Showing results by author "ANDREA KRESS" in All Categories

Nurse Aggie Burnside is looking forward to a quiet vacation at a beach house in Morgan’s Cove, Maine. But neighbors quarrel, old feuds erupt and someone dies. Can this amateur sleuth sift through the strands of deception to solve the crime? Massachusetts 1932. Aggie takes a vacation with her fiancé, Doctor John Taylor, at a family beach house on the Maine coast. Tempers flare when a mutual agreement with the neighbors falls apart and one family decides to build rental cottages. Adding to the conflict, the tenants are objectionable, and their eviction begins a series of fatal events. A ...

Nobody is thrilled when a medium has moved into town. But her presence doesn’t compare to the chaos that ensues after the murder of a prominent man. Can a curious nurse with a nose for detection solve who did it? Nurse Aggie Burnside and her doctor fiancé are busy building the medical practice in Western Massachusetts when they are asked to serve on a committee creating a new college. Thinking this could enhance their network, they jump in and soon find themselves in the middle of three factions who want them to take a side. Before they can back away from the turmoil, one of the Board ...

A town judge shot dead in a house full of suspects. Can a curious young female nurse turned amateur sleuth uncover the truth before someone else dies? It’s a mystery that will keep you guessing. Berkshire Mountains, Massachusetts, 1931. Aggie Burnside is ready for her next chapter. But when her New York job falls through unexpectedly, the young nurse jumps at another opportunity and moves to her best friend’s hometown. Though she’s barely settled into the small community before she’s entangled in the local judge’s shocking murder. With the dead man’s shooting going unheard in a ...

The Valentine Ball, the glittering social event of 1932 Boston. Who would want to spoil a debutante cotillion with a murder? Nurse Aggie Burnside goes to Boston to assist her cousin Amanda with the final touches on the dazzling debutante presentation to raise funds for a major hospital. But it seems there are new obstacles every day: the budget gets cut, the band quits, the finance manager interferes and the hospital board members argue. Despite the hurdles, the evening comes together without a hitch. And then someone is murdered, and a large amount of money disappears. What was the motive...

The jazz singer Lulu has plenty of admirers. So, who would want to kill her? Too many suspects, too little time. Lulu Evans makes quite a splash at the Mountain Aire hotel in 1931 when she fills in for her cousin. Not only is her performance jazzy and sexy, it delights the band director who sees financial success in his future. She also attracts the attention of a vacationing business mogul eager to back her, a Broadway producer looking for a new star, a struggling playwright in search of a muse, and a gaggle of lovestruck teenage boys. Success breeds jealousy and rivalries and one morning ...

Aggie is hired to be a private nurse to an ailing millionaire’s wife. But she's not the one who dies. The couple is ensconced in a mansion in the small town to evade their enemies in the city. The marriage is anything but happy and she grows attached to the wife while repelled by the husband and baffled by the numerous silent servants who don’t seem to do anything but scuttle away. As Christmas approaches, everyone’s peace is shattered by a death at the big house. It isn’t who anyone expected would die, and it certainly wasn’t from natural causes. There are plenty of suspects ...

She's rich and bored. This homicide has no motive. Determined to get to the truth, can a socialite solve the murder before she's next? Boston, 1933. Amanda Burnside yearns for more. Dutifully hitting the social scene and volunteering for charity, the young former debutante is delighted to be dating a doctor yet wishes for excitement. But she wasn't expecting a stroll on Boston Common with her beau to end with the discovery of a dead body. Shocked by the experience, Amanda ignores her parents' wishes and resolves to follow the clues to uncover the perpetrator. But with shady characters, ...

She’s excited by a new job assignment working with the Mayor. But things quickly get dark as she finds murder and deceit lurk in the corridors of City Hall. Public servants in City Hall aren’t being very honest with the public. When a citizen reports an employee’s attempt at extortion, all hell breaks loose. And then that worker is murdered. Detective Halloran investigates with the perspective of his girlfriend, Amanda, an amateur sleuth. It’s his job on the line but she is pulled in out of curiosity and to avoid the drama at home. As they dig deeper, they find another layer of ...

Her sweetheart revealed he was once married. Now the other woman has turned up dead. Will her sleuthing show he did the deed? Massachusetts, 1932. Aggie Burnside just got blindsided. Discovering her boyfriend’s secret ex-wife has completely sent her whole world into a tailspin. Barely grasping the stunning betrayal, she’s aghast when the money-grubbing woman is pushed off the road to her death. With incriminating scratches on her beau’s car, rumors circulating the dead ex was blackmailing rich women, and odd behaviors surfacing around town, Aggie wonders if a recent job offer in New ...

Tempers flare at the Garden Fair. But it’s not about the floral competition. Politics and a land dispute cultivate a murder. Can she weed through the lies before someone else dies? Massachusetts, 1932. Aggie Burnside volunteers for what she thinks is a routine community event but soon finds out she’s in the middle of a heated partisan rivalry. She’s trying to stay out of the conflict, but when a County Commissioner is killed and her father’s cane is the murder weapon, everything changes. Was it a disgruntled constituent, a zealous volunteer, a protective parent, a political ...

An isolated mansion, an eccentric host, squabbling siblings, and a snowstorm. What could possibly go wrong? Young nurse Aggie Burnside and her doctor boyfriend are asked for a holiday weekend in a remote mansion in Vermont to calm the nerves of the threatened owner. But their hostess, a wealthy widow and renowned romance writer, has other plans for her guests. With a series of games, she hopes to reveal who is out to kill her, but to everyone’s shock, someone else dies first. Revel in the atmosphere of a 1931 New England winter, the extravagant house, tales of a Scottish curse, sumptuous ...

When her boss resigns, she’s out of a job and at loose ends. But it is when her friend’s father is killed that she hones her skills as an amateur sleuth. Can Amanda track down the killer before someone else dies? No one knows why her friend’s father was in the family’s vacation home in Hyannis on Cape Cod in early December. The discovery that he changed his will and was poisoned confuses his family and baffles the local sheriff. An ongoing property feud with a neighbor, a disgraced young man wronged by the family, an art dealer who suspects something is fishy, and a resentful ...

She turned down marriage to prove her independence. What she didn’t bargain for was a murder. 1933. Amanda Burnside’s new project is creating a children’s clinic in the colorful, ethnic, under-served North End. It’s busy, noisy, bustling, and she’s challenged by the differences from her upper-class upbringing. She soon questions her choices when she stumbles across the murder of a young man. Warned off from asking further questions only fuels her curiosity to solve the case. Detective Halloran is assigned to sift through the motives and evasions of too many suspects. But his ...

She traded the rat race to work in an academic lab. Instead of peace and quiet, she discovers jealousy, treachery and murder. And she may be next. COVID, a stressful job and the end of Gemma’s marriage signaled a need to change everything in her life. Finding a job in public information in a university affiliated lab near Raleigh run by a world-renowned researcher seemed like a dream come true. Lured by warmer weather, a pay raise, cheaper rent and a scenic commute, she wasn’t prepared for another cutthroat environment. Or the murder of a researcher found in a chimp’s cage. Relieved ...

A peaceful Sunday takes a tragic turn when a gravely ill man, left alone in an eerily silent house, is brutally murdered. In a shocking twist, the clumsy cop at the scene accuses the priest, who had come to administer the late rites. To Amanda Burnside’s distress, the priest is her future brother-in-law. Her detective fiancé insists on exonerating his brother which means working with a nemesis who jumps to every wrong conclusion. Why kill a dying man? Is it for the alleged fortune in gold? And who knows where it is hidden? There are plenty of suspects with an axe to grind and a lost ...

Can a female amateur sleuth and the small-town detective peel back the lies before they find another body? Or is he part of the problem? Gemma and her police detective boyfriend are on the Carolina coast for a vacation and a bit of work. But she is soon pulled into the mystery of the death of a museum docent, disappearing artifacts and a sketchy museum director. Things take a turn for the worse when she begins to suspect that her boyfriend may abandon his career altogether as he reconnects with dodgy old friends. With money on his mind, will he ditch everything—including their ...

She lives a comfortable life But when a posh neighbor is murdered, she fears she’ll lose her hard-won independence. Boston, 1930’s. Amanda Burnside feels she’s coming into her own. Having finally convinced her parents that working in her father’s law firm as an investigator is an acceptable job for a young woman, the former debutante believes anything is possible. But when a client’s husband is killed, she fears the sordid details will derail her career plans. Determined not to go back to life as a pampered socialite, Amanda shares the clues of the investigation with her detective...