Showing results by publisher "Recorded Books" in Amateur Sleuths

Maggie Messina knows that knitting is not only enjoyable, it also calms both the mind and soul. She's happy to visit two sisters, Holly and Rose Piper, and teach them some simple stitches, while the rest of the Black Sheep knitters tag along. Dana Haeger has known the young women since they were children and is the closest thing to family the Pipers now have. Dana is especially concerned about Rose, who has been easily overwhelmed ever since a car accident many years ago.

Perhaps the best place in 1943 Hollywood to see the stars is the Hollywood Canteen, a club for servicemen staffed exclusively by those in show business. Murder mystery playwright Annie Laurence, new in town after a devastating breakup, definitely hopes to rub elbows with the right stars. Maybe then she can get her movie made. But Hollywood proves to be more than tinsel and glamour. When despised film critic Fiona Farris is found dead in the Canteen kitchen, Annie realizes any one of the Canteen's luminous volunteers could be guilty of the crime.

Junior Bender, Los Angeles burglar and off-the-books detective to the felonious, is reminded that rock and roll will never die (no matter how fervently he wishes some of it would) when Hollywood’s most dangerous geriatric mobster, Irwin Dressler, retains Junior’s investigative services to solve a rather unharmonious problem. Junior has one weekend to figure out who’s to blame—a weekend that begins with his tires being slashed, threatening notes left on his car, and a theatrical backdrop falling on a drummer during the truly terrible first set of the first concert.

Like most women, Elizabeth Miles assumes many roles; unlike most, hers have made her a woman on the run. Living on the edge of society, Elizabeth uses her guile to relieve so-called respectable men of their ill-gotten gains. But brutal and greedy entrepreneur Oscar Thornton is out for blood. He's lost a great deal of money and is not going to forgive a woman for outwitting him. With his thugs hot on her trail, Elizabeth seizes the moment to blend in with a group of women who have an agenda of their own.

Troy Soos' sparkling Mickey Rawlings Baseball mysteries pack early 1900's baseball lore and colorful period details into baffling whodunits. Hunting a Detroit Tiger vividly brings to life the turbulent post-World War I days when the nation partied with bootleg liquor and labor unrest swept the nation with violence.

Starting for the first-place Cubs and hitting a career high of .274, for the first time in his life, Mickey Rawlings is feeling comfortable enough to buy furniture. But it is a time of mixed blessings; ominous battles are brewing at home and abroad. On the homefront, Major League baseball may be suspended for the duration of the war, anti-German sentiment is running high, and Mickey's best friend - a rookie named Willie Kaiser - has just been shot right on the diamond.

The USA Today bestselling host of the All About Agatha podcast injects the spark and fizz of a Golden Age murder mystery into the present-day, as the ghostwriter’s skills are put to the test aboard a bestselling author’s decidedly insalubrious cruise.

Beneath the sun and sea of South Florida, dark crimes and bone-chilling secrets are lurking. Introducing a brand-new twisty mystery series from award-winning author Elaine Viets. When the body of adult film star Sammie Lant is found buried next to the courtyard pool of the Florodora, Norah McCarthy’s apartment complex, she quickly becomes the police’s prime suspect. Norah was witnessed having an argument with Sammie six months ago, the last day Sammie was seen alive—the day she gained notoriety for a shocking public stunt with a college football player.

When American expat and bicycle tour company proprietress Sadie Greene guides a hard-to-impress group of sophisticated seniors on a stunning trip in northeastern France, she expects some twists, turns, and sudden stops to sip the Riesling. She doesn’t anticipate a detour leading straight to murder …

After surviving a terrible attack, Quinn Fleming has recovered in every way but one—her ability to retain new memories. Now, months later, it appears to the outside world as if the San Diego florist’s life is back to normal. But Quinn is barely holding on, relying on a notebook she carries with her at all times, a record of her entire existence since the assault. So when she witnesses a murder in the shadowy alley behind the florist shop, Quinn immediately writes down every terrifying detail of the incident before her amnesia wipes it away.

Georgia Thackery, adjunct English professor, has a new job teaching at Falstone College of Art and Design, known as FAD to its students and faculty. Living in a borrowed bungalow during winter in the snowiest part of Massachusetts, Georgia feels her isolation weighing as heavily as the weather. Then she receives a package containing her best friend, Sid, a walking, talking skeleton who has lived with the Thackery family since Georgia was six. With Georgia working out of town, Sid was lonely too.

Chase is disappointed that his partner Mike won’t be joining him on his tour of the rocky Cornish coast—but like long-distance walks, long-distance relationships can require an occasional break. He still has his friend Billie for company, though, and a few more fellow Americans, from a New Orleans restaurateur to a New York travel writer, joining them on their jaunt.

Inquisitive, detail-oriented Veterinarian Kristin Keller prides herself on winning over any dog. But has this self proclaimed dog whisperer finally met her match in a Sheltie named Remington who has just won the Texas state agility course competition? The champion pooch is acting out of sorts—almost as if he is not the same dog. Has he, by chance, been switched out with another dog just before the next big competition? Kristin and the other Lone Star employees will do anything to help the Atkinson family figure out this mystery surrounding their beloved Remington.

Liz Galin, an out-of-work fashion stylist, lives in a walk up studio apartment in Alphabet City in Manhattan. She has put her life on hold during COVID-19 to care for her mother going through chemo, and cannot see her boyfriend Cary as he is an emergency room doctor during the height of the pandemic. One Monday morning, she receives a cryptic letter from a Miami lawyer indicating that she should call his office. When she does, she and her mother Linda find out she has been bequeathed an asset in a will.

With a theater foundation tea and an art show planned at Violet Vickers’s estate, Courtney is hired to create charming fairy gardens for the event. It’s not so charming, however, when her best friend Meaghan’s ex-boyfriend turns out to be Violet’s latest artistic protégé. Even worse, not long after Meaghan locks horns with him, his body is found in her yard, bludgeoned with an objet d’murder.

May, 1924. It's been months since young British widow Emma Blackstone arrived in Hollywood to serve as companion to Kitty Flint: her beautiful silent-movie star sister-in-law. Kitty is generous, kind-hearted . . . and a truly terrible actress. Not that Emma minds; she's too busy making her academic parents turn in their graves with her new job writing painfully historically inaccurate scenarios for Foremost Studios. So when one of Kitty's old flames calls Emma and tells her it's imperative he meet with Kitty that morning, she's not surprised. Until, that is, he adds that lives depend on it.

Courtney has thrown a few fairy garden parties—for kids. But if a local socialite is willing to dip into her trust fund for an old sorority sister’s fortieth birthday bash, Courtney will be there with bells on. To make the job even more appealing, a famous actress, Farrah Lawson, is flying in for the occasion, and there’s nothing like a celebrity cameo to raise a business’s profile.

Having been widowed in the First World War, Elizabeth Fairchild lives a quiet life at the home of her wealthy parents in genteel Oak Park, Illinois. Although she does her best to avoid emotional entanglements, Elizabeth forms a close friendship with gentle Mr. Anthony, who owns the local antiques store. But tragedy strikes when Mr. Anthony is found stabbed to death in the alley behind his shop. Why would anyone murder a mild-mannered antiques dealer? A robbery gone wrong? A gangland execution? Could it have something to do with the mysterious customer who bought a gold pocket watch?

Juliet Reid wasn't able to save her murdered brother almost 10 years ago. Can she stop an ice-cold killer in their tracks a decade later? Nine and a half years ago, Juliet's talented brother, Fin, should have returned home. He didn't make it. When Juliet set out to find him that snowy winter evening, she made a devastating discovery.

Graduate student Wendy Zemansky was hoping for a normal semester at an isolated university in upstate New York. Since coming off disability and starting medication for bipolar disorder, Wendy longs to feel like a “real” functioning adult, a respected colleague in her writing program. But when her roommate goes missing, Wendy plunges into an investigation that is roadblocked by vainglorious professors, specious doctors, and dubious friends.