She writes, paints watercolor landscapes and reads Jane Austen over and over. Kylie’s been married since she was 19, has twin boys and loves hunting for bargains and selling her crafts on-line. Kate and Kylie have been best friends since third grade at River Valley Elementary School. When Kate inherits her grandmother’s old house and decides to move back to peaceful River Valley, she finds there’s anything but peace in the Valley. First, she arrives to find that all her late grandmother’s old furniture has been stolen. Kylie comes to the rescue, and just a few days later the two of them are right in the middle of a murder investigation. Through it all, with Kylie’s help, Kate’s turning the old house into her own home with yard sale and thrift shop bargains and getting to know two very different men. From the author of the Hunter Jones mystery series, A Body in the Bargain is about people you might know and one or two you might just want to avoid.

    You're sure to fall in love with the charming characters and puzzling mysteries in these books.Ghostly PawsWhen bookstore owner Willa Chance finds herself haunted by the tenacious ghost of the town librarian who insists she solved her murder, she gets help from a quirky cast of small-town characters and a cat she's inherited from her grandmother.Bake, Battle & RollWhen Lexy Baker temporarily fills in for the pastry chef at a lakeside resort it seems like a great way to combine business and pleasure ... until the head chef ends up with a knife through his chest and Lexy is found bending over the body. A Zen For MurderWhen local psychic Zoila Rivers is found dead at the zen garden, retired police consultants Dominic Benedetti and Claire Watkins are forced to team up to catch the killer. Too bad Claire and Dom don't always see eye to eye. Dead & BuriedSummers in the seaside town of Noquitt Maine are quiet and relaxing ... unless you find a mysterious dead body, a hunky ex-boyfriend shows up and you start getting instructions from ghostly relatives.

     5 ★ "This is a charming series of the adventures of 5 sisters. Merle the middle sister is the predominant focus of the books and one falls in love with her! Then we meet the rest of the clan. It is impossible to put the books down (my kind of books)! Merle's adventures alone and with her sisters are simply wonderful. There is just enough intrigue to keep one interested and to move on to the next book. I hope you find the books to be as grand as I did." "Enjoyed getting to know the Bennet sisters and their relationships. It was nice reading about some women who have a variety of life experiences. These characters are beyond the age of 30. I think any woman would enjoy reading this but the narrator is in her 50's and I enjoyed her perspective." A sprawling, exuberant, generous-spirited cozy mystery series with a yummy side of international adventure. A little bit chick lit, a touch of cozy mystery, a whole lot of humor, romance, suspense—all in one box set! BLACKBIRD FLY – Book One A dead husband might be sadder except that once Harry dies, his widow, Merle Bennett realizes almost immediately it was no wonder she didn't know anything about him. They’d pretty much been leading separate lives—several of them, as it turns out. Still, the will’s quite a shock. And so is an intriguing surprise—Harry left her a family home in a tiny French village. Or maybe a family home. Because who was Harry’s family? Finding out is half the fun. Merle sets out to claim her inheritance, adolescent son in tow, and thus begins a sojourn reminiscent of A Year in Provence mixed up with something by Carolyn Hart, maybe, or M.C. Beaton. Because Malcouziac, Merle’s tiny Dordogne town, is the quintessential village—just perfect for a murder. And a rollicking good time. THE GIRL IN THE EMPTY DRESS – Book Two Law practice is in the Bennett sisters' blood—along with designer suits and stilettos. But they've decided to ditch the more predictable Caribbean cruise or spa weekend at a five star hotel to celebrate Merle Bennett's 50th birthday hiking the French countryside of Dordogne. There’s just one catch: Merle’s little sister Francie has decided to bring along a sixth wheel: a work colleague named Gillian Sargent, whose utter aloofness wouldn’t be so bad. Except she seems to be hiding something…

    Dunbar’s crazy mixture of crime and offbeat comedy.” -The Baltimore Sun A New Orleans lawyer who'd rather eat, drink, and swap stories than get caught in court, Tubby Dubonnet, cleaving faithfully to his guiding principles “Never screw a client and never lie to the judge,” manages, in his own laconic fashion, to right many of the wrongs that beset his clients. In these late-series books, he’s experiencing the pride and satisfaction of new grandparenthood. And he’s taken on some additional civic duties, agreeing to co-chair the reelection campaign of his good friend, Judge Hughes.But in Tony Dunbar’s books, New Orleans is The Big Sleazy squared. No one is safe, especially from their elected officials. Even if they are an elected official. Half the fun of a Tubby Dubonnet book is watching his sly creator fit together a plethora of fascinating yet seemingly unrelated jigsaw pieces to form a picture you never saw coming. And the other half is hanging out with Tubby and his crew of eccentrics, sleazeballs, goofballs, and enticing, confusing babes in the Big Easy-to-Love. The food descriptions are no slouch either.These are funny-hard-boiled mysteries with as many laughs as chills, because no matter how dire things get, Dunbar never loses his sense of humor:"I think he's going to shoot us once we're out in the Gulf," Tubby whispered to the girl. “His aura is green,” she agreed.  “Dunbar has an excellent ear for dialogue … His stylish take on Big Easy lowlife is reminiscent of the best of Donald Westlake and Elmore Leonard.” -Booklist WHO WILL LIKE THESE: Fans of Tremé, softshell crab po’ boys, Domilise’s, the Upperline Restaurant…wait, let’s start over, it's not all about the food—ok,  fans of legal mysteries, (particularly Parnell Hall’s Steve Winslow series and anything by Lia Matera), comic mysteries, Elmore Leonard, funny lawyer movies like My Cousin Vinny, TV shows like Ally McBeal and Night Court; and everyone’s favorite New Orleans yarn, Confederacy of Dunces. Vol. 5: CRIME CZAR It's a city of sin. And murder is only one of them. Tubby Dubonnet can't forget the last words that escaped an old friend's lips, and he can't get out of the way of a political campaign that's turning rough. Obsessed with the idea that a shadowy crime boss may be pulling the strings that have cost good people their lives, Tubby is entering into a test of courage with the most violent men in New Orleans. And if that weren't dangerous enough, he’s just picked up the worst ally he could ever find: a beautiful prostitute gunning for revenge.  Vol. 6: LUCKY MAN When the D.A.

     3 books. 600+ pages of Laughs, Mystery and Romance. 25% off the cover price. The Final Arrangement The Vulture is dead. The body of Quincy McKay's nemesis and biggest competitor in the floral business has just been discovered in a casket at the mortuary, complete with flowers on the lid. Derrick Gibbons, aka The Vulture, stole all of Quincy's funeral business, and now she's on a mission to get it back. But there's a problem--Quincy is now the main suspect in The Vulture's murder. Armed with only her Zombie delivery van, good intentions, and the business card of a handsome cop named Alex, she must find the killer, save the flower shop, and keep from ending up in the next casket. If she can dodge burning bushes, the plague of a polygamist ex, and her mother's Mormon Mafia Spy Network, her life with Alex and her shop could become the perfect arrangement. Deadly Arrangements All florist Quincy McKay wants is success in business, a happy family and the perfect romance with Alex Cooper, the hottest cop in the state. Not necessarily in that order, of course. Is that so much to ask? The trouble is, between Alex’s job and planning weddings, it’s getting harder and harder for Quincy and Alex to find any time to themselves. Every time the flames of passion ignite between them, someone or something shows up to fizzle the fire, including her meddling mother, her formerly absent father and even Elma, the handsiest waitress in the West. Wedded bliss is contagious in small town Hillside. Should be great news for Quincy, except that one groom is missing and another is the prime suspect. Hard for a florist to make a living that way, and even harder for her to stay out of the investigation, especially when the suspect is her sidekick, K.C.’s fiancé. Just when she thinks nothing else could go wrong, a ghost from Alex’s past comes back to haunt them both, which could keep them apart forever, if someone doesn’t kill Quincy first. She’s stumbled into the clues to solve the case of the missing groom and finds a corpse as well, proving that planning a wedding can literally be murder. A Christmas Arrangement It's Christmastime in Hillside, but there's a lack of holiday spirit for flower shop owner Quincy McKay. She's in charge of the town festival and her shop's open house, but her Santa's a no-show and her flower cooler is on the fritz. To make matters worse, she's learned her ex-husband isn't as ex as she'd thought. Just when she thought things couldn't get any worse, her boyfriend, hot cop Alex Cooper announces his parents are coming to town. Alex Cooper is the perfect man in Quincy's book, but unfortunately his mother thinks so too. And no woman is perfect enough for her perfect son, but especially not the weird flower shop girl who works too much, can't cook and who she catches kissing another man in the department store. And what's this she hears about Quincy being married? Eleanor Cooper must help her son dodge a bullet (and not the kind from his job) during the romantic holiday season to prevent him from being ensnared in a regrettable relationship. Quincy's dignity (of which lately she's in short supply), her reputation, and every business in town are riding upon the success of the city's Christmas celebration. If she can figure out a way to make it work despite failing equipment, helpers dropping out of the picture as fast as snowflakes in a blizzard, a troubling and inappropriate Secret Santa, and the possibility of arrest, she might win the respect of everyone in the town, but more importantly, Alex's parents.

     Smart-mouthed Trudi is definitely no foodie: she knows nothing about fine dining, surviving happily on peanut butter and breakfast cereal. But the murder of the most famous chef in town — killed with a cooking knife — presents an opportunity: if Trudi can prove her skills as a reporter, she can return to the news desk where she belongs. In a tight-knit California foothills community of cooks, caterers and wine snobs, can Trudi make her way through a new world of delicious food and drink? And can she track down the murderer — or will he find her first?

    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?

    But an online job suddenly has her questioning everything about her life, including whether it is wise to keep shopping when there is a serial killer targeting mall shoppers. When the FBI enlists her help to find the serial killer, Molly isn't sure she's ready to be more than a domestic-level spy.

    Maggie Longstreet has plenty of them after slimy, ambitious Richard trades her in for a more recent model. She’s so depressed she can barely get out of bed when Larry Hawkins, a seemingly not-at-all depressed acquaintance, commits suicide out of the blue. Suddenly Maggie goes on high alert, remembering something her evil ex said about Larry—something highly suspicious. And from there, it's just a short segué to a bracing new development: “When some women get divorced they go back to school, I thought. Some do volunteer work at the hospital, or join communes and learn to birth calves. Some have affairs with inappropriate men. My new interest is burglary. Maggie Longstreet, former wife and mother, past president of the Museum Guild, now starting a career as a second-story woman.” Fortunately, Maggie isn’t alone in her adventure—a very attractive, much younger man proves a lot more fun than Richard ever was. In fact, the real delight of this witty, sly mystery is seeing Maggie come alive again after a suffocating marriage. Set in the’70s, it has a bit of that Mad Men feel of women on the brink of something big. And completely unexpected. You know Maggie’s going to be okay when she says: “I’d rather have had one of those cute little guns with a mother-of-pearl handle, but this (diamond pin) would have to do. I concealed it in my hand. At least now I was armed—or pinned.”

     Book 1: Seaside Secrets Suzie Allen gets a call to inform her that her estranged Uncle Harry has passed away and has unexpectedly left her Dune House, a beautiful house on the beach that was once a Bed and Breakfast. With her best friend, Mary, going through a messy divorce, the two decide to get away and go to the small town of Garber to see the house. Despite the stunning setting, the house has been neglected for years and is in a terrible state of disrepair. Suzie and Mary make the decision to refurbish the house together. But then, Suzie and Mary start finding evidence that maybe Uncle Harry didn’t die of natural causes. Suzie’s investigative background as a journalist takes over and the ladies go on a search to discover what secrets the house holds. Will these secrets reveal a dark side to Suzie’s strange cousin, Jason? Was the decision to refurbish Dune House the worst mistake of their lives? Or is this the beginning of an exciting new chapter? Book 2: Boats and Bad Guys Best friends, Suzie and Mary, are enjoying living together in Garber. They are settling into their new lives and are finalizing the renovations on the spectacular B & B on the beach. They find the perfect painting to decorate one of the rooms. It is painted by a local, young artist who committed suicide years earlier. But then they find something hidden in the frame that piques their curiosity and they want to find out its significance. During their investigations they begin to believe that the artist of the painting did not commit suicide and they try to discover the truth. But there are two dangerous men who want the truth buried. With a storm brewing they overcome many obstacles on their journey to uncover the facts before the evidence is lost forever. Will Suzie and Mary’s quest for adventure land them in danger? Will they discover the truth before the bad guys silence them? Is love between Suzie and the mysterious captain, Paul, on the horizon? Book 3: Treasured History Dune House, a stunning old house right on the beach, is finally ready to be reopened as a Bed and Breakfast. Best friends, Suzie and Mary, are very excited that their hard work has paid off and the opening weekend has finally arrived. They are even more excited that they have guests booked in on opening day. But before the B & B is officially opened Mary is distracted by a surprise guest and Suzie is distracted by her blossoming romance with Paul. When their guests do arrive they get more than they bargained for. Not only do they have to accommodate a very pretentious guest and an unusual guest but there is a problem with the plumbing. Then someone is found murdered. With the reputation of Dune House to protect, Suzie and Mary want the murder solved quickly so they do a little investigating of their own to speed up the investigation. What secrets does the history of Dune House hold that could lead to murder? Book 4: Hidden Hideaways Suzie and Mary are enjoying running the newly reopened Dune House, a stunning bed and breakfast on the beach. Their friendship has never been stronger. Mary is in her element using the skills she gained taking care of her family to ensure their guests have an unforgettable experience and Suzie’s relationship with Paul is flourishing.

    Caught between her old boyfriend, with whom she shares a sordid past, and her new love interest, who offers her something she has desperately been wanting, Jenessa becomes embroiled in a series of homicide investigations that put her life and relationships in jeopardy. Can she uncover the truth of these murders before they destroys her family and any chance she has for a happy life?  These stories are full of mystery, twists of romance, lovable characters, and plenty of family and small town drama.

    Sgt Major Crane and his team from the SIB investigate the case of a young soldier who murders his wife and six year old son and then commits suicide, after recently returning from Afghanistan. As Crane investigates he finds the soldier had links with a local church. As the body count rises, events take a darker turn and he wonders w

    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?

    Golf cart racing with her surrogate mothers Mariska and Darla was about as nutty as life got...until she found the hot pawnbroker's mom buried in her backyard. Talk about making a lousy first impression. Armed with nothing but her wits, Pineapple Port's questionable cast of characters and a growing crush, Charlotte is determined to solve the mystery of Declan's mother's murder. Hey, at least this guy's skeletons aren't in his closet.

    What she didn’t plan on was bringing Tripp, her less than thrilled fourteen-year-old grandson with her. Soon after their arrival, things start happening fast. First, Tripp gets attacked by a cat named Sweet Feet. Then the town reveals some of it’s deep, dark secrets, and, to Mary’s surprise, Preston, a local police officer, asks her out on a date. But, halfway through their date, they get interrupted…by a murder. And it wasn’t just any murder…it was the beloved local pastor. Turns out Mary and Preston make quite the detective duo. Even Tripp gets in on the detective work. But now he’s in danger. Who would want revenge on the local pastor? And will Mary be able to get to Tripp before he becomes the next victim? And how does Mary get that rainbow cake to taste so darn good?