Puzzle Mystery

“I don’t want to die,” said the man in the brown suit, who was the last passenger to board the little airplane, but he did. The other passengers thought he was just airsick and the pilots of the Dragonfly assumed it was a heart attack, but when they landed on Catalina Island where Miss Hildegarde Withers was enjoying her first vacation in five years, they bowed to her insistence that the body be examined by the island doctor as well as the chief of police.

A collection of five ingenious short stories featuring husband and wife sleuths Imogen and Hugh Croft. The Flawed Emerald When Imogen Croft bumps into an old friend at a railway station, the young woman asks for her help. Imogen is required to get to the bottom of a recent spate of vicious hate mail which threatens to end a burgeoning love affair. But Imogen's conclusions are not at all what her friend expected. The Witch's Burial An archaeological dig at the ancient Chapel of St Peter's turns up a skeleton, roughly hidden in a shallow grave. It becomes clear that the group are facing a ...

Are you a Law & Order or CSI crime junkie? In these You Solve It mini mysteries, you get to be the lead detective who takes on the case. You will read the case file, collect the evidence and solve the crime. Become an iDetective.

Destination: China. An endangered Giant Panda has been kidnapped from the Wolong Nature Reserve in China. Can Secret Agent Jack Stalwart find the panda and rescue it before the evil Scorpion Gang sells it on the black market? Time is running out…Listen more about Jack’s thrilling adventures as he travels the globe….

William Benson knows what it's like to be accused of something you didn't do - the fear, the vulnerability and the nightmare of watching your life unravel. Now he speaks on behalf of those who have no voice, defending anyone who claims to be innocent. This time, it's Karmen Naylor, estranged daughter of a south London crime boss, fighting a murder charge and desperate to be believed. But Benson becomes trapped into a grudge match between two rival clans, endangering himself and those he loves.

Abbie's holiday spirit vanishes when she overhears a troubling conversation. But her friends are certain she must have misunderstood. The Cozy Chess Club brainstorms theories, but clues are hard to find. When all hope fades, a mysterious angel appears and takes them on an extraordinary adventure where important truths from the past, present, and future are revealed. Can Abbie’s friends help her regain her Christmas spirit before the day ends and the long holiday break begins?

An enthralling collection of creepy and mysterious stories. From classic detective stories to spine-tingling horror and scary ghost stories, these tales will make your flesh crawl.... 1. 'A Ghost Story' by Mark Twain. 2. 'The Silver Mask' by Hugh Walpole. 3. 'The Cactus' by O. Henry. 4. 'Dead of Night' by W. F. Harvey. 5. 'The Terrible Old Man' by H. P. Lovecraft. 6. 'Rattle of Bones' by Robert E. Howard. 7. 'The Last Leaf' by O. Henry. 8. 'The Magnet' by Barry Pain. 9. 'Pickman’s Model' by H. P. Lovecraft.

Hildegarde Withers is on the hunt again, as a vacation in California lands her a movie job and two dealers to clear up. Her own death brings Inspector Piper to the scene, and her resurrection cuts through Hollywood red tape as she becomes a target for the killer.

In book 10, the gang witness the horror of a house going up in flames. Then there's the theft of a very valuable violin. Are the two incidents connected? The Seven mean to use all their detective know-how to find out!

Hildegarde Withers heads down Mexico way where the death in the afternoon involves neither a matador nor a bull. Inspector Oscar Piper is off on a junket to Mexico in the summer of 1937 (surrounded by a bunch of Democrats, huffed Miss Withers) when a customs inspector on a train headed for Mexico City sniffs a very potent bottle of cheap perfume and promptly drops dead. Quite naturally, Oscar telegraphs Hildegarde in Manhattan about the perfume and quite naturally Miss Withers packs her bags and heads south of the border, figuring Oscar is out of his depth if he has to rely on deductive reasoning rather than a rubber hose.

Army veteran, MASON HOOD, has a promise to keep and a demon to defeat. Fresh off the front lines of World War Two, he moves to Bluebird Valley in rural Southeast Missouri and brings the war with him. Local schoolmarm, STELLA REYNOLDS, is still reeling from the death of her husband at Pearl Harbor. To honor his memory, she vows to assist and protect any veteran who comes her way. But Mason isn’t just any veteran. When a brutal murder sets the entire valley on edge, Stella is told that Mason needs her. She rushes to his side and ends up in a place she never wanted to revisit. Torn between ...

Top model Violet Feverel should be a pretty picture riding the big red thoroughbred Siwash - but the front page photo on the tabloids is ugly as death. The police dub the tragedy an unfortunate accident. But Miss Hildegarde Withers, who stumbled across the girl's body on the Central Park bridle path, knows they are, unfortunately, wrong. Just plain horse sense tells her it was murder....

[This revised edition addresses feedback from readers!] Can a young widow clear her name and save her hometown's livelihood when its beloved wine festival turns deadly? When the annual Winter Wine Festival in charming small-town Los Robles comes to a shocking halt with the discovery of a dead body, amateur sleuth Avery Parker finds herself thrust into a twisted murder mystery. Having recently returned to run her family’s vineyard after her husband’s untimely death, Avery must navigate complex small-town social politics and quirky characters to uncover clues, clear her own name, and ...

The time is now. We’ve waited long enough. We’ve got to know. How did I die? I’m sharp, and I’m not just talking about my beak. In fact, you won’t find a parakeet brighter than me. But in my previous life, as a man, I was an even more brilliant. A detective, in fact. However, there’s one question that neither I nor anybody I love can seem to recall: just how did I die? To get to the bottom of it, it’s time for a little road trip to the scene of the crime. All of the Tripletts—my wife Sharon, daughter Lila, son Ethan, and I—leave Mountain Springs in the rearview mirror and ...

Champagne corks only hint at the pressure that builds as this New Year’s witching hour approaches. Maggie Bixler, a saucy ghost who runs a spectral speakeasy in the gloomy basement of the old family home, was brutally betrayed and is ready to POP! She’s hired me, Seymour—part-time detective, full-time parakeet—to find who double-crossed her a hundred years ago. I’m game! (Get it?) Meanwhile, my former wife (and now owner) Sharon throws a wing-ding on New Year’s Eve and the whole town crashes the private party. Seymour Triplett’s the name. Once human and a full-time gumshoe, I ...

Crusty schoolteacher/sleuth Hildegarde Withers can't escape mysterious deaths, even on a trans-Atlantic crossing on an ocean liner. En route to England she spends part of her time (when not feeling queasy) sizing up her fellow passengers. Her intuition helps when passengers and crew start dropping over the side, or just dropping, period.

Beneath the dreaming spires of Cambridge, a centuries-old secret is about to bleed into the present. When controversial poet Alastair Finch falls to his death from a university tower, sharp-tongued academic Dr. Eleanor Croft is implicated. But Finch's death is no simple feud gone wrong. It's the key to unlocking the deadly legacy of the Pelican Society – a clandestine organization that has manipulated history from the shadows for generations. Framed for murder and with only 48 hours left, Eleanor must decipher a trail of cryptic clues Finch left behind: hidden verses laced with historical...

THESE WOMEN ARE GRAPES DRESSED IN RAISIN COSTUMES… That's Hilde, Emma and Vivien, inseparable friends... On a Mediterranean vacation in the coastal paradise of Vistabelle. But very close to them are murder and mayhem, lobsters and pink sand! Hilde, Emma and Vivien get to work. Appearing harmless, and adorable, they learn details the detectives could never get. Of course, they are not alone in this! Honorio, the elegant, sleuthy cat helps them in this dangerous adventure. Emma believes her late Uncle Roddy inhabit Honorio's body. Our witty friends keep their school spirit and sisterly ...

Fellow cozy mystery lovers, it is time for you to become an amateur sleuth too! Can you figure out what… A retired librarian, An old letter found hidden in a library book, An abandoned estate noted for its tragedies …have in common? Retired librarian Marty Frost finds a hidden letter from her long-lost cousin, Felicity, in an old book. Dated ten years ago, the letter hints at a dark secret in their hometown of Whispering Creek. As Halloween approaches, Marty stumbles upon chilling tales surrounding an abandoned estate where Felicity once served as the personal assistant to its owner. ...

Cora couldn't have been happier: Matt Greystone was coming to town! The rookie sensation had just signed a huge contract with the Yankees, coming to the team from Arizona, where he won 17 games as a starting pitcher for the Diamondbacks. But an arm injury requiring rehab had sidelined his meteoric rise, and this was her chance to meet him! A diehard Yankee fan, Cora was delighted when Matt invited her to a weekend pool party. On the plus side, she got to meet Derek Jeter. On the minus side, she had a puzzle of her own to solve when a couple of guests got killed.