English Women Sleuths

Thinking that she has been summoned by German immigrant Agnes Otto to usher a new life into the world, midwife Sarah Brandt is greeted by the news of an untimely death instead. It seems that Agnes' beautiful younger sister, Gerda, had fallen into the life of a "charity girl". Caught up in the false glamour of the city's nightlife, she would trade her company and her favors for lavish gifts. And now she was dead - victim, no doubt, of one of her "gentlemen friends".

Molly Appleby is a young writer for Collector's Weekly, and when the attractive reporter isn't covering auctions and antique shows all over the South, she's trying to get her new relationship with a coworker off the ground. When her latest assignment takes her to North Carolina pottery country to cover an exclusive kiln opening, she's certain that the show promises surprising offerings and rare finds. What she doesn't expect to find is a dead body.

Clare's visit to the nation's capital is off to a graceful start. Her octogenarian employer is bunking with her in a charming Georgetown mansion, and a Smithsonian curator invites her to work on its culinary salute to coffee in America. Clare's new village blend, called DC, is struggling to earn a profit until it attracts a high-profile fan: the college-age daughter of the president. Clare's stock rises as the first lady befriends her, but she soon learns a stark lesson. Washington can be murder.

A summer cruise. Horseplay and hijinks. And DEATH on the high seas! Starry eyed intern Meg Butler has embarked on her dream job, only to be thwarted at the first step. No, she didn't mean to poison the guests at the Sail Away party. Her boss thinks otherwise and is ready to send her back home. When a healthy young man is found dead in his cabin, Meg thinks its murder! But who will believe her? Flanked by a motley group of interns and crew members, Meg stumbles her way across Alaska, separating the clues from the red herrings, determined to find the guilty passenger. Meanwhile, things are ...

It's the most dangerous case of Will Trent's career. He knows this from the moment he sets foot in the abandoned Atlanta warehouse where a body lies on the floor—the body of an ex-cop. Bloody footprints leading away from the scene reveal that another victim, evidently a woman, was carried away and has vanished into thin air. And, worst of all, the warehouse belongs to the city's biggest and most high-profile athlete—a local hero protected by the world's most expensive lawyers.

For years now, readers of the Russell Memoirs have wondered about the tantalizing mentions of Japan. Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes had spent three weeks there, between India ( The Game) and San Francisco ( Locked Rooms). The time has finally come to tell that story. It is 1925, and Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes arrive home to find...a stone. A stone with a name, which they last saw in the Tokyo garden of the future emperor of Japan.

Baker Winnie Johnson does her best work when the heat is on. As owner of the Emergency Dessert Squad, she has a deft touch in the kitchen and a soft spot for lost causes. So when her business professor beau, Jay Morgan, expresses misgivings over having to fail one of his fourth-year students, Winnie cooks up a sweet solution. She'll offer an extra credit opportunity in exchange for a little help with her growing business. But when her protégé's first dessert delivery poisons a student journalist, the publicity threatens to burn Winnie's business to a crisp.

When Paul Casablancas, Claire DeWitt’s ex-boyfriend and a popular musician in the Bay Area scene, is found dead in his apartment, his cherished guitars missing, the police are convinced it’s a simple robbery. But Claire knows that nothing is ever simple. With the help of her new assistant, Claude, Claire follows the clues, finding hints to Paul’s fate in her other cases - especially a long-ago missing girl in New York’s gritty East Village and a modern-day miniature-horse theft in Marin.

Nine out of ten murders are committed by someone the victim knows. So when Steph Ryder is found dead, DS Allie Shenton begins her investigation close to home, starting with Steph’s family and friends. Soon the lies, backtracking and secrets multiply as each of the suspects tries to cover up their actions on that fateful night. Before long, Allie homes in on Steph’s ambitious and powerful husband, Terry. Convinced he’s hiding something, she interviews him again and again, each time seeing through his smooth charms.

Penelope Parish has hit a streak of bad luck, including a severe case of writer's block that is threatening her sophomore book. Hoping a writer in residence position at The Open Book bookstore in Upper Chumley-on-Stoke, England, will shake the cobwebs loose, Pen, as she's affectionately known, packs her typewriter and heads across the pond. Unfortunately, life in Chumley is far from quiet, and when the chairwoman of the local Worthington Fest is found dead, fingers are pointed at Charlotte Davenport, an American romance novelist and the future duchess of Worthington.

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.

Charli Goodwin doesn't expect her homecoming to go without a hitch - after all, she skipped town, leaving her fiance and family without a clue as to where she was going or why. On her first night back, Charli discovers the body of her crazy great-uncle and suddenly finds herself at the center of a mystery that threatens the very foundations of Honeysuckle Hollow and the safety of every paranormal citizen in it - starting with Charli herself. With the clock ticking, will Charli's special magical talents be enough to save not only the town, but also her own life?

In the 1920s, in post - World War I England, the Honorable Daisy Dalrymple, newly engaged to Detective Inspector Alec Fletcher, is asked by her brother-in-law to discreetly investigate a series of poisoned pen letters that many of the local villagers have been receiving. When the pompous and unbearable brother of the local vicar is killed by a very large rock, dropped on his head from a great height, it seems clear to all that this campaign of gossip has escalated to murder.

It's a pretty typical day in the life of a small-town Chamber of Commerce until one of the disgruntled bookstore owners is killed—Eli Meier from The Inner Light Bookstore, the most vocal of the Chamber complainers. He sold religious and other spiritual books, but also stocked books on wild conspiracy theories and sold incense, crystals, etc. Eli had never been a member of the Chamber until Angelica recently convinced him to join. He hit on her and she, having good taste, turned him down.

Former English professor Cat Latimer is back in Colorado, hosting writers' retreats in the big blue Victorian she's inherited, much to her surprise, from none other than her carousing ex-husband. Now it's an authors' getaway, but Cat won't let anyone get away with murder. The bed-and-breakfast is open for business, and best-selling author Tom Cook is among its first guests. Cat doesn't know why he came all the way from New York, but she's glad to have him among the quirkier - and far less famous - attendees.

Scarlet Sanderson isn't a paranormal being per se, but she's no stranger to things that go bump in the night. She's had the ability to see and speak with ghosts since she was eight years old. Whether it's a gift or a curse is still up for debate. She moved to the picturesque town of Beechwood Harbor to open a flower shop and start a new life after years of being a nomad. What she didn't expect to find was a town filled with witches, vampires, shape-shifters, and ghosts. So, so many ghosts.

When wealthy Carla Paulson begins plotting her extravagant new home, she ruffles more than a few feathers. Soon Carla is stabbed to death, and standing over her, with knife in hand, is one of Harry's good friends.

An antique fair. A dead stallholder. Can an amateur sleuth both bag a bargain and identify a killer?Trainee antique expert, Dotty Sayers, is feeling vulnerable after being framed for art trafficking by a trusted friend. She welcomes the distraction of visiting a vintage sale but is alarmed when an exhibitor is found dead. The police’s resources are stretched when a valuable antiquity is stolen at the same event. As Dotty conducts her own enquiries, this amateur detective can’t help thinking there is more at stake than one man’s death. Can Dotty scratch off the varnish and expose the ...

The Gardener Estate is one of the most storied and beloved places on the West Coast: a magnificent house in vast formal grounds, home to a family that shaped California—and fought hard to conceal the turmoil and eccentricities within their walls. And now, just as the turmoil seems buried and the Estate prepares to move into a new future, construction work unearths a grim relic of the estate's history: a skull, hidden away some fifty years ago.

Halia Watkins has her hands full cooking, hosting, and keeping her boisterous young cousin, Wavonne, from getting too sassy with customers. Having fast-talking entrepreneur Marcus Rand turn up in her kitchen is annoying enough when he's alive - but finding his dead body face-down on her ceramic tile after hours is much worse. Marcus had his enemies, and the cast iron frying pan beside his corpse suggests that at last, his shady business deals went too far. Halia is desperate to keep Sweet Tea's name out of the sordid spotlight but her efforts only make Wavonne a prime suspect.