A.W. Hartoin

A rollicking cozy mystery series from USA Today bestselling author A.W. Hartoin. For fans of Janet Evanovich, Tricia O'Malley, and Jana DeLeon... What do a dead cop, a murdered bride, and a sizzling summer have in common? Mercy Watts, of course. Nurse and dutiful daughter, Mercy Watts is on vacation from her parents. The great detective and his loving wife are on a cruise and, for the first time in years, Mercy thinks she's off the hook. She won’t be doing any investigating for the family firm. No tailing suspects. No background checks. Nothing but her own stuff for three whole weeks. She’s thrilled. But when Tommy’s old partner has a fatal heart attack out of nowhere, Dad has one of his famous feelings and orders Mercy to look into it. She tries not to get sucked in. She really does. But she is her father's daughter. Soon Gavin's death leads to a more grisly one, the death of a bride on her wedding day. Can the two be connected? Was Gavin murdered? Now Mercy can't stop. You do for family. That's all there is to it.

Mercy Watts Mysteries Book One

A Good Man Gone

The Paris Package

A rollicking cozy mystery series from USA Today bestselling author A.W. Hartoin. For fans of Janet Evanovich, Tricia O'Malley, and Jana DeLeon... Would you commit a crime to save a child? Mercy Watts is off to Colorado for a ski trip with her boyfriend and his parents. She thinks her biggest problem will be pretending to be a normal girlfriend. A girlfriend that doesn't know how to pick locks and absolutely never gets her face on the national news. But a desperate friend asks a favor that cannot be refused. A child in St. Louis is in desperate need of a drug that can only be found in Colorado. The problem? It’s illegal in Missouri. The math works for Mercy and she figures she can fit a little smuggling in between trips up the lift and dips in the hot tub. Simple, right? Not quite. Before she has a chance to do much of anything, a brutal crime is committed and Mercy becomes a suspect. The cops are all over her and now she's saddled with a pint-sized partner, a stalker, and a ticking clock. All she has to do is solve a crime in order to commit a crime. A child's life hangs in the balance. No pressure.

Mercy Watts Mysteries Book Three

Double Black Diamond

A rollicking cozy mystery series from USA Today bestselling author A.W. Hartoin. For fans of Janet Evanovich, Tricia O'Malley, and Jana DeLeon... A favor that can’t be refused, questionable couples, and plenty of poison. It’s about to get shady in a very sunny place. Vacations can be murder, especially when you're Mercy Watts. The young nurse agrees to get away from it all to help a friend cope with a devastating loss and it’s not the worst idea. She could use a break from her godmothers’ lawsuit and a certain situation with the mafia. But, on a whim, Mercy’s mother decides that instead of a cruise their trip is going to be to Roatan, Honduras, a place known for scuba diving and lawlessness. A sunny place for shady people the locals call it and they’re not wrong. Mercy's on the island less than twenty-four hours when she discovers that she hasn't gotten away from anything. Her troubles hitched a ride and increased tenfold. The crux of her mafia problem is right there on the island. Lucia Carrow is related to the Fibonacci crime family and somebody has it in for her. They just keep missing their target. But is Lucia supposed to die or is her husband the intended victim? The Fibonaccis expect Mercy to protect Lucia and figure out who’s behind the attempts, but the deeper she dives, the more dangerous her vacation becomes. Mercy must stop a murder or she'll be next on the hit list.

Mercy Watts Mysteries Book Two

Diver Down

A rollicking cozy mystery series from USA Today bestselling author A.W. Hartoin. For fans of Janet Evanovich, Tricia O'Malley, and Jana DeLeon... Nothing’s easy in The Big Easy. Mercy Watts is barely back in St. Louis before her hometown suffers the worst crime in a century, a mass murder at the Tulio Italian restaurant. This tragedy has nothing to do with Mercy and she’s determined to keep it that way. No news. No gossip. No evidence. Mercy doesn’t want to know. But there are some things she can’t avoid, her family and her friends. Her plan seems to be working. The murderer, Kent Blankenship, is caught, but then Officer Joey Ameche shows up. He has a marker and he’s calling it in, much to Mercy’s dismay. His sister, Donatella’s husband and in-laws were killed at Tulio. Donatella and her children avoided the massacre in a way that the cops find suspicious. Mercy has plenty of suspicions, too. How did Donatella’s kids end up in the hospital just at the right time. Does she have a connection to the murderer? Would a mother infect her children with a deadly disease? The Tulio murders lead Mercy to her smallest criminal yet, a tiny bacteria with huge potential for murder. She traces that nasty bugger to New Orleans, her mother’s hometown, where the crimes keep adding up and the lies are thicker than Nana’s gumbo.

Mercy Watts Mysteries Book Four

Drop Dead Red

A rollicking cozy mystery series from USA Today bestselling author A.W. Hartoin. For fans of Janet Evanovich, Tricia O'Malley, and Jana DeLeon... Love is in the air and it stinks. Mercy Watts thinks things are about to get back to normal. She’s back to work at the Columbia Clinic and her mother is recovering from her stroke. But when a patient goes rogue and lands Mercy smack dab in the middle of a lawsuit, she’s forced to make a deal to save the Columbia Clinic from financial ruin. It doesn’t seem so bad. All Mercy has to do is find out who’s threatening the daughter of a judge with his eye on a higher court, but the next thing Mercy knows she’s sunk into a world of infidelity and painful passions. Ordinary people are doing unthinkable things and Mercy doesn’t know where to turn. Her boyfriend, Chuck, is practically MIA. Her father is out to lunch and Uncle Morty is downright incomprehensible. Add in a new stalker, plenty of jealousy, and a shooting, Mercy is out of her depth and the water is rising.

Mercy Watts Mysteries Book 9

Down and Dirty

November, 1938 It began in Vienna, after a night of fire and fear. Stella Bled Lawrence made a promise and she kept it. But the job isn’t done. Abel Hershmann’s cousins, unaware of the danger, are heading to Venice in search of him and the family secret he carried. Stella and her husband, Nicky, follow, intent on warning them. But things don’t go to plan. Venice is flooded, Stella aggravates her injuries, and the cousins are no where to be found. Suspicions abound and friends are hard to find. Italy has fallen under Hitler’s spell and nothing is as it was. The Nazis and, in particular, SS Oberführer Peiper still want their prize and believe Stella and Nicky have it. Stella will have to decide how far her loyalty goes and where she belongs: far away safe from the gathering storm or on the front lines with a chance to change the course of the coming war. Her choices will affect her family’s future for generations to come.

Stella Bled Book 2

Strangers in Venice

November 1939 It’s been a year since Stella Bled Lawrence and her husband, Nicky, escaped Italy by the skin of their teeth and a lot has changed. Nicky joined the Royal Air Force and Stella spent the year training as a spy for His Majesty’s Secret Intelligence Service. She has the languages and the tradecraft down pat, but she still has a way to go when the Earl of Bickford pulls her from her training early. The earl uses his influence to make her a courier, a job well below her skills, but it’s not as simple as it seems. The new head of the service isn’t convinced of her worth and Stella has to use the opportunity to show him that she and other women can deliver for Britain or she’s out on her ear. That would be enough to make any newly-minted spy nervous, but the earl isn’t done. He has a favor to ask and the request sends Stella to a place that will haunt her forever.

A gripping WW2 novel

One Child in Berlin

Amsterdam 1940 It’s only a matter of time and time is running out. The Third Reich is sweeping across Europe and Stella Bled Lawrence wants nothing more than to get out of the way. After three months undercover, the young spy is ready to return to England for a well-deserved rest, but fate and a friend at the Admiralty have other ideas. Stella receives a second assignment and she wasn’t the first choice or even the third. Hardly, a vote of confidence, but orders are orders. Stella has to cozy up to two Dutch men and find out which side they’re on before inevitable fall of The Netherlands to the Reich. If she does the job fast enough, she can get back to Britain and to Nicky before the air war intensifies. If she can’t, she might not get there at all.

Dark Victory

Wishes are powerful things, if you belong to the MacClarity clan. You can ask Ernest for anything and he’ll make it come true, even though he’s been dead for nearly a hundred years. Puppy MacClarity doesn’t take the rumors about Ernest too seriously. But, when he’s had enough of his teacher’s harassment, Puppy asks Ernest to take care of Miss Pritchett for him. Ernest does and family secrets start to surface like magic. During a summer filled with both fear and fun, Puppy begins to realize that Ernest isn’t the only special thing about his family, and their oddities aren’t just skin deep. Too bad he didn’t know sooner.

It Started with a Whisper

A rollicking cozy mystery series from USA Today bestselling author A.W. Hartoin. For fans of Janet Evanovich, Tricia O'Malley, and Jana DeLeon... Time heals all wounds…unless it doesn’t. In 1965, a young woman in love and a veil was kidnapped and found murdered in the small Missouri town of St. Sebastian, a ghost-ridden hamlet of dubious reputation. A priest took the fall, literally. But the FBI has now discovered a clue among the bodies found in a mass grave in Kansas and it’s time to take another look at a crime nobody wanted to investigate in the first place. A couple of junior FBI agents are sure they’re onto something, but their bosses aren’t interested in investigating Sister Maggie’s death. Neither is Mercy Watts. She just wants a vacation, not another problem, certainly not the cold case from hell. Greece is calling. A beach and drinks with little umbrellas are just what Mercy needs, but her family needs something else. Her beloved godmothers were close friends with Sister Maggie and they’ve asked for answers to the questions that have haunted them for over fifty years. Unfortunately, Mercy’s Great Aunt Miriam wants to forget everything from that time and demands that her niece forget it, too. Mercy has always known that you do for family, but which family is now the question. Can Mercy bring to light the secrets so long buried without hurting those she loves? Will the ghosts of St. Sebastian be on her side? There’s a lot to hide in the Missouri countryside and survival isn’t guaranteed.

Mercy Watts Mysteries Book Ten

Small Time Crime

Take one kidnapping. Add a haunted hamlet. Mix in a secret that’s lasted forty years and you’ve got a recipe for trouble. Reluctant detective Mercy Watts’ life is changing and she’s ready for it with a new apartment, a new career, and new clues to an old family mystery. She has no desire to go back to haunted St. Sebastian anytime soon, but a man in Germany has other plans. After an audacious attack, Mercy finds herself a victim and when answers aren’t forthcoming, she joins forces with the suspect’s family to find out why the unthinkable happened. So it’s back to St. Sebastian and the town is not at all happy to see the detective that put them on the map in a bad way. It’s going to be a rough ride with old crimes bringing new pain, but with Aaron feeding her till she’s fit to burst, and Fats Licata armed to the teeth, at least she’ll be well fed and safe…or will she?

Mercy Watts Mysteries Book Eleven

Bottle Blonde

This box set includes the first three books of the Mercy Watts Mysteries series and the Mercy Watts Short, Coke with a Twist. Coke with a Twist (A Mercy Watts Short) Mercy Watts' P.I. father ropes her into another investigation, this time to find the truth behind a young woman's attack. The case takes her from a dive bar to sorority row to the gutter, and unless she solves it fast, the case will be her last. A Good Man Gone (Mercy Watts Mysteries Book 1) It’s summer in St. Louis and Mercy Watts is on vacation from her parents. The great detective and his nosy wife are on a cruise and Mercy thinks she’s off the hook for doing any investigating for them. But when a family friend has a fatal heart attack, Dad has one of his famous feelings and orders Mercy to look into it. Mercy tries not to get sucked in. She really does, but she’s her father’s daughter. Soon Gavin’s death leads to a more grisly one, the death of a bride on her wedding day. Can the two be connected? Was Gavin murdered? Now Mercy can’t stop. You do for family. That’s all there is to it. Diver Down (Mercy Watts Mysteries Book 2) A sunny place for shady people. Vacations can be murder, especially when you’re Mercy Watts. She’s trying to get away from it all, including her godmother’s lawsuit and a certain situation with the mafia. So she heads to Roatan, Honduras, a place known for scuba diving and lawlessness. Mercy’s on the island less than twenty-four hours when she discovers that she hasn’t gotten away from anything. Her problems hitched a ride and increased tenfold. The deeper she dives, the more dangerous her vacation becomes. She must stop a murder or she’ll be the next on the hit list. Double Black Diamond (Mercy Watts Mysteries Book 3) Commit a crime. Save a child. Mercy Watts is off to Colorado for a ski trip with her boyfriend and his parents. She thinks her biggest problem will be pretending to be a normal girlfriend. A girlfriend that doesn’t know how to pick locks and absolutely never gets her face on the national news. But a desperate friend asks a favor that cannot be refused. Mercy figures she can fit it in between trips up the lift and dips in the hot tub. Simple, right? Not quite. Before she has a chance to do much of anything a brutal crime is committed and Mercy becomes a suspect. Before she knows it she’s saddled with a pint-sized partner, a stalker, and a ticking clock. All she has to do is solve a crime in order to commit a crime. A child’s life hangs in the balance. No pressure.

A.W. Hartoin

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