Writer Abigail C. Houston — better known in these parts as Marie Cleary — used her love of food and her 30-year background as a chef in the Lewiston-Auburn area to whip up her first “cozy murder mystery.”

Cleary, who grew up in the Lewiston-Auburn area, moved to Aroostook County 10 years ago. She soon realized: “It’s a long winter up here!” Deciding to keep herself busy during those dreary winter months by trying her hand at writing, she began working on her book two years ago. “I definitely knew I wanted to write about food.”

Only she had no title:

“I gave the title a lot of thought. I had ‘death by this’ and ‘death by that.’ Then I thought, why not write about what you know best and use a food title?” The title of the book finally came “after many months of wracking my brain,” she said. “It just came to me one day. I was fooling around with words and then there it was. All of a sudden I realized there was a perfect match.”

The self-published book — complete with her recipe for the “Death by Artichoke” appetizer cheesecake and lots of culinary humor —  was released on Amazon.com in April under her pen name Abigail C. Houston.

Using CreateSpace, the self-publishing services division of Amazon, she and her husband, Dan, (a self-published writer going by the name of Brent Houston, who wrote his first sci-fi novel in 2010), did all the editing and cover art by themselves.

When asked which came first, the actual cheesecake recipe or the title of the book, she said, “Actually it was the cheesecake.” Over the years, this interesting recipe has become one of her favorites, generating rave reviews by guests before it sparked the novel.

French twists

Incorporating her Canadian ancestry into her story, Cleary created Gaston and Jacques, the two main characters in the book. They are curious, bumbling chefs who cannot deal with the seriousness of the situation at hand. They make petit fours and delicious cream puffs, which they eat during the stressful search for their missing friends and the murderer. Cleary plans to post those recipes on her blog at www.cozymurders.com. Other characters include Maurice, the restaurant’s saucier, Detective Scott Doubleyew and the local newspaper reporter, Maria.

Cleary’s career in the local food industry began while attending St. Dominic Regional High School, when she worked at the lunch counter at the old S.S. Kresge department store on Lisbon Street. “That’s where it all began for me,” she said. She tried a short stint in the world of hair dressing, which helped her recognize her primary love was food.

Future jobs ranged from working in the dietary department at Central Maine Medical Center to food service director for North Country Associates to chef at several restaurants. “I had the pleasure of working alongside Bill Gillis, who used to own Clover Manor.” She laughed when she fondly remembered him teaching her a lot about seafood, along with the skill of incorporating liquors into her cooking.

Heavenly muffins

As a hobby throughout the years, Cleary developed upwards of 120 muffin recipes. She shares one of the more unusual muffin recipes with readers, the triple banana split muffins, which incorporate all that’s great in the typical banana split — strawberries, bananas and chocolate, topped off with a cherry — everything except the ice cream, of course.

Cleary said her book was somewhat inspired by Jessica Fletcher, one of her favorite TV characters (played by Angela Lansbury) in the series “Murder She Wrote.”

She is happy “Death by Artichoke” is now part of the Maine State Library system, and can be found at the Houlton Public Library and local bookstores. She seems to have experienced great fun in the writing process, and now looks forward to promoting the book. “Writing is so intense, but so much fun,” she said, “But the aftermath is so much more enjoyable,” noting she has a few book signings planned this summer.

At her home in Oakfield, Cleary hosts her Death by Artichoke Society once a month, a book club of sorts, where readers converge to share both great foods and reads.

Death by Artichoke Appetizer Cheesecake

1/4 cup finely crushed Ritz crackers

1/4 cup grated Romano cheese

1 tablespoon dried oregano

1 tablespoon dried basil

2 eight-ounce packages cream cheese, softened

4 ounces crumbled blue cheese

4 ounces crumbled feta cheese

3 large organic eggs

1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese

1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

1 eight-ounce container of sour cream

1 five-ounce jar of artichoke hearts, drained well and chopped

1/2 cup black pitted olives, drained

1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil, drained well

1/2 cup EACH of coarsely chopped red bell pepper, green pepper and yellow pepper

3/4 cup coarsely chopped green scallions

2 to 3 large cloves of garlic, pressed

1-1/2 teaspoons dried tarragon

1 teaspoon dried basil

Directions:

Generously butter a 9-inch spring form pan. Combine the first three ingredients, sprinkling half of it on the bottom of the pan, reserving the remainder for after the cheesecake has cooked and cooled.

Using a food processor with a knife blade, combine the two 8-ounce packages of softened creamed cheese in the bowl. Process until smooth, scraping down once or twice if you feel you must. Add the blue cheese and feta, eggs and sour cream, processing till smooth once more, stopping to scrape down the sides as needed. Add the chopped ingredients (artichokes, black pitted olives, sun-dried tomatoes, green, red and yellow peppers, scallions, garlic, tarragon and basil). Process until partially smooth or to desired consistency. Pour mixture into prepared pan.

Bake at 375 degrees for about 45 to 50 minutes, depending on your oven or until golden on top. Cool completely on wire rack, then cover and chill for at least two hours or, even better, overnight. Carefully remove the sides of the pan. Using remaining cracker crumbs, pat mixture on the sides of the cheesecake. Serve with an assortment of crackers or dried baguettes.

Yields one 9-inch cheesecake. Make a couple days before serving for flavors to mellow and marry together. “You will have a divine appetizer,” the mystery writer said, “that you can serve with fun and flair, as well as being super-delicious!”

Abigail C. Houston’s Royal Triple Banana Split Muffins

Mix the following dry ingredients together:

3-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

4 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

In separate bowl, mix together:

2 large organic eggs, beaten with fork

1 cup cooled melted butter

1 cup buttermilk

Prepare the following fruit mixture in a separate bowl:

2 cups fresh strawberries, cut up

1/2 cup white chocolate chips

1/2 cup dark chocolate chunk pieces

1/2 cup banana chunks, cut up and dipped in lemon juice to keep from darkening

1 teaspoon lemon extract

1 teaspoon strawberry extract

1 teaspoon lemon zest

Fold wet ingredients in with the dry; then gently fold in the fruit mixture. Carefully scoop batter into buttered muffin tins or use extra-large muffin papers, using a #8 scoop. Top with the following:

Streusel mix:

1 cup chopped mixed nuts

1 cup of brown sugar

1/2 cup flour

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 teaspoon grated lemon zest

4 to 6 tablespoons butter

Mix together. Sprinkle on top of muffins then bake in a preheated oven at 375 degrees, lowering oven temperature to 350 degrees as soon as you put them in. Bake for about 30 to 35 minutes. Cool for 5 minutes in pan; remove to wire rack and cool for another 30 minutes.

Glaze with melted dark and white chocolate chips of your choice, and top each muffin with a cherry.

Wait 5 to 10 minutes. Mix a glaze of 1 cup confectioners sugar and 1 tablespoon (or so) Triple Sec. Drizzle over the top of it all.

What is a cozy murder mystery?

Cozy mysteries, sometimes simply referred to as “cozies,” are a subgenre of crime fiction in which sex and violence are downplayed or treated humorously, and the crime and detection take place in a small, socially intimate community.

Detectives in such stories are nearly always amateurs and frequently women. They are typically well-educated, intuitive and often hold jobs that bring them into constant contact with other residents of their town and the surrounding region. Like other amateur detectives, they typically have a contact on the police force who can give them access to important information about the case at hand, but the contact is typically a spouse, lover, friend or family member rather than a former colleague. Dismissed by the authorities in general as nosy busybodies (particularly if they are middle-aged or elderly women), the detectives in cozy mysteries are thus left free to eavesdrop, gather clues and use their native intelligence and intuitive “feel” for the social dynamics of the community to solve the crime.

The murderers in cozies are typically neither psychopaths nor serial killers, and, once unmasked, are usually taken into custody without violence. They are generally members of the community where the murder occurs, able to hide in plain sight, and their motives — greed, jealousy, revenge — are often rooted in events years or even generations old. The murderers are typically rational and often highly articulate, enabling them to explain or elaborate on their motives after their unmasking.

— Source: Wikipedia