Murder on the Menu by Orlando Murrin

© Matt Austin

Having enjoyed a career editing food magazines and writing cookbooks, I imagined that making the transition to writing culinary cosy crime would be a snap. How wrong I was.

Now that Knife Skills For Beginners is finally out – it’s been a long time coming – I’m enjoying a short pause to look back over the experience. Which, in the manner of all good meals, has been a succession of delicious surprises. 

Amuse-bouche

When I was growing up, the family hero was my maternal grandfather, William Skardon, who started life as a copper on the streets of Pimlico, later becoming a detective then crack MI5 interrogator. Among his celebrated successes, he caught and arrested Lord Haw-Haw in Germany, exposed the Portland Spy Ring and extracted a confession from atomic spy Klaus Fuchs. After defecting to Moscow, Philby declared, ‘The only man I feared was Skardon’. The Daily Express called him ‘England’s Most Famous Pipe-Smoker’ and the Sunday Times spent years stalking him in Torquay, in a vain attempt to get him to ditch the dirt on an ex-boss at MI5.

Granddad was forbidden to talk about his exploits as a spycatcher, so he used instead to regale us with stories of gruesome murder cases from his detective years, and the clues and tells that enable him to solve them. Ever since I’ve found whodunits and murder mysteries fascinating and dreamed of writing one of my own.

Starter

I left it late to write my first novel – in my early 60s – but that’s because I was doing other things. I’ve had several careers – restaurant pianist, advertising copywriter, features writer, magazine editor, cookery writer, chef, hotelier – and threw myself into all of them; there simply wasn’t time.

A few years ago, I decided the moment had come and booked myself on an Arvon course taught by Andrew Taylor and Laura Wilson; they were so inspiring. Another turning point was being asked to write a column for Waitrose Weekend newspaper, through which I polished my style and learnt how to make readers laugh. (I hope.)

Main course

Three years ago, I wrote a half novel, then another full one, at which point disaster struck. I’d assumed I’d be spared the horror of the slush pile because I already an agent (for my cookbooks). Imagine my dismay when she announced that for conflict-of-interest reasons, she couldn’t represent my fiction.

I stuck a note on my computer - I AM IN DEADLY EARNEST - then spent fifty days and nights in submission hell, waiting for agents to respond. Finally, I had a glimmer of interest from a couple, followed by a send me the whole manuscript from the most covetable of all, top crime agent Oli Munson at AM Heath. Knife Skills For Beginners is the result.

It’s a culinary cosy crime story set in a posh but shabby-round-the-edges London cookery school, where our hapless hero, Paul, is summoned to teach a course at short notice.

There’s something a bit rum about its proprietor, Rose, to say nothing of the eight eccentric students who gather to learn the finer points of haute cuisine. On the first night something terrible happens, and Paul finds himself embroiled in a grisly crime.

While the police investigate, the students are told to stay on the premises, and Rose - anything rather than offer refunds - insists Paul continue teaching. He uses lessons in bread, pastry and sauce making as covert operations, watching the students for clues whodunit, unaware that meanwhile someone is framing him for murder…

In classic cosy crime tradition, clues and red herrings abound, including six ‘killer’ recipes, which provide hints to the killer’s identity. I should add that these are real recipes, which combine to form a sophisticated dinner party menu. My dearest wish is that a fan somewhere will throw a Knife Skills For Beginners dinner party – minus, of course, the dastardly crime.

Side dish

I’ve heard the publisher-author relationship can be a tricky one, but I have no complaints – quite the opposite. We’re all on the same side: trying to sell books.

Initially I was shocked by the amount of re-writing I was asked to do, and I recall a somewhat embarrassing meltdown when my third set of structural edits came in (I didn’t realise this was normal). I’m now at work on a second Knife Skills Mystery and there’s no question that, with each draft, the book gets better. I’m in total awe of my editor – Finn Cotton at Transworld – who in an odd way reminds me of my grandfather: courteous, patient and charming, but with a deadly eye for detail.

Dessert

My cookbooks have always been well publicised and marketed, but working with Transworld has been whole different experience. A lot of activity seems to happen as if by magic, with no effort on my part, but there’s still social media to manage, proofs to drop, enjoyable articles (such as this) to write, booksellers and reviewers to schmooze, events to be confirmed and diarised… to say nothing of keeping my orlandomurrin.com website up-to-date (with the help of the world’s best web manager, Heather Brown) and begging everyone I know to post reviews on Amazon. True, most of this is optional, but with my publisher evidently pulling out all the stops, I feel I must as well.

This means that – like a Victorian lady – I find the first hour or two of the day is spent answering messages and dealing with ‘stuff.’ I tell myself this is a warm-up exercise before the actual writing of the day begins, but if it expands much further, I will need a personal assistant. (Just joking). 

Petits-fours

The surprises keep on coming, even after launch…

·         How peculiar to find my favourite fountain pen – which has autographed countless cookbooks over the years – can’t be used to sign a novel because the ink runs. (Oh, the days of glossy paper.)

·         How touching to hear my words brought to life as an audiobook. (Warm thanks to Sebastian Humphreys, the man of a thousand voices.)

·         The most amazing thing of all, however, is discussing your story with someone and discovering that it no longer belongs to you – it’s out in the world. (‘You just don’t understand her,’ a fellow author told me about one of my more dislikeable characters; ‘She’s got a heart of gold.’)

Despite everything, I am beyond thrilled to have written something from my imagination which gives people pleasure… If it sounds your sort of thing, I hope you’ll give it a go, and that it will make you SMILE, SALIVATE and SHIVER.

 

Knife Skills for Beginners by Orlando Murrin (Transworld Publishers) Out Now

A recipe for disaster. When chef Paul Delamare takes a job teaching at an exclusive residential cookery school in Belgravia, the only thing he expects his students to murder is his taste buds. But on the first night, the unthinkable happens: someone turns up dead... The school rests on a knife-edge. The police are convinced Paul is the culprit. After all, he’s good with a blade, was first on the scene – and everyone knows it doesn’t take much to push a chef over the edge. To prove his innocence, he must find the killer. Could it be one of his students? Or the owner of the school – a woman with secrets and a murky past? It all boils down to murder. If Paul can’t solve the mystery fast – as well as teach his students how to make a perfect hollandaise sauce – he’ll be next to get the chop.

More information about the author can be found on his website. You can also follow him on X @orlandomurrin on Instagram @orlandomurrinauthor and on Facebook.