When Jessie is found dead by Jane's brother, Arthur, Jane decides to investigate. With total disdain for Detective Hammond and his investigative methods, Jane surveys the murder scene looking for clues to Jessie's murderer while keeping an eye out for Jessie's collection of family recipes.

Cook Up a Crime is perhaps the mother of today's "cozy" mystery. Jane may be related to today's cozy heroine, but she is definitely a distinctly different variety. She is middle-aged, unmarried with no prospects, and has a pronounced caustic manner. Unlike today's heroine, she does not get along with the local police force. In fact she seems to go out of her way to be at cross purposes with Detective Hammond. Hammond believes Jane to be meddlesome, and a hindrance to his investigation. Although the police have the advantage of a multitude of resources at their command, Jane thinks she will always solve the crime sooner because she is so much more observant.

Like many of today's cozies, the plot of Cook Up a Crime is uninspired. The characters, however, more than atone for the lack of sparkle of the plot. Jane has a wonderful opinion of herself, is unconcerned with her appearance, and although she is devoted to her brother and sister, she has a rather low opinion of everyone else. Detective Hammond while reasonably capable, is always being upstaged by Jane. While not attempting to be humorous, they certainly give the reader a chuckle or two.

Cook Up a Crime is refreshingly devoid of bedroom scenes and drug users. It is almost mandatory in the modern mystery to have the heroine and her romantic interest retreat to the bedroom at some point, but with a heroine like the 180 pound, middle-aged acerbic Jane, this is a most unlikely scenario. Without a doubt, drugs existed when this story was written, but their presence is mercifully absent from Rockport.

Cook Up a Crime should definitely be of interest to students of the evolution of the mystery novel . It is much different than other books of its time, such as Nero Wolfe's and Gideon Fell's. It has its own appeal. Amateur sleuth, Jane Amanda Edwards has a personality guaranteed to entertain the most demanding reader. And, as an added bonus, in the reprinted version from Rue Morgue Press, recipes for some of the dishes mentioned in the text are printed at the end of several chapters.

--Andy Plonka