Together in one volume: the first three mysteries featuring Lee McKinney and the TenHuis Chocolade store of Warner Pier, Michigan—plus the short story that started it all… The Chocolate Kidnapping Clue With her parents going through a messy divorce, a mopey teenage Lee is spending the summer working in her aunt and uncle's chocolate shop. When a wealthy customer is kidnapped she quickly discovers an unsuspected talent for sleuthing. The Chocolate Cat Caper When a high-profile defense lawyer dies after eating a cat-shaped chocolate laced with cyanide, it’s up to Lee to find out who tampered with the recipe—before she ends up behind not-so-chocolate bars. The Chocolate Bear Burglary A burglary at the shop leads to missing antique chocolate molds and a dead friend—and the main suspect in the murder is Lee’s troubled teenage stepson. Lee sets out to clear his name, but awakening long-hibernating family secrets might be more than this daring crime solver can bear. The Chocolate Frog Frame-Up The first customer to buy one of the store’s new chocolate croakers is the town crank, Hershel Perkins—just after getting into an altercation with Lee’s boyfriend Joe. When he soon goes missing, it looks like Joe is being framed for murder—and Lee must jump to his defense…

Lee Woodyard is the manager and chief chocolatier of the popular chocolate shop TenHuis Chocolade, located in the idyllic Lake Michigan resort of Warner Pier. But don't be fooled into thinking she is a mere chocolate shop master with only cocoa on her mind. Oh no. Lee is also an enthusiastic amateur sleuth. When she's not making chocolate, she is solving crime.It's a good job, then, that plenty of crime finds its way to Warner Pier. In The Chocolate Clown Corpse, the town's most hated clown meets a bitter end. And it's up to Lee to unmask a killer in disguise.

Chocolate has long been a favorite indulgence. But behind every chocolate bar we unwrap, there is a world of power struggles and political maneuvering over its most important ingredient: cocoa. In this incisive book, Kristy Leissle reveals how cocoa, which brings pleasure and wealth to relatively few, depends upon an extensive global trade system that exploits the labor of five million growers, as well as countless other workers and vulnerable groups. The reality of this dramatic inequity, she explains, is often masked by the social, cultural, emotional, and economic values humans have placed upon cocoa from its earliest cultivation in Mesoamerica to the present day. Tracing the cocoa value chain from farms in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean, through to chocolate factories in Europe and North America, Leissle shows how cocoa has been used as a political tool to wield power over others. Cocoa's politicization is not, however, limitless: it happens within botanical parameters set by the crop itself, and the material reality of its transport, storage, and manufacture into chocolate. As calls for justice in the industry have grown louder, Leissle reveals the possibilities for and constraints upon realizing a truly sustainable and fulfilling livelihood for cocoa growers, and for keeping the world full of chocolate.

In this eighteenth mystery in the national bestselling Chocoholic series, a gang of crooks with a wicked sweet tooth wreaks havoc on the resort town of Warner Pier, and it's up to Lee Woodyard to rout the hungry rascals. A frantic late-night phone call from her right-hand woman Dolly Jolly brings Lee Woodyard to the scene of a break-in at the Warner Pier jewelry store next door to TenHuis Chocolade. To her shock, the suspect being held at gunpoint by police is Dolly's boyfriend, Mike Westerly, who was recently hired as a night watchman specifically to prevent break-ins. Dolly hopes Lee can help straighten out the crazy misunderstanding. Even crazier? The thieves took nothing of value from the jewelry store, only swiping some snacks. It's another in a series of break-ins by burglars the media has dubbed the Cookie Monsters. They've been hitting shops selling everything from sunglasses to shoes but stealing only sweets: lollipops, cookies, even chewing gum! It all seems pretty funny--until the discovery of a dead body. With her friends and community in danger, Lee must stop one very sour killer before someone else comes to a bitter end.

From the national bestselling author of the Chocoholic Mysteries—the series that has #1 New York Times bestselling author Charlaine Harris raving, “I’m proud to stand up and say, ‘My name is Charlaine, and I’m a Chocoholic!’” A split-second judgment and a single bullet turn a routine assignment into murder for reporter Nell Matthews and officer Mike Svenson. The shoot-out at the Grantham Women’s Shelter may have liberated a woman from her knife-wielding husband, but it also left Mike holding the gun and targeted for scandal. Especially when it turns out that the deceased was the son of the most powerful matriarch in town. Now Nell finds herself with an unexpected key to the dead man’s past—a key that links him to a bizarre conspiracy and will lure Nell into the crosshairs of a killer still on the loose… The Nell Matthews Mysteries are... “Strong and unique.”—Sue Henry “Beguiling and wicked.”—Boston Herald “Hooks you on the first page and never lets go.”—William Bernhardt Includes a preview of The Violence Beat and JoAnna Carl’s The Chocolate Book Bandit.

From the national bestselling author of The Chocolate Clown Corpse, it’s murder, my sweet, for a chocolatier whose love of old crime films plunges her into a real-life murder in which the motives aren’t so black-and-white. The Warner Pier tourism board is kicking off its Tough Guys and Private Eyes film festival with The Maltese Falcon, and Lee Woodyard and her aunt Nettie are preparing a delicious chocolat noir tie-in at TenHuis Chocolade. What Lee isn’t prepared for is a face from the past: Jeff Godfrey, her former stepson. The last time Jeff showed up in town, he wound up being accused of murder. He says he’s in Warner Pier only to see Bogart on the big screen. Honest. Then Jeff goes missing, the Falcon theme is haunting everyone, and a body falls at Lee’s feet when she opens the front door—just like in the movie. Now Lee is under deadline to rewrite the ending of a cunning killer’s increasingly convincing murder plot.... Includes Tasty Chocolate Trivia!

A guide to series fiction lists popular series, identifies novels by character, and offers guidance on the order in which to read unnumbered series.

From the national bestselling author of the popular Chocoholic Mystery series comes the “intriguing…exciting”* story of a crimesolving reporter who is about to become the lead story… In the Southwestern city of Grantham, Bo Jenkins takes his young son hostage and demands to talk to the press. Enter Nell Matthews, a reporter for the Grantham Gazette, who becomes a hostage herself before finally turning the tables on her captor. But when Bo Jenkins dies under suspicious circumstances, Nell initiates an investigation that could bring down an entire city—and just might implicate Mike Svenson, the charismatic cop with whom she’s begun a secret romance. As Nell moves dangerously closer to the truth, she realizes that her beat is getting too close to home… “Fascinating…A strong and unique character.”—Sue Henry “Sandstrom writes with confidence. An impressive debut for a wonderfully conflicted heroine.”—New York Times bestselling author Margaret Maron “A good book with great characters, and a twisting plot.”—I Love A Mystery *Publishers Weekly Includes a preview of The Homicide Report and JoAnna Carl’s The Chocolate Book Bandit.

Eve K. Sandstrom’s The Violence Beat was “an impressive debut.”* Here the national bestselling author of the Chocoholic Mystery series brings back crime reporter Nell Matthews in a novel about a crimesolver’s secret past—and a killer’s hidden motive… Crime reporter Nell Matthews doesn’t have to go far for a gripping lead story. In fact, the Grantham Gazette’s own basement pressroom has become the scene for the paper’s next explosive headline. Nell and her boyfriend, Detective Mike Svenson, have stumbled on a trail of press ink leading to the body of copy editor Martina Gilroy. And just before dying, she whispered one final word: Alan. Alan was Nell’s father—a man who vanished from her life when she was a child…a man who was implicated in the murder of her mother. For Nell, investigating the story behind Martina’s death means sifting through her own past to discover the truth about her father, exposing a long-buried secret, and surviving the deadline—her own. “The Nell Matthews series will attract legions of new fans. A nicely plotted mystery…[Sandstrom] knows her way around the pressroom.”—The Sunday Constitution “Thoroughly enjoyable.”—I Love A Mystery *New York Times bestselling author Margaret Maron Includes a preview of The Smoking Gun and JoAnna Carl’s The Chocolate Book Bandit.

The much anticipated Winter Arts festival is here, and as treasurer of Winterfest, Lee is up to her elbows in mix-ups behind the scenes. When the art show's guest juror shows up drunk, Lee lets him sleep it off, only to find out later that someone's put the visiting dignitary into a permanent state of repose. Lee and Joe were the last people spotted near the crime scene. In a seriously sticky situation, it's up to them to find the real killer before someone else comes to a bitter end...