Showing results by author "Tonya Kappes" in All Categories

Bopped on the head from a falling plastic Santa, local undertaker Emma Lee Raines is told she's suffering from "funeral trauma." It's trauma all right, because the not-so-dearly departed keep talking to her. Take Ruthie Sue Payne - innkeeper, gossip queen, and arch-nemesis of Emma Lee's granny - she's adamant that she didn't just fall down those stairs. She was pushed. Ruthie has no idea who wanted her pushing up daisies, but she can't cross over until the matter is laid to eternal rest. Emma Lee's high-school crush, Sheriff Jack Henry Ross, isn't ready to rule out foul play.

Four years ago, the Eternal Slumber Funeral Home put Chicken Teater in the ground. Now undertaker Emma Lee Raines is digging him back up. The whole scene is bad for business, especially with her granny running for mayor and a big festival setting up in town. But ever since Emma Lee started seeing ghosts, Chicken's been pestering her to figure out who killed him.

Christmas, Criminals, & Campers: When romance author Nadine White is found dead in the Normal Library, librarian Abby Fawn is Detective Hank Sharp's number-one suspect. Motorhomes, Maps, & Murder: Mae West, owner of Happy Trails Campground, just might find out that tapping into her namesake might come in handy when coming face to face with a serial killer. Canyons, Caravans, & Cadavers: When the principal of Normal High School asks Mae West to teach a semester on small-town economics, Mae is thrilled and happy to teach the young people.

Kenni Lowry likes to think the zero crime rate in Cottonwood, Kentucky is due to her being sheriff, but she quickly discovers the ghost of her grandfather, the town's previous sheriff, has been scaring off any would-be criminals since she was elected. When the town's most beloved doctor is found murdered on the very same day as a jewelry store robbery and a mysterious symbol ties the crime scenes together, Kenni must satisfy her hankerin' for justice by nabbing the culprits.

It's a not-so-merry Christmas in Normal, Kentucky! When bossy Gingerbread Gala chairwoman Harper Stewart is found strangled with holiday garland, campground owner Mae West and the Laundry Club Ladies swap cocoa for clues. From feuding bakers to a fake fundraiser—and even Mae's mother-in-law landing on the suspect list—Happy Trails Campground becomes ground zero for one festive whodunit.

Best-selling author Beryle Stone, the most famous citizen to ever come out of Cottonwood, Kentucky, has died and put all her worldly possessions up for auction - but not without leaving one more manuscript behind: a hidden tell-all about Cottonwood that's got more gossip than a ladies' luncheon. When Beryle's assistant turns up with an ax in her back and the only witness is in a coma, Sheriff Kenni Lowry reckons someone in town will do anything to keep the manuscript from seeing the light of day.

After the dead body of a beloved Cottonwood resident is found tangled up in an electric fence, Sheriff Kenni Lowry has a hunch that somethin' ain't right. Her investigation heats up with a fierce cook-off competition, a euchre game where the intel is sweeter than the brownies, and a decades-old family recipe that may just be the proof in the pudding. The icing on the cake is that Kenni is fighting an attraction to her recently sworn-in deputy sheriff, and election season is hot on her tail.

Small-town Southern cozy mystery with a sheriff sleuth Something borrowed, something blue . . . and something deadly. Sheriff Kenni Lowry’s wedding day should be about vows, cake, and finally catching her breath. Instead, her wedding night is interrupted by a visit from her ghostly Poppa—and...

Sheriff Lowry becomes public-enemy number one when she shuts down a wedding reception after one of the catering waiters is found impaled by a wedding umbrella. The bride is not happy and proceeds to beat Sheriff Lowry with her bridal bouquet! How lucky that Kenni is already there to start her investigation—she’s got a bratty bride, a crass groomsman, and a dead waiter... If the murder at the wedding wasn't enough, she’s got to solve this so that her friend's business isn’t ruined!

I told you I was sick, reads the headstone above Mamie Sue Preston's grave. She was the richest woman in Sleepy Hollow, Kentucky, and also the biggest hypochondriac. Ironic, considering someone killed her - and covered it up perfectly. And how does Emma Lee, proprietor of the Eternal Slumber Funeral Home, know all this? Because Mamie Sue's ghost told her, that's how. And she's offering big bucks to find the perp.

It's Christmastime in Cottonwood, Kentucky, and Sheriff Kenni Lowry is determined to keep the peace. Vivian Lowry, Kenni's mama, is having a Christmas-size hissy fit because Kenni plans to spend Christmas in Chicago with her Deputy Sheriff-turned-boyfriend Finn Vincent and his family. If that’s not enough to dampen the Christmas spirit, the ghost of Kenni’s grandfather - the ex-sheriff - makes an appearance, and that means only one thing: There’s been a Christmas murder, and there’s a tinsel-wrapped victim at the center of it.

The residents of Cottonwood, Kentucky are sent into a tizzy when the Culinary Channel comes to town to film an episode of Southern Home Cookin' with celebrity chef Frank Von Lee. Especially Sheriff Kenni Lowry. Her mama's award-winning chicken pot pie is what brought Frank to town, and they don't make hair in the South bigger than her mama's ego is after hearing the news. When Frank Von Lee is found dead from food poisoning and the most likely culprit is Mama's chicken pot pie, Kenni's poppa, the former sheriff, comes back from the Great Beyond to assist in the investigation.

Everyone in Cottonwood loves the new bakery...until a Cottonwood resident is found dead with a half-eaten donut in her hand. Sheriff Kenni Lowry has her hands full. With a new murder in town and a new deputy to train, she’s not sure if she’s ever gonna get this booger solved. Sheriff Elmer Sims comes to the rescue, stepping up as Kenni’s ghost deputy.

The small town is buzzing as Normal, Kentucky, hosts the Southeast Olympic ski trials for the first time, drawing elite athletes and sponsors to the usually peaceful Happy Trails Campground. But whispers of sabotage and broken equipment soon cast a dark shadow over the competition—and all clues lead back to Mae's campground, where one of the skiers is found dead.

Only a handful of people know that Emma Lee Raines, proprietor of a small-town Kentucky funeral home, is a "Betweener." She helps ghosts stuck between here and the ever-after - murdered ghosts. But Emma Lee's own sister refuses to believe in her special ability. In fact, the Raines sisters have barely gotten along since Charlotte Rae left the family business for the competition. After a doozy of an argument, Emma Lee is relieved to see Charlotte Rae back home to make nice. Until she realizes her usually snorting, sarcastic, family-ditching sister is a...ghost.

June Heal and Oscar Park are beyond thrilled with the upcoming arrival of their baby. June's pregnancy is turning out to be more at risk than anticipated, and she has to go to a specialist doctor outside of Whispering Falls where patients are nosey and hormones are raging, leaving the nurses and receptionists at their wit's ends and bickering at each other.

Maisie Doss knew the weight of secrets all too well. Once a troublemaker in her small Kentucky town near Cincinnati, she struck a dangerous bargain to become a confidential informant for the police. But when betrayal led her to send a family member behind bars, the lines between right and wrong blurred. Unable to bear the weight of her actions, she fled into the secluded heart of Appalachia, praying her past wouldn't catch up.

When she runs into her friend's deadbeat dad at the local deli, undertaker Emma Lee Raines can't wait to tell Mary Anna Hardy that he's back in Sleepy Hollow, Kentucky, after five long years. Cephus Hardy may have been the town drunk, but he didn't disappear on an epic bender like everyone thought: He was murdered. And he's heard that Emma Lee's been helping lost souls move on to that great big party in the sky. Why do ghosts always bother Emma Lee at the worst times?

When Hank Sharpe asked the Laundry Club Ladies to join him in an undercover investigation to help find a missing person, we grabbed our sleuthing notebook without hesitation. When we found Kyra Tenney's body in what appeared to be an accidental forest fire, we thought we were finished with our undercover act. Only the coroner's report came back that she had been killed before the fire. Join the Laundry Club Ladies as they take their investigation skills to a whole 'nuther level!

A funeral, a ghost, a murder. It's all in a day's work for Emma Lee Raines...especially when the ghost turns out to be someone very dear to her heart. Psychic Debbie Dually is the one who informed local undertaker Emma Lee Raines that she wasn't crazy, she was a Betweener, someone who can communicate with ghosts of the not-so-dearly departed. In fact, she told Emma Lee how she was the only one that could help solve their murders to help them rest in eternal peace. This time Debbie Dually finds herself needing Emma's help. This means solving her own murder.