Minerva Biggs Mystery

Delighted by the promise of living and working in a glittering Gilded Age mansion, Minerva Biggs moves to idyllic Bryd Hollow, North Carolina with her dog Plantagenet. She's looking for a new beginning; what she finds is five quite possibly deranged people, four French bulldogs, two distracting dimples attached to one inconvenient man . . . and one murder. Nope, make that two murders. When Minerva makes a connection between her new employer's fatal fall and the death of his celebrated great-grandfather in the same spot more than a century before, she doubts that either was an accident. Delving into old secrets and new grudges, she begins to unravel the twisted threads that bind past to present. Right up until she tangles them around the wrong guy. Oops. With a trial looming, a scandal raging, and her job prospects dwindling, Minerva races to solve both crimes. Preferably before her new beginning comes to an unfortunate end.

When Minerva identifies a murder weapon as a priceless sixteenth-century artifact, she's sure her eyes must be deceiving her. Even by Bryd Hollow standards, five hundred years seems like an absurd amount of time to hold a grudge. The knife can't possibly be real. Can it? Each bizarre secret she uncovers leaves Minerva more determined to get to the bottom of the blade's origins. But the deeper she digs, the more she angers and alienates her new friends. And the police. And possibly a few unsavory criminals. With nobody left on her side except her dog (and even he's getting a little mad), Minerva will have to risk everything to reveal the truth and unmask a killer. Her almost perfect new life might just depend on it.

Flapper dresses, sidecar cocktails, and jazz: what more could a girl and her dog want? Minerva is thrilled at the chance to spend a week at the resort, managing a Gatsby-themed role-play event-and chilled when one of the players turns up dead. With a killer on the loose, everyone from the police chief to her overprotective boyfriend wants her to back off and go home. But Minerva can never resist the call of the past. When she hears the haunting echoes of not one but two long-forgotten crimes, she's more determined than ever not to abandon her guests. Unfortunately for her, someone else has joined the effort to discourage interference. And unlike the others, the murderer is not asking nicely.