Cozy Women Sleuths

It's Valentine's Day in Winterspell, but not everyone appears to be feeling the love. And no, I'm not talking about my dateless self. Instead of being wooed by candlelight, I'm working in a candle shop. Cora Hearth, Winterspell's magical chandler, has teamed up with Sugar Shack to create party favors for the lucky couples, and they're counting on us to spark some magic for their special night. So, when a thief breaks into my delivery van and swipes the goodies, Cora and I-and her persnickety talking cat-have to join forces to track down the culprit in time to save Valentine's Day.

Francie Vespertine has lived all her life in a supernatural town full of powerful witches, but her own magic is lackluster at best. The only place she fits in is the Magical Archives. Head librarian (and bookworm extraordinaire) might be a boring job . . . if it wasn't for the ghosts of fictional characters haunting the shelves.

When Monica Albertson comes to Cranberry Cove - a charming town on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan - to help her half brother, Jeff, on his cranberry farm, the last thing she expects to harvest is a dead body. It seems that Sam Culbert, who ran the farm while Jeff was deployed overseas, had some juicy secrets that soon prove fatal, and Jeff is ripe for the picking as a prime suspect.

Mackinac Island is a peaceful summer resort town where everyone coasts through the streets on bicycles. But after someone sends a prominent local on her final ride, it's up to one resourceful visitor to get things running again.

Tara never imagined her introduction to Ireland like this - carrying her mam's ashes to honor her final request: "Tell Johnny I'm sorry.... Take me home." She's never met her mam's estranged brother, Johnny Meehan, who owns an architectural salvage business in Galway. Although Tara is immediately charmed by the medieval city, the locals seem wary of strangers, and a gypsy warns her that death is all around. When Tara arrives at her uncle's stone cottage, the prophesy seems true. A dead man lies sprawled over the threshold in a pool of blood.

AN OLD HOUSE...A DEAD BODY...AND A MYSTERIOUS YOUNG WOMAN. WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THE PAST MEETS THE PRESENT? A mysterious young woman arrives in the small town of Shady Pines to renovate a beautiful old bed and breakfast, but is that her only reason for coming? Misty Raven is on a mission, but she soon gets distracted when a body is discovered buried in the backyard of the bed and breakfast she just purchased. Could it be related to a murder that happened in the house fifteen years ago? While Misty searches for answers, someone doesn't want the truth uncovered and tries to stop her. When two ...

Domestic diva Sophie Winston can whip up an elaborate event in her sleep, but as the hippest hostess, she rarely gets to enjoy the full guest treatment. Which is why her best friend Nina Reid Norwood loops her in to the latest culinary craze: a pop-up gourmet dinner party. The celebrity chef, the epicurean menu, and the high-profile attendees are all a surprise, turning the decadent dining experience into the hottest ticket in Old Town.

Returning to Charm, North Carolina, for a fresh start on her wilting life is an easy decision for Everly, and opening a new seaside cafe and iced-tea shop puts the proverbial icing on her legendary lemon cakes. Everything is just peachy until a body turns up on the boardwalk outside her home and a jar of her proprietary tea is found at the victim's side. Now, Detective Grady Hays, Charm's newest and most mysterious lawman, has named Everly as his number-one suspect, and Everly's new start is about to go up in smoke unless she can dish up the real killer.

Mia Malone has landed a lucrative and convenient gig, catering a reunion at the old school that's become her new business headquarters. The town swirls with rumors that St. Catherine's Preparatory is haunted, but there's one living visitor that Mia wasn't expecting - her mother. Theresa Malone stepped away from the magic that runs in Mia's family, much to the annoyance of Mia's grandmother. Soon Mia has to deal with more than personal drama when Robin Hanover, the head of the reunion committee, is murdered in one of the classrooms.

Cooper Lee is at a crossroads. Her boyfriend of five years just left her for another woman, she's living in an apartment above her parents' garage, and her job as a copier repairperson is feeling a little, well, repetitious. Hoping for a fresh start and a new outlook on life, she joins the Bible study group at Hope Street Church. The last thing she expects while studying the Bible is a lesson in murder.

It's convention season at the Bellissimo Resort and Casino, and Davis Way Cole barely notices. It's hard to pay attention when you live in a Jambalaya Junkyard. But when special events coordinator Holder Darby walks off the job just as 500 Alabama bankers pour in the front door, Davis steps up - or would that be in? Definitely in. Davis steps in it. Not only has the convention director vanished, but a certain Bellissimo guest is missing - one who forgot to pack the million dollars he left in the bathtub.

After leaving a dicey marriage and losing a beloved job in a corporate crash, Pepper Reece has found a new zest for life running a busy spice and tea shop in Seattle's Pike Place Market. Her aromatic creations are the talk of the town, and everyone stops by for a cup of her refreshing spice tea, even other shopkeepers and market regulars. But when a panhandler named Doc shows up dead on the store's doorstep, a Seattle Spice Shop cup in his hand, the local gossip gets too hot for Pepper to handle.

It's 1974 and Ellison Russell's life revolves around her daughter and her art. She's long since stopped caring about her cheating husband, Henry, and the women with whom he entertains himself. That is, until she becomes a suspect in Madeline Harper's death. The murder forces Ellison to confront her husband's proclivities and his crimes - kinky sex, petty cruelties, and blackmail. As the body count approaches par on the seventh hole, Ellison knows she has to catch a killer.

Unpacking her belongings in her new hometown of Portland, Oregon, herbalist and reformed alchemist Zoe Faust can't help but notice she's picked up a stowaway. Dorian Robert-Houdin is a living, breathing three-and-half-foot gargoyle - not to mention a master of French cuisine - and he needs Zoe's expertise to decipher a centuries-old text. Zoe, who's trying to put her old life behind her, isn't so sure she wants to reopen her alchemical past... until the dead man on her porch leaves her no choice.

Angie Turner's restaurant, The County Seat, is conveniently located near a first-class farmers market - so her menu is full of fresh ingredients. But a visiting culinary professor has just had a taste of something very unhealthy.... Angie first meets Daniel Monet at a local mission, where she and her chef-in-training, Hope, are serving barbecued chicken poutine to the homeless. Monet is one of Hope's teachers - but Angie's boyfriend knows him from his youthful days in England. But soon, the bon vivant is no longer vivant.

Kathleen Paulson has her hands full in Mayville Heights, Minnesota, running the public library and taking care of her two uncanny cats, Hercules and Owen. Kathleen's good friend Maggie says items are being stolen from the local artists' co-op. She doesn't want to call the police, because the main suspects are all close friends. Luckily, Kathleen and her faithful felines are there to put their paws on the truth!

Though a small town at heart, Lawrenceton, Georgia, has its dark side - and its crime buffs. One of them is librarian Aurora "Roe" Teagarden, a member of the Real Murders Club, which meets once a month to analyze famous cases. It's a harmless pastime - until the night she finds a member killed in a manner that eerily resembles the crime the club was about to discuss.

An English manor home, an unsolved mystery, too many suspects to count...it’s the perfect holiday for romance novelist Sara Medlar. After solving two murder cases in their hometown of Lachlan, Florida, Sara Medlar, her niece Kate and their friend Jack need a change of scenery. Sara arranges for them to visit an old friend of hers in England. Upon arrival at Oxley Manor, a centuries-old estate that has been converted to a luxury hotel, Kate and Jack quickly realize that Sara is up to something. They learn that Sara has also invited a number of others to join them at Oxley.

A servant girl and a priceless brooch vanish at the same time, and it doesn't take a genius to put two and two together. The Inspector finds the brooch on a dead woman - but where's the missing servant? Fortunately, Mrs. Jeffries isn't one to give up on a case just because of a few loose ends...

Someone is trying to turn Portland High into a school for scandal with a gossipy website called Dirty Laundry. The latest target of ruinous rumors is newly elected PTA President Sandra Wallage. After a heated meeting with outraged parents, Sandra runs into fellow school mom and Private Investigator Maya Kendrick, who's discovered the person behind the website. But when the women storm into the venomous gossip columnist's office they find a lifeless body - along with a confession.