New Releases by Jill Churchill

Jane's wedding plans are disrupted by the discovery of a body during a self-defense class.

Robert is about to hire the train porter to sort through the mail that is being left by the tracks for anyone to read when the porter is murdered and a swastika is painted on a newcomer's shop window.

Jane Jeffry has a new hobby: the theater––specifically, a rundown theater that close pal Shelly and her husband have donated to a local college drama department. Jane has graciously agreed to lend her taste buds to the college's newest production, helping Shelly judge prospective caterers who will be feeding the actors. But soon she's drawn deeper into the real life drama surrounding the play than she ever hoped or anticipated. The cast is embroiled in petty, off–stage jealousies, ego trips and power struggles, all of which are further fueled by the clueless, blowhard director. Even the presence of two aging professional thespians––a lecherous old boozer and his genteel, seriously gifted wife––fails to bring a sense of decorum to this train wreck of a production. And the plot takes a decidedly darker turn when a particularly rebellious young performer exits stage left––permanently––courtesy of a head–bashing killer! Now Jane and Shelly have their own roles to play in this twisted, true life theatrical where each member of the dramatis personae has a make–up case full of secrets, masks and motives.

Comfortably ensconced in their late great-uncle's "Grace and Favor" mansion, brother and sister Robert and Lily Brewster are riding out the Depression, penniless but in high style. Now a new day is heralded by Franklin Roosevelt's inauguration. Barely recovered from his trip to Washington to witness the historic event, Robert is rushed by Lily to a nearby nursing home, where the Brewsters have agreed to lend a helping hand to the staff. But when an elderly resident is murdered in his bed, Robert and Lily realize the local police will need their able assistance as well -- especially since the slaying isn't the only big trouble in tiny Voorburg. The spring thaw has revealed another body, and the Brewster siblings must expose a cold-blooded criminal before he -- or she -- kills again.

One would never guess to look at suburbanite homemaker Jane Jeffry that she would be interested in murder, but she's practically an expert on the subject. Which is why, with best buddy Shelley Nowack in tow, Jane's booking down to a nearby mystery writers' convention to mingle with the agents, publishing bigwigs, and famous authors ... and to maybe drum up interest in her own recently completed manuscript. But what would a mystery convention be without a mystery? So when a famous ego-squashing editor is undone by an anonymous poisoner, and a much hated book-bashing journalist is himself bashed quite nastily in the parking lot, Jane and Shelley jump right on the case, ready to snoop, eavesdrop, and gossip their way to a solution. But the would-be killer they seek is no open book. And trying to read him/her/them may turn out to be harder -- and deadlier -- than anyone initially imagined.

If Lily and Robert Brewster no longer have a penny to their names, at least they have a roof over their heads in this bleak Depression November of 1932 -- the sprawling estate of their late great-uncle in Voorburg-on-Hudson. But then a badly disguised stranger offers to pay generously to hold a very secret meeting there shortly before the national election. And soon one of the mystery guests is murdered in his bath, a local grade school teacher goes missing, and a little boy is kidnapped. With Pretty Boy Floyd rumored to be somewhere near, the nasty business smacks of underworld activity -- or possible political conspiracy aimed at sabotaging Roosevelt's election. Either way, Chief Howard Walker has nowhere to house all the suspects except at the local Hospital for the Criminally Insane. And the Brewster siblings are going to have their hands full tying the various ends together . . . and ferreting out the killer who abused their hospitality.

"Homemaking" is about to take on a whole new meaning for Jane Jeffry, now that she's agreed to help the prosperously divorced Bitsy Burnside restore and redecorate a decrepit old neighborhood mansion. Bitsy's decision to employ an almost all-woman crew has prompted Jane's quick-witted best bud Shelley Nowack to dub the project, "the House of Seven Mabels" -- but it's also engendered some nasty ill will. And when what begins as a series of anonymous, mean-spirited "pranks" ends up leaving one of the workwomen lying dead at the foot of a staircase, Jane and Shelley decide to try and nail the assassin. But the more Jane saws away at the truth, the more it appears that she may be painting herself into a corner, leaving herself no exit if a crafty killer decides to make Jane Jeffry the next demolition project.

Living high in Manhattan until the Crash of 1929, Lily Brewster and her brother Robert now reside and their late great-uncle's Hudson Valley estate. While tearing down an ice house on the property, Robert discovers a well-dressed mummified human corpse. As Lily works with attractive Police Chief Howard Walker on the local front, Robert pursues the Manhattan connection to this John Doe's identity. Copyright © Libri GmbH. All rights reserved.

The latest delectable cozy from Agatha Award winner Churchill has suburban single mom Jane Jeffry sleuthing again when a wedding she is planning at a monastery-turned-hunt club turns into a killer affair.

In 1932, a brother and sister sharing a mansion on the Hudson River--the Grace and Favor Cottage--are faced with a party gone fatally wrong when one of their paying weekend guests is strangled.

It's beginning to look a lot like murder 'Tis the season to jolly and suburban mom Jane Jeffry's in a mad scramble to finish her cookie baking and household chores before her teenage kids arrive home. Also expected are two moms-both the late husband's mother and the disapproving mater of Det. Mel VanDyne, Jane's significant other. The kitchen is a disaster zone, the dog has decorated the house with hair, and the earsplitting racket coming from the neighbors tacky, music-making Christmas display is driving Jane crazy. Now she has to get the green icing out of her hair and be ready to host her post-caroling dinner party. One thing Jane isn't ready for is a surprise visit from a muckraking TV "action reporter," disguised as Santa Claus. The nasty old St. Nick is out to wrap a happy holiday caroling into a package marked "scandal," but before he has a chance to color the event with yellow journalism, his red-suited body slides off the neighbor's roof to land, silenced forever, on the horns of a plastic reindeer. It looks like Santa's mishap is no accident and, with the help of her friend Shelley, Jane finds plenty of suspects. The phony Santa has an ex-wife and a female assistant who both hate him, and plenty of nice people ruined by tales of naughtiness. Now Jane has to find the Grinch who thought murder was a way to save Christmas before the holiday turns into the unhappiest day of the year.

The crash of 1929 has ended the party for high-living New Yorkers Lily Brewster and her brother, Robert. But their recently deceased great-uncle Horatio has left them a Grace and Favor "Cottage"--really a great mansion--to live in. They move to the quiet Hudson River community, but when a corpse appears in their kitchen, they begin snooping to clear their names, unaware that they may be the killer's next targets.

Suburban single mom Jane Jeffry agrees to lend a hand at her friends former high school girl's club. When a corpse turns up, Jane must get to the bottom of it before more alumnae turn up dead.

Suburban Chicago widow Jane Jeffry hates cooking, but loves food. She can't think of a worse fate than a rustic outing in a Wisconsin resort where she discovers a corpse, seemingly bludgeoned by a frying pan. When the body disappears and the "victim" reappears, Jane sets out to find out what's going on in this wacky wilderness wonderland.

Wealthy old Auguste Caspar Snellen, the legendary Pea King, is long gone, but his greatest legacy lives on: the Snellen Museum, an institution dedicated to the glorification of local lore and legumes. But at this year s annual Pea Festival, the museum sustains a terrible loss when its able, innovative director, Regina Price Palmer, is shot to death during a noisy reenactment of a Civil War battle. Suburban single mom Jane Jeffrey was a costumed participant in the deadly pageant. Now her part-time work at the museum has put Jane and best friend Shelley Nowack in the midst of a veritable podful of murder suspects. And it s up to Jane and Shelley to determine who fatally beaned poor Regina--before another victim is planted six feet under.

Pompous, pig-headed attorney Robert Stonecipher is a major pain in the ham hocks. So no one is terribly upset when he's fatally mashed by a falling rock of hams at the new deli where suburban single mom Jane Jeffry's son works part-time. But when Stonecipher's most obnoxious employee meets an equally appropriate end, Jane knows the fat's really in the fire. And though her homicide detective honey Mel VanDyne disapproves, Jane is determined to dive headfirst into this deadly daze of swine and neuroses -- and hunt a hog-wild murderer despite her own killer agenda as homemaker/PTA/church/community busyperson.

Jane Jeffry, suburban sleuth extraordinare, and her friend, Detective Mel VanDyne, have braved a blizzard to join her friend Shelley at a Colorado ski resort. In spite of having all their kids along, Jane and Shelley imagine a few mindless days of relaxation. But their hopes are dashed on their first attempt to ski when Jane careens into a snowman that hides a very real -- and every dead -- body. The slopes are littered with suspects -- a convention of genealogists led by a political fruitcake who thinks she's going to put her hand-picked Tsar on the Russian throne, a mysterious crimson-clad skier who's always on the horizon, and ex-stockbroker who's hiding from his investors, and an irate tribe of Native Americans. Jane has to take a census of the suspects and make some grave assumptions about who was vacationing with malicious intent.

A MEAL TO DIE FOR With the kids packed off on their summer road trips, it's an ideal time for Jane Jeffry to pursue other interests, so the harried suburban mom enrolls in a writing course at the community college. But when an obnoxious aged classmate keels over dead after sampling a tasty treat from a pot luck student buffet, Jane realizes there's a culinary killer among the local would-be literati. The pen may be mightier than the sword. . .but poison beats them both. And before the both. And before the demise of a very disagreeable old biddy can be written off, amateur sleuth Jane intends to find out who's responsible -- and cook the culprit's goose in his or her own creative juices.

It's So hard to Kill Good Help These Days. . . With three kids to raise on her own, Jane Jeffry sometimes needs a hand with the housework. But many of her complaining neighbors believe that the Happy Helper cleaning lady they all share wouldn't know a dustball if she was choking on it. That hardly seems reason enough, however, to do the disreputable domestic in. So when the charwoman in question is discovered strangled to death with a vacuum cleaner cord, Jane decides to dig up the real dirt--if the tenacious single mom can find any time to spare between her PTA meetings and car-pooling duties. But despite her busy schedule, Jane is determined to tidy up the whole murderous mess--even if it means provoking a killer who may live as close as next door.