Showing results by author "Joanna Campbell Slan" in All Categories

A nasty divorce leaves Cragan Collins with a mountain of bills and her grandmother to support. She takes a job as an ad salesperson for the Gazette. The market is tough, but Cragan finds a mentor in business reporter, Robert Smithson. One icy January day, Robert is found dead in a city park. His murder is dismissed as gay-on-gay crime. Cragan asks The Friday Night Mystery Club to find justice for Robert. Will Cragan's quest for the truth land her on the obituary page?

Two cozy novellas explore murder, mystery, and mayhem at the local dog park in this unique collection from authors Neil S. Plakcy and Joanna Campbell Slan.

Stuart, Florida. With her parents deceased and her son away at college, Cara Mia Delgatto longs to reinvent herself. And a sentimental purchase of a fixer-upper in a small, coastal town seems ideal for a new business selling repurposed relics. But when she trips over a corpse at her rundown building, she flips from renovator to prime suspect. Desperate to clear her name, it shocks Cara to discover that her property once housed a multi-million dollar art collection—stolen after the original owner's death. And when her first love shows up, her whirlwind life upgrades to a hurricane.

When Time in a Bottle, St. Louis's premiere craft store, is slated for demolition, Kiki is forced to confront her deep-rooted aversion to change. But before she can move, the new building must be made ADA compliant. When a long-sealed wall is breached during renovations, a grim secret is revealed. Determined to uncover the truth and provide closure for the innocent life lost, Kiki becomes entangled in a whirlwind investigation that spans decades. With her unyielding spirit and tenacious curiosity, she unravels a web of secrets, deceit, and heartbreak that has haunted this house for years.

In front of a meeting room full of customers and merchants, Kiki watches helplessly as a rival crafter takes one bite of a scone and goes into anaphylactic shock. Suddenly all eyes turn to Kiki Lowenstein, who was Dead Woman's archenemy. Just that fast, Kiki's moment of triumph turns into a disaster. Just when Kiki was settling into her new job, her first real career, she's become the poster child for dead customers. But Kiki's life isn't all doom and gloom. On the bright side, her mother-in-law has invited her to a gala event. A spa day is in order . . . and that doesn't go as planned either.

Being a divorced career woman in the late 80s isn't easy. Cragan Collins finds the friendship of other working singles invaluable, especially as she learns the ropes of selling. When Cragan finds a saleswoman unconscious in the mall parking lot, she runs for help. But being a good samaritan means taking the blame when the other woman dies. Later Cragan learns the woman lied to her . . . repeatedly. Cragan is left wondering if she really knew her friend at all!

Stuart, Florida. Her ex-husband is refusing to pay their son's college tuition (as promised), her sister is pulling mean pranks, and her old boyfriend has broken her heart . . . again. And that's just the personal stuff. She's also concerned about keeping the cash register ringing at the Treasure Chest, her store specializing in upcycled, recycled, and repurposed goods. An important media event goes sadly wrong and Cara's famous temper gets the better of her. Then a prying reporter turns up dead, practically in Cara's backyard.

Just because her husband's naked, dead, and in a hotel bed . . . it might not be what it seems. But there's that scarf in his mouth.... Given the situation, Kiki Lowenstein can't help remembering that her (late) husband got her pregnant while cheating on his girlfriend. True, he did the right thing at the time, and their much-loved daughter Anya is now eleven years old. But suddenly he's dead, and Kiki's financially embarrassed—that jerk disinherited his own family!

As the holiday season approaches, Kiki over-schedules herself and winds up running herself ragged. To make life even more stressful, she must fend off a stalker, a man determined to possess the object of his affection. Kiki's ace full-time employee, Clancy, has HUGE decisions to make. How do you put aside your hurt and disappointment when you've been betrayed? Is it selfish to think of yourself first? As Clancy ponders questions, Kiki stands on the sidelines, knowing this is not her choice to make.

When police detective Chad Detweiler's estranged wife is found shot to death with bullets from his revolver, the proud papa-to-be finds himself up the creek without a lawyer. The dead woman's family immediately points the finger at the detective. An exhausted Kiki does all she can to be supportive. After all, the dead woman was a drug addict! But when Detweiler's family makes a request that Kiki can't honor without breaking a promise, a solemn oath to her daughter, Kiki puts her foot down.

An old enemy has put out a contract on Kiki. She's worth a lot more dead than alive, which isn't surprising given the state of Kiki's finances. This would be a good time to focus on work at the scrapbooking and craft store—except Kiki can't shake the memory of those sniper shots raining down. While creating a memorial album for the murdered heiress, Kiki discovers murky family politics that could be a motive for murder. With help from friends in high and low places, including hunky beau Chad Detweiler, Kiki finds herself facing a grave ultimatum.

Dumpster diving for her lost paycheck is definitely the low point of Kiki Lowenstein's day—that is, until she finds a severed leg in the trash. Who'd toss a body part in the garbage outside of Time in a Bottle, the crafts store where Kiki works? Accompanying the grisly "gift" is a creepy computerized voice message, a warning to the store's "rich and snotty" female shoppers. Kiki soon discovers that the amputated leg belonged to a customer with a tyrannical and violent husband, a powerful man in the community. And that jerk is now harassing Kiki.

The school nurse calls to say that Kiki's daughter has stumbled over the corpse of a dead teacher. But don't worry. Everything's all right. (Ha!). And Kiki might just believe that a badly shaken daughter is the worst of her worries . . . EXCEPT that pre-teen Anya might have actually seen the killer fleeing the scene of the crime. Now Kiki must track down a murderer before the creep "guarantees" Anya's silence forever. After taking a vow to have nothing to do with her crush, the hunky police detective, Kiki is all on her own.

Craft maven Kiki happens to be a card-carrying Episcopalian—but she respects the power of intuition. So when she has a "bad feeling" on the way to Marla Lever's house for a crafting party, she heeds her instincts. Marla's nowhere to be seen, although her car's in the garage—buried under a heap of garbage and lawn furniture. Because the potential horror of a party in a hoarder's paradise pales in comparison to the body that's found in Marla's freezer. Marla's nearly dead herself—passed out from heat stroke.

All eight-year-old Erik wanted for his birthday was a bird. What he got was Solo—a traumatized lovebird whose mate was recently devoured by a boa constrictor at a local pet shop. But when Kiki learns that Solo originally belonged to Ruthie Goldman, a beloved member of their temple community who died after a brutal home invasion, she realizes this is no ordinary rescue pet. Solo may be small, but he's carrying big secrets—literally.

The Confidential Files of John H. Watson collection contains the following titles: Sherlock Holmes and the Giant Sumatran Rat, Sherlock Holmes and the Father of Lies, Sherlock Holmes and the Nefarious Seafarers, Sherlock Holmes and the Time Machine.

As the mother of an active toddler and the wife of an often absent husband, Kiki Lowenstein already has both hands full. But when the Lowensteins move into their new house on the same day the construction crew leaves, Kiki must learn to juggle boxes, baby, and big expectations. Her determination to be a good neighbor hits a roadblock when she angers the Nordstroms, the couple who live next door. Then things come to an ugly climax when Sven Nordstrom dies under mysterious circumstances. Sadly, Kiki becomes a suspect.

"Till death do us part" comes way too soon for newlywed Kiki Lowenstein. A very pregnant Kiki Lowenstein and her fiance Detective Chad Detweiler are trying to race the stork to the altar, when their vows are interrupted by a shoot-out. Kiki and the children hide in the shed with their local neighborhood donkey! When the all-clear sounds, everyone's worried about the expectant mother. But the problem isn't hers. It's Detweiler's, and he's been seriously hurt.

The arrival of Kiki's baby is cause for celebration, but Kiki herself suffers from a severe case of post-partum blues. Her mood darkens further when she learns that her friend Bonnie's newborn infant has been stolen from a local hospital. Bonnie is too grief-stricken to help the authorities. Can Kiki pull herself together long enough to step in? Bonnie won't talk to anyone else.

Kiki is eight months pregnant and trying to cram as much ho-ho-ho into the holidays as possible. When a customer drops dead during an offsite event, this intrepid scrapbooking sleuth is left holding the bag. After her name is cleared, Kiki isn't one to sit around while her friends are threatened with false imprisonment. Instead, she vows to wrap up this case and tie it with a bow. Leave it to Kiki to determine who was nice, and who was very, very naughty, indeed. A nasty Christmas Grinch is targeting one of Kiki's friends—and that's just not kosher.