Jolie Gentil and friends are putting the finishing touches on the Talk Like a Pirate Day fundraiser for the food pantry and trying to figure out who's breaking into some of the houses Jolie appraises. When she realizes a new face in town is leading high school kids into trouble in those houses, she's mad and lets him know it. But Hayden offers to help her mind her own business, and a lot of people at the fundraiser hear her give him what for. A hurricane's on the way to disrupt the fundraiser, and when a corpse turns up under the pirate ship the next day, someone wants to be sure Jolie looks like a suspect. When her car gets run into a ditch, Jolie knows someone is seriously mad at her. Soon she's getting less work. Who wants a murder suspect appraising their house? Scoobie's pirate limericks can't solve a crime, so Jolie and her sometimes buddy local reporter George Winters look for the murderer and try to figure out who's trying to frame Jolie. They need to stay ahead of whoever's mad at her and off the radar of the local police who tell Jolie -- for the hundredth time -- to butt out. For a cozy mystery with a dose of humor and a touch of romance, join Jolie and friends in Ocean Alley.
You're fired!" Grouchy news publisher Hal Morris sends reporter Melanie Perkins packing for taking too many photos of flowers. Panicked at being unemployed, she lands a job as a landscaper, but an ugly surprise greets her on her first day. A pile of mulch, a tangerine, and a stolen hoe cast suspicion on Melanie. Melanie's efforts to find a murderer instead put a target on her back. Some of the aim is coming from law enforcement, but they aren't the ones who want to silence her permanently. Life along the Des Moines River in Iowa can be peaceful, but a murderer has no problem disturbing her tranquility. In this, the first novel in beloved cozy mystery writer Elaine Orr's new River's Edge series, the author once again offers humor, believable characters and tight prose as she carries the reader to an exciting climax. Those who follow her Jolie Gentil series will find themselves right at home. You won't want to miss this one!
Though she never wanted to sit on the plank above the dunk tank for the food pantry fundraiser, Jolie never dreamed what Scoobie saw would nearly kill him. His ex-con mother arrives and there's a murder to add to the mix. Even appraising real estate is complicated by home burglars. Jolie grudgingly seeks help from her nemesis, reporter George Winters, and tries to evade a kidnapper and murderer and take charge of her world again. The police wish she'd butt out and Aunt Madge is furious that Jolie insists on talking to a couple shady characters on her own. Soon even the guests at Aunt Madge's Cozy Corner B&B are in the way. Can Jolie keep her friends safe, and will Scoobie recover enough to say what happened to him and plan another silly fundraiser?
Wedding days are special, but they don't usually pack as big a surprise as Jolie and Scoobie's New Year's Eve nuptials. Scoobie never knew much about his family -- and after the way he grew up, who could blame him for liking it that way? A 9-1-1 call during the wedding changes everything. Suddenly Jolie has to help Scoobie figure out what he wants to know, and determine who seems to want someone in his family dead. Knowing more about Scoobie's past could change their future together. But a special wedding arrival may cause even more complications. Book 10 in the Jolie Gentil cozy mystery series brings together the close-knit group of friends and zany Ocean Alley townspeople for a very special event.
From Hurricaine Sandy to Cosy Corners B&B repairs to Aunt Madge's wedding in three weeks. If Jolie can handle that, surely she can deal with a sobbing woman who shows up at midnight playing a scary message on a cell phone. A shady deal for storm repairs at the Ocean Alley Senior Complex seems to be the root of Steve Oliver's hit-and-run and missing business partner. When the partner ends up dead at the B&B, Jolie's digging for clues in between burning muffins and appraising houses. But when she doesn't share what she learns with her sometimes-boyfriend, report George Winters, he's grouchy. Jolie is convinced she needs to find the murderer and expose the fraudulent repair bids. Bot everyong shares her views -- not the police, her friend Scoobie, and certainly not the murderer.
It's fun to buy a house. Unless there is something hidden behind the walls and someone wants it. Someone who is willing to kill for it. Jolie is pursued by a purse thief and a burglar, but the guy she's most worried about is the one who left an elderly auctioneer dead on her porch swing. In between appraising houses and planning a fundraiser for the food pantry (can you say liquid string contest?), Jolie, Scoobie and friends need to figure who left a cache of jewelry behind the walls in her house. And who is going to help her cat Jazz feel at home in the new house? Maybe a different kind of pet...
Jolie Gentil moves to Great Aunt Madge's bed and breakfast at the Jersey shore, taking her cat Jazz, and joining Madge's pair of prune-eating dogs. Jolie does not view this as a retreat from her embezzling ex-husband, just a smart change. She had no idea her life was about to get even more complicated. Jolie finds work as a real estate appraiser, but a low-life named Joe Pedone demands that Jolie repay some of her husband's gambling debts and she runs into Michael Riordan, her high school crush. She's not sure which one is more trouble. Jolie appraises his mother's house and finds his mother dead in bed. Soon the mundane work of appraising real estate and dodging suggestions that she go to the ten-year high school reunion are mixed with calls from reporters, scary suggestions from Pedone, and requests that she help the local busybody with First Presbyterian's social services work. Jolie balances her fear of Pedone, conviction that Michael is innocent, and sometimes uneasy friendship with long-ago friend Scoobie.
Bad enough that Jolie ends up in the emergency room because she tried to avoid hitting a deer. Worse to find a dead woman in the hospital restroom after Jolie gets patched up. As the chief budget cutter at the hospital, Tanya Weiss was unpopular, especially in the Radiology Department, where Scoobie works. In between appraising houses and feeding her pet skunk, Jolie’s on the lookout for a runaway teenager and whoever planted the dead woman in her path. Thanks to Scoobie, she’s also planning another crazy fundraiser for the food pantry—this one a Corn Hole Contest. It’s sort of a bean bag game for grown-ups, and the polite term is Corn Toss Contest. So of course, Scoobie prepares to name winners in the Harvest for All Corn Hole Contest. Just when Jolie’s ready to leave the murder investigation to the police, she gets a surprise—and it’s not a good one. Will her need to know see her hurt—or worse?
Jolie Gentil has sworn off butting into other people’s business. To those who know her, it sounds as far-fetched as finding used bubble gum on Mars. Her life revolves around her husband Scoobie, her twins, appraising the occasional house, and helping run the Cozy Corner B&B. Nothing could drag Jolie into solving crimes. Really. Except maybe a request from the most unlikely source. Sergeant Morehouse is convinced his nephew is not a runaway. Something had terrified the teenager, but before Morehouse could figure it out, Kevin was gone. Jolie has a soft spot for Kevin, who helped Scoobie’s young brother Terry adjust to life in Ocean Alley. Plus, she has a feeling that Kevin saw something he wasn’t supposed to see at the hospital, when he had his appendix removed. She has to make the time to follow her hunch. Kind of hard to balance family, the B&B, and the upcoming Cinco de Mayo-themed food pantry fundraiser. And what about the murder of the hospital's head nurse? Could it be connected to Kevin's disappearance? Adding to the mix is Aunt Madge decision to enlighten the Jersey shore by running for mayor of Ocean Alley. She's convinced a proposed resort will change the character of Ocean Alley. With her husband Harry as campaign manager, she intends to convince voters progress doesn't have to mean lots more concrete. Jolie has faith in her hunches. Scoobie isn't so sure and Aunt Madge believes Jolie needs a remedial course in minding her own business. But Kevin’s life may depend on Jolie’s certainty and her efforts to find him before a killer does. Follow the crime -- and fun -- in the eleventh Jolie Gentil cozy mystery.
Usually the woods near her apartment are friendly. But when Christa Heckertt is trapped in a deserted cellar there with a broken arm, the place is decidedly hostile. Christa landed there not long after interrupting an intruder who tried to steal parts from the computers her Iowa City fourth-grade class won in the mayor's competition. But who chased her there?Officer Kirk Reynolds was called from a drug surveillance to investigate the attempted burglary at Buckingham Elementary School. That throws Christa and Kirk together. He wants enough evidence to convict a drug dealer who sells to kids and Christa wants to keep her students safe and get control of her life again. The thieves who want the newly won computers will stop at nothing. They'll kidnap Kirk's niece, run cars off the road, steal, and threaten worse.Christa and Kirk's attraction to each other is growing, but they are too stubborn to admit it. Will it get in the way as they try to decipher an encoded file and learn what the kidnappers want and why it's worth killing to get it? On Halloween eve, the drug dealer Christa and Kirk suspect is behind it all kidnaps Christa to use her as leverage while he plans his biggest score. Will she escape in time to work with Kirk to keep the dealer from making that delivery and find out who the dealer's partners are? Can Christa and Kirk learn to trust the right people--and each other--in time?
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