Highly Recommended." -- Editor, I *Love* a Mystery"...makes for fast, fun summer reading." -- Nancy Cook-Senn, Shawnee Escort"Anyone who enjoys the works of Janet Evanovich or Joan Hess is going to love Ms. Boyd." -- Toby Bromberg, Romantic Times"...a terrific mystery, sharply drawn, cleverly plotted, dynamically presented, and pure sleuthing entertainment from first page to last." -- Wisconsin Bookwatch"The mystery genre has witnessed an abundance of female sleuths, but none quite like Jolene Jackson and her mother, Lucille." -- Argus Observer5 Stars and 5+ Laughs! Has to be film adapted. Would make a delightful audiobook. " ...a hoot and a half of rollicking good mystery! The best dang novel I've read all year!" -- Leann Arndt, The Midwest Book Review"Carl Hiaasen meets Texasville! ...a must read for your Sherlock funny bone." -- Judi Clark, Mostly Fiction"... comedic characters you'll just love. ...a humor you can't resist. I can't remember the last time that I read a book as light and refreshing as this." -- Pamela Stone, My Shelf"This first entry of an apparent series will leave readers loudly laughing at the antics of Jolene and her mother. Hot Enough to Kill is a tongue-in-cheek look at relationships and amatuer sleuthing. Still, the mystery has a character of its own that adds to a wonderful plot. If this tale is any example, Paula Boyd has a long running series that will provide much pleasure to fans." -- Harriet Klausner

    When Professor Edmund de Beyer is found in his office strangled to death by his own PhD hood, the police don't have to look any further than his colleagues in the Economics Department for suspects. After all, Edmund was the most despised faculty member in the department. CJ Whitmore, the department's only tenured female (who also has a penchant for wearing pink-cowboy-boots to class), resolves to get to the bottom of the mystery using economic principles. Comparing tracking down murder suspects to selecting a used car, she attempts to discern the real deals from the "lemons." That is, which suspects are really telling the truth and which are lying to protect their guilt? Will CJ be able to pick the lemon before her clever adversary strike again?

    Pushing forty and still single, Hetta is the epitome of the b word: bold, bossy, brassy, breezy and brash. After leaving a lifelong swath of failed multi-national affairs in her jet stream, it is no wonder Hetta prefers living with her dog R.J. But old habits die hard, and trolling for triceps is Hetta s hobby. Plying the waterfront in search of Saturday brunch, Hetta s attention is snagged by a parade of passing yacht--especially their predominantly male skippers--and experiences a champagne-induced epiphany: if she had a boat, she could get a man. In hopes a floating Valhalla will overcome an all-time low-water mark in her life, Hetta buys her dream boat in spite of a spectacular ignorance of all things nautical. But a shadowy stalker, an inconvenient body, and Hetta s own self-destructive foibles imperil not only her new life, but a newly- found romance.

    Sure, her patients might smell like mold and have spines made of leather, but no ailing book is going to die on her watch. The same can’t be said of Abraham Karastovsky, Brooklyn’s friend and former employer. On the eve of a celebration for his latest book restoration, Brooklyn finds her mentor lying in a pool of his own blood. With his final breath Abraham leaves Brooklyn with a cryptic message, “Remember the Devil,” and gives her a priceless—and supposedly cursed—copy of Goethe’s Faust for safe-keeping. Brooklyn suddenly finds herself accused of murder and theft, thanks to Derek Stone, the humorless—and annoyingly attractive—British security officer who found her kneeling over the body. Now she has to read the clues left behind by her mentor if she is going to restore justice…

    

    So when her real estate developer boyfriend offers her a sweet catering gig, she jumps at the chance to cook for his gala and rub elbows with the town’s elite. The problem? That fancy gala is only happening because her best friend’s home was burned down by an arsonist. And the more Bethany learns about her boyfriend’s planned development, the more she suspects that he might have had something to do with it.Determined to uncover the arsonist’s identity, Bethany cooks her way through the gala, listening to the secrets, lies, and gossip swirling around Hosanna Street. But when someone close to her is killed during the party—and the murder weapon is found in her pot of clam chowder—Bethany finds herself in more than a little hot water.---------------------------------------If you like smart culinary mysteries with quirky characters and quaint seaside towns, you’ll love the Death du Jour series that follows Bethany Bradstreet as she builds her career and solves crimes with the help of her friends. Crime Chowder is the first book in the Death du Jour series. This book has clean language and mild suspense with no cliffhangers. It contains depictions of an LGBT relationship.P.S. – There’s a dog in it.

    When her father passes away, leaving her the family business, a microbrewery, she reluctantly relocates to Carl's Cove, NY – a small town on Eastern Long Island that is on its way to becoming the latest Hamptons hotspot. It's not long, however, before something goes terribly wrong: A shipment of beer ingredients yields an extra little surprise: a bag of twenty-four carat diamonds. Soon after, a body turns up in the alleyway behind Darby's Microbrewery. It’s now up to Madison to roll up her sleeves and get to the bottom of this mystery in a way only she can.

    The 36-year-old Greek-American proprietor of “Callie's Kitchen,” a meals-from-scratch business in an idyllic small town, has been busy creating a post-divorce life for herself, her young daughter and her Yorkie, Koukla. After a lot of hard work (including staving off her father’s continual advice), she’s got the locals and tourists clamoring for her delicious Mediterranean dishes and Midwest comfort food classics. Recently, she’s started a budding romance with a fellow foodie, the wealthy owner and chef of Crystal Bay’s most popular bistro. However, success is as fleeting as one of Wisconsin’s glorious autumn days. As local businesses begin to shut down due to a slow economy, Callie is struggling not to become another statistic. A contest with a hefty cash prize seems like the perfect chance to fix her financial woes, until a shocking murder threatens not only her livelihood – but her life. When she’s targeted as a prime suspect by an attractive expat British detective, Callie’s situation becomes more delicate than her Greek egg-lemon soup. She’s got to find the killer and fast if she wants to protect her daughter, save her business and stay alive.

    One dead body. The beach town of Eden Bay will never be the same again. Claire is an up-and-coming movie exec who inherited her grandma’s book store in the quiet beach community of Eden Bay. Alyson is a surf-bum who embraces the small-town, beach lifestyle. When a surfer is killed, the two ex-best friends are pulled together to solve the murder. Can they put their differences behind them and find a killer before there are more bodies on the beach? Bodies on the Beach is the first book in the Hang Ten Australian Cozy Mystery series

    So when vandals romp through the local cemetery, she takes advantage of her newfound anonymity and its unforeseen advantages as she launches her own unofficial investigation.Despite her oddball humor and unconventional snooping, Ivy soon becomes discouraged by her failure to turn up any solid clues. And after Ivy witnesses something ominous and unexplained, she can't resist putting her investigative powers to work again. Even the authorities' attempts to keep Ivy out of danger and her nosy neighbor's match-making schemes can't slow her down. But will the determination that fuels this persistent, quirky sleuth threaten her very safety?

    When the chance to purchase the Cosset Cove Advertiser, a small weekly newspaper in the New England seaside town she'd spent many happy childhood vacations, it seemed too good an opportunity to turn down. Charlotte soon settles in to her new role as owner, chief reporter and general gofer of the Advertiser. Life is sweet, her new friends and colleagues Clara, Abigail and Amy, along with Barney, the huge Maine Coon cat, can both delight and frustrate in equal measure. This idyllic new life is disturbed when Charlotte has to interview a blast from her past. It is completely shattered when that interview leads to murder. Things only go from bad to worse as Charlotte is suspected of being the culprit. Can Charlotte, and her new found friends, clear her name and bring the real murderer to justice? Or will being on the trail of a cold blooded killer only put their own lives at risk? “A charming traditional cozy mystery in a modern day setting. Contains plenty of light witty humor and will keep you guessing right to the end!”

    Fred is about to open her dream bookshop, and the only challenges she anticipates are adjusting to small-town life, tourists, and living close to her loveable mother, Phyllis, and hippy stepfather, Barry. When Fred steps into her soon-to-be-bookshop for the first time, she expects dust bunnies and spiders… not the dead body in the upstairs kitchen. The local police have an easy suspect — Barry. Determined to prove quirky Barry innocent of murder, Fred puts on her detective hat, and with Watson by her side, she explores her new town and gets acquainted with her fellow shopkeepers. Could one of her friendly neighbors be the real culprit? And what would be the motive for killing the owner of the Sinful Bites candy store? The secrets Fred discover put her at odds with the local police sergeant and threaten her cozy future in Estes.   With snow falling outside, all Fred wants to do is curl up by the fire with a good book and Watson snuggled at her feet. But before she can begin her new life and put her plans for her bookshop into action, Fred and Watson have a mystery to solve…

    When the ship’s captain is found dead, Ginger is only too happy to lend her assistance to the handsome Chief Inspector Basil Reed.The SS Rosa delivers a convincing array of suspects - the wife, the mistress, a jealous crew mate. To Ginger’s dismay, her name has been added to the list! With a little help from Ginger’s dog Boss, Ginger and Haley navigate the clues (those wartime operative skills come in handy.) They must solve the case and clear Ginger’s name before they dock–and oh, whatever shall she wear!

    She wasn't prepared for it to turn deadly.​Ready to redesign her life, style expert Samantha Kidd accepts a job in her Pennsylvania hometown as a trend specialist. But her first day goes completely A-line when she stumbles across her legendary boss dead in the elevator. And after the body disappears, she can't help but pull on the mystery's thread and unravel an entire wardrobe of suspects.​Supervising her deceased employer's vogue competition, Samantha tries to hem in a sexy shoe designer and countless ego-driven creatives to stitch together the clues. But when her own name appears on the police's suspect list, the sleuthing fashionista's days on the catwalk could be numbered.​Can Samantha put a killer in the spotlight before she's sewn up for a crime she didn't commit?​Designer Dirty Laundry is the first book in the feel-good Samantha Kidd mystery series. If you like witty protagonists, clever dialogue, and fashion-forward drama, then you'll love Diane Vallere's chic story.

    Typical, that is until she sets out to find the missing link between a bizarre monkey sighting in her yard and the bone chilling middle-of-the-night fright fest at the strangely vacant house next door. When Barb talks her two friends into some seemingly innocent Charlie’s Angels-like sleuthing, they stumble upon way more than they bargained for and uncover a piece of neighborhood history that certain people would kill to keep on the cutting room floor.Enter sexy PI Colt Baron, Barb’s ex-boyfriend who would love to be cast as new leading man, filling the role just vacated by her recently estranged husband, Howard. When Colt flies in from out of town to help Barb, events careen out of control and suddenly this mini-van driving mother of three becomes a major player in a treacherous and potentially deadly FBI undercover operation. It’s up to her now. With little time to spare, she and she alone, must summon the inner strength necessary to become a true action heroine and save the lives of those she loves. The question is can she get them out alive before the credits roll?