Elizabeth Spann Craig

When a small town librarian shows up for a blind date, she discovers that he's permanently checked out and starts investigating.

Checked Out

It’s just an ordinary day for octogenarian sleuth Myrtle Clover - until her yardman discovers a dead body planted in her backyard. This death isn’t cut and dried - the victim was bashed in the head with one of Myrtle’s garden gnomes. Myrtle’s friend Miles recognizes the body and identifies him as Charles Clayborne... reluctantly admitting he’s a cousin. Charles wasn’t the sort of relative you bragged about - he was a garden variety sleaze, which is very likely why he ended up murdered. As Myrtle starts digging up dirt to nip the killings in the bud, someone’s focused on scaring her off the case. Myrtle vows to find the murderer... before she’s pushing up daisies, herself.

A Body in the Backyard

Bingo, bridge-and a dead body in the church sanctuary? Life in this small Southern town just got ugly . . . and exciting! No one in Bradley, North Carolina, is exactly crying into their sweet tea over the murder of Parke Stockard. Certainly not retired schoolteacher Myrtle Clover. Upon discovering the corpse, Myrtle is struck-not with grief, but a brilliant idea! Solving the crime would prove to everyone (especially her son Red, the police chief) that this eighty-something-year-old is not ready to be put out to pasture just yet. The victim, a pretty but pushy town developer, had deep pockets and few friends. Myrtle can't throw one of her gaudy garden gnomes without hitting a potential suspect. Even when another murder takes place, proud Myrtle forges on, armed only with a heavy cane, a venomous tongue, and a widower sidekick.

Pretty is as Pretty Dies

When Beauty Box beautician Tammy Smith is discovered with a pair of hair shears in her back, there are suspects and secrets aplenty in her small Southern town. Octogenarian Myrtle Clover, bored by bingo and bridge, is intrigued by the crime...and her neighbors' secrets. But discovering, and blabbing, secrets got Tammy killed and Myrtle soon learns her sleuthing isn't just dangerous...it's deadly.

A Myrtle Clover Cozy Mystery, #3

A Dyeing Shame

There are no renewals when you’re permanently checked out. When librarian Ann Beckett finally reluctantly agrees to being set-up on a blind date by one of her over-eager patrons, she figures the worst that could happen would be the two of them wouldn’t hit it off. Little did she know that she’d be stood up...because her date was murdered. With help from her patrons, Ann tries to find out who might be responsible in the small town of Whitby before more residents are permanently checked out.

This book goes from ‘tell-all' to ‘dead men tell no tales.' Retired English teacher Myrtle Clover is frequently asked to proofread for friends. So she wasn’t totally surprised when her friend Pearl asked her to take a look at her memoir and polish it up. But before Myrtle could pull out her red pen, Pearl was found … murdered. Now Myrtle and her senior sidekick Miles must track down the memoir and the murderer before the killer makes any more final revisions.

Edit to Death

Sometimes family matters can make you fit to be tied. Although the small town of Dappled Hills is better known for its quilt shop, bakery, and other small shops, it is also home to some larger ones. When a prominent local businessman decides to sell his family business, his family isn't as thrilled as he'd first expected. Some of them would rather keep the status quo instead of allowing the business to be sold off to an outsider. But when Wyatt discovers the businessman murdered before the sale goes through, Beatrice must unravel the clues, making sure there are no loose threads, before anyone else is stitched up.

Fit to Be Tied

There's some shady business at the garden club event. Spring has sprung in Bradley, North Carolina, and the town is buzzing as the local garden club prepares for their annual Festival of Flowers. Octogenarian Myrtle Clover is eager to showcase her exhibit and even convinced her friends Wanda and Miles to enter the competition. But the festival takes a dark turn when Myrtle stumbles on the body of one of the judges while sneaking a peek at the competition. With the police struggling to solve the crime, Myrtle takes matters into her own hands. Can she and her trusty sidekick solve the murder? Or will more victims get their lives uprooted?

Doom and Bloom

Quando uma integrante do clube do livro de Bradley é encontrada morta durante um encontro, a tranquila cidadezinha é abalada. Myrtle Clover, uma idosa cheia de astúcia e sem paciência para besteiras, decide investigar o caso por conta própria. Mas, quando outro assassinato acontece, ela percebe que o perigo pode estar mais próximo do que imagina. Será que Myrtle conseguirá descobrir a verdade antes que o assassino faça outra vítima? Com muito humor e reviravoltas intrigantes, Um Assassinato no Clube do Livro é um mistério irresistível que vai prender você até a última página.

Um Assassinato no Clube do Livro

A Myrtle Clover Cozy Mystery

Myrtle, a local newspaper columnist, investigates the murder of Parke Stockard, the most hated woman in town, but the case becomes complicated after another murder occurs and she faces competiton from her son, the police chief.

Wer will schon Häppchen und Dips, wenn er Dickens und Twain haben kann? Für die Bewohner der verschlafenen Kleinstadt Bradley, North Carolina, ist Jill Caulfield eine wahre Heilige. Sie engagiert sich für die Kirche, putzt nebenbei, hält ihren Garten in tadellosem Zustand – und trägt ständig ein Lächeln in ihrem Gesicht, trotz ihres nutzlosen, arbeitslosen und untreuen Ehemanns. Als die unerschrockene 80-jährige Amateurdetektivin Myrtle Clover ihre neue Haushaltshilfe Jill dabei erwischt, wie sie in ihrem Medikamentenschränkchen wühlt, sollte sie erbost sein. Aber herauszufinden, dass die ach-so-tolle Jill doch nicht so makellos ist, ist in Myrtles Augen eine viel größere Genugtuung. Nur zu gerne hätte Myrtle herausgefunden, was Jill Caulfield wohl sonst noch alles verheimlicht... hätte Myrtle sie nicht während des neu gegründeten Dinnerclubs tot in der Küche aufgefunden.

Myrtle Clover und der mörderische Dinnerclub

At Greener Pastures Retirement Home, leisure time can prove perilous. When psychic (and hubcap retailer) Wanda Alewine pays a late-night visit to Myrtle Clover, she urges the octogenarian sleuth to head straight to Greener Pastures Retirement Home. But Wanda doesn't want Myrtle to consider the Home's dubious amenities–she wants Myrtle to prevent a murder seen in a vision. Reluctant Myrtle investigates with sidekick Miles, who seems a lot more interested in Greener Pastures than she is. As the duo digs, they uncover more than just Sudoku and Scrabble—they discover a sinister undercurrent… with murder as its outcome.

Death Pays a Visit

"The Village Quilters of Dappled Hills, North Carolina, are desperate to finish their quilts before an upcoming show. To help, fellow member Posy has opened the back room of her shop, the Patchwork Cottage, for everyone to use. But the ladies are less than thrilled when Phyllis Stitt and Martha Helmsley-members of their rival quilting guild, the Cut-Ups-ask to join them. Phyllis is hoping to leave the Cut-Ups and join up with the Village Quilters now that Martha's dating her ex-fiance, Jason Gore. She's not pleased when he visits the shop and even more upset when her new shears disappear. After offering to search for them, Beatrice discovers Jason with the shears buried in his unfaithful heart. Now she must sharpen her sleuthing skills to find a killer before someone else's life is cut short"--Page 4 of cover.

Shear trouble

Beatrice has never crashed a party but now her fellow quilt guild member, Meadow Downey, is driving them to a Victorian mansion in the mountains beyond Dappled Hills, North Carolina. Muriel Starnes, an elderly eccentric, has organized a meeting of quilters to pick someone to administer a quilting scholarship. The fact that the Village Quilters werent invited isnt enough to keep Meadow from speaking her piece.  But once the quilters arrive at the mansion, it seems they may never leave. An ice storm sends an old tree crashing across the driveway, leaving them stranded for the night. And by the next morning, they are one fewer for Muriel has been sent to meet her maker. With everyone in the house a suspect, its up to Beatrice and the Village Quilters to figure out who has a guilty conscience before someone else gets tied up in knots.

a southern quilting mystery

Quilt trip

This is one book club meeting that doesn’t go by the book. When octogenarian sleuth Myrtle Clover discovers Naomi Pelter’s dead body during a book club meeting, the other members seem shocked. But Myrtle can read between the lines. Naomi had riled everyone up by flirting with other people’s husbands, arguing with neighbors, and generally making a nuisance of herself. Murdering troublemakers is the oldest trick in the book. The book club members seem too sweet to be killers, but Myrtle knows better than to judge books by their covers. Myrtle’s investigation into the murder will take a more novel approach than her police chief son’s by-the-book methods. Can Myrtle and her widower sidekick uncover the killer…before he writes them off for good?

A Body at Book Club

Sometimes it doesn’t pay to go to work. Dappled Hills is the kind of small town where it’s hard to imagine anything bad happening . . . especially in the fall when the mountain trees are changing. It’s a magical time in the area and Beatrice and Wyatt have been enjoying every minute of it, especially taking their new grandbaby on stroller rides in the crisp autumn air. So it was quite a jolt when tragedy did strike and Beatrice’s daughter discovered her coworker at the school, murdered. At first, no one had a clue who could possibly have murdered Petunia Murray. But, as Beatrice dug a little more, she discovered Petunia carried a few secrets. Now Beatrice must piece together the clues before anyone else is sewn up for good.

Knot a Clue

Who wants chips and dip when they can have Dickens and Twain? To the residents of the sleepy town of Bradley, North Carolina, hardworking Jill Caulfield seemed beyond reproach. She volunteered at the women’s shelter, worked at the church preschool, cleaned houses for extra money, and actually enjoyed yard work. And she was nothing less than a saint to cheerfully put up with her unemployed, skirt-chasing, boozer of a husband. When intrepid octogenarian sleuth Myrtle Clover caught Jill, her new housekeeper, peering into her medicine cabinet, she should have been upset. But discovering that Jill wasn’t such a squeaky-clean goody-goody made her vastly more interesting in Myrtle’s eyes. Myrtle would have happily continued figuring out what made Jill Caulfield tick. If Jill hadn’t foolishly gone and gotten herself murdered, that is.

Progressive Dinner Deadly

Loose lips sink ships…and result in murder. When Myrtle and her friend Miles set out for adventure on the high sea, they assume most of the trip’s excitement will result from shore excursions to charming Alaskan villages. They feel as if their ship has come in. But when a fellow passenger disappears, Myrtle realizes she must seize the helm and find the killer...before more souls are lost.

Cruising for Murder

It’s hard keeping secrets in small towns. At first, librarian Ann Beckett is delighted her director hired another full-time staff member. The Whitby Library is a busy place and another librarian should make life much easier there. Instead, she soon discovers that the new hire, Ellie, seems to be bent on creating issues instead of solving them. When she’s found dead at the library, no one is as shocked as they might have been. With time running out and a desperate killer on the loose, Ann starts uncovering all the secrets Ellie was trying to keep hush-hush.

Elizabeth Spann Craig

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