The
Eleventh Hour
Poppy
McGuire Mysteries Book 1
by
Anina Collins
Genre:
Cozy Mystery
196
pages
Poppy
McGuire has always been a curious soul, but it's her life that's
usually the topic of conversation in the small town of Sunset Ridge.
But now one of the town's most important citizens has been found
murdered, and everyone's life is suspect.
What
begins as a friendly wager with her old friend Officer Derek Hampton
soon becomes far more for Poppy, and she turns to Alex Montero for
help, but the enigmatic former Baltimore cop's quiet way hides as
many secrets as each suspect they encounter.
Everyone
in Sunset Ridge has something to hide, but Poppy and Alex are
determined to uncover the identity of the murderer. They just have to
watch that they don't become the next victims.
Okay,
let's go," he said eagerly as he stood to leave, but I grabbed
his arm to stop him.
"Not
yet. I think since you seem to know so much about me that I should
get to know more about you."
"There's
nothing more to know about me, Poppy. I'm that guy who showed up at
your door with a coffee this morning."
Shaking
my head, I said, "Yeah, well I think there's more, so turnabout
is fair play. If we're to be partners, I think I should know more
about you other than you're good at getting coffee shop waitresses to
divulge my favorite blend."
He
slowly sat down again, and I saw by the hesitant look on his face
that he didn't want to let me know more about him. But I wasn't going
to be the only one in this who had been laid bare.
"I
don't want to pry, Alex. That's not what this is about. But you can't
deny that you know an awful lot about me, and I know next to nothing
about you."
He
took a deep breath and slowly exhaled before nodding just once.
"Okay. What would you like to know?"
I'd
wanted to know the answer to one question since meeting him, so I
asked. "Why did you retire from the Baltimore police so young
and then move here to Sunset Ridge, of all places?"
"That's
a lot for one question," he said, avoiding answering.
"I
have more," I said with a smile. "I just thought I'd start
with the obvious one. You're very young to be retired from anything."
A
frown settled into his features that made me momentarily regret
saying anything, and when he spoke I knew that he'd been the
Alexander I'd read about in that woman's obituary.
"I
left the force after my wife died, and for a while I stayed in the
house we'd found together. I thought I could live there, but that
wasn't the case. So I moved away from everything that reminded me of
that life and bought a house here."
The
way he said it told me he was trying to be matter of fact about how
much it hurt to lose his wife and leave the life they'd made together
in Baltimore, but the sadness in his eyes showed me how much he still
remained outside the land of the living.
"Well,
I guess we better go then."
"No
more questions about the kind of man your new partner is?" he
asked as a look of relief washed over him.
I
stood from the table and tossed both of our coffee cups away in the
trash. "Nope. Thank you for being willing to answer any. I
appreciate that, Alex."
"I
have one for you, actually. That picture in your kitchen, the one of
Ireland, if I'm not mistaken. Did you take that yourself?"
"No.
I wish, but as much as I say I'm going to take a trip there, I've
never gone."
He
smiled as I set our plates on the counter for Jennie. "So you've
got the wanderlust, huh? See? You're nothing like the people here."
"I
guess it seems pretty pathetic spending all my time dreaming about
places I'll probably never get to, right?"
Alex
shook his head. "Dreaming of something more is never pathetic,
in my opinion. Take it from me. When you stop dreaming, you stop
living."
I
didn't know a whole lot about my new partner, but I knew enough to
believe that no matter how dark things had been for him, he never
stopped dreaming, no matter what he thought.
After
Hours
Poppy
McGuire Mysteries Book 2
202
pages
While
life in Sunset Ridge is quaint and charming during the day, what
happens after the sun goes down might shock the citizens of this
small town. Things are heating up in Poppy McGuire's home town, and
it isn't just the July weather.
Poppy
and her new partner Alex have their eyes opened to the realities of
Sunset Ridge after dark when a traveling salesman is murdered in his
room at the Hotel Piermont, a common destination for cheating spouses
on the outskirts of town. When they find out what he sells, the
mystery gets even more interesting.
Top
of the Hour
Poppy
McGuire Mysteries Book 3
204
pages
Controversy
sells as much as sex, and nobody knows that better than the local
radio morning DJ who loves to talk politics. His shows enrage people,
but who hated Lee Reynolds enough to shoot him point blank and leave
him for dead in the woods outside of town?
Poppy
and Alex have no shortage of suspects and for once aren't at odds on
who they like for the crime. But all is not well between the
partners. This time, murder has brought with it a new love interest
for Poppy, but Alex isn't happy with this turn of events.
Will
he lose Poppy, the one person he trusts in Sunset Ridge?
The
Darkest Hour
Poppy
McGuire Mysteries Book 4
210
pages
Poppy
and Alex come up against their toughest case yet, and they may never
be the same again.
When
someone close to both Poppy and Alex is found brutally murdered, all
the clues point to Alex as the killer. But Poppy knows in her heart
that her partner could never commit such a heinous crime. As the
evidence begins to mount against him, Poppy must race against the
clock to prove that the man she trusts with her very life isn’t the
murderer, even as everyone around her is convinced of his guilt.
But
if Alex isn’t the killer, who is? As the mystery unravels, the past
and present finally meet in Sunset Ridge.
Happy
Hour
Poppy
McGuire Mysteries Book 5
266
pages
Poppy
and Alex are back for another mystery in Happy Hour, the fifth book
in the Poppy McGuire Mystery Series!
Springtime
brings warm weather and murder to Sunset Ridge, and for Poppy, this
particular case strikes close to home.
Antiques
dealer Marcus Tyne is found dead in the front seat of his friend’s
car outside of McGuire’s after a Cinco de Mayo celebration, but at
first glance, there’s no reason why he’s dead.
Until
the coroner finds out he’s been poisoned.
When
a second man is poisoned, Poppy and Alex are thrust into a mystery
that threatens to tear them apart. While they struggle to solve the
case as their differences become more apparent, a murderer walks free
in Sunset Ridge and may have another victim in their sights.
The
Witching Hour
Poppy
McGuire Mysteries Book 6
207
pages
In
the middle of a late summertime heatwave, a woman Poppy interviewed
for an article on paganism is found with a dagger buried in her chest
in the woods out near Alex's house. Initially, Stephen and Craig are
given the case, but when Derek determines that this murder shouldn't
be their first big case together, Alex and Poppy are brought in to
help.
But
Stephen has never liked Poppy, and tensions quickly begin to run high
between the two sets of partners. The Sunset Ridge police force can't
afford to have infighting if they want to solve this case before a
fear of witches takes hold in town.
It
doesn't take long before everyone reaches their breaking point and
Alex wonders if he will be a Sunset Ridge police officer for much
longer. Life is about to change for him and Poppy, but will that
change mean the end of his time in town?
The
Finest Hour
Poppy
McGuire Mysteries Book 7
Join
Poppy and Alex for the final Poppy McGuire mystery!
For
three years, Poppy and Alex have worked together solving cases in
their small town of Sunset Ridge, first as just co-workers but later
as partners in nearly every sense of the word. Now they're about to
take the final step and become husband and wife, but in the midst of
getting ready for what folks around town are calling the wedding of
the year, the murder of someone involved in the preparations makes
their plans go awry.
Samuel
Morrow, the kind man who has run Morrow's Jewelers for over twenty
years, is found murdered in an apparent break-in, and there's no
shortage of suspects who may have had a reason to kill him. Oddly
enough, something very valuable to Poppy and Alex is missing from his
store too. Is the theft connected to the murder?
As
they hunt for Samuel's killer, carefully eliminating suspect after
suspect, they must juggle cake tastings and reception planning, as
all the while someone's watching their favorite amateur sleuth. Will
Poppy and Alex solve the case and reach the altar, or will the killer
make their ever after far less than happy?
Anina
Collins has always loved a good mystery. As a child, her favorite
books were Nancy Drew books passed down from her grandmother, and as
she grew up, she moved on to Agatha Christie and Sir Arthur Conan
Doyle and their famous detectives. She currently lives in North
Carolina and writes her Poppy McGuire Mystery series.
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