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Roxie Maxx founded Pines & Needles, a lakefront crafting colony for women who deserved a place of their own. She also runs mBoox from her dad’s newspaper office at The Whiskey Pines Journal. Between the books and the newspaper business, she had every intention of keeping herself occupied with respectable work.
Then there is Kenzie, her Bichon, who sends her opinions straight into Roxie’s head. Roxie’s grandmother, Roxanne, has rather more access to the past than most grandmothers, and Ethan, the handsome, wealthy farmer next door, keeps giving Roxie reasons to reconsider her position on men.
That position was formed during her marriage to Dut Steeplepuss. Roxie would prefer to have nothing more to do with him. He considers this an opening for discussion.
Roxie has plenty to tell, in the order she is legally allowed to.
Roxie Maxx, trying to mind her own business
They call me Kenzie. I run this town. Or I would, if anyone around here listened to a dog.
Roxie does the sleuthing. I do the thinking. You do the reading. It's cozier in here than it looks, and considerably more dangerous. Come in. Wipe your feet. And try not to touch anything that isn't yours. We've had trouble with that lately.
— Kenzie, Bichon Frise, reincarnated, and the only one in Whiskey Pines who knows where the bodies are. Figuratively. Mostly.
Somebody got away with murder. Roxie’s grandmother can travel to whenever it happened.
Solving a cold case would be difficult enough without family complications. Roxanne brings her time-traveling powers to Whiskey Pines, and Contessa, her magical cat, makes a sport of provoking Kenzie. Roxie’s telepathic Bichon has no intention of surrendering the last word. Or the best chair.
With Ethan close by, Roxie has more than old secrets to contend with. The handsome, wealthy farmer next door is becoming someone she could count on, and perhaps someone she could love. First, there is a murder that can no longer stay unsolved.
A new paranormal cozy mystery series is taking shape. Book One is in development.
She ran a bootlegging empire beneath Maxx House. Death did not end her involvement in family affairs. With the emerald pendant and the ability to cross time, Roxanne has no plans to retire.
Ethan has known Roxie since high school. He listens before he speaks, shows up when it matters, and gives her something Dut never did: room to be herself. Roxie is beginning to notice.
A lakefront crafting community for women starting over, and a founder who cannot leave a mystery alone. Meet Roxie and Kenzie in these two books, available now.
Book One · Start here
Roxie built a place for women to begin again. Someone has other plans for it.
Whiskey Pines, Michigan, 1987. A member of the crafting colony has died. Pages are missing from the Founders binder, and a smiling attorney turns up when nobody is supposed to be on the property. With Kenzie supplying commentary that only Roxie can hear, a quiet homecoming becomes an investigation into the community Roxie meant to protect.
Book Two · Now available
The pattern is wrong. The profit is deliberate.
When a fashionable capelet pattern ruins good fabric, Roxie suspects more than a printing mistake. Women at Pines & Needles are paying for the pattern, then paying again for corrections. With Kenzie sending opinions nobody asked for, Roxie follows the money behind a con that has reached her own community. Whoever is profiting would rather she stopped asking questions.
Pines & Needles is a separate series set in Whiskey Pines. Read Book One first, then continue with Needled Lies.
The books are only part of what goes on around here. Open The Whiskey Pines Journal for dispatches from Roxie, recipes from the Crumb Cottage Bakery, and Kenzie’s account of events. She would like hers read first.
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