American Cozy Mystery

Rosalinda Alameda is celebrating her first year anniversary working at the Stone Zoo in Stoneham, Massachusetts. She is talking with her beloved mother, who still lives in Puerto Rico. Everything is going just perfectly. But then her world turns completely upside-down, and everything she holds dear is threatened. The Flustered Flamingo is the 10th book in the Rosalinda Alameda Mystery series. These short stories feature the zoos that Rosalinda loves with a passion. Author Lisa Shea goes to each zoo personally to write up its sights, sounds, and aromas.

Rosalinda Alameda's dreams are coming true. She's being tested on her zoo knowledge, and if the stars are aligned she might even get that job she has always hoped for. But first comes a practicum at the Capron Park Zoo. Old friends and new faces will challenge her skills....

Rosalinda, Christian, and the three girls are enjoying the autumn splendour of King Richard's Faire. It seems there is everything and anything going on at this Renaissance Festival. But trouble brews around the corner....

Mahalia's Sweet Tea boasts the most flavorful soul food in all of Prince George's County, Maryland. But as events at the beauty industry's leading trade show turn ugly, owner Halia Watkins needs to bite into an unsavory new item on the menu - murder!

Rosalinda, Christian, and the three girls are on an adventure at Southwick's Zoo. There are lions, tigers, deer, and giraffes! But something is not quite right at the zoo. Will the crew figure out what's wrong in time? The Gargling Giraffe is the fourth book in the Rosalinda Alameda Mystery series. These short stories feature the zoos that Rosalinda loves with a passion.

Rosalinda and her new friends strolled through the 1830s-era 200-acre expanse which was Old Sturbride Village in Sturbridge, Massachusetts. Normally this was an oasis of calm. But because this was the last Free Friday of the summer, it seemed that every child in the region had descended to explore and enjoy. When the group decides to hide out in the farm area, where things might be quieter, they discover a mystery instead!

Rosalinda Alameda is in her element. The carousel is spinning, the bears are lounging by their waterfall, and the two elephants are playfully making music with their drums. The brilliant summer sun reminds her of her native Puerto Rico. But despite the warm sunshine and the joyous laughter of the children, Rosalinda can sense that something is not quite right.

Rosalinda Alameda adores zoos. When Massachusetts's summertime "Free Fridays" promotion features the Franklin Park Zoo in Boston, Rosalinda grabs her camera and heads east. A full day amongst lions and tigers is about the best outing she can possibly imagine. But something's wrong at the zoo, and it'll take a combination of her Puerto Rican common sense and her 50 years of wisdom to unravel the puzzle!

Yale and Celine Yee’s food stall business is going so well that they’ve been invited to join an exclusive dinner with the local restaurant owners association. The members gather together for a relaxing hot pot feast…until Jeffery Vue, president of the group, receives a literal shock to his system and dies. Everyone at the meal is a suspect, but the authorities are homing in on family friend Ai Ho, owner of the restaurant where Jeffery was killed—and Yale’s dad is a close second on their list.

Winston Wong used to test video games but has left his downward-spiraling career to follow in the footsteps of Encyclopedia Brown, his favorite childhood detective. When the Pennysaver misprints his new job title, adding an extra S to his listing, Winston becomes a "seniors sleuth." He gets an easy first case, confirming the natural death of a 90-year-old man. However, under the surface of the bingo-loving senior home is a seedier world where a genuine homicide actually occurred.

Homicide detective Gino Canale doesn't believe in the supernatural. Not yet anyway. When a reoccurring dream implies that Detective Canale’s grandparents' deaths might actually have been homicides, he realizes he’s either connecting to the other side or going crazy.

Rosalinda Alameda had gotten a call from her art-detective friend Cindy, from the sunny island of Key West, Florida. An aquarium there needed help with a mystery. And, given how cold and snowy Massachusetts was in January, Rosalinda was more than happy to lend a hand.

Winston Wong’s wedding rehearsal goes awry after the eccentric Chan family shows up uninvited. Then, the patriarch of the clan dies in a strange way. Winston switches to sleuth mode, placing himself and his bride-to-be in perilous danger. With a killer on the loose, can Winston survive long enough to catch the culprit and enjoy his big day?

A woman's skeleton is found on the Wind River Reservation. Forensics determine the woman was shot to death in 1973. Arapaho attorney Vicky Holden and Father John O'Malley are determined to find the identity of the forgotten woman and see that she is laid to rest in the traditional Arapaho way. As the life and death of the woman begin to come into view, Vicky and Father John realize that, after 30 years, the killer still on the reservation and that they are about to be his next victims.

Claire Baskerville is a "woman of a certain age" trying to make a new life for herself in the City of Light. When one of her clients - the owner of a popular expat bookstore - ends up brutally murdered in his bookstore, Claire finds herself in the hot seat. Working with a handsome police detective who was once her sworn enemy, Claire will need to find her client’s killer, while keeping herself out of jail and at the same time not become the killer’s next victim.

Things can get pretty dark in the City of Light. Claire Baskerville is a 60-something American who finds herself alone in Paris when her husband is brutally murdered. Reeling from the onslaught of devastating secrets he left behind Claire is stunned to realize she no longer knows who to trust. She only knows she can’t move forward until she finds out the truth behind who killed her husband. Unfortunately, the closer she gets to the truth, the more determined that killer is to make sure she never leaves Paris alive.

Fall festivities are underway in Coral Shores, Miami. Cuban-American cooking-show star Miriam Quiñones-Smith wakes up to find a corpse in her front yard. The body by the fake tombstone is the woman that was kicked out of the school's Fall Festival the day before. Miriam's luck does not improve. Her passive-aggressive mother-in-law puts her in charge of the Women's Club annual gala. While making plans at the country club, they hear a volatile argument between the new head chef and the club's manager. Not long after, the chef swan dives to his death at the bottom of the grand staircase.

Bike cop Ellie Rush dreams of becoming a homicide detective, but it's still a shock when the first dead body she encounters on the job is that of a former college classmate. At the behest of her Aunt Cheryl, the highest-ranking Asian-American officer in the LAPD (a source of pride for Ellie's grandmother, but annoyance to her mom), Ellie becomes tangled in the investigation of the coed's murder—with equal parts help and hindrance from her nosy best friend, her over-involved ex-boyfriend, a smoldering detective, and seemingly everyone else in her extended family.

Rosalinda is on her very first date with Christian. But somehow it's not quite the one-on-one experience she was envisioning. It seems the entire crowd has decided to tag along - and who is this over by the African elephants?

Pegasus Quincy, a rookie deputy on temporary assignment in a sleepy mountain town, expects a quiet summer citing jaywalkers and writing traffic tickets. Fate intervenes when a dead body turns up in an old copper mining pit. The man is a three-time loser disowned by even his own mother. Peg’s sheriff boss declares the death an accident and tells her to “move on”. She wants to agree, but then her office is ransacked and her assistant kidnapped...Will they find the killer before he strikes again?