All that writer Cece Caruso -- a thirty-nine-year-old former beauty queen from New Jersey -- really wants to do is finish her biography of Erle Stanley Gardner so that she can finally stop obsessing about Perry Mason. Well, that and find a 1970 silk chiffon Ossie Clark to add to her collection of vintage clothing. And fix the broken front doorknob on her West Hollywood bungalow. But first she has to help save her daughter's foundering marriage, which is more than Cece could manage for her own.
Everybody's got problems. In a last-ditch effort to kick a bad case of writer's block, Cece pays a visit to a prison inmate who had once corresponded with Gardner, pleading his innocence. Her impetuousness lands her smack in the middle of a case worthy of Perry Mason himself -- a double-edged mystery linking a forty-year-old murder to one where the body is still warm. Propelled by tenacity, curiosity, a sense of humor, and an understanding of human nature's dark side, Cece will channel the inner sleuth she never realized she possessed to find a killer who is all too real -- and all too close.
I Dreamed I Married Perry Mason is hip, sexy, and smart. Susan Kandel has created an unforgettable cast of characters planted firmly in terra California. Join Cece as she breaks into crime scenes, outfoxes lawyers, rekindles a romance with a police detective, and -- oh, yes -- finally makes her peace with Perry Mason.

I Dreamed I Married Perry Mason: A Cece Caruso Mystery

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Kandel, Susan

Mystery

William Morrow

I Dreamed I Married Perry Mason is the debut novel in a hip, sexy, smart and, yes, cozy mystery series with a great hook. Think Sex and the City collides with Murder, She Wrote.
 All that writer Cece Caruso really wants to do is complete her biography of mystery legend Erle Stanley Gardner, find a vintage 1970s Ossie Clark gown to add to her collection, and fix the doorknob on her picturesque West Hollywood bungalow. Then a chance visit with a prison inmate who knew Gardner lands her right in the middle of a 40–year–old murder and another case where the blood is still warm. In fact, Cece finds the body. This brings her into irresistible contact with her inner personal sleuth and shows how crime and greed can reverberate through several generations of a single family.

I Dreamed I Married Perry Mason (CeCe Caruso Mysteries, 1)

Humor & Entertainment

Humor

AVON.

Biographer and amateur sleuth Cece Caruso freely admits that she spent her youth idolizing girl detective Nancy Drew, a fantasy that undoubtedly influenced her grown-up job writing biographies of dead mystery writers. But as Cece will discover driving down the highway in her Jackie O. sunglasses and a borrowed baby-blue Cadillac, some fantasies die harder than others.
Researching the life of Carolyn Keene, the pseudonymous author of the Nancy Drew mysteries, Cece meets a flamboyant collector of "Blue Nancys," the original books with blue covers. When he finds out that she is taking a road trip to Palm Springs to snoop around at the annual Nancy Drew fan convention, he offers her the use of his swanky vacation house. But the last thing Cece expects to find lying around the swimming pool is one very dead body.
In a race against time that takes her from a secret enclave of restored Victorians near downtown L.A. to the driest stretches of California desert, Cece will have to channel her former idol and then some to unmask a sly killer -- before he comes after her. Of course, it helps to have a knockout collection of vintage clothing, though Cece prefers Azzedine Alaïa semigloss knits and Halston silver sequined berets to Nancy's prim suits and gloves.
Filled with wit, energy, and clever twists, not to mention one smart, hip heroine, Not a Girl Detective is pure entertainment.

Not a Girl Detective: A Cece Caruso Mystery

"I spent my entire youth idolizing Nancy Drew. I'm pushing forty now, but some fantasies die hard."
Besides her beloved collection of vintage designer clothing, there is nothing Cece Caruso cherishes more than her childhood memories of Nancy Drew. Her near obsession with the fictional teenage sleuth led her to become a professional biographer of classic mystery writers. And now that she's working on a book about Nancy's pseudonymous creator, "Carolyn Keene, " Cece's in heaven.
At the L. A. home of another rabid Drew-ophile, Cece finds a treasure trove of useful memorabilia, including one unique and somewhat shocking collectible. Later she finds a dead body -- and a puzzle that would sorely test the skills of her spunky girlhood heroine. Now she'll have to channel her former idol and unmask a murderer, and the killer may be coming for Cece next.

Not a Girl Detective (CeCe Caruso Mysteries, 2)

Literature & Fiction

Literary

Los Angeles writer Cece Caruso is thrilled that her biography of the legendary Dashiell Hammett is headed for the big screen. Even better, she's been hired to tutor Rafe Simic, the actor cast as the lead. Okay, so he's not the sharpest knife in the drawer. At least he's easy on the eyes, and the money's good enough to feed Cece's addiction to vintage Yves St. Laurent. 
But in the midst of her teaching him the ABCs of The Maltese Falcon and The Thin Man, the body of a woman is discovered and Rafe's picture is found among her effects. The woman was an old flame, and the facts -- and Rafe's alibi -- just don't add up. Cece, who makes her living getting into the minds of mystery writers, can't help but ask questions. 
In a tale of thrills, suspense, and surprising twists that would confound even the best P.I., Cece sets out to find justice for the dead woman, even if it means pulling the plug on the movie -- assuming someone doesn't pull the plug on Cece first.

Shamus in the Green Room: A Cece Caruso Mystery (also titled Sam Spade in the Green Room)

United States

A new suspense-themed housing tract on the edge of the Mojave Desert is about to open, and who better to help promote the Cotswold-cozy development than mystery biographer extraordinaire Cece Caruso? For the grand opening weekend, Cece is staging a play featuring the beloved sleuth Miss Marple. Of course, everything goes wrong, including a leading lady who ends up dead.   All is not well in Christietown; its secrets are as complicated as the truth behind Agatha Christie's real-life disappearance. The developer, an Englishman who claims to be Dame Agatha's descendent, has ruthless investors breathing down his neck. Meanwhile, Cece's got a wedding to plan, a baby shower to give, and an ex-husband who shows up on her doorstep with his fiancée and future mother-in-law. And when another body surfaces, the intrepid amateur sleuth knows she must play the famed detective for real—or suffer the same mysterious fate.

Christietown: A Cece Caruso Mystery

HarperCollins, Publishers

Staging an Agatha Christie play to help launch the promotion of a mystery-themed housing development along the Mojave Desert, amateur sleuth Cece Caruso finds herself investigating the disappearance of the play's leading lady. By the author of Shamus in the Green Room. 20,000 first printing.

Christietown

Los Angeles writer Cece Caruso is thrilled that her biography of the legendary Dashiell Hammett is headed for the big screen. Rafe Simic, the actor cast as the lead, may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer, but the money she'll make tutoring him in the ABCs of The Maltese Falcon and The Thin Man should be good enough to feed Cece's addiction to vintage Yves St. Laurent.
But when the dead body of one of Rafe's old flames is discovered—and neither the "facts" nor the hunky star's alibi add up—Cece can't help but ask questions. However, the twists in this case would confound Sam Spade himself. And in her zeal to win justice for the deceased, Cece might end up pulling the plug on the movie—if someone doesn't pull the plug on Cece first.

Shamus in the Green Room (CeCe Caruso Mysteries, 3)

A new suspense-themed housing tract on the edge of the Mojave Desert is about to open, and who better to help promote the Cotswold-cozy development than mystery biographer extraordinaire Cece Caruso? For the grand opening weekend, Cece is staging a play featuring the beloved sleuth Miss Marple. Of course, everything goes wrong, including a leading lady who ends up dead. All is not well in Christietown; its secrets are as complicated as the truth behind Agatha Christie's real-life disappearance. The developer, an Englishman who claims to be Dame Agatha's descendent, has ruthless investors breathing down his neck. Meanwhile, Cece's got a wedding to plan, a baby shower to give, and an ex-husband who shows up on her doorstep with his fiancée and future mother-in-law. And when another body surfaces, the intrepid amateur sleuth knows she must play the famed detective for realor suffer the same mysterious fate.

Christietown: A Novel About Vintage Clothing, Romance, Mystery, and Agatha Christie (CeCe Caruso Mysteries, 4)

William Morrow Paperbacks

Cece Caruso—mystery biographer extraordinaire, vintage clothing enthusiast, and part-time sleuth—is in freefall. First, she calls off her wedding, for reasons even she can't explain. Second, her newest biography (of Alfred Hitchcock) is way past deadline. So Cece puts on a houndstooth suit with peplum and heads out to see Vertigo, only to come home with a cell phone belonging to a stranger named Anita Colby. Nothing if not a good citizen, Cece tries to return the cell phone—only to hear someone push Anita off a cliff. Now a woman is dead, and Cece is under suspicion (tip: don't leave rambling, incoherent messages on someone's answering machine just before she gets murdered). To clear her name and put the real murderer in jail, Cece's going on the lam, where she'll encounter mysterious strangers, unhelpful strippers, a bottle of blond hair dye, and twists and turns so eerie it's as if Hitch himself were writing the script.

Dial H for Hitchcock: A Cece Caruso Mystery

HARPER/COLLINS

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