With a sensibility shaped in the sixties and kids born in the seventies, Jersey City community college professor Bel Barrett hit the big five-O in the nineties. The patronage politics of urban academia and the dreams and demands of city students threaten to burn Bel out but it's hot flashes and a fancy fundraiser that really turn the heat on. Before Bel has a chance to do justice to the tempting display of calorie-laden food, her slim and attractive boss, college president Dr. Altagracia Garcia, pops a few goodies, crumples to the floor, and is pronounced dead. Student of Murder The murder is pinned on one of Bel's students, but Bel isn't buying it. The accused is a Culinary Arts major whose best grade in English was an "incomplete," but the boy is no killer. Although President Garcia had made her presence felt at the college, she'd ground her stiletto heels into a few administrative toes in the process. But most students and faculty adored her, and finding out who wanted the assertive lady out of the way is the least Bel can do—even when it means chasing through a maze of phony clues and false leads that challenge her mid-life memory...and learning that she herself has become the target of someone majoring in murder.

Professor Bel Barrett has enough on her plate teaching English at a Jersey City community college. Between hot flashes, she's worrying about her two grown kids and whether her significant other is becoming less significant. Yet somehow Bel lets a colleague, Vinny Vallone—part-time Funeral Services Education teacher, big-time undertaker—flatter her into believing that the future of feminism in the funeral business depends on her acting as a role model by teaching his class how to research and write. But before Bel actually gets into co-teaching the inner-city undertaker wannabes, Vinny the undertaker turns into Vinny the deceased. There's no doubt it's murder, and suspicion is focused on one of Bel's students, a young reformed ex-gangster. Bel doesn't believe the born-again ex-con murdered Vinny and, as always, she makes it her business to right a wrong. With no shortage of suspects, Bel sets out to catch a killer, despite the strong possibility that her nose for news may land her in a hot spot even she can't fan her way out of. Professor Bel Barrett has enough on her plate teaching English at a Jersey City community college. Between hot flashes, she's worrying about her two grown kids and whether her significant other is becoming less significant. Yet somehow Bel lets a colleague, Vinny Vallone—part-time Funeral Services Education teacher, big-time undertaker—flatter her into believing that the future of feminism in the funeral business depends on her acting as a role model by teaching his class how to research and write. But before Bel actually gets into co-teaching the inner-city undertaker wannabes, Vinny the undertaker turns into Vinny the deceased. There's no doubt it's murder, and suspicion is focused on one of Bel's students, a young reformed ex-gangster. Bel doesn't believe the born-again ex-con murdered Vinny and, as always, she makes it her business to right a wrong. With no shortage of suspects, Bel sets out to catch a killer, despite the strong possibility that her nose for news may land her in a hot spot even she can't fan her way out of.Professor Bel Barrett has enough on her plate teaching English at a Jersey City community college. Between hot flashes, she's worrying about her two grown kids and whether her significant other is becoming less significant. Yet somehow Bel lets a colleague, Vinny Vallone—part-time Funeral Services Education teacher, big-time undertaker—flatter her into believing that the future of feminism in the funeral business depends on her acting as a role model by teaching his class how to research and write. But before Bel actually gets into co-teaching the inner-city undertaker wannabes, Vinny the undertaker turns into Vinny the deceased. There's no doubt it's murder, and suspicion is focused on one of Bel's students, a young reformed ex-gangster. Bel doesn't believe the born-again ex-con murdered Vinny and, as always, she makes it her business to right a wrong. With no shortage of suspects, Bel sets out to catch a killer, despite the strong possibility that her nose for news may land her in a hot spot even she can't fan her way out of.

Dead Ringer for a Dead Singer Fifty-something New Jersey community college professor Bel Barret has had enough "changes of life" lately to last her a lifetime. Her daughter has cheerfully announced her pregnancy and her impending marriage in a single e-mail. Her son has come back home to find himself, but all he's found so far is the TV remote. Even a romantic stroll covering the Hoboken waterfront with live-in love Sol can do nothing to stabilize Bel's menopausal mood swings—especially when they stumble across the corpse of a stranger in the night who turns out to be...Frank Sinatra? Actually, the bogus Blue Eyes was one Louie Palumbo, a sorry imitation of the late local icon. And since Louie had been dating and two-timing one of Bel's favorite students, the unfortunate co-ed is now the prime suspect in Palumbo's slaying. Bel's determined to go all the way to rout out the real killer. But that means plunging estrogen patch-first into the strange world of obsessive Sinatra worship—a move that could prove to be something stupid...maybe even fatal!

Between mood swings and hot flushes, fifty-something New Jersey community college professor Bel Barrett solves another prickly homicide.

Reluctantly taking on the task of heading up the Urban Kayaking Club, middle-aged Jersey City community college professor Bel Barrett finds her job taking on a whole new meaning when the battered body of club member Belinda Judd is found and the club president, campus Casanova Jason, becomes the prime suspect in the crime. Original.

When it comes to murder and mayhem, mothers know best! Four of mystery’s reigning matriarchs have joined together to concoct a delectable stew of clues, corpses, and felonious hijinks—all spectacularly seasoned with a mother’s loving touch! In this witty and winning quartet of all-new mysteries, the incomparable Mary Daheim gives harried mom Cousin Renie from the bestselling “Bed-and-Breakfast” series a triple dose of the murderous wedding bell blues; the inimitable award-winner Carolyn Hart of “Death on Demand” fame lets madcap mother-in-law Laurel Darling take a turn at the investigative chores; the remarkable Jane Isenberg sets menopausal mother Bel Barrett loose to solve a dastardly case of nanny-cide; and the fabulous Shirley Rousseau Murphy—whose “Joe Grey” mysteries are the cat’s meow—enchants once again, as a delightful duo of feline mamas sinks their claws into a murder investigation.

The Beat Goes OnThings are scarier since that black day in September that shook Manhattan and the world. But across the river in Hoboken, New Jersey, community college professor Bel Barrett intends to live without fear, despite her honey Sol's newborn wish that they retire and escape to somewhere remote. So Bel turns her attentions to home renovation, civic matters, and to an increasingly bitter battle for scholarship money, a contest she and three others must ultimately decide. Then one of the other judges is found dead on the mean streets of Hoboken—a woman who lived a strange double life as academic by day and stripper by night. Unsure whether the solution to her friend's murder lies in the hallowed halls of learning or the smoky dens of flesh and fantasy, Bel decides to investigate both. But education and titillation could prove a most volatile mix—and a murderer may be closer than she thinks.

The seventh delightful mystery starring community college professor Bel Barret, the sleuth that the Baldwin City Ledger calls, "Evanovich's Stephanie Plum twenty–five years later." Fifty–something community college professor and amateur sleuth Bel Barrett is at it again. When Dom Tomaselli, a student from her memoir–writing class for senior citizens, shows up dead, she agrees to investigate whether his fall from a rooftop was an accident––or murder. But with her aged mother so depressed that she can't even make her weekly trips to Atlantic City, and with her wedding to her boyfriend Sal coming up, she hardly has time for anything, let alone sleuthing. So with the help of Dom's daughter Flora, Bel determines that Dom's inveterate gambler brother–in–law, who owed him money, is the primary suspect. But could an extortion plot and a long–ago arson case also be central to the old man's demise? With the help of her best pals from the community college, Bel weaves together the different strands of one of the most baffling cases she's ever seen...and discovers that the history of her beloved Hoboken is far more sordid than she'd ever imagined.

With a great job as a community college professor, some peace and quiet now that the kids are out of the house, and a loving new husband, it would seem Bel Barrett finally has a chance to kick back and enjoy life. But just when things seem too good to be true, trouble rears its ugly head again—this time in the form of a hateful rap that's circulating on a popular college website. In the old days, the bathroom wall was the place to air grievances for a bad grade or a pop quiz. But now Bel's learning that the internet is a lot more effective at ruining a reputation—students across the country think she's a racist and a sexist, all thanks to a vengeful rap posted on pickurprofs.com. With a little sleuthing, Bel realizes that a former student, who dropped out, joined the army, and lost his arm fighting in Iraq, is taking out his frustrations at her expense. The wannabe rapper wants to make sure someone pays for his misfortune, and with the administration breathing down her neck, and her job in jeopardy, Bel may very well be the one. And while she's concentrating on keeping her job, and keeping her life in order, the rapping avenger turns up dead on the subway track, and all signs point to Bel as the most likely suspect. Now a middle-aged, law-abiding college professor has to find the evidence to prove she's innocent, before the decision to give one bad grade lands her in jail for a long, long time.