Contemporary Mysteries


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For the Love of Dogs final small 683x1024 - Contemporary Mysteries

For the Love of Dogs

Book two in The Gumshoe Chicks Mysteries

Dog shows can be murder…

When Molly Gibson, sensual romance writer but shyest and most insecure member of the Gumshoe Chicks, finds more than she bargained for in the Driscoll’s dog trailer, the Chicks – Molly, Abi and Dana – swap show ring etiquette and grooming mitts for some deadly serious sleuthing.

Their only clues are the blood-splattered dog-grooming scissors found buried in a fellow competitor’s chest. A husband blackmailing his wife. And a death threat written on a Betty Boop writing pad.

As the Chicks continue to investigate, they discover several suspects at the dog show have something to hide. Was the dead man really a serial Don Juan, intent on taking every female show competitor over 30 to bed? Did the ostentatious poodle exhibitor lose his temper, decide to teach the victim a lesson, and go too far? Or was the female judge with the Gucci boots angry when the victim threatened to expose her infidelity?

And who is that bad-boy biker with the sea-blue eyes and kissable lips?

Molly, who has enough trouble resolving conflict in her fictional stories is freaked out at the prospect of confronting a real-life antihero. A villain who’s killed not once, but twice, and if she doesn’t apply her creative flair to unearthing the culprit, could easily kill again.

Just when the Chicks think they know who the murderer is – Molly stumbles over another clue proving them all wrong.

But with only a geriatric chihuahua and a hairless broom to work with, will she live to pass this message on to the others?

If you like dogs, best friend relationships, humor and a touch of murder, you will love the second book in this new mystery series by June Whyte.

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gone to the dogs June Whyte - Contemporary Mysteries

Gone to the Dogs

Book one in The Gumshoe Chicks Mysteries.

Abigail Truelove believes her champion standard smooth dachshund, Chloe, has a lock on the Ladies Kennel Club Best in Show trophy. That is, until she discovers her nemesis, Petra Sullivan, has been sleeping with the show judge–and with Abi’s boyfriend. Understandably, Abi’s upset. Might even have threatened blood-thirsty consequences.

In front of a show ring full of witnesses…

So, later, when Abi trips over Petra’s dead body in a dark alley, she knows she must find Petra’s killer–the only clue–an expensive designer dog leash knotted murderously around Petra’s neck. Or she could end up showing her wiener dog, in prison.

To help catch the killer, Abi and her two best friends, Molly, a virgin romance-writer and Dana, a ball-busting mother of two, revive their High-school sleuthing group, The Gumshoe Chicks. But when the list of suspects becomes longer than a week’s grocery list, the Chicks quickly discover that sleuthing isn’t as easy as the Nancy Drew books portray.

The local dog show world is full of angry wives, irate competitors and a Mick Dundee type guy with a yard full of man-eating crocodiles–all cheated, tricked or dumped by Petra. But which one would stupidly waste their big-ticket luxury dog leash for a murder weapon? The same one who is now determined to collar Abi?

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Homicide at Emu Lodge final 200x300 - Contemporary Mysteries

Homicide at Emu Lodge

Book three in the Vets2U cozy mystery series.

The week leading up to Christmas should be fun, but when mobile-veterinarians, Dr. Emily Harrison and Dr. Maggie Post encounter an angry arachnid as big as a small dog, they decide it’s no fun at all – especially as the eight-legged creepy-crawly is found guarding a dead body.

Who hated the arrogant literary agent enough to kill her? Was it her boss, Edward G. Peters, the best-selling horror author whose Modus Operandi in his latest book is identical to the crime? Or the cook who is protecting a shady secret involving her boss and the deceased? Or the young cleaner who thinks nothing of skirting the truth, the TV guy with a hidden agenda, or the scruffy burglar caught breaking into Emu Lodge the day before the murder?

Once again, the two amateur sleuths soon find themselves deep in the middle of another baffling mystery. However, when Maggie’s daughter gets caught up in the killer’s sights and Fat Santa threatens to blow them away if they don’t butt out, both Maggie and Emily wonder if maybe the stakes are too high. That is until Maggie wakes to find herself surrounded by spiders….

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Book 4 Leashed final small 200x300 - Contemporary Mysteries

Leashed

When greyhound trainer, Kat McKinley discovers a dead body in the dumpster at the back of the greyhound track and her bridesmaid, Jules, is arrested for the woman’s murder, Kat’s wedding plans are left in turmoil. To get her bridesmaid out of jail in time for the ceremony, Kat has to find the real murderer.

But how? It isn’t a matter of who murdered Mary Parker, but who didn’t. The woman was the most disliked trainer in greyhound racing and even Kat is a suspect. After all, when Mary, a serial man-stealer, tried to take Ben away from her, Kat threatened to carve the word slut across the woman’s fake boobs. All this, while rugging up her dog in the kennel house, with stewards, the track-vet and seven other trainers as witnesses.

But with so much to do before the wedding, will Kat have time to investigate?  Her bikie friend, Scuzz and his sister Thunder have already settled into the granny-flat-cum-greyhound-adoption quarters. Kat’s domineering grandma arrives with a new beau on her arm, both eager to tag along in the investigation. Her hippy sister, Liz, has a surprise announcement to make. And if the depressed dressmaker doesn’t finish her wedding dress and bridesmaid gowns in time, there’ll be no wedding.

With a crazed murderer intent on turning Kat into a statistic instead of a happy-ever-after newlywed, it’s a frantic sprint to the finish line. Will Ben be left standing at the alter clasping the leashes of Kat’s four dogs, Tater, Lucky, Lofty and Yolo? Or will Kat and her friends manage to outsmart the real murderer in time for her to walk down the aisle with the guy she’d always want to be lip-locked with if ever the world came to an end.

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m Death at Dingo Creek final 200x300 - Contemporary MysteriesDeath at Dingo Creek

Book two in the Vets2U cozy mystery series.

This one is for all you horse lovers out there. 😊

Our two mobile veterinarians, Emily and Maggie, are thrilled to be invited to a show-jumping clinic in Dingo Creek. This is not just any clinic. It’s a 3-day team-event run by the National coach and culminating in four riders being chosen to represent their country. As well as being on hand at all times, Emily and Maggie’s job is to make sure the horses are always in the best of health.

Of course, there’s lots of rivalry between the riders, but it seems like the arrogant, Jeremy Taggart, will stoop to anything – sex, sabotage or stealing – to gain a place in the team.  That is, until he doesn’t turn up at an important training session.  And when Emily and Maggie go looking for him, they quickly discover Jeremy’s chances of being included in the team have now dropped to zero…

In Death at Dingo Creek, there’s mystery, laugh-out-loud humor, a little gore, and ultra-athletic horses soaring over Olympic-style fences bigger than a truck. Enough to keep you turning the pages until late into the night.

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Hounded – Out Now hounded 200x300 - Contemporary Mysteries

Book 3 in the Kat McKinley mystery series.

Successful greyhound trainer and bumbling amateur sleuth, Kat McKinley, is at her wits’ end. And why not? Her gorgeous boyfriend, Ben, is racing his dogs interstate, her anti-everything hippie sister, Liz and ex-con boyfriend Scott are making whoopee in her guest room, and nine of Liz’s raucous protester friends have set up camp on her front lawn. So, when Helen McKinley, aka Attila the Hun, her mother, flies into town on her broomstick and lands on Kat’s doorstep intending to move in for two weeks, Kat’s life goes from disastrous to crazy ridiculous.

Can things possibly get any worse? Absolutely. While Kat’s at the track, someone decides to snuff out one of the protesters on her front-lawn. Her mother inadvertently gets high on a potent cache of marijuana cookies. And after Tater the Chihuahua finds the protester’s body under a load of sand, the police arrest Kat’s mother on suspicion of murder.

And it doesn’t stop there. When another protester washes up dead from the Port river and racing greyhounds are inexplicably getting sick and the vets can’t work out why – Kat decides it’s time to act. After all, she seems to be the only one interested in springing her mother out of jail.

Trouble is – the more questions Kat asks – the more people seem to die.

Will she be next?

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m Sex On Tuesdays 200x300 - Contemporary MysteriesSex on Tuesdays

When the Tribute’s sex-therapist chokes to death at her desk, Danielle Summers takes over the woman’s daily Sex On… column. Dani, unlike her predecessor, Daisy Mae, has no qualifications or background knowledge for the job. Instead she procures her answers from the Internet, self-help books and Megan, a retired prostitute who’s had sex with thousands of guys.

About to turn 50, Dani yearns for more than one toothbrush in the bathroom, more than one car in the garage and definitely more than a greyhound with flatulence sharing her bed at night. The solution, she decides, is to start dating.

Meanwhile, one of Dani’s readers (known only as Distinctly Frustrated) has written in asking her for advice. He complains his wife is not concentrating during sex, so Dani suggests foreplay using chocolate sauce and dress-ups. However, much to Dani’s horror, a saboteur changes her reply to ‘Shove something hot down the bitch’s throat.’

The following morning, Distinctly Frustrated discovers his wife dead. Someone has indeed followed Dani’s advice and ‘shoved something hot’ down the wife’s throat. A red hot poker.

After first suspecting Dani due to evidence in her handbag and her sabotaged column suggestion, the police take the husband in for questioning.

Could the killer actually be Jack Rivers, sleazy bad boy from Gape, a rival newspaper? Did he really pretend to be Dani’s blind date just to get her in an uncompromising position so he could publish photos of her rolls of fat and cellulite in his trashy magazine – or was it all to do with slipping incriminating evidence into her handbag while she was otherwise engaged?

Or what about Alice? The Tribute’s spaced-out receptionist-cum-tea-lady, who was Daisy Mae’s stepsister. When Daisy Mae died, Alice thought she’d get the job of writing the Sex On… column. Jealous of Dani’s success, she adds salt to her tea, spills hot coffee on her lap and sticks pins in a Dani Summers lookalike voodoo doll. But would Alice take such a giant step forward and kill DF’s wife to frame Dani for murder?

While chasing a killer, Dani discovers Mr. Right is slap bang under her nose. He’s the guy who’s been looking out for her all along. The guy who’s there for her when her blind dates turn dangerous. The guy who shoves her out from under a lethal four-wheel drive intent on leaving its tire prints straight down the middle of her body.

Can Dani survive investigating the murder long enough to find true love?

A new romantic mystery from the acclaimed author of CHASING CAN BE MURDER.

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small Chasing - Contemporary Mysteries

Chasing Can Be Murder

Book 1 in the Kat McKinley greyhound mysteries.

Professional greyhound trainer, Kat McKinley, is a soft touch. When she’s talked into having sex with a guy who’s just not her type, a romp so pathetic it registers minus ten on a sex-to-die-for scale, she decides to end the relationship. When Kat wakes the next morning to find Mr Wham-Bam sprawled beside her, a knife embedded in his left nipple, she wishes she’d ended the relationship sooner.

After that wake-up call, Kat figures life can’t nose-dive any lower. But with a killer out to get her, the police suspecting her of murder, a misbehaving greyhound, a complicated love triangle and a vicious kidnapper who threatens to cut out a child’s tongue if her dog, Big Mistake wins his next race, maybe it can…

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.cid 05E42A6F 9E8A 48EA 8BE0 F04EFE045E3A@hsd1 ca comcast net 1 200x300 - Contemporary MysteriesMuzzled

Book 2 in the Kat McKinley greyhound mysteries.

Kat McKinley, professional greyhound trainer and sometimes sleuth, is determined to find out who’s behind the slow dog scam plaguing country tracks. But with a missing sister to find, races to win, a dead guy in the fridge, a night spent in the slammer, a suspicious police inspector, and a killer on the loose, will she survive to enjoy her new romance with Ben? Of course, Ben, ‘the guy she’d want to be lip-locked with if ever the world came to an end’, would rather spend time perusing the Karma Sutra with her—not chasing a killer. But if Kat doesn’t find out who killed the guy in the fridge, she might end up dead herself.

And with all those positions to try—that would never do. A new romantic mystery from the author of the first Kat McKinley caper Chasing Can Be Murder.

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murder at kangaroo downs final small 200x300 - Contemporary MysteriesMurder at Kangaroo Downs

Book 1 in the Vets2U cozy mysteries.

If you enjoyed watching Rosemary and Thyme – the TV show where two gardeners dig up a dead body in every episode – you’ll love reading about Emily and Maggie, two quirky veterinarians, who travel around Australia treating animals and stumbling over unwelcome corpses.

When Emily and Maggie arrive at Kangaroo Downs to officiate at the opening of its new race-track, they expect to find the usual friendly ambiance characteristic of all small country towns – not the Chief Steward, their very first client, seated behind an ‘engaged’ sign in the local Diner’s restroom – deader than last week’s news.

Not everyone is happy about the new race-track in Kangaroo Downs. Unexplained accidents have been happening at the track. Like workmen falling off sabotaged ladders, the starting gates malfunctioning, an administrator getting electrocuted as he tested the two-way radio in the stewards’ room, broken glass found scattered on the track and the caretaker’s tractor up and disappearing overnight.

With a deranged murderer on the loose, all Emily and Maggie want to do is complete their assignment and hit the road again. That is – until Emily discovers her car stripped of its wheels and CANCELLED written in red paint on the windshield. Angrier than a couple of bees stuck in a vegemite jar, both Emily and Maggie are determined to unearth the identity of the saboteur.

But are the saboteur and the killer the same person? What happens when they find another dead body inside the starting-gates at the track? Will Emily and Maggie find answers to these questions before the first race on Opening Day?

Or will the two reluctant sleuths be the next casualties on the killer’s Cancelled list?

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