Humor Suspense

A chain of events that will change the lives of each and every character will leave some of them wiser, some of them deader, and some of them definitely looking for a new line of work. With a wicked wit, razor-sharp observations, rich characters, and a plot with more twists than the Inland Waterway, Dave Barry makes his debut a complete and utter triumph.

Set in a small Cotswold town, Inspector Hobbes and the Blood is a fast-paced comedy cozy mystery fantasy about the adventures of Andy, an incompetent reporter, when he is reluctantly working with Inspector Hobbes, a police detective with a reputation. Andy soon finds himself immersed in a world where not everyone is human, and a late-night visit to a churchyard nearly results in grave consequences, and a ghoulish outcome. An accidental fire leads to Andy having to doss in Hobbes's spare room.

Steph Williams is excited to get her hands stuck into her latest gardening project. This time, she's been commissioned by Lady Clara of Ashford Manor to restore the stately gardens to their former glory. But the estate is suddenly thrown into chaos when a dead body is discovered in one of the rooms. The police rule it as suicide, though Steph's convinced they're barking up the wrong tree. For she knows the deceased better than they do and it could only be one thing: murder. And if the police won't listen to her, then Steph will have to investigate the case herself.

Going undercover is second nature for Private Investigator Lola Cruz, but she’s out of her league when the case of a murdered Royals Courtside Dancer leads her to a local nudist resort. Parading around the sidelines of Sacramento’s professional basketball scene in a barely there cheerleading outfit is one thing - but parading around in nothing but a smile? If she’s going to have any chance of hiding this from her traditional family and on-again, off-again boyfriend, Jack, she’s going to have to keep a lot more than her duct tape bra and killer dance moves under wraps.

Freshly laid-off Wisconsinites Patrick and Barbara McDougall are going to sunny Florida for a modest romantic vacation. But the motel they picked isn't quite a pastel paradise, and they have to be midwesterners and make the best of a bad situation. Except bad goes to worse, and a string of misfortunes renders them unable to leave the state. Meanwhile, the next Mexican-American War is being fought, this time in Fort Lauderdale, between the Kentucky mafia and the Oxy cartel over control of the lucrative pain clinic market.

Tempest Michaels is once again investigating ridiculous cases that are clearly not even slightly paranormal in nature, but his daily menu of fun is interrupted by a plague of men dressed in garish outfits with twisted clown makeup as they terrorize the Kent towns and villages with ever-escalating and more-frequent attacks.

Etta Mae is frustrated with her trailer-park life and her no-good family, and she has big dreams for something better. Working as the home nurse for the elderly but wealthy Howard Connard, Sr., she finally sees her chance - with her sexy curves and infectious charm, Etta Mae is determined to become his wife. Unfortunately, Connard's scheming, money-hungry son and stuck-up daughter-in-law are equally determined to make sure she doesn't.

Callahan Garrity is the owner of house mouse, a cleaning service that tidies up after Atlanta's elite. She's also a former cop and a part-time sleuth.... Keeping Rita Fontaine, a washed-up 1960s teenage rock star, out of jail is a tough job. It's nothing less than murder when Stu Hightower, the vain, temperamental president of a thriving Atlanta recording company, is found murdered in the den of his posh home. His only companions are the slug in his heart and Rita, dead drunk and looking guilty.

Dumped? For her husband’s high school sweetheart he hasn’t seen in twenty years? Roberta Jones Spivey isn’t going to lay down for that. Instead, she reinvents herself and the new Bobbie Jones - new haircut, new name, new attitude - follows her soon-to-be ex to the small Northern California town of Cottonmouth. What better way to show him - and his sweetheart - what he’s missing in the brand new Bobbie Jones than taking up with the town’s local bad boy - who’s also reputed to be a serial killer.

Written in reaction to what Bentley perceived as the sterility and artificiality of the detective fiction of his day, Trent's Last Case features Philip Trent, an all-too-human detective who not only falls in love with the chief suspect but reaches a brilliant conclusion that is totally wrong. Trent's Last Case begins when millionaire American financier Sigsbee Manderson is murdered while on holiday in England. A London newspaper sends Trent to investigate, and he is soon matching wits with Scotland Yard's Inspector Murth.

Sal, Max and Enzo Bruschetti have proved this over a lifetime of nefarious activity that they have kept hidden from law enforcement. Nowhere in any file, on any computer is there a record of anything illegal from which they have profited. But Max has a problem. His body is getting old and his doctor has told him to take it easy. Max has decided that the time has come for the family to retire. But when young actor Harry Murphy overhears the Bruschetti brothers planning changes to their organization.

Derald Grake's pursuit of the American Dream takes a hilariously dark turn when he puts his family home on the market. But what starts as a simple real estate transaction quickly turns into a nightmare when a body is discovered under the bed. Is it a prank, or something more sinister? As Derald and his family are drawn into a web of wild accusations, bizarre mishaps, and laugh-out-loud absurdity, they find themselves at the center of an outrageous conspiracy that threatens to unravel their lives. In this twisted world, nothing is as it seems, and no one can be trusted.

Hap and Leonard are an unlikely pair - Hap, a self-proclaimed white-trash rebel, and Leonard, a tough-as-nails, black, gay Vietnam vet and Republican - but they're the closest friend either of them has in the world. Hap is celebrating his wedding to his longtime girlfriend, Brett (who is also Hap and Leonard's boss), when their backyard barbecue is interrupted by a couple of Pentecostal white supremacists. They're not too happy to see Leonard, and no one is happy to see them, but they have a problem, and only Hap and Leonard will take the case.

When her husband is offered a post at a small northwestern university, Maye Roberts is only too happy to pack up and leave the relentless Phoenix heat for the lush green quietude of Spaulding, Washington. But when you're a childless 30-something freelance writer who works at home, making new friends can be quite a challenge. Her attempts to do so lead her to enter a kooky beauty pageant - and to uncover a sinister mystery.

Serge Storms, that loveable thermonuclear vigilante and one-stop-Florida-trivia-shop, has been leaving corpses strewn across the Sunshine State for more than a decade. The authorities - especially one tenacious state agent - have begun to notice the exponential body count, and send a police task force to track down Serge. Could his luck finally have run out?

It’s Halloween night, and out-of-work writer Goldie Monroe’s trip to the drugstore scares up more than the fake blood she’s looking for. It leads to the man of her naughtiest dreams. And in spite of her costume, sparks fly from the moment they meet. Noah Adler, aspiring sneaker designer, is impossibly gorgeous—like a tatted-up version of Goldie’s favorite blue-eyed vampire. He’s there for candy, but it’s Goldie he can’t resist. When she invites him to her sister’s F/X company bash, he’s all in without a second thought.

It's been a long, rainy summer for Goldy Schulz, who is engaged in planning wedding receptions for what seems to be all of Aspen Meadow. It's bad enough that Billie Attenborough, the bride from hell, wants to move the location to the Gold Gulch Spa just a scant two days before tying the knot to her doctor fiance. Then Doc Finn, best friend of Goldy's godfather Jack, is killed when his car tumbles into a ravine. But Jack thinks Doc was murdered because of research he was doing at the spa....

SWFG: Single, White, Female, Geek. "That's me, Lexi Carmichael, a reformed hacker who was gainfully employed by the National Security Agency. But a series of extraordinary events led me to leave government life behind for a fresh start with a brand-new company and an incredibly sexy boss, Finn Shaughnessy. It may not be kosher to have the hots for your boss, but he seems to have the hots for me, too. If only things didn't get so complicated...."

When Alexandra Witt joins the faculty at Stonebridge Academy, she’s hoping to put a painful past behind her. Then one of her creative writing assignments generates some disturbing responses from students. Before long, Alex is immersed in an investigation of the students atop the school’s social hierarchy - and their connection to something called the Darkroom. She soon inspires the girls who’ve started to question the school’s “boys will be boys” attitude and incites a resistance. But then Alex attracts the attention of an unknown enemy who knows too much about her.

Italy might seem like a long way to go to hide after a disastrous date. But when sexy uberhacker Slash (no, that's not his real name) asks me to go with him to Rome on an investigation, the timing is sort of perfect. My messed-up love life becomes the least of my worries, though, after the dead body, the near-kidnapping and the discovery of a top secret encrypted file that even I can't hack.