Dating Is Murder

Wollie Shelley, the plucky amateur sleuth Kirkus Reviews called “funny, brave, smart, and altogether the fetchingest crime heroine since the early Stephanie Plum,” returns to face suspect lovers and unlovable suspects in this hilarious sequel to Dating Dead Men. Wollie Shelley is a greeting card artist struggling to keep afloat financially and to pursue—despite a series of recent disasters—the search for the love of her life. She reluctantly agrees to be a contestant on the reality television show Biological Clock. The show’s premise: Six eligible singles date each other, and the audience votes on which couple would make the best parents. Alas, Wollie isn’t having much luck finding a man she’d like to date “off the air,” much less father her child. As her own biological clock ticks away, Wollie gets caught up in a much more pressing demand on her time. Her friend Annika has vanished into thin air, and Wollie is convinced that she’s in grave danger. When Wollie reports the disappearance to the Los Angeles Police Department, however, the detective assigned to the case seems more interested in dating Wollie than in finding her friend. So Wollie springs into action—and lands right in the middle of an FBI investigation into an international drug cartel. She soon finds herself being stalked by an assortment of threatening characters, including her fellow television contestants, who will stop at nothing to beat the clock. With Dating Is Murder, Kozak delivers another sparkling treasure, a laugh-out-loud-funny, literate mystery for readers of Janet Evanovich and Sue Grafton and for Kozak’s own growing legion of fans.

Ever have an awkward date? Spring is a beautiful season in the small town of Asheville. Autumn Roth is looking forward to spending the morning in the park with her dog, but reality comes crashing down when a body is found along the riverbank. Faced with the death of a friend, Autumn struggles to figure out what happened. At first, she's not even certain that there was a crime, but when the police begin questioning the people she works with and one of her other friends starts acting strangely, she knows that something fishy is going on.

The Adventures of Cinema Dave is a celebration of films from the turn of the recent century. Dave Montalbano, alias Cinema Dave, wrote over 500 film reviews and interviewed Hollywood Legends such as Fay Wray, Louise Fletcher, Dyan Cannon and new talent like Josh Hutcherson, Jane Lynch and Courtney Ford. With South Florida as his home base, Cinema Dave details his growing involvement with the Fort Lauderdale, Palm Beach and Delray Film Festivals, while covering local interest stories about individuals who contribute to the film culture. Featuring a fun introduction from Cindy Morgan, actress from Caddyshack and Tron fame, and an extensive appendix of Literary Cinema, The Adventures of Cinema Dave is a saga about one mans bibliomania and his pursuit of an entertaining story in the big cave known as cinema.

Nora Blackbird, society columnist and down-and-almost-out former debutante, reclaims her place within Philadelphia's elite when she stumbles upon the murdered body of a millionaire art collector.

Hometown and family beckon Lexie when she can no longer tolerate her husband’s wandering eye. Bereft, she moves with her teenage daughter Eva back to Moose Creek Junction, Wyoming, to be near her sister Lucy and open a business—The Saucy Lucy Café. Lexie’s sister is a churchgoing woman who believes her sister must remarry in order to enter the kingdom of heaven, and suddenly, Lexie finds herself back in the dating pool. The trouble is, all of her dates wind up at Stiffwell's Funeral Parlor—dead. Gossiping townspeople begin to mistrust the sisters while café customers and eligible men dwindle. Business is down the toilet and, according to Lexie, the police simply aren't getting the job done. She declares it's time to intervene.

When (imaginary) cheating happens -- Cyber-stalking -- Cold war -- Emotional blackmail -- Punishment or opportunity? -- Making use of the role of 'victims' -- The trap of 'one and only' love -- One-child policy and revised parental influence -- Women's competition vs. men's expectations -- Conclusion -- Notes -- 5. Virginity loss, sexual coercion, and the unfinished sexual revolution -- A 'typical' story of date rape -- Performing the traditional: active 'gatekeepers' -- Virginity loss: uncomfortable, unpleasant, and unwanted -- Pain, pregnancy, and abortion -- Gender-asymmetric modes of mutual violence -- Lacking voice, lacking space -- Happy to be non-virgins -- Unfinished sexual revolution -- Conclusion -- Note -- 6. Remapping the landscape of dating, gender, and violence -- Remapping dating violence -- Transformation of dating, gender, and sexuality -- Construction of Chinese intersectionality -- Methods: Researching a sensitive topic -- Glossary -- Bibliography -- Index

“Dating Dead Men, Harley Jane Kozak’s hilarious debut novel, proves that the search for love can be as funny as it is deadly.”—Kris Neri, author of the Agatha, Anthony and Macavity Award-nominated Tracy Eaton mysteries Los Angeles greeting-card artist Wollie Shelley is dating forty men in sixty days as research for a radio talk show host's upcoming book, How to Avoid Getting Dumped All the Time. Wollie is meeting plenty of eligible bachelors but not falling in love, not until she stumbles over a dead body en route to Rio Pescado--a state-run mental hospital--and is momentarily taken hostage by a charismatic "doctor" who is on the run from the Mob. Wollie fears that her beloved brother, a paranoid schizophrenic living at Rio Pescado, is involved in the murder, so rather than go to the authorities, she decides to solve the crime on her own. As she meets up with an array of small-time crooks and swaggering mobsters only slightly more sinister than the men she’s been dating, Wollie realizes that "getting dumped" is the least of her problems. Finding true love, she discovers, sometimes means learning how to avoid getting killed . . . Dating Dead Men will keep readers guessing until the final bullet is shot--and cheering for the irresistible Wollie as she makes her way out of confusion and into the welcoming embrace of Mr. Right.

When the tycoon owner of a spectacularly tacky sports bar is killed, Nora Blackbird suspects a secretive politician, a shady former rock star doubling as a pastry chef, and a dangerous aristo-brat on the verge of stardom.