Published books

When dependable cat sitter Marley Quinn accepts a dream assignment caring for Sir Percival, the extravagantly spoiled feline of screen icon Celeste Lavigne, she expects ocean views, fussy feeding schedules, and perhaps a little celebrity drama. What she does not expect is Percival’s obsession with a locked passenger cabin—or the diamond bracelet Marley finds hidden inside. The bracelet belongs to a woman reported missing overboard the night before. As the pet-friendly luxury cruise glides between fog-softened coastal ports, Marley follows a trail of lies through champagne brunches, grooming salons, and moonlit promenade decks. Everyone on board seems to be hiding something, and the killer is counting on the sea to swallow the truth. But they forgot one thing: cats notice everything.

In the lakeside village of Thistledown, dog walker Lila Hartwell knows every hedge, gate, and gossip trail by heart. So when her steadfast Great Dane, "Bramble", plants his paws and refuses to pass Blackthorn House, Lila listens. Days later, the home’s owner, reclusive Iris Vale, is found dead in what the town calls a tragic household accident. But Bramble’s unease lingers, and so do the secrets rooted deep in the lane. With rain on the cobbles, old grudges resurfacing, and neighbors guarding half-remembered histories, Lila must follow a trail of small clues to learn who turned an accident into murder.

In Honeycomb Hollow, secrets keep longer than preserves and sting harder than bees. Beekeeper Eloise Thorne thought the most exciting thing in her summer would be winning the county tasting medal for her lavender honey. Then she uncaps a dusty1953 honey jar hidden in the wall of her late grandmother’s extracting shed and finds a message pressed beneath its wax seal: Ask the historian about the bell at Briar Chapel. Before Eloise can confront local historian Martin Vale, he dies at the village fête after sampling her prize honey. Now the town whispers that Eloise’s bees carried poison, her business teeters on ruin, and old neighbors turn careful eyes on one another. With only her hives, her nose for flowers, and a stubborn instinct for truth, Eloise must untangle a decades-old betrayal…

California,1958. In the coastal sprawl between orange groves and neon strip joints, Frankie “Grease” Martino makes a living turning battered coupes into chrome-bright hot rods and hunting rare 45s after hours. Then a client’s Cadillac arrives for a routine carburetor tune-up, and Frankie finds a bloodstained leather jacket stuffed in the trunk. Before he can decide whether to call the cops or keep his head down, Johnny Vale—the swaggering lead singer of local rock & roll darlings The Thunderbolts—is found drowned in a marina slip. Everyone says it was a drunken accident. Frankie hears a different rhythm. With sock hops, body shops, jealous lovers, payola schemes, and a whole town humming with gossip, Frankie has to solve a murder before the killer decides the nosy mechanic should be the…

Cami Bell has spent months fetching obituaries, correcting church bake-sale dates, and waiting for her chance at real reporting. That chance arrives with Thornridge’s beloved Founders’ Day reenactment, where the town dresses in petticoats and waistcoats to relive a nineteenth-century printing feud. But when the actor playing Thornridge’s visionary newspaperman dies before a cheering crowd, the spectacle turns chillingly real. Police call it a tragic medical event. Cami, notebook in hand and instincts waking fast, notices the details no one else does: a bitter almond scent beneath printer’s ink, a swapped prop cup, and panic hiding behind powdered wigs. To solve the case, she must untangle rivalries involving land rights, a missing archive letter, and the Herald’s own history—before a…

When retired art professor Eloise Mercer restores a narrow brick storefront in the lakeside village of Bellmarsh to open her long-dreamed-of gallery, she expects cracked plaster, warped floorboards, and the occasional meddling neighbor. She does not expect to find a hidden painting sealed behind a false wall. The unsigned portrait is exquisite, unsettling, and rumored to be tied to a vanished circle of local artists whose scandals were politely buried decades ago. Days later, the painting’s likely creator, reclusive painter Adrian Vale, is found dead in his cottage under circumstances too tidy to trust. While police lean toward natural causes, Eloise sees the careful omissions only an art historian would notice. To uncover the truth, she must trace the portrait’s origins through jealous…

When Eloise Pruitt, Charleston’s most exacting antique restorer, accepts a donated Victorian writing desk, she expects warped veneer, worm tracks, and maybe a silver button slipped behind a drawer. Instead, she finds a hidden compartment containing a letter written in fear—and a name tied to a woman who vanished thirty-two years ago without a trace. As Eloise peels back layers of shellac and silence, the desk reveals what its original owner tried desperately to conceal. In a city where old families preserve their legends as carefully as their heirlooms, Eloise must decide how much of the past should be restored... and who might kill to keep it buried.

In Maple Cross, stories have a way of finding the people who need them most. Willa Finch, shy owner of Bramble & Vine Books, prefers the reliable company of novels, rain-tapped windows, and her loyal customers’ quiet rituals. But when she discovers a rare handwritten manuscript hidden inside a box of donated village histories, her orderly world tilts. The dedication is chillingly specific: For the one who made the fall look accidental. The line seems impossible to ignore after the recent death of beloved town benefactor Edgar Bell, who plunged from the bell tower stairs and was mourned as the victim of a tragic misstep. Then the manuscript’s pages begin to echo details of real life in Maple Cross—details no outsider should know. To uncover whether the book is prophecy, confession, or…