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It's Septe
mber - National Honey Month - in Moraine, Wisconsin, and things are looking up for Story Fischer. Her messy divorce is final, the honey from her beekeeping business has been harvested, and her market is thriving. Life seems pretty sweet...until her bee mentor is found dead in his apiary. Now Story has to find her way out of a very sticky situation.
Order it now from an independent bookstore or from Amazon
Book #1 in the Queen Bee mystery series
When Gertie Johnson’s Michigan Upper Peninsula neighbor is shot right between the eyes while holed up in his hunting blind, everyone thinks a stray bullet killed him except Gertie, the sixty-six year old mother of the local sheriff. Blaze, named after the horse Gertie never had, is more interested in retirement than sheriffing. With the help of Cora Mae, her man-hungry Wonderbra-equipped best friend, and sassy pin-curled Kitty, Gertie fends off attempts by family and foe to stop her investigation. Gertie bends the rules, tells outrageous fibs to get her way, and creates havoc in what was once a quiet backwoods community.
Book #1 in the Gertie Johnson Backwoods Adventures
Buy Murder Passes the Buck print book from Amazon
Or as an eBook - Kindle
A game
warden is murdered right under a tree stand belonging to Gertie Johnson’s favorite grandson. When he disappears into the backwoods, sixty-six-year-old Gertie uses her “unique” investigative techniques to track him. Her search is hampered by a self-appointed bodyguard, her man-hungry best friend, and Grandma Johnson—who should be mushing peas between her new false teeth in the Escanaba nursing home instead of setting up camp at Gertie’s place. To top it off, Gertie’s son Blaze, the local sheriff, seems more concerned with arresting his mom for cruising down Highway M35 without a driver’s license than finding her grandson or catching the killer.
Book #2 in the Gertie Johnson Backwoods Adventures
Buy Murder Grins and Bears It print edition from Amazon
Or as an eBook - Kindle
It’s spring in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula—an exciting season of rising temperatures, budding romances, and the turkey-hunting opener. But for sheer adrenaline value, neither love nor turkeys can compete with the Credit Union being held up at gunpoint. It’s not the best planning to commit a robbery in a town where everyone is armed for combat, and the gunman is shot dead in a room full of witnesses—but the stolen money has disappeared right in front of their eyes. Faster than you can say “Tom Turkey,” Gertie, Cora Mae, and Kitty are on the case.
Book #3 in the Gertie Johnson Backwoods Adventures
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100 Simple Recipes from Gertie Johnson's Backwoods Kitchen. Delicious doesn't have to be complicated. Cora Mae shares her specialty - The Hot and Heavy Manly Sandwich. Kitty takes Drop Dead Desserts to a new level. Even Grandma Johnson gets into the act with several old-time recipes, including her award winning casserole. Included Finnish and Swedish delicacies.
Only $2.99! Kindle
When Gretchen Birch reluctantly arrives in Phoenix, Arizona to search for her mother, a talented doll restorer, she thinks her Aunt Nina is performing her usual theatrics. But Nina, purse dog trainer and self-proclaimed psychic, fears her mother’s disappearance is connected with the death of Martha, an alcoholic has-been doll collector found at the base of a ridge on Camelback Mountain. Martha carried a small expensive French doll parasol in her pocket and a piece of paper implicating Gretchen’s mother clenched in her cold fist. Restringing an antique doll is child’s play compared to the skills Gretchen must hone to save her mother and herself.
Book #1 in the Dolls To Die For Series
Buy print from Penguin Amazon
Gretchen Birch’s first doll show turns out to be a real show-stopper. After a news reporter is found dead in the parking lot, Gretchen begins to receive repaired Kewpie dolls with cryptic messages hidden inside. While Gretchen follows a trail that leads to several other past murders, the killer is hunting for a very special doll. Although she doesn’t know it yet, that doll happens to be in Gretchen’s possession. When the killer comes after her, Gretchen must use her doll restringing skills to save her life.
Book #2 in the Dolls To Die For Series
Buy it now (e-format only) Kindle
Doll rest
oration artist Gretchen Birch has settled into life in Arizona, happily working in her mother Caroline’s doll studio, spending time with her Aunt Nina (and Nina’s miniature “purse dogs”), and trying to avoid the devastatingly handsome—but still officially married—Detective Matt Albright. And she’s happy to widen her circle of friends with the other Phoenix Dollars Club members. Even so, however, Gretchen is surprised to receive an invitation to a party at a dollhouse shop she’s unfamiliar with … but not as surprised as she is when she arrives to find the shop owner dead on the floor, toppled over a display of miniature roomboxes.
Book #3 in the Dolls To Die For Series
Buy it now (e-format only) Kindle
All’s well in Phoenix—Gretchen’s business is thriving, she’s dating a gorgeous detective, and an anonymous donor has given the Phoenix
Dollers a historic house to turn into a doll museum. But as the doll club members rehearse a play for the fundraiser, Gretchen’s kooky “psychic” Aunt Nina becomes convinced the house is haunted. Gretchen scoffs, but strange, creepy things do seem to be happening: A woman’s body—a long-lost friend of Gretchen’s mother—is found lying atop a grave in the cemetery; a note with the words “Die, Dolly, Die” is left on Gretchen’s car; and the Birch women make an eerie discovery in the house. Still, even with Nina’s warnings of danger, Gretchen intends to get to the bottom of this. And she’d better, or it’ll be she and her friends who will be history…
Book #4 in the Dolls To Die For Series
Buy it now (e-format only) Kindle
Praise for the Gertie Backwoods Adventures:
Laugh-out-loud funny. - Crimespree
Gertie is a lot like Evanovich's Granny Mazur, but with more freedom to misbehave. - Deadly Pleasures
A hoot with a heart. - Cozy Library
- Gertie Johnson, one of the most memorable heroines in recent crime fiction. -- Lansing State Journal
Praise for the Dolls to Die For series:
- Gretch is a contemporary and adult Nancy Drew. Deb Baker is an extremely talented cozy writer. Crimespree Magazine
- A wonderful peek into the not-always-genteel world of doll collecting!—Monica Ferris, USA Today bestselling author of the Needlecraft Mystery series
- Fun, frantic and thoroughly engaging - Sandra Balzo, author of Brewed Crude Tattooed