My Journey from the Pokey Little Puppy to Mystery Lovers’ Kitchen by Ang Pompano

Ang Pompano: Hi Everyone, I’m really pleased to be here today with my first Spotlight piece for Mystery Lovers’ Kitchen. I joined the blog back in June, but this is my first time taking center stage for a couple of days. I’ve popped in before as a guest with some quirky recipes, so I thought I’d stick with that theme and share a little about how I grew up, what I read, and how I ended up writing mysteries. (Food is involved. It always is.)

I come from a long line of great cooks, and then I went and married another one, so eating well has never been a problem in my life. I loved being in the kitchen from the moment I was old enough to reach the stove. And I’ll admit something here: one of the first things I ever made was a fried onion grilled cheese sandwich. Weird, I know. But it was delicious, and I made it more times than I probably should have. Maybe that was my first experiment in culinary creativity, or maybe it was just a hungry kid home after school. Either way, I was hooked on cooking early.

I was also one of those kids who always had my nose in a book. My early favorites were the Golden Books—The Pokey Little Puppy and the Donald Duck story where Chip and Dale steal his toy train. 

Then I discovered the Landmark Books, which made me feel like the world was a much bigger place than my neighborhood. And Tom Swift, Jr. books which introduced me to science fiction/mystery. By high school, my reading veered toward the dramatic. I loved Poe. I memorized "The Raven" and learned to type by pounding it out again and again on my old manual typewriter. (It’s probably still got a few “Nevermores” etched into its roller.) 

I also loved to read Mark Twain. His humor suited the clown in me. I once turned his short story “The McWilliamses and the Burglar Alarm” into a play for a class project. I don’t know if anyone else understood what was happening, but I had a great time.

Of course, I read the Agatha Christie stories, and Sherlock Holmes too. The mystery seeds were planted early, even if I didn’t realize it.

Some books I won’t part with.

Even as a kid, I was always making little books with construction paper covers, or publishing newspapers full of important stories like “Angie Hits Homerun!” In high school I wrote for the school newspaper. Writing was just part of who I was.

But it wasn’t until I read Martha Grimes’s The Man With a Load of Mischief that a lightbulb went on and I thought, Hey… I might be able to do this.

When Annette and I were first married, I was teaching and she worked evenings in the Newborn Intensive Care Unit. After putting the kids to bed, I’d drag out that same old typewriter and write until she got home. I churned out pages and pages, most of which are buried in a drawer somewhere, but they taught me how to stick with a story.

Same typewriter, new generation of author

Eventually I signed up for a creative writing class through adult education. That class changed my life. It’s where I met Christine Falcone (the Melanie Bass Mysteries), who I didn’t know at the time, but who worked with Annette in the NICU. Small world.

When the class ended, Chris formed a writing group with a few of us. At that point, I was focused mostly on short stories. Then Roberta Isleib, our own Lucy Burdette (the Key West Food Critic Mysteries), joined the group. Watching her approach and her success nudged me back toward writing novels. That group has been going strong for over 25 years, and I’ve been at it ever since.

Looking Ahead, I’m eagerly awaiting the re-release of my book Diet of Death and the release of a new book in the Reluctant Food Columnist series, Simmering Secrets. So, instead of sharing a new recipe today, I thought I’d revisit one of my all-time favorite guest posts. It features the legendary (or infamous, depending on your feelings about snack cakes) Twinkie Tiramisu from Diet of Death.

Twinkie Tiramisu don’t laugh until you try it.

Find Twinkie Tiramisu here: Twinkie Tiramisu

Thanks for stopping by and for welcoming me into the Mystery Lovers’ Kitchen family, not just since June, but from my guest days too. I’m looking forward to sharing more food, stories, and fun from the kitchen.

What was your favorite childhood book? Or what dish did you first learn to cook? I’d love to hear. Drop a comment and your email in the link and you’ll be in the drawing for Snakeberry: Best New England Crime Stories 2025 which has my story “Minnie the Air Raid Warden” plus other stories you won’t want to miss.

Happy Thanksgiving! 

Ang Pompano is a mystery author, editor, publisher and blogger. He writes the Blue Palmetto Detective Agency, and The Reluctant Food Columnist series. In addition to his writing, Ang is a co-founder of Crime Spell Books and serves as co-editor of the Best New England Crime Stories anthology. He lives in Connecticut with his wife, Annette, an artist, and their two rescue dogs, Dexter and Alfie.

Snakeberry: Best New England Crime Stories 2025

Edited by Christine Bagley, Susan Oleksiw, Ang Pompano, and Leslie Wheeler

 BUY LINK

Readers root for criminals in fiction—and sometimes in real life—for many reasons: fighting injustice, acting on temptation, or simply getting away with a daring act, as in Sean Harding’s The Books Job. Crime fiction often probes justice, offering no easy answers but satisfying conclusions. Women in Gabriela Stiteler’s Money Well Spent and Chris Knopf’s Submission make choices we understand, while Cheryl Malone’s ranger in As the Crows Fly confronts moral ambiguity. Beth Hogan’s Willful Blindness and Bruce Robert Coffin’s Writer’s Block mislead readers before revealing the truth.

Twists are a staple of mystery. In Laurel Hanson’s Out of the Reach, an early twist sets the stage, echoed in Bonnar Spring’s At the End of the Day. Conscience shapes characters too: Nikki Knight’s Other Voices Carry explores diverging paths in crime, while Christine Bagley’s Sakura shows morality surfacing under pressure. Some villains—like Dale Phillips’s gas jockey in Gas or Judith Carlough’s writer in Catch and Release—drive the story, leaving readers conflicted.

Historical stories offer clarity: Sarah Smith’s The Woman Who Loved Her Husband’s Teeth depicts a war bride’s determined search, Paula Messina’s Perfect celebrates teenage cleverness, and Ang Pompano’s Minnie the Air Raid Warden highlights resourcefulness. Contemporary tales show women mastering technology to their advantage, as in Leslie Wheeler’s Graham 2.0 and Kat Fast’s Virtually Yours.

Many stories leave readers both satisfied and thoughtful: Brenda Buchanan’s Cape Jewell ends with a wiser heroine, Susan Oleksiw’s The Receptionist delivers a hard lesson, Avram Lavinsky’s The Long Shot evokes 1950s New York tensions, and Moe Moeller’s The Last Stone from the House of Usher offers a modern, near-happy ending.

Across this anthology, writers share the skill to yield to complex narrators, as in Stephen D. Rogers’s Chekhov, Sartre, and the Unity of Effect. Once again, this year’s collection delivers surprises and satisfaction. Welcome to crime in 2025.

When It’s Time for Leaving by Ang Pompano

Buy Link

Al DeLucia walked away from the police—and his past. But when his long-lost father leaves him a detective agency in Savannah, Al finds himself trapped between family secrets and a murder on the agency’s dock. Partnered with Maxine Brophy, a fierce detective who doesn’t trust him, Al is pulled into a deadly search through Savannah and the Okefenokee Swamp—where the truth about the case, and his father, may cost him everything.

Blood Ties and Deadly Lies by Ang Pompano

Buy Link

Al DeLucia returns to Sachem Creek expecting a kayak race and a chance to confront his childhood bully, Abe Cromwell. Instead, he finds a dead lawyer, a web of deceit, and Abe claiming they’re brothers by DNA. Reluctantly joined by Maxine Brophy, his formidable partner and girlfriend, Al dives into a murder investigation that exposes land swindles, hidden maps, and buried family secrets. In a town where the past won’t stay buried, Al must face truths that could upend everything.