English Cozy Romantic Mysteries

If you're not green and prickly, it's like standing in the bottom of a volcano hoping your SPF 15 will do the trick. So how does Simone Greevey, a 20-something e-zine editor from San Francisco wind up wearing a duck costume in sweltering Seepwillow, Arizona? In Desert Desperate, Simone loses her job and her fiancé in one fell swoop and runs to the arms of her eccentric aunt, owner of the Ruddy Duck trailer park, a hundred miles from nowhere.

Two action-packed, romantic comedy holiday crime capers from The Wall Street Journal bestselling Maizie Albright Star Detective series. Find out why fans love these light and fun mystery novellas with a touch of romance and a heavy dose of holiday cheer featuring the ex-celebrity turned detective (Almost. She’s still in training), Maizie Albright.

Mob princess Lucie Rizzo can’t catch a break. Or take one. Building a business empire is hard work, even without her family’s notoriety. Staying out of trouble isn’t exactly her forte. Still, Lucie could use a vacation from Chicago winters and the town where everybody knows her father’s name. So when a certain Irish cop promises warmer days - and hotter nights - Lucie sees an offer she can’t refuse. Detective O’Hottie sweeps her away to the land of sun, sand, and...retirees? Before the real romantic getaway begins, Tim wants to visit his Uncle Henry.

When she joined the Criminal Investigations Division, Tara knew she'd be investigating some very real crooks. Forget about waitresses hiding tips from the IRS or babysitters not declaring income! Tara and her partner, Eddie, are going after one of country's richest, dirtiest felons. Being on a diet doesn't help Tara's mood much. Hopefully, by the time the investigation is over, she'll be sitting somewhere in a string bikini, far, far away....

Carlotta Wren has been looking forward to her wedding day since she was a little girl, and she wants it to be perfect. But even as she plans a blowout wedding, she has other worries on her mind. In the process of trying to prove her former coworker was murdered, she may have stumbled onto a coverup with national implications - not to mention learning she’s blood related to someone with whom she has, um, unpleasant history. If she lives long enough to say I DO!

Carlotta Wren is dazed and confused - everything she thought she knew about her life has been a lie. How can she ever trust anyone again? And where does she go from here? She hopes a business trip out of town will help to clear her head.... Instead, it lands her in the middle of a murder, as the prime suspect! While Carlotta works frantically to prove her innocence, she's also forced to confront the lies she's been telling herself. If she manages to get out of this mess, she'll have to get real about the kind of life she wants, and the person she wants to spend it with.

Young attorney Abby Coleridge opens her home to a troubled law student after a fire destroys the woman's apartment. When the student disappears, leaving behind a blood-splattered note and a stash of cryptic flash-drives, Abby sets out to find her. Soon, a murderous arsonist threatens them both. Law student Victor Rutledge, a former Navy officer, knows more than he's telling. So much so that his offers to help Abby seem suspicious. When police reveal his scandalous past, Abby doesn't know who to trust. Trouble, the black cat detective, lands in Tallahassee in the nick of time.

Carlotta Wren is still reeling over her parents' return after a 10-year absence. After putting her life on hold for so long, she's not sure how to move forward. Her new reality isn't exactly what she thought it would be, especially considering the altered circumstances of the three men in her life. But her best gal-pal, Hannah, is always there to cheer her up, and Hannah has taken up a quirky new sport - roller derby! The matches are a colorful spectacle of bodies maneuvering to score, but the fun stops cold when a dead body rolls onto the scene.

Lucy wants to breathe new life into her family's Boston-based matchmaking company. But how? Even though she comes from a long line of ancestors blessed by Cupid with psychic abilities, a freak accident left Lucy with only one special skill: Finding things. Car keys, socks in the dryer, needles in haystacks...and now, in a stroke of professional genius, lost loves!

"Exposed" by a Boston Herald reporter, Lucy Valentine is suddenly the talk of the town. Long back-story short: Even though the rest of her Valentine ancestors were blessed by Cupid with psychic abilities, Lucy's only special power lies in her ability to find things. This skill has proven quite a blessing for those who come to her matchmaking agency in search of finding their long-lost loves. Now that Lucy's secret is out, she has more new clients than she knows what to do with.

"I'm Lexi Carmichael, geek extraordinaire. I spend my days stopping computer hackers at the National Security Agency. My nights? Those I spend avoiding my mother and eating cereal for dinner. Even though I work for a top-secret agency, I've never been in an exciting car chase, sipped a stirred (not shaken) martini, or shot a poison dart from an umbrella. Until today, that is, when two gun-toting thugs popped up in my life and my best friend disappeared."

Lucy Valentine is as smart as can be, as single as you can get, and so not qualified to run a matchmaking service. But when her parents temporarily step down from the family business, Valentine, Inc., it's Lucy's turn to step up and help out - in the name of love. Plus, her rent is due. Here's the problem: Lucy doesn't have the knack for matchmaking. According to family legend, every Valentine has been blessed by Cupid with the ability to read "auras" and pair up perfect couples.

Charlie's last case left her tired and emotionally drained, so her office staff convinces her to vacation in Kauai. Charlie is riding in a helicopter when she and the pilot spot a dead body lying on the rugged rocks of Kauai's NaPali coast. Mack Garvey, the owner of the helicopter tour company, is accused of the murder. Charlie wants to avoid the whole mess but is persuaded to help Garvey prove his innocence. As the tension builds, Charlie roots out the suspects one by one never dreaming that her own life is about to be snuffed out by sinister means.

Hazel Arnold's mother has a strong sense of what is proper for a woman of the Arnolds' financial stature and is determined that Hazel marry a man she despises. This sets Hazel on a quest to prove the man is not who he appears to be. She enlists the help of her family's handsome chauffeur and her lady's maid. Her search takes her along a path of lies and deceit, resulting in death and destruction. Still, at the end of her quest, Hazel finds something worth much more than proving her mother wrong.

Murder meets menopause. Take a guess which wins. A romantic vacation for...five? This wasn't exactly what Jessie and Wilson had in mind when they planned their trip to the tropics. The fun begins when Jessie's delightfully spry mother, Wilson's surfer dude son, and Jessie's rabidly hyperactive New York agent decide to tag along. What kind of trouble can these three oddest of odd balls possibly get into? Take a guess.

As a former member of a popular girl band, Paisley Sutton knows what it means to be in the spotlight. So after she takes on an event planning gig for the new Sugar Creek Renaissance faire, she's counting on a smooth opening night. But when one of the cast is murdered, Paisley knows her event has gone lethally off-script.

Veteran detective Charlie McClung moves to a quiet Georgia town in search of peace—but peace is the last thing he finds. When a young woman is found dead, the chief declares it suicide. Case closed. But McClung sees the cracks—and so does the dead woman’s beautiful neighbor. What begins as a gut feeling spirals into a dangerous hunt for the truth. As McClung digs deeper, he uncovers small-town secrets, buried scandals, and a killer who will do anything to stay hidden. With his career, his heart, and his life on the line, he’ll have to solve the case before it’s too late.

Rumors of a local ghost in small-town Geneva cause real distress for mystery novelist Kelly Clark at a time when her life is going great. She’s moving on from her troubled past, her books are selling, and she’s newly in love. But when a local dies across the street from Kelly’s apartment in the Geneva History Museum under suspicious circumstances, Nikki, Kelly’s sister, calls upon her to help figure out what happened. Despite Kelly’s reluctance to get involved with the investigation, she and her sister team up to try and solve the mystery.

Columbine Pepper Drugget's background wasn't one that equipped a young woman to manage a motel worth a million dollars, or cope with rude guests, jewel thieves, an unscrupulous competitor - or even the attentions of a brassy but oddly attractive lawyer. She had spent her life so far as an assistant to her aunt at Miss Cordwainer’s School for Girls from 5-to-10. What she knew about the world was limited to the novels of Jane Austen and such bits of knowledge as the pupils possessed.

It's Christmas time in Nashville, and all Savannah wants to unwrap on Christmas morning is Rafe Collier. Unfortunately, things don't look so good. He's back in town, but not alone: On his arm is a stunning brunette, just the kind of woman Savannah always suspected was his type. When Alexandra Puckett asks her help in figuring out a way to stop Maybelle Driscoll from marrying Alex's father Steven, Savannah jumps on the chance.