Bøker av Diana Xarissa

When the Lady Elizabeth stopped on Odontotyrannos, it added a few extra people to the crew. Actually having some security on board was nice, and we all knew that Becca needed another pair of hands in the medical wing, but I don't think anyone was excited to learn that a photographer had joined us. Troy Dyffryn spent his days wandering around the ship, snapping photos of the passengers and then trying to sell them his pictures. I was polite to the man, but I wasn't interested in having my picture taken, and I didn't have the credits to buy unnecessary photos of myself. But when he offered me a free photo session for Singer, my tiny cat, I couldn't resist. We chatted about life while Singer posed beautifully. Some of the things that Troy said were worrying, but I was still shocked when I found him unconscious and wounded in a corridor two days later. At least this time, the person I'd found was still alive. That didn't mean that I was going to be able to avoid being dragged into the investigation into what had happened to him, though.

Margaret Woods is excited to be starting her new job on the Isle of Man. She's staying in her Aunt Fenella's luxury apartment on the promenade, and her new boyfriend, Ted Hart, isn't far away. Living with a ghost is a bit unusual, but Margaret is confident that she'll get used to Mona's presence eventually.While she's busy getting settled, Ted is working on a murder investigation. The skeleton that turned up on one of the island's farms had been buried for twenty years. Mona is eager to get involved in the investigation, even if Margaret would rather stay out of it.As if that isn't enough for Margaret to worry about, her next-door neighbor, Elaine, is concerned about a missing friend. She and Ernie have only known each other for a few weeks, but his sudden disappearance could mean that something terrible has happened to the retired man.Fenella has only been gone on her honeymoon for a few days and Margaret is already caught in the middle of a murder investigation and a missing person case. Life on the Isle of Man isn't at all what Margaret had been expecting.

When the cold case unit meets this time, Andrew isn't the least bit optimistic about their chances to solve the case he's chosen for the month. Three people died at a party in London five years earlier and no one knows for certain whom the killer was even targeting. The case has been bothering Andrew since he first read about, though, so he has finally decided to let the unit have a look at it.It isn't long before Bessie is feeling slightly overwhelmed by the stacks of witness statements from the many partygoers. On top of that, an old friend rings because she's concerned that her brother might be missing.Bessie had to juggle a discreet search for the missing man while reading through over a hundred witness statements, hoping to find something that everyone else has missed. It's the cold case unit's toughest case yet, but Bessie and her friends are determined to find the solution.

Abigail Clark and her boyfriend, Mark Cooper, are hoping for a romantic dinner together at one of Nightshade's fanciest restaurants. What they get is front-row seats for huge drama at the table next to theirs. Spencer Manning's retirement celebration quickly turns into an enormous family argument, and Mark and Abigail get to hear every word. Someone else in the restaurant records every awful moment and puts it up online, giving the entire world a chance to watch the fight. The footage takes on new significance, though, when Mark and Abigail find Spencer dead in the elevator just outside the restaurant. Abigail doesn't want any part in the subsequent murder investigation, but she finds herself dragged into it as first one and then another of the suspects decides to move into Sunset Lodge to hide away from a town full of people who've all seen the video. When it seems as if everyone who knew Spencer is better off with him dead, finding the killer is going to be difficult.

Fenella Woods is busy planning her wedding and trying to help her niece, Margaret, get settled on the island. Fenella and her fiancé, Daniel, are planning on taking a long honeymoon, and Fenella wants to help Margaret find a nice place to live while she and Daniel are gone. A trip to one of Fenella's cottages in the north of the island reveals that someone used the land around the cottage for a party, leaving behind a huge mess. While clearing away the mess, Fenella finds a dead woman inside a half-collapsed tent left over from the party. With the police involved, Fenella starts to worry about whether her wedding can take place as planned or not. Margaret is keen to do some investigating of her own, but Fenella really wants to focus on the wedding. Can Fenella get the wedding of her dreams if Mattie Matthews's killer is still at large? With Mona focused on the murder investigation, will Mona's magical wardrobe conjure up the perfect wedding gown for Fenella or not? And what part did the ruby and sapphire necklace the victim was wearing play in her murder?

After the events of the previous month, Mr. Jones is on a temporary leave of absence. His replacement, Mr. Brown, seems to dislike Janet and Edward as soon as he meets them. When he calls them into his office to demand that Janet get additional training before they attempt another mission, Edward is quick to suggest that perhaps the agency no longer needs their help. Mr. Brown is happy to agree. Chuck Hanson, from a US agency, seems to have a different opinion as to Janet's usefulness. He's quick to offer Janet and Edward an assignment under his supervision. A few hours later, the couple is on their way to Hawaii, hoping to help locate four women who've gone missing from a luxury resort there. While Edward is willing to take the assignment, he's less pleased that Janet has set herself up as the possible next victim. All he can do is sit back and watch as Janet does her best to get herself kidnapped. With some old friends along to lend a helping hand, Janet will stop at nothing to find and rescue the missing women, even if it means sipping fancy drinks on the beach, having numerous spa treatments, and watching Edward get kissed by another woman.

When my best friend in the world got an unexpected two-week break from work, I couldn't wait to take her with me on my next bucket list vacation. Since she didn't want to go too far from home, I changed my plans and found us a cottage close to the beach in nearby Erie, Pennsylvania. The cottage was everything we were hoping it would be, with comfortable bedrooms, clean bathrooms, and a great location - just a short walk away from the lake. As soon as we were settled in, we headed for the path at the end of the road and then sat and watched the glorious sunset. It was something of a steep climb to get back up to the road, but neither of us minded, not until I spotted something out of place a short distance from the path. As I stared at the dead body, I started to think that my midlife crisis was turning out to be dangerous for the people around me.

I suspect everyone on the Lady Elizabeth was excited when we finally reached Chaos Sector. For the first time since we'd left Cenclare, the ship actually stopped for a planetary excursion. Odontotyrannos is famous throughout the galaxy for its shops, restaurants, and other entertainments. I knew that most of the planet was covered with buildings, but I took the shuttle down to the surface hoping to find my way outside. Dreaming of walking on real grass in an outdoor park, I spent ages trying to find an exit. Unfortunately, when I finally found one, all that was outside the door was a parking lot filled with construction vehicles. Oh, and a pair of dead bodies. At this rate, I'm starting to think I'm not going to get through a single sector without finding someone dead.

It's time for the annual Nightshade Winter Festival, and Abigail Clark is happy to volunteer her time to help out at the week-long charity fundraising event. She's only been at the fairgrounds for a short while before she stumbles across a dead body submerged in the carnival dunk tank. The town's high school principal, Sid Stowe, always spent the week at the festival, helping out as needed and supporting the many school clubs and sports teams that take advantage of the festival's opportunity to raise money. It isn't long before Abigail begins to hear rumors and stories about the man, though. It appears that Sid wasn't quite as wonderful as most people in Nightshade seemed to think. Not only was the man cheating on his wife, but it looks as if he was stealing money from the school district as well. Those two details seem to provide half of Nightshade with possible motives for Sid's murder. Abigail is committed to spending several days helping out at the festival. Her challenge is to find a way to do that without getting dragged into the murder investigation.

Andrew is back on the island for the next cold case unit meeting, and this time he's brought his son Matthew along. When Andrew shows Bessie the stack of listings he's been sent by his island-based estate agent, Bessie is shocked to see that one of her friends has put her house on the market. A quick call reveals that the friend's telephone is out of service, which is worrying. While Bessie does what she can to find her friend, the cold case unit has a missing person case of its own to consider. A young woman and her two-year-old daughter vanished ten years earlier. The question is, did they leave voluntarily or did something awful happen to them? With two missing person cases to solve, Bessie is busier than ever in this eleventh book in the series.

It's time for Bessie and her friends to consider another cold case. This time, one of Andrew's work colleagues has come over to the island to observe the cold case unit at work. He's going to be starting his own unit soon, and he wants to learn all that he can about what makes the unit on the island so successful. As it's the beginning of tourist season on the island, Bessie has trouble helping Andrew's friend find a place to stay. Eventually he ends up in a small hotel in Lonan, one that is owned by one of Bessie's friends. But there's a stranger staying at the hotel, a man who claims to be a long-lost relative of the owner. Bessie can't help but suspect a con. Can the cold case unit solve another case and keep their perfect record intact? Can Bessie investigate her friend's "nephew" without upsetting that friend? And does Andy Caine really want to buy a mansion with twelve bedrooms when he's going to be living alone?

Police Inspector Andrew Cheatham is back on the island with another murder investigation for the cold case unit. On paper, it seems as if the case should have been solved decades earlier. Craig Howard was stabbed to death in a small pub, leaving behind only four possible suspects in the case. Elizabeth Cubbon, Bessie to her friends, finds the new case frustrating. As if that weren't enough to worry about, her friend Maggie Shimmin is convinced that someone is trying to kill her. Maggie knows exactly who is behind what she insists are attempts on her life, but Bessie isn't anywhere near as certain. Can Bessie and the cold case unit find Craig's killer? Can Bessie convince Maggie to go the police with her suspicions? And, after eight months of working together, can Bessie and her friends actually start to get to know Charles and Harry, the other two members of the unit?

July brings sunshine and warm weather to the Isle of Man. It also brings Aunt Bessie and her friends another cold case to solve. This time, though, the police may know exactly what happened. It appears that Leo Jordan killed his wife and then himself, but the detective in charge of the case isn't convinced. While Bessie and the rest of the unit are trying to work out whether the murder-suicide case was actually two murders, Jasper Coventry has problems of his own at the Seaview Hotel. When one former guest reports having his credit card information stolen while he'd been staying at the Seaview, Jasper is concerned. Days later, the complaints continue to pour in and Jasper is panicking. This sort of thing could seriously damage the luxury hotel's reputation, and he turns to Bessie for help. Can the cold case unit work out exactly what happened to Leo and Anna Jordan? Can they help Jasper discover which member of his staff has been stealing credit card information from guests? And can Bessie be polite to Dan Ross when it's absolutely necessary?

It's nearly Shelly Quirk's wedding day, and her closest friend, Fenella Woods, is doing everything she can to help Shelly celebrate. Shelly's Aunt Elaine is visiting, and the three women have plans to spend the final days before the wedding at the Seaview Hotel, enjoying spa treatments and room service. No one is expecting to find a dead body in what's meant to be an empty room. Rebecca Drury had stayed at the hotel with five of her friends in November, celebrating her divorce. They all left together just before the hotel shut for the season, but it seems as if Rebecca didn't go far. Can Fenella and her friends help the police work out how Rebecca managed to stay in what was supposed to be a closed hotel? Can they discover who killed Rebecca? And will Shelly and Tim get the wedding of their dreams or will the murder investigation get in the way of their happily ever after?

Fenella Woods and her niece, Margaret, are surprised to find visitors waiting for them at their luxury apartment building when they return home from a walk. Thornton DeVries had been friends with Fenella's aunt, Mona, and was unaware that she'd passed away. He's just arrived on the island on a luxury yacht, accompanied by family and friends. They have a short conversation and agree to have dinner together the following evening.Later that night, though, Fenella and Margaret stumble across a dead body. One of Thornton's traveling companions has been murdered and everyone on board his luxury yacht is a suspect. Meanwhile, Margaret is trying to find a job, and Fenella and her fiancé, Daniel, are talking seriously about setting a wedding date.Margaret is determined to work out what happened to poor Delia Reid. With help from Mona's ghost, who keeps interfering in the investigation, she and Fenella find themselves learning all about Thornton, his former wife, and their associates. But is that knowledge enough to help them determine who killed Delia before someone else ends up dead?

After everything that happened in Las Vegas, I wasn't one hundred percent sure that I wanted to keep traveling. But I couldn't let one isolated incident ruin my plans. Having ticked off one item on my bucket list, I wanted to do more. It turns out that March is a good time to visit Florida. The weather was predicted to be almost perfect, and I found a resort offering really wonderful deals. A cheap flight was all I needed to add to my getaway. When I woke up on my first morning on St. Pete's Beach, I felt like I was a million miles away from everything that causes stress in my life. I reserved a private cabana for myself and then took a long walk on a nearly deserted beach. Things seemed to be just about perfect until I arrived at my cabana. I should have just walked away. I could have given up on the idea of sitting on the beach that day and gone somewhere - anywhere - else. Instead, I informed the woman cleaning and straightening the cabanas that mine was already occupied. She called security and that was how I managed to be there when the body was found. Finding a body on my first day in Vegas seemed like incredibly bad luck. Finding another one on my first day in Florida feels more like a curse.

I've been keeping myself busy studying coding and playing with my cat, Singer. Long-distance space travel has turned out to be incredibly boring, but at least the food on the Lady Elizabeth is good. When we finally reach the second sector of our twenty-six-sector journey, I think everyone on board is ready to celebrate. Everyone except the couple in the cabin across the corridor from me. They've had their privacy screen in place since we left Cenclare. Galactic regulations mean that someone has to inspect their cabin as we enter Beta Sector, though. I should have skipped breakfast the first morning in Beta Sector. That would have been far better than being in the corridor when the door across the hall was finally opened. The last thing I wanted to see was another dead body, and this time there were two of them. Now I'm tangled up in another murder investigation and everyone on the Lady Elizabeth knows it.

Janet Markham Bennett is just starting to feel as if she's getting used to her part-time job with her husband Edward's top-secret government agency. Their next assignment is something a bit different, though. This time the agency is sending them to the Bahamas to spend a weekend on a private island. Instead of being given a specific job to do, they're simply asked to keep their eyes open while they're there.In spite of the rather vague assignment, neither Janet nor Edward is expecting their host, Arthur Farnsley, to get murdered within hours of their arrival on the island. To Janet it seems as if there are far too many suspects but no clear motive.Can Janet and Edward work out who killed Arthur? Does his death have anything to do with the reason they've been sent to Farntopia? And can Janet maintain her cover for the entire weekend, even though that means acting nasty and spoiled all the time?

Abigail is delighted when her sister, Mandy, the co-owner of Sunset Lodge, arrives to spend a week with her. Both sisters are excited to finally have an opportunity to really talk about their plans for renovating, remodeling, and redecorating just about every inch of the main lodge building, the annex, and the cottages in the woods around the lodge. With a laser measure in one hand and a notebook in the other, Mandy wants to take notes on each of the cottages so that she can start sketching out her plans for their improvements. The dead body in Cottage Four is an unexpected and unwelcome discovery. Abigail, who's already been through two murder investigations, wants to leave the detective work to the police, but Mandy is eager to start asking questions and talking to everyone in the small town of Nightshade. As Mandy drags her sister around town, doing everything she can to throw them into the paths of various suspects, Abigail knows that their neighbor, Jessica, is busy doing some snooping as well. All Abigail wants to do is get the lodge ready for a special Thanksgiving weekend, but instead she has to worry that a killer might target her neighbor or even her sister next.

Margaret Woods, Fenella's niece, is back on the island, and she's planning to stay this time. A late-night stroll on the promenade that leaves Fenella with a broken arm isn't a great start to Margaret's new beginning, though. When Fenella's doctor, Rachel, asks for help in locating her missing boyfriend, Ben, Fenella tells her to call the police. Fenella's neighbor's aunt, Elaine, is more willing to help out, though. Elaine insists on accompanying Rachel to the missing man's apartment to see if he may be simply avoiding Rachel.No one is expecting to find a dead man on Ben's kitchen floor. Rachel is relieved that the body isn't Ben's, but that just raises a lot of questions for the police to try to answer.Can Fenella and her friends help the police find Ben? Can they work out the identity of the dead man and find out why he was in Ben's apartment? And is it possible that Heather Bryant, the new reporter for the Isle of Man Times, is even more annoying than Dan Ross?

Edward and Janet are enjoying themselves in London when they get given their next assignment. This one sounds simple enough. All they need to do is get inside a museum after hours and exchange some buttons on display with another, seemingly identical set. Of course, nothing is as easy as it seems when it comes to top-secret assignments. There's only one hotel in the tiny Pennsylvania town where they're staying, and Janet and Edward haven't been there long before they discover that things aren't what they appear to be at the Craterstown Hotel. Can Janet and Edward get the buttons exchanged before the museum shuts for a two-year remodel? Can they work out what's really happening at the Craterstown Hotel? And does Janet truly want to ride a roller coaster for the first time?

I'm Holly Parker, and on my fiftieth birthday I decided that it was about time I stopped adding things to my bucket list and started trying to cross a few items off instead. Visiting all fifty states was at the top of the list. I just had to find a cheap flight to somewhere interesting. A low-cost, direct flight to Las Vegas was exactly what I needed. I didn't waste my time overthinking it. I just booked the flight and packed my bags. After chatting with the couple in the seats next to mine on the flight, I was happy to arrive in Vegas and just go straight to bed. My body clock, not yet reset to Vegas time, had me awake and eager to explore very early the next morning. I'd barely finished my breakfast, though, before I stumbled over a dead body. What are the odds that the victim would turn out to be the man I'd sat next to on my flight? Why is his former fiancée suddenly trying to be my best friend? And how do I convince the local police that I had nothing to do with his murder?

Janet and Edward are enjoying life in Doveby Dale, planning their carriage house remodel, when Mr. Jones arrives with a new and rather urgent assignment. Another agent has disappeared. While there are any number of possible explanations for the disappearance, none of them are good. As Janet and Edward follow the missing man's trail from Edinburgh to Paris to Berlin, it begins to seem as if he's disappeared by choice, which raises a number of other worrying possibilities. Has the agent been taken or has he disappeared voluntarily? Are Janet and Edward walking into a trap? And is this going to be their most dangerous assignment yet?

Janet is happy to be back in Doveby Dale, under the same roof as her sister, Joan. The arrangement is only temporary, as Janet and her husband, Edward, are planning to move out to the carriage house on the grounds of the bed and breakfast that Joan and Janet own. Still, after several exciting months travelling all over the world on various assignments for a top-secret government agency, Janet is looking forward to some rest and relaxation. The agency has other plans, of course. Now that Janet has shown herself to be a valuable asset to the agency, it's been decided that she needs some formal training. Having spent some weeks learning the basics in London, now that they're in Doveby Dale, the agency has a few training assignments for Janet. They're meant to be simple exercises, designed to test her skills, but the very first one goes badly wrong. Now Janet and Edward have to do whatever they can to try to rescue what's becoming a complicated situation. In the meantime, Janet has two more assignments to get through, and she may not be able to manage them without asking her sister for help.

Elizabeth Cubbon, called Bessie by nearly everyone, has many friends on the Isle of Man. She's called the island home for more years than she wants to remember. When one of her friends, Mary Quayle, asks for a favour, Bessie is quick to agree. Mary is hoping that Bessie can track down Walter Bolton, a man who was once friends with her husband, George.While doing her best to find Walter, Bessie is also busy with the cold case unit's next investigation. Eleven years ago, Lance Goodman was stabbed to death while wearing a Santa suit and sitting inside Santa's sleigh in a department store in a small town in the US. As the unit begins to go through the case file, they quickly discover that a lot of things were missed during the initial investigation.Can Bessie and the cold case unit discover who killed Lance Goodman? Can Bessie's network of friends across the island track down Walter Bolton? Can the Seaview's new pastry chef come up with more than a half-dozen different types of fairy cakes?

When Barry Cuda arrives at Sunset Lodge to talk to Abigail about running a boat rental business for her, she's eager to take a look at exactly what watercraft was left in the boathouse that's been locked up for over ten years. Neither she nor Barry is expecting to find a skeleton inside one of the boats. When Barry thinks he recognizes something that's been left with the body, things don't seem to add up. It doesn't take the police long to identify the remains, and they're fairly certain the dead woman was murdered. Abigail can only hope that another murder investigation won't interfere with the special Halloween weekend she has planned for her first group of guests. Meanwhile, when Barry offers to supply a group of actors to tell ghost stories on Halloween, Abigail is quick to agree. But the Nightshade Players all knew the woman who was murdered, and Abigail's neighbor, Jessica, is convinced that one of them killed her. Can Abigail get through Halloween night without Jessica sticking her nose right into the middle of another murder investigation?

Large Print Edition Aunt Bessie assumes that she'll have the beach all to herself on a cold, wet, and windy March morning just after sunrise, then she stumbles (almost literally) over a dead body. Elizabeth (Bessie) Cubbon, aged somewhere between free bus pass (60) and telegram from the Queen (100), has lived her entire adult life in a small cottage on Laxey beach. For most of those years, she's been in the habit of taking a brisk morning walk along the beach. Dead men have never been part of the scenery before. Aunt Bessie assumes that the dead man died of natural causes, then the police find the knife in his chest. Try as she might, Bessie just can't find anything to like about the young widow that she provides tea and sympathy to in the immediate aftermath of finding the body. There isn't much to like about the rest of the victim's family either. Aunt Bessie assumes that the police will have the case wrapped up in no time at all, then she finds a second body. Can Bessie and her friends find the killer before she ends up as the next victim?

When I lost my low paying, dead-end job, a friend offered me a one-way ticket to Val Segas. I didn't want to take advantage of his generosity, but we both knew that that ticket was probably the only way I'd ever get off Cenclare.He surprised me with a ticket on the Lady Elizabeth, InmonCorp's newest luxury spacecraft. Even the cheapest, smallest cabins were supposed to be loaded with luxuries. When my elevator made an unscheduled stop on an unfinished deck before I'd even made it to my cabin, things got complicated fast.After finding a dying man in what was meant to be an empty corridor, I found myself being bribed with a long list of upgrades, clearly designed to get me to keep quiet about what I'd seen. The bribes might have worked, too, if it wasn't for the man I'd been sharing the elevator with when it made its unscheduled stop.Colonel Jonathan Brazee is determined to conduct his own investigation into what he is convinced was murder, and he seems equally insistent on dragging me along for the ride. All I know is that I'll be a lot happier if I don't have to spend the next twenty-six sectors traveling with a killer.