Best of
Cozy-Mystery

2011

Death by Chocolate


Sally Berneathy - 2011
    Suddenly Lindsay finds herself battling poisoned chocolate, a dead man who doesn't seem very dead and a psycho stalker. Her best friend and co-worker, Paula, dyes her blond hair brown, hides from everybody and insists on always having an emergency exit from any room. Secrets from Paula's past have come back to put lives in jeopardy. Determined to help Paula and to save her own life, Lindsay enlists the reluctant aid of another neighbor, Fred, an OCD computer nerd. In spite of his mundane existence, Fred possesses tidbits of knowledge about such things as hidden microphones, guns and the inside of maximum security prisons. Lindsay needs more than a chocolate fix to survive all this chaos. Lindsay Powell's only secret is the recipe for her chocolate chip cookies, but she is surrounded by neighbors with deadly secrets. Suddenly Lindsay finds herself battling poisoned chocolate, a dead man who doesn't seem very dead and a psycho stalker. Lindsay needs more than a chocolate fix to survive all this chaos.

Karma's A Bitch


Shannon Esposito - 2011
    So she strikes out on her own and opens up a new pet boutique in St. Pete, Florida. When a local homeless man she befriends is found dead, and the police assume it’s a suicide, Darwin has no choice but to use her gift to help collar the killer. She adopts his grieving mastiff, Karma—and with the dog’s help—tries to piece together the events of that fatal night. Accepting the visions is one thing, but can she solve the mystery without revealing her powers to the jaded, yet drool-worthy, detective in charge of the case? Or will the killer put an end to her psychic sleuthing and bury the truth for good?

Death of a Cantankerous Old Coot


Teresa Watson - 2011
    

Dumpster Dying


Lesley A. Diehl - 2011
    Ah, the golden years of retirement in the sunshine state. They're more like pot metal to Emily Rhodes, who discovers the body of the county's wealthiest rancher in the Big Lake Country Club dumpster. With her close friend accused of the murder, Emily sets aside her grief at her life partner's death to find the real killer. She underestimates the obstacles rural Florida can set up for a winter visitor and runs afoul of a local judge with his own version of justice, hires a lawyer who works out of a retirement home, and flees wild fires -- hand-in-hand with the man she believes to be the killer. About the Author: Lesley retired from her life as a professor of psychology and reclaimed her country roots by moving to a small cottage in the Butternut River Valley in upstate New York. In the winter she migrates to old Florida-cowboys, scrub palmetto, and open fields of grazing cattle, a place where spurs still jingle in the post office. In her words, "I come to the "Big Lake" to write, hang out in cowboy bars, and immerse myself in the Florida that used to be. No beaches, no bikinis, no sand. Just cows, horses, and gators."

Gumboots, Gumshoes & Murder (Murder She Wrote meets Fargo)


Laura Hesse - 2011
    Betty Bruce, and her pot-bellied pig, Gertrude, stumble upon the body of elderly widow, Eliza Bone, floating bottoms-up in her Oscar fish tank. The one clue they have is a set of muddy gumboot tracks left at the scene. Their problem: everyone on Seal Island wears gumboots.As two more bizarre deaths occur on the island, Betty is left to wonder if there is a serial killer at work on her beloved Island. In the end, only Gertrude may be left standing! "Gumboots, Gumshoes and Murder" is the first novel in the trilogy of a continuing story - The Gumboot & Gumshoe Series. "The Dastardly Mr. Deeds" and "Murder Most Fowl" are the sequels. They need to be read in this order. Due to numerous requests by readers, two standalone stories will be released in 2020 - Gertrude & The Sorcerer's Gold and Chasing SantaFor more information on author, Laura Hesse, visit www.RunningLProductions.com

The Cemetery Club


Blanche Day Manos - 2011
    Darcy Campbell and her mother, Flora Tucker, had no inkling that in a few moments, the scene would change and they would face a horror on the ground and a threat from above, beyond their imaginations. Becoming entangled in a centuries-old legend, being targeted by a group of ruthless men, and discovering a long-lost love were not in Darcy's plans when she returned to her birth place, Levi, Oklahoma. She merely wanted to soak up the peace of her mother's home and try to heal the wounds left from her husband's death. Fate, however, had other plans for Darcy and Flora. Volume 1 of the Darcy & Flora cozy mystery series.

Gertie Johnson Murder Mysteries Boxed Set


Deb Baker - 2011
    Gertie is abetted (and hindered) by her grandson Little Donny, man-hungry best friend Cora Mae, and word-of-the-day challenger, Kitty. It doesn’t help that the death has been ruled an accident by the sheriff of this backwoods community in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Or that Sheriff Blaze Johnson happens to be Gertie’s son.Whether it’s interrogating neighbors, spying, or impersonating the FBI—not to mention staying one step ahead of Blaze—Gertie will do whatever it takes to solve the case, even when the killer takes aim at her.MURDER GRINS AND BEARS ITOn opening day of bear hunting season in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, a game warden is murdered right under Little Donny’s tree stand. Little Donny disappears into the backwoods, forcing sixty-six-year-old Gertie to use her “unique” investigative techniques to find her favorite grandson. Gertie’s search is hampered by her pin-curled bodyguard Kitty, her man-hungry friend Cora Mae, and Grandma Johnson—who should be mushing peas between her new false teeth in the Escanaba nursing home instead of setting up camp at Gertie’s place. To top it off, Gertie’s son Blaze, the local sheriff, seems more concerned with arresting his mom for cruising down Highway M35 without a driver’s license than finding Little Donny or catching the killer.MURDER TALKS TURKEYGertie Johnson, is minding her own business, standing in line at the bank when it gets robbed. From her position on the floor, Gertie watches as a gunman on the roof of a nearby building shoots the bank robber dead. She quickly decides that she and the other two members of her Trouble Buster Investigative Company (all single women of a certain age) need to help their hapless sheriff solve the case. The trouble is feisty Gertie has a lot on her plate, what with her extended family, her other investigations, and a tentative new romance. The deeper into the bank robbery she goes, the more complicated and seriously dangerous it gets. ~ BooklistMURDER BITES THE BULLETGertie Johnson and cohorts Cora Mae and Kitty have a knack for stirring up trouble in what was once a quiet backwoods community in the heart of the Michigan Upper Peninsula. When Finnish resident Harry Aho (sometimes pronounced A-hoe) takes a bullet at his kitchen table, Gertie suspects it has something to do with the public shooting range he set up right on the property line next to a Swede. The Trouble Busters bring out the big guns to crack this one, including deer cameras, a riot gun, and faithful Fred, the semi-retired police dog.

Angela's Coven


Bruce Jenvey - 2011
    He also has a very dark secret: When he was still an undiscovered teenager, he sold his soul to the Devil in exchange for his great fame and success. As his life draws to an end, he prepares to face the inevitable until he stumbles upon a very enchanting, modern-day witch named Angela, and her untraditional coven.Angela gradually introduces Reggie to her world of old school Witchcraft with its roots in alchemy and ‘natural chemistry’ dating to the Dark Ages. As their relationship grows, they devise a plan to break Reggie’s contract and save his soul.This is a story of the struggle between good and evil with a cast of characters that ranges from guardian angels to young witches-in-training. Together, they have to come to terms with the uncertainties of love, loss, and life decisions to save Reggie from an unbearable eternity. Here is a plot filled with unexpected twists and surprises to the very last page that will also cast an entirely different light on anything you may have ever considered as faith!