Our Team
Lainie Lovett Mystery Series
STILL KICKING
A savvy, soccer-playing teacher takes on murder as an amateur sleuth
When the husband of one of widowed schoolteacher Lainie Lovett’s soccer teammates turns up dead, Lainie winds up under suspicion as an accessory to murder. But she’s smart and stubborn and will figure out who the murderer is—if she can stay out of jail, stay alive and hang onto her sense of humor.
Cozy Mystery, 358 pages, 5 x 8
Trade Paperback, $18.99, ISBN: 978-1942209409
KICKBACK
A missing fortune, a dead resident, and a worried community pull Lainie into her next mystery
A huge sum of money has gone missing from the Hopwell School’s parent-teacher organization. The evidence points to a ditzy school secretary, but when she dies abruptly, Lainie Lovett’s colleagues turn to her to figure out where the money went.
Cozy Mystery, 354 pages, 5 x 8
Trade Paperback, $18.99, ISBN: 978-1942209416
DROPKICK
Lainie steps in to solve a family murder
The party celebrating Lainie Lovett’s father-in-law’s birthday gets exciting pretty quickly when one of the guests keels over just as the magnificent golf-themed birthday cake is being served. That he happens to be the most obnoxious guest at the shindig leaves the other guests less than shattered by his sudden passing. But when it’s determined that he didn’t die of natural causes, and a few of the guests, including the guest of honor himself, arouse suspicion, Lainie’s in-laws ask her to step in and clear her father-in-law’s name.
Meanwhile, Lainie’s daughter Karen, who has fallen madly in love with one of the waiters also under suspicion, needs Lainie to exonerate him, as well. In honor of her husband’s memory, her daughter’s love life, and that spectacular birthday cake, with its chocolate golf balls and candy clubs, Lainie must figure out who murdered the party guest—while trying to avoid getting clubbed, herself.
Cozy Mystery, 324 pages, 5 x 8
Trade Paperback, $18.99, ISBN: 978-1942209423
KICK THE BUCKET
A missing fortune, a dead resident, and a worried community pull Lainie into her next mystery
Summertime and the living should be easy. School’s out, and fourth-grade teacher Lainie Lovett is on vacation, spending her mornings running sports clinics for children and her evenings playing with the Rockettes, her recreation-league soccer team. But things get a whole lot less easy when one of Lainie’s teammates urges her to visit Sunrise Village, an assisted-living residence for the elderly, where various items have gone missing: a ring, a jewelry box, a bottle of prescription medicine…and George Vandercloop’s considerable fortune, which he’d kept stuffed inside his mattress and which disappeared the night he died.
Plenty of people at Sunrise Village had access to his apartment—his neighbors, the staff, his relatives, and the newly hired director of maintenance, who may just be the long-lost son of the Rockettes’ distinctly un-motherly coach. Who stole George’s money? And if he didn’t die of natural causes, who killed him?
Lainie doesn’t need another mystery to solve, but Sunrise Village needs Lainie. The place teems with romantic intrigue, rivalries, gossip, raptures over the dining room’s chocolate cake—and possible crimes. Lainie will do her best to uncover the truth. But will she still be among the living when the assisted-living establishment is done with her?
Cozy Mystery, 382 pages, 5 x 8
Trade Paperback, $18.99, ISBN: 978-1942209522
KICKOFF
Lainie steps in to help when suspected infidelity and a suspicious death threaten the marriage of one of her friends.
When one of Lainie Lovett’s closest friends suspects her husband of cheating on her, she turns to Lainie for help. He insists he’s innocent, but he’s seen leaving the Other Woman’s house—shortly before the Other Woman turns up dead, apparently killed after pigging out on Happy’s Hamburgers. Now he’s suspected of murder, and he begs Lainie to clear his name. How can she say no? His wife is the goalie of the Rockettes, Lainie’s soccer team.
Lainie has to make sense of the victim’s blasé family and back-stabbing pals. Add to this the mysterious green car that keeps appearing in front of Lainie’s house, the romantic ups and downs of her flaky sister-in-law, the subtle pressure she’s feeling from her boyfriend, and kickoff week—the start of a new school year for Lainie and her fellow teachers. She also has to figure out why the victim, a devout vegetarian, would consume all those fast-food hamburgers.
Whether it’s affection for family and friends, passion for teaching, enthusiasm for soccer, panic over a possibly straying husband, or a soul-deep craving for a greasy meat patty on a toasted bun… Ultimately, everything is about love. And love, Lainie learns, can cause a whole lot of trouble.
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Cozy Mystery, 322 pages, 5 x 8
Trade Paperback, $18.99, ISBN: 978-1942209713