Karen Pierce is a self-confessed foodie, amateur cook and avid reader of Agatha Christie. At the age of twelve she picked up a Christie pocketbook from her grandmother’s bedside table. It was Third Girl, a glorious romp through London of the sixties, and she was hooked.  '

Over many years of reading and rereading Christie’s novels, she noticed the role food played in many of the mysteries. Curious to know if the ingredients Lucy Eyelesbarrow gives to the inspector in 4:50 from Paddington actually constituted a recipe for soup, she followed the list and to her surprise and delight made a quite delicious mushroom and lemon soup. This led to other questions – what is a cold coffee soda? What is a canapé Diane? Who grows marrows? Why does Poirot dislike English coffee so much? And what on earth is sirop de cassis? The resulting investigation led to the writing of Recipes for Murder – the first exploration of food in Christie’s novels.