Showing results by author "JoAnna Carl" in All Categories

After giving up her career as a Texas trophy wife, 28-year-old Lee McKinney finds herself in a Michigan resort town, keeping the books for her Aunt Nettie’s luxury chocolate business. But she soon finds that her new life isn’t all truffles and bonbons… Clementine Ripley, the defense attorney everyone loves to hate, is throwing a party that calls for several thousand dollars worth of custom chocolates - some made in the image of her champion cat.

After leaving her bad-news husband back in Texas, Lee McKinney moved up north to a quaint resort town. Now she keeps the books for her aunt’s luxury-chocolate shop. But Lee soon finds that Michigan winters can be murder....Lee and Aunt Nettie can’t believe their luck. A teddy bear promotion will have tourists flocking to Warner Pier, which could mean skyrocketing sales for TenHuis Chocolade. To help decorate the scrumptious store, their friend Gail, an antique dealer, lends them a collection of valuable chocolate molds.

When Lee hires a free-spirited employee with a tie-dyed, troubled past, she discovers that even the counterculture can conceal a killer....As much as the chocolate concoctions at Ten Huis Chocolade can tantalize people’s tongues, Lee’s newest hire is more likely to make them wag. Forsythia “Sissy” Smith is the granddaughter of Warner Pier’s resident hippie, but the fact that Sissy is a third-generation flower child is the least of Lee’s concerns. The previous winter, Sissy’s husband, Buzz, was found dead, and even though her alibi was airtight, the gossips are still pointing their fingers at her.

Ever since Young Blackbeard became a hit movie, everyone has caught pirate fever, including the residents of Warner Pier. TenHuis Chocolate is selling out of chocolate treasure chests, pirate hats and ships. When Lee McKinney Woodyard and her husband take their boat out on Lake Michigan, they're stunned when a mischievous band of pirates hops on board. Lee's is the first boat boarded that summer, and the town couldn't be more amused by the mysterious buccaneers. But when a body washes up on shore, the pirates' antics stop being so entertaining...

The much anticipated Winter Arts festival is here, and as treasurer of Winterfest, Lee is up to her elbows in mix-ups behind the scenes. When the art show's guest juror shows up drunk, Lee lets him sleep it off, only to find out later that someone's put the visiting dignitary into a permanent state of repose. Lee and Joe were the last people spotted near the crime scene.

Hollywood comes to Michigan when a film producer decides to turn a local author's romance novel into a blockbuster. Although the movie mogul's chocolate labrador is charming, Lee McKinney thinks the producer's talk is a bunch of sweet nothings-and she grows even more suspicious when she stumbles upon a dead body.

TenHuis Chocolade is wall-to-wall with chocolate hearts for Valentine's Day. But Lee is getting no love from Private Detective Derrick Valentine. He's looking for their employee - a woman Lee and her Aunt Nettie have been harboring for an underground railroad-type organization that aids abused women. Luckily, they manage to not spill the cocoa beans and clue him in. But the situation becomes a complex confection when Valentine meets his end. And it's Aunt Nettie who becomes a suspect.

After Lee McKinney goes rummaging in a locked file cabinet, a 45-year-old cold case starts to heat up the town of Warner Pier. When Lee discovers a dusty trophy hidden away inside TenHuis Chocolade, she is eager to share it with her aunt Nettie. The timing couldn’t be better - Nettie is hosting a reunion for her old high school singing group, the Pier-O-Ettes. Unfortunately, the trophy brings back terrible memories of the night of the group’s trophy-winning performance at the Castle Ballroom. The ballroom’s owner was found shot to death.

For the Fourth of July, Lee McKinney and her aunt debut their latest confections - chocolate frogs - at TenHuis Chocolade. The first customer to buy a croaker is the town crank. But when he later disappears and police suspect foul play, it's a chocolate clue that leads Lee to the killer.

In her rare free time, newlywed Lee McKinney Woodyard works on TenHuis Chocolade's newest offerings, chocolate jewels. But soon the town of Warner Pier has its very own jewel heist, and then a body is found in the lake. Lee can't help but wonder if the crimes are related. Maybe if she digs up some dirt, she'll hit the mother lode.

Chocolate-shop manager Lee McKinney has had enough of party planner Julie Singletree's cutesy e-mails. Then somebody actually kills the woman, putting everyone on her mailing list on edge. As their connections to the murder emerge, so do more attacks. Lee smells a rat - and it's not made of chocolate. And if she doesn't want to be permanently deleted, it's up to her to trap it.