Port Danby Cozy Mystery Bundle (Books 15-21)

~Book 15: Shamrocks and Shenanigans~

After Lacey Pinkerton solved the hundred-year-old mystery of the Hawksworth family murders, Port Danby dropped into a season of chaos. Mayor Price resigned from office, and the town grew divided with some standing behind Harlan Price, and the Price family legacy, and others, including Lacey, deciding that Bertram Hawksworth needed total exoneration and a loftier place in Danby history.

With a vacancy in the mayor's office, Nellie Smith, Bertram's great-grandniece decides to run, and Lacey is happy to join the campaign. When a man is murdered on Nellie's driveway, all evidence points to the candidate. Lacey is in a race against time to solve the murder and save the campaign. But the investigation takes a dangerous turn when Lacey becomes the killer's next target.

~Book 16: Thistles and the Unthinkable~

It's wedding week in Port Danby! Lacey is busy helping Lola get ready for the big day. Nerves, tensions, and jitters are in the air. And so are parents, literally. Everyone is arriving soon in the small town to help Ryder and Lola celebrate their nuptials. All is running smoothly until a member of the wedding band winds up dead. Now, Lola needs to look for another band and Lacey must toss aside some of the wedding preparations for a murder investigation.

~Book 17: Holly and Horror~

Hold on to your snow beanies for an exciting crossover event! Lacey and James take off for a ski weekend in the Rocky Mountains. To Lacey's great surprise, she discovers that her friend and fellow sleuth, Sunni Taylor, has booked a room at the same inn for a getaway with her boyfriend, Detective Brady Jackson.

The delightful, cozy and romantic weekend turns into chaos when a large storm interrupts all the festivities. When James and Brady are stranded up the mountain, Lacey and Sunni are left alone to figure out who is killing the other guests. Worst of all, they wonder, who will be next?

~Book 18: Violets and Vengeance~

Lacey Pinkerton is excited to attend the annual Mayfield Marathon. Her best friend, Elsie, is running in the race. Elsie’s been training for months and she’s ready to push through that finish line ribbon. The day promises to bring lots of cheering and excitement but when one of the top runners goes missing, an emergency search uncovers the tragic truth. Was it a terrible accident or foul play? Lacey plans to get to the bottom of it…with the help of her handsome detective boyfriend, of course.

~Book 19: Daisies and Destruction~

In the midst of ‘sort of’ planning a wedding and helping Nellie Smith, Port Danby’s mayor, figure out what is wrong with Marty Tate, the town’s beloved lighthouse keeper, Lacey gets pulled into her favorite pastime—solving a murder. While two neighbors engage in a well-publicized feud about a new oversized barn, one of them winds up dead. Was it the enraged neighbor? Lacey soon discovers the victim has more than one enemy and there are plenty of motives to go around.

~Book 20: Lilacs and Liability~

The newlyweds are back from Hawaii! Lacey and James are learning to navigate their new life as a married couple, but that hasn’t slowed down the intrigue and murder in Port Danby. When a man’s body is discovered inside the Hawksworth Manor, a question arises. Was it an accident or murder? Lacey is sure she know the answer. It’s time to take off the sunglasses and swimsuits and dive back into a murder investigation. Lacey has a hard time concentrating on this one because her parents are in town and people close (very close) to her have some big news to toss her way. Will Lacey be able to find a killer amongst all the chaos in her personal life?

~Book 21: Poinsettias and Peril~

The holiday season in Port Danby is never complete without a little peril!

Lacey is excited to spend her first Christmas with James as a married couple, but she’s missing her best friends Lola and Ryder. They’re across the globe on a scientific excursion, and this will be Lacey’s first Christmas in Port Danby without them. She’s determined to make the best of it.

In the meantime, there’s a Christmas tree feud brewing between two local farmers, and Lacey finds herself caught up in the middle of it. When one of the farmers ends up dead, there is no shortage of suspects. An accident with a skateboard and a surprise video chat add to the excitement, and Lacey soon finds herself on a holiday rollercoaster ride.

~ Shamrocks and Shenanigans ~
It had been one of those decisions that I regretted the second I made it, yet, there I was, spending my Saturday morning shopping for a wedding dress with Lola and her mother, Cynthia. I'd really had no choice in the matter, and if I thought about it, I couldn't actually classify the whole thing as a decision. It had all started with Lola strolling into the flower shop on Thursday afternoon with one of Elsie's delicious fudge brownies—a treat for my best friend, she cooed as she handed me the dessert. She'd caught me off guard, the little trickster. The brownie made me vulnerable, an easy target. I was a few good bites into my fudge brownie haze when she tossed out her request. I need you to come dress shopping with me. Worried that the brownie wasn't enough, she frosted it all with a compliment about my fashion sense. Your sense of style is only surpassed by your extraordinary sense of smell. Considering my wardrobe consisted mostly of jeans, shorts and t-shirts topped off with the occasional sweatshirt, I should have seen through the ruse. In my defense, I enthusiastically agreed to the outing before she added that her mom would be along for the fun.

Not that I had any aversion to Cynthia Button. She was smart, worldly and sophisticated, and she always had interesting stories to tell of her travels with Lola's dad, John. But Lola and Cynthia Button, together, in the same place, and a small place like a dress shop was another matter altogether. They were the true human form of oil and water.

It was hard to know who to blame more for the abrasive relationship. It was true that Cynthia Button was the queen of backhanded compliments (my own mom was close in skill—a princess in waiting, perhaps) but Lola tended to go out of her way to annoy her mom. And so, before the three of us had even set off toward Miss Tuttle's Dress Shop in Mayfield, I let them both know that I would be neutral for the day, Switzerland in curls as I put it.

Lola wasn't too pleased and muttered a few complaints about my loyalty, but the treaty had been signed, metaphorically speaking, and my early diplomacy had worked right up until an hour ago when peace talks broke down and I found myself plumb in the middle of the war.

Miss Tuttle, the shop owner, a sweet older woman with a light peach complexion and a slight tremor in her hands (seemingly made worse by her current clients) had plied us with slightly stale shortbread cookies and hot tea upon our arrival. She managed to make herself scarce as things got heated. I could only assume it wasn't her first time witnessing a mother-daughter battle over a wedding gown.

Lola exited the dressing room with a flourish. The corset style bodice of the ivory silk gown was adorned with crimson red roses, and the sheer lace, trumpet style sleeves hung nearly to the ground as Lola held out her arms and twirled around. A tornado of tulle and lace followed.

"Now you're just trying to irritate me," Cynthia scoffed. "I find it hard to believe Miss Tuttle even keeps such a gaudy dress in her shop."

Lola swept around once more. "It's gothic. Just my style." She looked pointedly at me. "What do you think, bestie?" She'd been using the bestie term freely all morning assuming that it was scoring points with Switzerland. (For the record, it was having the adverse effect.)

Both women were focused on their neutral shopping mate, anxious for an opinion.
I smiled coyly. "It's not terrible but it's not my favorite."
Lola groaned and stomped toward the dressing room. "I get better feedback from my toaster."

"Try on the one with the Victorian lace sleeves," Cynthia called as Lola snapped shut the dressing room door.

"I knew this was going to be difficult," Cynthia lamented and then paused, waiting for me to commiserate with her. When I didn't add a comment, she continued. "I don't know where that girl developed her sense of style. Those old tattered hats and the t-shirts, ugh, those rock and roll t-shirts." Cynthia primly smoothed the slacks on her caramel colored pantsuit. She'd topped it off with a fashionable paisley scarf and a glittering gold chain. "She didn't get it from my side of the family, that's for certain." She continued on as if we were having a two way conversation. "John had an eccentric aunt"—she tapped her well manicured finger against her chin—"Aunt Delphinia, I think that was her name." She laughed. "I suppose a name like that requires a touch of eccentricity. She always looked as if she had just emerged from a gothic novel. She once wore long black gloves to a summer barbecue." Cynthia sat back with a satisfied sigh. "That's it. That's where Lola got it from. Like I said—it wasn't from my side of the family."

As hard as it had been to remain neutral, I was starting to feel like a traitor. If my mom had been complaining to Lola about one of my many quirks, she would speak up.

"I can't imagine Lola without those shirts and hats. It's what makes her special—fun. She's Lola because of her unique sense of style. And she doesn't care what anyone else thinks. It's what I love about her."