


Books in series

#1
Death By Ice Cream
2014
What do you serve when all you have in the freezer is an ice-cold corpse?
JJ MacGregor and her best friend Kitty Padgett struggle to hold the Pismawallops PTA together, and new volunteer Letitia LeMoine isn’t making it any easier. But when Letitia’s strangled corpse turns up where the ice cream bars should have been, things get a whole lot worse. JJ has to shoehorn in a search for the killer along with all her other problems: divorce, a 15-year-old son with his first girlfriend, a desperate race to complete the Yearbook on time, and her own tendency to get all wobbly-kneed around the Chief of Police. JJ just can’t help asking a few questions. But a loud mouth and insatiable curiosity can be a dangerous combination. Especially when someone wants her stopped.

#2
Death By Trombone
2016
JJ MacGregor's very bad day has just gotten a lot worse.
JJ thought starting the day without coffee was a disaster, but now there's a dead musician behind the Pismawallops High School gym. His trombone is missing, and something about the scene is off key. JJ and Police Chief Ron Karlson are determined to get to the bottom of the mystery, but will they be able to work harmoniously or will discord ruin the investigation? With the music teacher as the prime suspect, JJ could be left to conduct the band, and then Graduation might truly end in a death by trombone, or at least the murder of Pomp and Circumstance!

#3
Death By Adverb
2018
JJ MacGregor’s having a rotten summer. Her arm’s in a cast, her jeans are too tight, and her son is spending his vacation with his dad. To make matters worse, her relationship with Police Chief Ron Karlson is up in the air and they haven’t spoken since June. Maybe the only good thing is that she’s got a writing job at last. Wilmont Charleston-Rutherford want her to help him with his memoirs, and JJ doesn’t care if he’s making it all up. All she has to do to make some much-needed money is keep her mouth shut and fix some of the worst prose she’s ever seen.
Of course, keeping her mouth shut isn’t JJ’s strong point. When she loses her temper so does her boss, and she’s back to job-hunting. That’s bad enough, but when Wilmont Charleston-Rutherford turns up dead, everyone remembers JJ fought with him. About the time the police are wondering if JJ might have tried to avenge the English language, her sewer backs up, and the dead man’s missing daughter shows up on her doorstep—only to disappear again before morning. JJ has her work cut out for to find the girl, the killer, and a new septic tank before anyone else dies—but at least the murder has her talking to Ron again.

#4
Death By Library
2019
JJ McGregor and the Pismawallops PTA are back in action! JJ has a new job at the library, which allows her to pay her bills. That ought to make her happy, but with all those books to shelve, the PTA to run, and a 16-year-old son to raise, there’s never enough time to spend with her sweetheart, police chief Ron Karlson. That’s especially true with Thanksgiving on the horizon and her mother coming to visit, not to mention the PTA’s Holiday Bazaar looming ahead.
The PTA has to swing into action in a hurry when a grumpy member of the school board threatens plans to build a badly-needed swimming pool on the island. His objections turn out to be nothing compared to the claims of a stranger who says the land the pool would be built on is actually hers. The board meeting dissolves into chaos, and JJ leaps into action in an effort to get to the bottom of the incipient land war.
Before JJ can find what she needs in the reference section, things turn deadly in the library stacks. Now JJ needs some answers fast, before she loses her job—or her life. She’s determined to find out everything about the victim, and for once the library doesn’t hold all the answers. JJ and Kitty may have to face the ultimate a visit to Mrs. Halsey, the oldest—and crankiest—person on the island, where they may learn more than they bargained for.

#5
Death By Donut
2021
Election day’s almost here, and the island’s new pool is on the line. JJ should be all in with the campaign, but when a prominent Island businessman drops dead at her feet in the Have-A-Bite Bakery, someone has a mystery to solve. JJ’s fiancé—police chief Ron Karlson—is out of town. Who else is there? JJ is missing her sweetheart, tired of the winter rains, and distracted by everybody’s questions about when the wedding’s happening. Even more worrying, her foster-daughter’s father has failed to show up on schedule. No wonder JJ’s struggling to wrap this one up before someone else bites into the wrong donut. There’s no time to lose, because something truly essential is on the saving the bakery—and JJ’s favorite espresso brownies!