Southern Cozy

Book Six in the Southern Beach Mystery series set on an island on the Northeast Coast of Florida. Sure, folks may say having your house on the Christmas Home Tour is murder. But until now—did they really mean it? Sophia Island is decked out for the season. White lights line Centre Street buildings and every branch of the massive live oaks. Christmas music, the smell of fudge, and shoppers floats from shop to shop. Crowds prepare to descend on the small island to see the four homes decked out for the annual Christmas Home Tour. Jewel Mantelle lives in one of those four homes and getting ...

Football is a whole other thing in the South, Midwestern transplant Jewel Mantelle discovers, and on Sophia Island, they love the Gators. Jewel would be fine with that if her friends only meant the University of Florida football team, but they also seem to love the critters skulking around in the ditches and creeks running through their tiny beach town. At her first ever football party she finds herself front and center for the spectacle of the eccentric Bell Jackson calling the gators behind his huge mansion—and it gives her the creeps. But finding out those very same gators didn’t ...

Gertrude thinks she's got a knack for proving that ghosts don't exist, but this time she's taking on a celebrity phantom: Seth Bullock. She and Calvin pack the cats into the camper and head to Deadwood, where she will attempt to prove herself right once again. But shortly after she gets there, a movie star drops dead, and she finds herself with two cases to solve. Maybe the two cases are even connected?

It’s Christmastime in the quiet Los Angeles County city of Vista Beach, home of computer programmer and tole-painting enthusiast Aurora (Rory) Anderson. The magic of the season fills the air as residents enjoy school concerts, a pier lighting ceremony and the annual sand-snowman contest. During the weeks leading up to Christmas, Rory plans on painting ornaments to sell at the local craft fair and joining in on the holiday fun. But she finds the season anything but jolly after the house across the street is torn down, revealing a decades old crime. Past meets present when her father is ...

Family meant everything to Ayden Stratton. It always had even when he didn’t always allow it to show. Because of that, he understood the fury in Tobias Blaise’s eyes when they learned that his sister had been dragged out the backdoor of her restaurant despite every effort to stop her from being kidnapped. Fury didn’t begin to describe what he saw in his brother’s face. Cassidy Blaise might be Tobias’s sister, but she was Benjamin’s entire world. Tobias Blaise never expected to find any woman he wanted to spend his life with, let alone one who looked at him the way Ellis did, ...

Mae West is bound and determined to stay in shape for her wedding day and with all the delicious Southern dessert Mary Elizabeth is serving for Thanksgiving Mae has joined the local running group to race in Thanksgiving's annual Turkey Trot. She never figured murder would be on the menu and a couple of people she loves have a perfect motive. The list of suspects isn't exactly brief especially when one of the governor's recently pardoned prisoner is at the top of the list.

He forecasts the weather on TV to the delight of his many fans. But the residents of Ocean Vista Condominiums are less fond of Uncle Weatherwise—the newest arrival at the condo—especially when a hurricane that he predicted would bypass Palmetto Beach instead heads straight for their town. The morning after a frantic evacuation, Kate Kennedy is blown away when she stumbles upon the corpse of Uncle Weatherwise, with a sharpened weather vane pointed in the direction of his heart. Suddenly Kate’s neighbors are her suspects, from a retired Rockette to a former federal prosecutor to a man ...

When he believed there was little time left, there were only two people he wanted to talk to while he still could. One was the only woman he’d ever loved. And always would. Rendon was seriously wounded…in searing pain, and up until the last hour, exposed as he’d never been before. Getting himself to the little known and forgotten small town in the middle of nowhere had been a risky choice, and taken the last of his quickly dwindling strength. It was the last place anyone would think to look. He never expected to survive. After a brazen rescue, Rendon is determined to be part of the ...

We all have our dreams, right? What will we compromise to get there? Lizelle set her goals high. She always did. She wanted to win big in the upper tiers of dressage horse shows. Her parents thought this as folly, but her supportive boyfriend, Paul, did not. She was so close, yet never quite got the scores she needed. Her dream re-ignites the day she works with an Olympic gold medalist. There was a snag, though. Being accused of a high-profile murder dampened everything. Plus, she's offered a path to riches paved with ill-gotten goods. Which direction would she choose? Read this exciting ...

Mail carrier Bernadette (Bernie) Butler, along with the Front Porch Ladies, are curious about their new neighbor, Courtney Gaines, who is the niece of Florence Gaines, the wealthiest widow in Sugar Creek Gap. Florence lets it be known that she is seeing Zeke Grey, which doesn't set well with the Front Porch Ladies. They were all in competition for Zeke's attention. While delivering the mail, Bernie overhears what could be the couple's first marital spat. When Florence turns up dead in mulch, Bernie can't help but want to get involved.

It's early October - time for the Fall Folk Art Festival and Bake Sale in Lilyvale, Arkansas. Every business along the town square will benefit from the event, including the craft store run by Leslee Stanton Nix - a.k.a. Nixy - and the Silver Six, a group of retirees. In charge of making the festival go smoothly, Nixy is confident that it will be a success.

Daelin High School alumni are returning to Daelin for a mega-reunion involving five graduating classes. Those grads who left Daelin for better opportunities than were available in their small Georgia town are often called the diaspora, the scattered ones. The first alum taken is Captain Riley McDonough’s high school crush, Lucy Hendrickson. Riley and Daelin PD’s finest are on the case, including Dorie MacAvoy, former reporter turned Liaison Officer. However, Dorie and Ross’s pregnancy teeters precariously on viability. Will Dorie and Ross’s child survive? Which alum will be abducted...

Welcome to the Breezy Spoon Diner, where Santa's serving up murder for Christmas! Christmas is just around the corner and Santa Claus is coming to the quirky little town of East Spoon Creek City! Dani O'Shea is serving up great food, great conversation and down-home hospitality at the Breezy Spoon Diner to hungry townsfolk, but a department store Santa Claus getting murdered outside her door was not what she wanted for Christmas! When a vengeful killer murders the wrong man by mistake, Dani must race to unmask the murderer and protect the true target before anyone else dies! Her landlord, ...

Hannah Sparrow leaves her corporate job in the Midwest to pursue the quiet life of a small Alabama town. There, she becomes fast friends with her neighbors, Earl and Lisa, who introduce her to life in the Land of Dixie. While excavating beneath an abandoned airfield, they find an airliner that was supposedly lost at sea. When Hannah and her friends set out to solve the mystery, they discover dead passengers with secrets that some would prefer remain forgotten. A race begins to solve a half-century old mystery before Hannah becomes the next victim.

The legend of John Swift Silver Mine has been a tale told around the Daniel Boone National Park for over 400 years. This year the treasure hunters have descended upon Normal and staying in Happy Trails Campground before they head out on their yearly expedition to find the treasure. Once again, Mae and the Laundry Club ladies, along with Mary Elizabeth, find themselves doing things they never thought they'd never do, including going on a treasure hunt!

When a wedding party show up at Happy Trails Campground, Mae West is thrilled. She's all things girly and excited to assist the bride in all things southern, which is what the bride is hankering for. Mae recognizes the parents of the bride when they arrive. They are from her past. The past she's been desperately trying to escape...especially since it was the time she was married to Paul West. This just isn't any couple, it's the owners of the famous Moonbucks Coffee Company.

It’s August in Chattanooga, Tennessee and moonshiner Hattie Hayes has collaborated with a nearby vineyard to serve her moonshine at a Wine and 'Shine event. Not only is this an opportunity for Hattie to gain more moonshine fans, but she’s also excited to hear the Bootlegging Brothers, a popular bluegrass band. But not every attendee is looking for harmony. When one of the brothers disappears and is presumed dead, Hattie realizes her grace note gathering has suddenly turned more sour than her mash.

Elizabeth had always believed there was nothing more magical than the precious gift of love...even now, in the heart of danger, she still believed it...she always would. After telling the story of Simon's magical cowboy ranch for more years than she cared to count, Elizabeth Fountaine wondered if there might be more to the fanciful fairy-tale than being an elaborate bedtime story to tell children. More than ever before, she very much needed for even just a small piece of the fairy-tale to be real. If it was, Simon's magical cowboy ranch could be the answer to their dilemma... This women's ...

Realtor Chelsea O'Connell is found dead in a model home of the new development in Normal. She was not popular in the small tourist town located in the Daniel Boone National Park because the last thing this town wants is for more development to come in to take away anymore of the forest.

Just when Pepper Dunn starts accepting her ability to communicate with animals, she’s thrown for a loop - an egg containing a baby dragon winds up on her doorstep. Convinced the creature will grow up to become a destructive force of nature, Pepper gives the dragon to the first person interested in buying - a traveling magician named Mysterio, who claims he can communicate with the dead.