Books

My first travel mysteries may be purchased at online bookstores or ordered by request at your local bookstore.

Death of an Obnoxious Tourist
Five Star First Edition Mystery
Published by Gale Group/Five Star
ISBN: 1-59414-467-2
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Dotsy Lamb, history professor and recently divorced empty nester, and her friend Lettie, are on a group tour of Italy when a singularly obnoxious woman, traveling with her two younger sisters, is murdered in her Florence hotel room.

Dotsy enlists the aid of the scatty but observant Lettie, and hooks up with Marco Quattrocchi, the attractive carabinieri captain in charge of the investigation. The killer might have been a member of their tour group, or a Gypsy camped nearby, or one of four people Dotsy had met since her arrival. There are motives galore. The murdered tourist has insulted practically everyone in the tour group, her two sisters are left with a nice inheritance, and she may have had a drug connection to the fiance of the tour guide. Then, while visiting the Piazzale Michelangelo, a member of the tour group falls over a balustrade. It appears to be an accident, but Dotsy believes it's another murder, and she sets out to prove it. Because, if she doesn't find the missing threads to a complex tapestry of deceit and corruption, the next dead tourist's body could be her own.

Death of a Lovable Geek
May, 2008
Thorndike Press/Five Star
A division of Cengage

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ISBN 10: 1-59414-641-1
ISBN 13: 978-1-59414-641-1

An ancient Scottish castle, an archaeological dig, poison mushrooms, an amethyst earring and an old family secret.

The body of young Froggy Quale lies, covered by a blue tarp, in the pasture behind Castle Dunlaggan in the Scottish Highlands.  Froggy was the on-site pollen and spore expert at the nearby archaeological dig and a graduate student who doesn’t seem to have had an enemy in the world. 

Dotsy Lamb, medieval history teacher from Virginia, and her friend Lettie are boarding at the castle while Dotsy works at the dig and Lettie researches her Scottish ancestors. 

Suspicion for Froggy’s murder falls on his roommate, Van Nguyen, a graduate student from America and the dig’s media man.  Dotsy has become fond of both Froggy and Van and is sure Van can’t be the killer.