Showing results by author "Denise Swanson" in All Categories

Yard sales can bring out the worst in people. So when Scumble River school psychologist Skye Denison organizes a 100-mile yard sale, otherwise neighborly folk get downright nasty: her own mother creams a woman, and a battle of the sexes breaks out. But when her former boss is found murdered, nobody knows for sure how this cookie will crumble.

There’s no place like Scumble River at Christmastime, and this year, school psychologist Skye Denison has twice as much to celebrate - and to do. In addition to the usual holiday frenzy, Skye’s wedding to police chief Wally Boyd is less than a week away - that is, if the groom isn’t too busy working to attend. The town’s sexy new librarian, Yvonne Osborn, has just been murdered, and the list of suspects is piling up faster than late fees on an overdue book.

Skye Denison and the rest of Scumble River is celebrating its bicentennial in style - with reenactments, a bingo tent, and a coal-tossing contest. Best of all, the guest of honor is the town founder's great-great-grandnephew, Gabriel Scumble. But his visit turns out to be short-lived when he is found dead. The murder weapon: a pickax. Meanwhile, Skye's ex-fiancée is back in town. But is he here simply to create turmoil in her love life...or does he have a connection to Gabriel's death?

When school psychologist Skye Denison investigates the death of a popular teenager who was cast as Sleeping Beauty in the school play, she uncovers some shocking revelations about prominent Scumble River citizens. And even ever-optimistic Skye knows that in this case, finding the killer won't end this tale happily-end-after....

Opening up a dime store in her hometown of Shadow Bend, Missouri, Devereaux "Dev" Sinclair thought she'd left the wilds of city life behind her. But she's about to discover that even rural life can be beastly. Handsome private investigator Jake Del Vecchio has rented the office space on the second floor above Devereaux's dime store, and Dev now finds herself embroiled in his first case, which involves Gabriella Winston, the missing wife of wealthy philanthropist Elliot Winston.

Opening an old-fashioned five-and-dime shop in her small Missouri hometown has been a great change for Devereaux “Dev” Sinclair. But when she hosts a reading group there, she learns that bad writing can mean life or death. To keep her new business in the black, Dev opens up her shop to local clubs. But in the first meeting of the Stepping Out Book Club, the speaker storms out after members attack his poetry’s sexism and scorn for small towns.

School psychologist Skye Denison reluctantly agrees to act as maid of honor in her California cousin's over-the-top platinum-style wedding - and is also expected to assist the control-freak wedding planner. But when Skye discovers the planner dead, just one week before the big event, Skye is suddenly working double-duty.

For twenty-eight years, cruise critic Darcy Simons has followed the rules. And what did it get her? A broken heart, an unfaithful fiancé, and a pile of bills taller than her uneaten four-tiered wedding cake. Clearly, it's not blondes, but bad girls, who have more fun, and she is determined to become one of them. While Darcy is on the maiden voyage of the Ocean Starr cruise liner to write a snarky review that will earn enough money to pay off her canceled wedding, she's determined to break some rules and have a wild sexual adventure—she just needs to find the perfect man.

Kizzy Cutler finds it so delicious to be back in her hometown of Shadow Bend, Missouri, that she seems to have forgotten why she fled 20 years ago. For now, she's excited to kick off her new line of cupcakes with a competition, which Dev has agreed to host in her shop. But before the first yummy cupcake is even baked, Kizzy's assistant, Fallon, dies from a mysterious ailment.

A health spa complete with tofu turkey and "Dress for Sexcess" lectures is the last place school psychologist Skye Denison wants to spend Thanksgiving. But when her best friend Trixie Frayne convinces her to take a complimentary weekend at the new Scumble River Spa, Skye accepts her fate and prepares to be slathered, wrapped, and roasted - until a murder ruins the good time.

When school psychologist Skye Denison stumbles over the body of pushy Promfest chairperson Annette Paine during a Halloween fundraiser, it looks like a clear-cut case of promicide. Annette was not the only prom mom desperate to see her daughter crowned queen. But she was also wearing the same witch costume as Skye, so which witch was the intended victim?

When Skye Denison's brother forms a band called Pink Elephant, the town goes wild-maybe too wild. First, a groupie turns stalker, seducing the band members one by one. Then, one of the Pink Elephants winds up murdered. Who's to blame? Everyone seems to think it's the drummer - and now Skye has to clear her brother's name.

When she left Scumble River years ago, school psychologist Skye Denison thought she’d never be back. But after a run of bad luck in the big city, she has a new appreciation for the down-home charm of small-town life - and decides to start over in the town where she started out… When Skye’s beloved grandmother is found dead in her bed, the family consensus is natural causes. Still, Skye insists on an autopsy - an examination that proves the sweet old lady was, in fact, murdered! But who could have done the deadly deed?

With her morning sickness finally abated, Skye Denison-Boyd is ready to pounce on the pertinent problems she faces as Scumble River Elementary School's psychologist. After trying almost every trick in the book to aid a handful of socially awkward fourth grade boys, Skye opts for the innovative approach of pet therapy with the assistance of the local vet, a Siberian husky, and a Maine coon cat. Unfortunately, the first session only breeds disaster and draws the ire of cantankerous school board member Palmer Lynch.

When author Sheridan Davis is forced to return to Sutton Falls, Illinois to care for her estranged father, the last person she wants to run into is Ridge Sutton. Meeting Ridge, who has matured from handsome to gorgeous, while she looks as if she's spent the night in a cardboard box, is so not how Sheridan pictured seeing her high school crush again. Tricked into a disastrous marriage that ended in a divorce and stuck in the role of Sutton Falls' mayor, Ridge is ready for a change. While floodwaters creep higher and higher, can Sheridan and Ridge make peace with their past?

Delaney believes life is an adventure, but when she receives a lottery ticket for a birthday she's not having, from a father she hasn't heard from in eighteen years, not even her horoscope can predict the astonishing outcome.

Marco Thorne was hired by Club Wilde's owner to open up the newest, most outrageous venue yet. He is absolutely certain that he can handle all the competition Las Vegas has to offer until his overbearing boss contracts with Lions and Tigers and More sanctuary to have live exotic animals present in the jungle-themed club. Still, he has no choice but to go along with his boss's idiotic scheme, even if he thinks it's the worst idea he's ever heard.

Her honeymoon may have been less than relaxing, but Skye Boyd née Denison is still high on marital bliss with her new husband, Wally. The fact that their family is about to get bigger is even more exciting, even if Skye is dealing with morning sickness - and trying to hide the news from her ever-meddling mother, May. But Skye quickly comes crashing down from cloud nine when the body of one of her coworkers, science teacher and volleyball coach Blair Hucksford, is found in the school swimming pool.

Devereaux Sinclair loves running her old-fashioned store in her small Missouri hometown. If only murder didn’t keep landing on her doorstep.… Dev’s five-and-dime may be doing well, but her love life is in turmoil. She’s torn between Deputy U.S. Marshal Jake Del Vecchio, who is on an undercover assignment, and her ex-beau Noah Underwood, the local doctor from a high-society family. So she welcomes the distraction when Elise Whitmore offers her a deal on antique chocolate molds that would be perfect for her Easter gift baskets. But do the molds actually belong to Elise’s soon-to-be ex-husband?

While school psychologist Skye Denison eagerly anticipates the grand opening of a new bookstore called Tales Dropping off some books at Tales & Treats, many of Scumble River's most outspoken citizens want to shut down the owners before they even open - and one is angry enough to commit murder....