Cypress Bay

Series · 2 books · 2014-2015

By Eileen Goudge

Books in series

Bones and Roses

2014

In a picturesque California seaside town, an intrepid property manager attracts the right clients, the wrong boyfriends, and a kinky killer After wrecking her real estate career in a booze-fueled blowout, Cypress Bay property manager and recovering alcoholic Tish Ballard thought she had put her past behind her. But when she opens an old trunk, a bequest from an anonymous benefactor, she finds it filled with bones and roses. Suddenly Tish is plunged into a murder case that dates back to her childhood. Pitted against her high school crush, homicide detective Spence Breedlove, she finds herself in jeopardy—in more ways than one. Can Tish unmask a killer before the man who broke her heart puts her behind bars or, worse, she becomes a corpse herself? With a suspenseful, surprising plot and touches of romances and humor, the New York Times–bestselling author of Garden of Lies delivers a delectable cozy mystery. Bones and Roses is the 1st book in the Cypress Bay Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

Swimsuit Body

2015

New York Times- bestselling author Eileen Goudge blends mystery and romance in a captivating new novel featuring intrepid property manager Tish Ballard, whose client's beachfront home becomes a headline-making homicide scene With a Hollywood movie about to start filming in the California seaside town of Cypress Bay, Tish Ballard, owner of Rest Easy Property Management, welcomes her first celebrity tenant. Delilah Ward isn't your typical beautiful, spoiled actress; she's America's sweetheart. Even Tish is charmed by the young star, which makes her gruesome discovery of Delilah's bloodied corpse all the more gut-wrenching. When someone near and dear to Tish is named a person of interest, the fearless property manager defies the wishes of her former heartthrob, homicide detective Spence Breedlove, and launches her own investigation—with help from her best friend, Ivy, and her erstwhile sidekick, McGee. But no sooner than she starts rubbing elbows with the movie cast and crew—including Delilah's eerily efficient personal assistant, the starlet's sexy costar, and the film's predatory director—is her own life threatened. With so much at stake, Tish has no choice but to do whatever it takes to lure a crafty killer out of hiding. Swimsuit Body is the 2nd novel in the Cypress Bay Mysteries, which began with Bones and Roses, but the books can be read and enjoyed in any order.

Author

Eileen Goudge

Author · 38 books

I began writing at the age of eight, and wrote my way through the lean years, more than one marriage, single motherhood,and moving to the Big Apple on a wing and a prayer, with fifteen women's fiction novels to show for it. Every life experience I've weathered has found its way into my novels in one form or another:bad exes, births, deaths,divorces, pregnancy scares,true crime (I was nearly kidnapped, at age 12, by the stranger whose car your parents warned you not get it into). It's all part of the alchemy that makes for fictional gold. BONES AND ROSES, Book One of my Cypress Bay mystery series, marks my entry into the ranks of mystery novelists. I've been a fan of the genre since I fell under the spell of James M. Cain reading his masterpiece, "Mildred Pierce." SWIMSUIT BODY, Book Two of my Cypress Bay mystery series, was just released. Whether you read the first one or this is your introduction to the sunny California seaside town of Cypress Bay where dark twists abound, you'll enjoy Tish Ballard's further adventures in sleuthing. Property manager extraordinaire, she knows where the bodies are buried, literally in the case of celebrity client, Delilah Ward. I'm currently (and happily)wed to WABC-TV correspondent Sandy Kenyon, also known as the "taxi TV" film critic. We met when he was a radio talk show host and he interviewed me on air. How's that for a Hollywood meet-cute? My life's goal was to have a day job that didn't require me to wear pantyhose. Thankfully I've achieved that. Everything else is the icing on the cake. Bones and Roses is the first book in my Cypress Bay Mysteries series. Stop by www.eileengoudge.com to learn more about the book and for more excerpts, recipes and info on my novels.