Funny Southern

Early morning, August 1975: a camp counselor discovers an empty bunk. Its occupant, Barbara Van Laar, has gone missing. Barbara isn’t just any thirteen-year-old: she’s the daughter of the family that owns the summer camp and employs most of the region’s residents. And this isn’t the first time a Van Laar child has disappeared. Barbara’s older brother similarly vanished fourteen years ago, never to be found.

When Miss Julia burst on the scene in her debut, Miss Julia Speaks Her Mind, this proper lady of a certain age found her orderly world turned upside down when Hazel Marie Puckett appeared with her nine-year-old son, Little Lloyd, who looked disturbingly similar to Miss Julia's late husband. Now, in Miss Julia Takes Over, with her sharp tongue and iron backbone intact, Miss Julia must tackle another disruption when Hazel Marie doesn't return from a dinner date. Miss Julia hires J. D. Pickens to investigate, despite her reservations about his taste for beer and women.

Mae West, a far cry from the Hollywood actress, has been thrown for a loop. Her plush lifestyle in the big city of New York comes to a screeching halt after the FBI raids her mansion and arrests her husband, Paul West, for a Ponzi scheme that rips people out of millions of dollars. Mae finds herself homeless, friendless, and penniless. All hope isn't lost... the only thing Mae got to keep that the government didn't seize is a tourist camp ground, Happy Trails, in Normal, Kentucky.

Romaine Wilder, big-city medical examiner with a small-town past, has been downsized and evicted. With few other options, she’s forced to return to her hometown of Roble in East Texas, leaving behind the man she’s dating and the life she’s worked hard to build. Suzanne Babet Derbinay, Romaine’s Auntie Zanne and proprietor of the Ball Funeral Home, has long since traded her French Creole upbringing for Big Texas attitude. She’s a member in a number of ladies’ auxiliaries and clubs, including being in charge of the Tri-County Annual Crawfish Boil and Music Festival. Hanging on to ...

Murder’s brewing at Purrs & Puzzles Cat Café—and Purrlock Holmes is on the prowl. Emma Clark traded corporate burnout for sweet tea and cat cuddles, transforming her Great Aunt Josephine’s coffee shop into a cozy Savannah haven. But when socialite Meredith Halloway is found bludgeoned on the café floor, a candlestick nearby, Emma’s dream unravels fast. Whispers of scandal threaten to shutter her doors—until Purrlock, a silver-gray British Shorthair with a Sherlock-sharp nose, sniffs out deceit. With a locket engraved “Truth Endures” as her clue, Emma leads a sleuthing squad ...

Sometimes the thumbs slip… She’s finally joined the dating app everyone in Cider Cove is raving about…when she accidentally sends a message about wanting to meet up for a first date to her enemy. Hillary: I’ve been engaged twice now without becoming a bride, and let’s just say those failures have made me more career-focused than ever. But I just hit the big 3-0 last year, and I’m feeling…lonely, despite the five best friends I share an enormous house with. I’ve drawn the short stick this time, and I’m dealing with the general contractor about fixing our perpetually leaking...

Sinister secrets hidden by the tranquil waters of an Ozarks lake. Can married amateur sleuths bait and capture a killer before the truth slips away? Kirkus Reviews—“A fine whodunit featuring a delightful cast whom readers will love—or love to hate.” After newlyweds Elizabeth and Jonas Trout arrive to settle her grandmother's estate, they quickly find themselves embroiled in a treacherous mystery when Elizabeth is implicated in the murder of the property manager. With mounting evidence and the Southern small-town sheriff convinced of her guilt, Elizabeth and Jonas must fish for clues...

College student Joe Talbert has the modest goal of completing a writing assignment for an English class. His task is to interview a stranger and write a brief biography of the person. With deadlines looming, Joe heads to a nearby nursing home to find a willing subject. There he meets Carl Iverson, and soon nothing in Joe's life is ever the same. Carl is a dying Vietnam veteran-and a convicted murderer. With only a few months to live, he has been medically paroled to a nursing home after spending thirty years in prison for the crimes of rape and murder.

Tiffany, Stone and Rosie travel to Georgia to stay at a bed and breakfast run by Scarlett O'Hara - who apparently is a real person... But when the local town is rocked by a scandal, Scarlett's secret is revealed. Worse still, Stone is arrested by the local cops, and small-town nepotism means he's in trouble...

When Pippi’s father, the king, sends for her, she decides to take her best friends Tommy and Annika with her to Kurrekurredutt Island. The island is fantastic and Pippi has one crazy adventure after another! Pippi is even made a princess—Princess Pippilotta. But will Pippi and her friends really want to live on the island forever, never to return to Villa Villekulla?

K.T. Tomb introduces three new heroines: bounty hunters Roberta, Riley, and Ricki Vaughan. All sisters. And all tough as nails. When a new client hires the streetwise Vaughan sisters to find and recover a stolen diamond that’s worth millions, the recovery fee alone could save their struggling business. However, their new client refuses to call the police, so the sisters have to keep this case on the down low. And when the prime suspect turns up dead, things really start to heat up in the Deep South. When an unexpected event threatens more than the recovery of the one-of-a-kind gem, all ...

If you’re a thirty-year-old, Southern male from a Christian family and have never brought a girl home to meet Momma, then you must secretly be up to no good. And if you also happen to be an only son with five older, happily married sisters, the pressure to find the one and only love of your life is like digging through a pile of leaves for the pin to the grenade you’re holding. Those were the first two lines of the first video post of Mark Griffin’s to go viral, and his popularity has steadily risen over the two years since. He decides to use his platform to find someone to share ...

In the heart of the Deep South, Stanley Sinclair’s dream simmers quietly in a worn-down kitchen behind a wood-burning stove. But when he dares to serve more than food—to serve comfort—he ends up feeding more than stomachs. He feeds a town. Grease, Grits, and Glory is a soulful, funny, and deeply satisfying story about second chances, family (by blood and by biscuit), and the magical messiness of life when you live with your heart wide open. With a cast of unforgettable characters—including a kazoo-playing oddball, a fiercely wise little girl, and a goat with too much personality—...

The next in the hot, new series featuring Max Holt and Jamie Swift, filled with even more fast-paced action, crazy characters, steamy sex, suspense, and nonstop hilarity. This time Beaumont, South Carolina, is going to hell in a handbasket. It all starts when Jamie decides to increase revenues for her newspaper by starting a personal ads section. Suddenly, the town gets "all sexed up." A trashy lingerie shop opens. The bakery starts making pornographic pastries. Everyone gets the idea that sex sells.

Sometimes a wager only makes things more fun... She’s got seniority over the obnoxious grump next door, and she's determined to beat him out for the top job in their charming hometown. But a bold bet spins their rivalry into a flirty attraction that could change everything. Claudia: I was born to be the Cider Cove City Planner. But Beckett Fletcher—the hothead who works next door to me—wants the job too. We can hardly stand each other on a good day, much less compete for the same promotion. So I make him a bet: Whoever proves they best know the citizens' needs and submits the top ...

Welcome to Madison, Georgia, where the magnolias bloom, the tea is sweet, and the monsters are real. In this cozy horror anthology, the charming town of Madison hides secrets in its flowerbeds and shadows in its attics. Behind every wrought-iron fence and sun-warmed porch lies something unexpected: a banshee who quilts in the carriage house, a wight who prefers crossword puzzles to haunting, a wendigo who wears sweaters by the fire, and cryptids who just want someone to talk to. But don’t be fooled by the cobblestone streets and Southern charm. The ghouls here are real and love has a ...

When Lillian Debeaux inherits her great-aunt Mamie’s decorating business—The Queen’s Decor—she’s not just out of her comfort zone, she’s practically on another planet. At 45, this high-heeled, couture-loving fashionista knows how to turn heads at a gala, but she doesn’t know the first thing about table runners, tent poles, or the sacred Southern art of small-town event planning. And unfortunately for her, the people of Gloster, Louisiana, expect nothing less than perfection for their beloved Fourth of July festival. After all, it’s tradition. It’s legacy. And now…it’s ...

Twenty-seven years after Tyler left his troubles behind in his trilogy, he has a son, Oscar, who is proving to be a chip off the old block. As Kentucky's most eligible bachelor, he has everything--including a gambling problem. After getting on the wrong side of a notorious loan shark, Louie Gomez, Oscar Novak-Chambers must use his family's good standing with the governor's office to obtain a monumental favor to clear his debt. He targets the governor's daughter, Stacey Davenport. Sweet she is not. Ruthless she is--and she's looking to bring down Kentucky's criminal hierarchy--and Louie ...

Welcome to the Breezy Spoon Diner, where murder is always on the menu! It's city fair season in the quirky little town of East Spoon Creek City, and Dani O'Shea is getting ready to serve fair-goers the Breezy Spoon Diner's delicious formula of great food, great conversation and down-home hospitality. But when a reformed criminal comes back to town and runs for mayor, only to end up dead in a crate of onions, Dani has to add “find the murderer” to her list of preparations! With a close friend arrested for the crime, Dani must unravel the dead man's sordid past to uncover the true killer,...

A wedding and a murder...Star football player and NFL hopeful, Michael “Bumper” Hackett is getting married. Word’s going around that it’s a shotgun wedding, and there just might be some truth to it, seeing that the bride-to-be is showing a baby bump. But before the ceremony can even get started, the poor groom collapses from what appears to be an asthma attack. Unfortunately, things aren’t always what they seem. Romaine knew it was a bad idea to have a wedding at the funeral home, but newly elected justice of the peace and sole proprietor of the Ball Funeral Home & Crematorium, ...