Showing results by author "Connie Shelton" in All Categories

Is there a serial killer in Taos? It’s the height of the wedding season at Sweet’s Sweets and Sam has all she can do to stay ahead of the rush of bakery orders. Plus, her side job - breaking into houses - isn’t allowing much summer time off either. Not to mention that her mother is pressuring Sam and Beau to set a wedding date. When Sam encounters two older women who then die suddenly, it appears that there may be a serial killer on the loose.

Charlie is invited to a plush Santa Fe spa, a week-long spiritual/nutrition retreat with her friend Dr. Linda Casper. The massages and spa treatments sound great, until she realizes that there is something darker going on at the mountain resort. Meanwhile, Drake has his own set of concerns. He's been asked to testify as an expert witness in a helicopter crash case and it's causing him more anxiety than any feat of flying ever did. It seems that they are each on their own but their two cases overlap and dangers abound, from all sides.

Women are flocking to invest in film producer Robert Williams' latest project, and Gracie's mother is no exception. She has sunk her life savings into his latest movie investment scheme. Big returns were promised, along with the chance to hobnob with famous actors. Now, the money's gone, the bank is threatening foreclosure, and Mama has also taken on the responsibility of Gracie's younger sister and her two kids. Left homeless, the whole brood may be showing up at Gracie's door!

Charlie and Drake are working a helicopter job in rural Maine when a man approaches and asks for their help. At first glance, it seems he's just an old man who needs to get to his son's remote cabin in the woods. But the cabin holds more secrets than Fergus McNab will admit, and it isn't until Charlie returns to Albuquerque that she discovers they may have just aided and abetted a criminal who has escaped the law back home. The secrets get twistier, the more she looks into the 10-year-old case where Rory McNab, facing a life in prison, seemed to vanish from the reach of the law.

Samantha Sweet breaks into houses for a living - all perfectly legal as a caretaker for the USDA. But her real dream is to open her own pastry shop, 'Sweet's Sweets.' Life is a little crazy for Sam right now. At one of her break-in properties, a dying woman insists that she take a small wooden box. Sam doesn't realize that the old woman was known locally as a 'bruja,' a witch, until she begins to feel some strange effects from the box.

Talbot Farber, a popular and successful Albuquerque businessman, lost his beloved wife thirteen years ago. There was a fire aboard the ship during their fifth-anniversary cruise. Several people went overboard in the melee; Jenna Farber was the only one whose body was never recovered. Years passed, she was declared legally dead, and Talbot went ahead with his life, raising their young daughter on his own. Now, he tells Charlie and Ron, he has spotted Jenna alive and well in the Denver airport.

Sharon Ortega, an old school chum of Charlie's, hires Charlie to prove that her dead restaurant partner, David, didn't commit suicide. David's recent, keyman life insurance policy won't pay for suicide, and Sharon needs the money to keep the business going. Charlie uncovers evidence of tax fraud, high level political connections, and two distinctly different sides to David's life. Amidst a confusion of relatives, she also discovers that members of David's family are lifelong friends with Vicky, the new love of Charlie's brother, Ron. And Vicky appears increasingly suspicious.

Mary Holbrook and Sandy Warner are volunteering at Heaven Sent, a homeless shelter, and discover it has been the scene of some thefts. The Heist Ladies decide to investigate. At the same time there are some strange doings at the New Age establishment next door. The Temple of the Rising Moon is run by gurus Orion and Sunshine, a husband and wife team living in a converted school bus, who claim to be raising money to build homes for poor people. As the Ladies dig deeper, they discover the charity is suspect and the hippies aren't exactly who they claim to be either.

It's Halloween, one of the busiest seasons of the year for Samantha Sweet and the crew at her pastry shop, Sweet's Sweets. After baking a zillion pumpkin cookies, ghostly cupcakes, and an all-black cake for a young witch's wedding, the gang is looking forward to a gala costume party at the neighborhood bookshop. But when one of the guests is murdered and a rare book vanishes—practically in front of their eyes—the evening takes a whole different turn and Sam finds herself in the midst of another mystery.

There's cash missing from a local charity thrift shop—lots of it. And when it looks like her surrogate grandma might be accused, there's nothing for Charlie to do but take a job there and try to catch the thief from the inside and clear Elsa's name. As she and Elsa begin tracking the missing money, it becomes obvious that the shop is a little goldmine and there are a number of people who could easily be after the money. She's narrowing down the suspects, but when the person who is tops on her list suddenly and mysteriously dies, well it looks like there's a lot more going on.

When a woman walks into Samantha Sweet’s pastry shop, claiming to have amnesia, it’s a puzzle that seems to have nothing to do with Sam’s new commission for a fantastic one-of-a-kind order of chocolates, although "Jane Doe" seems to know a lot about that. Sam calls Sheriff Beau to solve the mystery of who this stranger is and where she belongs. But Beau’s attention is occupied by other things: nearly his entire force is out sick with some kind of flu bug, and now a murder far from Taos requires his full attention. “Jane’s” forgotten memories become vitally important....

Charlie Parker and her husband Drake Langston accept a job with Gold Trail Adventures in Skagway, Alaska, flying visitors by helicopter to remote cabin sites to experience the outdoor lifestyle and seek their fortunes. It isn't long before one of the guests finds a set of bones in an old mine, remains that date back decades.

It's Christmas in Albuquerque; Charlie and family are ready for a quiet holiday at home. But right away, her hopes fade when Charlie's brother and PI business partner, Ron, brings in two new cases, one of which made national headlines. Five years earlier, with the tide of media attention and public sentiment against her, Tali Donovan was acquitted of killing her two children and went into hiding. Now, on the anniversary of the children's disappearance, their father wants answers.

Samantha Sweet learns that an Irish great-uncle left her an inheritance, so she and Beau change their honeymoon plans and go to the Emerald Isle. Will the gift be something lavish and wonderful? Or is there no pot of gold waiting for Sam? Meanwhile, before Sam fully has the answers to her questions, a new mystery presents itself when a local charter boat is found adrift near the rocky Irish coast, its occupants missing. The family of the captain wants answers and when it looks like a group of Americans might be implicated, the Galway homicide detective in charge of the case enlists Beau’s help.

Samantha Sweet and Beau Cardwell are getting ready for their September wedding, with the whole Sweet clan about to show up for the celebration.

Dealing with her mother may turn out to be the least of Sam’s problems when an unwelcome visitor walks into her pastry shop - Sam’s old heartthrob, the charmer Jake Calendar. Jake wants money for a Hollywood get-rich-quick scheme and he wants Sam to finance the deal. Can Sam convince him that the answer is "no"? Or will he sabotage the plans for her wedding?

Charlie receives an enigmatic letter from her namesake aunt, her father's estranged sister, whom she's never met. Soon she's off to England. In the charming medieval Suffolk town of Bury St. Edmunds it isn’t only slightly eccentric Aunt Louisa’s beliefs in the occult or her spooky "haunted sites" tours that pique Charlie’s interest. When a friend of Louisa's is plagued by a series of pranks, Charlie and Louisa offer to find out what's behind them. But Charlie soon discovers that something sinister is brewing and she finds herself drawn into an investigation of crimes that are far too real.

Upon returning to her New Mexico home after visiting her fiance in Hawaii, private investigator Charlie Parker discovers that her mother and father, a scientist at Sandia Labs, were killed in a suspicious small plane crash.

It’s a New Mexico Christmas. The lights are strung, the luminarias are set along the sidewalks. Treats are abundant and Charlie Parker is getting ready for her mother-in-law’s holiday visit. But there is trouble in the neighborhood and when death shows up - right next door - Charlie’s bright, festive plans suddenly take a turn for the dark.

It’s a terrible case of mistaken identity when a gang of bank robbers think that Charlie is a famous movie star. Disappointed with their take from the bank, they decide that a hefty ransom will be their ticket to riches. But what will happen when the real star steps forward? Charlie knows that only her wits will save her from this band of desperate men. Meanwhile, in a race against the clock, Charlie's husband Drake is working with the FBI and local authorities to get Charlie back before her captors realize their mistake.

Charlie is on vacation. A cozy cabin, a diner that serves delicious guilty-pleasures, and Drake - all Charlie needs to relax and enjoy herself. But the town of Watson's Lake has a little unsolved mystery. Four years ago, a showplace home - beautiful and serene and tucked away on the mountain - blew sky high, due to an apparent gas leak. A young woman died. The owner disappeared. His gold-digging wife wants the insurance money, and his daughter wants to know what happened to her father.