Showing results by author "Donna Muse" in All Categories

In early spring, amateur detective Geneva Pomolo receives a wedding invitation from a friend she hasn’t thought about in 10 years. Gladys Button has already been married six times—five of those marriages ended in divorce or annulment and the sixth ended in death. Now she’s getting married again, and she wants Geneva to be there. Baffled by the invitation, Geneva accepts. But when she and her detective partner Iris Reeves drive up to Fort Wayne to meet Gladys, they learn all is not as it seems. Gladys wants Geneva to investigate a murder—her own.

For nearly 20 years, Chester Claus had run a year-round Christmas-themed diner in Wrangler’s Hill. For many Indiana locals, he was the embodiment of the holidays - gregarious, portly, his eyes radiating amusement as he handed out candy to children. The idea of anyone wanting to murder him was simply preposterous. But when Claus is found dead in his kitchen during the Christmas Feast, poisoned with his own favorite knife, it falls on Indiana’s finest amateur detective, Geneva Pomolo, and her partner, Iris Reeves, to investigate.

Feeling guilty for spending too much time on her phone and wanting to get back into the spirit of literature, amateur sleuth Geneva Pomolo attends a Jane Austen-themed party hosted by the Brixton family. Tensions are simmering between Kerri and her husband Jeremy. The party is thrown into disarray when a quarrel erupts between the couple, provoking Jeremy to storm out.

Amateur sleuth Geneva Pomolo and her assistant, Iris Reeves, are on a quest to visit every major tourist attraction in Northern Indiana. Their efforts lead them to the town museum, where a meeting of the Cryptid and Paranormal Society dissolves into chaos over disputed sightings of the Wrangler’s Devil. Howard “Hefty” Gulch advocates putting a team together to find the beast, but is shouted down by opponents who feel he’s meddling in things best left alone. When Hefty is found dead on the slopes of a cliff during a routine camping trip, Geneva is certain of foul play.

When a real murder spoils the opening of an old-fashioned murder-mystery theme park, Mrs. Pomolo and her partner, Iris, go along for the ride. All this intrigue, and right before Christmas!

Crime-solving duo Geneva Pomolo and Iris Reeves are attending the annual Wrangler’s Hill WonderCon, a convention celebrating all things fantasy and science-fiction. There they hope to meet Bryan Rylance, the handsome (and arrogant) star of the long-running TV series Starman and Sapphire. There are rumors in the press that Bryan and his former co-star, Lucky Mitten, are planning a reunion. But there’s bad blood between them due to a mysterious event in their past which neither will talk about.

Tragedy strikes the sleepy town of Wrangler’s Hill, Indiana, when a retired media giant, James Orion, is found dead in his parked car. Immediately, amateur sleuths Geneva and Iris suspect foul play: there are faint skid marks leading to the car as if he were dragged and dumped there. But who would kill an old man who spent the last ten years of his life in quiet retirement, rarely leaving his house? Lots of people, as it turns out.

Amateur sleuth Geneva Pomolo is once again drawn into mystery when her investigating partner, Iris Reeves, signs up to read from her novel-in-progress during an open mic night at the local club. The proceedings are interrupted by a scuffle between best-selling young adult novelist William Miller and his former boss and fiancée, Ava Warner. Ava has been feeling salty toward William ever since he suddenly broke off the relationship. William was forced to file a restraining order when she began following him around hoping to humiliate him in public...

Madeline Ponderphelt has no reason to end her life. But when the middle-aged vlogger is found dead beneath a bridge in late January, the news calls it a suicide. When the obituary writer for the Beacon is found dead in the same location shortly thereafter, private sleuth Geneva Pomolo suspects something more than coincidence at work.

Paisley Burger runs the best-known pet store in Wrangler’s Hill. She’s known as much for her clumsiness as her critters—snakes, turtles, and raccoons have a habit of escaping into the city, sometimes terrorizing schoolchildren. When Paisley is found dead in her store shortly before Christmas—having struck her head against the corner of a table—her friend Geneva Pomolo suspects foul play.

Running low on funds, Macey Spade has accepted a new job—as a teaching assistant at Whaler’s Bay College, presiding over a class on Time-Travel in Film and Fiction. Macey anticipates a relaxed semester grading papers and browsing the stacks of the college library, but fate has several cruel tricks in store for her.

Macey Spade is having the worst September of her life. Rumors are circulating that the local cemetery is haunted by a specter of the undead, a wicked creature who glides through the darkness and preys on rabbits, foxes, and people. Macey knows this is all rubbish. But when she and her pooch, Mugsy, set out to prove there are no vampires in Whaler’s Bay Cemetery, she finds herself at odds with a fellow investigator who suspects her of vandalism—and a frightened mob of concerned moms who think she’s engaging in dark magic.

It’s the hottest part of the summer in Wrangler’s Hill, and Geneva Pomolo has been hired as a consultant on a major film. A new adaptation of Oliver Twist is shooting in town, and Geneva is personally assisting the director, the legendary Tom Jolly, in writing the script.

Temporarily lost on a long walk, Amateur Sleuth Geneva and her crime-solving partner, Iris, stumble across a shocking sight—the body of retired circus performer, Lawrence Lavelle, a man who spent his sunset years alone on a sprawling ranch watching circus movies and dreaming of days past. Lavelle has no shortage of enemies—Shorty Sycamore, who fantasizes about murdering him; Rita Toboggan, who loves and hates him in equal measure, and to whom he leaves all his money; Donald Fenugreek, a former business partner—still smarting from the loss of the girlfriend Lavelle stole from him.

Wandering through Indianapolis one weekend, amateur sleuths Geneva Pomolo and Iris Reeves visit a local jewelry store owned by Derek Wattle and his girlfriend, Estelle Landliner. Within 24 hours of their visit, Estelle is dead, Derek is a suspect, and Geneva and Iris plunge once again into a mystery with no easy answers.

Christmas is approaching, and private investigator Geneva Pomolo is spending a blissful week at a local bed and breakfast. But her hopes of a few idle days spent reading and relaxing are shattered by a scream in the night. A woman stumbles into her room with a strange tale of ghostly apparitions and a phantom figure clutching his severed head. Geneva dismisses the story as the ravings of a fantasy-prone woman, but soon it becomes clear that the bed and breakfast is crowded with more ghosts than a Dickens novel.

Geneva Pomolo and her investigating partner, Iris Reeves, visit a local nightclub where up-and-coming entertainers read poetry and perform music. A young folk singer named Leora Kismet is interrupted during her performance by Mrs. Maribel Smythe’s ranting about “depravity” and “the end of days”. The rich widow’s outburst provokes consternation and confusion — all the more so when she is found dead on her front porch just a few days later.

With Iris now dating and working on her first novel and Geneva reaping the benefits of being the most famous amateur sleuth in northern Indiana, things seem to be looking up for the crime-solving duo. That is, until the day they go shopping at a high-end clothing store and discover a scene of carnage. Marilyn Abshire, 77, the genius impresario behind Sunday Chic, is found run down in a deserted alley.

Amateur sleuths Geneva Pomolo and Iris Reeves are invited to the local high school by their young friend Suzie Orleans, who is rehearsing for a performance of Agatha Christie’s Murder at the Vicarage. From the moment they set foot on campus, Geneva senses mysterious things afoot. When not one, but two murders take place on campus in the span of an hour, Geneva and Iris are thrust neck-deep into their most dizzying case yet. When an innocent teenage girl is targeted, Geneva tangles with a culprit both cunning and ruthless.

Private investigator Geneva Pomolo and her partner Iris Reeves are busier than ever. An old foe has challenged them to a contest to see which pair of friends can take the most one-day courses at the local community college. Never one to shirk from a challenge, Geneva now has her hands full three evenings a week learning the basics of sailing, baking, watercolors, Olympic sports, and mystery writing.