Cozy Humor

During an early morning feeding for her four-month-old twins, Meg Langslow hears an odd noise and goes downstairs to find her living room filled with dozens of animals. She soon learns that financial woes have caused the local animal shelter to repeal its no-kill policy. Her kind-hearted father, her zoologist grandfather, and other like-minded citizens have stolen all the shelter animals, both as a gesture of protest and to protect them until the hated policy can be repealed. But the volunteer who was transporting animals to new homes has been murdered.

It's another holiday and Mayor Randall Shiffley has turned Caerphilly, Virginia, into Spooky City, USA. The residents are covering every window with cobwebs and roaming the streets in costume to entertain the tourists, and Meg's grandfather is opening a new 'Creatures of the Night' exhibit in the zoo. When a real body at the zoo and a suspicious fire at the Haunted House threaten to mar the town's creepy fun, it's up to Meg Langslow to save Halloween.

Max Moran, who looks like Superman but has the personality of Clark Kent, is a failed Broadway actor who manages his uncle's inn on the New Jersey shore. Although Max would like nothing better than to be an innkeeper and an actor in community theater, life requires him to solve murders. These are the first three cases Max must solve, often at great danger to himself as he is forced to rely on his acting skills to pretend to be a detective. This is a newly revised and edited edition.

Unremarkable legal assistant Gary Thorn goes for a pint with his coworker Brendan, unaware his life is about to change. There, Gary meets a beautiful woman, but she leaves before he catches her name. All he has to remember her by is the title of the book she was reading: The Clementine Complex. And when Brendan goes missing, too, Gary needs to track down the girl he now calls Clementine to get some answers. And so begins Gary’s quest, through the estates and pie shops of South London, to find some answers and hopefully, some love and excitement.

Franki Amato is in Venice to celebrate her best friend’s Christmas Eve nuptials. She’s looking forward to a relaxing break from the PI grind and a romantic gondola ride with her Casanova. But when a chef goes belly-up after making violet risotto for the reception, her holiday plans start sinking like La Serenissima. Dead set on finding the killer and saving her BFF’s wedding, Franki navigates the city’s streets and canals, which are darker and more twisted than catacomb tunnels, and all while the ghosts of past and present are quite literally haunting her.

Miss Julia has promised her husband, Sam, to mind her own business. What a relief! She doesn't have to spring into action when a dead body is found in a toolshed six blocks from her house. Instead, she can concentrate on what's really important-like figuring out who's been passing bad checks in her name and, most important, preparing for Hazel Marie's impending due date. Then again, who else can figure out why that awful Thurlow Jones is trying to cast suspicion on someone Miss Julia feels certain is innocent? And, after all, what Sam doesn't know won't hurt him, right?

Is Paradise Worth Dying For? Therapist Izzie Firecracker’s life has been a rollercoaster lately, but meeting charming Hugo Littlebottom in a London café feels like fate—especially when he invites her to his family’s castle in the remote Scottish Highlands. Expecting romance and relaxation, Izzie finds instead a tangled web of secrets, eccentric relatives and ominous whispers that Hugo’s troubled family friend is being poisoned. As threats pile up and sinister events unfold—including a ghostly encounter and blood-curdling warnings—Izzie realizes she’s stumbled into something ...

Meg's grandfather has been booked to give lectures on a cruise as part of the education/entertainment itinerary, and he's arranged for a passel of family members to join him. The passengers’ vacation quickly becomes a nightmare when they wake up to find themselves broken down and in need of repairs. Things get even worse when a crew member announces to all that a woman has jumped overboard, leaving behind her shoes, shawl, and a note. The note reveals she's a disliked member of a writers' group onboard for a retreat, and the group is split on whether this is in-character for her.

How can you hold an auction when the auctioneer is dead? That’s the problem facing Jessica Braun after her scheme to clear out thrift shop inventory through a bidding war goes sideways. Before the truck is even unloaded, she and her friends discover a terrible crime. With luck working against them and no one on their side, can Jess and her crew find enough evidence to solve the murder and stop the killer before they get away? What will happen to Jess if her auction plans are killed, too?

Meg Langslow and Michael's house is serving as the marshalling point for the annual Caerphilly holiday parade. The theme is the 12 Days of Christmas, and it features 12 drummers from the school's marching band, 11 bagpipers, 10 leaping lords costumed in medieval finery from the college's drama department, and so on. There are also assorted floats, a live nativity scene on a flatbed truck, the three wise men on Caerphilly Zoo camels, and Santa in a bright-red horse-drawn sleigh.

Murder Among Heirs When the wealthy and enigmatic Walter Farnsworth, a pharmaceutical tycoon, brings his family to Turtle Cove for a getaway at the Willowrose Inn, the picturesque coastal town braces for a storm—both literally and figuratively. Walter’s hidden motives come to light when his favored heir, daughter Alexandra, is found dead as a fierce tempest rages outside. Suspicion falls on the troubled Farnsworth clan, each with secrets worth killing for. Inn owners Grace and Lily Garrison find themselves entangled in the mystery as the family’s dark history surfaces. With tensions ...

A ditzy investigator looking for love. A dangerous cheating boyfriend. Will Sarah live long enough to get revengeSingle and looking for love, Sarah Winner turns to what she knows best: social media. Finding love online is no easy task, but Sarah is ready to rise to the challenge. After meeting Gary and believing that he was ‘the one’, her illusions are shattered when she discovers he's a criminal and bigamist. She turns him into the police, but when he’s out of prison and hungry for revenge, Sarah finds herself dodging death threats and facing danger at every corner. Under the ...

He’s grumpy but oh-so-hot. What would be the harm in having a naughty night with him just once? I shouldn’t be attracted to the new guy in town. He’s a tech genius with attitude, and I like my men with more brawn than brains, thank you very much. Besides, everyone is telling me that he’s got quite the reputation, so I’d better stay away from him. I mean, the last thing I need is to fall for another bad-news player, right? But then we meet and… Yow. How can a girl not fall for his cocky charm... His wicked words... His moan-worthy moves? After a saucy, sinful night, we go our ...

Small-town gossip, a hair salon owner, and a dead body. After notorious town rivals get into a fight, one of them winds up dead. It’s shear chaos at Ruby Tate’s hair salon once the sheriff arrests the prime suspect. Ruby agrees to help uncurl the mystery and save the reputation of her young receptionist’s mother. Luckily, her puzzle-solving skills are a cut above the rest. But can Ruby and her eccentric bestie piece together the clues before someone else ends up hurt? __________________________________________________________________________ This delightful cozy mystery is full of ...

Meg is relaxing in the hammock, taste-testing Michael’s latest batch of Arnold Palmers and watching the hummingbirds at their feeders when her hopes for a relaxing early summer morning are dashed. First her father recruits her to help him install a new batch of bees in the hive in her backyard. Then Mayor Shiffley recruits her to placate the NIMBYs (Not in my backyard), as she calls them—a group of newcomers to Caerphilly who have built McMansions next door to working farms and then do their best to make life miserable for the farmers.

Discovering a body in my floral storage area was the last thing I expected. Sending flowers to funerals is one thing. But, encountering the deceased in person is quite another. My name is Grace Thompson and I own “Petals & Paws” in the small town of Bloomsville. Fate seems to have a peculiar sense of humor. Fortunately, my friend Chloe Sutton arrives, craving a vacation. Instead, she finds my chaos.Rosie won't stop barking. Wait, did she find a clue? Good girl! My curiosity pulls me deeper into danger, maybe I can blossom into an amateur detective. Chloe’s forensic skills uncover ...

Librarian Martha Storm has always found it easier to connect with books than people—though not for lack of trying. She keeps careful lists of how to help others in her superhero-themed notebook. And yet, sometimes it feels like she’s invisible. All of that changes when a book of fairy tales arrives on her doorstep. Inside, Martha finds a dedication written by her best friend—her grandmother Zelda—who died under mysterious circumstances years ago. When Martha discovers a clue within the book that her grandmother may still be alive, she becomes determined to discover the truth.

A visit to Notre Dame... What could possibly go wrong? For Ava Sext -- Parisian bookseller and part-time sleuth -- everything. Roped into attending an impromptu seance, she's faced with a spirit's desperate plea to solve his murder. Dubious but curious, Ava's skepticism shatters when death strikes Notre Dame itself. Alongside Henri De’Ath, her bookselling partner, she races against time to unmask the killer. Turns out that talking to the spirits is easier than avoiding becoming one. “Death in Notre Dame” -- a lighthearted cozy mystery set in Paris, a city where food, wine and crime ...

Ten years ago, Ryan Comeaux was convicted of killing his girlfriend and was sentenced to life in prison. Now a witness has come forward who claims she was with Ryan the entire night and it’s not possible that he was the killer. But the local police assume she’s mistaken and aren’t interested in reopening what they view as an open-and-shut case. The witness, Kelsey Spalding, has her own reasons for wanting Ryan’s conviction overturned and hires Swamp Team 3 to prove him innocent.

Maybe there are people in Antarctica with penguins in their basements, but in Virginia? Finding a body down there is somewhat more likely for Meg. Explaining the penguins' presence is easy; Meg's dad volunteered to take care of the birds until the future of the bankrupt local zoo could be determined. But identifying the body in the basement proves a harder task.