In for a Penny


Kelsey Browning - 2013
    Desperate to keep up the family name and give the man a decent burial, penniless Lil cooks up a shady deal that lands her smack-dab in the slammer.Burdened by her shameful secret and a crumbling family estate, Lil entrusts Summer Haven’s care to her best friend, Maggie, who recruits two more over-fifty ladies to help. But when Maggie discovers that Lil’s restitution is ten times the amount she “borrowed” from the federal government, she’s convinced Lil has taken the fall for someone else’s crime.Will these gals be able to get some vigilante justice for Lil, or will the swindler get away with hoodwinking a sweet little old lady?Recipes included!(Originally published as In for a Penny in the Granny/G Team series)

Carrots


Colleen Helme - 2011
    Her life is organized and predictable, revolving around her husband and two children. All that changes the day she stops at the grocery store for some carrots. As the cashier rings up her purchases, a gunman is busy robbing the bank inside the store. When a customer grabs the robber's mask, he is shot and everyone runs for cover. Everyone except Shelby, who finds herself face to face with the killer. The next thing she knows, she's lying on the floor with a bullet wound to her head. Luckily, the bullet only grazes her scalp, and she doesn't suspect any lasting affects until later, when she suddenly 'hears' what people are thinking. With this uncanny ability, her life takes on a whole new dimension. Her kids think she's bossy and too old to understand them, but that's nothing compared to her husband. He says he loves her, but what is it about the redhead at work that he doesn't want her to know? As if that isn't enough, the gunman knows she can identify him, and he's out to silence her forever. In her fight to stay alive, she is saved from certain death by a handsome hit-man with ties to organized crime. This pulls Shelby even deeper into danger, where knowing someone's thoughts can not only hurt her feelings, but get her killed.

The Big Lead


Libby Kirsch - 2015
    Being on live TV in a small town has never been so funny, until Stella covers the town’s first murders in years.When the prime suspect’s girlfriend enlists Stella to help clear his name, she uncovers another shocking crime that could expose a handful of powerful insiders.Who is honest, who can’t be trusted, and who committed the murders? Stella is on a tight deadline to find out. Can she help free an innocent man, or will the real culprit get away with murder?

Eat, Pray, Die


Chelsea Field - 2016
    The one side of the job that lives up to expectations is the money. Which is just as well for Izzy, since she needs an awful lot of it. Who knew when she made a lifelong commitment to a man that it would be one year living with him and the rest of her life paying for it?But even her scoundrel ex-husband doesn’t look so bad compared to her new client. He’s competent, condescending, and annoyingly attractive, and Izzy doesn’t know whether to sleep with him or poison him herself. Throw in a loan-shark, a nosy neighbor, and a murder attempt, and Izzy will have her work cut out for her.

Crazy in Paradise


Deborah Brown - 2011
    Tarpon Cove is not your typical sleepy beach town: Seduction, drunks, ex-cons and fugitives are not the usual fare for someone looking to start a new chapter in their life. Wrestling control of the property from both the lawyer and the conniving motel manager will be no easy feat. But Madison likes living on the edge so she feels right at home. Bullets fly, a dead body turns up, a kidnapping and blackmail. Madison really has to learn not to leave home without her Glock or it could get her killed.

Miss Behave (The Anderson Family Series Book 1)


Traci Highland - 2018
    Instead, she’s stuck at the Pendleton Falls Herald, where her massive investigative skills are wasted penning the paper’s advice column, Miss Behave. Her shot at a meaty story comes when she’s assigned to write up a profile of a local business, Brookes Jewelers. She is determined to write the piece so she can use the article to impress a real paper. Unfortunately Hunter Brookes, co-owner of Brookes Jewelers and the Pendleton Falls Herald, is rather persistent, in his own hot little way, that the piece should be nothing more than a glorified sales pitch. But when diamonds disappear, Piper may get the chance to do a real investigation, leading her to confront family secrets and worst of all, turn to her mother for help. Piper soon realizes that there is more to Mr. Brookes than a tight ass and a ridiculous fascination with name tags. Together they deal with roasted pigs, crazy cat ladies, and gun-toting fashionistas. In all the chaos, they just might find the one thing that neither one was looking for: true love. Perfect for fans of romantic comedy, funny women's fiction, humor, and contemporary romance..

A Murderous Valentine (Admiral Shackleford Mystery #1)


Beverley Watts - 2021
    Having been instrumental in improving the lives of so many (his words - others might be inclined to call it something slightly different...), he was struggling to reignite the spark in his own love life with the feisty Mabel. Short on ideas, he decides to gatecrash his much put upon former Master At Arms and best friend Jimmy Noon's Valentine idea and ends up in the middle of a murder mystery weekend... where real murder is on someone else's script. Stranded in the middle of nowhere with a hotel full of potential murderers, the unstoppable duo embark on a series of blundering escapades in an attempt to uncover the Murderous Valentine... The Admiral and Jimmy may be more Laurel and Hardy than Holmes and Watson, but can they catch a murderer...? This humorous cozy mystery short read is the first in The Admiral Shackleford Mysteries.

Hazardous Duty


Christy Barritt - 2006
    Claire dropped out of school and started her own crime scene cleaning business. Now, when a routine cleaning job leads her to a murder weapon the police overlooked, she realizes that the wrong man is in jail. With the help of her new and attractively single neighbor, Riley Thomas, Gabby plays the detective to make sure the right man is put behind bars.

Rumble on the Bayou


Jana Deleon - 2006
    Then DEA agent Richard Starke shows up in Gator Bait, Louisiana, giving out orders and insults faster than you can cast a fishing line. Dorie knows the residents of Gator Bait aren’t going to talk to a stranger, especially a Yankee, but she stuck with Richard until he catches his bad guy. With no other alternative to restore peace to the small town, Dorie agrees to help Richard catch a criminal and in the process, uncovers decades of secrets that have been hiding deep in the Louisiana bayou. (Note: This book is part of the author’s backlist, originally released in print in 2009 by Dorchester Publishing)

Finding Miss Write


Gena Webb - 2018
    Sure, her life's in danger, but she's also caught the attention of handsome detective, Roger Graf, so that kind of evens things out. As Carla nears the end of her novel, it's up to Roger to catch the killer, or it might be the end of Carla's life story as well.

Taking the Fall


Laney Monday - 2014
    Now, she’s just burned out—and burned by love. She’s ready to retire from competitive judo and pursue a new dream in a new town, with her biggest supporter, her recently divorced little sister, Blythe. But on their first day in town, Blythe falls for local sleaze-bag reporter, Ellison Baxter, and their small-town welcome is stained by Baxter’s murder. The weapon—Blythe Battle’s hair brush. In this fast-paced, fun cozy mystery, Brenna, the proud new owner of the building that formerly housed Bonney Bay’s lone recreational opportunity for kids, Little Swans Ballet, is ready to turn tutu-clad powder-puffs into little warriors by opening a judo school for kids in its place. But now she must clear her sister’s name and save her new dream from ending even more disastrously than her Olympic hopes. Brenna must deal with one crazy member of the local police force, who’s determined to see the sisters pay—and another cop, whose deep brown eyes just might drive Brenna crazy—in a way her battered heart just can’t take.

And After That, the Dark


Charlotte Hughes - 1997
    Years later she is still haunted by the memory. Now 30 and responsible for her late sister's emotionally troubled daughter, Emily finds the fear of that night rushing back at her. Someone is after her and no one will listen, not even the former Chicago cop who recently moved to town. Her phobia about the dark begins to haunt her as she suspects that her long–hidden secret has emerged once again to destroy her life.

Rest, Relax, Run for Your Life (Ooey Gooey Bakery Mystery Book 1)


Katherine H. Brown - 2019
    Well, close. More like a long weekend at the O Heavenly Day Spa. A few mysterious notes start appearing everywhere, things get uncomfortable. As spa treatments go awry things get dangerous. A threatening message convinces Piper and Sam that they have to find out who is behind all of these disasters. When the smoke alarms go off and the spa erupts into panic, the chaos separates the friends and Piper stumbles into trouble. Will someone help her before it is too late?

The 8 Mistakes of Amy Maxwell


Heather Balog - 2014
    She’s convinced her teenage daughter is up to no good, her ten year old can’t stop chattering in her ear and her oldest son has befriended a teenaged boy twice his age who is a little weird. And don’t even get her started on having a toddler when you’re in your late thirties. She just can’t keep up. Forget tired; she’s exhausted and feeling unfulfilled, dissatisfied and like a disappointment to everyone; her kids, her parents and most of all, herself.To relieve her stress, Amy finds herself fantasizing about everything from the pool boy next door to finding out that her daughter was switched at birth. She can’t help her thoughts, but she figures, if they’re in her head, they can’t hurt anyone else, right? When Jason, a very sexy forty something year old single father moves in across the street, Amy finds her fantasy world has gone into overdrive. When Amy and her 13 year old daughter stumble upon the body of their neighbor, shot to death in her living room, Amy finds herself thrown together with Jason in the most unpredictable way. Amy finds herself bumbling around Jason, trying desperately to stop her fantasies and her underlying attraction towards him as this who done it mystery slowly unfolds. And Amy soon realizes, nobody is who she thinks they are…even Amy herself.

If You See Kay Run


Quinn Glasneck - 2017
    Plastic. But oh so real looking. And creepy enough to interrupt her romp in nature with hot cop, Peter Harris. Creepy enough that BJ and her best friend, Kay decide to retrieve the discarded mannequin from the park that night, tie it to the roof of their car, and drive it back to the bar she manages. Creepy enough that it lights up social media like a beacon calling in the crazies. Who knew curiosity could put her in so much danger? Quinn and Glasneck, high on the beer fumes from a signing party at a local brewery, decided to take a step away from their usual writing styles to put together a new mystery (for anyone who wants a laugh) in the style of Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum novels – that is if Stephanie had a younger southern cousin, who ran a bar, and had a thing for police uniforms.