Most Popular Books by Ellery Adams

Book One in the harrowing and heartwarming Supper Club Mystery series by New York Times bestselling author Ellery Adams! Meet the Supper Club, a group of friends dead set on counting calories and catching killers . . . After giving up his dream job and moving back home to the small town of Quincy’s Gap, English literature professor James Henry is tired of finding his happiness at the bottom of a bag of cheese doodles. In an effort to expand his social life and reduce his waistline, he joins a supper club for dieters who lovingly call themselves the Flab Five. He knows he and his new friends will have to watch what they eat, but he never expected to find murder on the menu. Former high school football star Brinkley Myers was worshipped by fans and loathed by women. When he mysteriously drops dead in the local bakery, a young waitress at the town diner is suspected of foul play. Convinced she’s innocent, the Flab Five team up to weigh in on the investigation. As the group begins to digest the clues and track down the real killer, they start to worry that they’ve bitten off more than they can chew, and it will take every ounce of willpower they have to keep losing weight without losing their lives . . . Includes tempting recipes! This is a brand-new, fully revised edition of a book originally published under the name J. B. Stanley. “The first Supper Club mystery introduces the very likable and flawed James Henry. . . . Great pacing and characters make this a first-rate book. Readers will definitely want to come back for a second helping.” —RT Book Reviews

For bibliophiles who love Rita Mae Brown and Alexander McCall Smith comes the latest witty story in the beloved series set at Virginia’s book-themed resort, Storyton Hall, from the New York Times bestselling author. In this latest literary mystery, a killer inspired by Lord Alfred Tennyson’s “The Lady of Shallot” doesn’t stanza chance with resort manager Jane Steward is on the case! When corpses clutching poems begin turning up around Storyton Hall, Jane Steward is on the trail of someone exercising poetic license to kill and is determined to keep her fairytale resort from turning into a southern gothic… As Jane eagerly anticipates the wedding of her best friend Eloise Alcott, Storyton Hall is overrun with poets in town to compete for a coveted greeting card contract. They’re everywhere, scrawling verses on cocktail napkins in the reading rooms or seeking inspiration strolling the Poet’s Walk, a series of trails named after famous authors. But the Tennyson Trail leads to a grim surprise: a woman’s corpse drifting in a rowboat on a lake, posed as if she were “The Lady of Shallot.” When a second body is discovered, also posed as a poetic character, a recurring MO emerges. Fortunately, Jane is well versed in sleuthing and won’t rest until she gives the killer a taste of poetic justice… “Readers will enjoy the plot twists and the literary frame.” —Booklist

Olivia Limoges and the Bayside Book Writers are excited about Oyster Bay''s newest resident: bestselling novelist Nick Plumley, who''s come to work on his next book. But when Olivia stops by Plumley''s rental she finds that he''s been strangled to death. Her instincts tell her that something from the past came back to haunt him, but she never expects that the investigation could spell doom for one of her dearest friends...

The first three books in the Antiques & Collectibles Mystery Series by New York Times bestselling author Ellery Adams! A Killer Collection Molly Appleby is a young writer for Collector’s Weekly, and when the reporter isn’t covering auctions and antique shows all over the South, she’s trying to get her new relationship with a coworker off the ground. When her latest assignment takes her to North Carolina pottery country to cover an exclusive kiln opening, she’s certain the show promises surprising offerings and rare finds. What she doesn’t expect to find is a dead body. A Fatal Appraisal Molly Appleby loves her job at Collector’s Weekly covering auctions and estate sales all over the South. When her latest assignment takes her to Richmond, Virginia, to interview the staff of the hit TV show Hidden Treasures, she’s expecting a quick, fun trip. But when one of the show’s appraisers is found murdered, Molly realizes that once again she’ll have to put on her detective’s cap until the culprit is captured. A Deadly Dealer Molly Appleby’s career as a reporter for Collector’s Weekly is finally taking off, as is her relationship with coworker Matt Harrison. But the more time she spends covering Southern antiques and collectibles, the more times she finds herself face-to-face with a new mystery. And when she’s sent to Nashville to cover the famous Heart of Dixie auction, where all the major players in the world of collectibles gather, her hopes of steering clear of foul play are quickly dashed when a renowned and well-respected dealer is found murdered.

When the going gets tough, Ella Mae LaFaye bakes pies. So when she catches her husband cheating in New York, she heads back home to Havenwood, Georgia, where she can drown her sorrows in fresh fruit filling and flakey crust. But her pies aren''t just delicious. They''re having magical effects on the people who eat them--and the public is hungry for more. Discovering her hidden talent for enchantment, Ella Mae makes her own wish come true by opening the Charmed Pie Shoppe. But with her old nemesis Loralyn Gaynor making trouble, and her old crush Hugh Dylan making nice, she has more than pie on her plate. and when Loralyn''s fiancé is found dead--killed with Ella Mae''s rolling pin--it''ll take all her sweet magic to clear her name.

“Dark and delectable. I gobbled this book up and enjoyed every last bite.“ —Kirsten Miller, author of The Change and The Women of Wild Hill The women in Cold Harbor all have something to prove, and they''ll have to do it in a world full of monsters. Something’s not right in Cold Harbor—more so than usual. While this sleepy small town has seen its fair share of monsters in cheating husbands and leering bosses, none are as hungry as Mrs. Smith. The mysterious resident has finally emerged from her crumbling mansion on the hill, mesmerizing the townspeople with her beauty. Her secret? Nine human sacrifices to feed her immortality. Natalie Scott is more worried about Mrs. Smith blocking her first real estate sale—the one that will take her from stay-at-home mom to working woman extraordinaire. She''s eager to prove herself in a world where the social mores of 1980s suburbia reign, where she''s expected to keep a magazine-perfect home and raise beautiful children, all while sticking to her husband''s budget. Natalie''s two best friends are facing their own demons, and Mrs. Smith and her deep, dark woods are an easy scapegoat for everyone''s problems. But Natalie''s twelve-year-old daughter, Jill, and her Icelandic housekeeper, Una, can sense something deeper at play. Armed with library books and a whole lot of grit, Jill and Una team up to save the town once and for all. But as the rest of Cold Harbor sinks into anger, fear, and jealousy, they’ll have to confront the question: What does it really mean to be a monster?

Welcome back to Hope Street Church, where friendships are formed, fresh starts are encouraged, and mysteries are solved . . . When an unscrupulous real estate agent tries to strong-arm a wealthy friend of Grammy Lee’s into selling her stately home, Cooper and her Bible study friends are called in to investigate—before any crime has been committed. Grammy’s fear is that the man is so devious he’ll try to bump off her friend in order to get his hands on the estate. But before Cooper and the gang can do much more than confirm he’s as sketchy as Grammy suspects, someone else takes matters into their own hands and takes the agent out of the picture, permanently. The Bible study group knows that even the wicked deserve justice, so they continue to investigate, this time to catch a killer. There’s a full roster of service staff heading up their list of suspects, along with the elderly home owner herself. Then Cooper learns that the feds have taken an interest in the case, and suddenly she and her friends begin to worry they’re in real danger. Because nothing about this case is what it seems, and while charity may begin at home, this home is full of secrets that may cost Cooper her life . . . Includes heavenly recipes from Magnolia Lee’s kitchen!

A brand-new book in the harrowing and heartwarming Supper Club Mystery series by New York Times bestselling author Ellery Adams and Agatha Award–winning author Rosemary Stevens! Librarian James Henry and his supper club sleuths will take a trip down memory lane searching for clues that will help catch a killer . . . When the cast of the old Hearth and Home TV show gather for a twenty-fifth reunion at a local bed-and-breakfast where the show was filmed, the townsfolk are thrilled to meet the actors and relive their memories of a simpler time. Their nostalgic mood is broken, though, by an ambitious real estate developer who has also come to Quincy’s Gap with an eye toward turning the quiet town into the South’s hottest new tourist destination. Tensions are boiling over, and when the developer gets a little too sauced one night at the B&B and turns up dead the next morning, James and the supper club will have to put aside their distaste for the victim to help nab the culprit. It looks like an open-and-shut case, but James and his friends are convinced the main suspect is innocent and promise to help get her out of hot water. Dividing their time between the investigation and the reunion festivities, they’re shocked to discover that members of the cast are guarding some very unsavory secrets. With time running out before the actors leave town and the trail of clues goes stale, the supper club will have to turn up the heat on a suspicious character before the killer serves up another murder. Includes mouthwatering recipes! Praise for the Supper Club Mystery Series: “Heavy on fun, light on gore, this savory mystery comes complete with yummy recipes.” ―Publishers Weekly “Foodies will love the recipes and fans the new adventures of the five friends.” —Kirkus Reviews

A brand-new book in the Antiques & Collectibles Mystery series by New York Times bestselling author Ellery Adams and Parker Riggs. “A wonderfully written, captivating cozy novel with likeable main characters and an interesting plot!” —Goodreads review, on A Treacherous Trader In the world of antiques and collectibles, it helps to have a sharp eye for quality, a good ear for gossip, and a nose for murder. When star reporter Molly Appleby exchanged vows with her new husband, she also made a promise to give up sleuthing. But given her knack for stumbling onto murders, and murderers, she’s realizing she never should have made a promise she couldn’t keep. Molly’s just finished an article on the Forget Me Not Doll Club for Collector’s Weekly, but before the magazine even hits the newsstands, one of the club members is found murdered, and a stolen antique doll—purportedly haunted—is found in the victim’s house. When police discover that few of the peculiar club members will mourn the deceased, and that most of them had more motives than alibis, they once again enlist Molly’s help to solve this very odd case. But piecing together a deadly puzzle is never easy, and when another member of the club is attacked, Molly begins to wonder if the eccentric group of doll lovers might have deeper and darker connections than she ever imagined. And as she begins to piece together the unusual background of the eerie doll and uncovers a history of troubled lives, she realizes there are more victims than the obvious ones in this case—and that some people will do anything to protect their darkest secrets.

A brand-new book in the Antiques & Collectibles Mystery Series by New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Ellery Adams and Parker Riggs. In the world of antiques and collectibles, it helps to have a sharp eye for quality, a good ear for gossip, and a nose for murder. When a retired Hollywood A-lister decides to auction off part of his enviable collection of antiques, reporter Molly Appleby is thrilled to be covering the event for Collector’s Weekly, and she’s certain it will secure the reputation of the dealer handling it, a friend of hers. But soon after the final gavel comes down, the actor’s secretary vanishes and the antiques dealer is found dead, apparently having taken his own life. Molly’s not sold on the coroner’s verdict of suicide, though, and she can’t help but start digging for clues to what she suspects is foul play. As she begins to delve into the private life of her friend and his connections with the actor’s staff, Molly slowly discovers that the dealer was far more unscrupulous than she ever imagined and that nearly everyone who knew him had a motive for murder. And when another body turns up and the devious killer begins leaving mysterious clues to taunt Molly and the police, Molly finds herself facing a cunning culprit who wants to see her going, going, gone . . . “A wonderfully written, captivating cozy novel with likeable main characters and an interesting plot!” —Goodreads review on A Treacherous Trader

A brand-new book in the terrific Hope Street Church mystery series, by New York Times bestselling author Ellery Adams and Elizabeth Lockard. Welcome to Hope Street Church, where friendships are formed, fresh starts are encouraged, and mysteries are solved. Cooper Lee and her friends in the Hope Street Bible Study Group are enjoying a glorious summer day in the park, complete with picnic, hiking, swimming, and a local bluegrass band. But Cooper knows that no good day goes unpunished, and when a man turns up dead in the nearby woods—and the sister of Cooper’s fiancé is named as the prime suspect—the group may have to trade in their prayers of thanks for pleas of divine intervention. Cooper knows her future sister-in-law is innocent, so when the police arrest her for the murder, the Bible study group must step in to catch the real killer and prevent a grave injustice. Following a twisted trail of clues that leads to a hit-and-run driver, a homeless veteran, and a park full of suspects who may hold more secrets than solutions, Cooper must hold firm to her spiritual convictions before an innocent woman faces a conviction of a more earthly nature. Includes heavenly recipes from Magnolia Lee’s kitchen!

While January snow falls outside in Miracle Springs, North Carolina, Nora Pennington is encouraging customers to cozy up indoors with a good book. Even though the shop and her bibliotherapy sessions keep Nora busy during the day, her nights are a little too quiet - until Deputy Andrews pulls Nora into the sci-fi section and asks her to help him plan a wedding proposal. His bride-to-be, Hester, loves ''Little Women,'' and Nora sets to work arranging a special screening at the town''s new movie theatre. But right before the deputy pops the question, Nora makes an unsettling discovery - someone has mutilated all her store''s copies of ''The Scarlet Letter,'' slicing angrily into the pages wherever Hester Prynne''s name is mentioned. When a dead man is found on a hiking trail just outside town, carrying a rare book, the members of the Secret, Book, and Scone Society unearth a connection to Hester''s past.

A brand-new book in the terrific Hope Street Church mystery series, by New York Times bestselling author Ellery Adams and Elizabeth Lockard. Welcome to Hope Street Church, where friendships are formed, fresh starts are encouraged, and mysteries are solved. Cooper Lee has never been happier. She has terrific friends at Bible study, a great boyfriend in Nathan, and best of all, a new niece or nephew on the way. But storm clouds are gathering when a string of church robberies comes to Hope Street and an art teacher is found dead in what appears to be a robbery gone wrong. With Halloween approaching, Cooper’s beginning to think there are far more tricks than treats coming her way. No sooner do she and her friends step in to help the police unearth a killer than they discover a con artist among their flock. Lost in a morass of confusing clues—and even more confusing signals from Nathan—Cooper’s not sure which way to turn. With the stakes so high, she sends up a prayer for some divine guidance, because Cooper knows that sometimes it takes the help of a higher power to bring down the lowest form of evildoer. Includes heavenly recipes from Magnolia Lee’s kitchen!

Welcome back to Hope Street Church, where friendships are formed, fresh starts are encouraged, and mysteries are solved . . . When a scathing review by a prominent food critic threatens to ruin the career of local celebrity chef Anton Parsley, he turns to Cooper and her Bible study group for help. Cooper’s boyfriend was once mentored by the beloved chef, and Cooper will do anything she can to support his struggling restaurant. But before she can figure out how to restore the chef’s good reputation, the food critic is found murdered in his restaurant. Suddenly, Cooper and the gang must go from propping up the chef to tracking down a killer. It’s well known that the food critic had built a lucrative career with her bombastic reviews, but as Cooper and her friends look into her background, they discover that she may not have been who she appeared to be. Suspecting that secrets from her past will lead them to whoever wanted her dead, the Bible study group cook up a scheme to trap the culprit. The risks are high and may just get them burned, but they’re dead-set on catching the killer before the chef’s career is toast . . . Includes heavenly recipes from Magnolia Lee’s kitchen!

Welcome back to Hope Street Church, where friendships are formed, fresh starts are encouraged, and mysteries are solved . . . The Hope Street Community Theater is staging It’s a Wonderful Life as a fundraiser, and Cooper and the Bible study group are all taking part. They’ve also managed to land the help of a famous Broadway director who’s trying to clean up his image after a scandal, and he travels to Richmond along with his star actress and staff. But the director’s entourage epitomize the worst of theater personalities, with petty grievances and jealousies stirring up more drama off the stage than on. And when the assistant director is found murdered in her hotel suite, the list of possible suspects is longer than a red carpet. Unwilling to stand by with a murderer in their midst, Cooper and her friends get to work ferreting out clues and surveilling the staff, including a dangerously inept set technician as well as the director’s current and former love interests. Despite inexplicable and terrifying stage “accidents” threatening to derail their investigation and the play, the intrepid amateur sleuths know the show must go on. Their only prayer is to set a trap and successfully catch a killer before it’s curtains for Cooper . . . Includes heavenly recipes from Magnolia Lee’s kitchen!

Ellery Adams serves up a mystery that’s a real peach... Ella Mae LeFaye’s Charmed Pie Shoppe is wildly popular in Havenwood, Georgia—which is not surprising since Ella Mae can lace her baked goods with enchantments. The shop’s extraordinary success seems destined to continue when Ella Mae meets an engaged couple who hire her to handle the dessert buffet at their wedding. But Ella Mae has a lot on her plate. She is also searching for the origin of her magical powers—and hoping to determine if the spark of attraction she feels for the handsome Hugh Dylan is authentic or just her new abilities gone awry. Then Ella Mae discovers a high-standing member of the community dead, and a wedding guest becomes seriously ill at the event she’s catering. Now she’ll have to use all her sleuthing skills and culinary talents to prove her pies don’t contain a killer ingredient . . .

A brand-new book in the Antiques & Collectibles series by New York Times bestselling author Ellery Adams and Parker Riggs. Molly Appleby has promised her new husband that their honeymoon will be trouble-free—specifically, no sleuthing. Unfortunately, trouble seems to follow Molly wherever she goes, even to England. After a glorious week in London, the newlyweds have escaped the city to visit Molly’s great-aunt in the quaint English village of Marlow Crossing. The setting is idyllic, as beautiful and serene as Molly could hope for, but as the talented reporter and senior staff writer for Collector’s Weekly knows, appearances can be deceiving. And when a local woman turns up poisoned to death, Molly’s convinced there’s more to the story than meets the eye. Putting her honeymoon on hold, Molly agrees to help local inspector Devon Boyle with the case, especially since the sleepy village presents such a small number of suspects. But when two of them go missing and the tragic death of another woman comes to light, Molly realizes she’s up against a much more sinister criminal than she thought. Untangling a web of lies and deceit as she searches for a motive and a murderer won’t be easy, but Molly’s determined to put all of her detective skills to use to catch a killer before her trip, and her life, are brought to a sudden end.

A brand-new book in the Antiques & Collectibles series by New York Times bestselling author Ellery Adams and Parker Riggs. In the world of antiques and collectibles, it helps to have a sharp eye for quality, a good ear for gossip, and a nose for murder. Molly Appleby is on cloud nine. The talented reporter and senior staff writer for Collector’s Weekly just got engaged to the man she loves. When she takes time off to plan her wedding and shop for a vintage gown, the spunky writer with a growing reputation for finding corpses and solving murders vows to her family and fiancé to avoid trouble at all costs. Until the wedding photographer she visits turns up dead in his home, the victim of foul play. So when she’s not busy shopping for the perfect dress or sampling endless varieties of cake, Molly once again finds herself attempting to unravel a mystery, and the endless string of women spurned by the playboy photographer leaves no shortage of suspects. When another corpse turns up and Molly discovers that the woman who sold her a gorgeous vintage gown might be the murderer—and that the gown itself may be linked to a decades-old crime—Molly must summon all her sleuthing skills to find the killer before her preparations for the big day become plans for her funeral.

As clouds gather over the Great Smoky Mountains, an absent groom, a stolen historical document, and a book club coming apart at the seams stir up a different sort of storm in this engaging mystery. How far will one book lover go to keep a secret? As the townsfolk of Miracle Springs, North Carolina, know all too well, water can be healing—or devastating. With a big storm coming, residents are stocking up on essentials. Hoping to beat the storm, Nora is sitting in the Unitarian Church with her fellow wedding guests, all of whom belong to Sheldon’s Blind Date Book Club. As rain hammers the stained-glass windows, the bride, Jess, waits in the back of the church—but where is the groom? When a branch crashes through a stained-glass window, Jess finally tells the guests to go home. With the help of her friend Sheldon, Nora escorts Jess to the Lodge. It’s now become clear that Jess’s fiancé Ravi is missing. But there’s no searching for him now, as the Miracle River has flooded and they’re stuck on this side of town. By morning, they awaken to widespread devastation and a call from Sheriff McCabe. A body has been pulled out of the river, dressed in a tux. On top of this tragic turn of events, Jess returns home to find her house has been spared from the raging water, but ransacked, with an extremely valuable folio from an illuminated manuscript now missing. As Miracle Books becomes the community hub for information, shelter, and hope, Nora and the Secret, Book, and Scone Society put their heads together to solve the murder and the theft. But then a second body is pulled from the river . . .