Humorous Detective

Classic Movies, Ghostly Mischief, and Murder! Nora Paige is settling into her new life as manager of the Palace movie theater. She only has a few things to worry about. Like keeping the theater safely out of the clutches of an evil real estate developer, dealing with her staff of movie-obsessed misfits and their daily meltdowns, and hiding the fact that her new best friend Trixie is the ghost of an usherette who died in 1937. It would also be helpful if she could figure out whether she wants to take her charming-but-cheating husband back. But when someone close to the Palace is murdered, ...

When someone burns down the home of the school janitor and he dies in the blaze, everyone in Addamsville, Indiana, points a finger at Zora. Never mind that Zora has been on the straight and narrow since her father was thrown in jail. With everyone looking for evidence against her, her only choice is to uncover the identity of the real killer. There’s one big problem - Zora has no leads. No one does. Addamsville has a history of tragedy, and 30 years ago a similar string of fires left several townspeople dead. The arsonist was never caught.

Mark Twain is at his irreverent best with this hilarious parody of the 19th-century mystery. The tale begins with the murder of Flint Buckner and a heinous crime against a young woman. A man with special gifts - no less a personage than Sherlock Holmes! - enters the scene to solve the mystery and avenge the lady. He matches wits with an improbable villain, Archy Stillman, while Ham Sandwich and Wells Fargo look on, and almost gets himself lynched in the process.

If there was one piece of advice Olive Crisp always followed, it was that "one should never attempt to solve a crime on an empty stomach..." 1970s. Cambridge, England. A POISONED SCONE: When a customer drops dead in the cafe during the lunch rush Olive is horrified. What's worse, the cause of death was one of her delicious scones. Now solving the case has become personal; not only does Olive want to solve the murder in order to explain the mystery she also needs to clear her name. A COSY COMMUNITY: Despite protesting her innocence, only her two best friends, Millie and Blythe, and the ...

After a long period of "resting", life is looking up for Charles Paris, who has been cast in a new production of Hamlet. But rehearsals are fraught. Ophelia is played by Katrina Selsey, who won the role through a television talent show. Hamlet himself is also played by a reality TV contestant, Jared Root. But when the company reaches the first staging post of their tour, matters get more serious, with one member of the company seriously injured in what appears to be an accident, and another dead. Once again, Charles Paris is forced to don the mantle of amateur detective to get to the bottom of the mystery.

SWITCH BACK is a novella (about 1/3 of a full-length novel, about 4-5 times longer than a short story) and takes place prior to BOARD STIFF (Elliott Lisbon Mystery #1). After inheriting an entire town, Ballantyne Foundation Director, Elliott Lisbon, travels to Texas to thank them. She quickly learns they don’t want her gratitude, they want their town back. And they’re willing to kill for it. Trapped in a small town full of big suspects, Elliott must unlock their secrets, or she’ll never get out alive. Now doesn’t that sound like fun? Read the whole series and gets even better. - - -...

Kerry had different plans for her first high school party—like not going. All she wanted to do was stay home in the safety of retro rom-coms and her strict retainer schedule. Instead her BFF, fiercely outgoing mystery-fanatic Annie, has roped her into going to the party to investigate who’s cyberbullying Heather, the most popular girl in school. Finding herself getting close with her dreamy crush is odd enough, but when the two of them discover Heather’s second in command, Selena, suffocated with a menstrual cup, things get really weird.

There were times when Jonas Brownstein wasn’t certain why he bothered having a doorbell or locking his front door since his brother never bothered with the first and made quick work of the second. Patty on the other hand knew how to use the doorbell but simply ignored it. She’d given both he and Jay the door-picks as a gift years ago so while she might not be thrilled that their brother was adept at the skills that it took to use them, she also accepted that she wasn’t in the best position to criticize him for it. They didn’t grow up together…didn’t know each other existed until...

In the charming town of Fox Drift in upstate NY, where quirky mysteries brew alongside artisanal coffee, Maude Fenwick, owner of The Velvet Fox vintage shop, is drawn into a tangled web of deception when a haunted teapot starts whistling ominously and a package of priceless vicuña yarn mysteriously arrives on her doorstep. As she delves into the secrets of the enigmatic Foxdown family, Maude uncovers a sinister conspiracy of art fraud and murder that stretches back decades. With her loyal Doodle, Charlie, and her steadfast friend Rue by her side, Maude races against time to unravel the ...

Oh Christmas tree, how lovely are thy branches, and…a dead body? Chloe was basking in the glow of the Christmas tree lighting ceremony, and the satisfaction of solving the murder of Santa. Her thoughts turned to the arrival of her sisters the following day and getting on with the purpose of this family trip. However, the gift someone left under the tree was worse than a bag of coal. Another murder mystery in the midst of this Bavarian-style village threatened to throw the entire small-town into mayhem. No sooner had her sisters arrived, than one of them threatened to leave, blowing up the...

Owning two thrift shop locations doubles the secondhand fun for Jessica Braun. However, it also means double the work and, soon enough, she finds herself embroiled in double the trouble. A shocking crime strikes Pine Grove, leaving two people injured. Jessica can't shake her suspicion that another shop owner is involved. The catch? The community sees things differently, and convincing them won't be an easy task. How will she rise to this challenge, protect her town, and safeguard her business? As the situation grows more complex, Jessica must piece together the puzzle. But when the going ...

Great characters and story setting. Interesting Mystery to solve with lots of clues and twists that kept me guessing and turning the pages until the end. I can't wait for the next book. I highly recommend this book. 5 STAR BookSprout review. Welcome to Bramble Dale—where book club drama is just the warm-up, and murder is the main event. Picking the book of the month used to be my toughest challenge, but that was before a shady paralegal was booked into jail…and then found dead. Now, with an old friend knocked out during the crime and the clues pointing to corruption and conspiracy, ...

Addie’s first Apple Festival is about to turn deadly... The Apple Festival kicks off the fall festival season in Stargaze, and that means colorful trees, cozy coats, apple cider, and fun! It also means an influx of tourists, including a stranger from Betty's past. It turns out the palm reader has a secret past, and it's coming back to haunt her. When a body turns up in Betty’s fortuneteller tent at the Apple Festival, she becomes the prime suspect in the killing. She claims she’s innocent, but her connection to the deceased only makes her appear more guilty. Addie is determined to ...

As an ex-star of a hit teen detective show, Maizie Albright gets the youth demographic, or so she thought. Now that she’s adulting, today’s kids make Maizie feel out of date. But at least the teen YouTube stars of Bigfoot Trackers want to hire her to look into the disappearance and possible murder of their producer, a murder the police find as likely as Bigfoot.

A pretty but spiteful young actress with a talent for destroying men's lives is found dead in a college room just yards from the office of the unconventional Oxford don Gervase Fen. Anyone who knew the girl would gladly have shot her, but can Fen discover who did shoot her and why?

Charles Bentley receives two surprises. First of all his wife, Joanna, who is also chief of police in Opalsville where they live, wants to have a large Thanksgiving celebration in their new home. She asks Charles to do the inviting. Under some pressure he agrees, wondering all the while where he will round up enough people for such a gathering. The second surprise comes when his old friend Sidney Collins comes to see him. Charles and Sidney were undergraduates together at Yale and went on together for graduate school in English literature at Harvard. Sidney is a well known public ...

The town's psychic cat, Irene Peggledrip, is being visited by a band of malevolent spirits who all claim to be murderers. The stage is set for Hettie and Tilly to solve an old murder mystery, where all the cats involved appear to be dead. Will our feline sleuths finally lay the ghosts to rest? Can Molly Bloom’s new cafe survive the seance? And will the moving claw give up its secrets before the gravy congeals? Join Hettie and Tilly for another spirited adventure.

Pepe, aspiring PI Geri Sullivan's muy clever Chihuahua, has stopped talking. But why now, with Geri's best friend Brad missing and her ditzy sister in grave danger? Geri's lost without Pepe's dogged detective work, especially when a client of Brad's expires under very murky circumstances. Luckily, Pepe turns out to be an excelente blogger, and his nose for clues soon has the detective duo chasing down leads.

Mr. Chickee, the genial blind man in the neighborhood, gives nine-year-old Steven a mysterious bill with 15 zeros on it and the image of a familiar but startling face. Could it be a quadrillion dollar bill? Could it be real? Well, Agent Fondoo of the U.S. Treasury Department and his team of Secret Government Agents are determined to get that money back! But Steven and his best friends, Russell and Zoopy the giant dog, are more than a match for the Feds.

"Fun, fun, fun! Like the love child of Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett!" Man plans, the Multiverse laughs! "It's like that book about anti-gravity. You can't put it down." "A story 14 billion years in the making!" "Finally, a treatment for readers suffering "Dirk Gently or Hitchhiker's Guide withdrawal!" "Not only is this case stranger than we imagine, it's stranger than we can imagine." No other detective is quite like Dr. Ziegfeld Zaggar, Quantum Detective -- and that's probably for the best. Zaggar and his reluctant, obsessively linear-thinking sidekick, Jack Robbins, investigate the ...