Amateur Sleuth Cozy

It's Christmas, and I, ex-witch Stevie Cartwright, declare this my favorite time of year. I love the decorations! The food! The Hallmark Channel holiday specials! This year promises to be better than ever because for the first time in a very long time, I'm going to have more than just Cheez Whiz, Triscuits, and the wish to be surrounded by family and friends. My carefully planned holiday bonanza includes all the usual suspects.

New York Times best-selling authors Rita Mae Brown and her cat, Sneaky Pie, have captivated fans around the world with their Mrs. Murphy mysteries. In this fourth entry, the residents of Crozet, Virginia, find their summer slumbers interrupted by a pair of newcomers. When one of the visitors is found dead and $2 million goes missing from the Crozet National Bank, it falls to Mrs. Murphy and her four-legged pals to save the day.

Antique dealer Sarah Byrne has never unspooled the truth about her past to anyone. But the enigmatic Aussie finally has the one thing she's searched for all her life - family. And now she and long-lost half-brother, Ted Lawrence, a wealthy old artist and gallery owner in town, are ready to reveal their secret connection. Ted's adult children are suspicious of their newfound aunt Sarah - especially after Ted, in declining health, announces plans to leave her his museum-worthy heirloom paintings. So when Ted is poisoned to death during a lobster bake, everyone assumes she's guilty.

Walt's distant cousin, Clint Marlow, could be his twin. When the unscrupulous cousin arrives at Marlow House with his fiancee, he conceals his real reason for being there. But, unknown to Walt - and his cousin - the universe has its own plans, and none of them will ever again be the same.

There are only two possibilities: either lovely old Miss Beresford from Earlsraven is suffering from dementia or there's something fishy going on at her house! But what has Nathalie got to do with it? The young woman has just moved from Liverpool to tranquil Earlsraven to take up her aunt's legacy: the Black Feather pub. But when Miss Beresford discovers a dead body in her garden, Nathalie and her cook Louise begin to investigate. About the series: There was nothing in the will about this... Cottages, English roses and rolling hills: that's Earlsraven.

To get a fresh start away from a bad relationship, Kylie Strange moves across the country to open a shop in a seemingly quiet town in rural Maine. During renovations on Strange Herbs & Teas, she discovers a peculiar and ancient codex, The Booke of the Hidden, bricked into the wall. Every small town has its legends and unusual histories, and this artifact sends Kylie right into the center of Moody Bog's biggest secret.

Ike Hamilton is a part of the Haven Harbor community just like anyone else, though he's fallen on hard times and has to make do on disability checks and deposit bottles. Most of the locals do what they can to help him out, and needlepointing partners Angie and Sarah are happy to see him at the annual Blessing of the Fleet, honoring all those lost at sea over the centuries. But when harmless Ike is stabbed, suspicion quickly falls on a troubled teenage boy who's new in town. Angie's convinced that young Leo is innocent - but if he didn't do it, who did?

Hidden beneath her British reserve, Edwina has a secret: she’s finished her novel and is bravely mailing the manuscript to a publisher. Beryl also has a secret: as thanks for solving a case, the American adventuress has been gifted an airplane. After swooping over the fields and hedgerows of Walmsley Parva, livestock scattering beneath her, she flamboyantly lands the plane on the village green, prompting a startled Edwina to consider a stiff gin fizz. Beryl’s aircraft is not the only disruption of village peace. Miss Dinsdale, a psychic medium, has started holding séances.

Ellison Russell wanted a decorator, not a corpse. Too bad she finds Mrs. White in the study killed with a revolver. Things go from bad to worse when she finds Mr. White in the dining room killed with a candlestick. With so many bodies, is it any wonder Detective Anarchy Jones' new partner considers Ellison a suspect? With the country club gossips talking a minute, an unexpected cocktail party, a visit from Aunt Sis, and a romantic decision, Ellison hardly has time to think about murder. Unfortunately, the killer has plenty of time to think about her.

Despite his trimmer waistline, his girlfriend Lucy's affections for him seem to have inexplicably cooled. So when Lindy suggests the supper club members join a Mexican cooking class, James leaps at the chance to try something new. The Flab Five's classmates include Shenandoah Star Ledger editor Murphy Alistair and twin sisters with supermodel physiques. When one of the sisters is murdered during a school field trip to Luray Caverns, the amateur sleuths set out to catch the killer.

Visiting a psychic is outside the norm for Ellison Russell. Finding bodies is not. Unfortunately, the psychic's crystal ball says she'll soon be surrounded by death. Again. Drat. Now there's a corpse in the front drive, a witchy neighbor ready to turn Ellison and her (not so) little dog into toadstools, and a stripper named Starry Knight occupying the guest room. How did 1975 go so wrong so quickly? Ellison must handle Mother (who's found a body of her own), make up with a certain handsome detective, and catch a killer, or the death surrounding her might be her own.

In the small village of Kilbane, County Cork, Ireland, Natalie's Bistro has always been warm and welcoming. Nowadays twenty-two-year-old Siobhan O'Sullivan runs the family bistro named for her mother, along with her five siblings, after the death of their parents in a car crash almost a year ago. It's been a rough year for the O'Sullivans, but it's about to get rougher.

With the arrival of six senior reading group members at the Merry Ghost Inn, the long-awaited grand opening week has finally begun for Melanie West and her grandmother Liza. All is well with the Oregon coast-side B&B until Melanie's dog, Max, finds the dead body of one of their guests.

When a car bomb nearly kills the charming young tech whiz Eric Thorner, Clare comes to his aid and receives a priceless thank you. Not only does the billionaire buy her a barista's dream espresso machine, he hires her for an extraordinary project: creating the world's most expensive coffee blend. The police arrest Eric's alleged attacker, yet death continues to surround the unlucky mogul, leading Clare to question whether the lethal events are premeditated or merely freak accidents.

In 1949, during her junior year abroad in Paris, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis bought several inexpensive paintings of Marie-Antoinette by a little-known 18th-century female artist. She also had a romantic relationship with Virginia vineyard owner Lucie Montgomery’s French grandfather - until recently, a well-kept secret. Seventy years later, Cricket Delacroix, Lucie’s neighbor and Jackie’s schoolfriend, is donating the now priceless paintings to a Washington, DC, museum.

After leaving a decade ago, Angie Curtis has been called back to Harbor Haven, Maine, by her grandmother, Charlotte, who raised her following her mother's disappearance when she was a child. Her mother has been found, and now the question of her whereabouts has sadly become the mystery of her murder. The bright spot in Angie's homecoming is reuniting with Charlotte, who has started her own needlepointing business with a group called the Mainely Needlepointers.

Jessica Sterling's candlelight-themed nuptial promises to be the perfect kick-off to the summer's first official holiday weekend. Stella's thrilled to have been chosen to provide the decorative centerpiece for the wedding ceremony: a two-foot tall scented unity candle - a symbol of the happy couple's love. But it looks like the bride-to-be's uncle won't be walking his niece down the aisle after he's found dead. The murder weapon is Stella's seemingly indestructible candle, now split in two.

Angie Curtis and her fellow Mainely Needlepointers know how to enjoy their holidays. But nothing grabs their attention like tying up loose threads. So when Mary Clough drops in on the group's Fourth of July supper with a question about an antique needlepoint she's discovered in her family attic, Angie and her ravelers are happy to look into the matter.

Poppy McAllister is happy about opening a Jersey Shore B&B - but working in a professional kitchen has always been her real dream. Now it's coming true, at least briefly, as she teams up during the high-profile Restaurant Week challenge. Poppy's specialty is pastries, and if anyone can make glorious gluten-free goodies, it's Poppy. Things get heated quickly. Relatively harmless pranks soon escalate into real hazards, including an exploding deep fryer. And now one of the judges has died after taking a bite of Poppy's cannoli - making her the chef suspect.

Alfie McAlister has retreated from London to the peace and quiet of the country to recover from a personal tragedy. But an accidental death - which may have been no accident - reveals that the heart of England is far from the tranquil backwater he imagined. After arriving in Bunburry, he is co-opted as an amateur detective by Liz and Marge, two elderly ladies who were best friends with Alfie's late Aunt Augusta. And it is not long before their investigations take an even more dramatic turn.