Her new employer has met her maker, and she’s the only suspect. Can she sift out the truth and serve the villain their just desserts?
Ava Decker longs to fulfill her lifelong dream of owning her own bakery. Ready for a fresh start, the former forensic accountant turned pastry chef is excited to turn life’s lemons into sugary success. But her hopes crumble when her mean boss turns up dead in the back of the delivery truck Ava was driving.
Arrested as the prime suspect, things get worse when the police discover the victim left Ava the shop and her house in her will. And with only an adorable kitten who thinks he’s a dog and an exasperated best friend as the voice of reason, the newly bequeathed owner must turn super-sleuth to clear her name.
Can Ava solve the crime before she’s baking behind bars?
Cupcakes & Chaos is the delicious first book in the Frosted Misfortunes cozy mystery series. If you like cute animal sidekicks, appetizing pages to curl up with, and hilarious hijinks, then you’ll love Lisa Siefert’s perfectly dusted recipe.
Buy Cupcakes & Chaos to whip up a sweet whodunit today!
Never in my almost thirty years did I think my new normal would be talking to ghosts, yet here we are.
After inheriting a PI business, I find my clients are more incorporeal than not and are relying on me to solve their untimely deaths. Unfortunately, being a magnet for ghosts has its downside. Hello? Lack of privacy, for starters. Not to mention looking like a looney tune for holding animated conversations with myself. But the biggest problem? Their killers don't want me on the case.
Now I have a new mystery to solve. Local psychic Myra Hansen woke up dead and she's none too happy about it. Seems she didn't see that one coming! Together with my ghostly best friend, a talking cat, and Captain Cowboy Hot Pants-or, as he likes to be called, Detective Kade Galloway-I'm in yet another race against time.
Catch a killer before the killer catches me.
Join Audrey Fitzgerald in the Ghost Detective series, a paranormal cozy mystery featuring a talking cat, a ghost, and a murder to solve.
A dead hotel manager just triggered Willow Foxglove's worst nightmare!
When a hotel manager's dead body closes the main road to Willow's new tea shop, none of her customers can get through to celebrate her opening day. On a mission to investigate the closure, she instead becomes embroiled in the case.
But Willow isn't the only person to raise the local sheriff's suspicions. There's the janitor last seen fighting with the manager as he handed in his resignation. Not to mention a pair of teenage boys who might have taken a prank too far.
If the investigation can't gather enough evidence to remove the body, then Willow's tea shop might never get off the ground. Even with kitten Mavis as a drawcard, there are some disasters that a widow can't claw her way back from.
Just because the coven excommunicated me, doesn't mean I'm a bad witch.
Those ladies should learn to take a joke. In the meantime, though, it's left me in a bind. I need to get a real job, in a normal human occupation. Yuck.
But when I see a sign at the community centre asking for an assistant—only witches need apply—I feel like my fortunes might be trending up. Sure, there's a murder to solve, a killer on my tail, and a pittance in my bank account, but at least it's not working checkout in a supermarket.
And did I mention my new co-worker? Or 'boss' as he likes to call it. He's a detective sergeant with years of specialised training under his belt.
Somewhere along the way he also hacked off some powerful people. At least, I think that's why they turned him into a dog.
Hm. Maybe the supermarket would be a better bet after all.
It's margaritas, Mariachi, and murder in Mexico!
Cameron Cripps Hayman is on vacation in the Yucatan Peninsula, taking a break from life as an amateur sleuth in Metamora, Indiana. With her crew back home busy running their shops in the little canal town, Cameron relaxes by the pool, walks along the beach, and tours Mayan ruins-until her whole trip gets ruined by a murder.
She should've known something was up when a little chihuahua started following her around the resort. When Cameron follows the feisty little dog to a secluded area of rocks and palm trees, she discovers her new acquaintance lying dead with her head buried in the sand.
Cam's police officer husband might be used to her sticking her nose into his cases, but the State Investigation Police in the Yucatan aren't so welcoming of Cameron's help. The other American tourists staying at the resort, however, happen to be more than happy to chat about the murder, their theories, and rumors they've heard about the victim.
Spending her vacation solving another murder wasn't on Cameron's travel agenda, but when a sweet little dog drags her into the case, how can she refuse?
As Greenwich, Connecticut, slows down during a bitterly cold February, Melanie and her spunky Aunt Peg head to the city that never sleeps for the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show at Madison Square Garden. Aunt Peg can't wait to demonstrate her judging chops on national TV, even after being hounded by frustrating mishaps-all seemingly orchestrated by Victor Durbin, an ousted Paugussett Poodle Club member with a bone to pick. But the bright lights of the show ring grow dim when Victor is found murdered, and she's the one topping the suspect list . . .
Driven to solve the crime on her aunt's behalf, Melanie fetches hair-raising clues about the victim. Victor didn't score many friends with his unethical breeding practices, sketchy puppy cafe, and penchant for mercilessly scamming others to get ahead. He burned so many bridges that his own business partner admits to being delighted by news of his death. It appears Victor finally toyed with the wrong person, and as Melanie digs up more chilling evidence, she realizes that exonerating Aunt Peg means confronting a murderer who's in it to win it . . .
Murder always leaves a sour taste . . .
Although baby showers aren't an Amish tradition, Bailey King wants to celebrate Emily Keim's forthcoming bundle of joy. It's the least she can do for her hardworking assistant at Swissmen Sweets, especially with Emily being estranged from her siblings. Everyone in Harvest, Ohio has gathered at the town gazebo-decked out in lemon-themed decor to add some of Emily's favorite flavor to the festivities-including Juliet Brook, Jethro the Pig, and in a last-minute invite, Emily's sister Esther Esh.
But Esther isn't the only surprise guest. A mysterious Amish woman confronts Emily claiming to know about her secret shame-the child she had as a teenager who was given up for adoption. The stranger vanishes before Bailey could find out who she was and if she knew what happened to Emily's first baby. Later that evening, the woman reappears-dead in Esh Family Pretzels, with a threatening letter written by Esther found on her body.
Emily knows her sister is not a murderer and convinces Bailey to help clear Esther's name and put the squeeze on the real killer . . .
At a murder mystery-themed wedding reception on Georgia's picturesque Peach Cove Island, the bride is doing an awfully good job playing dead . . .
Marygene Brown always figured she'd marry her childhood sweetheart, Alex Myers, not cater his wedding. But the Peach Diner could use the exposure. Most of the island is showing up-although more for the role-playing murder game at the reception than for the widely loathed bridezilla, Lucy Carmichael. Marygene may have to smile through the festivities, but Mama doesn't have to hold her peace-especially since only Marygene can hear her mother's ghost. Mama says she sees an aura of darkness around the wedding.
So when Marygene finds Lucy lying beside the wedding cake, buried in batter, with no pulse, it looks like Mama called it. This is no game. And when the bride's body simply vanishes, it's up to Marygene and her best friend Betsy (cousin to the groom and no fan of the bride) to solve a real-life mystery-with a little help from Mama's sassy spirit . . .
Virginia is for lovers-and Storyton Hall is its best vacation spot for lovers of books. The big event this summer at Jane Steward's resort is A Bookish Cook-Off. It's a blend of the literary and the culinary-but someone's headed for the mortuary . . .
Six chefs are preparing to compete in an outdoor tent at Storyton Hall for prizes that will boost their careers-but is there someone who can't stand the heat? It looks that way when one of the contestants is found dead in a pantry packed with two centuries' worth of cookbooks, among other treasures and rarities.
Could there be a connection to other recent events in town, like tampering with the costume of a local mascot? Jane isn't sure, but after someone serves a second course of murder, the kitchen must be closed and the killer must be found . . .
It's vintage Poppy when the gluten-free baker and B&B owner tries to solve a murder at a Cape May winery in Libby Klein's fifth deliciously witty, paleo-themed Poppy McAllister Mystery.
When Poppy and Aunt Ginny agreed to host a Wine and Cheese Happy Hour for a tour group at their Butterfly House Bed and Breakfast on the Jersey Shore, they never anticipated such a sour bunch. Grumpy guest Vince Baker should be in a better mood-he's filthy rich and on his honeymoon with his much younger wife Sunny, who seems to dote on him almost as much as her high-spirited teacup Pomeranian, Tammy Faye Baker.
But the honeymoon is over when Vince drops dead the next day touring the Laughing Gull Winery. Turns out he's been poisoned, and it seems like everybody on the tour is hiding something. Now Poppy has to put her gluten-free baking on the back burner and bottle up her feelings for the two men in her life while she charges after a bitter killer with a lethal case of sour grapes . . .
In bestselling author Karen Rose Smith's sixth delightfully devious Daisy's Tea Garden Mystery, Pennsylvania Amish country's favorite tea house proprietor, Daisy Swanson, finds herself going back to school expecting to serve tea-only to get a crash course in criminal justice!
The faculty of Willow Creek High School are having a get-together after the spring concert with refreshments provided, courtesy of Daisy's Tea Garden. Oolong tea and chocolate biscuits are just what the staff needs to help them unwind from Althea Higgins's demanding curriculum. Her lessons on such controversial subjects as school uniforms and under qualified substitute teachers are earning her an F from her colleagues.
But a failing grade was preferable to Althea falling victim to foul play. Daisy was there when her body was discovered in the school swimming pool, murdered by strangulation. Althea was certainly a strict, opinionated taskmaster, unliked by both teachers and students, but would any of them actually want to kill her? As Daisy starts asking questions, she gets a real education in Althea's history, discovering more than enough enemies with more than enough motives to cancel her classes permanently . . .
In this USA Today Bestselling series, Goldie Bloom has started her real estate business, but a man is murdered at her first open home. Can Goldie keep her ex-boyfriend Thomas at bay, wrangle the orange-hating Persnickle, return a famous ghost to his own time, and solve the murder?
Will her real estate business be a success? Or will she finish last but not leased?
