Showing results by narrator "C. S. E Cooney" in All Categories

Following her recovery from breast cancer, Rarity has embraced a life of healing and service in her Sedona, Arizona, community. She welcomes the opportunity to participate in the annual summer healing fair with her fittingly named new-age bookstore, The Next Chapter. The members of the Tuesday Night Survivors' Book Club are also volunteering, maintaining a cooling station for overheated festivalgoers, and hosting a Tarot card reader for entertainment. But one member, Darby, is anything but entertained when the Tarot reader pulls a Death card.

Pet shop owner Shell McMillan is thrilled to see everyone in Fox Hollow flocking to the local animal shelter's fundraiser, where they can get their old keepsakes and collectibles appraised and maybe even sell them for a tidy sum. But the event has drawn some shady characters as well, including Pete Martin, who seems determined to get his hands on a beat-up old jewelry box at any cost. Then Martin is found murdered, and Shell has to go from fundraising to finding a killer.

Rarity is grateful for many things and people in her new life, including her friend Shirley, who is helping to provide backpacks and supplies for kids going back to school. But Shirley needs a big favor. With her husband in a memory-care home, she wants to attend an art opening with a male friend but fears local gossip. She asks Rarity, her friend Sam, and their boyfriends to come along as cover. It would be fun if not for the fact that the two couples are barely speaking . . .

Ever since her business partner, Shauna, fell for a wealthy landowner in town, Cat has been working double time to keep her writers' retreat running. And with the January session almost underway, that spells trouble. But best-laid plans really go awry when Shauna discovers her beau missing from their bed. When his body later turns up in the horse barn, they quickly find out the victim's scandalous lifestyle left many dying for revenge.

To kick off a winter writing retreat, Cat and her handyman boyfriend, Seth, escort the aspiring authors to a nearby ski resort, hoping that some fresh cold air will wake up their creative muses. But instead of hitting the slopes, they hit the bar - and before long, a tipsy romance novelist named Christina is keeping herself warm with a local ski bum who might have neglected to tell her about his upcoming wedding. Next thing Cat knows, her uncle, the town sheriff, informs her that the young man's been found dead.

When the lead actress is found dead on a set staged to replicate the room where suspected witches were tried in 1692—and her on-screen lover, in full costume, is discovered sound asleep in her trailer—the hunt is on for a killer on the loose. Now, even with help from River's entire coven, Lee's Aunt Ibby, and O'Ryan, a clairvoyant gentleman cat, sorting out a witch's brew of secrets, sorcery, and special effects might turn Lee's documentary into her own final act . . .

Rarity is excited about expanding the romance section of her store—but not nearly as excited as her best friend Sam is about reuniting with her brother after many years. Marcus makes the trek from California to Arizona, is welcomed with a party, and hints that he may stick around now that remote work is an option. But is it just a coincidence that not long after his arrival, a body is found near a local swimming hole? Especially considering that the dead woman had recently gone on a date with him—and even worse, that Marcus has a startling secret in his past?

Just married, Lee and her husband, Detective Sergeant Pete Mondello, are settling into their new home when Lee is dubbed WICH-TV's new "Historical Documentary Chief Executive." Her first subject is the brand-new Salem International Museum, slated to be a location for traveling blockbuster exhibits, starting with "Seafaring New England." From research to collecting artifacts of Salem's long-ago days as a shipping capital, the project is a challenge—but when the driver of a truckload of antiquities turns up dead under a pile of fall leaves, it's not quite the kind of challenge Lee expected.

Desperate to find a director for their annual production, the Fox Hollow Players have a stroke of luck when Shell McMillan's actress mother lands a prominent theater director for the job. He's more gruff and demanding than the small-town cast and crew are used to, but his soft side for animals quickly endears him to pet shop owner Shell. Persuading her to let him use a shed on her property where he can work in peace, Shell is horrified when she finds his dead body there. And with obvious signs of foul play, she can't help but investigate the murder.

With the grand re-opening of her Urban Tails Pet Shop just days away, Shell McMillan has her hands full planning entertainment for the festive event, including a fortune-telling parrot. But her jubilant mood is soon threatened by ominous rumors of the return of Johnny Draco, a former investment guru who swindled money from most of the residents of Fox Hollow and then vanished without a trace. And when the parrot predicts a dire future for Draco and his dead body is found just hours later, no one can say they're surprised—but no one will say who did it.

Chelsea is determined to make it to her brother’s wedding. And she’s not going to let the fact that she’s been dead for two years stop her.