Charming Cozy Mysteries Worth Investigating

Weddingville, Washington, is in the throes of its annual bridal fair. For Daryl Anne Blessing, that means soothing the high-strung brides-to-be who have taken her family’s dress shop by storm. Hunky photographer Seth Quinlan is around to provide eye candy and witty repartee-but it’s no laughing matter when a diamond ring set disappears from the Ring Bearer Jewelers, followed by a designer gown from Blessing’s Bridal Shop.

Daryl Anne hopes the thefts are just the work of a prankster poking fun at the wedding fever that’s overtaken the town. But Weddingville’s shopkeepers can’t afford for the bridal fair to lose its luster. Then business takes a dark turn when a bride is found dead in Flower Girl Shop’s fridge. Now, with Weddingville’s romantic reputation on the line, Daryl Anne and Seth turn up the heat on their own simmering attraction-and a killer determined to make bridezillas a dying breed . . .

Bailey's in bed with her commitment-challenged lover K.C. when she gets a frantic call from her high-maintenance boss at Gloss magazine. Grabbing coffee and a cab outside her Greenwich Village apartment-the consolation prize in her divorce settlement-Bailey reluctantly heads uptown. At Cat Jones's Upper East Side town house, she finds something that seriously clashes with the chic decor: the dead body of the family's live-in nanny. As Bailey-unofficially-delves into the murdered girl's past, she finds no shortage of A-list suspects. But when a startling discovery suggests that Cat may have been the intended victim, Bailey is suddenly up to her bed head in a high-profile investigation that's perfect fodder for a tabloid headline: Is someone trying to kill the editors of women's magazines?

With the spotlight on New York's glitzy media world, Bailey interviews back-stabbing editors, straying husbands, and one sexy, six-feet-two psychologist who could make her decide to kick K.C. to the curb. Sporting her pair of red slingbacks and armed with the investigative skills she's honed as a true crime reporter, she sets out on a search that takes her from Manhattan's exclusive Carnegie Hill area-the nanny heartland of America-to the ritzy weekend estates of Pennsylvania and Connecticut. Bailey will need all her street smarts and some lightning-fast detective work to catch a killer who could end up deleting her name from the masthead for good.

Dead Center finds Andy Carpenter reentering the dating scene with comic results. He is surprised at what a hot ticket he seems to be, and this proves to be a mixed blessing at best. His friends are all too eager to provide advice and guidance, but of course they know just as little about the dating world as Andy. Whether the woman he is dating at the moment is terrific or far from it, the spectra of Laurie always hangs over his head. He has strong feelings of bitterness towards her for leaving, but she is, after all, the love of his life. He has had no contact with her at all, and can only assume she is back in Findlay, serving in the number two job on the local police force. Then one day he returns to the office to find Laurie waiting for him. Laurie has arrested a young man for murder and, though the evidence clearly called for his arrest, she believes he is innocent. The accused is the son of Laurie’s oldest friend and she believes Andy is the best person to represent him. Andy follows Laurie back to Wisconsin where he must explore a secretive religious community that seems to hold the truth about what really happened to the deceased.

On a quiet August morning, Judge Deborah Knott’s father Kezzie makes a shocking discovery on a remote corner of his farm: the body of a man bludgeoned to death. Investigating this crime, Deborah’s husband, Sheriff’s Deputy Dwight Bryant, soon uncovers a long-simmering hostility between Kezzie and the slain man over a land dispute. The local newspaper implies that Deborah’s family may have had something to do with the murder-and that Dwight is dragging his feet on the case.

Meanwhile, Deborah is given a cigarette lighter that once belonged to her mother. The cryptic inscription inside rekindles Deborah’s curiosity about her parents’ past, and how they met. For years she has wondered how the daughter of a wealthy attorney could have married a widowed, semi-illiterate bootlegger, and this time she’s determined to find the answer.

But why are Deborah’s brothers so reluctant to talk about the dead man? Is the murder linked to Kezzie’s illegal whiskey business? And could his courtship of Deborah’s mother have something to do with the bad blood between the two families? Despite Deborah’s promise not to interfere in Dwight’s work, she cannot stop herself from doing everything she can to help clear her brothers and her father from suspicion . . .

Regan Reilly plans to spend her Fourth of July week vacationing in the Hamptons at her parents’ home and also with her best friend, Kit, who has a share in a group house. A last-minute phone call, however, casts Regan’s trip in a new light. Brigid O’Neill, a rising country star, has been getting frightening “love notes” and she hires Regan as her bodyguard for a Fourth of July concert in Southampton. Brigid plans to play a fiddle given to her in Ireland and said to have magic powers. She later learns the rest of its legend–whoever takes it out of Ireland will have an accident or face death.

A guest found floating face-down in a pool at Chappy’s welcoming party for Brigid is only the first in a series of ominous incidents. As Brigid’s Fourth of July concert nears, it looks as if the cursed fiddle should be shipped back to Ireland–Express Mail! It’s Regan’s job to hold the curse at bay and fend off Brigid’s pursuers.

A sly, witty mystery features two extraordinary sisters–one a master chef and the other a renowned actress–who juggle husbands, lovers, the Hollywood media, and their own identities to catch a thief.