It’s beginning to look a lot like murder at the Pine Hills Christmas extravaganza… Krissy Hancock is staying in her adopted hometown of Pine Hills, Ohio, for Christmas this year—and she even has a whole week off from her combination bookstore-café. But a killer is about to dampen her spirits. Unfortunately, Krissy’s been roped into filling in for a sick elf in the local holiday musical extravaganza. With a demanding director, backstage gossip, and two men in fierce competition for the starring role, it isn’t all sweetness and Christmas lights. Then a murder puts a stop to the production, and Krissy is faced with a pageant of suspects. Could her ex-boyfriend, a fellow elf, really be the culprit as the police are claiming? Or will the actor playing Santa be trading his red suit for an orange jumpsuit? When her behind-the-scenes investigation starts getting dangerous, the only thing Krissy really wants is to make it to Christmas dinner alive. But first she’ll have to finish wrapping up this case…

Desperate Housewives meets Murder, She Wrote, in Lee Hollis’s new mystery series, where a housewife and a female private eye solve murders together in their small Maine town! Someone is trying to turn Portland High into a school for scandal with a gossipy website called Dirty Laundry. The latest target of ruinous rumors is newly elected PTA president Sandra Wallage. After a heated meeting with outraged parents, Sandra runs into fellow school mom and private investigator Maya Kendrick, who's discovered the person behind the website. But when the women storm into the venomous gossip columnist’s office they find a lifeless body—along with a confession. Although the police rule the death a suicide, Maya suspects an injured party hung the Dirty Laundry creator out to dry. Maya already has a PI partner—but she's pregnant, and sonograms and stakeouts tend to conflict. So when Sandra volunteers for a crash course in sleuthing, Maya accepts the help. But as these unlikely partners study the clues, a killer plans to teach them a lesson . . .

Lee Hollis begins a delightful new series in which Poppy Harmon and her friends find that life after retirement can be much busier—and deadlier—than any of them ever anticipated . . . When Poppy goes from complacent retiree to penniless widow in a matter of weeks, the idea of spending her golden years as the biggest charity case in Palm Springs renders her speechless. With no real skills and nothing left to lose, Poppy uses her obsession with true crime shows to start a career as a private eye . . . But after opening the Desert Flowers Detective Agency with help from her two best friends, Violet and Iris, Poppy realizes that age brings wisdom, not business—until she convinces her daughter's handsome boyfriend, Matt, to pose as the face of the agency. It’s not long before Matt’s irresistible act snags a client desperate to retrieve priceless jewelry burglarized from an aging actress at the Palm Leaf Retirement Village. Or before Poppy stumbles upon the bloodied body of the victim’s arch rival . . . In a flash, Poppy’s innocent detective gig is upstaged by a dangerous murder investigation riddled with slimy suspects and unspeakable scandal. As she and her team uncover the truth, Poppy must confront the secrets about her late husband’s past and swiftly catch a killer lurking around the retirement community—even if it means turning her world upside down all over again.

Collects three murder mysteries set in coastal Maine during the holidays.

As the tide rolls out in the coastal touristy town of Bar Harbor Maine, the tasty clams are plentiful-and so is murder in the latest Hayley Powell Food & Cocktails mystery from bestselling author Lee Hollis. Food and cocktails columnist Hayley Powell usually reserves judgement for local cuisine, not the people who serve it. But staying neutral isn't so easy when caught between the biggest seafood rivals in town--her BFF Mona Barnes and the successful Leighton clan. Adding to a bitter decades-old surf-turf war between family businesses, a modern Romeo and Juliet story unfolds as Mona's son gets engaged to the daughter of her sworn enemy . . . Spiteful patriarch Lonnie Leighton is also steamed about the arrangement--enough to go to dangerous lengths to break it up. At least, until he's discovered face down and dead in the clam flats. With unanswered questions swirling, accusations flying in both directions, and a young couple stuck in the middle, Hayley has bigger fish to fry than determining who sources the best shellfish in Bar Harbor. Because someone wants to get away with murder . . . and send whoever else gets in their way to a muddy grave.

The murder of a moderator for a school competition spells trouble for Portland P.I. partners and moms Maya Kendrick and Sandra Wallage . . . Twelve-year-old Rocco Fanelli is a spelling bee champ in the making. He’s the odds-on favorite to win the local middle-school bee and go on to the regionals, the state, and ultimately the nationals. Which is why someone is trying to intimidate him to drop out with a threatening note in his locker. Rocco’s concerned parents hire Maya and Sandra to uncover the culprit and ensure their son’s safety. But the competition turns killer when a high school teacher who’s running the bee, clearly favoring certain students, is found dead in the school supply closet. Sandra had already confronted Ellie Lambert over unfairly grading her son Ryan—which now makes her a suspect. She’s not the only one who tangled with the teacher, however, and with suspects ranging from helicopter parents to the school custodian, Maya and Sandra will need to put their heads together to spell out who had the motive and opportunity to silence Ellie Lambert . . .

Someone is trying to turn Portland High into a school for scandal with a gossipy website called Dirty Laundry. The latest target of ruinous rumors is newly elected PTA president Sandra Wallage. After a heated meeting with outraged parents, Sandra runs into fellow school mom and private investigator Maya Kendrick, who's discovered the person behind the website. But when the women storm into the venomous gossip columnist’s office they find a lifeless body—along with a confession. Although the police rule the death a suicide, Maya suspects an injured party hung the Dirty Laundry creator out to dry. Maya already has a PI partner—but she's pregnant, and sonograms and stakeouts tend to conflict. So when Sandra volunteers for a crash course in sleuthing, Maya accepts the help. But as these unlikely partners study the clues, a killer plans to teach them a lesson . . . Visit us at www.kensingtonbooks.com