Winter time is made for sinking into a good mystery, particularly when curled up in a cozy chair in front of a cozy fire or wrapped up in a warm cozy blanket.

Coincidentally, a new genre of light culinary mysteries, with titles such as "Death al Dente," "Who's Afraid of Virginia Ham?," "Catering to Nobody," "Holy Guacamole" and "Dying for Chocolate" have earned the general genre title of "cozies."

By tradition, as a British novel featuring gentle, gray-haired older lady sleuths, cozies today offer main characters that run the gamut of occupations and genders from restaurant critics, caterers, community volunteers, food consultants and 65-year-old widows. They sometimes offer a comedic sense of disaster, sometimes not; they offer glimpses of foreign countries or landscapes of the southwest with lots of food descriptions.

The true villain is always the one who "gets it" and many times food is the murder weapon - such as a leg of Virginia ham and, perhaps, too much guacamole. Characters spend a great deal of time talking about food, preparing food and eating. Recipes either go along with the chapters or are found at the back of these food mysteries.

The question remains, can a mystery writer also write great tasting recipes?

For me, Goldy Schulz is the world's most unflappable caterer and murder-magnet around. She is Diana Mott Davidson's heroine in "Catering to Nobody," "Dying for Chocolate," "Killer Pancake" and nine other culinary mysteries. "Double Shot" (Harper Collins, 2004) "features caffeine and chocolate, murder and mayhem-a rich souffle of murder and mischief." Ms. Davidson is an avid fan of Julia Child and loves to cook herself.

The surprise, with its outrageously nonsensical title, "Holy Guacamole" (Penguin, 2004) is that author Nancy Fairbanks offers an insider visit to her hometown of El Paso, Texas, along with mystery and food.

Her heroine, Carolyn Blue, is a concerned citizen and El Paso Opera attendee who saves the day while treating us to restaurant visits to Casa Jurado, Desert Pearl and La Hacienda Restaurant (in nearby La Mesilla). She includes the history of Poncho Villa, the geography of Juarez, Mexico (the other side of the Rio Grande), and a trip down the road to Stahmann Farms, the largest pecan orchard in the world.

On her mission to solve the murder of the opera director (ostensibly from eating too much guacamole), Carolyn Blue meets contacts for breakfast over mouthwatering Tex-Mex egg and chorizo burritos; lunch over Salpicon (shredded beef brisket with Chipotle dressing) and dinner over sangria and tortilla soup.

I love the expression, "Holy Guacamole!," and I adore my version of chunky guacamole. Time to put the "Holy Guacamole" mystery recipes to the test. We will investigate and tell all this Saturday, Feb. 11, from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the 171 Cedar Culinary Arts cooking class in Corning. (Call 607/936-4647 for information about taking the course.)

Here's the recipe lineup for the cooking class: