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Secondhand Sleuth
Secondhand Sleuth
Series ·
13
books · 2022-2024
By
Mel Morgan
Books in series
#1
The Vintage Vendetta
2022
Thrift shop til someone drops… When she receives a strange invitation to her aunt’s midnight funeral in the cozy Minnesota town of Pine Grove, Jessica Braun’s life is going nowhere. Her marriage is over, and her dead-end job has run out of road. Now she’s inheriting an old log house full of collected treasures and memories, and learns Aunt Daphne’s death was no accident. To make matters worse, Jess is the hopeless deputy’s prime suspect. After a second old-timer is silenced and a third may be in danger, she dives into her own investigation and the town’s worn-out secrets. With the help of her salvaged cat and mystery-obsessed teen neighbor, Jess is determined to catch the killer and turn her cluttered garage into the Pine Grove Thrift Store. Can Jess uncover the truth, and clean up her aunt’s mess, before it’s too late? Introducing the fun new thrift store cozy mystery series: Secondhand Sleuth Mysteries! The Vintage Vendetta is full of clues and quirky characters, and some secondhand treasures too. Bonus collector’s guide included!
#2
An Antique Alibi
2022
Thrift shop til someone drops... Welcome to Pine Grove. Where Minnesota nice is just a suggestion, and the sheriff is a real dog. Turning her garage into a thrift store was a lake-side picnic compared to having her mother come to visit. And when the scandalously young boyfriend she brought with her disappears, Jessica Braun has her work cut out for her. With the help of the canine sheriff and her new friends in town, Jess will have to think fast to keep her mother from taking the blame for the body that turns up. And as if a mother and a murder aren’t enough, her shop faces competition from the antique store that’s just opened in Pine Grove—and the owner is already on Jessica’s bad side. Will she be able to prove her mother’s innocence and make sure her store survives the challenge?
#3
The Kitsch Killer
2022
Thrift shop til someone drops...
A mysterious mansion, an island lost in the fog… And a wedding filled with recycled decor. Jessica Braun is leaving her thrift store in her teen neighbor’s care and heading to Lake Superior for the weekend. Even a trip down memory lane with her ex-husband can’t ruin this Fourth of July. Until tragedy strikes the happy couple, and the bridge is closed—trapping Jess and the other guests on the island with a murderer. How will Jess work through the clues, and her past, before the coming storm?
#4
A Donated Death
2022
Thrift shop til someone drops...
Taking in donations at a thrift store could only bring good fortune, right? That is, unless there’s more than secondhand treasures in those boxes… Jessica Braun’s thrift shop is thriving, her first donations are coming in to resell, and the new neighborhood watch is a success. Add a date with an unexpected gentleman, and Jess’s first summer back in Minnesota is sweet as maple syrup. But when donated collectibles are stolen, a local woman lands in deep water. The deputy is ready to let Jess help investigate when the quiet town is turned upside down with a shocking murder. Can she solve a devious crime, and keep her neighborhood safe, in the face of real danger?
#5
The Handmade Hoax
2022
Thrift shop til someone drops...
It’s time for Halloween, and that means costume sales at the Pine Grove Thrift Store. After Jessica Braun finds her aunt’s odd stash of disguises, she will have more than enough inventory for this holiday. But where did the costumes come from? And why did Aunt Daphne collect them? When Jess and her friends reheat a cold case, they stir up dangers, old and new. And when her suspicions about the killer lead her down roads she never expected to travel, another life will be lost in Pine Grove. Which will Jess be more frightened of this Halloween—a murderer on the loose, or the things that go bump in the night?
#6
The Tagged Tragedy
2022
Thrift shop til someone drops...
Going on the television show Trinket Traders was never plan “A” for thrift store owner Jessica Braun. But when business slows down, Jess agrees to one episode in hopes of picking sales back up. When a blizzard strikes and everyone is snowed in, trouble arises with the crew. By the time one of them is dead, no one can get in or out of Pine Grove. And Jess can’t get out of the mystery without getting her friends into more danger. What will she discover—about a murder and herself—as she takes on this investigation alone?
#7
The Bargain Blackmail
2022
Thrift shop til someone drops...
The Braun family is coming home for the holidays, and Jessica couldn’t be happier for the reunion. She’s making her shopping list, checking it twice, and hosting an old-fashioned Christmas to remember. But Uncle Rick won’t be there, after he’s arrested for an old friend’s murder. And when the new sheriff in town decides Jess’s sleuthing skills are unwanted, it will be hard to prove her uncle’s innocence. How will Jess find the true culprit—and get her family back together—before one Braun celebrates the new year behind bars?
#8
The Worn-Out Witness
2022
Thrift shop til someone drops...
After a family friend dies under suspicious circumstances, Jessica Braun agrees to hold the estate sale for the deceased. She’s prepared for the job and bringing some help—her neighbor, her mother, and a new pup too. All is not as it seems, however, when drama erupts around the will. Selling off priceless heirlooms places Jess right in the middle of the conflict—and in the middle of the danger. When family feuds turn deadly—and the clues are pointing to murder—where will the Secondhand Sleuth find the answers she needs to bring the killer to justice?
#9
The Retro Runaround
2023
Thrift shop til someone drops...
Finding a key to Aunt Daphne’s lost storage is just the beginning of new fears for Jessica Braun. For one, what to do with more stuff when her thrift shop is full? And second, why does she find a dead body? Delving back into secrets and stashes long forgotten, Jess will be challenged to double her shop’s inventory—and double her investigative efforts—when an old murder hits close to home. Will she come out on top one more time? Or will it all be too much to handle?
#10
The Borrowed Burial
2023
Thrift shop til someone drops...
Jessica Braun couldn’t be more proud of her friend and neighbor Freddie’s new job with the Mistletoe County Sheriff’s Department. When the first case Freddie works on leads the teen into more trouble than she deserves, she calls Jess for help, and they discover the unthinkable—a shallow grave and a rare collectible. From whispered secrets to shadowy storerooms, Jess and her friends follow the path of a killer, straight into danger and a hoard of hidden clues. What will happen to Jess—and to Fred’s new career plans—when the two of them are challenged by a devious criminal? Will they solve the murder before anyone else loses their life?
Author
Mel Morgan
Author · 14 books
#11
A Cracked Crime
2023
Owning two thrift shop locations doubles the secondhand fun for Jessica Braun. However, it also means double the work and, soon enough, she finds herself embroiled in double the trouble. A shocking crime strikes Pine Grove, leaving two people injured. Jessica can't shake her suspicion that another shop owner is involved. The catch? The community sees things differently, and convincing them won't be an easy task. How will she rise to this challenge, protect her town, and safeguard her business? As the situation grows more complex, Jessica must piece together the puzzle. But when the going gets tough, who will she turn to for help?
#12
The Shelved Shocker
2024
What could be better than reading a one-of-a-kind mystery novel on a cold winter night? How about finding out it’s actually evidence of a murder? The manuscript for Murder in Walnut Cove is even more entertaining than Jessica Braun expected it would be when she rescued it from storage. But it isn’t just a thrilling tale of intrigue and criminal behavior. Some of the characters bare an unlikely resemblance to real people, and the town in the book sounds awfully familiar… Sharing news of the story stirs up a hornet’s nest of trouble with Jessica right in the middle, leaving her to wonder how much of the unpublished work is fact, and how much is fiction. Is there a chance the crime in the story was real?
#13
An Auction Atrocity
2024
How can you hold an auction when the auctioneer is dead? That’s the problem facing Jessica Braun after her scheme to clear out thrift shop inventory through a bidding war goes sideways. Before the truck is even unloaded, she and her friends discover a terrible crime. With luck working against them and no one on their side, can Jess and her crew find enough evidence to solve the murder and stop the killer before they get away? What will happen to Jess if her auction plans are killed, too?