Showing results by narrator "Darlene Allen" in All Categories

You know that eccentric great-aunt no one wants to sit beside at family functions? Or that neighbor who’s just a little too strange to get to know? Or the pushy woman at the thrift store? Maybe you know Gertrude. She’s rude. She’s frightfully frugal. And she’s fearless. Here are the first three Gertrude, Gumshoe novellas, collected for you in one place. She’ll find a body in a house of balls. She’ll tick off the local police. She’ll go undercover at her local thrift store. And she might even manage to get herself kidnapped while yardsaling. All in the name of justice.

In Books 4 through 6, Gertrude tears all over Maine trying to find crimes to solve. She adds another "assistant" to her team, competes in poetry slams, tries to use a pistol, tracks down an ex-spook, and hunts down a ghost.

As Beatrice’s wedding day approaches, murder finds a way to make her pressed for time. Beatrice and Wyatt’s days are spent planning their cozy, chapel wedding. Both widowed, they mean to keep their wedding an intimate, family affair. But everyone in Dappled Hills still wants to celebrate the happy couple. Beatrice and Wyatt find themselves at dinners, picnics, and barbeques in their honor.

When a quilting event falls to pieces, Beatrice works to patch things up. Dappled Hills quilters are eagerly anticipating new events at the Patchwork Cottage quilt shop. The shop’s owner, Posy, has announced "Sew and Tell" socials and a mystery quilt group project. But one day, instead of emailed quilt instructions, the quilters receive a disturbing message about a fellow quilter. When that quilter mysteriously meets her maker, Beatrice decides to use her sleuthing skills to find the killer before more lives are cut short.

Detectives Alexandra Winter and Jack Daniels have been close friends and partners ever since they started working at the San Diego Police Department. In fact, on their latest case there's only one thing separating them: the fact that Alexandra's been murdered by their main suspect. But that doesn't mean either of them have stopped in their hunt for the killer...

It's Independence Day weekend, and Maria Dolores is the new manager of the Lighthouse Farmers' Market. From the very beginning, though, events conspire against her. Her mentor and attractive local farmer, Merle Curtis, fails to show up to introduce her to the vendors, the stalls are all in the wrong place, and an earthquake shakes up everyone in the market! In its aftermath, Maria realizes the flower vendor is more than shaken up.... She's dead.

Former Boston Brahmin Mercy Allcutt is excited to be renting out suites of rooms to deserving working women in her new home on Bunker Hill in Los Angeles. She considers she's performing an act of good-heartedness, no matter skeptical her boss, private investigator Ernie Templeton, is about her endeavor. Mercy not only takes driving lessons from Ernie, but she discovers there's more to being a landlady than meets the eye. Is one of her Angels of Mercy not what she appears to be? Only time, and perhaps Mercy and Ernie, will tell...

Transplanted Boston Brahmin, Mercy Allcutt, has had some very exciting times as secretary to private investigator, Ernie Templeton. While it’s true she’s been in what she considers a wee bit of trouble (and Ernie considers out-and-out danger) a time or two, she’s determined to continue learning the ways of the “real” world. However, when she sets out to find her wandering boss, Ernie, one hot September afternoon, she not only discovers a corpse, but she also finds Ernie, bound and gagged. Worse, when the police arrive to investigate the crime, they peg Ernie as the killer.

Historical cozy mystery set in Los Angeles, CA, in 1926. Mercy Allcutt, Boston Brahmin, wants to experience life in all its grittiness. How better than by working for a down-on-his luck PI in Hollywood? Once she discovers what PI actually stands for, she knows Mr. Ernest Templeton is the boss for her. Together, they must cope with a stray child, kidnapping, blackmail, murder, a toy poodle, a vamp, a stalker, Mercy's overactive imagination and Ernie's strong protective streak.

After being thrown in the clink for private investigating without a license, she's fled the state to go where her talents will be more appreciated: South Dakota. She has big plans to set up shop, but an injury halts her journey shortly after crossing The Sunshine State's state line. She and Calvin are forced to hole up in a struggling campground, and when Gertrude finds the body of the campground owner, she is certain the man has been murdered.

When it comes to solving cold cases, nothing is ever cut and dried…. Quilter Beatrice Coleman is enjoying the sleepy peace of a tranquil afternoon…until it’s interrupted by her friend, Miss Sissy. The elderly lady is making wild claims about narrowly escaping an intruder. And intruders are unusual in tiny Dappled Hills.

It's Halloween, and Maria Dolores is hoping for a trouble-free weekend, the last one before the Lighthouse Farmers' Market closes for the winter. But her hopes are dashed when a state agricultural inspector threatens to shut down the market prematurely...right before a young woman falls to her death from the lighthouse cliff! The local homicide detective thinks it was suicide and won't listen to Maria's extensive list of possible suspects for foul play or the fact that the victim was known for getting into fights that went beyond mere words. Now, it's up to Maria to unearth a secret.

Labor Day weekend starts with a bang in Danger Cove when a dead body is found in the orchard of Maria Dolores' mentor and maybe-boyfriend, Merle! While it's clear the murder took place long ago, the police are still keeping Merle tied up, leaving Maria on her own to run the local farmers' market. She's prepared for the petty squabbles, disorganized vendors, and even a rowdy group of costumed pirates - it comes with the territory. But she isn't prepared for the fresh body found in an isolated corner of the market!

Irrepressible. Different. Tenacious. Meet Lucy James, PI in training. Lucy can't seem to finish college and seems stuck in her movie theater job. But she's always been good at figuring out puzzles and a big one drops right in her lap in the shape of an umbrella left behind one rainy night. It turns out something's very wrong at the local art museum and with her best friend, Cindy, and trusty dog, Baskerville, she attempts to find out what.

The wreckage of a World War II plane is found in the mountains of Appalachia. It mysteriously crashed in 1943 on its way to a naval base. Inside the plane is a note, written by Annie Tillery's great-grandmother, Charlotte, who was in love with a fighter pilot. Young Charlotte tested the planes and flew them to naval bases; her fiancé flew the planes in battle.

Thanksgiving Angels brings Mercy Allcutt and Daisy Gumm Majesty together for the first time when Mercy's parents buy a winter home in Pasadena, CA, and force Mercy to visit for Thanksgiving. To Mercy's shock, Mrs. Allcutt hosts a séance, conducted by Daisy. Mayhem ensues.

For 15 minutes each night, a portal opens in Tamara's barn and a horde of ghosts spills into her yard. She and her co-worker, Dex, work together to find a way to help Cal and the thousands of spirits stuck in the void to cross over. When she learns she has the ghost touch - the ability to touch the ghosts as if they were corporeal - and she accidentally helps a little boy cross, she believes it might be possible. But not all the spirits play nice.

Amateur sleuth Annie Tillery has been warned to stay away from Nevshehir, Turkey, where she is heading to meet her boyfriend Ty Egan, and Cedric Zeeks, Ty's best friend. Intent on helping the two excavate an archeological site where they hope to link human remains to the first African ancestors, Annie does her best to shakes her foreboding feelings as her plane lands in Istanbul and she prepares to embark on her next adventure.

Nadia and Aidan continue their RV adventure with a trip to visit cousins in their dad's home state of Iowa-just in time for Halloween and Nadia's birthday! Nadia loves having time to document their discoveries about the Time Tuner. Aidan wants to sword fight with corn.

The Wright family has trekked their way from Arizona to Minnesota on their homeschooling RV adventure of a lifetime! In the "Land of 10,000 Lakes," they discover some really big things. Will Nadia have time to see all the sculptures she wants to? Can Aidan pick up a cherry as big as his head? Will Stephanie's love of rock climbing come in handy to keep Harrison safe? Just how do you paint metamorphosis? And can the Wrights manage to get the Time Tuner to work again?