Southern Women Sleuth

Novelist Anne George injects murder, mayhem, and laughs into her popular mysteries. Nominated for an Agatha Award, this hilarious tale of two “60 something” sisters reveals the deadly consequences of a hasty real estate purchase. Retired Alabama school teacher Patricia Anne thinks her older sister, flamboyant Mary Alice, has lost her cotton-pickin’ mind. On a whim, Mary Alice bought the Skoot ’n’ Boot, the local country western night spot where she and her boyfriend hang out. Mary Alice insists it will be easy to run the club - until the previous owner is found executed.

Yes. I'm the daughter of the infamous couple, June Heal and Oscar Park. One teeny weeny problem, I'm a mortal. Yep. I guess I got my granny Darla's DNA. Good news! I might not have spiritual powers but I have a mean set of baking skills. I'm delighted to be moving out of Whispering Falls, where y'all know I can't live since I'm mortal, and to Celestial Falls, another small Southern town where I'm opening Heavenly Desserts. Of course, The Marys wouldn't let me leave unless I took my new kitten with me.

Readers will flock to NYT bestselling author Donna Andrews' latest installment in the award-winning Meg Langslow series. Two of Meg’s cousins, members of Mother’s vast Hollingsworth clan, are getting married, and both have chosen Caerphilly for their Christmas destination wedding . . on the...

Romaine Wilder, big-city medical examiner with a small-town past, has been downsized and evicted. With few other options, she’s forced to return to her hometown of Roble in East Texas, leaving behind the man she’s dating and the life she’s worked hard to build. Suzanne Babet Derbinay, Romaine’s Auntie Zanne and proprietor of the Ball Funeral Home, has long since traded her French Creole upbringing for Big Texas attitude. She’s a member in a number of ladies’ auxiliaries and clubs, including being in charge of the Tri-County Annual Crawfish Boil and Music Festival. Hanging on to ...

Madeline Brimley left small-town Georgia many years ago to go to college and pursue her dreams on the stage. Her dramatic escapades are many, but success has eluded her, leaving her at loose ends. But then she gets word that not only has her beloved, eccentric Aunt Rose passed, but she's left Madeline her equally eccentric bookstore housed in an old Victorian mansion in the small college town of Enigma. But when she arrives in her beat-up Fiat to claim The Old Juniper Bookstore—and restart her life—Madeline is faced with unexpected challenges.

Series is finished! When scandal is afoot and Vicki leaps in to solve a murder, you know it’s gonna be big. ‘Cause this here’s Texas. Don’t you dare call Victoria Bohanan a debutante. That cozy life is firmly in her rearview mirror after striking out on her own. Nowadays she’ll earn every penny of that twenty dollar tip by guessing your favorite drink faster than you can belly up to the bar. Sharp wits have gotten her out of more than one disastrous affair. Until the mouth sinks her right into another. When an old high school flame returns to town with a pastorate position lodged ...

Three sassy retirees. One dead developer. Zero patience for nonsense. Welcome to Conch Key, where the sun is hot, the gossip is hotter, and the local beach just coughed up a corpse in Gucci loafers. Daisy Picklesworth wanted nothing more than a quiet morning, a strong cup of tea, and to finish her mystery novel on the porch of The Barnacle. What she got instead was a bloated real estate mogul dead in the surf, a jellyfish charm that doesn’t belong, and the strong suspicion that someone in their sleepy seaside town just committed the most stylish murder Florida’s ever seen. With her ...

Blanche White is a plump, feisty, middle-aged African-American housekeeper working for the genteel rich in North Carolina. But when an employer stiffs her, and her checks bounce, she goes on the lam, hiding out as a maid for a wealthy family at their summer home. That plan goes awry when there's a murder and Blanche becomes the prime suspect. So she's forced to use her savvy, her sharp wit, and her old-girl network of domestic workers to discover the truth and save her own skin.

With the Mississippi sun beating down, An'gel and Dickce are taking a break to cool off and pet sit their friend Charlie Harris's cat, Diesel, when their former sorority sister, Rosabelle Sultan, shows up at their door unexpectedly, with her ne'er-do-well adult children not far behind. Rosabelle's selfish offspring are desperate to discover what's in her will, and it soon becomes clear that one of them would kill to get their hands on the inheritance.

What is it about Halloween that makes people get a little nutty? Like, murderously nutty? All I wanted to do was set up a booth at the Halloween bazaar and help out my community. Proceeds go to local charities. But instead, I practically fell over the event coordinator. The very dead event coordinator. Then the new detective in town showed up and things went downhill from there. Until they went uphill. If you date a detective, he won’t suspect you of murder, will he? Who killed Diana Bowen? My best friend Lucy Gray and I decided to do a little detective work of our own. Can we catch a ...

Wedding fever has come to Bon Temps, Louisiana! Unfortunately, buxom, blonde, beautiful, and telepathic cocktail waitress Sookie is not the bride-to-be, so she takes the opportunity to travel to New Orleans on family business. As heir to the estate of her newly dead cousin Hadley, Sookie unearths a big secret. Soon it becomes clear that more than a few people will do anything to stop Sookie from looking into Hadley's past.

Southern girl Verity Long is about as high society as her pet skunk. Which is why she’s surprised as anyone when the new head of the Sugarland social set invites her to join the "it" girls. But this is no social call. Verity’s new client needs her to go in undercover and investigate strange happenings at the group’s historic headquarters. But while spirits are whispering hints of murder, the socialites are more focused on Verity’s 1978, avocado-green Cadillac. And when Verity stumbles upon a fresh body, she's going to need the long-dead citizens of Sugarland to help her solve the crime.

Halloween in Palm Harbor is about to get deadly... Dog trainer Bea Whitman thought her biggest Halloween worry would be judging the children's costume contest—until fortune teller Cordelia Ashworth is found dead among scattered tarot cards with her venomous snake missing from its cage. With her wedding to veterinarian James Crawford just weeks away and their photographer having mysteriously canceled, Bea has enough on her plate without adding murder to the mix. But when her investigation reveals the snake bite was staged and a dangerous killer is on the loose, Bea can't resist putting her...

New York Times and USA Today best-selling author Charlaine Harris has won an Anthony Award for her one-of-a-kind Sookie Stackhouse mystery series. Sookie, a Louisiana cocktail waitress, skilled telepath, and friend to vampires, has a dedicated fan base that grows larger every day.

Series is finished! Vicki Bohanan is back and sporting a whole new mystery. Blackmail lands at her feet on the eve of preseason football. And for a woman with an attitude the size of Texas, it’s gonna take more than a pigskin to plug her pie hole. A Texas Ranger, an undercover boss, and a hunky radio personality walk into the bar and keep Vicki’s head spinning like a ride at the state fair. The only score she wants to settle is with her renovated residence. But when a certain Aussie model invites her to San Antonio for a romantic Alamo shootout – cameras this time, folks – Vicki ...

Dog trainer Bea Whitman's French Bulldog Max has solved more crimes than he's learned actual commands—which isn't saying much, but it's still impressive. When beloved farmers market coordinator Rosalind Fletcher drops dead after sampling Pete's pesto, Bea's peaceful Saturday shopping turns into a murder investigation. The cyanide in the basil confirms this wasn't an unfortunate case of food poisoning, and suddenly everyone at the Palm Harbor Farmers Market looks suspicious. There's Pete, whose hands shake so badly he can barely hold his own herb bundles. Mac, the cantankerous farmer who's...

Title: The Quilt That Talked Series: The Stitch & Sleuth Society – Book 5 Author: Lydia Cotton When a vintage quilt is donated to The Cozy Thimble, Ruby and her friends expect to display a charming piece of Sweetwater Falls history. Instead, they find a fresh bloodstain in the center of the folded fabric—and a mystery decades in the making. The Stitch & Sleuth Society is back, and this time, the clues are stitched right into the seams. As Ruby, Bea, Maude, Tilda, and the rest of the crew piece together the puzzle, they unravel more than just fabric. Family secrets, forged identities, ...

In this entry from Anthony Award winner Charlaine Harris' New York Times best-selling series, the gorgeous and feisty telepath hits the road to find her missing boyfriend, who may have run off with his former lover - a notorious vamp.

In her ninth adventure, Sookie has just tied on her cocktail waitress apron for a night's work when a special report comes on the television. The time has come. The wereanimals have revealed themselves.

Getting married is stressful. Solving a murder during your wedding week? That's just bad timing. Bea Whitman has nine days until her dream Christmas wedding at a historic Charleston plantation. Then her wedding coordinator vanishes, leaving behind her shoes and a shredded blouse beside an alligator-infested pond. The police call it suicide. Bea's French Bulldog Max calls it suspicious. Max is usually right. When the coordinator's husband turns up shot dead in his kitchen, Bea discovers a two-million-dollar insurance policy and a trail of secrets that won't stay buried. With her fiancé ...