Mystery Comedy Fiction

As spring comes to quiet Benteen County, Kansas, so do murder and bombs. When a man dies with an arrow in his back, the prime suspect is Sheriff English's brother, Mad Dog, who must find a link between the unlikely mix of arrows and bombs.

Val’s always been unlucky at love—and a whole bunch of other things. But she’s never actually felt cursed. Until now. When Tom gives Val an engagement ring for her 50th birthday, she wants to fly the coop. But it’s Tom who skips out on the romantic getaway he planned. When he can’t make the trip, one of Val’s pals goes instead. On the first day, her friend entangles Val in a prank that ticks off the wrong tourist. On the second day, she gets Val charged with murder. Did I mention Val was unlucky?

'What? You mean the earl does it for money? That's way beyond the barbed wire!' This explosion of disgust from Blotto is provoked when Twinks informs him of the activities of the Earl of Woking. The gentleman in question is owner of Clusters, a stately home not far from Tawcester Towers, and he has been renting out parts of Clusters for private functions - and charging his guests! The discovery of this appalling lapse in aristocratic behaviour sets Blotto and Twinks off on their latest adventure.

When Trevor Hawkins hits the open road in his beat-up old camper van with his incorrigible dog, Milly, his quest for adventure soon spirals dangerously out of control. The simple act of flushing a hotel toilet transforms his life from redundant sales assistant to fugitive from a gang of psychopathic villains, the police, and MI5. Then there's private detective Sandra Gray, who could cheerfully throttle him for turning a well-paid, piece-of-cake job into a total nightmare. Or could she?

Fifteen years ago, a murder/suicide in room 712 rocked the grand old Bellweather Hotel and the young bridesmaid who witnessed it. Now hundreds of high school musicians, including quiet bassoonist Rabbit Hatmaker and his brassy diva twin, Alice, have gathered in its cavernous, crumbling halls for the annual Statewide festival; the grown-up bridesmaid has returned to face her demons; and a snowstorm is forecast that will trap everyone on the grounds. Then one of the orchestra’s stars disappears—from room 712.

"I'm Lexi Carmichael, geek extraordinaire. I spend my days stopping computer hackers at the National Security Agency. My nights? Those I spend avoiding my mother and eating cereal for dinner. Even though I work for a top-secret agency, I've never been in an exciting car chase, sipped a stirred (not shaken) martini, or shot a poison dart from an umbrella. Until today, that is, when two gun-toting thugs popped up in my life and my best friend disappeared."

Once a city of enormous wealth and culture, Prague was home to emperors, alchemists, astronomers, and, as it’s whispered, hell portals. When music student Sarah Weston lands a summer job at Prague Castle cataloging Beethoven’s manuscripts, she has no idea how dangerous her life is about to become. Prague is a threshold, Sarah is warned, and it is steeped in blood. Soon after Sarah arrives, strange things begin to happen.

Ensconced in a lovely tropical villa on idyllic Triggerfish Lane, Jim Davenport anticipates the good life to come. But this isn't living -- it's Florida, and the neighborhood is not quite what it seems. It's got overly aggressive Little League parents, drug-free Rastafarians, homicidal hookers, unnatural sex and casual violence. Oh, yes, and there's a psychopathic serial killer-cum-Sunshine-State folklorist named Serge A. Storms living directly across the street.

At the ripe old age of 32, former wild child Isabel "Izzy" Spellman has finally agreed to take over the family business. And the transition won't be a smooth one....The uproarious fourth and final installment in this New York Times best-selling, Edgar- and Macavity-nominated series about a kooky detective family.

For the first time in Spellman history, Isabel Spellman might be the most normal member of her family. Mom has taken on an outrageous assortment of extracurricular activities. Dad has a secret. Her brother and sister are at war, but neither will reveal the source of the conflict. While domestic disturbances abound, there is one source of sanity in the Spellman household: Demetrius Merriweather, employee of the month for 18 months straight. Things aren't any simpler on the business side of Spellman Investigations....

Schwere Zeiten für den Eberhofer Franz: Seine Cholesterinwerte sind so hoch wie seine Laune im Keller ist. Statt Schlemmerorgien bei der Oma gibt's nur noch Kaninchenfutter auf dem Teller. Obendrein stresst die Susi mit knallhart durchorganisierten Besuchszeiten für Franz Junior. Und als wäre das alles noch nicht genug, steht der Franz ausgerechnet jetzt vor dem schwierigsten Fall seiner Ermittlerkarriere: ein Toter im Fremdenzimmer bei der Mooshammer Liesl, mit Brandpaste beschmiert und bis zur Unkenntlichkeit verstümmelt. Alles deutet darauf hin, dass der Mörder aus Niederkaltenkirchen stammt.

Der Rudi zieht um - und zwar ins Münchner Schlachthofviertel. Vom Balkon aus beobachtet er die Krähen, die über den Fabrikdächern kreisen. Dahinter schönstes Alpenpanorama. Doch mit der Ruhe ist's schon wieder vorbei, als ihm eine der Krähen einen abgetrennten Frauenfinger zu Füßen legt. Wie sich herausstellt, gehörte der Finger einer Prostituierten, die mit einer mysteriösen Waffe erstochen wurde. Und so ermitteln Rudi und Franz im Münchner Rotlichtviertel - aber erst Franzls Liebschaft mit einer Ex-Prostituierten bringt sie auf die richtige Spur.

Niederkaltenkirchen goes future: Dass nun also tatsächlich ein Luxus-Spa-Hotel seine Pforten in Niederkaltenkirchen geöffnet hat, erfreut zumindest die eine Hälfte der Bevölkerung nur wenig. Als kurz darauf auch noch eine Leiche ausgerechnet in einer Marmorbadewanne dort liegt, muss der Eberhofer freilich wieder ran. Ganz egal, wie geschmeidig es mit der Susi grad läuft. Leider ist der Birkenberger Rudi momentan ein wenig verpeilt, was den Franz vor eine schwere Entscheidung stellt.

Private investigator Isabel Spellman is back on the case and back on the couch -- in court-ordered therapy after getting a little too close to her previous subject. Filled with the signature side-splitting Spellman antics, Revenge of the Spellmans is an ingenious, hilarious, and disarmingly tender installment in the Spellman series.

LA shoe designer Maddie Springer lives her life by three rules: Fashion. Fashion. Fashion. But when she stumbles upon the work of a brutal killer, her life takes an unexpected turn from Manolos to murder. And things only get worse when her boyfriend disappears - along with $20 million in embezzled funds - and her every move is suddenly under scrutiny by the LAPD's sexiest cop. With the help of her post-menopausal bridezilla of a mother, a 300-pound psychic, and one seriously oversexed best friend, Maddie finds herself stepping out of her stilettos and onto the trail of a murderer.

Callahan Garrity has her hands full trying to expand her House Mouse cleaning business. So she's reluctant to take on a client in need of detective services, especially when that client is the most notorious woman in Atlanta - Whitney Albright Dobbs. Whitney is a wealthy socialite who, while under the influence, hit and killed a young black girl and just kept driving. Whitney's light sentence has set the city's racial tensions ablaze, and Callahan is not especially keen on helping track down Whitney's soon-to-be-ex-husband's hidden assets.

The Aventine is full of fracturing families. Wives plot to leave their husbands, husbands plot to spend more time with their mistresses. Masters must endure slaves taking obscene liberties, while aggressive slaves are learning to ape dangerous masters. But no one wants to hire an investigator during the holiday. Albia is lumped with her own domestic stress: overexcited children and bilious guests, too many practical jokes and her magistrate husband Tiberius preoccupied with local strife.

Tonight, someone turned a young woman, a Jimmy Choo embedded in her carotid, into a hood ornament for the latest Ferrari in the Babylon's dealership. And one of the big-name players in a huge poker tournament ends up dead. Are the two deaths related? Lucky starts making connections putting her in the crosshairs of a killer. Her former lover, Teddie, comes back from his rock tour to deliver a bombshell. Then, life deals another major complication to her personal life...and it's not going to be pretty. Can Lucky handle the fallout and catch a killer?

Coconut cake, grits, poisoned turtle stew and bird-watching...the ladies of tiny Tea-Olive, Georgia, share a lot of interests, including murder.

Retired judge L. Hyson Breed, a Yankee, picked the wrong Southern woman to trick, bully and steal from. The members of the Tea-Olive Bird Watching Society plot revenge after the judge's marriage to their friend, Sweet, turns out to be a greedy grab for her land and for control of their town. To the rescue: Beulah, Zion, and Wildwood (all named after hymns, as is Sweet).

Get Shorty has descriptive copy which is not yet available from the Publisher.