Museum of Mysteries

Series · 7 books · 2022-2025

By Catherine Dilts, Sophie Harper, Margaret Welch, and more

Books in series

Mummy's the Word

2022

Welcome to Crescent Harbor, located on the beautiful Monterey Peninsula in California. Known for its gorgeous scenery and storybook cottages, the bustling seaside village is also home of the world renowned Reed Museum of Art and Archaeology. As the museum's new head curator, archaeologist Scarlett McCormick is used to digging into history to answer questions about the past. But nothing in her training prepared her for the mysteries and murders she unearths in her new role. With the help of her good friend Allie Preston, the manager of the museum's coffee shop, and Luke Anderson, the handsome FBI agent who frequents the museum, Scarlett sleuths out clues and solves intriguing mysteries as she manages the museum's impressive collection of antiquities. Follow along and enjoy the thrill of the hunt as you escape into the stories of Annie's Museum of Mysteries series.

Buried Secrets

2022

When an exotic vacation in Greece turns deadly, Scarlett McCormick finds herself on a treasure hunt that’s a matter of life and death. Everything is shipshape at Crescent Harbor, California’s Reed Museum of Art and Archaeology, so when head curator Scarlett McCormick’s academic colleague Martin Greer invites her to Greece, she jumps at the chance to take an exotic vacation. Scarlett and her best friend, Allie Preston, are thrilled when Martin asks her to join him at the site of an ancient Roman shipwreck discovered off the coast of Cyprus. However, tragedy strikes when Scarlett finds Martin fatally injured in an alley, and he gives her a mysterious amulet before he dies. The police rule Martin’s murder part of a robbery gone wrong, but Scarlett isn’t convinced it was a random attack. Before his untimely death, Martin admitted there was something suspicious going on at the shipwreck site. Now Scarlett vows to dig up answers. Scarlett and Allie follow the trail of clues Martin left behind, but someone desperately wants the truth to remain buried. Will Scarlett and Allie expose the shocking secrets before they’re sent to a watery grave? This clever whodunit from Annie’s Museum of Mysteries series is a must-read for fans of cozy mysteries, history, and female friendships.

Doubloon Jeopardy

2022

Scarlett McCormick is drawn into investigating a suspicious death when she discovers a dead body during a pirate-themed festival. As the townspeople of Crescent Harbor, California, prepare for the inaugural Pirate Days festival, excited tourists clad in pirate attire descend on the charming village, where local legend claims a pirate buried his treasure. Scarlett McCormick, head curator of the esteemed Reed Museum of Art and Archaeology, is pressured to validate the legend or face a mutiny. However, Scarlett’s troubles take a disturbing turn when she finds a dead man dressed like a pirate at a local pumpkin patch. Dead men tell no tales, so it’s up to Scarlett and her friends to learn the truth. The discovery of an ancient cutlass and gold doubloons supports the man’s connection to the pirate festival, but the cause of his demise remains murky. While Scarlett investigates the death and the artifacts, she unwittingly becomes a target. Will she solve the mystery before she’s forced to walk the plank? This clever whodunit from Annie’s Museum of Mysteries series is a must-read for fans of cozy mysteries, history, and female friendships.

Naughty or Knife

2022

A happy holiday event becomes a nightmare before Christmas for curator Scarlett McCormick when someone is murdered at her museum. Expectations for the annual holiday children’s event at the Reed Museum of Art and Archaeology are high, and Scarlett McCormick strives to make everything perfect since it’s her first Christmas as the museum’s head curator. At the event, the actors playing Santa and Mrs. Claus delight the children with gifts and stories, but then the couple disappears during their break. After a frantic search of the museum, Scarlett finds Mrs. Claus crumpled on the floor with Santa standing over her, clutching a knife. ’Tis the season for murder, and it’s determined that Santa is the prime suspect in Mrs. Claus’s death. To make matters even worse, Scarlett and Winnie Varma, the head of security at the museum, discover their newest security guard is missing along with a valuable artifact. As Scarlett and her friends investigate the crimes, they learn that Mrs. Claus made more than her share of enemies. With a long naughty list of suspects, it’s a race against the clock to solve the mysteries in the St. Nick of time. This clever whodunit from Annie’s Museum of Mysteries series is a must-read for fans of cozy mysteries, history, and female friendships.

Final Resting Vase

2022

Scarlett McCormick must save her own father from both kidnappers and the police who suspect him of committing murder. Scarlett McCormick, head curator of the Reed Museum of Art and Archaeology, goes from savoring the mild January weather in Crescent Harbor, California, to a chill running up her spine when her mother, Elaine, calls and breaks the devastating news that Scarlett’s father, Marshall, is missing. Just as Scarlett arrives at her childhood home in Ithaca, New York, Elaine receives a ransom note demanding an ancient glass vase in exchange for Marshall, but the vase is nowhere to be found. Still reeling from her dad’s disappearance, Scarlett learns more shocking Marshall is now the prime suspect in a murder investigation. Vowing to clear his name, she searches for the truth with her friend, FBI agent Luke Anderson. Scarlett clings to a shard of hope even as they uncover bitter rivalries and deadly secrets. Scarlett and Luke devise a dangerous plan to get her father back. It’s a race against time, and the stakes couldn’t be higher. Will they bring him to safety before the plan shatters into a million pieces? This clever whodunit from Annie’s Museum of Mysteries series is a must-read for fans of cozy mysteries, history, and female friendships.

Out of the Picture

2025

Scarlett McCormick embarks on a deep dive into the past when she discovers photos of a dead man’s doppelgänger. Scarlett McCormick, head curator of the Reed Museum of Art and Archaeology, develops an idea for a reunion art exhibit with Allie Preston, her best friend and manager of the museum coffee shop. Based on a previous exhibit, the show will feature the same local artists from Crescent Harbor, California – if the women can find them. Scarlett is shocked and saddened to learn that one of the artists perished in a fire at a Phoenix restaurant twelve years ago. She’s even more shocked when a man with an uncanny resemblance to the artist appears in a recent picture taken at the same restaurant where he supposedly died. As Scarlett and Allie search for the remaining artists, they also investigate the puzzling case of the doppelgänger. Their inquiries are met with hostility and threats, however, and they fear the truth will never be exposed when it becomes clear someone will stop at nothing to keep the women from solving the mystery. This clever whodunit from Annie’s Museum of Mysteries series is a must-read for fans of cozy mysteries, history, light romance, and female friendships.

#12

A Merry Little Murder

2023

Murder at her museum and matters of the heart threaten to make Scarlett McCormick’s Christmas anything but merry. Reed Museum of Art and Archaeology head curator Scarlett McCormick is as excited as a kid on Christmas morning. The first showing of her latest exhibit, a collection of art depicting women throughout history, has been reserved for the museum’s biggest donors. However, when the lights go out during Scarlett’s opening speech, recently divorced socialite Tasha Portland is murdered. To make matters worse, Scarlett finds a letter offering her boyfriend, handsome FBI agent Luke Anderson, a promotion on the other side of the country. The thought of losing Luke to his new position dims Scarlett’s holiday spirit and sidetracks her from solving Tasha’s murder. But when someone is arrested for the crime, Scarlett can’t shake the feeling the Crescent Harbor Police Department have the wrong person. Though she is determined to prove her theory, Scarlett has to wonder if she’s simply grasping at tinsel to distract herself from what she fears is going to be her last Christmas with Luke. This clever whodunit from Annie’s Museum of Mysteries series is a must-read for fans of cozy mysteries, history, light romance, and female friendships.

Authors

Catherine Dilts

Author · 6 books

Catherine Dilts prefers writing cozy mysteries and short stories surrounded by flowers on her sunny deck, but any day – and anywhere – spent writing is a good day. Author of the Rock Shop Mystery series, and the stand-alone Survive Or Die with Encircle Publications, Catherine also writes for Annie’s Publishing, contributing three books for the Secrets of the Castleton Manor Library and two for the new Annie’s Museum of Mysteries series. Her short story HazMat Holiday appears in the Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine January/February 2022 issue. You can learn more about Catherine’s fiction at http://www.catherinedilts.com/ Contact her at catdiltsauthor@gmail.com.

Pseudonym for Molly MacRae. Bio Molly MacRae spent twenty years in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains of Upper East Tennessee, where she managed The Book Place, an independent bookstore; may it rest in peace. Before the lure of books hooked her, she was curator of the history museum in Jonesborough, Tennessee’s oldest town. MacRae lives with her family in Champaign, Illinois, where she recently retired from connecting children with books at the public library. Bibliography and Awards Novels Argyles and Arsenic, Pegasus Books, March 2022 Heather and Homicide, Pegasus Books, December 2020 Thistles and Thieves, Pegasus Books, January 2020 Crewel and Unusual, Pegasus Books, January 2019 For Letter or Worse (writing as Margaret Welch), Annie’s Fiction, 2018 Scones and Scoundrels, Pegasus Books, January 2018 The Grim Reader (writing as Margaret Welch), Annie’s Fiction, 2017 Plaid and Plagiarism, Pegasus Books, December 2016 Knot the Usual Suspects, NAL/Obsidian, September 2015 Plagued by Quilt, NAL/Obsidian, November 2014 Spinning in Her Grave, NAL/Obsidian, March 2014 Dyeing Wishes, NAL/Obsidian, July 2013 Last Wool and Testament, NAL/Obsidian, September 2012 Lawn Order, Five Star Mysteries/Cengage, December 2010 Wilder Rumors, Five Star Mysteries/Cengage, May 2007 Short Stories “Junk Food,” in Cooked to Death, Nodin Press, July 2016 My Troubles (collection of Margaret & Bitsy stories) Darkhouse Books, December 2014 “Cookies,” Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine (AHMM) June 2008 “A Walk in the Park,” Hardluck Stories, Summer 2007 “Wilder Dancing,” Mysterical-E, Summer 2007 “Practically Perfect,” Doses of Death, Lulu, 2005 “Fandango by Flashlight,” AHMM, December 2005 “It Takes Two,” AHMM, February 2002 “No Can Do,” AHMM, July/August 2001 “Ah, Paradise,” AHMM, November 2000 “Missing Something,” AHMM, May 2000 “Speaking Terms,” AHMM, April 1991 “My Trouble,” January 1990 Nonfiction “Buzzing with Stories: A Visit with Author, Librarian, Teacher Janice N. Harrington,” Children and Libraries, Vol 19, No 4 (2021) “Wilder Rumors,” an essay in the “New Books” section of Mystery Scene, issue 100, 2007 “Book Pusher: My Life in and out of Fiction,” Mystery Readers Journal, Fall 2005 Humor, Rumor, and Romance in Old Jonesborough, Overmountain Press, 1991 (editor) Mystery Theater Interactive dinner plays available through Positive Solutions Through Stories and Tours “The Dead of Winter Murder Mystery” “Daggers and Old Lace” “Murder in Little Chicago” Awards 2015 Lovey Award for Best Paranormal for Plagued by Quilt 2013 Lovey Award for Best Paranormal for Last Wool and Testament 2012 Suspense Magazine’s Best of 2012 for Last Wool and Testament 2001 Virginia Highlands Creative Writing Contest, first prize for novel, Wilder Rumors 2000 Sherwood Anderson Award for short fiction for “More or Less”

Jan Fields

Author · 51 books