For those who prefer some romance with their mystery, Something's Cooking, the first in the Angie Amalfi series by Joanne Pence should please. Angie is writing a food column for a small weekly paper in San Francisco when some of the receipes she's been using get her mixed up with murder and gun running. Enter the hunky homicide inspector, Paavo Smith, who is handed the case. Glaringly neglecting any allusion to conflict of interest when a police officer becomes romantically involved…

Who knew that rural Iowa is such a hot bed of criminal activity? Known Dead, the second book in the series by Donald Harstad, is faster tempoed then the first. Harstad's novels are police procedurals that take the reader along with the first person narrator, Deputy Carl Houseman, into every step of the investigation. Harstad's writing is thorough but amusing, and his characters feel like real people complete with foibles and…