Showing results by author "Elaine Viets" in All Categories

Newlyweds Josie and veterinarian Ted Scottsmeyer are happily married, and they buy their first house, a fixer-upper, from Ted’s partner, Christine. When they tear down the rickety gazebo in the backyard, they find the body of Christine’s sister, a free spirit who supposedly took off six months ago. The police arrest Christine for murder, and Ted has to work long hours at his practice to cover for his now jailed partner. Josie has to find the real killer to save her marriage and Christine.

Mystery-shopper Josie Marcus is thrilled to be getting married, and her latest assignment is perfect. She has to shop wedding flowers and cakes. Meanwhile, her future mother-in-law is trying to turn her simple wedding into an extravaganza. Josie’s finance is stalked by Molly, a homicidal bridezilla. Molly is shot, and Ted’s mother is arrested for the bridezilla’s murder. Josie has to find the killer before she can marry the man she loves.

Helen Hawthorne and her new husband, Phil Sagemont, are a PI team. To catch a jewel thief on a luxury yacht, Helen goes undercover as the ship’s new stewardess, serving drinks to snobs, scrubbing floors, and cleaning up after seasick passengers. While Helen is cruising the Bahamas, Phil has to catch a sexy gold digger who may have killed her elderly husband for his fortune.

Undercover retail spy and single mom Josie has to mystery-shop three year-round Christmas stores that popped up near her home, and it’s no holiday. The three stores are in a desperate fight to survive, and it’s complicated further when Josie gives the shop owned by her boyfriend’s ex a bad rating. Her home isn’t aglow with the holiday spirit, either. Josie has to deal with murder, mayhem and motherhood.

Josie is assigned to mystery-shop a chain of lingerie stores, and she’s surprised to find her high school gym teacher, Mrs. Hayes, working as a shop manager and “C-cup counselor.” Even worse, Josie finds a high school acquaintance murdered in a restroom near the shop, her hands bound with the bra she just purchased. Thanks to a secret from her past, Mrs. Hayes has a motive for this murder, and a flimsy alibi. Josie has to find the real killer to save Mrs. Hayes.

Husband and wife PI team Helen Hawthorne and Phil Sagemont are hired by Trish Barrymore, who is divorcing her no-account accountant Mort. When Mort is found dead, Trish is the main suspect. She wants Helen and Phil to find out who killed Mort Barrymore—and more importantly, kidnapped Justine, the couple’s pedigreed Chartreux show cat. Helen goes undercover as an assistant to a woman who shows prizewinning Persians. Under the primping, posing, and purring, cat shows are a high-pressure world, and now the stakes are life and death.