Home

Bewitched Bothered Bewildered banner for mystery book
Hotshot Shamus Percy Cole Vintage Murder Mystery Banner

A Persephone Cole
Vintage Murder Mystery

Christmas Trifle cozy mystery banner

A New Romantic Mystery Series

Murder’s on the Menu… but love takes the cake.

Love Can Be Murder mystery book banner
Banner for Murder Under the Bit Top, a mystery set at the circus

Based on a true story

banner for Drop-dead temple mystery

Hi. I’m Heather.

I write mysteries.

Book 10 of the Alvarez Family Murder Mysteries, Bewitched, Bothered, and Beheaded has been getting great reviews and just won the Readers’ Favorite Bronze Medal for Best Sleuth 2024. I am so grateful.

HEADS-UP! TWISTY PLOTTING, SLY WIT, AND OVER-THE TOP HUMOR AHEAD! In this wacky and hilarious whodunit, private eye Lee Alvarez slips into the role of magician’s assistant for a fundraiser and finds herself dead center in a beyond-grisly murder.

Despite meticulous planning and rehearsal, the magician’s guillotine trick goes as wrong as it possibly can when Lee pulls the cord and shimmies to divert attention from the horrifying fall of the blade. With her back to the guillotine, she’s the last to know of the real-life beheading. But the first to know she’s the number one suspect. In a humiliating turn of events, she’s summarily arrested and booked for the murder.

An easy situation to lose your own head in, but with three days before her arraignment, the entire Alvarez family investigative firm swings into action to save their star.

Luckily for the reader, the unfortunate events are just beginning. The wealthy magician’s beneficiaries immediately begin coming to various sticky ends, including shootings, drownings, kidnappings, and oncoming SUVs. It seems he’s left a chunk of his fortune to a tontine, to be divided among his two ex-wives, current cheating wife, twin nephews, and devoted butler—with the last survivor enjoying the whole income.

Someone evidently can’t keep a cool head on their shoulders.

Fans of PI stories, cozy mysteries, and women sleuths will lose their own heads over Lee Alvarez and her adorable (and vexing) family of investigators, including Tugger the cat! Lee’s sharp and funny like her fellow female protagonists Kinsey Millhone (Sue Grafton) and Stephanie Plum (Janet Evanovich), but she cleans up better – say, Nora to her dapper husband’s Nick. And the rest of the large, loving, interfering, and resourceful Alvarez family will delight lovers of Lisa Lutz’s family series, The Spellman Files.

A Wedding to Die For, Book 2 of The Alvarez Family Murder Mysteries is still under development by a major original programming production company (no names) for a series of television movies. However, my advice to anyone trying to do this is to start when you are very young. It’s been five years in the making with still no signs of going forward, backward or dying. But you know what? The thrill is still there. And I’m still in the game! It’s hard to say how these things go, but the fact that someone wants to turn my stories about the Alvarez family into movies for television makes me jump for joy.

Hotshot Shamus, book 4 of the Persephone Cole Vintage Mysteries, Just won the second place Insipere Award for Best Clean Mystery 2023. Go Percy! Percy Cole is one of the first female detectives in New York City’s history, and a woman very comfortable in a man’s world. It was a joy getting back to this series. Percy’s my kinda gal. Sort of how I’d like to be if I had the nerve.

kitty 3 shadow on right

Lucky me. I get to travel the world in my mind and be all the characters in my books, including the cats! As Confucius once said, “Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.”

While I love a funny mystery, I tend to read anything of interest to me, especially if it’s well-written. Most of the time, though, when I read a book, I like it to be on the lighter side of life. If I want to cry, I only have to step on a scale. l tend to write about what I consider to be some of the important things in life: the recently immigrated, one of America’s natural resources, the family unit, relationships, and the seeking of justice. They may be wrapped around a mystery and a laugh, but those subjects will always be there.

On my About page find out my favorite books, the first mystery I ever read, and what kickline was singing when I met my real-life hubby.

Or visit my blog below where I muse upon occasion.

Thanks,

Heather

A Mystery Writer’s Musings

  • Sheltering in Place – Day 62

    As a writer, I have made some observations regarding sentences. They can be short. They […]

    Read more

  • Sheltering in Place – Day 61

    You never know what you’re going to come across when you are doing research for […]

    Read more

  • Sheltering in Place – Day 60

    “The cheaper the crook the gaudier the patter.” This line was uttered by Humphrey Bogart […]

    Read more

  • Sheltering in Place – Day 59

    I had a lovely day today. So much so, I shall wax poetic and quote […]

    Read more

  • Sheltering in Place – Day 58

    I have decided to keep hubby. Don’t try to talk me out of it, because […]

    Read more

  • Sheltering in Place – Day 58

    Home confinement. Time to smell the flowers. Time to clean out the medicine cabinet. Time […]

    Read more

  • Sheltering in Place – Day 57

    Shoes. I am all for them. Keeps the feet safe, comfortable, and warm. But sexy […]

    Read more

  • Sheltering in Place – Day 56

    When I was a child, I remember seeing photos, magazines, and movies starring the beautiful […]

    Read more

  • Sheltering in Place – Day 55

    Today was Mother’s Day. I don’t’ have any children, so I’m not a mother. But […]

    Read more

  • Sheltering in Place – Day 54

    Hubby has started calling me his Decontaminatrix. This is because I am always trying to […]

    Read more

  • Sheltering in Place – Day 53

    On May 8, 75 years ago today, World War II was virtually over, particularly in […]

    Read more

  • Sheltering in Place – Day 52

    Today our electric grill arrived in the mail. I was very excited. Hubby was, too. […]

    Read more