Book picks similar to
Black Cat's Legacy by Elaine Faber
mystery
cats
cozy-mystery
first-in-series
A Tell-Tale Treasure
Megan Marple - 2017
With her talking pet raven, Poe, and a new kid in town named Bigfoot, she's on the hunt for a treasure that's sure to change their lives. Maybe then she can stick it to all the mean girls in school... Armed with her wits, a couple of shovels, and the map, Edie and Bigfoot try their best to uncover the clues hidden under the blazing Lowcountry sun. But trouble has a funny way of finding Edie, and the only thing that might save her from it is a friend of the ghost variety... *You're reading a prequel to the Tell-Tale Tavern Mystery series, which includes a bonus chapter of "GIN & GHOSTS" (book 1). This is a novella length book that can be read in any order with the other books in the series. It is a clean read, with no graphic violence, sex, or profane language.*
The Case of the Missing Finger: A Cruise Ship Cozy Mystery
Cheri Baker - 2021
Two years later, with her children grown and the rest of her life ahead of her, she's ready to have the adventure she'd planned before her life was turned upside-down. She's excited to visit the U.S. Virgin Islands on her very first cruise.After boarding the most beautiful cruise ship she's ever seen, Ellie's surprised when she's assigned a cabin inside the cruise line's new singles club at sea, but she quickly sees that her new friends aboard could use some advice when it comes to romance. Unfortunately, Ellie's matchmaking efforts are interrupted when a fellow passenger finds a finger with a big diamond ring on it in her Sangria Surprise!Passengers are scandalized and tongues are wagging all around the ship. The ship's security chief seems eager to brush the crime under the rug while others are eager to point fingers at Ellie's favorite bartender. After thirty years married to a small town police chief, Ellie's picked up some sleuthing skills of her own, and she knows that justice demands honest answers to the questions rocking the ship. Who does the finger belong to? How did it end up in the boozy drink special of the day? And what other secrets lurk beneath the Caribbean sun?It's all hands on deck for adventure with this matchmaking sleuth.
Killer Tiramisu
S.Y. Robins - 2015
However, she gets her chance at a big break when the regular dessert chef calls in sick and Hannah is asked to make the dessert for a huge wedding reception that the restaurant is catering. Hannah decides to make her famous Tiramisu recipe - a family recipe that has been passed down for generations, and taught to her by her grandmother. Hannah is sure nothing can go wrong with a recipe she knows so well. However, disaster strikes when the restaurant manager dies after sampling a trial version of the dessert. Has Hannah's carelessness struck again? Or, are one of her co-workers out to get her? After Hannah is fired and disgraced she sets out to clear her name - and to restore her Tiramisu's reputation.
Scraps of Paper
Kathryn Meyer Griffith - 2003
It’s made her sympathetic to the missing and their families.Starting her new life, Abigail moves to small town and buys a fixer-upper house left empty when old Edna Summers died. Once it was also home to Edna’s younger sister, Emily, and her two children, Jenny and Christopher, who, people believe, drove away one night, thirty years ago, and just never came back.But in renovating the house Abigail finds scraps of paper hidden behind baseboards and tucked beneath the porch that hint the three could have been victims of foul play.Then she finds their graves hidden in the woods behind the house and with the help of eccentric townspeople and ex-homicide detective, Frank Lester, she discovers the three were murdered. Then she and Frank try to uncover who killed them and why…but in the process awaken the ire of the murderer. ***
Bed-Bugged
Susan J. Kroupa - 2010
Sniffing out bed bugs? Easy as pie. Well, easier, actually, as getting pie can be a problem for a dog. Doodle finds best part of the new job is Molly, the boss’s ten-year old daughter, who slips Doodle extra treats when she’s not snapping photos with the camera she carries everywhere. But Molly has secrets of her own. And when she enlists Doodle’s help to solve a crime, his nose and her camera lead them straight into danger.Readers have called the Doodlebugged mysteries perfect of fans of Spencer Quinn’s popular Chet & Bernie mysteries, and best-selling author Virginia Smith called Bed-Bugged, "a first-rate mystery" and a "triumphant beginning to a series."
Coming Unclued
Judith Jackson - 2014
The lights are up, the presents are — actually, only the lights are done, but Val still has a week! Once the dreaded office party is over she can make quick work of the rest of her list.There’s only one, big problem with that plan. The morning after the party, after passing out in the living room, Val stumbles into her bedroom and finds her boss, Mr. Potter, lying in her bed. Okay — two, big problems. Mr. Potter is dead, murdered; his blood soaking into Val's new, 400-thread-count sheets.Val knows that regardless of a couple minor incidents where she was a teensy bit hostile after one too many drinks, there is no way she killed her cheap, petty, world-class halitosis suffering boss. May he rest in peace. The problem is, the police are convinced it was she who stabbed Mr. Potter. Someone has to find the real killer and it looks like it will have to be Val. But she's not alone; her best friend and her seventy-four-year-old neighbor are along for the ride. Coming Unclued is Book One in the humorous Val Valentyn series.
Chef Maurice and a Spot of Truffle
J.A. Lang - 2015
By this measure, Chef Maurice was very trustworthy indeed.” Take one sleepy Cotswold village, mix in one Poirot-esque murder mystery, add a larger-than-life French chef with an appetite for solving crime, and season with clues and red herrings galore . . . It’s autumn in the Cotswolds, and Chef Maurice is facing a problem of mushrooming proportion. Not only has his wild herb and mushroom supplier, Ollie Meadows, missed his weekly delivery—he’s missing vital signs too, when he turns up dead in the woods near Beakley village. Soon, Chef Maurice is up to his nose in some seriously rotten business—complete with threatening notes, a pignapping, and an extremely well-catered stake-out. Can he solve Ollie’s murder before his home-made investigation brings the killer out for second helpings?
Murder In Half Moon Bay
Nancy Jill Thames - 2010
But a startling discovery draws Jillian and her garden club friends into solving a mystery that threatens her life and changes her future.The unlikely team helps the chief uncover a series of mysterious events that lead to solving several murders, both past and present. Could it be the mean spirited conference director? Perhaps it's the wealthy widow on the make for her next husband; or maybe the killer is the haughty business woman who shows no regard for her brow beaten husband.“Murder in Half Moon Bay,” Book 1 in The Jillian Bradley Mystery Series, introduces Jillian's little companion Teddy, a Yorkie who falls prey to danger but rises to become a sleuth dog in the next book.
Good, Clean, Murder
Traci Tyne Hilton - 2013
But being independent brings big trials, like falling for a handsome professor, dealing with an obnoxious roommate, and then there's the dead bodies...Who knew being housekeeper to wealthy owners of a Roly Burger franchise would mean sweeping up clues to their death, while ministering to the needs of their heirs?This is one big mess that Jane is intent on cleaning up before things get even worse.
Invisible
Lorena McCourtney - 2004
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?
A Bazaar Murder
Amy Phipps - 2015
Heartbroken and wounded by his betrayal she agrees to move in with her grandmother, Margaret. After being volunteered to help with the church bazaar Amanda and Margaret stumble over the body of Florence Hardy. Juniper Falls wealthiest woman not to mention rudest. As the list of suspects keeps growing by the minute the girls recruit neighbor and Ex-Sheriff Henry and eccentric gossip-loving Olive to help investigate. Along with a little help from a St. Bernard named Twinkie they may just catch a killer.
Loose Screw
Rae Davies - 2011
She even lets a cat shove her around.When Lucy trips over the body of a buckskin-clad relics trader, her ex-boss asks her to cover the story. She tries to tell him no, but old habits die hard and soon she finds herself directly in the path of a killer and the exasperating, if attractive, detective in charge.Can Lucy catch a killer or is this the last confrontation for her—period?
Escape Route
G.A. VanDruff - 2016
Love Stephanie Plum? Escape Route is your next fun read! Dognappers. Hit men. Her ex-husband. A happy yellow Lab, an unhappy green gecko, her ex's new wife, and a conniving political climber make short work of her vacation. Can Jaqie save the hapless dog, the hopeless ex's new marriage, and finish her next screenplay before the deadline? Join in this fun-filled chase around the Chesapeake Bay, and find out if Jaqie can outsmart the hitmen, get her ex's extremely pregnant wife to the hospital in time, catch the dognappers, and deal with each and every relative hanging around the Shanahan family tree! Buy Escape Route and enjoy GA VanDruff's light-hearted tale of fun and suspense!
To Catch a Bad Guy
Marie Astor - 2012
When she lands a job at one of New York’s premier boutique investment firms, Janet begins to hope that her luck is finally turning for the better. Not only is she happy with her new paycheck, but things also seem to be looking up on the personal front, as the company’s handsome attorney expresses keen interest in Janet. However, her euphoria is short-lived, as Janet soon discovers alarming facts about her new employer’s business tactics. When her boss dismisses her suspicions as groundless, Janet finds herself confiding to a cute IT engineer, Dean Snider. The closer she gets to Dean, the more Janet is tempted to break her rule of not dating co-workers, but what she doesn’t realize is that everything she knows about Dean, including his occupation and even his name, is a lie.Dennis Walker is a top-notch white collar crime investigator who will stop at nothing to put culprits away. When an opportunity for an undercover assignment at one of New York’s premier boutique broker dealers comes up, Dennis jumps at the chance, adopting a persona of geeky IT engineer, Dean Snider. While he may be an ace at his job, years of experience fail him when Dennis meets Janet Maple and finds himself torn between his professional obligations and his personal desires. Will he have to choose between his feelings and duty, or will he find a way to satisfy both?
On the Chopping Block
Jenny Kales - 2016
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.