Humorous Mysteries

Hank makes a foolish bet with his archenemy, Pete the Barncat, that he can catch the Lumberpile Bunny. He loses the wager, his job, his pride, and even his gunny sack bed under the gas tanks. Hank begins to plot revenge. He must dispose of the cat. That sounds simple. But without Pete, Hank discovers scrap time has lost all its joy and meaning.

The Kidds - treasure hunting family extraordinaire - are heading to China on a journey that will lead them beyond the Great Wall and into the underbelly of Berlin. Bick and Beck Kidd are desperately trying to secure the ancient Chinese artifact that will buy their mother's freedom from renegade pirates.

It all starts with Hank the puppy enjoying his family's backyard home. Feathers start to fly when Hank defends his backyard against invading...phantom ducks? Hank's mother says it's a good time for him to go out on his own before the dogcatcher arrives. So Hank makes his way to the Twitchell Livestock Auction. Will he join up with Slim, the cowboy he meets there? Or will the dogcatcher provide his new home?

Cas Russell is good at math. Scary good. The vector calculus blazing through her head lets her smash through armed men twice her size and dodge every bullet in a gunfight, and she'll take any job for the right price. As far as Cas knows, she’s the only person around with a superpower...until she discovers someone with a power even more dangerous than her own. Someone who can reach directly into people’s minds and twist their brains into Moebius strips. Someone intent on becoming the world’s puppet master. Cas should run, like she usually does, but for once she's involved.

On a blustery day in late fall, Hank sneaks into the back of Slim's pickup and finds himself at a neighboring rancher's fall branding...the very neighbor, in fact, who owns the gorgeous Miss Scamper the Beagle! Unfortunately, Miss Scamper has always been a little hard to figure out, and he can't decide if she's crazy about him...or just plain crazy. And, as the day unfolds, it even begins to look like she's angling to land him in a heap of trouble with her pit bull boyfriend, Steel!

Hayley Powell, food and cocktails columnist for Bar Harbor's Island Times, is...well, kind of broke. So when she's selected for that extreme coupon-clipping reality game show coming to town...she's thrilled, especially when her competition is nasty nurse Candace Culpepper. But when Haley stumbles across a face-down-in-the-snow Candace - scissors gleaming between her shoulders - she knows the next thing she'll be selected for will probably be a police line-up.

When a funny turn of events brings a parrot to the ranch, Hank is not worried. After all, what harm can one copycat bird do? So he decides to go about his business. The only problem is, Loper and Sally May don't seem to appreciate his heeding their requests to bark louder and dig up the flowers. What's really going on here? Hank's not sure, but he's determined to find out! Picknickers sing "Because Thy Loving Kindness," and Drover sings a little number called "There Once Was a Doggie".

Someone has been raiding Sally May's garbage barrels! Hank knows the crime is the work of a notorious gang of raccoons, but in a tragic case of mistaken identity, the Head of Ranch Security is himself forced to take the heat. More trouble lies ahead. Rip and Snort, the good-for-nothing coyote brothers, are planning to pull an even bigger job.

Leo and Remi have saved the wacky, wonderful Whippet Hotel, but their adventures aren't over. Anything is possible on the field of wacky inventions: some are scary (like a genetically altered twelve-foot chicken); some are dangerous (like a pond full of electric eels); some are completely out of control; and somehow, Leo and Remi will take it all in stride.

How serious is stage fright? At the Hanging Hill Playhouse, it can kill you. After narrowly escaping a malevolent spirit in The Crossroads, Zack and Judy are hoping to relax during the rehearsals for a show based on Judy's best-selling children's books. Little do they know that the director is planning to raise a horde of evil specters from the dead, and to accomplish this, he needs a human sacrifice...and Zack fits the bill perfectly.

In their lovely old Cotswolds village, Janet and Susan are known to all the other villagers as “the girls”—a fixture. Partners in love and work, co-proprietors of a picturesque shop specializing in the work of local artisans and farmers, they lead an enviable, enviably settled life. So it’s no catastrophe when Sue, the younger of the two, feels the need to take a month to travel on her own, leaving Jan alone to run their stall at the Inland Waterways Rally Craft Fair.

Everybody’s got their coping mechanisms. Val Fremden is no exception. But when her longtime boyfriend Tom Foreman takes off without even saying goodbye—well, that’s just the kind of thing that can make a good woman go bad. Out to track down Tom or die trying, everyone Val meets seems like a potential suspect. Especially her new coworker, Gary. Ever since he showed up, women around town have begun disappearing. And the macabre clues left behind at each woman’s last known address keep Val on the run like a chicken with its head cut off.

Welcome to Spellbound, where paranormal is the new normal. Emma Hart has a lot on her paranormal plate - a wedding to plan, a trespasser to defend, and a longstanding curse to break. When a pixie dies under mysterious circumstances, her endless list of Things to Do grows even longer. Will she manage to uncover the truth behind the pixie's death before she becomes the next victim?

Her name’s Moxie. Moxie McCoy. Bold, opinionated, and haplessly self-confident, the world’s greatest fourth-grade detective faces her biggest challenge! When someone kidnaps beloved school mascot Eddie the Owl, Moxie is on the case - but she’s forced to fly solo now that her best friend (and crime-solving partner) has moved away. Moxie must interview her classmates - both as potential new best friends and as possible suspects. She finds clues and points fingers but can’t save the owl on her own. Enter Moxie’s little brother, Milton.

While staking out a cheating husband, Kate can't help but to indulge the cravings from her newest pregnancy. Little does she know the owner of the bakery has her eyes on Jim, Kate's beloved husband. Things turn deadly as Kate's cravings take over. It's up to Kate to keep her Family Life on track while solving another deadly whodunit!

Even Truly Lovejoy has to admit that teeny-tiny Pumpkin Falls, New Hampshire, has its charms - like the annual maple festival, where tourists flock from all over to sample the local maple syrup, maple candy, maple coffee, and even maple soap! But when someone tries to sabotage the maple trees on her friend Franklin's family farm, Truly has to rally the Pumpkin Falls Private Eyes to investigate.

Rebecca Zamolo is on a mission to save her summer. Instead of going to camp like she’d planned, she’s been stuck in summer school. But today is the day! She’s going to present her final science assignment—using her Nana’s borrowed vintage zoetrope—and then she’ll be free to have fun. But as Becca and her classmates wait for her teacher to arrive, a menacing voice comes over the intercom claiming to be the Game Master! They've locked the doors, scared off the teachers, and demanded that Becca and her friends solve the clues that have been left behind.

After leaving the Sanguine Spa in pursuit of Edgaren't, the kids find themselves at a mysterious summer camp, Camp Creek. There are lake games and happy counselors, and there's even a tie-dye cabin. It's all very . . . normal. But if Theo and Alexander know one thing, it's that normal doesn't always mean good. When everyone around her starts acting strange, Theo wonders if maybe the fumes from the tie-dye cabin are seeping into their brains, and she resolves to investigate what's really going on at Camp Creek.

Case brief: The opening of the Kalamazoo City Dome - the world's largest indoor/outdoor amusement complex - has everyone in the city buzzing, especially because it's going to be the shooting site for Chase Mercy's new blockbuster film. But that's when things start to go haywire, and Mayor Saunders suspects foul play. Who would want to sabotage the Dome, and why?

The man in the photo is so blurry it's impossible to make out what he really looks like. And that was before he was run over by a steamroller! His name was Lenny Smile and he ran a children's charity called Dream Time, financed by millionaire author Joe Carter. Now Carter wants to know just what happened to Smile - and to the money. Unfortunately for him, he's hired the Diamond Brothers - Tim, the world's worst private detective, and his wise-cracking younger brother Nick - to solve the mystery!