blonde. A blonde to make a bishop kick a hole in a stained-glass window.”

“I needed a drink, I needed a lot of life insurance, I needed a vacation, I needed a home in the country. What I had was a coat, a hat and a gun. I put them on and went out of the room.”

“To say goodbye is to die a little.”

“It seemed like a nice neighborhood to have bad habits in.”

“There was a desert wind blowing that night. It was one of those hot dry Santa Anas that come down through the mountain passes and curl your hair and make your nerves jump and your skin itch. On nights like that, every booze party ends in a fight. Meek little wives feel the edge of the carving knife and study their husbands' necks. Anything can happen. You can even get a full glass of beer at a cocktail lounge.”

In his essay The Simple Art of Murder, Chandler gave us a wonderful template for the detective novel.

“But down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid….

"He must be the best man in his world and a good enough man for any world. I do not care much about his private life; he is neither a eunuch nor a satyr; I think he might seduce a duchess and I am quite sure he would not spoil a virgin; if he is a man of honor in one thing, he is that in all things.”

That template has been read, studied and, thankfully, completely ignored by future generations of writers. I say thankfully ignored because the crime novel has gone places that Chandler could never have imagined with even richer stories, more in-depth characters and a view of contemporary society.

I doubt Chandler ever envisioned the rise of the female detective and how women would change the face of crime fiction for the better. I doubt he ever envisioned detectives who are African Americans, Asian, gay or even from other countries. The authors who write about these detectives and amateur sleuths have made the genre so much richer by their contributions.

We have all we need of Chandler’s work, and done by the master himself.

Trying to recreate Chandler’s novels has been done before and not that successfully. In 1989, Robert B. Parker was asked by the estate of Raymond Chandler to complete Poodle Springs, a novel that Chandler had started the first four chapters but was unfinished when he died.

Poodle Springs is not a favorite of mine by any stretch. Parker, who admired Chandler, should have been able to deliver a seamless Poodle Springs but the novel never gelled.

Conversely, Ace Atkins, at left, has been able to pick up Parker’s Spenser with ease and grace, as witnessed in the novel Lullaby.

Perhaps Atkins’ Lullaby worked because Parker’s death in 2010 was so sudden and Parker’s novels were so fresh work in our minds.

This generation of readers hasn’t been without a Parker novel since 1973 when The Godwulf Manuscript was published.

More likely, Lullaby worked because Atkins is a skilled writer who was up to the challenge of continuing Parker’s novels.

I make no predictions whether Banville/Black is up to the challenge. Yes, I know he is a Booker Prize-winning author but his mysteries written as Benjamin Black really are not in the style of Chandler, whose estate has authorized the new Marlowe novel. As Black, the author’s latest novel is the newly released Vengeance, from Holt.

Besides, we already have enough mystery writers who are turning out excellent crime fiction.

Let’s let the master’s work stand on its own.

New Tricks: Season 7

Acorn Media, 10 episodes on 3 discs, 582 minutes, $39.99

The premise behind the British series New Tricks is simple: Experience rules.

Forget the expression, "You can't teach an old dog new tricks.” The older cops in this squad prove case after case that not only can they learn new tricks, but their experience, insight and shared history are invaluable to investigating unsolved cases.

New Tricks follows the work of London’s Metropolitan Police Services’ Unsolved Crime and Open Case Squad. In other words, cold cases.

The squad was begun by Detective Superintendent Sandra Pullman (Amanda Redman), a one-time rising star in the police force until a hostage rescue went wrong. Sandra was put in charge of unsolved crimes, but was given little money and no staff. She recruited three former police detectives who had not exactly taken to their retirement.

Each member of her new squad welcomes this chance to prove show their investigative skills are still sharp.

The various personalities mesh well, and New Tricks allows their differences to shine. They work well as a team with the occasional friction adding to the plots.

Sandra was known for her unbridled ambition and sacrificed a personal life for her career.

Ex-Detective Sergeant Gerry Standing (Dennis Waterman) used to be quite the ladies’ man, having been married three times. Former Detective Chief Superintendent Jack Halford (James Bolam) quit the force to care for his wife before she died. Ex-Detective Inspector Brian Lane (Alun Armstrong) is obsessive-compulsive and lacks social skills.

New Tricks is billed as a comedy-drama and it perfectly balances the humor with the solid stories. Each detective has a sharp mind and well remembers the cases that went unsolved. The resolutions are not predictable and the plots have plausible twists.

The humor often comes when the old-school detectives show they can update their knowledge for the 21st Century. Tweeting is a new trial as they try to master those 140 characters. Rap lyrics get a unique interpretation from men used to Frank Sinatra. An investigation at a chocolate factory finally yields its clues only because the detectives can’t resist the all you can eat candy that’s available.

New Tricks is now in its ninth season on BBC and will be picked up for its 10th season in 2013. The first eight seasons are now available on DVD and Blu-Ray by Acorn Media.

New Tricks is a fresh approach to the tried and true police procedural.

Photo: Alun Armstrong, James Bolam, Amanda Redman, and Dennis Waterman. Photo courtesy Acorn Media.

There's nothing more delicious than mystery writers cooking up trouble

Used to be, when you finished a mystery, you’d close the book, settle back into your armchair with a contented sigh and savor the moment. But these days, judging by the number of crime novels that come with a recipe or two tacked into the last pages, you’re evidently supposed to jump up and head for the kitchen.

Now, I’m really not sure how a recipe for Cheesy Shrimp Puffs or Dutch German Chocolate Chip Cookies complements the gripping tale of a crime-busting poodle groomer bringing a serial killer librarian to justice, but these culinary flourishes are all the latest rage. A quick scan through the mystery section of your local bookstore will bear this out. There are so many of these “recipe mysteries” out there that they often warrant their own display.

But right from the start there’s been a curious link between food (and drink) and crime fiction. You could even get all biblical and pin it on Eve (the original femme fatale). It’s not that big a stretch to see the forbidden apple as the MacGuffin, the Garden of Eden as the first-ever Locked Room and the Big Guy as the first Great Detective (although, honestly, with only two suspects the case wasn’t all that hard to crack).

However, for our purposes, let’s just note that one of the earliest Sherlock Holmes stories, “The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle” (1892), revolved around a roast Christmas goose. And even earlier than that, one of Edgar Allan Poe’s classic crime stories was “The Casque of Amontillado” (1846), wherein the narrator/murderer uses a cask of a rare and valuable sherry to lure his former friend to a secluded wine cellar—and his doom.

But the most obvious association between food and felony was made in Rex Stout’s Fer-de-Lance (1934), which introduced Nero Wolfe, the world’s premiere foodie detective, whose entire life revolved largely around food and beer, mostly prepared by his brilliant personal chef, Fritz. Throughout his long career, Wolfe’s appetite for food and drink never flagged. The hardcover edition of the fifth novel, Too Many Cooks (1938) cemented that link, with Wolfe at one point lecturing 15 of the world’s greatest chefs on American cooking. The pivotal banquet has been cited by Nora Ephron and others as the “best meal in English literature,” and the novel even boasted recipes in the margins.

Since then, we’ve been inundated with sleuths who aren’t afraid to chow down—or cook up a storm. Virginia Rich, at the time the food editor at Sunset Magazine, is often cited as the creator of the modern “culinary mystery” subgenre, writing three culinary mysteries in the '80s featuring amateur sleuth/cooking school teacher Eugenia Potter.

Not that the affection for sustenance is limited to traditional or cozy sleuths. Sure, Joanne Fluke’s Hannah Swenson, the owner and proprietor of a bakery, and Diane Mott Davidson’s Goldy Schulz, a caterer, know which end of a spatula to use, but so do such tough guys as the late Robert B. Parker’s Spenser, certainly nobody’s idea of a cream puff, whose personal code of personal autonomy includes being able to cook his own meals, thankyouverymuch. The heavyweight 1970s TV eye Frank Cannon also clearly loved his food, and Manuel Vázquez Montalbán’s Spanish gumshoe Pepe Carvalho may have been the only private eye since Nero Wolfe to have a personal cook. The love of food and cooking also infuses Graham Swift’s bittersweet The Light of Day (2003), featuring morose British sleuth George Webb who discovers, after years of “fuelling up on canteen grub,” that he has a flair for cooking. And we should mention Hardbroiled (2003), edited by Michael Bracken, a collection of tough private eye stories in which food plays an important role.

The Classics

But the ultimate confirmation of the food-crime analogy is the mystery-themed cookbook, a notion that has proven infinitely attractive to both readers and publishers over the years.

In fact, the real mystery is why it took until 1973 to convince Stout to compile The Nero Wolfe Cookbook. But let’s face it—no collection of crime cookbooks would be incomplete without this one. Attractively designed and handsomely illustrated with period pics of the Big Apple, it showcased over 200 recipes from Fritz’s personal collection (all presumably approved by Wolfe, of course). And the Great Man stirred in a few himself. Who knew there were so many ways to prepare shad roe?

Not that Nero Wolfe is the only gumshoe to find himself on the culinary bookshelf. Here are a few others well worth sharpening your knives for.

Naturally, there are several dozen Holmes-themed cookbooks but Dining With Sherlock Holmes: A Baker Street Cookbook (1990) by Julia Carlson Rosenblatt and Frederic H. Sonnenschmidt, featuring complete menus taken from the canon, is still one of the most intriguing, thanks to its reverence, superb research, and attention to detail. Rosenblatt, with the aid of Sonnenschmidt, a professor at the Culinary Institute of America, planned and put on several Sherlockian dinners over the years.

Also worth investigating is The Sherlock Holmes Victorian Cookbook: Favourite Recipes of The Great Detective & Dr. Watson (1997) by William Bonnell, which takes a more lighthearted, less scholarly approach, including recipes for foods that Holmes “might” have eaten, including Bohemian Scandal Pickled Eggs. Hypothetical fun it may be, but its cred is intact—thanks to the inclusion of several Sidney Paget pen and ink illustrations from The Strand.

The Lord Peter Wimsey Cookbook by Elizabeth Bond Ryan & William J. Eakins (1981) should do it for fans of Dorothy L. Sayers’ urbane, upper-class detective and sophisticated cuisine, though we commoners may be wondering where the recipes for Spotted Dick are.

Kids’ Meals

The Whistling Bagpipe Crunchies? Hidden Staircase Biscuits? Old Clock Ice Cream Pie? You must be browsing through The Nancy Drew Cookbook: Clues to Good Cooking by Carolyn Keene (1973), another classic. Simple but fun recipes for younger cooks, with occasional tips from Nancy herself. Becoming a good cook is “no mystery,” she says. You just “add your own special touch.”

Even younger kitchen-savvy sleuths will go buggy over Chet Gecko’s Detective Handbook (and Cookbook) by Bruce Hale (2005), which serves up numerous tips on surveillance and disguises for would-be sleuths, as well as such mouthwatering yummies as Tick Taco Salad, Sweet Potato-Bug Pie, and Blowfly Banana Muffins recommended by Hale’s wisecracking lizard gumshoe.

Contemporary Cooks

No less whimsical, although purportedly for adults, is Sneaky Pie’s Cookbook for Mystery Lovers (1999) by Sneaky Pie Brown. Evidently cats don’t just solve mysteries now, they also cook and write. This is about evenly divided into recipes for humans and four-legged animals, and leavened with anecdotes and off-the-cuff cooking tips, although the lack of any decent mice recipes may be disappointing for feline readers.

At least Koko and Yum Yum didn’t presume to write The Cat Who... Cookbook by Julie Murphy and Sally Abney Stempinski (2000), although this one, which features recipes culled from the popular series by Lillian Braun, also includes a special section on cooking for kitties. But once again, a shocking lack of mouse recipes! Still hungry? In 2006, the authors followed up with The Cat Who... Reunion Cookbook.

For those humans savoring something a little more continental, may we suggest Madame Maigret’s Recipes by Robert J. Courtine (1975)? As Inspector Georges Simenon fans know, Madame Maigret is a plus excellent cook, and this classical French cookbook is de rigeur. Julia Child is all fine and dandy, but how many mysteries did she solve? Huh? HUH? Bon appétit.

TV tie-in cookbooks are a dime a dozen, although there aren’t that many devoted to crime shows. One enjoyable exception is the deliciously cheesy The Cop Cookbook (1997) by Greta Garner-Hewitt, Ken Beck, and Jim Clark. Subtitled “Arresting Recipes from the World’s Favorite Cops, Good Guys, and Private Eyes,” it features over 300 recipes by assorted actors who play police officers and detectives in film and on television, as well as a few real life ringers. Thespian contributors include Clint Eastwood, Peter Falk, Tom Selleck, Dennis Franz, Tommy Lee Jones, Francis McDormand, Jack Webb, James Garner (who just happens to be Greta’s dad), and a cast of thousands. Recipes include CHIPS Party Patrol Mix, Rockford’s Trailer Dressing, and Danno’s Lamb Shanks (from Hawaii Five-O, of course). The deck is stacked with numerous black and white stills from assorted shows, and a portion of the proceeds go to The National Peace Officers Memorial Service Fund to aid families of officers killed in the line of duty. Cook ‘em, Danno.

Slightly less star-studded, perhaps, but more democratic in spirit is The Murder She Wrote Cookbook, edited by Tom Culver and Nancy Goodman Iland (1996), containing more than 350 recipes from not just the cast but the crew, plus several of the guest stars who appeared on the long-running show. Who knew Best Boys could cook? Mind you, given Cabot Cove’s high mortality rate, you may want to hire a tester before consuming these recipes yourself.

Speaking of long-running, Food to Die For by Patricia Cornwell and Marlene Brown (2001) presents recipes taken from (or inspired by) her ever-popular series featuring forensic specialist Kay Scarpetta, including Miami-Style Chili with Beer (from All That Remains) and Jack Daniel’s Chocolate-Pecan Pie (The Body Farm). Wash all the knives carefully, just in case, and be careful what you take out of the fridge. Kay does seem to bring her work home, after all...

Mma Ramotswe’s Cookbook (2009) by Stuart Brown is the perfect choice for fans of the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series. Brew yourself a nice cup of red bush tea and start planning tonight’s dinner menu. This amply illustrated culinary tour offers an intriguing glimpse into Botswana’s traditions and culture, with recipes for traditional stew, fat cakes (doughnuts), jams, and other African delicacies, all accompanied with many excerpts from the novels. The proceeds from the book’s sales are to be shared among several African charities. Now you, too, can become traditionally built, and all for a good cause. Series creator Alexander McCall Smith brings a foreword to the feast.

Want Italian? The latest mystery-themed cookbook springs from one of the genre’s most renowned foodie detectives: Donna Leon’s beloved Commissario Guido Brunetti. Brunetti’s Cookbook (2010) by the mystery writer’s best friend, Roberta Pianaro, has plenty of scrumptious color photographs, excerpts from the novels, and several “culinary stories” and essays by Leon. But of course the soul of any cookbook is its recipes and this one collects a mouthwatering assortment of over 90 Venetian dishes. I mean: Veal Fillets with Fennel Seeds, Garlic, Rosemary, and Bacon. If you’re not licking your lips over that one, you might be dead.

And they just keep coming. The latest mystery-themed cookbook is Have Faith in Your Kitchen, a selection of recipes culled from the popular Faith Sibley Fairchild foodie mysteries by Katherine Hall Page. The Agatha-winning author dishes up some juicy background on her caterer/chef/amateur snoop, and the role food plays in her life. If the pleasantly groan-inducing title doesn’t convince you that the author’s skillet is in the right place, then the recipes for such fare as Smothered Pork Chops or the exquisite-but-oh-so-simple Salad with Warm Cheese Toasts (goat cheese, my friends, goat cheese!) just might.

But perhaps it’s no surprise detectives care about their food. In a world where evil is alive and well, and what passes for justice is too often random, food may be the one tiny piece of our helter-skelter world we can put right; a place where we can be kind to others. And ourselves.

Supper’s ready! 

Faith Fairchild’s Mini Zucchini Fritters

What you need:

1 jumbo egg
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted
1/4 teaspoon salt
1-1/2 cups finely grated zucchini 2 teaspoons unsalted butter 1-1/4 cups milk
1 cup flour, sifted
Pinch of freshly ground pepper
1 shallot, minced

Beat the egg, milk, and melted butter together and add to the flour, salt, and pepper. Mix until smooth but do not over beat.

Put the zucchini in a piece of cheesecloth or a clean dish towel and squeeze out the excess liquid. Sauté with the shallot in two teaspoons of butter until soft, about 3-5 minutes. Add the zucchini mixture to the batter and drop the batter onto a well-greased, hot griddle in rounds, approximately 2-1/2 inches in diameter. Turn when golden brown. Makes 36 fritters.

Straight from the griddle, these are a nice accompaniment to a main course, fanned on the plate with grilled meat or fish. For Faith’s wedding hors d’oeuvres, spread the room temperature fritters with salsa, topped with a dollop of sour cream or smoked salmon, or with sour cream and a twist of corriander or dill. The combinations are limitless, though, and these fritters may be made ahead and frozen.

Reprinted with permission from Have Faith in Your Kitchen, Katherine Hall Page, Orchises Press, September, 2010, tpb $19.95. Also available as a signed, boxed, limited hardcover edition, $125. Orchises Press, P.O. Box 320533, Alexandria, VA 22320-4533. 

This article first appeared in Mystery Scene Fall Issue #116.