Story By Elizabeth Spann Craig
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Elizabeth Spann Craig

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Murder on Opening Night
Updated at Aug 6, 2019, 00:48
When Myrtle Clover and her friend Miles attend a play in their small town, there’s a full house on opening night. It’s clear to Myrtle that one of the actresses is a stage hog who loves stealing the spotlight. Nandina Marshall certainly does upstage everyone—when her murder forces an unexpected intermission. Can Myrtle and Miles discover who was behind her final curtain call….before murder makes an encore?
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Death Pays a Visit
Updated at Aug 6, 2019, 00:48
At Greener Pastures Retirement Home, leisure time can prove perilous. When psychic (and hubcap retailer) Wanda Alewine pays a late-night visit to Myrtle Clover, she urges the octogenarian sleuth to head straight to Greener Pastures Retirement Home. But Wanda doesn’t want Myrtle to consider the Home’s dubious amenities–she wants Myrtle to prevent a murder seen in a vision. Reluctant Myrtle investigates with sidekick Miles, who seems a lot more interested in Greener Pastures than she is. As the duo digs, they uncover more than just Sudoku and Scrabble—they discover a sinister undercurrent… with murder as its outcome.
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Cooking is Murder
Updated at Aug 6, 2019, 00:48
Myrtle has decided that she’s actually a very good cook. In fact, she feels she’s such a good cook that she elects to hone her skills at a cooking school. She persuades her reluctant friend Miles to join her, convinced they both could use some inspiration in the kitchen. This cooking school enrolls one rather loud-mouth student who quickly makes everyone fed-up. This unfortunate student, fond of telling tales out of school, learns that one man’s meat is another man’s poison. Myrtle and Miles must use class act detecting skills to learn who’s been schooled in murder before someone else’s goose gets cooked.
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Edit to Death
Updated at Aug 6, 2019, 00:48
This book goes from ‘tell-all’ to ‘dead men tell no tales.’ Retired English teacher Myrtle Clover is frequently asked to proofread for friends. So she wasn’t totally surprised when her friend Pearl asked her to take a look at her memoir and polish it up. But before Myrtle could pull out her red pen, Pearl was found … murdered. Now Myrtle and her senior sidekick Miles must track down the memoir and the murderer before the killer makes any more final revisions.
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A Body at Book Club
Updated at Aug 6, 2019, 00:48
This is one book club meeting that doesn’t go by the book. When octogenarian sleuth Myrtle Clover discovers Naomi Pelter’s dead body during a book club meeting, the other members seem shocked. But Myrtle can read between the lines. Naomi had riled everyone up by flirting with other people’s husbands, arguing with neighbors, and generally making a nuisance of herself. Murdering troublemakers is the oldest trick in the book. The book club members seem too sweet to be killers, but Myrtle knows better than to judge books by their covers. Myrtle’s investigation into the murder will take a more novel approach than her police chief son’s by-the-book methods. Can Myrtle and her widower sidekick uncover the killer…before he writes them off for good?
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Death at a Drop-In
Updated at Aug 6, 2019, 00:48
You’re invited to a deadly drop-in: Cosette Whitlow is a society matron…if tiny Bradley, North Carolina, has one. She kindly volunteers for all the town’s charities, but isn’t nearly as kind to her own family, neighbors, and friends. In fact, Cosette is emphatically disliked by much of the town—including octogenarian Myrtle Clover. And Myrtle knows that dislike in Bradley can quickly turn deadly. No one seems surprised when Cosette’s body is discovered during a party she’s hosting—she was struck on the head with a croquet mallet. Wanting to restore order to the small town, Myrtle resolves to track down the killer—before the killer strikes again.
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A Body at Bunco
Updated at Aug 6, 2019, 00:48
Playing Bunco may be fun…but murder proves a game-changer. Octogenarian sleuth Myrtle Clover has never heard of the dice game Bunco. Regardless, she steps in as her daughter-in-law’s sub and reluctantly puts her game face on. Bunco turns out to be child’s play. But when a body is discovered, Myrtle realizes another game is afoot. Before long, she’s playing cat and mouse with the killer. Can she track down the murderer before the game is up? Or, with the killer playing hard to get, will it end up being “no dice?”
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A Dyeing Shame
Updated at Aug 6, 2019, 00:48
When Beauty Box beautician Tammy Smith is discovered with a pair of hair shears in her back, there are suspects and secrets aplenty in her small Southern town. Octogenarian Myrtle Clover, bored by bingo and bridge, is intrigued by the crime…and her neighbors’ secrets. But discovering, and blabbing, secrets got Tammy killed and Myrtle soon learns her sleuthing isn’t just dangerous…it’s deadly.
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Cruising for Murder
Updated at Aug 6, 2019, 00:48
When Myrtle and her friend Miles set out for adventure on the high sea, they assume most of the trip’s excitement will result from shore excursions to charming Alaskan villages. They feel as if their ship has come in. But when a fellow passenger disappears, Myrtle realizes she must seize the helm and find the killer…before more souls are lost.
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Pretty is as Pretty Dies
Updated at Aug 6, 2019, 00:48
Parke Stockard was certainly sitting pretty. Blessed with good looks and business sense to boot, she should have been content. Instead, Parke makes trouble in her small town. When retired octogenarian schoolteacher Myrtle Clover discovers her body, no one in Bradley is particularly upset. Myrtle decides to show up her police chief son and investigate the crime herself. And, just in time to play detective, she meets a widower newcomer who proves the perfect sidekick.
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A Body in the Backyard
Updated at Aug 6, 2019, 00:48
It’s just an ordinary day for octogenarian sleuth Myrtle Clover—until her yardman discovers a dead body planted in her backyard. This death isn’t cut and dried—the victim was bashed in the head with one of Myrtle’s garden gnomes. Myrtle’s friend Miles recognizes the body and identifies him as Charles Clayborne… reluctantly admitting he’s a cousin. Charles wasn’t the sort of relative you bragged about—he was a garden variety sleaze, which is very likely why he ended up murdered. As Myrtle starts digging up dirt to nip the killings in the bud, someone’s focused on scaring her off the case. Myrtle vows to find the murderer…before she’s pushing up daisies, herself.
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Progressive Dinner Deadly
Updated at Aug 6, 2019, 00:48
Who wants chips and dip when they can have Dickens and Twain? To the residents of the sleepy town of Bradley, North Carolina, hardworking Jill Caulfield seemed beyond reproach. She volunteered at the women’s shelter, worked at the church preschool, cleaned houses for extra money, and actually enjoyed yard work. And she was nothing less than a saint to cheerfully put up with her unemployed, skirt-chasing, boozer of a husband. When intrepid octogenarian sleuth Myrtle Clover caught Jill, her new housekeeper, peering into her medicine cabinet, she should have been upset. But discovering that Jill wasn’t such a squeaky-clean goody-goody made her vastly more interesting in Myrtle’s eyes. Myrtle would have happily continued figuring out what made Jill Caulfield tick. If Jill hadn’t foolishly gone and gotten herself murdered, that is.
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