Charlie Parker Mystery Series

This series looks sharply at those who perceive themselves as the rich - the elite, and revolves around expensive cars, clothes and posh country clubs. Fans of Sue Grafton, J.A. Jance, and Sara Peretsky will find Shelton's female sleuth captivating. Devout in her dedication for the underdog, Charlie Parker gets drawn into perilous predicaments while sticking her neck out for friends and clients in trouble. She proves a wily opponent for the evil she discovers.

Charlie's last case left her tired and emotionally drained, so her office staff convinces her to vacation in Kauai. Charlie is riding in a helicopter when she and the pilot spot a dead body lying on the rugged rocks of Kauai's NaPali coast. Mack Garvey, the owner of the helicopter tour company, is accused of the murder. Charlie wants to avoid the whole mess but is persuaded to help Garvey prove his innocence. As the tension builds, Charlie roots out the suspects one by one never dreaming that her own life is about to be snuffed out by sinister means.

Sharon Ortega, an old school chum of Charlie's, hires Charlie to prove that her dead restaurant partner, David, didn't commit suicide. David's recent, keyman life insurance policy won't pay for suicide, and Sharon needs the money to keep the business going. Charlie uncovers evidence of tax fraud, high level political connections, and two distinctly different sides to David's life. Amidst a confusion of relatives, she also discovers that members of David's family are lifelong friends with Vicky, the new love of Charlie's brother, Ron. And Vicky appears increasingly suspicious.

Charlie Parker is asked to look into a controversial series of miscarriages in a small town in New Mexico that's heavily populated by Mexicans. The town has one medical clinic. Her first assumption is to look for some type of environmental problem such as pesticides but that draws a blank. Then she shifts her suspicions onto the medical industry and finds herself embroiled in politics regarding health care among minorities. It's when the dead bodies start to show up that she realizes she's onto something far bigger than she imagined and far deadlier....

Upon returning to her New Mexico home after visiting her fiance in Hawaii, private investigator Charlie Parker discovers that her mother and father, a scientist at Sandia Labs, were killed in a suspicious small plane crash.

Charlie and her husband begin the winter with hopes for a honeymoon in a secluded New Mexico mountain cabin. But their plans are disrupted when police locate an old pawn ticket identifying the gun used in a five year old murder. They trace the ticket back to ski instructor Elroy Romero, who work's for Charlie's husband, Drake. Elroy swears he didn't commit the crime, even though the gun has been in his possession all along. And when it turns out the murder victim was Elroy's brother, a priest, Charlie really begins to question her client's story.

It’s a New Mexico Christmas. The lights are strung, the luminarias are set along the sidewalks. Treats are abundant and Charlie Parker is getting ready for her mother-in-law’s holiday visit. But there is trouble in the neighborhood and when death shows up - right next door - Charlie’s bright, festive plans suddenly take a turn for the dark.

Octogenarian Willie McBride has gone missing, and now his obnoxious daughter is pestering Albuquerque CPA Charlie Parker to find him in time for the big family reunion. Apparently, the eccentric old man had one driving obsession: finding gold. So Charlie follows Willie's prospecting trail to the modern-day ghost town of White Oaks, site of an historic gold rush, a bitter scandal, some ugly business - and now a corpse.

Brian Swinney needs someone to fly his aircrafts in Scotland on a lucrative contract shuttling men and equipment to the North Sea oil rigs. Helping out their friend, Charlie Parker and Drake Langston agree to the job, ignorant of the escalating battle between the outfitters that service the rigs. Taking up residence at historic Dunworthy Castle, they become acquainted with owners Robert and Sarah Dunbar. They seem to be down-to-earth ranching folk but their daughter, son-in-law, and teenage son Richie are another story.

Three days before the start of the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, balloon pilot Rachael Fairfield walks into the offices of RJP Investigations. She received a threatening note, which she believes came from her father, a convicted felon whom she sent to prison 15 years earlier.

Charlie is on vacation. A cozy cabin, a diner that serves delicious guilty-pleasures, and Drake - all Charlie needs to relax and enjoy herself. But the town of Watson's Lake has a little unsolved mystery. Four years ago, a showplace home - beautiful and serene and tucked away on the mountain - blew sky high, due to an apparent gas leak. A young woman died. The owner disappeared. His gold-digging wife wants the insurance money, and his daughter wants to know what happened to her father.

Charlie is invited to a plush Santa Fe spa, a week-long spiritual/nutrition retreat with her friend Dr. Linda Casper. The massages and spa treatments sound great, until she realizes that there is something darker going on at the mountain resort. Meanwhile, Drake has his own set of concerns. He's been asked to testify as an expert witness in a helicopter crash case and it's causing him more anxiety than any feat of flying ever did. It seems that they are each on their own but their two cases overlap and dangers abound, from all sides.

It’s a terrible case of mistaken identity when a gang of bank robbers think that Charlie is a famous movie star. Disappointed with their take from the bank, they decide that a hefty ransom will be their ticket to riches. But what will happen when the real star steps forward? Charlie knows that only her wits will save her from this band of desperate men. Meanwhile, in a race against the clock, Charlie's husband Drake is working with the FBI and local authorities to get Charlie back before her captors realize their mistake.

Charlie receives an enigmatic letter from her namesake aunt, her father's estranged sister, whom she's never met. Soon she's off to England. In the charming medieval Suffolk town of Bury St. Edmunds it isn’t only slightly eccentric Aunt Louisa’s beliefs in the occult or her spooky "haunted sites" tours that pique Charlie’s interest. When a friend of Louisa's is plagued by a series of pranks, Charlie and Louisa offer to find out what's behind them. But Charlie soon discovers that something sinister is brewing and she finds herself drawn into an investigation of crimes that are far too real.

It's Christmas in Albuquerque; Charlie and family are ready for a quiet holiday at home. But right away, her hopes fade when Charlie's brother and PI business partner, Ron, brings in two new cases, one of which made national headlines. Five years earlier, with the tide of media attention and public sentiment against her, Tali Donovan was acquitted of killing her two children and went into hiding. Now, on the anniversary of the children's disappearance, their father wants answers.

Charlie Parker and her husband Drake Langston accept a job with Gold Trail Adventures in Skagway, Alaska, flying visitors by helicopter to remote cabin sites to experience the outdoor lifestyle and seek their fortunes. It isn't long before one of the guests finds a set of bones in an old mine, remains that date back decades.

Charlie's brother, Ron, is ready for the happiest day of his life when he will marry longtime girlfriend Victoria Morgan. Charlie will be matron of honor, her husband Drake the best man. But when Charlie stops by the bride's house to pick her up for the ceremony, the place is in disarray, and Victoria is missing. And Ron has no proof of where he was the night before, after he and his fiancée had a terrible argument. Was the fight nothing more than pre-wedding jitters, as Ron claims? Or did the unthinkable happen?

The weather turns to spring, and Charlie faces a pair of puzzles. Against Charlie’s better judgment Ron, her PI partner, takes a cheating-spouse case that turns into a comedy of errors involving a star football player and his wife’s petty vengeance. Meanwhile, Charlie’s neighbor Elsa has a bad feeling about a family up the street. Is it a case of the neighborhood busybody having too much time on her hands, or is there truly something sinister happening with twin teen girls who’ve been left with too much money and not enough supervision?

Charlie and Drake are working a helicopter job in rural Maine when a man approaches and asks for their help. At first glance, it seems he's just an old man who needs to get to his son's remote cabin in the woods. But the cabin holds more secrets than Fergus McNab will admit, and it isn't until Charlie returns to Albuquerque that she discovers they may have just aided and abetted a criminal who has escaped the law back home. The secrets get twistier, the more she looks into the 10-year-old case where Rory McNab, facing a life in prison, seemed to vanish from the reach of the law.

A cryptic message in a fortune cookie sends Charlie again to England to visit her favorite aunt. She's having lunch in a local café when construction workers come upon a human skeleton behind a wall. The police are called to a more urgent case, so Charlie begins sleuthing around on a cold-case crime website, only to discover Aunt Louisa was one of those questioned when the victim disappeared. Can she save her aunt from arrest, or will the real killer come after them both?