JOANNE PENCE

Joanne Pence (Joanne Lopez) was born and raised in San Francisco and now makes her home in the foothills of Boise. She attended UC Berkeley and worked 1970-1998 as an operations analysis manager in the Social Security administration. She is married to David Pence and has two children


She is a USA Today best-selling and award winning author of two mystery series, contemporary and historical romance, fantasy and thrillers. 

She is the author of the "ANGIE AMALFI MYSTERY SERIES", which is still in print after twenty years, and now has 15 books. 

The amateur sleuth "Angie Amalfi" is an underemployed food writer and gourmet chef in San Francisco, romantically involved with homicide inspector "Paavo Smith". 

In my opinion, the mysteries are finely plotted and the series fits well in the culinary mystery niche. The stories contain humour and adventure. The writing is delightful, entertaining and decent. Moreover, the romance woven between the two lead protagonists is quite wonderful.

AN ANGIE AMALFI MYSTERY SERIES:

1) Something’s Cooking (1993)

Life's a banquet for Angelina Amalfi—a gourmet chef and food writer with enough sass and spunk for two. But things start to go really bad really fast when the man who's been contributing unusual recipes to her column is discovered dead and Angie suddenly finds herself being stalked by a killer whose appetite was merely whetted by the first deadly course. On the plus side, Paavo Smith, the homicide cop assigned to the case, is one delectable dish. But when more people start to fall all around her like ruined soufflés, ever-resourceful Angie realizes she'll have to cook up a survival scheme quick before her personal goose gets cooked. This case may be too hot to handle and the stakes are high, for she's about to take on deadly arms smugglers and lethal food fanatics. But if anyone can keep her cool, Angie can.

2) Too Many Cooks (1994)
3) Cooking up Trouble (1995)
4) Cooking Most Deadly (1996)

(Books Not Yet Read)

5) Cook’s Night Out (1997)
6) Cooks Overboard (1998)
7) A Cook in Time (1999)
8) To Catch a Cook (2000)
9) Bell, Book and Candle (2002)
10) If Cooks Could Kill (2002)
11) Two Cooks a Killing (2003)
12) Courting Disaster(2004)
13) Red Hot Murder (2006)
14) The Da Vinci Cook (2006)
15) Cooking Spirits (2013)