Showing results by author "Connie Shelton" in All Categories

Charlie and Drake attend a gala event for the helicopter industry, where an old friend of Drake’s presents Charlie with a mystery to solve. One of his company vehicles has gone missing. Charlie is puzzled as to why he didn’t report it to the police or his insurance company, but must admit the fat retainer he pays and the obvious success of his business overrides her initial concerns. When the van is found in an empty field near the small town of Santa Rosa, New Mexico, it would seem the case is closed.

Samantha Sweet and her husband Beau have wrapped up a case in Oklahoma and returned to Taos, only to immediately receive surprising news from a friend. There’s been a shakeup in the Taos Sheriff’s Department and suddenly Beau has his old job back. Meanwhile, it’s Thanksgiving week and Sam’s bakery is busier than ever, as they’ve been asked to supply pies for the community Thanksgiving dinner. Plus, there’s a new event—the Harvest Feast. Chefs from around the state will compete to create and share fantastic ways to use holiday leftovers.

Samantha Sweet breaks into houses for a living - all perfectly legal as a caretaker for the USDA. But her real dream is to open her own pastry shop, 'Sweet's Sweets.' Life is a little crazy for Sam right now. At one of her break-in properties, a dying woman insists that she take a small wooden box. Sam doesn't realize that the old woman was known locally as a 'bruja,' a witch, until she begins to feel some strange effects from the box.

Samantha Sweet is back at Sweet's Sweets, turning out her amazing cakes and pastries for the busy holiday season, when Emily Plankhurst, the new young librarian in town, stops in. Emily tells Sam a strange story involving a hidden niche in the library revealed to her in a vision, supposedly, by her dead grandmother. It turns out the hidden space contains a rare painting, The Ghost of Christmas, which was believed to have been destroyed in a fire twenty-five years ago at the luxury home of a hedge fund billionaire.

This series looks sharply at those who perceive themselves as the rich - the elite, and revolves around expensive cars, clothes and posh country clubs. Fans of Sue Grafton, J.A. Jance, and Sara Peretsky will find Shelton's female sleuth captivating. Devout in her dedication for the underdog, Charlie Parker gets drawn into perilous predicaments while sticking her neck out for friends and clients in trouble. She proves a wily opponent for the evil she discovers.

Charlie is on vacation. A cozy cabin, a diner that serves delicious guilty-pleasures, and Drake - all Charlie needs to relax and enjoy herself. But the town of Watson's Lake has a little unsolved mystery. Four years ago, a showplace home - beautiful and serene and tucked away on the mountain - blew sky high, due to an apparent gas leak. A young woman died. The owner disappeared. His gold-digging wife wants the insurance money, and his daughter wants to know what happened to her father.

Octogenarian Willie McBride has gone missing, and now his obnoxious daughter is pestering Albuquerque CPA Charlie Parker to find him in time for the big family reunion. Apparently, the eccentric old man had one driving obsession: finding gold. So Charlie follows Willie's prospecting trail to the modern-day ghost town of White Oaks, site of an historic gold rush, a bitter scandal, some ugly business - and now a corpse.

Charlie and her husband begin the winter with hopes for a honeymoon in a secluded New Mexico mountain cabin. But their plans are disrupted when police locate an old pawn ticket identifying the gun used in a five year old murder. They trace the ticket back to ski instructor Elroy Romero, who work's for Charlie's husband, Drake. Elroy swears he didn't commit the crime, even though the gun has been in his possession all along. And when it turns out the murder victim was Elroy's brother, a priest, Charlie really begins to question her client's story.

Samantha Sweet's life is a little crazy right now, beginning with her daughter's wedding, which coincides with Sam's receiving a huge new contract for her chocolate factory. The day after the wedding, someone takes a shot at Sam, and she discovers the bad guys are back.

When Emily Plankhurst is visited by the ghost of Gabriel Graystone, and learns he was murdered, she knows she must find justice for him. The only problem is, Gabriel was killed a hundred years ago, shortly after he broke off his engagement to the daughter of a prominent Taos family, and there aren’t many other clues to go by in finding his killer.

Sam is working hard to get her new pastry shop, Sweet's Sweets, open for business. Just when she's really got her hands full with that, she's assigned a new property to take care of as part of her contract with the USDA. The place is a hoarder's delight and Sam is feeling more than a little bit overwhelmed as she begins cleaning with a vengeance. When a blood-soaked garment turns up among some things Sam has dropped off at the thrift shop, Sam recommends that they call the Sheriff's office.

Charlie and Drake are working a helicopter job in rural Maine when a man approaches and asks for their help. At first glance, it seems he's just an old man who needs to get to his son's remote cabin in the woods. But the cabin holds more secrets than Fergus McNab will admit, and it isn't until Charlie returns to Albuquerque that she discovers they may have just aided and abetted a criminal who has escaped the law back home. The secrets get twistier, the more she looks into the 10-year-old case where Rory McNab, facing a life in prison, seemed to vanish from the reach of the law.

It's Christmas and a chocolatier shows up at Sweet's Sweets, offering to create a special line of hand-dipped chocolates for Sam's customers. He says he will work for no pay, just to prove himself. But she learns that he has connections to the wooden box that seems to give Sam her mystical powers, and discovers that certain evil people will do just about anything to take it away from her.

Sandy Werner’s longtime client walks into Desert Trust Bank, clearly down on her luck. Sandy is shocked to find Mary Holbrook’s once-hefty account is down to less than $200. Mary worked alongside her husband for years to build a successful business, but when she wasn’t looking, all their money vanished - and Clint found himself a cute new wife. Abandoned, Mary might be homeless, but she certainly isn’t helpless. She teams up with Sandy and her friends, who call themselves the Heist Ladies.

Charlie receives an enigmatic letter from her namesake aunt, her father's estranged sister, whom she's never met. Soon she's off to England. In the charming medieval Suffolk town of Bury St. Edmunds it isn’t only slightly eccentric Aunt Louisa’s beliefs in the occult or her spooky "haunted sites" tours that pique Charlie’s interest. When a friend of Louisa's is plagued by a series of pranks, Charlie and Louisa offer to find out what's behind them. But Charlie soon discovers that something sinister is brewing and she finds herself drawn into an investigation of crimes that are far too real.

Charlie receives an assignment to drive a teen runaway girl back to her home in Arizona. It’s about a six hour drive each way, and all she has to do is deliver the girl back to her mother, enjoy a night in a nice hotel, turn around and drive back. She’ll be home in plenty of time to bake the Thanksgiving pies with Elsa and settle into the holiday season back in Albuquerque. Or not.

Brian Swinney needs someone to fly his aircrafts in Scotland on a lucrative contract shuttling men and equipment to the North Sea oil rigs. Helping out their friend, Charlie Parker and Drake Langston agree to the job, ignorant of the escalating battle between the outfitters that service the rigs. Taking up residence at historic Dunworthy Castle, they become acquainted with owners Robert and Sarah Dunbar. They seem to be down-to-earth ranching folk but their daughter, son-in-law, and teenage son Richie are another story.

It’s a terrible case of mistaken identity when a gang of bank robbers think that Charlie is a famous movie star. Disappointed with their take from the bank, they decide that a hefty ransom will be their ticket to riches. But what will happen when the real star steps forward? Charlie knows that only her wits will save her from this band of desperate men. Meanwhile, in a race against the clock, Charlie's husband Drake is working with the FBI and local authorities to get Charlie back before her captors realize their mistake.

There's cash missing from a local charity thrift shop—lots of it. And when it looks like her surrogate grandma might be accused, there's nothing for Charlie to do but take a job there and try to catch the thief from the inside and clear Elsa's name. As she and Elsa begin tracking the missing money, it becomes obvious that the shop is a little goldmine and there are a number of people who could easily be after the money. She's narrowing down the suspects, but when the person who is tops on her list suddenly and mysteriously dies, well it looks like there's a lot more going on.

Charlie Parker is asked to look into a controversial series of miscarriages in a small town in New Mexico that's heavily populated by Mexicans. The town has one medical clinic. Her first assumption is to look for some type of environmental problem such as pesticides but that draws a blank. Then she shifts her suspicions onto the medical industry and finds herself embroiled in politics regarding health care among minorities. It's when the dead bodies start to show up that she realizes she's onto something far bigger than she imagined and far deadlier....