Annie Darling's murder mystery cruise in the waters off her not-always-idyllic isle of Broward's Rock is going swimmingly -- until one of the revelers plunges overboard. And despite hubby Max's courageous rescue attempt, faux murder turns all too quickly into real-life death. As the body count rises over the next few days, the popular proprietress of the Death on Demand bookstore begins to suspect that all the victims were murdered most foully, and that they are all connected in some unknown way. But what intrepid crime solver Annie does not realize is that the killer she seeks is more ingeniously efficient than most -- and the puzzle she wishes to unravel is, in reality, a time bomb packed with an explosive mix of arson, assault, kidnapping, robbery ... and homicide, naturally.One false step and Annie, Max, and their canny cohorts will be blown off Broward's Rock for good.

When retired newspaper reporter Henrietta O'Dwyer Collins, Henrie O to her friends, receives a call for help, she discovers that love once kindled never burns to ashes. Although she refused Jimmy Lennox's marriage proposal, there is still a special place for him in her heart. She wished him well when he found happiness with Sophia Montgomery, world-famous documentary filmmaker and stepmother to the now grown heirs of a great fortune. Sophia is at odds with the heirs, and Jimmy fears for her safety. He asks Henrie O to come along with the family on a Baltic cruise. Henrie O can't turn down her old friend, though old passions are stirred when he calls.On the voyage she soon realizes this dysfunctional family is plunging toward destruction and one of the travelers has murder in mind. As the ports of call pass—Copenhagen, Gdynia, Tallinn, St. Petersburg—death inexorably approaches. Henrie O works desperately to save Jimmy and to bring hope to lives blighted by anger, resentment...

When wealthy, widowed art patron Virginia Neville officially announces her engagement to Jake O'Neill -- her handsome, charming, and much younger fiancé -- at a gala gallery opening, not all the gathered friends and stepfamily are pleased. And before the last champagne bubble pops, murder disrupts the grand celebration. Bookstore owner Annie Darling has a vested interest in the investigation, and she's determined to untangle an unholy marriage of jealousy, blackmail, and malicious mischief, even if it means having to cross swords with hubby Max and cross paths with a cruelly clever stalker.

She came in the rain. Alone. On a bicycle.Annie and Max Darling are completely unprepared when the arrival of a mysterious young woman shocks their sea island and stirs up more than just gossip.It turns out that Iris, the beautiful stranger, is a former resident of Broward's Rock. Her arrival throws the normally happy town into a downward spiral that pits neighbor against neighbor.Things take a turn for the worse when Annie befriends Iris and invites her to attend the Darlings' party at the pavilion where Death is the uninvited guest. Suddenly, Max and Annie find themselves in the middle of a fight they don't understand and at the mercy of an unknown assailant who's trying to kill them — and all they know is that it is one of their friends.

Ghostly gumshoe Bailey Ruth Raeburn of Heaven's Department of Good Intentions is checking out a troubling disturbance in Adelaide, Oklahoma. But what seems at first like simple vandalism won't be an open-and-shut case... Bailey Ruth's supervisor, Wiggins, is worried about a dear old friend. The ghost of elegant Lorraine Marlow haunts Adelaide's college library. Known as the Lady of the Roses, she plays matchmaker, using the fragrant flowers to pair up students. But someone's making mischief after hours, leaving roses strewn about the library, destroying a gargoyle, and stealing a valuable book. Concerned with Lorraine's reputation among the living, Wiggins dispatches the irrepressible redhead Bailey Ruth to investigate. Soon after her arrival, trouble begins to stack up. A campus security guard is shot by an intruder, and Bailey Ruth uncovers a catalog of evidence blaming a student for the crimes. As a ghost, she may not be all there, but even Bailey...

Bailey Ruth Raeburn is back, racing against the Heavenly clock in an all-new mystery from the New York Times bestselling author of Ghost Times Two. Bailey Ruth finds herself comforting a distraught sister when she's sent to Adelaide, Oklahoma, on her latest mission. Susan Gilbert receives a $100,000 ransom demand for her younger sibling. When the caller wants Susan to pay a visit to her wealthy boss and take the cash from his safe, Bailey Ruth follows Susan to the home. But she finds herself in a quandary, knowing that robbery is hardly a Heavenly pursuit. While Susan waits to hear back from the kidnappers, Bailey Ruth attempts to piece together how the criminals targeted Susan and how they know about her boss's money. At a luncheon the previous week, Susan's boss asked her to open the safe so all the attendees knew it was filled with cash. Could one of the rich man's closest confidants be behind the abduction? Bailey Ruth is...

Max Darling hasn't been interested in crime since his brush with a seductive young woman put him in danger of losing his freedom. He even refuses to talk to a woman who calls for help and says she is afraid. The caller leaves word she's hidden something in the antebellum house Max and his wife, Annie, are restoring. When Annie finds out, she hurries to the woman's home, only to discover she's been murdered. Evidence links the dead woman to a fortune in gold coins that has recently gone missing. Was this mysterious woman killed for a fortune in coins?The dead woman's son is accused but Max believes in his innocence, and Max and Annie plunge wholeheartedly into the investigation. Are the coins hidden in Annie and Max's house? The intruder who shoots at Max seems to think so. And when Annie discovers the secret of their old house, death arrives at their door.

Annie Darling, owner of the Death on Demand mystery bookstore, is hosting a party to celebrate successful Southern literary icon—and former Broward's Rock resident—Alex Griffith and his bestselling new novel, Don't Go Home. But after the local paper announces that Griffith aims to reveal the real-life inspirations behind his characters, perhaps the author should take his own advice. Not everyone in town is ready to give him a glowing review. As Annie attempts damage control, her friend Marian Kenyon gets in a heated argument with Griffith. It's a fight Annie won't soon forget—especially after the author turns up dead. Despite an array of suspects to match Griffith's cast of characters—and a promise to her husband, Max, to steer clear of sleuthing—Annie's not about to let the police throw the book at her friend when the real killer remains at large...

Intrigue and foul play are no strangers to the idyllic South Carolina sea island of Broward's Rock. Mystery bookstore owner Annie Darling and her husband, Max, who specialize in solving problems, plunge into a startling web of danger and deceit when a trio of deaths is linked to the island's youth recreation center.With the evidence mounting against her, the center's director seeks out Max to clear her name. When it comes to intrigue, where Max goes, Annie isn't far behind. To save an innocent woman, the pair scrambles to unravel three complex interlinked puzzles: the mystery of three guns, the pulled-out pant pockets of one victim, and the disappearance of a teenager whose stepfather always had the last laugh—until he died.

Carolyn Hart—New York Times bestselling author of Ghost to the Rescue—returns with a new Bailey Ruth Ghost Novel in which one woman shatters the glass ceiling...with a little help from beyond.Bailey Ruth Raeburn's latest mission is to guide the happy-go-lucky spirit of a deceased young man named Jimmy to the next life. But Jimmy is determined to watch over his still-living girlfriend Megan, whom he wants to be happy even without him—which is easier said than done.As if being haunted by her late boyfriend wasn't enough, Megan is dealing with an arrogant, manipulative senior partner who threatens to fire Megan's vulnerable secretary if Megan accepts a partnership at another law firm. She's in an impossible bind.Since Jimmy refuses to move on while Megan is being blackmailed, Bailey Ruth agrees to help him. But after the partner turns up dead and Megan is found at the crime scene, Bailey Ruth and Jimmy have to find a way to uncover a...