Culinary crime fiction is simmering.

Forget those locked-room mysteries of yore. These days, some of the hottest crime fiction revolves around caterers and chefs.

The latest author to venture into culinary mystery territory is Penny Warner of Danville, Calif., whose Bay Area hero - party planner Presley Parker - runs into homicidal high jinks all over the San Francisco area, starting with an Alcatraz wedding gone awry.

Gourmet mayhem may not seem like a recipe for best-sellerdom, but there's no denying the genre's popularity. Perhaps the best-known practitioner is best-selling author Diane Mott Davidson, whose Colorado caterer Goldie Schultz trips over corpses as often as she slurps high-octane espressos - which is to say, every few hours.

The stories are fun and frothy, and the recipes for Fatally Flaky Cookies, Sour Cream Cherry Coffee Cake, and the like are so tasty that many have found their way into avid readers' permanent recipe files. Davidson's 15th book, Fatally Flaky (William Morrow, $25.99), will be released in paperback this spring.

Other popular authors who mix Bearnaise with poison include Jerrilyn Farmer and her Hollywood party planner hero Madeline Bean; Katherine Hall Page and her New England caterer (and preacher's wife) Faith Fairchild; and San Francisco native and University of California Berkeley grad Joanne Pence, whose books revolve around sometime chef Angie Amalfi.

The much-published Warner is an Agatha Award-winning author whose books include the Connor Westphal mystery series and a Nancy Drew handbook. How to Host a Killer Party (Signet $6.99), which landed in stores this month, is a lark. No recipes, which may be just as well, considering what the corpses-to-be ate just before, er, exiting the party. But there are plenty of hosting tips, including, "Like MacGyver, a good event planner can fix any party mishap with a toothpick, duct tape, or some crepe paper. Especially those pesky blood spatters."

Makes 2 cakes or 18-24 muffins

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1/4 pound unsalted butter

1 cup sugar

2 large eggs

1 cup fat-free sour cream

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 tablespoon finely chopped lemon zest

1/2 cup best-quality cherry preserves

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1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter two 8-inch square cake pans.

2. In a large mixer bowl, beat butter with sugar until well combined. Add eggs one at a time and beat well. Add sour cream and mix thoroughly.

3. In a small bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture.

4. Blend in the vanilla and lemon zest thoroughly. Then stir in the cherry preserves so the batter is streaky, not pink. Spread batter in pans and bake 20 to 30 minutes (15 to 20 minutes for muffins), or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

- From Diane Mott Davidson, The Main Corpse (Bantam Books)

Per serving (based on 24 servings): 136 calories, 2 grams protein, 22 grams carbohydrates, 11 grams sugar, 4 grams fat, 29 milligrams cholesterol, 110 milligrams sodium, trace dietary fiber.

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