Kate Lawrence Mystery Books
Legal secretaries everywhere will be thrilled with Waiting for Armando by Wethersfield author Judith K. Ivie. Instead of casting attorneys in the starring roles, Waiting for Armando celebrates the resilient, resourceful legal assistants who are so often overshadowed by their high-profile bosses in contemporary fiction. When a secretary at one of Hartford's prominent law firms is suspected of murdering her philandering boss, her colleagues band together to exonerate one of their own. Each clue puts them closer to the truth but further into danger when the murderer decides to put an end to their meddling.
Small-town gossip can be murder, especially when a ruthless blackmailer is involved. Book 3 in the Kate Lawrence mystery series finds Kate and her partners running a fledgling realty office in the Wethersfield Law Barn, an eccentric structure with an interesting history. When a local gossip is found murdered during the annual Autumn Festival, the amateur sleuths are once again asked to discover the truth before a local business owner is unjustly accused, or more unthinkably, Kate's daughter Emma falls under suspicion.
Third in the Kate Lawrence Mystery Series set in Wethersfield, Connecticut. A Skeleton in the Closet features the often exciting, always hilarious, adventures of three women of a certain age who handle their complicated lives with intelligence and humor--and solve the occasional murder mystery.
Christmas has never been Kate Lawrence's favorite time of year, but when a body turns up at Hartford's venerable Wadsworth Atheneum, she knows the holidays are really going to be murder this year. In the long-awaited fourth installment of this popular mystery series, Kate's realty business is on hiatus due to the down economy, friends and family are falling victim to the flu, and daughter Emma has a loathsome new beau. To top off the merriment, Kate's ex-husband has persuaded her to host an at-home wedding for their nephew. And then a murderer strikes during Hartford's famous Festival of Trees & Traditions. Ho ho ho. Kate's positively drowning in Christmas. Can pals Strutter and Margo come to her rescue before she goes down for the third time?
No. 5 in The Kate Lawrence Mysteries: Kate's turning 50, and as if that weren't depressing enough, she's about to become a grandmother-twice. Her investigation of a mysterious death at the Vista View retirement complex opens her eyes to the new realities of aging, some of which send her reeling. What really happened to the wealthy, tennis-playing cougar in Building One? Are residents covering up a sex-for-hire scandal? Will Kate's longtime friend lose her job as Vista View's business manager? Kate makes it her business to discover the truth-or die trying. Proceeds from on-line sales benefit Our Companions Domestic Animal Sanctuary.
No. 6 in The Kate Lawrence Mysteries. It's almost New Year's Eve, and Kate finds herself at her 35th high school reunion, where she is confronted by The Mean Girls, circa 1978. Worse yet, she's put on a little weight, and her high school steady is expected to show. Strutter's teenage son faces a personal dilemma, and one of Margo's clients is in big trouble. Should auld acquaintance be forgot? If only that were possible.
Seventh Kate Lawrence Mystery. The amateur sleuth and her realtor partners investigate the sometimes adversarial relationship between authors and publishers and the frightening consequences of thwarted creative egos. When well-known mystery writer Maybelle Farnsworth moves to Wethersfield a few weeks before Halloween, she becomes the target of a neighborhood prankster, or so Kate and her partners believe at first. When the dirty tricks escalate from annoying to terrifying, May's secret sideline as the publisher of a line of sexy romance novels comes into play. Within the context of this cozy mystery, Ivie shines a light into the seldom acknowledged dark corners of today's ultra-competitive publishing industry, including cynical agents, clashing egos, and unethical ploys used by misguided authors to gain readers' attention, such as fraudulent claims of prize nominations and paid-for reviews.
No. 8 in the Kate Lawrence Mystery Margo's Auntie May is nominated for a prestigious award at the Mysteries USA Convention at the Hartford Hilton, so she reluctantly attends the opening night reception with Margo and Kate. By the next day, the sudden death of a publishing colleague has overshadowed the proceedings. The mystery deepens when May receives a letter from the victim, leaving her the rights to an unpublished manuscript from a bestselling author, now deceased, and giving her coded clues about where to find it. As Kate, Margo, Strutter and May race to crack the code, it becomes obvious that they're not alone in their quest. Meanwhile, changes abound in the lives of the youngsters around them, including two immature swans on the Spring Street Pond. Can the blockbuster new title save May's struggling publishing business, or will it be her swan song?