Showing results by author "Tonya Kappes" in All Categories

USA Today bestselling author Tonya Kappes brings you southern and quirky characters in her mystery series. Her stories are charged with humor, friendship, family, and life in small southern towns. Welcome to Normal, Kentucky, where NOTHING is normal.

It is fall in Normal, Kentucky, and the town is celebrating the season with a Bourbon Festival. Mae West is trying to enjoy the festival and a night out with Hank. While trying to dodge the one question every keep asking (When is the wedding?) Mae overhears an argument between the bourbon king's son and another man and woman. So, when she stumbles over a body with ties to the Bourbon King, her hackles are raised.

When I begged Hank Sharp to take dance lessons to celebrate Valentine's Day, I knew I was getting more than I had bargained for. But when a dancer's dead body shows up at the height of the competition and Hank is hired to investigate the murder, I had no idea what we were in store for when he had Dottie Swaggert and Henry Bryant go undercover as a dance competition couple to get insider information.

It seems shop owner and newly appointed Whispering Falls Village President June Heal has it all: beauty, wits, bewitching powers...Sheriff Oscar Park. Life is good. Because life in Whispering Falls is magical. But when a member of the community is found dead on the steps of A Charming Cure, June's homeopathic cure shop, and her fingerprints show up at the scenes of local robberies, she is kicked off the village council and her powers fall under scrutiny. Until it's uncovered who is wreaking havoc on the town...June's magic is suspended.

Yes. I'm the daughter of the infamous couple, June Heal and Oscar Park. One teeny weeny problem, I'm a mortal. Yep. I guess I got my granny Darla's DNA. Good news! I might not have spiritual powers but I have a mean set of baking skills. I'm delighted to be moving out of Whispering Falls, where y'all know I can't live since I'm mortal, and to Celestial Falls, another small Southern town where I'm opening Heavenly Desserts. Of course, The Marys wouldn't let me leave unless I took my new kitten with me.

Only a handful of people know that Emma Lee Raines, proprietor of a small-town Kentucky funeral home, is a "Betweener." She helps ghosts stuck between here and the ever-after - murdered ghosts. But Emma Lee's own sister refuses to believe in her special ability. In fact, the Raines sisters have barely gotten along since Charlotte Rae left the family business for the competition. After a doozy of an argument, Emma Lee is relieved to see Charlotte Rae back home to make nice. Until she realizes her usually snorting, sarcastic, family-ditching sister is a...ghost.

Welcome to Normal, Kentucky, a small town in the Daniel Boone National Forest and Happy Trails Campground, where the annual Christmas activities are in full swing. But behind the twinkling lights and festive cheer lies a sinister secret. When a local delivery driver is found murdered in Seymore's Candy Cane Factory, suspicion quickly falls on the eccentric cast of characters who call Normal home. From the grumpy old man who owns the candy cane factory, to the bubbly town fiddle player, Otis Gullett, who is secretly in a rendezvous with the factory owner's wife. No one is above suspicion.

Sunsets, Sabbatical, & Scandal: A resident of Normal, Kentucky, is found dead on the floor of the Normal Diner, leaving the entire town on high alert. News spreads fast about the murder and Detective Hank Sharp is hungry for answers. Mae West along with the Laundry Club ladies come up with a list of suspects and the evidence is piling up faster than a juicy double cheeseburger. Who murdered the beloved citizen?

Fresh off the Christmas Pawrade and Central Park tree lightening, Honey Springs is buzzing with the excitement of the season. Roxy Bloom and Patrick Cane are hosting the ultimate Christmas Day diner for all of their friends and family at The Bean Hive. Roxy has been so busy with her jingle bell lattes and planning the party that Patrick whisks her off for a romantic dinner at the Watershed for some alone time.

Meet Roxanne Bloom, ex-lawyer and who likes to be called Roxy by her close friends. She's the owner and operator of The Bean Hive coffee shop in Honey Springs. Kentucky. But when a dead body is dumped on her doorstep like a sack of coffee beans, the cozy coffee shop becomes an all-out crime scene and everyone in the small town is hankering for some good gossip. Sheriff Spencer warns her to be careful because everyone is a suspect. Roxy's snooping lawyer skills are on alert and she can't help but brew up a few clues to help find the cold blooded killer

When famous bounty hunter Colt Lincoln is found dead in the Smelly Dog Groomer, clutching a sponge curler that belongs to Dottie Swaggert, Mae West and the Laundry Club Ladies know they've got a real doozy of a case on their hands. Despite Colt's catfishing ways and the fact that he'd parked his fifth wheel camper in Happy Trails Campground, owned by Mae and run by Dottie, they know their friend couldn't have done it.

I thought I had my hands full when Dottie Swaggert and Mary Elizabeth Moberly entered the Ms. Blossom Queen Beauty Pageant for seniors, but when I witnessed a fight at the festival between Carrie Patillo and Jason Dresser, Carrie's daughter's accused killer, I knew Jason was wrongfully accused for the murder and set up. How was I going to prove it before the trial started? Easy. Gather the Laundry Club Ladies and use our unique sleuthing skills.

Roxanne Bloom quit her job as a lawyer, divorced her cheating husband, and moved to the quaint town of Honey Springs, Kentucky where she'd spent many of her teenage summers visiting her eccentric and fun-loving Aunt Maxi. Roxy follows her dream and opens The Bean Hive, Honey Springs first coffee house on the town's newly revitalized boardwalk. that opens just in time for Honey Springs annual Honey Festival. Roxy's life couldn't be better.

Four years ago, the Eternal Slumber Funeral Home put Chicken Teater in the ground. Now undertaker Emma Lee Raines is digging him back up. The whole scene is bad for business, especially with her granny running for mayor and a big festival setting up in town. But ever since Emma Lee started seeing ghosts, Chicken's been pestering her to figure out who killed him.

When Hank Sharpe asked the Laundry Club Ladies to join him in an undercover investigation to help find a missing person, we grabbed our sleuthing notebook without hesitation. When we found Kyra Tenney's body in what appeared to be an accidental forest fire, we thought we were finished with our undercover act. Only the coroner's report came back that she had been killed before the fire. Join the Laundry Club Ladies as they take their investigation skills to a whole 'nuther level!

Proprietor of the Eternal Slumber Funeral Home, Emma Lee can see, hear, and talk to ghosts of murdered folks. And when her high school nemesis is found dead, Jade Lee Peel is the same old mean girl - trying to come between Emma Lee and her hot boyfriend, Sheriff Jack Henry Ross, all over again. There's only one way for Emma Lee to be free of the trash-talking ghost - solve the murder so the former prom queen can cross over.

Tonya Kappes presents Books 19-21 in the Camper and Criminals Cozy Mystery series: Book 19: Wildlife, Warrants, & Weapons, Book 20: Blossoms, Barbeque, & Blackmail, and Book 21: Lanterns, Lakes, & Larceny, featuring sleuthing campground owner in Normal, Kentucky, Mae West....

I told you I was sick, reads the headstone above Mamie Sue Preston's grave. She was the richest woman in Sleepy Hollow, Kentucky, and also the biggest hypochondriac. Ironic, considering someone killed her - and covered it up perfectly. And how does Emma Lee, proprietor of the Eternal Slumber Funeral Home, know all this? Because Mamie Sue's ghost told her, that's how. And she's offering big bucks to find the perp.

Kenni Lowry likes to think the zero crime rate in Cottonwood, Kentucky is due to her being sheriff, but she quickly discovers the ghost of her grandfather, the town's previous sheriff, has been scaring off any would-be criminals since she was elected. When the town's most beloved doctor is found murdered on the very same day as a jewelry store robbery and a mysterious symbol ties the crime scenes together, Kenni must satisfy her hankerin' for justice by nabbing the culprits.

When Hank Sharpe asked me and the laundry club ladies to join him in an undercover investigation to help find a missing person, me and the ladies grabbed our sleuthing notebook without hesitation. As undercover Forest Bathing Therapist trainees we were bound and determined to find out with happened to Kyra Tenney. When we did find her body in what appeared to be an accidental forest fire, we thought we were finished with our undercover act.