Valerie Wolzien Books

THE BODY IN THE BEACH HOUSE IS DEAD AS A DOORNAIL.Summer's coming, and Island Contracting's all-woman construction crew is working overtime, glitzing up the old house on the north end of the island. Then the firm's owner, redheaded Josie Pigeon, discovers a murdered body under a drop cloth-- a body that vanishes as mysteriously as it appears.With a complicated job to finish and clients who'd bring out the killer in anyone, Josie doesn't need a murderer on her job site. But she can't erase the horrid suspicion that one of her excellent crew may be moonlighting as a killer. Melissa? Chris? Evelyn? Sexy Betty? It seems impossible.The one bright spot in Josie's life is the new owner of the local liquor store, who's not only attractive but amazingly helpful at amateur detecting. . . .

Down-to-earth housewife Susan Henshaw is turning forty -- and feeling ancient. Adding insult to injury is the return of gorgeous local hussy Dawn Elliott, rumored to have slept with half the married men of quiet Hancock, Connecticut. To lift her sagging spirits, Susan's loving husband throws her a surprise party. But one guest gets the surprise of her life -- or death. Dawn Elliott is found murdered. And Susan herself is the prime suspect . . .

OH, THOSE LAZY DAYS OF SUMMER IN SUBURBIA, WHEN THERE'S ALWAYS TIME FOR A MURDER OR TWO.With the kids away, Susan and Jed Henshaw are in the mood for a lazy, romantic August. Then the pipes in an upstairs bathroom burst and water inundates the floors below. Suddenly their cozy twosome is joined by a dozen plumbers, plasterers, and carpenters, who leave the house looking worse than the water damage.The only bright spot is that they won't have to deal with the town's hated building inspector, for the excellent reason that he has just been murdered. And most people in Hancock say they'd like to shake the hand of the man who did it. Susan has enough problems without trying to nail Simon Fairweather's killer; but she just can't resist, especially since chances are good that the murderer is actually at work in her bathroom....

Who put the cyanide in the crab canape? That's what everyone at the PTA luncheon wants to know--and no one more than Susan Henshaw, who was the hostess! Along with a couple of Connecticut state troopers, Susan cooks up a scheme to find the killer.

Mr. Horace Harvey had mounds of money he wanted to give away. But the giving was over the day he was found dead with a wad of bills stuffed in his mouth, and a money belt wrapped around his neck. Despite a home life that is not exactly calm, Susan Henshaw has the time to conclude that the prime murder suspect is innocent, but that observation only leads her to more questions. One thing is clear, though. All sorts of sordid activities are going on in the private lives of Hancock's most civic-minded citizens. And at least one of them had reason to kill....

Exhausted after shopping for teenagers, struggling with cappuccino machines, and eating way too many cookies, Susan Henshaw is glad she hired "The Holly and Ms. Ivy" to cater her annual New Year's bash. But when the blond and buffed Z Holly, chef extraordinaire and notorious ladies' man, is found strangled in a van full of helium balloons, Susan starts hunting for a killer -- and a way to save her party! test test

Get in the Halloween spirit with a scintillating surburban mystery starring housewife Susan Henshaw--from the author of We Wish You A Merry Murder. For Susan Henshaw, the trick is that somebody murdered talk show host Jason Armstrong. The treat would be finding out who. And all the clues point to his "grieving" widow.

AMONG RICH NORTHEASTERN SUBURBANITES, POLITICS CAN BE POISON.Hancock, Connecticut--a historic enclave of wealth and conservatism--is in the final heat of a three-way mayoral election when long-shot candidate Ivan Deakin takes a sip of cyanide-laced water and is retired to the morgue.His murder exacerbates an already fierce controversy over proposed changes in rules governing the landmark status of local real estate--changes that would drastically alter property values. Like everyone else, amateur sleuth Susan Henshaw suspects unusually dirty politics and when her husband--who's running for town council--is tarred in the general smearing, Susan gets serious about finding Ivan's killer. But the possibilities are myriad, for Ivan Deakin was a political loose cannon, and the murkiness of his business deals is matched only by the notoriety of his romantic adventures. . . .

The Henshaw family vacation at Yellowstone National Park turns tragic when George Ericksen — whose family has been befriended by the Henshaws — is found murdered at the foot of Old Faithful. When amateur sleuth Susan Henshaw takes the case, a web of twisted emotions and buried secrets quickly unfolds, and Susan finds that everyone had a reason to kill George. But there can only be one killer . . . can't there?

Although Kelly Knowlson firmly thought her newly remarried ex-husband, Evan, would return to her, did she set him by the fire, egg nog by his side, THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS in his hands, and put a bullet in his head? By the time the police show up, the body is gone, so of course Kelly is the prime suspect. Between molding cheese balls and salmon mousse for a holiday dinner, suburban sleuth Susan Henshaw fits in a little yultetide detecting to discover if Kelly Knowlson iced her ex. And if not, who would dare send such an uncharitable Christmas greeting...'

Susan Henshaw and her family have been coming to their summerhouse in Maine for years, but when neighbor Humphrey Taylor is found bludgeoned to death in her living room, Susan's relaxing holiday goes out with the tide as she searches to find the killer before he or she strikes again. But the killer may just find her first . . .