Historical Fiction Cozy Mystery

Amid the drudgery of the Great Depression, the nation turns to the glitz and glamor of Hollywood for escape. Like so many before her, Vivian’s dreams brought her to Los Angeles. Years later, Vivian might not have become a star, but she is just as determined to make it in this dazzling city. Perceptive and headstrong, she knows how to manage people. Vivian is a perfect fit for the public relations department. With the studios determined to control the lives and reputations of their stars, it’s her job to keep the dream of Hollywood alive — on paper at least. From paying off journalists...

When Rosa Reed—aka WPC Reed of the Metropolitan Police—and her cousin Gloria decide to spend a fun-filled afternoon in 1956 at the fair on the boardwalk in Santa Bonita, California, they're in for a shocking surprise. After a ride assistant's death by electrocution is determined to be murder, Rosa finds herself entangled once again with her high-school sweetheart, Detective Miguel Belmonte. Should she catch the next flight to London before she loses her heart again? Or worse, her life?

Mirabelle Daws traveled all the way from Australia to Sheridan Square to visit her sister - only to die in the middle of a locked garden. All the residents of Sheridan Square have a key to the garden - but no one seemed to know that Mirabelle was planning to arrive. So the question facing Mrs. Jeffries is: Who wanted to make sure that Mirabelle's visit was very, very short-lived?

March, 1925. Pregnant, bored, and longing for an adventure, Posie Parker accepts a rather last-minute wedding invitation from an old friend who is getting married out in the gorgeous town of San Gimignano, Tuscany. But what Posie - and her husband Richard Lovelace - arrive into is not a blissfully happy wedding party, at all. It’s a chaotic mix of mistrust, unfaithful fiancées, bizarre death threats, uninvited wedding guests, and a big dollop of very real unease.

New York City, 1899. When it comes to show business, Gilded Age opera singer Ella Shane wears the pants. The unconventional diva breaks the mold by assuming "trouser roles"-male characters played by women - and captivating audiences far and wide with her travelling theater company. But Ella's flair for the dramatic takes a terrifying turn when an overacting Juliet to her Romeo drinks real poison during the final act of Bellini's I Capuleti e i Montecchi.

Evangeline "Evie" Parker, Countess of Woodridge, has trekked out to her country estate, Halton House. It's time to pick up the reins and re-establish herself in the district. No easy task when one of her afternoon tea guests is poisoned. Is it a coincidence when another guest is found dead from poison? Scotland Yard steps in. While Evie trusts they will find the killer, she takes exception when the finger of suspicion is pointed at her.

Posie Parker has been summoned to Chelsea, to the House of Sinne, the fashionable London perfume house. Anouk Sinne, the most brilliant perfumier of her age, has been receiving blackmail demands, and asks Posie to investigate. But is blackmail just the tip of the iceberg? A launch party for the House of Sinne’s highly anticipated new fragrance is just about to take place, and Posie finds herself rubbing shoulders with some very famous people, but after the "reveal" of the strangest perfume Posie has ever experienced, things take a chilling turn for the worse…

Join Posie Parker, London’s premier female Private Detective, and Chief Inspector Lovelace of New Scotland Yard as they spend Christmas Eve at Rebburn Abbey, home of the Earl and Countess of Cardigeon. Each house guest is invited to share a personal mystery, but what unfolds turns out to be less a cozy cornucopia of fire-side Christmas cheer than a series of curiously interlinked and unsettling mysteries.

Investigative reporter Sam Hawke, alias Mrs. Samantha Rosenbaum, is the first on the scene—what luck!—when a body is found in the yard of St. Stephen’s Church on Hanover Street in Boston. Dr. Haley Higgins, the assistant Chief Medical Examiner, finds the modus operandi of the crime eerily familiar to that of her brother’s, an unsolved murder that has plagued her for years.

An artist's model never shows up at Neville Grant's house...or so he claims. But when one of Mr. Grant's houseguests suddenly dies, the Inspector and Mrs. Jeffries have to work double-time to find both the missing model and the killer!

After a treacherous journey, Lucina found safety in the bakery of Rydding Village. Her peace is threatened when she learns that Nico, the new apprentice smith, is from the homeland she was forced to flee. Could he be an enemy agent who caught up with her? Even if he isn’t, the newcomer is the chief suspect in a string of burglaries, and Lucina worries the suspicion will spread to her because of their shared nationality. Her nightmares of being driven from the village may come true if she can’t clear his name.

Winter 1763. Alec, Lord Halsey, is sent on a diplomatic mission to Midanich, imperial outpost of the Holy Roman Empire, to bargain for the freedom of imprisoned friends. Midanich is a place of great danger and dark secrets - a country at civil war, ruled by a family with madness in its veins. For Alec it is a place of unspeakable memories from which he barely escaped and vowed never to return. But return he must, if he is to save the lives of Emily St. Neots and Sir Cosmo Mahon.

Amory Ames is looking forward to a tranquil period of reconnecting with reformed playboy husband Milo after an unexpected reconciliation following the murderous events at the Brightwell Hotel. However, she is drawn into another investigation when Serena Barrington asks her to look into the disappearance of valuable jewelry snatched at a dinner party. Amory agrees to help lay a trap to catch the culprit at a lavish masked ball hosted by the notorious Viscount Dunmore.

It’s November, and Lane and Darling have escaped the chilly autumn in the Kootenays for a honeymoon at the posh and romantic Santa Cruz Inn in sunny Tucson, Arizona. But despite her very best intentions to relax, soon after their arrival Lane’s plans to spend the holiday poolside with a good mystery are interrupted by gunfire. One of the hotel’s wealthy guests has been shot point blank and Lane is second on the scene.

Treasured is the eighteenth novella in the ongoing story of the Andersen family. Livia Andersen was a woman who held her family together with a quiet smile and an iron will. It’s been months since her death and her children and grandchildren she leaves behind continue to grapple with the shifting changes in their lives now that she’s gone. For some of them it is about far more than adjusting to her absence in their lives. Trisha Andersen doesn’t do anything without careful deliberation. She can’t remember the last time she made plans involving a man that had her questioning her own ...

Singapore is agog with the news of King Edward VIII's abdication to marry American heiress Wallis Simpson. Chen Su Lin, now Chief Inspector Le Froy's secretarial assistant in Singapore's newly formed detective unit, still dreams of becoming a journalist and hopes to cover the story when the Hon Victor Glossop announces he is marrying an American widow of his own, Mrs Nicole Covington, in the colony. But things go horribly wrong when Victor Glossop is found dead, his body covered in bizarre symbols and soaked in betel nut juice.

When Milo Ames receives a troubling letter from his childhood nanny, Madame Nanette, he and Amory travel to Paris where they are soon embroiled in a mystery surrounding the death of a famous parfumier. Helios Belanger died suddenly, shortly before the release of his newest, highly anticipated perfume, and Madame Nanette, who works for the family, is convinced that her employer's death was not due to natural causes.

London, 1918. Fiona Figg finds herself back in Old Blighty saddled with shuffling papers for the war office. Then a mysterious card arrives, inviting her to a fancy house party at Mentmore Castle. This year’s Ascot-themed do will play host to a stable of animal defense advocates, and Fiona is tasked with infiltrating the activists and uncovering possible anti-war activity. Disguised as the Lady Tabitha Kenworthy, Fiona is more than ready for the “mane” event, but the odds are against her when both her arch nemesis and would-be fiancé arrive unexpectedly and “stirrup” her plans.

Mabs Millett is the reluctant heiress to Cheadle Abbey, one of Vanbrugh's monstrous piles. At a deb dance in the early fifties, she meets a financier who offers her a job as an assistant to the editor of the social diary on a magazine he has just bought.

The evidence was all there: a dead body, two dessert plates, and a gun. Could it be that Mr. Ashbury was sharing his cake with his killer? The old bloke had enemies galore - even his own daughter disliked him. Mr. Ashbury's son-in-law doesn't want Inspector Witherspoon asking questions. Of course this doesn't stop Mrs. Jeffries and her staff from snooping around.