The Pickleball Murder


Book Description

Riverside Estates, Port St. Lucie, Florida - Pickleball player Diane Bates has been murdered in her waterfront mansion. So who was responsible for her death? It certainly could have been Doctor Leonard Bates, her cheating husband, or Dave Messenger, her bitter son-in-law. Or perhaps it was Bobby James, the gigolo handyman, or maybe even Michael Studdard, the local Pickleball pro, or any one of a variety of Pickleball players who hated her. Lisa March, a small but tough detective in the Port St. Lucie police department, is given the task of leading the investigation to solve this crime. Prosecutor Megan Harris then takes over to insure that justice is served in the courtroom. After a tumultuous trial filled with the antics of flamboyant defense attorney JD Treem, a verdict is reached that brings this mystery to a conclusion. Or does it? These questions, and more, are in answered in The Pickleball Murder.




A Pickleball Soap Opera


Book Description

Jack Ross is lonely. It feels like he's lost everything that gave his life meaning. His wife Sherry died nineteen months ago. He retired from practicing law nine months ago. Sports injuries forced him to give up playing basketball and tennis. He is lost without the love of his life, meaningful work, and the outlet of playing sports to distract him from the pain of his loss. When his former law partner invites him to try out a new game with the silly name of pickleball, Jack is skeptical, but he agrees to give it a try. He was on the varsity tennis team at Butler University, so he quickly picks up the new game and loves it. No longer depressed, Jack feels so rambunctious a romance blossoms with a delightfully attractive member of the pickleball group. But there is a surprising twist in the story when Jack's life and the lives of his new friends and love interest become embroiled in an international conspiracy. A mysterious man in black begins to stalk them with murderous intent. It's a pickleball soap opera! The FBI, CIA, Al-Qaeda, Taliban, US Marines and Air Force, British Special Forces, spies, and terrorists all play a part in the drama that entangles the pickleball players and spans the globe from Ohio to Afghanistan and Chicago to Pakistan. It has romance, murder, and pickleball!




Peanut Butter Pickleball and Murder


Book Description

Randall Baines, a divorced white man in his early seventies was forced into retirement from his career as a detective in Wichita, Kansas. Randall becomes a grumpy, hot tempered lost soul. He often takes his anger out on his neighbor, Keisha, a young African American recent high school graduate. Randall is agitated most by his next-door nemesis, due to her insistence on taking an oversized ping-pong paddle and banging a rock-hard wiffle ball against her garage during his early morning reading time. Randall struggles to find his purpose in life until a psychotic murderer, known as the Peanut Butter Killer, takes the life of a treasured elderly lady in his neighborhood. Randall is not the type of guy to stay passive under such circumstances and decides to investigate the case himself. Randall soon develops the theory that peanut butter may not be the key to the murders, but rather, the key may be a game involving the very same equipment used by his neighbor to disturb his peaceful reading time. Randall must swallow his pride to team up with neighbor foe Keisha, to try to catch a crazed madman that Randall suspects is a professional athlete in the fastest growing sport in America - PICKLEBALL!




Murder in a Pickle


Book Description

Serenity Bay is known for its peaceful atmosphere, charming shops, and spirited pickleball games. When an injunction is issued against the pickleball club for exceeding legal noise levels, club members are irate. And when the man who initiated the injunction is found dead, the idyllic community is thrown into turmoil. Lucy Larkin, a resourceful amateur sleuth, finds herself at the heart of the investigation as secrets begin to surface. With the help of her quirky Uncle Frank, a fife-playing florist, Lucy uncovers more than she bargained for. From a mysterious toxicology report to a stolen journal, clues lead them deep into the victim’s complicated life. As the close-knit pickleball club rallies to clear their name, Lucy pieces together a puzzle that reveals a web of deception and hidden motives. Friendships are tested and new alliances formed. Murder in a Pickle is a captivating cozy mystery filled with eccentric characters, heartwarming moments, and a twisty plot that will keep readers guessing until the very end. Perfect for fans of small-town mysteries and amateur sleuths with a knack for solving crimes, this delightful tale will leave you craving more adventures in Serenity Bay.




The Cape Coral Pickleball Murders


Book Description

In pickleball, standing in the kitchen is undeniably a fault. But in Cape Coral, Florida, standing in the kitchen is undeniably –DEADLY! Why are pickleball players being targeted? Who will be next? Ellen and Charlie Green, seventy-something amateur sleuths, are reckless and resourceful as they delve into this murder investigation. As always, the Bird-Watchers secretly watch over them. However, they become as reckless as the very friends they are protecting! The theatrical climax will stun the reader. The Cape Coral Pickleball Murders is witty and humorous. It includes local favorites: Harold’s Restaurant, the Downtown Farmers’ Market, Camelot Park, Calendar Girls, Deena Da Singer, Nauti Mermaid, and many others.




At the Edge of the Woods


Book Description

Someone is murdering pickleball players in Loon Lake and Sheriff Ferris is on the hunt for their killer in Victoria Houston’s third nail-biting Lew Ferris mystery, perfect for fans of Marc Cameron and Nevada Barr. When a local pickleball player is shot in the head while practicing at an abandoned tennis court with his partner-slash-lover, Sheriff Lew Ferris suspects that the bullet was a stray shot from hunters in the area. It’s not until a second player–the first victim’s mistress and pickleball partner–is killed that Sheriff Ferris realizes this is no hunting accident. Someone is hunting people, and it’s up to her to find out who. With the first victim’s crazed widow breathing down Lew’s neck, there’s no room to breathe, let alone to find time to appreciate the beautiful Loon Lake fall and go fishing. Adding to Sheriff Ferris’ difficulties are three pickleball players convinced someone has targeted them, someone who will do anything, even murder, to frighten them away from the courts where they play – but why? Who is really at risk? The pickleball players, or Lew and the people close to her?




Broadcast 4 Murder


Book Description

All of Arizona’s Sun City West heard Sophie “Phee” Kimball’s mom scream bloody murder, but it’s up to the reluctant sleuth to find the killer . . . Phee’s mother Harriet is going to be a star! At least, that’s how the Sun City West retiree describes her chance to host a live radio program of her book club’s Booked 4 Murder Mystery Hour on Arizona’s KSCW. But instead of chatting about charming cozies, Harriet ends up screaming bloody murder over the airwaves after discovering the body of Howard Buell, the station’s programming director, in a closet—with a pair of sewing shears shoved into his chest. The number one suspect is Howard’s ex-girlfriend Sylvia Strattlemeyer who believed she was going to host a sewing talk show before Harriet was offered the spot. But not only do the fingerprints found on the scissors not match Sylvia’s, they belong to a woman who passed away twenty years ago at the age of ninety-seven. Now, with the whole town on pins and needles, it’s up to Phee to stitch together enough clues from the past to uncover the identity of a killer in the present . . . Praise for the Sophie Kimball Mysteries “Fun characters, a touch of humor, and a great mystery, the perfect combination for a cozy.” —Lena Gregory, author of the Bay Island Psychic Mysteries on Ditched 4 Murder “So cleverly written, you won’t guess the perpetrators until the very end.” —Mary Marks, award-winning author of the Quilting Mystery Series on Booked 4 Murder




Murder on the Court


Book Description

No good deed goes unpunished, as television star Marla Dane learns the hard way. The recently fired TV detective, trying to figure out her next move at her sister’s Minnesota condo, reluctantly agrees to sub as Water Girl at a weekend pickleball match. Which makes her the first suspect of many when the team captain turns up dead. Eloise Wallace, owner of a local PR company, will never receive the title Boss of the Year. She’s dragged her staff, her old college roommate, and even her ex-husband and ex-employees onto her pickleball team. No wonder their success on the court is so sad. They all have reasons for wanting her dead, and Marla and former cop Rex Alcorn are enlisted to figure out who poisoned her. As Marla’s sister Kitty distracts them with a new obsession, pie baking, Marla and Rex find their suspects crusty and evasive. The victim excelled at making everyone around her miserable, so what did the killer have to gain by staying in her life — or ensuring her death? The answer may be more toxic than either of them bargained for.




A Sprinkling of Murder


Book Description

Featured on Buzzfeed Books! Fairy garden store owner Courtney Kelly believes in inviting magic into your life. But when uninvited trouble enters her shop, she’ll need more than a sprinkling of her imagination to solve a murder . . . Since childhood, Courtney has loved fairies. After her mother died when Courtney was ten, she lost touch with that feeling of magic. A year ago, at age twenty-nine, she rediscovered it when she left her father's landscaping business to spread her wings and start a fairy garden business and teashop in beautiful Carmel, California. At Open Your Imagination, she teaches garden design and sells everything from fairy figurines to tinkling wind chimes. Now she's starting a book club tea. But the light of the magical world she's created inside her shop is darkened one night when she discovers neighboring dog-grooming business owner Mick Watkins dead beside her patio fountain. To make matters worse, the police suspect Courtney of the crime. To clear her name and find the real killer, Courtney will have to wing it. But she’s about to get a little help from an unexpected source . . .




Murder in the Mystery Suite


Book Description

Someone resorts to murder and mayhem in the first mystery in the New York Times bestselling Book Retreat series... Tucked away in the rolling hills of rural western Virginia is the storybook resort of Storyton Hall, catering to book lovers who want to get away from it all. To increase her number of bookings, resort manager Jane Steward has decided to host a Murder and Mayhem week so that fans of the mystery genre can gather together for some role-playing and fantasy crime solving. But when the winner of the scavenger hunt, Felix Hampden, is found dead in the Mystery Suite, and the valuable book he won as his prize is missing, Jane realizes one of her guests is an actual murderer. Amid a resort full of fake detectives, Jane is bound and determined to find a real-life killer. There’s no room for error as Jane tries to unlock this mystery before another vacancy opens up…