Showing results by author "Joanna Campbell Slan" in All Categories

Cara's life is spinning out of control. A double-wedding is canceled at the last minute. A baby comes early. Her son decides he hates college. But none of that is as upsetting as the death of a young acquaintance, a food service professional with her whole life ahead of her. The drive-by shooting has left the cops without a suspect. Maybe it was simply a random act of violence. But Cara's curiosity, and her innate sense of humanity, drive her to keep asking questions. Who killed the girl with the purple hair? And why?

Cragan calls an emergency meeting of the Friday Night Mystery Club. Can their combined talents prove that Pru is innocent? And will they find an answer in time to save Cragan from the wrath of a vengeful shooter?

A nasty divorce leaves Cragan Collins with a mountain of bills and her grandmother to support. She takes a job as an ad salesperson for the Gazette. The market is tough, but Cragan finds a mentor in business reporter, Robert Smithson. One icy January day, Robert is found dead in a city park. His murder is dismissed as gay-on-gay crime. Cragan asks The Friday Night Mystery Club to find justice for Robert. Will Cragan's quest for the truth land her on the obituary page?

Being a divorced career woman in the late 80s isn't easy. Cragan Collins finds the friendship of other working singles invaluable, especially as she learns the ropes of selling. When Cragan finds a saleswoman unconscious in the mall parking lot, she runs for help. But being a good samaritan means taking the blame when the other woman dies. Later Cragan learns the woman lied to her . . . repeatedly. Cragan is left wondering if she really knew her friend at all!

The school nurse calls to say that Kiki's daughter has stumbled over the corpse of a dead teacher. But don't worry. Everything's all right. (Ha!). And Kiki might just believe that a badly shaken daughter is the worst of her worries . . . EXCEPT that pre-teen Anya might have actually seen the killer fleeing the scene of the crime. Now Kiki must track down a murderer before the creep "guarantees" Anya's silence forever. After taking a vow to have nothing to do with her crush, the hunky police detective, Kiki is all on her own.

A weekend at a squire’s country home was intended to be a relaxing visit for Jane Eyre and her husband Edward Rochester. Jane looked forward to meeting the squire’s bride and the artist who’d been hired to paint portraits of the newlyweds. However, the household is anything but joyous! The squire’s new marriage has infuriated those who hoped to inherit his holdings. Then their host turns up dead. A tweeny—a maid who assisted both the Cook and the housemaids—is immediately blamed for the crime.

Craft maven Kiki happens to be a card-carrying Episcopalian—but she respects the power of intuition. So when she has a "bad feeling" on the way to Marla Lever's house for a crafting party, she heeds her instincts. Marla's nowhere to be seen, although her car's in the garage—buried under a heap of garbage and lawn furniture. Because the potential horror of a party in a hoarder's paradise pales in comparison to the body that's found in Marla's freezer. Marla's nearly dead herself—passed out from heat stroke.

In front of a meeting room full of customers and merchants, Kiki watches helplessly as a rival crafter takes one bite of a scone and goes into anaphylactic shock. Suddenly all eyes turn to Kiki Lowenstein, who was Dead Woman's archenemy. Just that fast, Kiki's moment of triumph turns into a disaster. Just when Kiki was settling into her new job, her first real career, she's become the poster child for dead customers. But Kiki's life isn't all doom and gloom. On the bright side, her mother-in-law has invited her to a gala event. A spa day is in order . . . and that doesn't go as planned either.

"Till death do us part" comes way too soon for newlywed Kiki Lowenstein. A very pregnant Kiki Lowenstein and her fiance Detective Chad Detweiler are trying to race the stork to the altar, when their vows are interrupted by a shoot-out. Kiki and the children hide in the shed with their local neighborhood donkey! When the all-clear sounds, everyone's worried about the expectant mother. But the problem isn't hers. It's Detweiler's, and he's been seriously hurt.

Good-hearted Kiki Lowenstein plans a Halloween charity crop at a historic haunted house. The crafting is going great until someone attacks Laurel, one of Kiki's employees. The attack puts a real damper on the festivities. Sure, there are tons of reasons to hate Laurel. She's beautiful, shapely, and intelligent. But she's also kind and gentle. Why would anybody want to see her dead? Hint: Maybe it's because of her second job?

The wedding should have been perfect. Kiki Lowenstein certainly did her part to make everything just right for her mother-in-law Sheila's special day. But the discovery of a corpse can put a damper on any festivity. Why did somebody want to cut a retired plastic surgeon out of the big picture?

When police detective Chad Detweiler's estranged wife is found shot to death with bullets from his revolver, the proud papa-to-be finds himself up the creek without a lawyer. The dead woman's family immediately points the finger at the detective. An exhausted Kiki does all she can to be supportive. After all, the dead woman was a drug addict! But when Detweiler's family makes a request that Kiki can't honor without breaking a promise, a solemn oath to her daughter, Kiki puts her foot down.

As the mother of an active toddler and the wife of an often absent husband, Kiki Lowenstein already has both hands full. But when the Lowensteins move into their new house on the same day the construction crew leaves, Kiki must learn to juggle boxes, baby, and big expectations. Her determination to be a good neighbor hits a roadblock when she angers the Nordstroms, the couple who live next door. Then things come to an ugly climax when Sven Nordstrom dies under mysterious circumstances. Sadly, Kiki becomes a suspect.

There are two sides to every divorce . . . yours and the jerk's. In this case, there's Clancy's side and then there's the JERK's side. Of course, Kiki sides with Clancy because they're BFFs (Best Friends Forever). As for the JERK, well, the poor guy can't make up his mind.

Two FBI agents come looking for Kiki's nanny, and suddenly the household is turned upside down. Kiki and her husband must ask themselves the toughest question they'll ever have to face: Can we trust this person with our kids? The answer might say more about them than it does about their nanny, Brawny.

The arrival of Kiki's baby is cause for celebration, but Kiki herself suffers from a severe case of post-partum blues. Her mood darkens further when she learns that her friend Bonnie's newborn infant has been stolen from a local hospital. Bonnie is too grief-stricken to help the authorities. Can Kiki pull herself together long enough to step in? Bonnie won't talk to anyone else.

An old enemy has put out a contract on Kiki. She's worth a lot more dead than alive, which isn't surprising given the state of Kiki's finances. This would be a good time to focus on work at the scrapbooking and craft store—except Kiki can't shake the memory of those sniper shots raining down. While creating a memorial album for the murdered heiress, Kiki discovers murky family politics that could be a motive for murder. With help from friends in high and low places, including hunky beau Chad Detweiler, Kiki finds herself facing a grave ultimatum.

When Time in a Bottle, St. Louis's premiere craft store, is slated for demolition, Kiki is forced to confront her deep-rooted aversion to change. But before she can move, the new building must be made ADA compliant. When a long-sealed wall is breached during renovations, a grim secret is revealed. Determined to uncover the truth and provide closure for the innocent life lost, Kiki becomes entangled in a whirlwind investigation that spans decades. With her unyielding spirit and tenacious curiosity, she unravels a web of secrets, deceit, and heartbreak that has haunted this house for years.

Dumpster diving for her lost paycheck is definitely the low point of Kiki Lowenstein's day—that is, until she finds a severed leg in the trash. Who'd toss a body part in the garbage outside of Time in a Bottle, the crafts store where Kiki works? Accompanying the grisly "gift" is a creepy computerized voice message, a warning to the store's "rich and snotty" female shoppers. Kiki soon discovers that the amputated leg belonged to a customer with a tyrannical and violent husband, a powerful man in the community. And that jerk is now harassing Kiki.

As the holiday season approaches, Kiki over-schedules herself and winds up running herself ragged. To make life even more stressful, she must fend off a stalker, a man determined to possess the object of his affection. Kiki's ace full-time employee, Clancy, has HUGE decisions to make. How do you put aside your hurt and disappointment when you've been betrayed? Is it selfish to think of yourself first? As Clancy ponders questions, Kiki stands on the sidelines, knowing this is not her choice to make.