Showing results by publisher "Tantor Audio" in Women Sleuths

Cooper Lee and her friends in the Hope Street Bible study group have just volunteered for a local charity, delivering much-needed food and cheer to shut-ins in their community. It seems like the perfect way for the group to do good, and to Cooper it offers the welcome opportunity to get out of the house and spend more time with her new boyfriend, Nathan.

Ellie Avery balances motherhood, marriage, and her own business - Everything in Its Place - with cheerful efficiency. A maestro of organization, she sees her life as an easy checklist that does not include the untimely death of Penny Follette. Unlike the police, Ellie isn't convinced Penny's death was suicide. But it's an uphill battle getting the officials to take her seriously. Then another spouse is strangled, and someone tries to poison an outspoken female Air Force pilot. Poking about in closets and drawers, Ellie hopes to find the common thread tying the crimes together.

It is 1934. Returning to the West Country after their latest adventure in London, lady's maid Verity Hunter and cook Joan Hart are ready to embrace a quieter life. Their mistress, the glamorous young heiress Dorothy Drew, is attempting to rein in her enthusiasm for too many cocktails and takes up the offer of a place to rest and recuperate from an old family friend, Mrs Ashford. All seems well, until the day after they arrive, when everyone in the house is struck down by what appears to be mushroom poisoning. The deadly dish proves fatal for one unlucky soul.

Samantha Jellicoe is no ordinary thief. At least, not anymore. She promised her significant other, British billionaire Rick Addison, that she'd retire from her life of crime. So no more midnight break-ins...no more scaling estate walls...no more dangling from the ceiling. From here on in, it's intimate dinners with Rick in posh Palm Beach followed by rock-your-world sex. Who'd have thought that doing the right thing would turn out to be more deadly than her former life of crime? When the first client of her new security business is murdered, Sam is determined to find the killer.

For mall cop EJ Ferris, catching customers who "forgot to pay" is quite a change of pace from her former life in the military. But when a real crisis heats up her climate-controlled domain, her old instincts come back quicker than last year's skinny jeans. On good days, Fernglen Galleria is a tranquil haven of capitalist splendor—but today is not one of those days. Arriving for her morning shift, EJ spots a sleeping homeless person outside the east entrance. But the teenage boy turns out to be neither homeless nor asleep. He is, however, dead.

Esme Quentin is devastated when her sister Elizabeth is assaulted and left unconscious, miles from her home. Two days later Esme discovers that Elizabeth has a secret past. Desperate for answers which the comatose Elizabeth cannot give, Esme enlists the help of her friend Lucy to search for the truth, unaware of the dangerous path she is treading. Together they unravel a tangle of bitterness, blackmail, and dubious inheritance, and as the harrowing story is finally revealed, Esme stumbles upon evidence of a pitiful crime.

Molly Pink and the Tarzana Hookers are busy crocheting baby blankets for charity, but before long, they're tangled up in a mystery that may be their unraveling. The Hookers are a tight-knit group, but some of the members harbor secret aspirations. Adele dreams of becoming an actress, and her acting coach has filled her head with promises of a career as a crochet show host. Elise Belmont has earned her real estate license and is itching to show her first house. When the house's tenant turns up dead from a pink squirrel cocktail laced with cyanide, the Hookers could be in double treble.

When the organizing committee for her upcoming high school reunion needs a caterer, Halia agrees to help out. Soon she's serving up her signature macaroni and cheese and famous chicken wings to a host of appreciative ex-classmates. Some folks have blossomed since graduation. Others, like manipulative Raynell Rollins, currently married to a former football star, haven't changed nearly enough. When Raynell is found dead the morning after the reunion, the role call of possible suspects could fill the school gymnasium. Extramarital affairs, mega-church scandals and sports secrets...

Dee and Jeff soon realize there couldn't be two people more unprepared for the hospitality business. There's also the panic-inducing reality of prowling bears and a general store as the only shopping spot for miles. Living and working in the middle of nowhere takes some getting used to—especially when a disrespectful guest ends up murdered! Now, with the motel duo topping the suspect list, Dee must steer clear of a meddling park ranger, face her past in show biz, and determine if the killer is a local or tourist.

An'gel and Dickce Ducote tend to stay put in Athena, Mississippi, but a wedding is a good reason to say a temporary farewell to Charlie Harris's cat Diesel and go visit relatives. But while their stay in Louisiana is scorching hot, the atmosphere at the wedding is downright cold, with bride-to-be Sondra Delevan putting her trust fund above little things like love and loyalty. When a violent storm supposedly sweeps Sondra off a balcony to her death, the sisters discover that many of the guests attending the wedding had major reasons to object to Sondra's marriage.

Fabric shop owner Polyester Monroe is back in business—this time getting wrapped up in a diabolical but crafty case of murder. With the reopening of her fabric shop rapidly approaching, Polyester Monroe is stocking up on lush fabrics, colorful notions, and best of all, a proprietary weave of velvet. But upon delivery, it's not quite the blend she expected, being ninety-percent silk-and ten-percent corpse. Crushed under a dozen bolts of fabric is local business owner Phil Girard. His wife, Genevieve, local tea shop owner and close friend of Poly, is the prime suspect.

The Christmas season brings strange guests to the medieval nunnery of St. Frideswide's. They bear with them the badly mangled body of a villager, swearing they found the drunken fool lying in a ditch. But Meg, the victim's wife and a scullery maid of the cloister, thinks there are far fouler deeds afoot. As the players rehearse for the nativity, ancient scandals lick at their heels and dark desperation haunts Meg's steps as she finds cruel feudal laws threatening to strip away the lands that would support both her and her sons in the wake of her husband's death.

Spring is coming to Mayville Heights, and Kathleen's brother, Ethan, has arrived in town with his band, The Flaming Gerbils. But not everything goes as scheduled when one of Ethan's bandmates gets into a fight with a man interested in investing in the town. When the businessman's body is later found, Ethan's friend is implicated in the crime. Kathleen wants to help her brother by solving the case, but she has no shortage of suspects from which to choose.

October 1851. After millions of visitors and months of success, the Great Exhibition is winding down. Mr. Niall Kier and Miss Kara Levett are busy with the celebrations planned for the last weeks—and with all the commissions their involvement has brought them. Their artistic works stall, though, when the closing ceremonies are interrupted by a murder.

A thrilling journey into a bygone era, filled with suspense and unexpected twists awaits you in the final installment of this trilogy. Step into the captivating world of Lady Bess and the Nightingales as they embark on a dangerous quest, trying to solve murders past and present in this 1920s mystery.

Wherever there was trouble in the world, one would find Martha McGillivray. The celebrated journalist had a nose for rooting out corruption and a passion for sticking it to the man. Unsurprisingly, then, eventually trouble finds her and she dies of Ricin poisoning whilst traveling on a train to Edinburgh. Back from a spell on a punitive training course for middle-aged male dinosaurs, Detective Inspector Russell McCord is under pressure to crack the case quickly. However, his superiors have forbidden all contact with the press. In particular magazine writer and amateur sleuth Amy Thornton.

DNA Never Lies is the first in a series of novels featuring Karen Copperfield, investigative genealogist. Karen helps people make sense of sometimes dark family secrets revealed by DNA tests as they ask: 'what happens when nothing you believed is true?'

To top off her coffee business, Sage is now helping out with her boyfriend Bax's gaming company. Conveniently for Sage, it's located next door to her Ground Rules Roastery. That makes it easy for her to pitch in with Bax's employee team-building event. The plan is to boost morale with a scavenger hunt. And it seems to be going well—until Robbie, a programmer known for being a prankster, turns up dead in Sage's roastery.

Frances Walford's daughter, Ellison Russell, has developed the truly deplorable habit of finding bodies. And Frances can't help but scold her about it. But when Ellison goes to Europe, Frances finds a corpse of her own. Can she help catch a killer and keep her involvement a secret?

Between taking care of her family and assorted Standard Poodles, Melanie is also working as a special needs tutor for Howard Academy. This year, the headmaster has come up with an idea for a school fundraiser. All students will participate in a town-wide treasure hunt. Tokens shaped like pumpkin spice muffins have been hidden in downtown stores. Students will scramble to collect as many as they can in exchange for prizes. At first all goes smoothly, and the uptick in foot traffic to the stores is a win-win . . . Until the pet supply shop owner lodges a complaint.