Cozy Women Sleuths

Popular mystery author Carolyn Haines is the recipient of the prestigious Richard Wright Award for Literary Excellence, as well as the Harper Lee Award. In Greedy Bones, Sarah Booth Delaney returns to Dahlia House when a mysterious illness breaks out in her hometown. Sarah’s best friend Tinkie’s husband seems to be dying of the ailment, so Sarah must act fast to avoid a devastating loss.

An escape - that's exactly what Birdie Devaine needs when witches around the world publicly announce their existence. Instead of performing for the sold-out crowd at her world-famous magic show in Vegas, Birdie runs away from the dazzling lights to her hometown in Mississippi. She thinks she has it all planned out - keeping busy with renovating an old beautiful house and eventually fading away from the spotlight. But the house has its secrets, including the haunted cemetery that Birdie is now responsible for. It doesn't help when her nosy neighbor catches on to Birdie's big secret....

Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni attends a course hosted by the local chamber of commerce entitled “Where Is Your Business Going?”. But rather than feeling energized, he comes back in low spirits, unsure how to grow the already venerable and successful Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors. Then an old friend from school approaches him about a new business venture that could be just the ticket. When it turns out he will need to mortgage his property in order to pursue this endeavor, Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi wonder what this will mean for his current business - as well as their own.

Dr. Frank Hafner is an archaeologist working on excavating a new-found Native American temple site in the Mississippi Delta. He's also too handsome for his own good, and a bit of a flirt. Oddly enough, it's the first quality that gets him in trouble when he discovers the ritualistic murder of one of his archaeological crew. When Coleman Peters, Sheriff and Sarah Booth's boyfriend, takes Dr. Hafner in for questioning in the murder, the accused doctor hires Sarah Booth to clear his name.

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.

Zara Riddle was looking forward to her first Halloween as a witch. Then the little girl ghost showed up. Zara puts costume shopping on hold, rolls up her sleeves, and does her usual "witcher-i-doo". But nothing works as planned. Mistakes are made. Dinner parties are ruined. (More than usual.) Could this stubborn spirit be connected to a family member's past? Perhaps the "big tragic secret" nobody talks about? Zara won't rest until she gets to the truth, even if means pushing the whole coven to the breaking point. And break they do.

Baker Winnie Johnson does her best work when the heat is on. As owner of the Emergency Dessert Squad, she has a deft touch in the kitchen and a soft spot for lost causes. So when her business professor beau, Jay Morgan, expresses misgivings over having to fail one of his fourth-year students, Winnie cooks up a sweet solution. She'll offer an extra credit opportunity in exchange for a little help with her growing business. But when her protégé's first dessert delivery poisons a student journalist, the publicity threatens to burn Winnie's business to a crisp.

With her rent rising faster than her pie crust, bakery owner Winnie Johnson had hoped to be rescued by an inheritance from her wealthy friend and neighbor Gertrude Redenbacher. Instead all she inherits is the widow's hostile hissing tabby, Lovey, and a vintage ambulance, restored by Gertrude's late husband. As her dream crumbles, Winnie makes her final delivery - a peach pie to an elderly widower. But she finds Bart Wagner lying on his kitchen floor, smothered by a pillow.

Spring, 1921. Lady Eleanor Swift, explorer extraordinaire and accidental sleuth, hasn’t had a vacation since she arrived in England a year ago. So she books into the Grand Hotel in the fashionable resort of Brighton for some fresh air, fish and chips, and, of course, a dip in the ocean. Eleanor is enjoying her view of the waves and trying to find her bathing suit when calamity strikes: A guest has been found dead at her beautiful hotel. The distraught manager, who can’t afford a scandal, asks Eleanor to solve the case as swiftly as possible.

The International Butter Festival has come to town! When Harlow Torrent, part-time journalist and full-time Slip witch stumbles upon a dead body, frozen and drained of blood, she's pulled into a murder mystery. Someone has murdered one of the Butter Festival competitors. Was it Zero Bend, punk sculptor extraordinaire with a history of violence? Perhaps Fusion Swan, a sleazy agent playing the publicity game when his clients meet their untimely end?

When Carrie Kennersley, owner of a two-part bakery that serves tasty treats to both dogs and humans, learns that a local killer is being paroled, she worries that danger will come barking at her door. Ten years ago, Mike Holpurn was convicted of murdering the first female mayor of Knobcone Heights. Shortly after his release, Holpurn puts the whole town on edge by yelling at the former mayor's husband, Henry Schulzer. After Schulzer is found dead, everyone assumes Holpurn is the culprit. Carrie thinks there's more to the story...Holpurn claims Schulzer was the one who killed the mayor.

Living in a haunted house is nothing new to Danielle. In fact, she's rather fond of the ghosts who visit Marlow House. But after she brings home the twins, unexplained paranormal activities in the nursery perplex not just her, but the ghosts who frequently visit Marlow House.

By day, Florrie Fox manages Color Me Read bookstore in Georgetown, Washington D.C. By night, she creates her own intricately detailed coloring books for adults, filling the pages with objects that catch her eye. There's plenty of inspiration in her new apartment - a beautiful carriage house belonging to Professor John Maxwell, Florrie's boss. He offers the property to Florrie rent-free with one condition - she must move in immediately to prevent his covetous sister and nephew from trying to claim it. When the professor's nephew, Delbert, arrives, he proves just as sketchy as Florrie

Every Thursday, three retired school teachers have their ‘coffee o’clock’ sessions at the Thirsk Garden Centre café. But one fateful week, as they are catching up with a slice of cake, they bump into their ex-colleague, Topsy. By the next Thursday, Topsy’s dead. The last thing Liz, Thelma and Pat imagined was that they would become involved in a murder. But they know there’s more to Topsy’s death than meets the eye—and it’s down to them to prove it.

Smarmy personals ads. Daring declarations of love. Freelance writer Jaine Austen has penned them all. But no one needs her help more than geeky, gawky Howard Murdoch. His request is simple enough: a letter proclaiming his undying love for Stacy Lawrence, a gorgeous aerobics instructor. The fact that he's never actually met the woman gives Jaine pause - yet she soon overcomes her misgivings, and the unlikely Romeo lands a date! But his triumph is short-lived. On Valentine's Day, Howard finds Stacy bludgeoned to death with a Thigh Master - and is quickly named the prime suspect.

When Gemma finds a rare and potentially valuable magazine hidden in the bookshop, she and her friend Jayne set off to find the owner, only to stumble upon a dead body. The highly perceptive Gemma is the police's first suspect, so she puts her consummate powers of deduction to work to clear her name, investigating a handsome rare books expert, the dead woman's suspiciously unmoved son, and a whole family of greedy characters desperate to cash in on their inheritance.

It’s New Year’s in Sinful, and the competition for the New Year’s Queen is heating up as the warring churches go head-to-head. Fortune Redding is not the sequined dress kind of woman, but reluctantly agrees to partake in the debacle so that Ida Belle and Gertie can best their nemesis, Celia, who’s put up former Sinful mean girl RJ Rogers. RJ and her friend Ricky Benoit left plenty of devastation in their wake when they fled Sinful after high school. So when they return and Ricky is found dead, there’s no shortage of suspects.

To the tourists and summer residents, Kentwater County is a picturesque community of small-town charm, fruitful farmland, and gorgeous freshwater beaches. To middle-aged widow Isabel Puddles, it's where she preserves pickles, bakes pies, works the counter at her cousin's hardware shop, and occasionally helps "fix up" the hair of corpses at the local funeral parlor. When Isabel discovers a two-inch nail embedded in the skull of Earl Jonasson, it seems the octogenarian may not have died of a stroke.

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.

Grab your tickets for Cajun Country Live!, the pickers' and crooners' answer to the legendary New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. Maggie Crozat, proprietor of the Crozat Plantation B&B, plans to be in the cheering section when her friend Gaynell Bourgeois takes the stage with her band, Gaynell and the Gator Girls. The festival's headliner, native daughter Tammy Barker, rocketed to stardom on a TV singing competition. When a member of Tammy's entourage is murdered at the festival, Tammy makes sure Gaynell is number one on the suspect list.