Cozy Comedy

It's the middle of February in Hopeless, fresh snow is on Main Street, and Valentine's is just around the corner. And three things are bothering investigative reporter Hope Walker: The worst woman in history has just become mayor; Hope still doesn't have a date for Valentine's; and a very dead body has turned up.... And Hope? She has no idea what happened. Order the seventh book in the Hope Walker Mysteries, A Hopeless Valentine, today, and listen as award-winning narrator, Tavia Gilbert, brings Hope, Katie, Granny, and all the residents of Hopeless to life!

Langeweile ist aller Laster Anfang, weiß Ino Tjarks, der seit Jahren nicht mehr so viel Spaß hatte wie zuletzt als Mordverdächtiger, als er seine Unschuld beweisen musste - was er natürlich niemals zugeben würde. Deshalb nehmen Ino und seine Haushälterin Gerda einen Spionage-Auftrag des arroganten Camping-Urlaubers Falko von Walde an: Der verdächtigt nämlich seine Frau, ein Verhältnis mit ihrem neuen Nachbarn zu haben, Kommissar a. D. Traugott Fürchtenicht.

Tjarkshusen, Friesland: Gleich hinter dem Haus des alten Eigenbrötlers Ino Tjarks hat der Kurdirektor Alois Winterscheid ins Gras (der Salzwiese) gebissen. Und weil Ino nie ein Hehl daraus gemacht hat, was er von den Plänen hält, die der Bayer Alois für eine neue Touristenattraktion an der Küste Frieslands hatte, steht er nun unter Mord-Verdacht. Da hilft nur eines: gemeinsam mit seiner patenten Haushälterin Gerda und der Bäckerin Theda den wahren Mörder zu schnappen! Tatsächlich haben die drei bald eine heiße Spur.

Finnegan Temperance McLeary-May, dog walker extraordinaire, has had an eventful time in Manhattan since she first moved to New York City. Her unique profession and quirky, bubbly personality endear her to everyone who meets her. While attending a college football game with her family for Brianne, one of Finnegan's friends gets hurt when the opposing team's mascot, a bulldog, gets taken.

Jerry the Joker has a new girlfriend. He knew Dixie came with baggage. She had been involved in a bank robbery, was on stage as a stripper and second banana to a magician, and had been an extra in B movies. What he didn’t know was that his new squeeze was about to be abducted by aliens. Walt and his friends inadvertently become involved in the mysteries surrounding crop circles and alien visitation, both ancient and current, and come face-to-face with the possibility that we are not alone in the universe.

Valerian hat sich aus seiner Wohnung ausgesperrt und bittet seinen Nachbarn Niko um Hilfe. Das wäre an sich nichts Außergewöhnliches, hätte dieser nicht gerade seine Frau erschossen. Niko zwingt ihn, ihm bei der Entsorgung der Leiche zu helfen, doch trotz akribischer Planung läuft die Aktion nicht so geschmiert wie erhofft. Und so folgen - mehr oder weniger unabsichtlich - noch zwei weitere Morde, und es sollten nicht die letzten sein.

Zweitausend Jahre ging die Menschheit davon aus, dass Jesus und seine Jünger beim letzten Abendmahl ordentlich Wein gebechert hätten. Ihr kennt den Unsinn mit dem Heiligen Gral. Bullshit. Es war Cervisia, benannt nach der Feldgöttin Ceres. Neudeutsch? Bier. Und zwar mit ordentlich Bums drin. Die Kirche, der Weinpapst und die württembergische Weinmafia wollen das Heilige Fass ein für allemal zerstören. Klingt wie eine Mischung aus Monty Python und Da Vinci Code? Ist es nicht. Es ist ernst. Bierernst. Gibt nur einen, der das Ding noch retten kann.

STICKST DU NOCH ODER STIRBST DU SCHON? MORDSERIE UNTER MÄNNERSTICKERN! STICKENDE MÄNNER LEBEN GEFÄHRLICH! In Schwäbisch Hall fällt ein Männerstickkränzchenmitglied nach dem anderen tot um, gemeuchelt mit einer Präzisionsschleuder. Wer tut sowas? Ein Stricker mit rrr, also einer aus dem gegnerischen Lager? Oder ein Traditionalist, der es nicht erträgt, wenn Männer diese ehemalige Frauen-Domäne für sich erobern? Und wird er erst aufhören, wenn auch Siggi Seifferheld, der prominenteste unter den Männer-Stickern, tot ist?

It may not be as grim up north as they say, but it wasn't where amateur private investigators Natasha DuVivien and Miriam Birdseye intended to spend their Christmas. When the principal boy in a production of Cinderella is murdered, and a ballerina hits the bottle a little too hard, they do the only logical thing they can do and join the cast, stranding themselves in a small industrial town for the sake of art and sleuthing. The show must go on, after all, and the detective duo must get to the bottom of things - before the final curtain falls.

The Happy Haven Assisted Living Facility is a home for senior citizens - not newborn babies. So when one of the kitchen workers asks 90-year-old resident Essie Cobb to secretly care for his missing coworker's infant, she is flabbergasted but determined. Along with her intrepid friends - Marjorie, Opal, and Fay - amateur sleuth Essie sets out to hide and protect the baby - and find his missing mother. 

Eighty years ago, D. H. Lawrence moved to Taos to make a home for himself in the mountains of New Mexico. To welcome the famed writer, his neighbor brought over a stew and left the container as a gift. But this was no Tupperware - it was a handcrafted pot made in the ancient tradition. Decades later, the neighbor’s great-grandson wants it back, and there is no one in New Mexico better at stealing artifacts than Hubie Schuze. Hubie agrees to search the Lawrence ranch for it. But then a blizzard descends on the estate, trapping Hubie and other guests indoors with a killer....

There's a new squad in town... Seniors Phyllis Habernackle and Char Bailey are witches with a problem. Dealing with the recent loss of one of their oldest and dearest college friends, the women discover the dearly departed has bequeathed her estate to them! Unfortunately, she didn't leave it only to them. She also left it to two other old witches. Decades ago, the five women had been inseparable while together attending the Paranormal Institute for Witches. But thanks to a betrayal no one saw coming, they've been feuding ever since. 

Mystery buff Vicki Butler plans to kill someone this weekend. Nothing personal, just business. The killer grand opening weekend at her new Who-Dun-Him Inn is all fun and games - until an unplanned dead body makes an appearance. With a murderer running loose, young widowed mom Vicki is forced to keep her family, guests, and actors safe while searching for clues. Her author guests, also the prime suspects, try their hand at solving this real-life whodunit, in the process hindering the investigation by local law enforcement officers.

When a sleazy money manager starts fast-talking local residents, retired lawyer Miss May and her quirky sidekick Chelsea begin to feel like something is amiss in Pine Grove...then the sleaze ball is found dead at the winter festival. The girls don’t believe in coincidence, so they set out to discover why the money manager turned up dead just when residents began to suspect him of wrongdoing. Something is off in Pine Grove and Miss May and Chelsea won’t rest until the charm of small-town living is restored.

Cookie Berelli, Brooklyn-born smart-mouth, and plus-size owner of a dress design studio for full-figured women is back in this second mystery in the series. Cookie's preparing for a spring Flaunt Your Fashion show, when she finds her head dress cutter dead in her design studio.

Chelsea just wants to spend more time settling into life on the apple orchard, bonding with Miss May and recovering from heartbreak. But as the Candy Apple Festival nears, a wealthy newcomer brings trouble to Pine Grove. Any notions of relaxation are pushed aside when the snobby big-city millionaire turns up dead and Miss May recruits Chelsea to solve yet another mystery. There’s a cryptic ransom note, a bereaved widow, and a big, mysterious mansion at the center of the investigation.

After a year and a half of on-again-off-again relationship status, Zak and Zoe are finally getting married. Not only has her own mother morphed into Momzilla, but Zak’s mother shows up a month before the wedding with plans to stay until the big day. When the moms gang up to undo all of Zoe’s wedding plans, things become tense. When Zak has to go out of town two weeks before the wedding, things get even worse. But when the assistant to the wedding planner Mother Zimmerman hired ends up dead in the pool, things become outright hilarious.

Franki Amato is in Venice to celebrate her best friend’s Christmas Eve nuptials. She’s looking forward to a relaxing break from the PI grind and a romantic gondola ride with her Casanova. But when a chef goes belly-up after making violet risotto for the reception, her holiday plans start sinking like La Serenissima. Dead set on finding the killer and saving her BFF’s wedding, Franki navigates the city’s streets and canals, which are darker and more twisted than catacomb tunnels, and all while the ghosts of past and present are quite literally haunting her.

Raiders of the Lost Ark meets The Maltese Falcon in this Maizie Albright star detective New Year’s Eve action-and-adventure-styled, humorous, romantic crime caper. Before champagne toasts and the Big Peach drops, Maizie has 12 hours to reprise her most detested role to protect her family from old acquaintances best forgotten and never brought to mind. Will these ruthless villains pop Maizie’s cork before the clock strikes 12? Or worse yet, drop the ball on her baby sister?

An ax murder leaves Franki less than jazzed.... Jazz Fest is in full swing in The Big Easy, but PI Franki Amato is singing the blues. The owner of an historic Italian grocery and deli is murdered in a manner eerily reminiscent of the Axeman of New Orleans, a notorious serial killer who hasn’t struck in over a century, and someone Franki knows has been arrested for the crime. Adding to her distress, Franki, her mom, and her meddling Sicilian nonna finally meet her fiancé’s family, but the tone of their encounter is decidedly downbeat.