Leslie Karst’s

Sally Solari foodie mystery series are spiced just right to tempt  readers back for second helpings, with razor

sharp plotting, a vibrant Santa Cruz setting, and the bonus of some great

recipes!

Hi there I’m your host Jenny Wheeler, and today Leslie talks about Murder from Scratch, the fourth book in what she calls her “snarky cozies.”

Six

things you’ll learn from this Joys of Binge Reading episode:

Why Leslie is passionate about Santa CruzWhat the law taught her about mystery writingHer culinary obsessionsHer not-so-secret song-writing lifeDividing time between Hawaii and CaliforniaWhy she loves Chicks On A Case

Where to find Leslie Karst:

Website: http://lesliekarstauthor.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lesliekarstauthor/

 Twitter: @ljkarst

What

follows is a "near as" transcript of our conversation, not word for

word but pretty close to it, with links to important mentions.

Jenny: Hello

there, Leslie, and welcome to the show. It's great to have you with us.

Leslie: Hi,

Jenny. It's so great to be talking from halfway around the world, from

California to New Zealand, it's really fabulous.

Jenny: That's

right. We're joined by the Pacific Ocean.

Leslie: Exactly.

Leslie Karst - Combing two passions - writing and food - in the Sally Solari mysteries

Jenny: Look, was

there a Once Upon A Time moment when you decided you wanted to write fiction as

distinct from other things you might have been writing? And if so, was there a

catalyst for it?

Leslie: You know,

I've always been fascinated by words and language, since I was a little kid,

but I never actively planned to be a writer. But somehow I ended up writing for

most of my life as a college student. I was a literature major, so I wrote a

lot of papers about literary criticism. And then after I graduated, I dabbled

in poetry.

And in my angst ridden 20's, I moved over to writing songs for a couple of bands. I had a new wave band in the 80's and then later in the 1990's, I had a country rock band called Electric Range that I formed with my sister.

A change of pace

And then after that, I went on to law school and I became a lawyer. And I spent 20 years writing research, memory memos and appellate briefs. So there it was. At the time I was ready to retire as a lawyer, I realized writing must be in my blood. So I said, I'm going to have to continue writing. But at that point, I decided I wanted to do something new. And that's why I decided to go to fiction. Completely different from legal briefs, certainly.

Jenny: So you've

now written four books, a Sally Solaris mystery series that's a culinary

series, set in a restaurant and features a lot of food. I just wondered two

questions, really. Why did you choose mysteries as your genre and how did you

come upon the culinary theme for them?

Obsessed with taste and texture

Leslie: Well, as

I said, when I decided to switch to fiction, I settled on mysteries, partly

because I'd read them a lot is that when I was younger. But I also  realized that crafting the twists and turns

of a murder mystery, is not that different from the detail-oriented work that

one employs when you're drafting a legal brief. And it turns out I was right

about that.

 So that's why I went