Showing results by narrator "Sandra Murphy" in All Categories

As Whispering Pines’ busiest tourist season ever draws to a close, Reeva Long, Ruby McLaughlin, and the other villagers are ready for things to quiet down. Instead, a break-in and a small fire set near Hearth & Cauldron puts everyone on edge. The only clue, a melted candle stub, gives the amateur sleuths little to work with. Soon other fires flare up, threatening the entire village, so Deputy Jayne O’Shea takes charge of the investigation. Can Jayne, with Reeva’s and Ruby’s help, catch the firestarter before someone gets hurt or worse?

Emma Whitecastle would rather spend time with her boyfriend than help Joanna Reid get rid of her husband's ghost. But when she finds out Joanna's daughter has broken her engagement and attempted suicide, Emma and Granny Apples are compelled to investigate. The multifaceted mystery unfolds in Hollywood, where a vengeful spirit strikes too close for comfort as Emma and Granny unearth a clue hidden in a haunted diamond.

Granny was famous for her award-winning apple pies - and notorious for murdering her husband Jacob at their homestead in Julian, California. The only trouble is, Granny was framed, then murdered. For more than 100 years, Granny's spirit has been searching for someone to help her see that justice is served - and she hits pay dirt when she pops in to a séance attended by her great-great-great-granddaughter, modern-day divorced mom Emma Whitecastle.

Would you like to simplify your life, downsize, and become debt free? Then this book is definitely for you! Most of the things we own, we don't even pay attention to in our day to day lives. You must keep finding things around your home you see only once a year, and yet you keep finding them every spring cleaning. You clean them up, meditate a bit on the memories they bring back, and put them back in their secret place. Then you forget about them for at least a few months. And it's not just about the things we don't use daily. It's about the attitude, the desire to own so many things. It's a vicious circle we draw ourselves, and we keep following the line like our lives depend on it.

When Salem Grimes stumbles onto a dead body on her way to an AA meeting, she does what any self-respecting Christian would do - freaks out and screeches words that would make Jesus blush. However, learning her ex-husband, Tony, stands accused of the murder spurs Salem into action. Eager to help, she makes the bold decision to investigate the case as an amateur sleuth. What she lacks in skills, qualifications, or a general clue on how to find, well, clues, she makes up for with the genuine desire to help.

Spiritual medium Emma Whitecastle knows a good ghost when she feels one - like her own sweet Granny Apples, long gone but still as famous for her apple pies as she is for helping her great-great-great-granddaughter get to the core of the most baffling mysteries...When Emma gets word of a sticky spirit problem in Las Vegas, she and the ghost of Granny Apples hit the road for Sin City. The spooked one is Dolly, a former showgirl. Dolly is haunted by Lenny, a dead Vegas hood worried about an aging mobster named Nemo coming after the leggy old bombshell.

Imagine spending eternity with your backside hanging out! That’s what Emma Whitecastle and Granny Apples can’t help but think when they meet the ghost of Tessa North frolicking in the surf off Cataline Island. Tessa, a young starlet who died on the island in the 1960s wearing nothing but a polka-dot bikini, won’t cross over until “Curtis” comes for her. To help the winsome, bikini-clad spirit, Emma and Granny must find out who Curtis is and how Tessa died.

It’s time for the annual Whispering Pines Tour of Gardens, and plant lovers are arriving by the busload. Discussions of raised beds, fertilizers, and proper amounts of water and sunlight can be heard all around the village. But just as the tours begin, chaos erupts. Someone has vandalized the gardens.

When a tourist is found dead and a villager is accused of murder, Reeva knows the village has bigger problems than icky ice cream. It’s time for Long and McLaughlin Private Investigators (a.k.a. Reeva and Ruby) to put their sleuthing skills into action and catch the real killer.

New York City, 1832. Clarissa Tanner is carefree and lighthearted until the sudden death of her parents. Forced to pay off family debts or lose her horse farm, she’s given one choice: auction off her beloved horses or reluctantly enter 1830s New York Society social season to face the dreaded marriage market. Nicholas is a man on a mission, searching for his missing brother. Fearing Liam may be the victim of foul play, Nicholas needs to keep a low profile while conducting his search.

Abigail’s dream of owning a tearoom in her California beach town is about to come true. She’s got the lease, the start-up funds, and the scone recipes. But she’s out of a tearoom and into hot water when her realtor turns out to be a conman… and then turns up dead. Not even death puts an end to the conman’s mischief. He rented the same space to a tarot reader, Hyperion. Convinced his tarot room is in the cards, he’s not letting go of the building without a fight.

With only a smattering of tourists visiting the village for the Samhain feast, Jayne is excited…no. She's looking forward to…no. Jayne is guardedly optimistic about spending a few days with her demanding sister. Then a boy goes missing during trick-or-treating and everything changes.

As the weather turns crisp, Jayne O'Shea and the other villagers prepare for the last big tourist draw of the season: the autumn equinox festival. It's a time to enjoy a bounty of food, the company of others, and the ever-popular cooking competition. Events in the baking division, however, turn from friendly to fatal when one of the contestants, a beloved nationally known chef, is found dead in the woods.

Adam Eberhardt has always felt different, but he never would’ve guessed he was a clone of Albert Einstein. Science geeks don't usually live inside the body of a hulk. A brain that never shuts off can be a blessing or a curse, but Adam hasn’t felt many blessings during his sleepless nights, regular victims of his severe anxiety disorder. Weaving through harrowing childhood memories, science research, and self-doubt, he most enjoys spending his mind power thinking about his wunderkind fellow student, Margot. . .who remains oblivious to his interest.

In book three of this cozy culinary series, mystery author and part-time meddler, Anna Romano, opens her home to her detective boyfriend’s troubled brother, Scott. But the happy family reunion was over before it began when a body is found in her home, and Scott subsequently disappears. Was Scott somehow involved in the murder? While her boyfriend, John, and his partner investigate, Anna is mysteriously snatched. No one knows how or why Anna is kidnapped, except that it must have something to do with Scott. Will the detectives reach Anna in time?

Courtney has thrown a few fairy garden parties—for kids. But if a local socialite is willing to dip into her trust fund for an old sorority sister’s fortieth birthday bash, Courtney will be there with bells on. To make the job even more appealing, a famous actress, Farrah Lawson, is flying in for the occasion, and there’s nothing like a celebrity cameo to raise a business’s profile.

Nikki Garcia’s company sends her to investigate fraud allegations at the Colombian affiliate. During the investigation, she grapples with high stakes, mega-money corruption while still struggling with the ghosts of her young son’s tragic death a few years earlier. As she conducts her audit, she connects accidental deaths to possible smuggling activities and suspects a much darker plot. After receiving a veiled threat to her life, she hires a former CIA operative to assist her. After she is kidnapped, she wonders if her romantic partner is part of the sinister plot.

Armed with Salem’s “Smart-Enuff” phone and Viv’s racing model Cadillac (with aggressive acceleration!), these two amateur super-sleuths set out to catch a gang of armed robbers terrorizing G-Ma’s neighborhood...if for no other reason than to stop G-Ma’s panic-stricken calls every time a car drives by.

Another day, another dead body. It's all in a day of the life of Salem Grimes. Salem Grimes figures even a God who works in mysterious ways wouldn’t resort to a dead body in a dumpster in answer to Salem’s prayers to help her stay on her diet - excuse me - strat-eat-gic plan. But a dead body in a dumpster it is, and now Salem and Viv, her octogenarian partner-in-crime-solving, are on the case once again.

Their new romance was going great, when all of a sudden, a simple trip to the grocery store turned into a wrestling match between two scorned women. Piquing her interest for a juicy story, Anna’s snooping to find out more about the seemingly "innocent" love triangle catapulted her into the middle of a murder investigation. The murder weapon of choice? A red stiletto…While the detectives are convinced the husband is the ‘killer’, it seems Anna’s faith in his innocence may be in vain, as additional bodies, and mistresses, keep piling up.