Showing results by author "Ellery Adams" in All Categories

Molly Appleby has promised her new husband that their honeymoon will be trouble-free - specifically, no sleuthing. Unfortunately, trouble seems to follow Molly wherever she goes, even to England. After a glorious week in London, the newlyweds have escaped the city to visit Molly's great-aunt in the quaint English village of Marlow Crossing. The setting is idyllic, as beautiful and serene as Molly could hope for, but, as the senior staff writer for Collector's Weekly knows, appearances can be deceiving.

Miracle Springs, North Carolina, is famed for its healing springs. But bookstore owner Nora Pennington has a tendency to land in a different kind of hot water. Though she loves to practice bibliotherapy by finding the perfect books for her customers while listening to their secrets, she also likes to bury her nose in the occasional local crime . . .

In the grips of a cold and drab autumn, Collector's Weekly reporter Molly Appleby is thrilled to be attending a festive black-tie fundraiser hosted by the very private Natasha Gordon, an heiress known for her charitable events and aversion to the limelight. It's Molly first chance to see the stunning interior of the Gordon estate, but when a rare book dealer is pushed from a high window to his death, she's confronted with a sight that's become all too common for her. 

In the world of antiques and collectibles, it helps to have a sharp eye for quality, a good ear for gossip, and a nose for murder. When the female antiques dealer she was meant to interview turns up dead, Collector's Weekly reporter Molly Appleby can't help but wonder why anyone would kill a woman so new to the area. Before she can spend much time pondering means or motive, Molly discovers that the father she never knew is keen on a reconciliation. And while it seems unlikely that his sudden interest and the death of the dealer are connected, Molly soon learns otherwise.

When an elderly Miracle Springs resident, Lucille Wynter, arranges for Nora to deliver an order of books to her creepy, crumbling Southern Gothic mansion, Nora doesn't expect to be invited in. An agoraphobic, Lucille doesn't leave Wynter House. Nor does she invite anyone inside. But when Lucille doesn't come to the door to collect her books, Nora begins to worry. Forcing her way into Lucille's dilapidated home, Nora is shocked to find rooms packed to the ceiling with decaying books and a lifeless Lucille at the foot of her stairs.

As the residents of Miracle Springs, North Carolina, select their costumes, plan parties, and get excited for a night of tricks or treats, Nora joins in on the festivities by hosting medium memoirist Lara Luz at the bookstore. Charismatic and compelling, Lara mesmerizes the audience with her life story. Struck by a bolt of lightning as a child, she was pronounced dead only to be resurrected with the ability to connect with those on the other side.

The Hope Street Community Theater is staging It's a Wonderful Life as a fundraiser, and Cooper and the Bible study group are all taking part. They've also managed to land the help of a famous Broadway director, and he travels to Richmond along with his star actress and staff. But the director's entourage epitomize the worst of theater personalities, with petty grievances and jealousies stirring up more drama off the stage than on. And when the assistant director is found murdered in her hotel suite, the list of possible suspects is longer than a red carpet.

Cooper Lee is on top of the world thanks to her great friends at Hope Street Church and the satisfaction of having solved two perplexing mysteries. And with Valentine's Day just around the corner, she's hoping that love is in the air for her and her new boyfriend, Nathan. But Cooper's faith is about to be tested when her sister, Ashley, discovers a corpse and is implicated in the gruesome murder. And, just as troubling, a darkly handsome and exciting man has come into Cooper's life and just might tempt her to stray.

James Henry, a kind-hearted professor of English literature, is forced to move back home to Quincy's Gap, a tiny town in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley, to care for his aging father. Shortly after moving into a house that hasn't changed since his childhood, the overweight, divorced, book-loving cheese puff addict accepts a position as head librarian and joins a supper club for dieters who call themselves the "Flab Five". Avoiding carbs is almost impossible in this deep-fried, all-you-can-eat Southern town.

There's big trouble in Quincy's Gap when the "Diva of Dough" arrives to bake the wedding cake for Milla and Jackson's Christmas Eve wedding. The Diva, a celebrity television chef and cookbook author, is Milla's younger sister. And while her cakes are delectably sweet and incredibly beautiful, the Diva makes enemies wherever she goes. When one of the Diva's enemies decides to take her out, and Deputy Lucy Hanover finds the famous chef's body covered in cake batter, the Supper Club members find themselves up to their necks in suspects.

Despite his trimmer waistline, his girlfriend Lucy's affections for him seem to have inexplicably cooled. So when Lindy suggests the supper club members join a Mexican cooking class, James leaps at the chance to try something new. The Flab Five's classmates include Shenandoah Star Ledger editor Murphy Alistair and twin sisters with supermodel physiques. When one of the sisters is murdered during a school field trip to Luray Caverns, the amateur sleuths set out to catch the killer.

Cooper Lee and her friends in the Hope Street Bible Study Group are enjoying a glorious summer day in the park, complete with a picnic, hiking, swimming, and a local bluegrass band. But Cooper knows that no good day goes unpunished, and when a man turns up dead in the nearby woods - and the sister of Cooper's fiancé is named as the prime suspect - the group may have to trade in their prayers of thanks for pleas of divine intervention.

Cooper Lee has never been happier. She has terrific friends at Bible study, a great boyfriend in Nathan, and, best of all, a new niece or nephew on the way. But storm clouds are gathering when a string of church robberies comes to Hope Street, and an art teacher is found dead in what appears to be a robbery gone wrong.

When the cast of the old Hearth and Home TV show gather for a 25th reunion at a local bed-and-breakfast where the show was filmed, the townsfolk are thrilled to meet the actors and relive their memories of a simpler time. Their nostalgic mood is broken, though, by an ambitious real estate developer who has also come to Quincy's Gap with an eye toward turning the quiet town into the South's hottest new tourist destination. Tensions are boiling over, and then the developer gets a little too sauced one night at the B&B and turns up dead the next morning.

It's June in Virginia, and the scent of flowers and the sound of wedding bells are in the air, an unwelcome reminder to Cooper Lee of the long-distance relationship she recently ended. When Cooper and her Bible study group are invited to spend a weekend at a newly renovated historic inn, it's the perfect chance to get away with friends and put her bittersweet memories behind her - until the inn's pompous co-owner is murdered and one of the suspects is Cooper's own mother. 

James Henry and the Flab Five are invited to serve as judges at Hog Fest, a celebrated barbecue festival in the Virginia mountains. But when one of the "pit masters" is found dead and a member of the supper club is accused of the murder, James and his friends have to lick the sauce off their fingers and get to work catching a killer. Amid a fairground filled with colorful people and tempting food, The Flab Five are sure to fall off the diet wagon. But James Henry has more to worry about than his expanding waistline.

Jane and her fiance, Edwin, are headed to the North Carolina coast for a much-needed vacation. Their harborside loft has floor-to-ceiling bookcases and breathtaking views, but Jane's hopes of exploring the town with her man are stymied when Edwin steps on a stingray. Things take an even less romantic turn when Jane stumbles across a dead body . . . Instead of taking leisurely beach strolls, Jane is suddenly on a literary chase through time, unearthing a dark secret in her family tree that threatens all she holds dear back in Storyton.

When a scathing review by a prominent food critic threatens to ruin the career of local celebrity chef Anton Parsley, he turns to Cooper and her Bible study group for help. Cooper's boyfriend was once mentored by the beloved chef, and Cooper will do anything she can to support his struggling restaurant. But before she can figure out how to restore the chef's good reputation, the food critic is found murdered in his restaurant. Suddenly, Cooper and the gang must go from propping up the chef to tracking down a killer.

A sharply humorous, chilling, and witchy novel about the power of female rage and the undeniable warmth of friendship, for fans of Rachel Harrison and T. Kingfisher. After Eula inherits the sprawling, shadowy estate of Crab Hollow on the remote shores of Shelter Island, she sees a chance to...

As Jane eagerly anticipates the wedding of her best friend Eloise Alcott, Storyton Hall is overrun with poets in town to compete for a coveted greeting card contract. They're everywhere, scrawling verses on cocktail napkins in the reading rooms or seeking inspiration strolling the Poet's Walk, a series of trails named after famous authors. But the Tennyson Trail leads to a grim surprise: a woman's corpse drifting in a rowboat on a lake, a crumpled copy of "The Lady of Shallot" in her lifeless fist.