Amateur Sleuth Cozy

Lady Arianna, now the Countess of Saybrook, is settling into married life with her new husband. To celebrate his birthday, she finds the perfect gift: a rare volume of botanical engravings on Theobroma cacao - or chocolate - in an exclusive bookshop. But she is forced to fight off a stranger who tries to steal it way from her. Arianna forgets about the strange incident - until she and her husband attend an important government party on a country estate, where her assailant reappears and turns out to be a Russian diplomat.

After her philandering husband's boat went down, newly single Mia Carina went back to Astoria, the bustling Queens neighborhood of her youth. Living with her nonna and her oversized cat, Doorstop, she's got a whole new life - including some amateur sleuthing...Mia is starting work at Belle View, her father's catering hall, a popular spot for weddings, office parties, and more. Soon she's planning a bachelor party for a less-than-gentlemanly groom. But it goes awry when the gigantic cake is wheeled in and a deadly surprise is revealed.

In winter, the Haunted Library is a refuge for homeless townspeople. When a group purchases a vacant house to establish a daytime haven for the homeless, Carrie offers the library as a meeting place for the Haven House committee, but quickly learns that it may be used for illegal activities. As the new Sunshine Delegate, Carrie heads to the hospital to visit her colleague, Dorothy, who had fallen outside the local supermarket. She tells Carrie that her husband tried to kill her - and that he murdered her Aunt Evelyn, the library's resident ghost, six years earlier.

This boxed set features seven Daisy McDare Cozy Creek mysteries including: - The Deadly Art Affair - The Deadly Legal Affair - The Deadly Directorial Affair - The Deadly Real Estate Affair - The Deadly Rock Star Affair - The Deadly Restaurant Affair - The Deadly Secret Affair Welcome to Cozy Creek, a quaint tourist town nestled along the Pacific Coast. Daisy McDare is busy nursing a broken heart, trying to build up her interior decorator business, and baking cookies when murder strikes Cozy Creek. At first she leaves the investigation to Chris Crumple, the local bumbling police detective. ...

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.

Rumford, Kentucky has glowing fields of bluegrass, a fine selection of bourbons, and now a professional pastry chef. Broken-hearted Sophia Cummings has come home from New York City. She's not there a minute before she's charmed into making her high school friend Charlotte's wedding cake. The kitchen at the Rumford Country Club seems perfect until Chef Emile's body is discovered, sprawled near the stove, a cast iron skillet on the floor close by. With one look at the shiny, new pan, Sophia knows it's not Emile's. She offers her knowledge to Sheriff Carter and her talents to the manager.

A servant girl and a priceless brooch vanish at the same time, and it doesn't take a genius to put two and two together. The Inspector finds the brooch on a dead woman - but where's the missing servant? Fortunately, Mrs. Jeffries isn't one to give up on a case just because of a few loose ends...

Mia Malone has landed a lucrative and convenient gig, catering a reunion at the old school that's become her new business headquarters. The town swirls with rumors that St. Catherine's Preparatory is haunted, but there's one living visitor that Mia wasn't expecting - her mother. Theresa Malone stepped away from the magic that runs in Mia's family, much to the annoyance of Mia's grandmother. Soon Mia has to deal with more than personal drama when Robin Hanover, the head of the reunion committee, is murdered in one of the classrooms.

A murder on stage. Her father a prime suspect. Can an amateur sleuth step into the limelight and find the killer before the final curtain falls? Dotty Sayers and her cat, Earl Grey, are anxious about visiting her parents in Edinburgh, Scotland. When Dotty and her father accept a stranger’s VIP tickets to a Fringe Festival play, they discover more than the best seats in the house. On stage for the first act, Dotty hears a shot in the dark and presumes it’s part of the script. So she’s shocked when a spotlight illuminates a controversial politician’s dead body. Befriended by a local ...

In Fort Connor, Colorado, the friends at the House of Lambspun knitting shop are welcoming a new face into the fold. Shy, sweet, and pregnant, Nancy Marsted would like to knit a baby hat, and the Lambspun ladies are more than happy to show her the ropes. They share their own pregnancy yarns and soon learn that the father of Nancy's baby isn't quite the man she dreamed he was. He's a cad. Then one dark night a speeding car fatally mows down the dad-to-be and also strikes a cyclist, spinning the town into a frenzy.

A Murdered Heiress, Death on the High Seas, a doomed High School Reunion and Anonymous Notes keep divorced baker Jenny King on her toes in this four book murder mystery anthology. 5 stars - 'I was reading these books like eating potato chips, too fast!' When forty four year old Jenny King moved to a remote island for a second chance at life, she didn't know it would involve murder. She's working at the Boardwalk Cafe, baking sweet treats to forget the bitter pill that is her life. Then a stranger's body washes up on the beach and her aunt is arrested. Compelled by circumstances, Jenny goes ...

An antiques TV show. A dead celebrity expert. Can a shy amateur sleuth step into the lime-light and expose a murderer? Dotty Sayers is enjoying her job in a Cotswold auction house. When she’s offered a place on an antiques TV show, she nervously agrees to a makeover and is surprised by the admiring glances she receives. But working at an historic country hotel, she realises the show can’t go on when, at the bottom of the circular staircase, one of the experts is found dead. Dotty can’t help wondering if the death was accidental or if someone else was involved. She promises to stay in ...

A victim who dies twice. A web of deceit. With the help of her friends, can an amateur sleuth crack the case, or will she pay the ultimate price? Trainee antique expert, Dotty Sayers, knows she’s in trouble when a dead body disappears. She’s relieved to hear the victim is alive, but her confusion turns to alarm when she finds him dead, again. It’s all smoke and mirrors as evidence mounts against this amateur detective, and convinced she’s deceived them, her police associates turn their backs on her. With only her close friends believing she’s innocent, she’s determined to clear ...

Restaurant critic Derek Schumaker, notorious for his bitter reviews, is about to visit Daisy's Tea Garden, and Daisy and Aunt Iris are simmering with anxiety. A bad word from the culinary curmudgeon could really hurt their business. But how can he resist her cucumber sandwiches with pimento spread - not to mention the cheesy cauliflower soup and strawberry walnut salad? Schumaker takes a to-go order when the afternoon tea service is done, which Daisy hopes is a good sign. But when he perishes from a seizure, it looks like his food was dosed with something deadly.

The arrival of the Janes brothers has the little town of Mayville Heights buzzing. Everyone of a certain age remembers when Victor had an affair with Leo's wife, who then died in a car accident. Now it seems the brothers are trying to reconcile, until Kathleen finds Leo dead. The police set their sights on Leo's son and Kathleen's good friend Simon, who doesn't have much of an alibi. To prove her friend innocent, Kathleen will have to dig deep into the town's history - and into her sardine cracker supply, because Owen and Hercules don't work for free....

While her bookstore, Haven't Got a Clue, is rebuilt following a devastating fire, Tricia Miles and her sister, Angelica, decide to book a cruise for some much needed R&R. Naturally they choose a Mystery Lovers cruise, where they can ponder whodunnit in deck chairs while sipping colorful drinks and soaking up some rays. But the fun is cut short when a fellow passenger is murdered for real. Is the killer a famous mystery author, one of his fans, or a member of the ship's crew?

Saffron Skye can see color like nobody else. What she can't see is how a hardboiled detective in a fedora ends up on her Hawaiian egg farm and how she ends up in Honolulu's historic Iolani Palace. Money's gone missing from the Friends of Hens fundraiser. Money that was meant to help care for some of Hawaii's feral chickens. Now Saffron's on the trail with just a wing and a prayer.

As if being in New York City for Easter isn't exciting enough, Charlotte Weaver has another reason to be thrilled. She's helping her cousin Bailey on the set of her first cable TV show, Bailey's Amish Sweets. Bailey will even be recreating the delectable handwoven chocolate Easter baskets she once crafted for the city's world-famous JP Chocolates. But once things start rolling, Charlotte starts to notice odd things happening - things that seem intended to make Bailey look bad....

Curiosity just might be the death of Mrs. Murphy - and her human companion, Mary Minor "Harry" Haristeen. Small towns are like families: Everyone lives very close together. . .and everyone keeps secrets. Crozet, Virginia, is a typical small town - until its secrets explode into murder. Crozet's thirty-something post-mistress, Mary Minor "Harry" Haristeen, has a tiger cat (Mrs. Murphy) and a Welsh Corgi (Tucker), a pending divorce, and a bad habit of reading postcards not addressed to her.

With all the ghosts that haunt her at this time of year, Carly doesn't exactly rush to celebrate Halloween. Even a costume ball organized by her boyfriend Dylan's mother, Patricia Davis Jackson, holds little allure. But to please Dylan, who wants peace between the two women, Carly reluctantly agrees to go.