Paperback mystery book by Fran Stewart is a Biscuit McKee Mystery. Biscuit is a librarian in a small Georgia town.

Green As a Garden Hose

Stewart, Fran

Worldwide

FIRST IN A NEW SERIES! Hamelin, Vermont, isn’t the most likely place for bagpipes and tartan, but at Peggy Winn’s ScotShop, business is booming… While on a transatlantic hunt for some authentic wares to sell at her shop, Peggy is looking to forget her troubles by digging through the hidden treasures of the Scottish Highlands. With so many enchanting items on sale, Peggy can’t resist buying a beautiful old tartan shawl. But once she wraps it around her shoulders, she discovers that her purchase comes with a hidden fee: the specter of a fourteenth-century Scotsman. Unsure if her Highland fling was real or a product of an overactive imagination, Peggy returns home to Vermont—only to find the dead body of her ex-boyfriend on the floor of her shop. When the police chief arrests Peggy’s cousin based on some incriminating evidence, Peggy decides to ask her haunting Scottish companion to help figure out who really committed the crime—before anyone else gets kilt…

A Wee Murder in My Shop (A ScotShop Mystery)

Literature & Fiction

United States

BERKLEY

A second dose of Scottish charm from the author of A Wee Murder in My Shop. While business is booming at the ScotShop in Hamelin, Vermont, proprietor Peggy Winn doesn’t have time to toast her good fortune thanks to her hot-tempered, fourteenth-century Scottish companion. Being thrust into the modern world hasn’t been easy for Dirk, but Peggy is at her wit’s end trying to keep the ghostie galoot in line. But when the local police chief finds the body of Peggy’s friend Karaline’s college professor in a deserted mountain cabin, everyone is thrown for a loop. It seems the secretive professor may have been killed over his ecological work, an idea that’s only reinforced when Karaline herself is shot. Now Peggy and Dirk must set aside their differences to put the cold-blooded killer under loch and key...

A Wee Dose of Death (A ScotShop Mystery)

The national bestselling author of A Wee Dose of Death returns to Hamelin, Vermont, where Peggy Winn, owner of a Scottish-themed shop, is spectator to caber tossing, sword dancing, and just a spot of murder... Hamelin is overflowing with tourists enjoying the Scottish-themed games—and most of them are donning tartans from Peggy Winn’s ScotShop. And her fourteenth-century ghostly companion, Dirk, has been indispensable, keeping an eye out for shoplifters and matching customers’ family names to their clan plaid. Adding to the chaos is Big Willie, a longtime champion of the games, but not everyone is happy to have him in town. So when he misses the first event of the weekend, Peggy senses something is awry. After Willie is discovered dead in his hotel room, the victim of a bagpipe-related crime, Peggy decides it’s up to her and Dirk to suss out a murderer.

A Wee Homicide in the Hotel (A ScotShop Mystery)

Meet Marmalade and Biscuit. This saucy cat and her human find a body in the library, and the fun begins. No one in Martinsville, a small town in northeastern Georgia, admits to knowing why Harlan Schneider was in the library. Clues seem to poin to someone local, but nobody asks Marmalade. Then, when Biscuit’s accident-prone sister visits, pursued by a creepy former boyfriend, Marmalade sees what’s happening, but her humans just won’t listen to her. So she decides to take matters into her own paws. Grab a cup of tea, sit back, and enjoy this snappy debut novel, with it’s chatty cat and charming characters.

Orange as Marmalade (Biscuit McKee Mystery Series)

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Mystery

Journey of a Dream Press

Biscuit and Bob are enjoying their honeymoon at a small hotel near Savannah, until Margaret Casperson, a wealthy friend from Martinsville, collapses against their door in the middle of the night. Why would anyone want to poison dear Margaret? Officer Colly Sloan, who sometimes wishes she were a plumber instead of a police officer, is tracking the long-lost cousin Margaret came to Savannah to find. Who we are is so often linked to family issues that span generations. This story takes us through the intricate weavings and dark secrets of several generations of the wealthy Holvers family. Biscuit and Bob are pulled into a life and death struggle. Of course, Marmalade, the orange &amp; white tabby cat who adopted Biscuit in the first book in this series, Orange as Marmalade, manages to get in her two-cents’ worth. Unknowingly, Marmalade’s antics put Biscuit in grave danger.

Yellow as Legal Pads (Biscuit McKee Mystery)

Was it suicide? Was it murder? There were three Diane Maries’s in Martinsville. One I liked. One I hardly knew and one I hated. And now one of them was dead. Today started off in such an ordinary way. But now I, Bisque McKee (Biscuit to most people), Martinsville’s librarian, was clinging to a cliff, staring at Diane Marie Ames’ body forty feet below me. I married Bob Sheffield, the town cop, six weeks ago. I thought I was going to live a quiet life. For someone who likes gardening and staying home with her cat, I’d had more than enough of my fill of excitement. Bob may be investigating Diane Marie’s death, but Biscuit and Marmalade (the orange and white tabby cat who adopted Biscuit in the first book in this series, Orange as Marmalade) becomes entangled in the hunt. The engaging townspeople of Martinsville, Georgia, add extra dimension to this richly-woven tale of suspense, while the diary of a dead woman gives hints of her haunted life, hints that may not be read in time to save the lives of Biscuit and Marmalade.

Green as a Garden Hose (Biscuit McKee Mystery)

Literary

Mark Twain’s daughter reflected, years after her parents had died, “Mama loved religion, but Papa loved cats.” Indeed, in the opening paragraphs of his Pudd’nhead Wilson, Twain wrote that a home may be perfectly acceptable and proper, but without a well-petted and pampered cat, “how can it prove title?” The cat is the only domestic animal denied a mention in the Bible, and it seems that, until recently, writers (despite their personal affinity for the feline) have tended to avoid giving the cat a place in literature. While horses and dogs have enjoyed the literary spotlight in classic works such as Black Beauty and Old Yeller, to name but two, the much-maligned cat has been relegated to playing the heavy against a legion of tricky cartoon mice and birds. Though it is true that Poe wrote “The Black Cat,” anyone familiar with it knows how very little that story deals with its title character (a creature that serves the literary function of an alarm bell). It is therefore with pleasure that we can welcome the fourth installment of Fran Stewart’s “rainbow” mystery series featuring the wholly feline Marmalade and her human companion, Biscuit McKee. Unlike so many cat stories that turn cats into cutesy sleuths, the Biscuit McKee Mystery Series allows Marmalade to be a cat. Anyone who truly knows cats will appreciate Marmalade—McKee’s wholly independent, sincerely loving, completely feline, empathic partner in life and crime. There is one other element to these “rainbow” mysteries that will delight the fan of literary excursion. While each book has its own sense of completion, and the reader will find a satisfying resolution to each installment, there seems to be something else at work below the surface. Very much like the Harry Potter series, Biscuit McKee appears to be solving one mystery after another in what is actually a much larger puzzle—one that only begins to emerge by reading all of the books. Therefore, if you are new to this series, do please enjoy your trip to Martinsville in Blue as Blue Jeans, but don’t stop here. Go back and see what happened in Orange as Marmalade, Yellow as Legal Pads, and Green as a Garden Hose. Then, with the rest of us, wait in anticipation for the rest of the rainbow to reveal its colors. Brian J. Corrigan Award-winning author of The Poet of Loch Ness and Professor of Renaissance Literature North Georgia State College www.brianjaycorrigan.com

Blue as Blue Jeans (Biscuit McKee Mystery Series)

In April 2002, Joan Southgate stepped off from the small town of Ripley, Ohio, with a simple goal: She wanted to highlight the courage and resourcefulness of the American slave and conductor families who risked so much for freedom. She called her effort In Their Path! and set out to increase awareness of a moment in history when people came together across color, creed and class to do freedom's work. Her journey has taken her 519 miles across Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York and Canada. From schoolchildren to community groups, bank president to truck driver, her inspiring story and message of unity has resonated over the miles. Her walk has ended, but her mission -- to help heal the wounds of slavery and celebrate examples of interracial harmony -- continues. In addition to Joan's personal story, the book highlights the anti-slavery history of several of the Ohio communities she traveled through. Some of the most active Underground Railroad lines ran through Ohio, which was bordered by slavery to the south and freedom to the north. Beginning with the daring work of the Rev. John Rankin and John Parker in Ripley, In Their Path celebrates the courage and sacrifice of black and white Underground Railroad conductors in the cause of freedom.

In Their Path: A Grandmother's 519-Mile Underground Railroad Walk

Southgate, Joan E.

Eagle Creek Press

Indigo As An Iris

Indigo as an Iris

Doggie in Window Publications

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Books by Stewart, Fran