16 Books To Start 2016 Right

If you, too, were entranced by Precious Ramotswe, the Botswanan protagonist of Alexander McCall Smith's best-selling sleuth series, get ready for Tannie Maria van Harten. In Recipes for Love and Murder, the delectable debut novel by South African Sally Andrews, Tannie Maria—like Precious—has a heart made of marshmallow and a nose for crime solving. But the most powerful weapons in Tannie Maria's arsenal may be her delicately flavored curries, her homemade apricot jams, and her perfect buttermilk chocolate cake, which she uses to disarm friend and foe alike. Mouth-watering descriptions of food and landscapes delivered in an Afrikaans patois produce a distinctly new kind of tea cozy, one just right for curling up on a cold winter afternoon while daydreaming about the heat of the African sun.