A flamboyant fiancé, a “Mob Killer” Roman candle, a yappy rescue dog, and a bison bull named Tarzan. A recipe for chaos and calamity for Marcia’s introverted friend, Jess Randall. When not serving up her to-die-for eggs and biscuits at the Mayfair Diner, Jess just wants to live quietly on their farm. But her fiancé Dan has impulsively offered to host the Mayfair Independence Day Extravaganza. The day of the big bash, Marcia and her dog Buddy witness a public fight between the couple, and just hours later, Dan is found with a Roman candle through his chest. Was it an accident, or was it murder? And is Jess a killer, as the sheriff’s department believes? Between dog-training sessions, Marcia feels compelled to investigate, especially when there are signs that the real killer may not be finished... Could Jess be the next target? (This Mayfair Holiday novella can be enjoyed as a stand-alone or as part of the Marcia Banks and Buddy series.) The Marcia Banks and Buddy Mystery Series: To Kill a Labrador Arsenic and Young Lacy Call of the Woof A Mayfair Christmas Carol Patches in the Rye The Legend of Sleepy Mayfair The Sound and The Furry A Star-Spangled Mayfair Keywords: cozy, mystery, mystery books, cozy mysteries, murder mysteries, dog mystery books, dog mysteries, cozy mystery books, female detective, amateur sleuth, female sleuth, good mystery books, murder mystery books, therapy dog, PTSD, veterans, fiction books, mystery novel, first in series, crime fiction, pet sleuth, animal mysteries, private investigator, series books, cozy mystery series, dog mystery series, service dog, combat veterans, dog training, dogs, beach read, service dog trainer, military veteran, Golden Retriever dog, female protagonist

The impulsive fiancé of Marcia's friend Jess Randall volunteers their farm for a Mayfair July 4th extravaganza. Introverted Jess is not happy. On the day of the bash, the fiancé is found with a Roman candle through his chest. Jess is the prime suspect, and Marcia feels compelled to investigate... to make sure her friend isn't the next target.

A three-book bundle, plus a fun bonus novella set at Christmas time. A psychotherapist whose passion for helping others often lands her in trouble… MULTIPLE MOTIVES: Kate is normally the one who helps other people cope with trauma and tragedy, but she herself has led a charmed life—until a killer rips it apart. When the lead detective assumes she and her lawyer friend, Rob Franklin, are lovers trying to eliminate their spouses, they must investigate on their own. Who hates them enough to want them both dead…and doesn’t seem to mind if others get caught in the crossfire? ILL-TIMED ENTANGLEMENTS: No good deed goes unpunished! When Kate agrees to help her friend Rob’s elderly aunt with a problem, the “problem” ends up dead and Kate ends up in the middle of a police investigation. To clear Aunt Betty of suspicion, Kate and her cohorts must wade through a brimming pool of suspects—some of whom have secrets they would prefer stay buried. Meanwhile the residents of Aunt Betty’s retirement community are continuing to die off…and not from natural causes. FAMILY FALLACIES: Kate returns from maternity leave to the work she loves, only to face a series of disturbing events: anonymous and vaguely threatening notes, a malpractice suit for supposedly planting false memories in a client’s mind, and when a party involved in the lawsuit turns up dead, Kate becomes a murder suspect. There is one bright note, however. She’s falling in love. Now if she could just get the ghost of her dead husband out of her head. And a bonus novella ~ An Unsaintly Season in St. Augustine: Even on vacation, Kate Huntington can’t seem to avoid other people’s troubles. While in St. Augustine, Florida for the Christmas holidays, she and her PI husband get caught up in trying to find a friend of Kate’s parents who’s gone missing. They soon discover that this isn’t just a case of a senior citizen wandering off. Can they reunite the elderly man with his wife before Christmas, or will others who mean him harm find him first?

The world moves toward normal, but Marcia’s life is rarely “normal”… Newly vaccinated, Marcia Banks can finally schedule the human phase of training with her Air Force pilot client—the soon-to-be owner of a Chow-Husky service dog named Bear. But when she calls to set things up, she’s informed that the veteran has been in a private psychiatric hospital for months, with no one allowed to visit due to Covid. Marcia puts out feelers to find out what is going on, and suddenly he is discharged…only to have his private plane crash in a fiery ball two days later. Convinced this is no coincidence, Marcia attempts to find out how her veteran client became the target of a murderer. What she uncovers looks suspiciously like a scheme to defraud the Veterans’ Administration. But who’s behind it, and did they sabotage her client’s plane? Or did the saboteur have a more personal motive? And just how determined are they to silence Marcia? (Note: This story occurs during the end of the Covid pandemic, but it focuses on the optimism and relief of the spring of 2021 in the U.S.)

The road to hell is paved with good intentions. Divorced from a verbally abusive man, Mary Hanson goes on her first date in years, with a man she met through a dating service. A lovely evening culminates with a toe-curling kiss that fills her with hope... Until the middle of the night when a rapist breaks into her apartment—a masked man who smells like her date’s aftershave and knows things she has only told him. Frantic, she flees to the home of her friends, James and his girlfriend Carrie. But no place—not even James's secluded house in the backwoods of Virginia—is truly safe, as Mary's rapist turns out to be a stalker, intent on possessing her, no matter what it takes. And James has neglected to tell her that his house is also occupied by the ghost of their mutual friend, who was murdered there. While trying to identify the rapist, James struggles with his own legacy from his friend’s murder...has he become an overprotective and controlling jerk? And as the rapist escalates, James is forced to face another horror. Has he put Carrie and her teenage boy—whom he’s begun to think of as a son—in danger as well?

A tropical paradise turns deadly. Service dog trainer Marcia Banks had thought it was the perfect arrangement—stay on her client’s private Gulf-coast island and get the human phase of the training done more quickly, while enjoying a much-needed break from the chaos of house renovations back home. This certainly wasn't the tranquil getaway she’d envisioned, however. Two resident ghosts, a sour-puss housekeeper and bearing witness to her client’s shaky marriage are bad enough. But within days, she’s discovered even deeper and darker layers of dysfunction. Via emails and static-filled phone calls, fiancé Will Haines convinces her to get herself and her dog Buddy out of there, but before Marcia can accomplish this, a late-season hurricane abruptly changes course and strands them on the island... with a murderer. The Marcia Banks and Buddy Mystery Series: To Kill a Labrador Arsenic and Young Lacy Call of the Woof A Mayfair Christmas Carol Patches in the Rye The Legend of Sleepy Mayfair The Sound and The Furry A Star-Spangled Mayfair Keywords: cozy, mystery, mystery books, cozy mysteries, murder mysteries, dog mystery books, dog mysteries, cozy mystery books, female detective, amateur sleuth, female sleuth, good mystery books, murder mystery books, therapy dog, PTSD, veterans, fiction books, mystery novel, first in series, crime fiction, pet sleuth, animal mysteries, private investigator, series books, cozy mystery series, dog mystery series, service dog, combat veterans, dog training, dogs, tropical island beach read, service dog trainer, military veteran, Golden Retriever dog, hurricane, female protagonist

Even small towns can harbor a killer! Another collection of Books 8 to 10 in this fun cozy series, starring service dog trainer, Marcia Banks and her four-legged best friend and mentor dog, Buddy. In A Star-Spangled Mayfair, an impulsive fiancé, a “Mob Killer” Roman candle, and a bison bull named Tarzan are a recipe for disaster for Marcia’s introverted friend Jess Randall, owner of the Mayfair Diner. When Dan, her fiancé, offers their farm for the Mayfair Independence Day Extravaganza, then ends up with a Roman candle through his chest, Jess is the prime suspect. Marcia feels compelled to investigate to clear her friend…and to make sure Jess isn’t the next target. In Lord of the Fleas, Marcia’s agenda while staying with her best (human) friend, Becky in Williston, Florida is simple: spoil her godchildren and train her newest dog’s veteran owner, a vendor at the local flea market. But when the flea market’s owner is killed, her client is among the suspects. Marcia believes he’s innocent, but she soon finds that the flea market is hiding dangerous secrets. In My Funny Mayfair Valentine, a charming newcomer makes a play for Susanna Mayfair, the sheltered niece of the town's matriarch, and Aunt Edna begs Marcia to investigate the man’s past. Turns out he’s a wanted criminal, but he claims it’s a case of mistaken identity. While Marcia’s detective husband attempts to untangle the truth, Marcia worries about her friend’s mental health, unaware that she may be in physical danger as well. Will Marcia figure it out in time to protect Susanna…and herself?

What could be more innocent than a country flea market? When service dog trainer Marcia Banks takes up temporary residence with her best friend in Williston, Florida, her goals are simple: spoil her toddler godchildren and train her newest dog’s veteran owner, a vendor at a local flea market. Ha, the universe has other plans. When the owner of the flea market is found dead and her client is a prime suspect, she discovers that nothing is as it seems—from the flea market owner himself, to the ornate dragonhead cane he gave to her client, to the beautiful but not very bright young woman whom her client has a crush on. The only true innocent in the bunch seems to be her guileless client. But when he shares a confidence that puts her in a double bind with local law enforcement, she’s not sure she can even trust him. Despite her promises to her new husband to not "poke around" in the investigation, the only way out of her no-win dilemma seems to be to find the real killer. The flea market, however, is hiding more secrets, and at least one of them could be deadly.

Kate Huntington’s new husband has built up a thriving P.I. agency that’s attracted their first celebrity client, a pop singer whose anonymous stalker has a twisted concept of love. Before Skip Canfield realizes just how twisted, he involves first his psychotherapist wife and then their lawyer friend, Rob Franklin, in the case. Soon they are being hounded by paparazzi and someone is planting evidence to convince Skip that Kate and Rob are lovers. Struggling to deal with this onslaught of unwanted attention and a stalker who will stop at nothing to remove the obstacles in his path, Kate and Skip must face the reality that you can’t always keep those you love from harm. Mystery, women sleuth, amateur sleuths, mystery series, celebrities, paparazzi, psychotherapist, mystery novel, male-female friendship, jealousy, stalker, Kate Huntington, private investigator, suspense

Can love rise from the ashes...of murder? When Kate O’Donnell runs into her old college sweetheart, Ed Huntington at a U2 concert, the last thing she expects to be dealing with is murder. Ed’s date is found dead and not only is he the prime suspect, but he unwittingly gets Kate involved as a potential accessory. Kate’s always loved a good puzzle and she’s discovering she still has feelings for Ed. She can’t let him go to prison for something she knows he’s incapable of doing. Their love is rekindling as they try to find the real culprit...but will the killer find them first?