Showing results by author "Denise Swanson" in All Categories

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.

Dev Sinclair is the happy new owner of the old-fashioned shop in her small Missouri town. But if she doesn't focus on finding the killer of her ex's fiance, this five-and-dime owner may find herself serving 25 to life.

Grandma Sal's Soup-to-Nuts Cooking Challenge is coming to town, and Skye Denison is entering. And though she can't solve the mystery of the perfect mousse, murder is another story. Because a cocky contestant has been found delectably drowned in a chocolate fountain....

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 - until a murder ruins the good time.

When Aaron Burgess is found slumped over the steering wheel of his tractor and rushed to the Underwood Medical Clinic by his friend and business partner Quito Escobar, no one expected that the situation would turn into a homicide investigation. But when it does, newly licensed private investigator Devereaux Sinclair and her fiance Jake Del Vecchio are hired to find the murderer. Was Aaron a random victim of some psycho killer or was his murder something much much more personal?

With her morning sickness finally abated, Skye Denison-Boyd is ready to pounce on the pertinent problems she faces as Scumble River Elementary School's psychologist. After trying almost every trick in the book to aid a handful of socially awkward fourth grade boys, Skye opts for the innovative approach of pet therapy with the assistance of the local vet, a Siberian husky, and a Maine coon cat. Unfortunately, the first session only breeds disaster and draws the ire of cantankerous school board member Palmer Lynch.

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?

School psychologist Skye Denison reluctantly agrees to act as maid of honor in her California cousin's over-the-top platinum-style wedding - and is also expected to assist the control-freak wedding planner. But when Skye discovers the planner dead, just one week before the big event, Skye is suddenly working double-duty.

While school psychologist Skye Denison eagerly anticipates the grand opening of a new bookstore called Tales Dropping off some books at 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....

There’s no place like Scumble River at Christmastime, and this year, school psychologist Skye Denison has twice as much to celebrate - and to do. In addition to the usual holiday frenzy, Skye’s wedding to police chief Wally Boyd is less than a week away - that is, if the groom isn’t too busy working to attend. The town’s sexy new librarian, Yvonne Osborn, has just been murdered, and the list of suspects is piling up faster than late fees on an overdue book.

Still recovering from breaking up with her boyfriend and alienating half the people in town, Skye Denison has sworn off men - but 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. Sure enough, he has a reputation for conning the ladies. But before the not so nave Skye can fire the hunk, he turns up dead.

Yard sales can bring out the worst in people. So when Scumble River school psychologist Skye Denison organizes a 100-mile yard sale, otherwise neighborly folk get downright nasty: her own mother creams a woman, and a battle of the sexes breaks out. But when her former boss is found murdered, nobody knows for sure how this cookie will crumble.

When Skye Denison's brother forms a band called Pink Elephant, the town goes wild-maybe too wild. First, a groupie turns stalker, seducing the band members one by one. Then, one of the Pink Elephants winds up murdered. Who's to blame? Everyone seems to think it's the drummer - and now Skye has to clear her brother's name.

Skye Denison and the rest of Scumble River is celebrating its bicentennial in style - with reenactments, a bingo tent, and a coal-tossing contest. Best of all, the guest of honor is the town founder's great-great-grandnephew, Gabriel Scumble. But his visit turns out to be short-lived when he is found dead. The murder weapon: a pickax. Meanwhile, Skye's ex-fiancée is back in town. But is he here simply to create turmoil in her love life...or does he have a connection to Gabriel's death?

When school psychologist Skye Denison stumbles over the body of pushy Promfest chairperson Annette Paine during a Halloween fundraiser, it looks like a clear-cut case of promicide. Annette was not the only prom mom desperate to see her daughter crowned queen. But she was also wearing the same witch costume as Skye, so which witch was the intended victim?

When ex–Vegas showgirl and local business owner Bunny Reid starts an online dating service called Cupid’s Cat’s Meow, out-of-town visitors flock to her bowling alley for the speed dating and cat show events that she hosts to bring in extra cash. Bunny’s scheme sounds harmless enough, but school psychologist Skye Denison knows all too well that an influx of strangers in Scumble River always spells trouble….

Delaney believes life is an adventure, but when she receives a lottery ticket for a birthday she's not having, from a father she hasn't heard from in eighteen years, not even her horoscope can predict the astonishing outcome.

Deanna Sloan has worked too hard, dieting herself from a chubby teenager to a sleek businesswoman, to give in to her hunger now. Enduring four years as the target of her high school classmates' cruelty taught her that only three things matter - power, money, and looks. Leaving her small town behind, shedding the excess pounds, and obtaining a job with a six-figure salary are all steps in the right direction. However, in order to keep on target, she needs to outshine the other 20 venture capitalist associates at her new firm, maintain her weight loss, and be prepared to double-cross.

Although Lucy and Curt grew up together, they didn't start dating until the end of their senior year of high school. Then once they went off to different colleges, Curt changed. He withdrew to the point that he almost seemed embarrassed to be with her. Curt was so preoccupied with being the perfect minister, Lucy never felt like she had his full attention, and when he stopped returning her calls, she convinced herself it was for the best.

When author Sheridan Davis is forced to return to Sutton Falls, Illinois to care for her estranged father, the last person she wants to run into is Ridge Sutton. Meeting Ridge, who has matured from handsome to gorgeous, while she looks as if she's spent the night in a cardboard box, is so not how Sheridan pictured seeing her high school crush again. Tricked into a disastrous marriage that ended in a divorce and stuck in the role of Sutton Falls' mayor, Ridge is ready for a change. While floodwaters creep higher and higher, can Sheridan and Ridge make peace with their past?