Amazing Gracie Mysteries Series

The Moser Mansion Rest Home For Women residents have been summoned to testify against Mavis Jordan, a former neighbor. She is on trial for killing the lady of the evening that lived across from the rest home. Molly Lang wants to make this a pleasant outing for the ladies inspite of the trial. Gracie isn't happy with being at the county seat and wishes she could go home. A mysterious man stalks her with the intention of killing her before she can testify. He would have succeeded if Gracie hadn't switched hotel rooms. Instead, the killer murdered another elderly woman in what had been Gracie's bed. Bad goes to worse when Gracie takes the stand and refuses to name men citizens of Locked Rock, Iowa that visited the lady of the evening. The judge rules Gracie is in comptempt of court and will remain in jail until she makes out the list. Gracie doesn't want to be a jailbird, but she thinks it's safer in jail for her than out on the streets.  

  In this historical mystery set in Iowa, Gracie Evans isn't happy with all the excitment at the Moser Mansion for Women Rest Home in Locked Rock, Iowa. Molly Moser, owner of the mansion, is marrying the butter and egg man in the back yard. The residents can bring a relative to escort them to the wedding. Melinda Applegate puts a notice in a newspaper column to find some kin. A stranger shows up claiming to be her long lost nephew. Melinda believes Jeffrey Armstrong, but Gracie thinks the man is sneaky. She's sure he is up to no good and tries to warn everyone. They think Gracie is jealous, because Melinda ignores her now that she has a nephew paying attention to her. Molly leaves on a month long honeymoon and the upheaval gets worse. Gracie is determined to prove Jeffrey Armstrong is a crook, and he's after Melinda's money.

Moser Mansion in Locked Rock, Iowa became a spooky place right after the annual Halloween party. Libby Hook sees ghosts wandering around with her in the middle of the night. She unsettles everyone with her screams that are loud enough to wake the dead. Gracie Evans blames the hauntings on a southern contractor that is trying to buy the mansion so he can turn it into a hotel. The residents would have to find new homes if that happens. Seems the only one who knows what is going on is Moxie McEntire's pet parrot, Turkeyneck, who easedrops on all conversations. No matter how hard Gracie tries, the parrot won't tell what he knows to her. She voiced her dislike of Turkeyneck once too often.

  Though Gracie Evans is tired of listening to all the town gossips, she begins to worry when they talk about a stranger in town. The man is living with a friend of Gracie's, Addie Masters. Seems he is the elderly woman's son that none of the gossips knew about. When Addie stops attending church, Gracie and the other residents from Moser Mansion wonder if she's ailing. They decide to visit her. A first hand look at Addie's rude son and seeing a wicked bruise on Addie's hand gets Gracie and her friends putting two and two together. They come up with elderly abuse that they think should be reported to the law. Town Marshal Earl Bullock turns their complaint about Homer Masters over to Sheriff Ben Logan. He comes up with some disturbing information that has the sheriff and town marshal worried about Addie. They have to have proof that Homer is abusing his mother, or she has to confess which isn't going to happen. Beloved Aunt Pearlbee is suddenly taken ill and needs attention. The residents of Moser Mansion have to let Addie fend for herself. Gracie worries that by the time they get back to helping poor defenseless Addie Masters, she will be dead.  

Gracie Evans is going back to her Three Oaks farm again to farm sit for a month. After the problems she had the last time she farm sit, the Moser Mansion family is worried about her staying in the country alone. So this time she offers to take the Lang's daughter, Shana, with her. The girl needs to work off some excess energy now that school is out, and this will give Molly and Orie Lang a break from worrying about Shana wondering around town by herself. The last straw to their consenting to Shana's stay with Gracie was when Shana invited a hobo to Sunday dinner. Her parents fear Shana is going to wind up in serious trouble like some of Maude Brown's children. When Melinda worries about what might happen at the farm, Madeline talks Melinda into letting her do a tea leaf reading to see Gracie's future. According to Madeline's predictions, this visit to the farm isn't going to be any safer for Gracie than the last time. Someone with a level head needs to go along to keep her and Shana out of trouble. So Melinda invites herself along to watch out for Gracie and Shana. One evening on the farm, they are all nervous when they see lights flickering in Gracie's timber, headed for the Evan's family cemetery. In the dark, they hike to the cemetery and find a woman dressed in white, leaning down next to Gracie's baby brother's grave. She was patting the ground. Gracie yells at the woman, and she disappears into the darkness. A few days later, Gracie and Shana explore the woods for mushrooms. What they find is a small rectangular area of freshly dug dirt with wilting wild flowers planted on the spot. Off in the distance, the filmy, wispy figure of a small child flits into their sight and ducks behind the trees to disappear. Shana is scared and wants no part of being in the timber. She tells Gracie they saw the elusive spirit of a Will O Wisp haunting Gracie's timber.  

Locked Rock, Iowa has a new preacher. Gracie Evans decides the man is way too young and inexperienced to be a preacher for elderly citizens set in their ways. Although, she admits he wasn't too bad at preaching a sermon. It was when he said good bye after church to the congregation, Gracie objected to his familiarity with the unmarried women as they filed out. He latched onto each young woman's hand and kept her talking to him as long as he thought he could get away with it. Gracie complained his behavior wasn't seemly, but Melinda didn't want to hear her bad mouth the preacher. She said so what if he was wife hunting. Nothing wrong with that. Gracie didn't intend to drop her opinion so easily. She vowed to keep an eye on the preacher to keep him from making a fool out of the young women in town. Some mysterious things started happening after Preacher Mayfield arrived that might prove Gracie right. A few young women whispered among their family and friends that their pantaloons disappeared from their bedrooms in the night. Weirder yet, expensive porcelain dolls were found on the porches of the young ladies the preacher flirted with. Dolls that looked just like the young women. All evidence to Gracie that the town's preacher's past should be checked. She just might be right about him being a Wayward Preacher.  

Gracie Evans wasn't the only one upset when the Locked Rock, Iowa newspaper editor wanted to compete with big city papers by starting a gossip column. Appearing in the gossip column wasn't the way Locked Rock citizens wanted to find themselves in print. That didn't stop the newspaper from selling more copies, because everyone had to find out if they were in the gossip column each week. Shortly after two women were mentioned in the gossip column they were murdered. Gracie Evans suspects a mouse trap drummer who has been going door to door. He has an eye for pretty young women, but Gracie doesn't have proof that he murdered the women. Who wanted to punish the women mentioned in the column by murdering them?