Showing results by publisher "Dreamscape Media, LLC" in Amateur Sleuths

Ever since local developer Fred Stanton and his wife, Mimi, built five modular homes next door to Lucy Stone’s farmhouse, life hasn’t been the same. When Mimi doesn't show up for her shift at The Hat and Mitten Fund bake sale, the scent of burnt sugar leads Lucy to a shocking discovery: Mimi, facedown on her kitchen floor, with a knife in her back. While the police start their investigation, reporter Lucy gets busy writing up the murder for The Pennysaver - and following a few leads of her own.

Lucy Stone is in the doghouse with her next-door neighbor, Mrs. Prudence Pratt. It seems that Kudo, the Stones’ misbehaving mutt, has developed a taste for Mrs. Pratt’s blue-ribbon-winning chickens, as well as an escape artist’s talent for sneaking out. With the Fourth of July coming up, Lucy doesn’t want to set off any more fireworks with the crabby Prudence.

Vincent van Dough focaccia is being touted on Instagram as the best thing since sliced bread. By strategically placing chives, olives, and yellow peppers to look like poppies and sunflowers, bakers create a mouthwatering masterpiece in the style of the great postimpressionist painter. At Yeast of Eden, where bread making has always been an art, they're baking their own version for the school district's Spring Fling. But one person won't be tasting the Mexican bakery's latest specialty. Ambitious school-board president Nessa Renchrik has been murdered.

When Emma Lawson, the youngest lead government-ethics investigator in California's capital, takes a day off to help her best friend, Kate, prepare for the opening of her new preschool, the morning takes a shocking turn. The school's most high-profile enrollee - Vivian Lange, the governor's granddaughter - is kidnapped at the same time Kate's teenage son, Luke, goes missing.

When Regionalist painter Thomas Hart Benton's corpse is discovered behind the easels of Manhattan's famed art school, whispers in the art community say he had it coming. As Benton's list of enemies lengthens to include League instructors, Vietnam War protesters, and members of Andy Warhol's entourage, one art student is ultimately pinned for the crime. The only problem? The suspect has vanished.

Antonia Bingham, chef and proprietor of the Windmill Inn, is looking forward to baking goodies for her customers and relaxing after a busy summer. But when a Labor Day visit by two slick Wall Streeters ends with their gruesome deaths in a summer rental house, Antonia gets pulled into the investigation. Soon she's wading through social media, the local nightclub scene, and other unfamiliar haunts of the young and glamorous, all while managing her inn and restaurant.

When a panicked stranger shows up at Charm and Cherish, Becca Colwin feels compelled to help. But when that stranger then disappears, leaving behind her heirloom violin, the aspiring witch detective is drawn further into a web of deceit and intrigue complicated by a history only her three magical cats truly understand.

Following a night of bridge practice and cold readings by their clairvoyant host, Aurelia is found dead in her home by Wendy, a suicide note and cocaine residue by her corpse. But Wendy, an investigative reporter for The Rosalie Citizen, doesn’t buy it. The scene seems phonier than Aurelia’s act, and now Wendy needs to call the bluff of a cold-blooded killer playing a psychic bid....

Twenty-five years ago, during a celebratory weekend at historic Whitetail Lodge, Sarah McCaskill had a vision. When a young man was killed, her guilt over having ignored the warning devastated her. Her friendships fell apart as she worked to build a new life in a new city. But she never stopped loving Whitetail Lodge on the shores of Bitterroot Lake. Now that she's a young widow, her mother urges her to return to the lodge for healing. But when she arrives, she's greeted by an old friend - and by news of a murder that's clearly tied to that tragic day she'll never forget.

Greer Hogan is a librarian and an avid reader of murder mysteries. She also has a habit of stumbling upon murdered bodies. The first was her husband's, and the tragic loss led Greer to leave New York behind for a new start in the Village of Raven Hill. But her new home becomes less idyllic when she discovers her best friend sprawled dead on the floor of the library.

The whole town of Tinker's Cove is looking forward to the celebration marking former librarian Julia Ward Howe Tilley's 90th birthday. Lucy Stone dreamed up the party idea - at about the same time she decided she's not getting old without a fight. But Lucy realizes her daughter's 14th birthday bash, a coed sleepover, may turn her hair white overnight. She wasn't thinking about the hormonal rampages of young teens. On her mind, instead, was the shocking death of Sherman Cobb, the town's oldest attorney, an apparent suicide. His law partner, however, thinks Sherman was murdered.

Theo Snyder is at the end of his rope. One minute, he was on top of the world, his documentary film The Basement a massive critical and commercial hit; the next, he’s crestfallen as his latest film is canceled after an embarrassingly public misstep. As his desperation grows, he makes the bold decision to pursue the story of the notorious Halo Killer, Jasper Ross-Johnson. But delving into the life and mind of a serial killer could prove more deadly than Theo ever could have imagined.

Hope Taylor is ready to start her new life as the first female pastor of Faith Chapel Episcopal Church in Apple Springs. The Northern California town's quaint cottages, bungalows, and shops promise a fresh start. But where is Father Christopher? The kindly old rector who hired Pastor Hope was supposed to meet her upon her arrival, but he's nowhere to be seen. Hope's faith springs eternal, so she explores the little white church hoping to find Father Christopher. But when she enters the columbarium, she instead finds church elder Stanley King - his skull crushed by a fallen burial urn.

On a dull and dreary October day, Lori Shepherd and her husband set off for a quiet weekend without the kids. But before they go, he must pay a visit to a reclusive client. After Lori drops him off, a storm that's been brewing intensifies, and she ends up stranded in an ancient, rambling inn named for a king's ransom in smuggled goods that passed through the village in ages past. When Lori begins hearing footsteps and strange noises, Aunt Dimity reminds her that the inn is almost certainly haunted but that not all ghosts are interested in harming the living. But the longer Lori is stuck at the inn, the stranger things seem.

With Angie and Tate's wedding just around the corner, it's a happy time for Melanie Cooper and the bakery crew. Not only are they finessing the last-minute details of the big day, but their bakery, Fairy Tale Cupcakes, has just been hired to bake cupcakes for the blockbuster book signing of a controversial author who wrote a steamy best seller filled with juicy local gossip. But one by one, the people Angie has hired to work the wedding begin turning up dead. As the body count rises, the best-selling author is the next to bite the dust.

Kate McKay had doubts about swapping her high-powered life in Manhattan for Wolfert's Roost, the quaint Hudson Valley village where she grew up. But when she moves back to care for her ailing grandmother, Kate decides to start fresh and indulge her dream of running an ice-cream shop. But as Lickety Splits Ice Cream Shoppe becomes a reality, her childhood frenemy, Ashley Winthrop, starts selling frozen treats in the bakery across the street. After the two rivals draw crowds with a heated argument, Ashley is found stabbed to death inside the bakery.

Even though resourceful caterer Faith Fairchild has called the sleepy Massachusetts village of Aleford home for most of her adult life, she isn't familiar with Havencrest until the owner of Rowan House calls her about catering a weekend house party. While discussing the lavish party he's planning for his 70th birthday, Max Dane - the legendary Broadway musical producer/director - makes a startling confession: "I didn't hire you for your cooking skills, fine as they may be, but for your sleuthing ability. You see, one of the guests wants to kill me."

It's fall in Winter Garden, Virginia, and business at the Down South Cafe has never been better. So when struggling beekeeper Stuart Landon asks Amy to sell some of his honey, she's happy to help. The jars of honey are a sweet success, but their partnership is cut short when she discovers his body outside the cafe early one morning. It seems unlikely that someone would have wanted to harm the unassuming beekeeper, so Amy worries that she might have been the intended target.

On a cold evening, Zeb, a single mum in her thirties, is found wandering aimlessly on a remote road. She is dazed, confused, and bloodied. She doesn't know where she is or how she got there. She has travelled far from home and someone has attacked her. Memory loss means she can trust no one, and, with her assailant unidentified, Zeb is desperate to be reunited with her son and to ensure his safety. But what will her search for the truth uncover? Will it bring answers or more questions? And what if the person she can rely on the least is herself?

The Down South Cafe is open and flourishing, and Amy Flowers is busy making pies and cakes for the holiday. The only thorn in her side is the chamber of commerce director George Lincoln, who is trying to buy the cafe so he can tear it down and build a B and B on the site. When George collapses while eating at the Down South, everybody assumes it's a heart attack - until the autopsy declares it to be poisoning.