On my porch

I found these books on my porch last night, thanks to the UPS guy.

Mrs. Jeffries Turns the Tide (Victorian Mystery #31) by Emily Brightwell (Berkley Prime Crime mass market, 7 May 2013).

Beautiful and new in town, Ellen Langston-Jones doesn’t have any enemies. So, when she’s found dead in the communal gardens, Inspector Witherspoon quickly narrows the field of suspects down to one: Lucius Montague, who was seen threatening Mrs. Langston-Jones shortly before her death.

The Inspector and all of London are positive that he’s the killer, but Mrs. Jeffries has doubts. Her biggest problem is that Lucius Montague is a very disagreeable character and no one—including Inspector Witherspoon’s staff—is inclined to save his skin. Now, she must turn the tide of the investigation...or watch an innocent man take the fall for the real killer.

 

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Killer in Crinolines (Consignment Shop Mystery #2) by Duffy Brown (Berkley Prime Crime mass market, 7 May 2013). 

Reagan Summerside should be devoting all her energy to her consignment shop the Prissy Fox. But when her dear friend Chantilly Parker is arrested for murder, Reagan vows to clear her name. The victim is Simon Ambrose, who’s found lying in his own wedding cake with a knife in his back.

Chantilly has motive (Simon broke her heart to marry wealthy Waynetta Waverly) and opportunity (crashing the wedding in her UPS delivery truck). And she has cake on her face, and the stolen bridesmaid dress the killer wore is in her truck. But Chantilly would never wear crinoline to kill a man!

With the help of her flamboyant auntie, KiKi, and vexing but attractive attorney Walker Boone, Reagan is determined to save her friend—before she’s forced to turn in her brown uniform for an orange jumpsuit…

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The Begonia Bribe (Garden Society Mystery #2) by Alyse Carlson (Berkley Prime Crime mass market,  7 May 2013).

A beauty pageant for little girls—the Little Miss Begonia Pageant—has decided to hold their event in a Roanoke park. Camellia is called in to help deal with the botanical details, the cute contestants, and their catty mothers. She soon realizes that the drama onstage is nothing compared to the judges row. There’s jealousy, betrayal, and a love triangle involving local newsman—and known lothario—Telly Stevens. And a mysterious saboteur is trying to stop the pageant from happening at all.

But the drama turns deadly when Stevens is found dead, poisoned by some sort of plant. With a full flowerbed of potential suspects, Cam needs to dig through the evidence to uproot a killer with a deadly green thumb.

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Cat Nap (Sunny & Shadow Mystery #2) by Claire Donally (Berkley Prime Crime mass market, 7 May 2013).

Kittery Harbor, Maine, may not be a hotbed of criminal activity, but Sunny Coolidge and her feline companion, Shadow, have a knack for nosing out trouble. While Shadow copes with a sore paw and an irritating puppy invading his turf, Sunny gets mixed up in a financial dispute between rival vets and ex-spouses Jane and Martin Rigsdale. Sunny agrees to help Jane confront Martin about his moneygrubbing ways, only to find herself caught at the scene of a crime: Martin has been murdered.

 

Though Jane is pegged as the lead suspect in the investigation, Martin, with his greedy ways and his catting around, did not have a shortage of enemies. Did a scorned lover or cheated creditor put Martin down for good? It’s time for Sunny and Shadow to team up again, sniff out a killer, and clear Jane’s name before someone decides to put them to sleep, too.

 

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Gluten for Punishment (Baker's Treat Mystery #1) by Nancy J. Parra (Berkley Prime Crime mass market, 7 May 2013).  

Even though Toni is used to going against the grain by preparing allergy-safe, gluten-free products for her online bakery, Baker’s Treat, opening a storefront in the middle of wheat country Kansas might be biting off more than she can chew. The town is already skeptical of her flour-free ways, but when a local wheat farmer is murdered outside her patisserie, skepticism turns into outright suspicion.

 

With the help of her eccentric grandmother, her handsome lawyer, and the sexy new widower in town, Toni is determined to find the real criminal before bad publicity and increasingly personal acts of vandalism shut her down. But when another suspect winds up dead, Toni realizes that this half-baked killer isn’t just trying to get her to close shop—he’s trying to make sure that she’s made her last gluten-free cookie…forever.

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Hex on the Ex (Mind for Murder Mystery #3) by Rochelle Staab (Berkley Prime Crime mass market, 7 May 2013).

At a Dodgers game to celebrate her father’s birthday, Liz is forced to watch her ex—star player, Jarret—on the pitcher’s mound. To make matters worse, her former best friend, Laycee, is in the stands as well. Having betrayed her trust by having an affair with Jarret, Laycee is the last person Liz wants to see.

 

But when the appearance of a white pigeon—an omen of death—sets the superstitious Jarret off balance, it’s a game changer both on and off the field. Because the next morning, Laycee is found dead in Jarret’s home—and Liz is on deck as the prime suspect…