Mulbury Mystery Series

What if Santa came to town and promptly dropped dead?   Christmas time in Mulbury, Australia. Plum puddings, roast turkey and blistering hot days.   Rosemary Exeter has a couple of mysteries on her mind. Who is the Kris Kringle leaving presents hanging from everyone's door handles and, more gravely, who overcooked the fire brigade's fund-raising Santa? With the team of fire-fighting volunteers stuck in Mulbury until their truck is fixed, and almost certainly one of them a murderer, Rosemary hides the one clue she has while searching for others.   Clandestine gifts, a surprise Santa costume and a plethora of puddings. Christmas has never been so mysterious.   A Mulbury Mystery Christmas novella with punch… and brandy sauce.

Welcome to Mulbury where the bodies are piling up.   Rosemary Exeter knows quite a few things about jams and pickles. She's learning quite a few things about murder, too. The little Australian tourist town of Mulbury is usually a quiet place where visitors eat Franco's pies in the Square, drink Rakisha's earth-friendly legume coffee, and browse the range of second-hand books at Jasper's Read Mulbury.  When Mrs Lionel discovers the body of an old man under The Exceptional Tree, everyone in the town of Mulbury assumes that he died peacefully. Everyone, that is, except Rosemary who doesn't think the old man's death was particularly peaceful, not when no one has ever seen the man before in a town where everyone knows everyone else.   Rosemary starts a careful investigation, aided (and sometimes hindered) by her fellow shopkeepers on Goldmarket Road. The mysteries increase: a car with blood on the back seat, a lost precious postcard, missing fathers. It's a good thing Rosemary has Sunny to come home to every night, even if the cat thinks most of what happens outside the confines of The Preserved Mulbury is nonsense.   A small-town mystery with quirky residents and an unimpressed cat.

A rainy Christmas time in Mulbury, but that won't deter the Cracker Christmas Kid's Charity Run. When a mob of motorcyclists roar into town with panniers full of donated presents, the last thing they want to discover is a pair of bodies in the Christmas sacks. Who'd want to kill Ted and Ned? Rosemary aims to find out.

Winter in Mulbury and frost hardens the ground. The tourists still flock to the little town to buy jams and pickles, second-hand books and upcycled clothing, but they're clad in woollen coats and hats. Rosemary Exeter keeps warm making marmalade in her kitchen, surrounded by baskets of lemons, much to tabby cat Sunny's disgust. When Jasper Lu uncovers a skeleton in his back yard, the town suddenly becomes much busier. The police arrive, followed closely by Adelia Lochard the filmmaker and Rosemary's son-in-law, Ronnie the private investigator. Then come people Rosemary has never seen before: a handsome man in a worn leather jacket, a loud and happy family of mudlarkers, and two women claiming to be the daughters of an old resident. In all this, the skeleton remains a mystery until more than bones are dug up from Mulbury's past. A small-town cozy mystery with curious characters and a disgruntled cat.

Spring in Mulbury, and the Gala is in full swing. Rosemary Exeter's pickles and marmalades are selling briskly at her stall, alongside Mrs Lionel's green cleaning products and Jasper Lu's secondhand books – until there are screams from across the road. By the time Rosemary gets there, it's to discover Mrs Caroline King, matriarch of a cattle empire, tipped over in her wheelchair gasping for breath on the gravel of Goldmarket Square.   Just what caused Mrs King such disastrous distress is anyone's guess, for Mrs King isn't giving out any clues. Coupled with Honey Blossom's imminent motherhood, Rakisha's ethereal sister's weirdness, and Jasper's hurt at not being believed, Rosemary's life is full to the jam jar rim with conflict, curses and contention – not to mention a cat whose preferred existence would be to not have as many people in the house.

Here's Rosemary Exeter again, the not-so-typical owner of The Preserved Mulbury, where jams and pickles are her specialty, and solving murders is just a quirky side hobby. When a man turns up dead in Justin Gentleman's farm dam, Rosemary's quiet life in the tourist town of Mulbury takes an unexpected turn. The Jaunty Jalopers, a group of ex-work colleagues, are notorious for their snarky treasure hunts every five years. This time, the hunt is a lot more chaotic. As Rosemary juggles between running her shop and playing amateur detective, she uncovers a tangled mess of secrets and scandals. Add a suspiciously attentive man as Jasper's long-lost father and the antics of Mulbury's quirky residents complicating matters, and Rosemary's adventure takes on a whole new level. Join Rosemary Exeter on a journey through the twists and turns of this cosy mystery, where secrets, betrayal, and unexpected alliances are served up with a strong cup of tea and a cupcake.