Available on
Audible Books!

Murder of a Bookstore Babe

Devereaux Sinclair is the happy new owner of the adorable old-fashioned shop in her small Missouri town. But when a revenge-crazed cop accuses Dev of murdering her ex's fianc้e — and the murder weapon is found with her fingerprints all over it — Dev's store, and her life, quickly turn from charmed to troubled. If she doesn't find the real killer soon, this five-and-dime owner will be serving twenty-five to life...

When Skye Denison left Scumble River years ago, she swore she'd never come back. Now, having been fired from her job, jilted by her boyfriend and rejected by her credit cards, she has reluctantly returned....

Immediately, Skye's determination to keep a low profile as the new school psychologist is assaulted by an army of small-town busybodies and well-meaning family members who can't wait to pry into her life, dole out advice, and volunteer her services in the Chokeberry Days festival. And when the fair erupts in chaos and controversy, the Cow Chip Bingo sabotaged and the jelly contest ruined, Skye closes the event down altogether by finding a dead body....

The deceased, who at first appears to be the elderly host of a beloved children's TV program, and a dear, sweet thing, turns out to be quite different — a sexy young woman with a wild past and more secrets than are in Aunt Minnie's Jello Surprise. And if this stunning revelation weren't enough to intrigue Skye's inner snoop, soon her own brother is accused of the crime....

Downloadable Reading Group Guide in MS-Word DOC file

When she left Scumble River years ago, school psychologist Skye Denison thought she'd never be back. But after a run of bad luck in the big city, she has a new appreciation for the down-home charm of small-town life — and decides to start over in the town where she started out....

When Skye's beloved grandmother is found dead in her bed, the family consensus is natural causes. Still, Skye insists on an autopsy — an examination that proves the sweet old lady was, in fact, murdered! But who could have done the deadly deed? Skye is determined to find out, though her snooping doesn't sit well with the relatives.

Family tensions can mean only one thing: family secrets. And when a series of hooligan attacks on Skye's property leads to an outright physical assault, Skye has to wonder if by exposing the rotten roots of her family tree, she's one step closer to exposing the killer....

Downloadable Reading Group Guide in MS-Word DOC file

Sleeping Beauty is dead. Star of the school play, cheerleader, and beauty pageant queen, Lorelei Ingels was the most popular girl in school. But today, no one envies her....

While the principal and the police are busy with the politics of this high-profile case, Skye Denison counsels kids and combs for clues ... ever more convinced that high school is a truly dangerous place....

Finagling her way around crazy school administrators, stupid rules, pushy parents, and teens whose slang needs decoding, takes all of Skye's formidable ingenuity. And even ever-optimistic Skye knows that, in this case, finding the killer won't end this tale happily ever after....

Downloadable Reading Group Guide in MS-Word DOC file

Scumble River is celebrating its bicentennial in style — with historical reenactments, bingo, a coal-tossing tournament, and a Crazy Craft race. Serving as the guest of honor is none other than the town founder's great- great- grandnephew, Gabriel Scumble. But his visit turns out to be short-lived when Skye's students Frannie and Justin find him dead with a pickax protruding from his chest.

Meanwhile, Skye's deceitful ex-fianc้, Luc St. Amant, has appeared out of the blue, creating turmoil in her love life. Does the real danger lie in the chance that Luc will drive away the men in Skye's life ... or in the possibility that there's a menacing connection between Luc's arrival and Gabriel Scumble's murder?

Downloadable Reading Group Guide in MS-Word DOC file

It all began innocently enough, when Skye and Simon joined The Grand Union of the Mighty Bulls, Scumble River's premier social club. But then Skye ended up wrapped in wallpaper, and the club leaders, Barbie and Ken Addison, ended up dead.

Barbie and Ken appeared to be living a dream life, but then who would want to kill such living dolls?

Downloadable Reading Group Guide in MS-Word DOC file

The last things school psychologist Skye Denison expects to find in Scumble River are sex, drugs, and rock and roll. But when her brother, Vince, forms a band called Pink Elephant, the town goes wild — and things get very weird.....

First, a student is found in the locker room talking a shower ... with his clothes on. Then a groupie turns stalker, seducing the band members one by one. But when one of the Pink Elephants winds up murdered, the music stops dead. Who's to blame? Everyone seems to think it's Vince — and now Skye has to clear her brother's name....

Downloadable Reading Group Guide in MS-Word DOC file

Yard sales bring out the worst in people. Nobody knows this better than Scumble River school psychologist Skye Denison, organizer of the First Annual Route 66 100-Mile Yard Sale. Neighborly folks get downright nasty, fighting over plastic knickknacks — even pulling rocking chairs right out from under little old ladies.

When her own mother creams a woman for suggesting her pies aren't the flakiest and her daughter is too fat, and a battle of the sexes breaks out among her parents, best friends, and students, Skye knows things have gotten out of hand. But the worst is yet to come. Skye's former summer-job boss, Cookie Caldwell, has just been found murdered. And although the sheriff suspects Skye did it, nobody knows for sure how this cookie will crumble....

Downloadable Reading Group Guide in MS-Word DOC file

Still recovering from the breakup with her boyfriend and alienating half the people in town, school psychologist Skye Denison has sworn off men. Even so, she hires sexy contractor Beau Hamilton to renovate the old house she inherited. After all, who can ignore his qualifications? Golden hair, bronzed chest, muscular thighs — he's just too good to be true.

And when she discovers that Beau has a reputation for conning the ladies, she decides to fire him. But before she can, he turns up dead. Since even bad boys deserve justice, Skye must juggle a passionate police chief, a cagey brother with a secret, and a possibly haunted house to catch Beau's killer.

Downloadable Reading Group Guide in MS-Word DOC file

A health spa complete with tofu turkey and "Dress for Sexcess" lectures is the last place school psychologist Skye Denison wants to spend Thanksgiving. But when her best friend, Trixie Frayne, convinces her to take a complimentary weekend at the new Scumble River Spa, Skye accepts her fate and prepares to be slathered, wrapped and roasted.

Then an annoying quartet that includes both Skye's mom and her ex-boyfriend's mother impulsively joins her for a girls-only holiday, and Skye wonders just how bad things can get. She soon finds out — when she's confronted with treatments only a masochist would enjoy, a diet plan fit for a Barbie doll, and a troublesome trespasser searching for a cache of jewels supposedly hidden in the spa seventy years ago. Worst of all, a famous former model turns up dead in the Miracle Mud bath. It looks like no one will be leaving the spa until Skye can identify which of the eccentric guests, pesky local protesters or sneaky treasure hunters is also a killer deserving of special treatment — in the county jail.

Downloadable Reading Group Guide in MS-Word DOC file

Skye Denison has never aspired to culinary excellence. In fact, she can't tell the difference between mousse and meringue. So when Grandma Sal's Soup-To-Nuts Cooking Challenge comes to town, competing is the last thing on her mind. But that's before she's bullied into entering by her mother, who has four recipes — one of which she has submitted under Skye's name.

Right from the start, trouble brews among the contestants, among the judges, and even Grandma Sal's own family. But a spiteful saboteur takes things too far when cocky contestant Cherry Alexander is discovered drowned in a chocolate fountain. Still struggling with the basics of cooking, Skye must catch a killer. And when it comes to suspects, there are just too many cooks in the kitchen from whom to choose....

Downloadable Reading Group Guide in MS-Word DOC file

When school psychologist Skye Denison stumbles over the body of pushy promfest chairperson Annette Paine during a Halloween fund-raiser, it looks like a clear-cut case of promicide. Annette was not the only prom mom desperate to see her daughter crowned queen — and her skirt-chasing hubby is no prince either.

Skye's anxious to investigate, but she keeps getting sidetracked by the overeager new social worker at school and also by her beau's emotional distance. Still, one question haunts her: Since Annette Paine was wearing a witch costume identical to Skye's, which witch was the intended victim? Will Skye realize too late that finding this killer is a matter of her own life and death?

Downloadable Reading Group Guide in MS-Word DOC file

School psychologist Skye Denison is already in a tizzy of indecision contemplating her boyfriend Wally's marriage proposal when she very reluctantly agrees to act as maid of honor in her California cousin's over-the-top platinum-style wedding. What's more, she's expected to assist the control-freak wedding planner, which means being available to help 24-7. There goes Skye's much-needed summer break....

Then Skye discovers the flawlessly chic wedding planner lying not so flawlessly dead less than a week before the big event. Suddenly Skye is working double duty on two fronts: making sure every elaborate nuptial detail is executed perfectly, from the butterfly release to the martini luge, and helping the police find out who hated the bossy bridal consultant enough to bash her on the head. Can Skye get her cousin to the church on time — and save herself from a killer who may actually be on the guest list?

Downloadable Reading Group Guide in MS-Word DOC file

Who could be driven to kill by books and sweets? While school psychologist Skye Denison eagerly anticipates the grand opening of a new bookstore called Tales & Treats, many of Scumble River's most outspoken citizens want to shut down the owners before they even open — and one is angry enough to commit murder...

Dropping off some books at Tales & Treats, Skye trips over a toppled bookcase, which has crushed a woman beneath its weight. While police search for motives, Skye sees the messy aftermath of a half-baked plot to murder somebody else. Skye is juggling her own busy life, but when all the clues lead to dead ends, she turns up the heat on her own investigation ... and stumbles upon the deadly secret that got this bookstore babe done in. And if Skye isn't careful, the killer just might make her the sequel...

Downloadable Reading Group Guide in MS-Word DOC file

When megamillionaire and imitation cowboy Rex Taylor proposes building a country music theater in Scumble River, everyone's ready to do the boot-scootin' boogie except school psychologist Skye Denison. She's been asked by Suzette Neal, Rex's assistant and a rising country star, to investigate her mother's suspicious death twenty-seven years earlier. No sooner does Skye agree to help than she finds Suzette literally flattened — and very dead.

This has fast become a case of two questionable deaths, and suspicion seems to be hovering over Suzette's inner circle: Rex's jealous wife, a mysterious man in a black pickup truck, and the sizzling-hot singer Flint James, who also happens to have been Suzette's bitter rival for country-western fame. With a honky-tonk full of suspects and a tangled web of motives that stretches back two decades, Skye has two options: Rise to the occasion or end up as flat as a cr๊pe.

Downloadable Reading Group Guide in MS-Word DOC file

Rating:
"A Swanson novel is always going to have tongue-in-cheek humor, complex motives and unique murders. The latest cleverly-crafted tale is another entertaining mystery." — Pat Cooper, RT Book Reviews, October 2011

"Every time I visit Scumble River and the vivacious inhabitants my heart is filled with honeycomb warmth. Once again, Murder of a Creped Suzette showcases Swanson's skills as a superb storyteller and readers get to experience the rich tapestry she has lovingly created." — Diane Morasco, Blogcritics Books, October 3, 2011