Showing results by author "Keith Helton" in All Categories

Halloween ruined?! Not if our girl can help it. A pickpocket is wrecking local charity events and Charlotte gets fed up with her friends and family being targets. So naturally she decides to launch her own investigation. As if that weren’t enough to deal with, Cole has a date to their boss’ costume party with...someone else?! This much excitement calls for lots of extra coffee, and this time of year calls for pumpkin spice! Grab your favorite cup of caffeinated delight (or decaf if you must) and join this amateur sleuth as she attempts to calm the chaos and catch the crook without ...

Amara and Nea head off to the Gulf Coast Seafood Festival in Mangrove Bay, a nearby town, to cheer Bo and Cora Dawson on during a cooking competition. However, what starts out as a fun day of good food, friends, and some much-needed R & R quickly turns into a hunt for a possible killer when our girls learn the former mayor of the town is dead just hours after judging one of the cook-offs. Could the culprit be a simple case of heart failure? Mayor Tracy Hartfield of Gulf Breeze isn’t buying it, so he hires the two ladies to do some detective work for him. They head back to the festival and...

Ho, ho, ho! Charlotte Ritter is back, and Santa Claus is coming to town! Actually… hundreds of them. Yes, your favorite amateur sleuth has finally made it to the Surfing Santas event and it’s even more fun than she and her family expected. Unfortunately, the yuletide cheer nearly comes to a screeching halt when a friend of her son Joseph gets sent to the hospital after using some deadly, fentanyl laced pot. When Carrie informs her mother that a lot of the kids at school have been buying the same stuff too, Charlotte sets out to find out who the supplier is and bring them down. All the ...

Elvis has entered the building! Charlotte and Cole’s first actual date gets interrupted by a man dressed as the King of Rock n Roll...and he’s carrying an unconscious woman. Our girl has a suspicious mind and delves deeper into the man’s sketchy story. Back at her ‘real’ job, Mr. Baker has her helping a desperate family searching for a loved one. After some digging, Charlotte thinks there may be a link to the between the missing drug addict and the unconscious woman. Cole reluctantly lends a hand in the search for an eyewitness that can expose the truth as they both suspect the ...

Something is burning! Charlotte gets a phone call in the middle of the night with the news that the law firm where she works is on fire. Once at the scene of the blaze she spots a former client who is apparently a fireman. He disappears suddenly when she calls out to him. Was it a simple case of mistaken identity or is something strange going on? This spark lights the flame of Charlotte’s detective brain and as she pokes her nose into places it doesn’t belong, the hotter things start to get. Much to his chagrin, Cole knows Charlotte well enough to realize she won’t let go until the ...

Nea Campbell is a thirty-seven year old, successful real estate agent in Florida who spends her days driving her ‘89 Mustang convertible, showing million dollar homes, and taking her Jack Russell terrier, CJ, on walks on the beach. Along with her best friend, Amara Baros, a half-Greek goddess and interior designer, Nea has found the perfect real estate investment. Twelve, cute bungalows make up a boutique hotel property on the Gulf Coast that Nea and Amara are ready to fix-up and make a tourist hot spot. But, when surprise repairs are needed, and a body is found in a bungalow; well, ...

Charlotte’s new cat needs a checkup, but Dr. Scotsman never shows for the appointment. Her staff thinks she just forgot and headed out on vacation, but our part time detective isn’t convinced. After enlisting her sidekick Cole in the search for any clues into her whereabouts, they find that they’ll have to scratch more than the surface to uncover the truth. While working the ‘case’ Charlotte and Cole also agree to chaperone a Valentine’s dance that each of her kids has a date for. She and Cole, on the other hand, haven’t made any plans for the romantic holiday and our girl ...

Mermaids are real! At least Charlotte’s son Tommy thinks so and a family vacation to Weeki Wachee Springs does little to change his mind. Back at the office, Ginny is practically inconsolable when the woman who does her manicures dies unexpectedly from natural causes. Our favorite moonlighting detective dives into danger again when she snoops into the woman’s death and thinks something fishy is going on. Cole tags along to try his best to keep her out of too much trouble but Charlotte always seems to find a way. If she doesn’t nail the killer, she may end up being the next victim. ...

Things finally seem to be going smoothly at the Gulf Breeze Bungalows. That is until a group of four young ladies, all hugely popular social media influencers, show up for a few days of fun in the sun. One of the women is getting married and her friends want to show her a good time. Unfortunately, things turn sour quickly and go from bad to worse when someone is found on the beach…Dead! Who is the victim? Could the killer be one of the influencers? This time out, Amara Baros, co-owner of the motel, leads the investigation into the murder. She booked the bachelorette getaway and now she ...

She's up the creek without a paddle and only half a cup of coffee! Charlotte Ritter is stunned when the number one suspect in a murder is...Cole! Her close friend and colleague is arrested after a man is found dead at a local kayak rental business and all the evidence points to his guilt. Snarky coworker Ginny doesn't discount the possibility that he did it, but Charlotte is dogged in her quest to prove him innocent. To top it all off, Cole isn't happy one bit when she teams up with the charming, British globetrotter Ian, in her search for the truth. Charlotte paddles headlong into danger ...

Nea and Amara have reached the halfway point on their renovations of Gulf Breeze Bungalows. They’ve got people with reservations set to arrive in a few weeks. Andy, the contractor, is letting his interest in Nea be known, but she has reservations about entering a relationship while he’s working for her. When a stranger shows up dead in the local bookstore, the town’s secrets rise to the surface. But, Nea has some serious reservations about trusting decades old gossip. Still, there’s a murder to be solved, a tumultuous history to be revealed, and a friend’s name to be cleared. Can ...

Charlotte Ritter needs her coffee and when a small shop called The Blessed Bean opens across from her daughter's high school, she is super excited. That is until the place gets broken into and burglarized. Not one to let things go, Charlotte decides to enlist Cole's help to discover who the culprit is before they spoil a good thing. With next to no clues to go on, the duo is definitely going to have a tough time solving this one. To give Charlotte even more to think about, her friend and local motel owner, Bianca the blonde beekeeper, suggests she start her own brand of coffee. On top of ...