Sebastian McCabe-Jeff Cody

Fully revised 2nd edition - The Investigating Arthur Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes Colloquium and donation of the third largest private collection of Sherlockiana in the world were supposed to produce a weekend of great publicity for tiny St. Benignus College in Erin, Ohio. But when theft and murder come to campus, college public relations director Jeff Cody finds himself knee-deep in Sherlockian suspects, besieged by an aggressive reporter he loves but no longer dates, and competing with his eccentric brother-in-law, Sebastian McCabe, to solve the crimes first. The mess worsens when Jeff and his ex-girlfriend, Lynda Teal, themselves fall under suspicion of murder - and with good reason, for they have something to hide. This satirical romp takes Sherlock Holmes seriously, but not Holmesians. A witty and engaging spoof sure to delight not only the deerstalker set but mystery fans in general.

The Investigating Arthur Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes Colloquium and donation of the third largest private collection of Sherlockiana in the world were supposed to produce a weekend of great publicity for tiny St. Benignus college in Erin, Ohio. But when theft and murder come to campus, college public relations director Jeff Cody finds himself knee-deep in Sherlockian suspects. Besieged by an aggressive reporter he loves but no longer dates, he is also competing with his eccentric brother-in-law, Sebastian McCabe, to solve the crimes first. The mess worsens when Jeff and his ex-girlfriend, Lynda Teal, themselves fall under suspicion of murder and with good reason, for they have something to hide. This satirical romp takes Sherlock Holmes seriously, but not Holmesians. A witty and engaging spoof sure to delight not only the deerstalker set but mystery fans in general.

Writer-actor-director Peter Gerards latest film was a smash hit, but some fans of Sherlock Holmes were outraged. Why? Because 221 B Bourbon Street portrayed the beloved detective as a goateed, saxophone-playing southern American working in 1920s New Orleans! Was it a disgruntled Sherlockian or someone else who hated Gerard enough to kill him, twice? That is what mystery writer and college professor Sebastian McCabe, assisted by brother-in-law Jeff Cody, must find out before McCabes own disgraceful involvement in the affair comes to light. And it will take a little stage magic to do it. Amidst this challenging mystery, Jeffs complicated relationship with the lovely journalist Lynda Teal seems to be reaching a definitive resolution just as Jeff approaches his birthday. Readers who so enjoyed the best-selling No Police Like Holmes will find this sequel packed with the same suspense, surprises, and sharp humor that characterized the debut adventure of Sebastian McCabe and Jeff Cody.

Sebastian McCabe Book 3. Popular mystery writer Sebastian McCabe is about to conquer a new world with his Sherlock Holmes play 1895. On opening night, however, his Erin, Ohio theatrical debut as both playwright and actor is upstaged by a murder in back of the newly renovated theater. His brother-in-law, Jeff Cody, evicted from his long-time apartment to make room for fiancée Lynda Teal's gun-toting father, is busy trying to keep Lynda s gorgeous and famous mother from hijacking their swiftly approaching wedding. Both men are pulled into the murder investigation by the pleading of Sister Mary Margaret Malone, Lynda's best friend and maid of honor. The dead man was an old flame of the sister and the chief suspect is a troubled young man she is trying to save. Convinced of his innocence, she wants Mac and Jeff to prove it. The many fans of the first two mirthful mysteries starring McCabe and Cody will be delighted to see how Jeff placates Lynda, pacifies her mother, gets to know her father, keeps the wedding plans on track, and helps Mac solve the mystery. But first he almost gets killed, as usual.

Fresh from almost getting killed helping Sebastian McCabe solve The 1895 Murder, Jeff Cody and Lynda Teal are enjoying their honeymoon alone in Rome when mystery and murder intrude. The disappearance of a young American's Roman boyfriend seems like a familiar tale of a summer romance leading to heartbreak . . . until a cameo necklace purchased at the Vatican is stolen right off of Lynda's neck. The feisty young journalist finds a connection between the two events as she solves her own case for the first time. In a departure from the McCabe – Cody mystery novels, she also narrates the story. The many fans of Jeff and Lynda will be delighted to read this short story bridge to the next novel in the series, The Disappearance of Mr. James Phillimore.

When popular mystery writer Sebastian McCabe agreed to take part in a literary debate in London, he had no clue that he would wind up as both investigator and suspect in the strangest case of his amateur sleuthing career. Arthur James Phillimore, investment guru to the stars and member of an elite Sherlock Holmes society, steps back into his home to fetch an umbrella one rainy day and is never seen alive again. The mystery is eerily evocative of one of Dr. Watson's most famous untold tales, the disappearance of Mr. James Phillimore. But this Phillimore soon reappears – dead. Jeff Cody and Lynda Teal, also in London on the second leg of their honeymoon, get swept up in the bizarre case as well. From the home gym of a gorgeous movie star (the second Mrs. Phillimore) to the flying office an airline entrepreneur, they help McCabe chase down clues all over London. For the journalist Lynda, it's a big story. For Jeff, it's a big distraction from the joys of married life. Dogging them along the way is the shadow of Sherlock Holmes, the one subject that several of the characters have in common. The great detective is also a figure for whom Lynda – to Jeff's dismay and consternation – evinces a growing fascination. Humor, romance, and mystery once again combine in an engaging McCabe-Cody adventure sure to delight the growing fan base of this series.

Pages Gone By is more than just Erin, Ohio's only used book store. It's also a favorite meeting place for writers and readers. And early one morning, it becomes the scene of a murder when a body is found in the romance section. Is the steamy novel, Love's Dark Secret, clutched in the victim's hand, a clue to the killer? Or is it more significant that the murder weapon was a statue of the iconic Maltese Falcon of film noir fame? As polymath mystery writer Sebastian McCabe and sardonic sidekick Jeff Cody try to unmask the murderer of a friend, they get more help than they need from a talk show psychologist and a group of would-be mystery writers with more imagination than deductive skills. But only they know that one suspect has big secrets to hide – secrets that Mac and Jeff hope don't have to be revealed. An homage to the Golden Age of detective fiction.

When Erin, Ohio native Jamie Ellicott returns home as best-selling author James Ivanhoe after a 13-year absence, it's like the return of the Prodigal Son. His ill and aging father welcomes him with open arms. Ivanhoe's two brothers, however, are less forgiving. The whole town gets drawn into the family drama when Ivanhoe seeks to march in the annual St. Patrick's Day parade under the banner of an anti-technology group called the Ned Ludd Society. That's a thumb in the collective eye of his siblings, who own a company that makes microcircuits. As a member of the parade committee, St. Benignus University communications director Jeff Cody has a stake in what soon becomes a heated national debate. But to his genius brother-in-law Sebastian McCabe, the contretemps becomes less important than investigating murder in the Ellicott family. Erin Go Bloody once again demonstrates the skill that caused best-selling novelist Bonnie MacBird to call Dan Andriacco a master of mystery plotting.

"Where do we hide the body?" This is the startling question that Jeff Cody and his wife, Lynda, hear during a wedding reception on the first night of the QueenCon mystery conference in Cincinnati. Not only are the whispered words unnerving, there is no one nearby to have spoken them. Jeff's brother-in-law, mystery writer and amateur sleuth Sebastian McCabe, discounts the puzzle with what seems to be a logical and reassuring explanation. But murder does come to QueenCon - and to a victim who seems to make no sense. Mac's usual freewheeling style of mystery-solving runs into a roadblock in the form of a homicide captain who has been his enemy since the seventh grade. So Jeff and Lynda wind up doing his legwork, and what they had expected to be a fun weekend is harder than any day at the office. Queen City Corpse shines with humor, bright writing, and memorable characterization, as well as the solid storytelling that caused best-selling novelist Bonnie MacBird to call Dan Andriacco "a master of mystery plotting."

Small town controversies can be murder. When a newcomer to Erin, Ohio, proposes to tear down the historic Bijou Theater and erect in its place a boutique hotel, Sebastian McCabe adds "civic activist" to a long resume that already includes magician, mystery writer, professor, and amateur sleuth. With the strategic help of brother-in-law Jeff Cody, Mac launches a far-reaching campaign to "Save the Bijou." The issue becomes highly political when three eccentric mayoral candidates stake out their positions - which one of them switches after a hefty campaign contribution. "The plot machinations of grand opera seem positively guileless by comparison!" Mac cries. Can homicide be far behind? The opera comparison is a natural one, for the new Erin Opera Company is staging an original work with a Mardi Gras theme. As murder strikes again, this time back stage, Sebastian McCabe becomes aware that many of the actors in this real-life drama are wearing metaphorical masks as well. Lynda Teal, Jeff's wife, records much of Mac's sleuthing for a podcast series, never imagining that the most dramatic audio of the concluding episode will come from the murderer.

As chief spokesperson for St. Benignus University in small-town Erin, Ohio, Jeff Cody's job responsibilities include handling "crisis communications." And a crisis it is when veteran journalist Maggie Barton calls Jeff on the day after Thanksgiving. She wants the whole story about a dean forced to step down because of complaints of inappropriate behavior from three women who worked for him. But that's just the overture to double murder at SBU, taxing the abilities of larger-than-life amateur sleuth Sebastian McCabe and the police agencies of both town and gown. There are clues aplenty - too many, in fact. But how could the killer have entered the scene of the first murder without showing up on surveillance video? It seems like magic, or a locked room murder in a novel. Fortunately, Mac is a magician of no small ability as well as a mystery writer. This ninth novel (and tenth book) of the McCabe-Cody series marks the debut of Aurelia Banfield, the disarming new assistant chief of St. Benignus University Police, and a farewell to two characters who have been part of the Erin scene from the beginning.

A ghost story becomes a matter of murder. "The world is big enough for us," Sherlock Holmes once told Dr. Watson. "No ghosts need apply." But, amateur sleuth Sebastian McCabe and his chronicler Jeff Cody don't have a choice when a popular TV reality show comes to Erin, Ohio, to record a Halloween special about the entity disturbing a local gastropub known as The Speakeasy. Jackie O'Brien was a bootlegger and speakeasy owner gunned down in 1920. Ever since, his unquiet spirit has been said to haunt the building, where it happened – one - which after many transformations over the years, is once again a speakeasy of sorts. There may be skeptics, but Erin's exorcist is not among them. Nor is Sebastian McCabe, who has been up close and personal with the ghost. Both are among those interviewed by Stuart Diamond, specialist in the strange, who has come to town along with Chef Stephen Lipinski and his producer wife to record the episode of the show Dining (Way) Out. What was expected to be some fun publicity for the gastropub turns into a nightmare after someone is shot to death one night in the same place and in the same way as Jackie O'Brien almost exactly 100 years earlier. Police Chief Oscar Hummel recognizes this as Mac's kind of case, but Mac and Jeff are forced to become virtual sleuths most of the time when the restaurant and many other businesses are shut down because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Before he solves the murder-and a second homicide-Mac makes an embarrassing bl...

An "Old Money" Family Meets Murder Shakespearean scholar and philanthropist Ezra Bainbridge, patriarch of one of Erin, Ohio's wealthiest old families, lives quietly and happily at his Stratford Court compound with three triplet daughters until accusations of elder abuse roil the family. Amateur sleuth Sebastian McCabe and his friend Jeff Cody are drawn into the controversy as objective observers but are soon ensnared in a puzzling series of horrendous murders, each one of which is marked by the presence of a flower. It takes McCabe and Cody to figure out the meaning of these floral tributes, but not until it is almost too late. At the center Stratford Court, and of the mystery, is an English garden around which stand the homes of Ezra Bainbridge and his daughters, all of them named for Shakespearean characters-Ophelia, the professor; Desdemona, the rebel; and Portia, the social climber. The story finds Erin much changed by the COVID-19 pandemic, with some of our old friends gone forever and others transformed. Readers of the early Ellery Queen mystery novels will find more than a passing similarity to those classics, from The English Garden Mystery title of the novel to the "Challenge to the Reader" at the point in the book where all the clues have been presented.

Murder Among Supervillains As a professor of popular culture in his day job, amateur sleuth Sebastian McCabe knows a bit about superheroes, supervillains, and the various graphic novel universes. But that's not much help when murder strikes at the Tri-State Comic Book Expo. Potential suspects number in the thousands, including some A-list Hollywood actors as well as comic book professionals and a collector. It all begins with Erin, Ohio-based artist-writer Parker Williams, creator of the superhero Red Falcon, being accused of plagiarizing the character of his newest supervillain, Queen Bee. Mac and best friend Jeff Cody take a special interest because they know Williams from another case. When accuser Gavin Frost-Pierson and Williams both shows up at the Expo, tensions run high. Before long, McCabe and Cody are dealing with murder in an elevator and a dying message that leads to a search for the mysterious woman in red, or perhaps not a woman at all, at an event in which many participants are costumed for cosplay. And in this third year of COVID, some individuals are un-costumed participants still wearing masks as well. Then again, not all masks are obvious. Who has a murderous heart? And what role does a forged comic book cover play? When a suspect flees police after the second murder, Police Chief Oscar Hummel is convinced he has the murderer. Sebastian McCabe is certain his old friend is wrong but has a hard time coming up with an alternative theory.

A MAGIC TRUNK OF TROUBLE! "Perhaps by this point you already know that I have willed you all my books on magic and my magician's trunk, a kind of relic which once belonged to the Great Blackstone-Harry Blackstone, Sr. You also get the contents of the trunk. Some of those contents you can keep, some you will know how to redirect appropriately." So wrote the late Septimus Pogue to Sebastian McCabe, to whom he was a mentor in Mac's youth. The only problem is that the Blackstone trunk is missing. Thus begins the latest case for the mystery-writing professor and his best friend and brother-in-law, Thomas Jefferson Cody. Or rather, two cases-for the magician's trunk, which has a strange habit of disappearing and re-appearing again-winds up being at the center of two murders. And the second murder only occurs after the first has been solved. To get the bottom of the matter, Mac and Jeff have to sort through a collection of suspects that includes an animal channeler, an extreme saver, a bald and beautiful magician/wedding planner, a city council candidate who wants to ban electric scooters at night, a witch, and an 86-year-old former funeral home partner. And all that is before the TV show Midwest Murders comes to town-and with it a woman out of Jeff's past. This is a McCabe & Cody book unlike any other, truly a mystery in two parts.

Betty Erlanger's murder was dramatic-shot through heart by an arrow in a public park on Valentine's Day-but the solution was prosaic. She'd been killed by her spurned lover, Troy Braggs, and everybody in the small town of Erin, Ohio knew it. This wasn't a case for the unique mystery-solving talents of Sebastian McCabe, mystery writer and amateur sleuth. But when an alibi emerges for Bragg, Mac and his best friend and brother-in-law Jeff Cody are dragged into the matter by the desperate police chief, Oscar Hummel, who hopes they can prove the obvious. But it doesn't go well. Despite the mystery writer's special skills in strange cases, all seems hopeless until an eyewitness to the murder comes forward and will only speak to Mac. Her evidence is convincing-except for the fact that she's a witch. And then come new murders with a not-so-obvious solution, one that will stun both long-time McCabe & Cody fans and newcomers to the series. Only Sebastian McCabe could solve this, ably assisted by Jeff Cody. This 16th volume in the series (including two books of shorter tales in addition to the novels) also includes a bonus novelette with a new kind of McCabe & Cody mystery. The Puzzle of the Purple Beret is narrated by Jeff's wife, Lynda Teal Cody, as she tells the tale of a tantalizing mystery solved by her and by Jeff's sister, Kathleen Cody McCabe, with no help from their spouses.

Mystery writer, magician, Sherlockian, and sleuth-at-large... very large-that's Sebastian "Mac" McCabe. This collection introduces the series of light-hearted but mysterious adventures of Mac and his brother-in-law, Jeff Cody, an admiring but by no means uncritical 'Watson' as they uncover small-town secrets to solve murders that would stump Sherlock Holmes himself. Three original novels are included in this collection, being the award-winning “No Police Like Holmes”, its follow-up “Holmes Sweet Holmes”, and the third book in the series, “The 1895 Murder”.