Showing results by author "Lee Hollis" in All Categories

The relationships between bad-tempered Tom Farley and his neighbors are as bitter as a bowl of raw cranberries, but would one of them have taken it far enough to replace birdshot with a real bullet and make him a target at a shooting competition?

While private investigator Maya Kendrick is still mentoring her new partner, PTA president Sandra Wallage, in the detective game, the two women don't need incredible powers of deduction to know their marriages are on the rocks. With Maya's ex-cop husband in prison and Sandra's senator spouse separated from her, both find themselves investigating the dating scene. Until Diego Sanchez turns up dead.

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.

With the holiday season in full swing, food and cocktails columnist and restauranteur Hayley Powell has lots to check off her last-minute to-do list. Not included is the sudden arrival of her father, who hasn't been in the picture since she believed in Santa Claus. Dwight Jordan's presence in Bar Harbor might just be the unwanted gift that keeps on giving-especially after he becomes the top suspect in a case of yuletide murder . . .

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.

Drafted as chaperones, Maya Kendrick and PTA president Sandra Wallage are accompanying the SoPo High seniors to the nation's capital—much to the embarrassment of Maya's daughter Vanessa and Sandra's son Ryan. Now both moms are about to find out which is harder—shepherding unruly high schoolers or solving a murder. The last sight they expected to see on this trip is a female intern who works for Sandra's soon-to-be-ex-husband, Senator Stephen Wallage, in a fatally compromising position.

After all these years, Maya and Sandra have mixed feelings about seeing their high school classmates, but in one sense the evening promises to be something of a red carpet event. A shy wallflower in school, Alyssa Turner has blossomed into an Oscar-nominated actress—and she's coming to the reunion. To their surprise, before the event, Alyssa contacts Maya and Sandra. She's going to be playing a private eye and would like to hear about their experiences. When they meet, she confides she was bullied in school by cheerleader Tawny Bryce and her mean girls clique.

Fed up with dating after a disastrous setup, the only thing Hayley wants to snuggle up to is a box of made-to-order chocolates from plus-sized, plus-mouthed chocolatier Bessie Winthrop. But when Bessie is found dead in her kitchen, only Hayley suspects that Bessie's "heart attack" might actually be a candy-coated murder.

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.

There’s usually a chill in the air when Halloween arrives—but in these three novellas by beloved cozy mystery authors Leslie Meier, Lee Hollis, and Liz Ireland, the crimes are even colder than the haunted climate....

Part-time reporter Lucy Stone is writing a piece for the Courier about four Irish step dancing students from Tinker's Cove on the cusp of making it big. But the story becomes headline news for all the wrong reasons when one girl's mother is found dead in her bathtub. Did a stage mom take rivalry too far, or is some other motive at play?

Food and cocktails columnist Hayley Powell doesn't know what to believe when Lydia Partridge, the put-together owner of gourmet Bar Harbor Ice Cream, suddenly reveals fears that her husband may be having an affair. There's no other way to explain why Jamie, a respected professor, was spotted in a remote part of town with a much younger woman. But instead of learning the truth about the secret meeting, Lydia opens her freezer truck to find another surprise—the dead body of a summer employee . . .

Hayley Powell, food and cocktails columnist for Bar Harbor's Island Times, is...well, kind of broke. So when she's selected for that extreme coupon-clipping reality game show coming to town...she's thrilled, especially when her competition is nasty nurse Candace Culpepper. But when Haley stumbles across a face-down-in-the-snow Candace - scissors gleaming between her shoulders - she knows the next thing she'll be selected for will probably be a police line-up.

As a single mom, Hayley Powell already has a full plate - she's got deadlines to make and a teenage daughter with eyes for an aspiring singer-songwriter. But when country music superstar Wade Springer rolls into town, Hayley spies an irresistible side gig: personal chef to her all-American idol. After he tries her home cooking, Wade's so impressed that he hires her on the spot - and invites her to dine with him alone.

On the eve of her high school reunion, Hayley Powell dreads seeing the trio of mean girls who used to torment her: Sabrina Merryweather, Nykki Temple, and former prom queen Ivy Foster. These days Ivy wears a different crown as the cupcake queen - and flaunting her success is just the icing on the cake.

Single mom Hayley Powell is barely keeping her leaking roof over her head in Bar Harbor, Maine, when her boss at the Island Times gives her a new assignment - taking over the paper's food column. Hayley's not sure she has the chops - she's an office manager, not a writer, even if her friends clamor for her mouth-watering potluck dishes. But the extra income is tempting, and Hayley's chatty first column is suddenly on everyone's menu - with one exception.

Who better than food and cocktails columnist Hayley Powell to book a caterer for the Island Times holiday party? But Hayley's quest for a cook turns into the pursuit of a killer who caters to no one....

When Hayley is invited to do a cooking demo on one of daytime's most popular talk shows, it's a welcome distraction from her empty nest blues. And the newfound fame certainly has its perks - especially when Olivia Redmond, the posh bacon heiress of Redmond Meats, offers Hayley a writing gig with a juicy paycheck.

As the food and cocktails columnist for the Island Times, it's Hayley Powell's job to stay on top of the latest eateries in town. Just in time for the summer tourist season, Chef Romeo, a successful restaurateur from New York City, has opened an establishment called - naturally - Romeo's. But between his over-the-top temperament and his no-holds-barred diet, Chef Romeo may not live through the grand opening.

Poppy never planned on speaking to her old acting rival Serena Saunders again, let alone accepting her as a client. But familiar drama barges back into her life when Serena requests an urgent background check on Ned Boyce, her fiance, before tying the knot. And the flighty film star is behaving out of character by wishing to start over with Poppy—this time as friends. Poppy no sooner thinks she's nailed down her latest assignment than Serena is caught holding a smoking gun over a stranger's dead body.