Cozy Women Sleuths

While on vacation in Italy, Jessica joins a tour that takes her to where lesser-known Italian masterworks are displayed - and where a pair of young Italian gunmen steal a painting off a church wall, killing an off-duty policeman in the process.

During an early morning feeding for her four-month-old twins, Meg Langslow hears an odd noise and goes downstairs to find her living room filled with dozens of animals. She soon learns that financial woes have caused the local animal shelter to repeal its no-kill policy. Her kind-hearted father, her zoologist grandfather, and other like-minded citizens have stolen all the shelter animals, both as a gesture of protest and to protect them until the hated policy can be repealed. But the volunteer who was transporting animals to new homes has been murdered.

Sir George Braxton was found lying face down in a frozen fountain with the back of his skull bashed to bits. The case is complicated by a distinct lack of holiday cheer in the victim's three argumentative middle-aged daughters and their sullen house guests. Even the cranky cat hates everyone. To top it all off, the home secretary has called in Inspector Witherspoon over the heads of some touchy local lads, making matters stickier than a plum pudding. Only the help of his housekeeper, Mrs. Jeffries, will give the poor inspector any chance of sleeping on Christmas Eve....

Meg Langslow is pregnant with twins when Michael asks if she wouldn't mind having a houseguest. One of his doctoral students is directing his new translation of a play by a minor Spanish playwright, who will come to town for the production. Señor Mendoza turns out to be a partygoer who loves to spend raucous evenings among adoring students...at Casa Langslow. Into this chaos arrives the dean of the English department, who insists the play be canceled. Then the dean is found murdered.

Lady Violet returns with St. Sevier to her family seat, and finds Derwent Hall at sixes and sevens upon the occasion of her nephew’s christening. Other guests have brought their children along to celebrate the occasion, and Sebastian MacHeath is on hand to serve as godfather. Nobody seems to be getting along, despite the happy nature of the gathering. Summer heat builds to an unbearable crescendo as clandestine affairs, marital troubles, and family tensions escalate. Then somebody starts kidnapping little girls.

Golden Girls meets Only Murders in the Building MURDER MARTINIS A GRANDMOTHER-GRANDDAUGHTER SLEUTHING DUO DACHSHUNDS (x2) A GLAMOROUS ISLAND MANOR Widow Mimi lives on idyllic Mackinac Island, where cars are not allowed and a Gibson martini with three onions at the witching hour is compulsory...

The third novel in the Shady Hollow mystery series, in which Vera Vixen takes on her most challenging case yet: solving the murder of a rat who appears to still be alive. Change is afoot in Shady Hollow, with an unusually tense election shaping up between long-serving Chief of Police Theodore...

The Twelfth Dr Kay Scarpetta Novel. Dr Kay Scarpetta has left Virginia in quest of peace but instead finds herself drawn into baffling, horrific murders in Florida, where she becomes entangled in an international conspiracy that confronts her with the shock of her life...

Even during the holidays, Shannon is more spackle than sparkle, which is why she leaps at the chance to transform a grand old Victorian mansion into 10 charming apartments for homeless families. Filled with the spirit of the season, all of Lighthouse Cove turns out to help - including her best friends, a troupe of far-from-angelic Santa Claus impersonators, and her father, Jack. But their merriment is soon dashed by a heated scuffle between Jack and the miserly president of the bank who's backing the project.

It's Christmastime in Charm, North Carolina, and while Everly Swan would prefer to focus on decorating her iced tea shop for its first holiday season, Great-Aunt Fran has decided to run for mayor against her long-time nemesis. But when the other candidate turns up dead just before the first scheduled debate, all eyes turn to Fran as the suspect with the most obvious motive. Everly knows her sweet, elderly Aunt Fran couldn't have murdered anyone, but as she struggles to find the real killer, it begins to seem like this may be the last merry Christmas her family may ever have.

Kelly and Megan could not be happier for their friend Allison Dubois - a young, talented, up-and-coming artist. Invited by a designer to join her New York studio, Allison is about to embark on a new life. But when Kelly and Megan arrive at Allison's apartment to drive her to the airport, they find her dead on the floor, apparently from an overdose of sleeping pills. The police suspect suicide, but Kelly and Megan aren't convinced. Now it's up to Kelly and her crafty friends from the House of Lambspun to unravel this tightly stitched puzzle.

Molly Murphy Sullivan's husband, Daniel, a police captain in turn-of-the-century New York City, is in a precarious position. The new police commissioner wants him off the force altogether. So when Daniel's offered an assignment from John Wilkie, head of the Secret Service, he's eager to accept. Molly can't draw any details of the assignment out of him, even where he'll be working.

Beth Cunningham thought she'd closed the book on her troubled past when she opened The Wild Haggis Bookshop in the charming Scottish town of Oban. But when her inaugural book club evening ends in real murder–the body dramatically posed amongst the party decorations–her fresh start ends in a twist she definitely didn’t see coming.

Robbie Jordan may have had reservations about the murder victim, but she still needs to turn up the heat on a killer if she wants to keep her new restaurant open for business.... In the charming small town of South Lick, Indiana, Robbie has transformed a rundown country store into the runaway hit Pans 'N Pancakes. But the most popular destination for miles around can also invite trouble.

When Emilia explores the impressive castle, she finds a dead man in one of the turrets. The snowstorm hits and the local police can’t reach the castle until it lets up. With no one able to leave, the family insists they carry on with the wedding, which makes Emilia's job as the coroner a bit easier—the suspects are in one place­—and complicated because the killer has Emilia in his sights. The fact that no one claims to know the victim isn't helping. It’s up to Emilia to uncover the mystery of who the victim is so the killer doesn’t get away Scot free.

When Zoe Faust sees the ghost of a murdered young woman, is it really a spirit—or a flesh and blood woman who stopped aging because she’s a fellow alchemist? Sixteen years ago, high school student Ridley Price discovered a secret she planned to reveal through a party game—but someone killed her first. The baffling crime was never solved. Zoe’s friend Heather has always wondered: Which of the seven guests at the party killed Ridley? When the newly appeared ghost turns dangerous, threatening people they love, Zoe teams up with her gargoyle roommate to unmask the supposed specter.

When Hank Sharpe asked me and the laundry club ladies to join him in an undercover investigation to help find a missing person, me and the ladies grabbed our sleuthing notebook without hesitation. As undercover Forest Bathing Therapist trainees we were bound and determined to find out with happened to Kyra Tenney. When we did find her body in what appeared to be an accidental forest fire, we thought we were finished with our undercover act.

When Libby Hogarth, the go-to lawyer for the rich or famous who have committed heinous crimes, comes to Regina to deliver the prestigious Mellohawk Lecture, she is met with a torrent of hostility and misinformation. Libby Hogarth had successfully defended Jared Delio, a wildly popular national radio host, against charges of sexual abuse brought against him by three Regina women. Her no-holds-barred cross-examination of the women stirred up a rage that still smolders.

Kacey Chance moved to Hollywood to become an actress. Then she took a job at a detective agency, and accidentally discovered the role of a lifetime. The detective agency is run by three handsome, single brothers and their sassy grandmother. Now Kacey is part of the hilarious Booker family.

As a new witch - not to mention owner of Savannah's most enchanting bakery - Katie Lightfoot is still getting used to casting spells, brewing potions, and mastering her magical powers. But that doesn't mean she can't find time to enjoy a picnic with firefighter Declan McCarthy . . . until she stumbles upon a corpse. The dead man's tattoo reveals he was a member of a secret society - and it turns out he's missing an object that was very important to the group.