Showing results by publisher "Gemma Halliday Publishing"

Private investigator Franki Amato has just turned 30, and she feels anything but festive. To add insult to birthday injury, she has to investigate a surreal strip club homicide - with her 60ish ex-stripper landlady. Adding to her troubles, she has to figure out what a missing amber pendant and a mysterious amaretto bottle have to do with the murder, not to mention why she's being followed. When a second dancer goes down and a third is threatened, Franki turns to a weird witch to crack the case and cancel a curse.

Francesca "Franki" Amato is a tough-talking rookie cop in Austin, Texas - until an unfortunate 911 call involving her boyfriend, Vince, and a German female wrestler convinces her once and for all that she just isn't cut out for a life on the police force. So Franki makes the snap decision to move to New Orleans to work at her friend Veronica's detective agency, Private Chicks, Inc.

For Franki Amato, life in New Orleans is anything but "The Big Easy". When she met handsome bank executive Bradley Hartmann, she knew she'd finally found a man she could trust. But she can't say the same for his sexy new secretary, who is about as trustworthy as Mata Hari and every bit as seductive. Meanwhile, Franki's best friend and employer, Veronica Maggio, has named her the lead investigator in the murder of a gorgeous cosmetics CEO who was found lying dead in the master bedroom of a historic plantation home.

Native Texan Cassidi Conti was expecting to face some obstacles when she moved to Danger Cove and opened The Clip and Sip, a hair salon that gives away free drinks. What she wasn't counting on was a client dying during a dye job. But when 80-year-old Margaret Appleby comes in for her biweekly appointment, that's exactly what happens: Margaret drinks her usual soy chai, dozes off under the dryer...and doesn't wake up. Now, The Clip and Sip is under suspicion, clients are wary, and Cassidi is on a mission to prove that while her styles may be killer, her employees are innocent! 

From USA Today best-selling author Christina A. Burke comes a laugh-out-loud collection of three full-length novels featuring temp-turned-rock-star, Diana Hudson. This collection includes Queenie Baby: On Assignment, Queenie Baby: Out of Office, and Queenie Baby: On Tour. 

After 20 years as a political wife, the now-divorced Helen Binney should be able to organize a small event for the local library without breaking a sweat. But she didn't plan on the guest speaker, a controversial celebrity poker player, literally drawing a hand of death. Whose buttons did he push a little too hard? Was it really, as the police believe, the niece of Helen's handsome lawyer/friend, Tate?

Helen Binney's never felt better! Her lupus is in remission, and she's taking up gardening for its health benefits. Only her first day at the community garden is anything but relaxing when she finds a woman's body lying beside a bulldozer that belonged to the dead woman. Was the early-morning death an accident, as the police believe, or did it have something to do with a dispute over title to the garden's land? If she's not careful, though, there might be another death at dawn.

A famous chef makes an unexpected visit to the tavern with an offer that threatens all of Lilly's future plans, her boyfriend starts to complicate their relationship, and - just when she thought things couldn’t get any worse - a friend’s husband is found dead under suspicious circumstances. The police are pointing their fingers directly at Lilly's friend, so the bartender once again finds herself at the center of a murder investigation.

Nani Johnson thought she had it made when she moved from Kansas to the resort town of Aloha Lagoon, Kauai. In spite of her certifiably crazy mom, Nani is determined that nothing will stop her from becoming a ukulele virtuoso! But when one of Nani's competitors drops dead right after a public feud, Nani becomes the police's main suspect. A missing murder weapon, mysterious threats, and a heck of a frame-up job all have Nani worrying she'll be trading in her flowery muumuus for prison orange.

All struggling real estate agent Cindy York wants is the home listing that was promised to her. But her deceitful co-worker, Tiffany Roberts, has other ideas, and she always manages to get what she wants. Tired of being manipulated, Cindy tells her to back off - or else! But when Cindy stumbles upon Tiffany’s lifeless body, she suddenly finds herself front and center in a deadly investigation. Now everyone from her kids' classmates to her monstrous mother-in-law is sold on the idea that Cindy's guilty.

Tressa Jayne Turner has had it up to here with the dumb-blonde jokes and a childhood nickname that's harder to get rid of than her favorite pair of cowboy boots. Thanks to one Rick Townsend, Iowa Department of Natural Resources officer, local hottie, and general pain in Tressa's behind, everyone knows her as "Calamity Jayne". Just because she may be a little accident prone and trouble seems to sometimes find her, Tressa can't get anyone in her small town to take her seriously. That is, until Tressa finds a seriously dead body.

When Lilly Waters moved to her ancestral small-town home of Danger Cove, Washington, she hoped for a walk down memory lane and a chance to connect with the family she never knew. What she got instead was a bartending job at the Smugglers' Tavern, a mysterious man promising information about her grandfather - who had been listed as MIA since the Vietnam War - and a dead body she practically tripped over! When the police point to Lilly as their number one suspect, she decides to take fate into her own hands.

Sally Muccio's had her crosses to bear: a cheating ex-boyfriend, crazy Italian parents, and an unfaithful husband, just to name a few. After her divorce, she returns to her hometown to start a novelty cookie shop whose specialties include original fortune cookies, served with a sprinkle of foreshadowing. But there's no warning when her ex-husband's mistress drops dead on Sal's porch, and police confirm it's a homicide. Determined to stop her life from becoming a recipe for disaster, Sal takes matters into her own hands.

Helen Binney projected a powerful image as the former governor's wife, and she's not about to let a little thing like illness force into doing anything less now. While her pushy nieces think she's at death's door, her handsome lawyer friend thinks she's a hot magnet for trouble...and her new gal-pals think she's a brilliant amateur detective! When those new gals give her an interesting project, Helen can't refuse proving her usefulness to the nay-sayers in her life.

After an injury derails Poppy Peters' ballet career, she gathers the courage to follow in her grandmother's footsteps and attend Calle Pastry Academy in a small-town Georgia. Poppy has her work cut out for her not only fitting in with her charming (and not-so-charming) Southern classmates but also proving her worth to her teachers after her first publicly humiliating attempt a making the school's famous peach pie.

Alex Jordan is the owner of Finials and Facades Renovation and Restoration Services, making her able to pursue her love of restoring Victorian-style homes in the town of Danger Cove. But her recent acquisition of the stately Marlton House has led to a showdown with town real estate mogul, and now, she has needs to restore the old house and flip it for a profit as quickly as possible. But Alex gets more than she bargained for when a Hawaiian shirt-clad tourist with a bullet in his head turns up in the home's bathtub.

Helen Binney is frustrated with the challenges of her lupus and is desperate to hit something - anything! So what better place to go than a martial arts studio owned by a friend? Only her frustrations remain when she finds herself in a minor car accident, a female martial arts competitor mocks her physical limitations, and the studio owner won't let her engage in any satisfyingly high-impact exercise. But when the rude competitor is found dead in the locker room, Helen is distracted from her personal problems. She learns that the woman owned a bed & breakfast, and wasn't very good at making friends. Murder suspects abound....

Lilly Waters is loving life as the new assistant manager at the Smugglers’ Tavern in the small town of Danger Cove. So the last thing she wants or expects is an impromptu family reunion with the wannabe-rock star dad and his number-one-fan (her mother) who were noticeably absent from her childhood. Not only does Lilly have her hands full dealing with her mom and dad who act more like teenagers than parents, but she also finds herself in hot water when the son of a Chicago mob boss is murdered on tavern property.

As the former governor's wife, Helen Binney is used to being in charge. So when illness and two pushy nieces force her to take on a visiting nurse, Helen uses every trick in the book to slip away from the annoying woman. Only someone must have disliked the nurse even more than Helen, because the woman's dead body shows up the next day in Helen's yard! Now it's up to Helen to prove that not only is she perfectly capable of taking care of herself, she's also perfectly capable of solving one cold-blooded murder.

Riley Spencer is officially the new owner of the Cinnamon Sugar Bakery in the small town of Danger Cove. She's excited about the grand re-opening, but when she learns a hoax letter went out to the residents of Danger Cove informing them of free baked goods, she panics and does the only thing she can - quickly sets out plates of muffins, cupcakes, and cookie bars. Crisis seems to be averted...until the body of local recluse Nathan Dearborn is found in the bakery bathroom. The cause of death: peanut allergy.