Murder Can Haunt Your Handiwork

A Gilded Age ghost helps psychic painter Celeste Cabot catch a killer . . Rising up against the beautiful backdrop of the Blue Ridge Mountains, the Biltmore Estate is a magnificent mansion in Asheville, North Carolina, built as a summer home for George Washington Vanderbilt II—yes, of those Vanderbilts—during the Gilded Age. Nowadays, it’s the site of an annual craft fair. Unfortunately, it’s also about to become a crime scene . . . Celeste is hard to miss as she pulls up with her pink and white Shasta trailer and adorable Chihuahua, Van Gogh—Van for short. But before she can show off her artwork at the fair, a tour guide is found strangled by a velvet rope barrier and a valuable painting goes missing. With a rogues’ gallery of sketchy suspects, Celeste welcomes the help of a pair of handsome detectives—and a ghost with a special interest in the case . . . Includes tips and recipes! Praise for Rose Pressey and Her Haunted Craft Fair Mysteries “Plucky, self-employed heroine, cute pet, scary ghost, and two eligible suitors: everything a cozy needs.”—Kirkus Reviews “The paranormal twist adds a bit of flair to this quirky new series.” —The Parkersburg News & Sentinel Visit us at www.kensingtonbooks.com

The ghost of an Elvis impersonator has got psychic painter Celeste Cabot all shook up . . . Celeste has pulled up in her pink Shasta trailer, aka mobile art studio, to the Sevier County Fair in the mountains of eastern Tennessee to sell her paintings. A highlight of the fair promises to be the celebrity impersonation contest. But the low point is when Celeste and her floppy-eared white Chihuahua Van (short for Van Gogh) find an Elvis impersonator in his trailer doing a great impression of a corpse, clutching a doughnut in his hand. Seeking a vision to solve the crime, Celeste paints her own Elvis portrait—and suddenly the ghost of the Elvis impersonator appears. They say fools rush in, but with the help of this spirit, Celeste sets out to find the real killer among all the fake celebrities. It’s now or never, because there won’t be time to tell the killer: “Don’t be cruel.” Includes tips and recipes! Praise for the Haunted Craft Fair Mysteries “[A] plucky self-employed heroine, cute pet, scary ghost, and two eligible suitors: everything a cozy needs.” —Kirkus Reviews “The paranormal twist adds a bit of flair to this quirky new series.” —The Parkersburg News & Sentinel

Perfect for fans of Ellie Alexander and Lucy Burdette, Rose Betancourt’s series debut is a culinary treat sure to charm. Living in Paris, Kentucky, and having a sidekick cat named Pepe le Pew gives Marci Beaucoup’s life a certain je ne sais quoi. Combining her love of baking and France, Marci opened La Belle Patisserie to bring her small Southern hometown a bit of French flair and lots of croissants. Everything is sunshine and macarons at the bakery until her landlord calls to tell her she’s selling the property. Marci’s relieved to hear that if the top bidder, an enchanting Frenchman named Antoine Dubois, gets the property, he’ll renew her bakery’s lease. Charmed by Antoine, Marci figures this development isn’t half bad and sees a handsome new landlord in her future—but then Antoine’s estranged ex-girlfriend Kelly turns up dead in front of her bakery. Sacrebleu! Everyone calls Marci’s pastries “to die for,” but nobody’s actually died at La Belle Patisserie before. Antoine quickly becomes the main suspect to everyone in Paris—including to womanizing detective Maverick Malone. Who else would have killed Kelly but the ex-boyfriend she was just seen fighting with on the day of her death? Marci finds out from her landlord that if Antoine is arrested, his purchase of her building will fall through—and her landlord will sell to developers instead, who plan to demolish the building and construct a strip mall in its place. Enamored with Antoine and with her patisserie dreams hanging in the balance, Marci is determined to prove Maverick and the rest of Paris wrong and find the true killer before Antoine winds up in jail—and she has to say au revoir to her bakery. Now Marci finds herself mixed up in the murder investigation, and she must find the killer before her half-baked theories result in her untimely death.

The ghost of an Elvis impersonator has got psychic painter Celeste Cabot all shook up... Celeste has pulled up in her pink Shasta trailer, aka mobile art studio, to the Sevier County Fair in the mountains of eastern Tennessee to sell her paintings. A highlight of the fair promises to be the celebrity impersonation contest. But the low point is when Celeste and her floppy-eared white Chihuahua Van (short for Van Gogh) find an Elvis impersonator in his trailer doing a great impression of a corpse, clutching a doughnut in his hand. Seeking a vision to solve the crime, Celeste paints her own Elvis portrait—and suddenly the ghost of the Elvis impersonator appears. They say fools rush in, but with the help of this spirit, Celeste sets out to find the real killer among all the fake celebrities. It’s now or never, because there won’t be time to tell the killer: “Don’t be cruel.”

There’s a killer in the picture . . . Celeste Cabot has a flair for painting—and a touch of paranormal talent too. She’s just arrived to sell her artwork at a big craft fair in North Carolina, complete with rides, games, and deep-fried everything. But the sunny landscape takes on a darker hue when her Chihuahua, Van Gogh, leads her to the riverbank—and to a body that was definitely not part of her design. With help from a handsome fellow artist, Celeste sets out to draw the brazen killer onto her canvas. She’ll need to balance the victim’s past, a suspected love triangle, and a long-ago accident—and also consult with a medium and a spirit—to try to paint a murderous fiend into a corner . . . Includes tips and recipes! Praise for Rose Pressey and the Haunted Vintage Mysteries “An amusing paranormal cozy, filled with quirky characters and fashion, along with a few ghosts.” —Library Journal "A delightful protagonist, intriguing twists, and a fashionista ghost combine in a hauntingly fun tale." —Carolyn Hart “Snappy dialogue and well-drawn characters in a lovely small-town setting." —Jenn McKinlay Visit us at www.kensingtonbooks.com

Haunted art is in the eye of the beholder . . . Artist Celeste Cabot welcomes the chance to show her paintings at a craft fair in her hometown of Gatlinburg, Tennessee, where she and her Chihuahua, Van Gogh, can park her vintage Shasta trailer and sell her creations, too. Unfortunately, her sales take a hit when a customer returns a painting, claiming it’s haunted. When a fellow vendor discovers images hidden in Celeste’s artwork—and a ghost pays her a late-night visit—she’s shocked to realize she has psychic abilities. After the grumpy manager of the craft fair is found with a knife in his neck, Celeste’s brushes with the paranormal may help fill in the picture—and make sure the wrong person doesn’t get framed . . . Praise for Rose Pressey and the Haunted Vintage Mysteries “Rose Pressey’s books are fun!” —Janet Evanovich “Chock full of ghosts, cats possessed by spirits, a handsome police officer boyfriend, and tips on the afterlife and vintage shopping.” —Kirkus Reviews “An appealing protagonist who is as sweet as a Southern accent.” —Library Journal “A sheer delight.” —Kate Carlisle

M.J., her partner Gilley, and their client, the wealthy, de-lish Dr. Steven Sable, are at his family's lodge, where his grandfather allegedly jumped to his death from the roof-although Sable says it was foul play. But the patriarch's isn't the only ghost around. The place is lousy with souls, all with something to get off their ghoulish chests. Now M.J. will have to to quell the clamor-and listen for a voice with the answers...

We rely on your support to help us keep producing beautiful, free, and unrestricted editions of literature for the digital age. Will you support our efforts with a donation? Mrs. Aldwinkle, an English aristocrat of a certain age, has purchased a mansion in the Italian countryside. She wishes to bring a salon of intellectual luminaries into her orbit, and to that end she invites a strange cast of characters to spend time with her in her palazzo: Irene, her young niece; Ms. Thriplow, a governess-turned-novelist; Mr. Calamy, a handsome young man of great privilege and even greater ennui; Mr. Cardan, a worldly gentleman whose main talent seems to be the enjoyment of life; Hovenden, a young motorcar-obsessed lord with a speech impediment; and Mr. Falx, a socialist leader. To this unlikely cast is soon added Mr. Chelifer, an author with an especially florid, overwrought style that is wasted on his day job as editor of The Rabbit Fancier’s Gazette, and the Elvers, a scheming brother who is the guardian of his mentally-challenged sister. As this unlikely group mingles, they discuss a great many grand topics: love, art, language, life, culture. Yet very early on the reader comes to realize that behind the pompousness of their elaborate discussions lies nothing but vacuity—these characters are a satire of the self-important intellectuals of Huxley’s era. His skewering of their intellectual barrenness continues as the group moves on to a trip around the surrounding country, in a satire of the Grand Tour tradition. The party brings their English snobbery out in full force as they traipse around Rome, sure of nothing else except in their belief that Italy is culturally superior simply because it’s Italy. As the vacation winds down, we’re left with a biting lampoon of the elites who suppose themselves to be at the height of art and culture—the kinds of personalities that arise in every generation, sure of their own greatness but unable to actually contribute anything to the world of art and culture that they feel is so important.