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?

    Throw in a gig as a phone sex operator, an unexpected hunk of a boyfriend, and a client's murder, and you have all the ingredients for the perfect chick lit romp. Even bloggers at Trashionista just had to read it: "A fabulous book.” Shy, funny, loveable Emily’s a pretty unlikely candidate for a phone sex operator. She’d die if she had to talk dirty face-to-face—especially to her hot cop boyfriend. She sure didn’t set out to do phone sex—she wanted to be a writer. But when her BFF framed her for plagiarism, she got in a tiny financial hole and saw this ad for “phone actresses”… Hey, it’s not nearly as bad as it sounds. No pantyhose or pantsuits, no regular hours, you’re your own boss, and lots of people to talk to. Guys, that is. But here’s the odd thing—lots of them want to talk about more than Emily’s imagined attributes; they start to think of her as the best friend they’ll never have to meet. Next thing you know, one of her customers gets killed. What’s a phone kitten to do? Solve the murder herself, of course! “Phone Kitten was a fun debut read with an interesting premise and some great characters – excellent chick lit.” -The Brazen Bookworm “Marika Christian's debut novel was one of the most fun reads I have had this year. Sweet Emily taking a job as a 'phone actress' has to be one of the funniest things ever.” -Just Jump A fun, refreshing treat for fans of Jennifer Crusie, Janet Evanovich, and Stephanie Bond, Phone Kitten is your ticket to hours of giggles—so long as you’re not looking for raunch. Because this is so not it! “When I first heard of this book I was intrigued; a phone-sex worker turned sleuth? Sounds like the perfect mix...a fabulous book. --Trashionista Excerpt: The girl who answered the phone sounded a lot like me. She was perky, upbeat, and wanted me to come in that night for an interview. The thought terrified me, but my only other option was Walmart. I heard Walmart locks employees in the store. I've often wondered what would happen if one of the employees were pregnant and went into labor while locked up. Would they let her out? Would her supervisor deliver the baby in housewares and slap a little smiley face sticker on the baby's bottom? Phone sex had to be better than twenty-four hour retail. The company name was Dimensions. Located in the back of an industrial park, it was a little scary. There was a gravel parking lot with a dozen cars and only one door with a camera to capture anyone who pressed the call button. I was buzzed in immediately. I wondered, Why does a phone sex place need this much security? I was met by Taylor, the bubbly girl I talked to on the phone. “Come on, I'll take you in the back and we can talk.” She wasn't what I pictured. Taylor was a tattooed Goth chick, with every piercing imaginable. Taylor isn't what most people envisioned when it came to “bubbly.” Once we were in her office, she quickly closed the door. “Look, we talk dirty here. The language is sexually explicit. You have to say it all. Tits, cock, and fuck. Can you do that?” “Yes.” There, I said it. I said I could do it. I hoped I really could. She whipped out a headset, plugged it in, and said, “I want you to listen to a call.

    After a disastrous broken engagement, she's perfectly content to spend her days with her service dog, Chica, and a motley crew of wealthy vacationers. Her life involves playing Bingo, enjoying the chocolate fountain, and passing along the occasional complaint about the quality of the bed sheets. On a cruise ship the food is good, the music is lively, and everyone is friendly. Life is quiet, just as it should be... until murder arrives in the night. At the top of a Mayan pyramid in the humid Amazon jungle, one of her tour group is found sacrificed to the gods. A clue left at the scene makes it clear this is a deeply personal act of revenge― and the killer may have another victim in his sights. As the entire tour group is brought in for questioning, Kitty and Chica find themselves in a race against time. A hurricane is bearing down on the city, the cruise ship is set to depart, and they’re sequestered in an embassy house with a vicious murderer. The only person standing in her way is an enigmatic attaché to the American embassy who doesn't take kindly to all her questions― especially about himself. Should Kitty be on guard against the mysterious and strikingly handsome detective, or are they birds of a feather in search of a killer? A cozy mystery with recipes!

    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.

    After a shocking incident, she realizes the time has come to start life fresh and follow her lifelong dream of moving to a small town and opening a bakery of her own.When Allison spots a charming, vacant storefront on the boardwalk near Venice, she wonders if she could really start life anew. Feeling like it's a sign, and a time to take a chance in life, she goes for it.Yet Allison did not anticipate the wild ride ahead of her: the boardwalk, filled with fun and outrageous characters, is pulsing with life, from the Italian pizzeria owners on either side of her who vie for her affection, to the fortune tellers and scheming rival bakery owner nearby. Allison yearns to just focus on her delicious new pastry recipes and keep her struggling bakery afloat-but when a murder occurs right near her shop, everything changes.Implicated, her entire future at stake, Allison has no choice but to investigate to clear her name. As an orphaned dog wanders into her life, a devoted new sidekick with a knack for solving mysteries, she starts her search.Will they find the killer? And can her struggling bakery survive?A hilarious cozy mystery series, packed with twists, turns, romance, travel, food and unexpected adventure, the Beachfront Bakery series will keep you laughing and turning pages late into the night as you fall in love with an endearing new character who will capture your heart.Listening Length: 6 hours and 31 minutes.

    It’s his voice all right. But his ashes are in the urn on Laura’s fireplace mantle. . . Now wealthy from her husband’s life insurance benefits, Laura tries to put her life in order. She strains to keep her sense of humor and sanity as vandals destroy her car and burglars ransack her house. Is it the final straw when the new resident of the home she shared with her late husband is killed on the very designer tile Laura selected for the entryway? All this—plus mysterious and threatening messages from her cheating, lying, no-good husband—begins to push the ever-tasteful Laura to that tacky place known as despair. Oregon Detective Chris Pfeifer has everyone including Laura on his suspect list while Laura has everyone including Detective Pfeifer on her dinner date list. Between decorating gigs, Laura and her co-workers – a cantankerous retiree and a handsome young contractor – assist Detective Pfeifer as he unravels the truth behind the bizarre twists in Laura’s life.

    Her sister Andrea has an altogether different point of view. When the sisters go to the Canaan Valley to search for paintings mentioned in a document found in an old hotel once owned by their grandparents—paintings that might be Monets—Andrea immediately becomes involved in tracking down a murderer. Kathleen would much rather be looking for the paintings, but she goes along with Andrea, since the victim was their hotel-keeper, murdered just down the hall from their room. The question is: Does the murder have something to do with the elusive paintings?There are many clues and many suspects, including hotel staff, valley residents, and the mysterious foreigners who come from the Eastern Seaboard for skiing. There are also many types of danger—icy roads, sub-zero temperatures, and a killer who doesn’t care how many people die in the attempt to make sure the right ones do.

    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.

    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

    Afraid that Kevin has slipped back into some destructive personal habits he struggles with, Kate travels to England to salvage Kevin’s and the company’s reputation before word gets out that he is missing. Things go from bad to worse when Kate arrives in Nether Woodsmoor, a quaint village of golden stone cottages and rolling green hills, only to find no trace of Kevin except his abandoned luggage. Even the rumpled, easygoing local scout they consulted, Alex, doesn’t know where Kevin might be. Increasingly worried about Kevin and with an antsy director waiting for updates about the preproduction details, Kate embarks on a search that includes a pub-crawl and cozy cottages as well as stately country manors. But Kevin remains missing, and she begins to suspect that the picturesque village and beautiful countryside may not be as idyllic as they seem.

    She’s had plenty of visions, usually boring ones like someone’s toilet’s overflowed, but she’s never seen one of herself before. When her overbearing momma winds up murdered on her sofa instead, two things are certain: There isn't enough hydrogen peroxide in the state of Arkansas to get that stain out, and Rose is the prime suspect.Rose realizes she’s wasted twenty-four years of living and makes a list on the back of a Wal-Mart receipt: twenty-eight things she wants to accomplish before her vision comes true. She’s well on her way with the help of her next door neighbor Joe, who has no trouble teaching Rose the rules of drinking, but won’t help with number fifteen-- do more with a man. Joe’s new to town, but it doesn’t take a vision for Rose to realize he’s got plenty of secrets of his own.Somebody thinks Rose has something they want and they’ll do anything to get it. Her house is broken into, someone else she knows is murdered, and suddenly, dying a virgin in the Fenton County jail isn’t her biggest worry after all.

    When one of his neighbours is brutally murdered, he gets the chance to investigate a real crime. Unfortunately, the hunt for the killer is far from simple, as winter sets in and he struggles to deal with his wife's disinterest, his friend's bungling enthusiasm, a village that will happily implicate anyone and everyone, and a rising body count.

    Bill Whitehall dead in the churning waters of the mill at the bottom of his garden in Coppin’s Locks. But was he alone?Monica Goodwood and her business partner, Erin O’Malley, owners of Rocking Horse Antiques, dive into discovering the truth about the demise of the old curmudgeon, a man whose best bedside manner was reserved for animals in need and not people in pain.The idyllic village of Coppin’s Locks with its British style pub, cozy tea shop, trendy boutiques and colourful characters is abuzz with curiosity. Who wanted the grumpy old man dead? Was it one of the locals, who all seem to have alibis tinged with lies, or is the death linked to the past with hidden details kept secret for decades? And why does the old black and white photograph found in a bureau seem so important to somebody?At least one person in town knows the truth, but nobody is talking! And, the biggest fear in this quiet backwater is, will the killer strike again?This mystery is book 1 in the Coppin’s Lock Mysteries featuring Monica Goodwood and Erin O’Malley.

    Except that’s exactly what happened. Ryan is very much dead, having shot himself with his own police-issued gun. Guilt and grief shouldn’t cause hallucinations though, but six months after Ryan went into the ground, Bailey is freaking out and swearing his ghost is standing in her kitchen. Which he is… Ryan claims he didn’t commit suicide, but was murdered, and he needs Bailey to help him find his killer so he can earn his ticket out of purgatory. Ryan’s counting on a stairway to heaven, as opposed to wings, since that might be a little unmanly for a cop, even a dead one. An expert in home design, with her own staging business, Bailey can tell you where to place a couch to improve flow and comfort, but solving a crime? Not her area of expertise. But with help from Ryan’s former partner, Marner, she is unraveling the mystery of what happened to Ryan that day… and unwittingly putting herself in grave danger. Murder By Design Series Book 1- Gone With The Ghost Book 2- Silence of The Ghost Book 3- Once Upon a Ghost Bestselling author Erin McCarthy offers her signature humor in this fun series about an uptight fashion-conscious home stager who finds herself stiletto-deep in murder...

    Ordinary objects like roller coasters and men's hairpieces make her knees knock loud enough to be a band's rhythm section. Unfortunately, the only job Claire can find is working for her Uncle Gino in his seedy detective agency. Until now, her cases have all be middle-aged men with trophy wives who needed watching. But when Gino retires and leaves her in charge, Claire gets swept up in a murder case despite her fears. Both the client who hired her and the handsome police detective want her off the case. When the wrong person is charged, it's up to the terrified detective to summon all the courage she can to find the true killer.