Jerrilyn Farmer

Madeline Bean, caterer to the stars, is in the middle of the biggest job of her career. She and her partner Wesley have pulled off Hollywood's most outrageous A-list Halloween party for notorious producer Bruno Huntley, complete with an eerie fortuneteller who is astonishingly accurate, and exotic food that's to die for. Before long, Bruno is thrashing and writhing out on the dance floor. Just one problem: he's not standing up, And soon, he's not even breathing. The newly late Mr. Huntley was poisoned, that's certain. But the number of suspects with a yen to send Bruno to the devil could fill an audition for extras in the next Quentin Tarantino flick. When Wesley is arrested for the murder because of a long-standing dispute with the maniacal mogul, Madeline knows he couldn't be guilty. But to prove it, she has to wade through the muck of a mudslinging family, outrun a pair of crazed canines, dodge a pair of well-aimed bullets, and expose a slew of secrets that could put a soap opera to shame. Somebody's cooked up a murder, and it's up to Madeline to find out who--before she faces a fadeout of her own.

Sympathy for the Devil

Mah-Jongg? Yep. In hip Hollywood, that kitsch old game is fast becoming the next "new" obsession -- and that calls for a party! Madeline Bean and her charming partner Wesley Westcott are determined to throw a gonzo Chinese New Year banquet. But among the hot mah-jongg tiles, the steamy dim sum, and the frosty Singapore slings, no one expects to find one of the players ice-cold dead! Meanwhile, in one of the historic celebrity mansions that Wesley is restoring as a sideline, a well-aimed crowbar uncovers a stash of precious objects -- including an antique mah-jongg set. As Madeline pieces together how these two events are connected, she must separate the yin from the yang to uncover a killer. It doesn't take a fortune cookie to spell it out. There is always a price to pay...whether gambling at mah-jongg -- or murder.

A Madeline Bean Culinary Mystery

Dim Sum Dead

Although not about to say "I do" anytime soon, hip party-planner Madeline Bean is no stranger to the phenomenon known as the LA wedding; the good, the bad and the kind where the party lasts longer than the marriage. Still, Maddie never expected to be the guest of Vivian Duncan, the West Coast's grande dame of wedding consultants, at a lavish affair held amidst the dramatically lit fossils in the Nature Museum's Hall of Dinosaurs. While checking out the glittering event, Maddie, with her keen event planner's instinct, realizes something is not quite right, but what? The groom is on time. The bride is beautiful. And a corpse wearing a Cartier bracelet is dangling from the triceratops skeleton. Ah, yes. That. With people disappearing and the bride in tears, Maddie just may be the next species to become extinct...unless she can reveal the murderer fast. Quicker than she can whip up a white chocolate wedding cake, Maddie follows the trail deep into dark jungles---urban and otherwise---amid tantalizing tales of smuggled gems, while fending off a nervous bridegroom, a crazed carjacker, and a half-naked ice-sculptor and his trusty chainsaw. Along the way, she discovers something old, something new, something deadly and something a wedding pro should never, ever do.

Killer Wedding

The Pope is coming to breakfast, and Madeline Bean's got frittatas on the skillet. What a coup for gourmet caterer Mad Bean and her company, the event-planning wizards, chosen to mastermind L.A.'s official welcoming extravaganza. Pulling off the early morning meal for His Holiness, and two thousand high profile bigwigs, sounds like great fun for the unflappable Ms. Bean. But things quickly go from serene to sinister when a young priest turns up dead in the bed of an uninhibited Hollywood star, and a yellowed page of Latin scrawl, found tucked in an old book of mouthwatering Church recipes, reveals a mysterious Jesuit Brother's shocking past. Even the course of Madeline's ragged love life gets a jolt as charming Xavier Jones, the man who left her at the alter ten years ago, reappears and still won't explain why he bugged out. With the Pope arriving any day, it's up to Madeline to sort out this unholy mess of burnt brioche, tantalizing treasure, pesky naked starlets, and homicidal caterers-or a party that should go down in history could be history before it even begins.

A Madeline Bean Catering Mystery

Immaculate Reception

Mad Bean Events is on the job catering the glorious Hollywood season wrap party for the surprise hit gourmet game show, But when one of the key game show writers seems to have disappeared, Maddie′s producer friend needs a replacement -- fast. And who better to write culinary questions than Maddie? When Maddie joins the oddball crew of game show pros, she finds she has a talent for writing clues as well as following them -- since the office she takes over offers tantalizing hints as to the whereabouts of the missing writer. And Maddie aims to hit the jackpot by answering: Who wrote off the writer?

A Madeline Bean Novel

Mumbo Gumbo

Jerrilyn Farmer′s #1 LA Times bestselling Madeline Bean Culinary mysteries continue to prove to be scrumptiously hip, savoury, and irresistible. In this mass market reprint of her second hardcover, Mad Bean is at it again as a search for the perfect sax becomes deadly. The dazzling Jazz Ball for the prestigious Woodburn School of Music promises to be event planner Madeline Bean′s greatest triumph to date. All the rich and mighty of L.A. society′s fund-raising crowd seem to be seriously enjoying the festivities. Of course, then everything goes straight to hell. Having to contend with a heap of celebrity trash, a ranting vocal coach, his rabid bitch of a girlfriend, and duelling preteen music prodigies is bad enough. But when the furious bidding war for the prize item to be auctioned off -- a one-of-a-kind, sterling silver Selmer Mark VI tenor saxophone -- almost results in bloodshed, and the perfect sax subsequently vanishes, Madeline can′t help but wonder what else could possibly go wrong. Well he could arrive home to discover a dead body in her bedroom. Her ex-beau LAPD Detective Chuck Honnett could start making insistent "take me back" noises. And then there′s the red-haired stranger who seems to be stalking her. All in all, the lethal looniness surrounding the theft of a priceless instrument is threatening to drive Mad quite mad. With the jazz cool, the sax "hot," and the martinis smoking, it may drive her quite dead.

Perfect Sax

When Holly Nichols sets her wedding date, trendy L.A. party–planner Madeline Bean decides to throw her top assistant the hippest and most lavish bridal shower on the planet. The guests embark on a "destination" party to a fabulous and exclusive spa/resort in Hawaii. The salt–rubs! The paraffin pedicures! The dead body in the mud bath! Ew. It doesn't help matters when Holly confesses to Maddie that she can't really go through with the upcoming wedding after all. In her effort to smooth the matrimonial path for her dear friend, Madeline must track down the mystery man Holly may have married ten years earlier and never actually got around to divorcing. How hard can that be? Well, with the elusive gentleman in question running from a gang of rare vegetable smugglers, the bridal shower guests imbibing in one "Bridesmaid Mojito" too many, the current fiancé developing an allergy to scandal, and a murderer on the loose, it looks like anything but clear sailing down the aisle for one of Mad Bean's best employees.

The Flaming Luau of Death

Joan Rivers

As the Queen of the Red Carpet, Joan Rivers has been eyewitness to Hollywood's most heinous crimes (okay, so they're fashionrelated). And in this über-stylish mystery, she enlists her no-holdsbarred, slightly blonder literary counterpart, Maxine Taylor, to solve a crime of a different sort. When a gorgeous young actress dies on the Red Carpet, some in Tinseltown call it bad publicity. Max calls it murder. The Academy Awards®. It's Hollywood's biggest night, and there's no star better equipped than the tart-tongued Max Taylor to hold court on the glamorous Red Carpet. Sharing the dish with her daughter, Drew, the calls-it-as-she-sees-it entertainer has parlayed this star-studded annual gig into television's most-watched pre-show event. And tonight, Max has landed a real coup -- an exclusive interview with Halsey Hamilton, a fabulous, young, paparazzi-trailed Oscar nominee. But not even Max, who's seen her share of celebrity train wrecks, is prepared for an incoherent Halsey, straight out of rehab, to stumble up to the mic, slur a few cryptic words, and drop dead at the hem of Max's stunning Michael Kors gown. To Hollywood, the starlet's demise was tragic but inevitable. To Max, it looks more like a perfectly calculated crime. After all, she alone heard Halsey's final whisper -- a clue that leads Max to the pricey rehab clinic Wonders. With a weakness for nothing more disturbing than artificial sweeteners, Max nonetheless goes undercover and embarks on a twelve-step investigation into murder. Once inside the luxury clinic, Max's list of suspicious players expands faster than the Jolie-Pitt family: Burke Norris, a professional cad and Drew's ex-fiancé; Halsey's father, who is still making money off his dead daughter's fame; Halsey's jealous younger sister; and Rojo Bernstein, a tattooed karate hipster who knew the troubled fallen star much better than anyone suspected. Now it's left to Max to unravel the sordid motives and find Halsey's killer while upstaging an over-the-top Hollywood memorial service and funeral where the ill-fated actress was buried in, of all things, a tacky designer knockoff! And you thought the Oscars were all swag bags and Jimmy Choos? Hah! Honey, it's murder. In Murder at the Academy Awards®, Joan Rivers delivers a very smart, bracingly funny, and pitch-perfect reflection of a Hollywood only she would dare to reveal -- all seen through the eyes of an indomitable, high-end amateur sleuth who isn't asking "Who are you wearing?" but rather "Whodunit?"

Jerrilyn Farmer

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