Women Sleuths Christmas

For nearly 20 years, Chester Claus had run a year-round Christmas-themed diner in Wrangler’s Hill. For many Indiana locals, he was the embodiment of the holidays - gregarious, portly, his eyes radiating amusement as he handed out candy to children. The idea of anyone wanting to murder him was simply preposterous. But when Claus is found dead in his kitchen during the Christmas Feast, poisoned with his own favorite knife, it falls on Indiana’s finest amateur detective, Geneva Pomolo, and her partner, Iris Reeves, to investigate.

Christmas is approaching, and private investigator Geneva Pomolo is spending a blissful week at a local bed and breakfast. But her hopes of a few idle days spent reading and relaxing are shattered by a scream in the night. A woman stumbles into her room with a strange tale of ghostly apparitions and a phantom figure clutching his severed head. Geneva dismisses the story as the ravings of a fantasy-prone woman, but soon it becomes clear that the bed and breakfast is crowded with more ghosts than a Dickens novel.

Meghan takes a walk down memory lane and remembers the fright that was before Christmas when she was an aspiring actress in Hollywood. She thought she had gotten the role of a lifetime until she discovered the role she got was for something totally different. Things go from bad to worse when she's identified as a prime suspect for the murder of a key person on set. Meghan knows there are several women who had plausible reasons to want to do something diabolical to the boss from hell. She's one of those women, but she knows she didn't do it. So if it wasn't her, who was it?

The Little Valley library is shutting its doors due to a terrible combination of anonymous threats and a lack of funding. The sheriff is stumped in the investigation of who is sending the threats, so amateur sleuths, Anna and Beth, step in to help.

A lovely cameo brooch is discovered in Fiona’s late Uncle Wilbur’s house two days before Christmas. The pin bears a romantic Christmas message from Wilbur for his new wife with the initials, D.A.S. How very strange! To the family’s knowledge, Uncle Wilbur had never been married. So, who is this mysterious woman? Now, Fiona is on a holiday mission to locate D.A.S. and deliver the belated gift.

With Christmas just around the corner, Samantha Moon finds herself taking on a very strange case. A mysterious family treasure has been stolen, something priceless that's been passed down through the generations, something buried in secrets. Samantha's reward is simple: she gets half of whatever it is... if she can find it first. And just as the holidays threaten to consume her, Samantha is approached by a very mysterious man, someone who knows all her secrets, a man who might not be a man at all.

What do bulldog puppies and garden gnomes have to do with a dead Santa Claus? Once again intrepid pet-sitter, Polly Parrett, finds herself in the thick of a murder investigation. This time it comes too close to home when the killer strikes during the annual Christmas Open House for Welcome Home, the shelter Polly and her mom run for homeless military veterans and their pets. The murder could jeopardize everything they've worked for, so Polly sets out to catch the killer and put the jolly back in the holiday.

Seth, the seven-year-old Earl of Woodridge, is spending Christmas at Halton House and he would like nothing better than to help trim the tree with the Christmas decorations his father had carved for him. But no one has any idea where these decorations are. Determined to make the young Earl's wish come true, Evie and her bodyguard, Tom Winchester, set out to a nearby village where the young Earl had lived in the hope that they might recover the lost decorations. They find themselves among a group of people who might all be suspects in the murder of a local villager.

It’s Christmas, CJ Turley’s favorite holiday, only something hovers over the festivities. A cat’s collar disappears, and it seems as if Caper, CJ’s darling pup, might be the culprit. It’s easier to believe than suspecting the owners of the cat from stealing from themselves. Hilarity and mayhem follow CJ and her friends as they try to solve the theft. All CJ really wants is to have a nice holiday with a Christmas party no one will forget. Full of twists, turns, and laughs, this Christmas novella is sure to please cozy mystery fans.

Jill and Mrs V are both in big trouble until salvation comes from the most unlikely quarter.

Polly Parrett is juggling the care of her wheelchair-bound mother, her pet-sitting business, and the sale of the family home. On top of that she finds herself having to deal with an arrogant but really sexy realtor, and Christmas is coming! None of that seems important, though, when she finds herself in the middle of a murder investigation and must find the real killer before an innocent homeless man and his dog are wrongly convicted.

The Christmas season is supposed to be a time of joy and celebration. But for Private Investigator Melody Clue, the holidays can quickly go awry, as she discovers in this three-story collection.

Hope Hadley normally loves Christmas. Things are different this holiday season, when her neighbor is found strangled in his backyard with a set of Christmas lights. Desperate to bring the killer to justice and to salvage what is left of the holiday season, Hope races to find the guilty party before they strike again.

Accompanied by her loyal maid and friend, Cecily Nugent, they arrive at Selfridges giggling with excitement, but unknown to them, their afternoon of delights was to take a very different turn. Yet again, Camille and Cecily are called upon to utilize their sleuthing skills to find a murderer.

In the weeks leading to Christmas, Liam McArvey, lead singer of The Fury, falls for enigmatic Bella, a waitress at his local café. However, little does he know that she is hiding a dangerous secret. After a photograph of the couple, taken outside a London recording studio, surfaces on the internet, Bella panics and prepares to move on.

When a real murder spoils the opening of an old-fashioned murder-mystery theme park, Mrs. Pomolo and her partner, Iris, go along for the ride. All this intrigue, and right before Christmas!

Trinity Ashford is happy with the lull in crime around Waterfall. Until someone breaks into her car and steals a box of donations for the local animal shelter. Even then, she doesn't want to go nosing around, despite the urging of her friend and mother. But then, someone breaks the front window of Tail Waggin' and drags away the Christmas tree. The war is on!

With the holidays approaching, amateur sleuth Geneva Pomolo takes a minor role in a community theatre’s musical stage adaptation of A Christmas Carol. A lifelong Dickens fan, Geneva is hoping for a calm respite from the rigors of crime-solving, but her stage debut proves anything but calming. The cast is stacked with powerful egos who have deluded themselves into thinking they deserve a career in Hollywood — such as Peter Vankirk, who lands the starring role of Ebenezer Scrooge.

Southern girl Verity Long needs a Christmas miracle...Verity is ready to deck the halls, jingle some bells, and maybe, just maybe have a merry Christmas with her boyfriend’s stuffy family. Truly, if she doesn’t extend the proverbial olive branch to the overbearing Wydells, she’s afraid she’ll hit them over the head with it. But when her boyfriend’s mother pulls a shocking stunt, Verity finds herself with a big decision to make. And if that’s not enough, there’s an unexpected guest at her door.

From New York Times bestselling author Tasha Alexander comes STAR OF THE EAST, a Lady Emily holiday story that will enchant readers and keep them guessing until the very last page... Emily and Colin Hargreaves make it a rule to spend as little time as possible with her parents in Kent, but are...