Stranded in Provence Series

"My name is Jules Hooker. I have lived through a few crappy moments in my life—and with a name like Hooker, you can just imagine—but nothing, nothing, compares to the two intensely and world-shatteringly crappy things that happened to me this last June. Three, I guess, if you count Gilbert. After my boyfriend dumped me on the day I thought he was going to propose, I'd have to say two other really bad things happened last June. The first would have to be the dead body I discovered in the rental house in France where I went to get over being dumped. The second—and very possibly I should have led with this—was the dirty bomb that exploded over the Riviera throwing me and everyone else in France back to the 1950s. So now I'm stranded here—trying to make a living by solving murders the old fashioned way — without help from DNA, databases, CSI crime labs or the police. And I'm doing it in France. Where I do not speak the language. During the apocalypse. Sound like fun?"

Murder is murder no matter how you pronounce it Trying to learn a foreign language can be murder—especially when your French tutor is strangled to death hours after your last lesson and your best friend is arrested for the crime. Normally that wouldn't be a problem for stranded super sleuth and intrepid expat Jules Hooker except she just got her ONE chance to go back to the US and sticking around to help a pal means she's back to being stranded in a foreign country with no lights, no language skills and no real future.  Will she give up her chance to go home?  Will she continue to step on the toes of the handsome village police chief in order to help free her friend?  And finally, will Jules find out who the murderer is before the killer decides to permanently eliminate one very pesky very stubborn American sleuth?  

Care for a Little Murder with that Sweet Roll? Jules Hooker is doing her best to adjust to the new normal of a world without electricity, electronics, cars or the chance to return home. Stranded in the charming but provincial village of Chabanel wasn't terrible until Jules discovers Aix-en-Provence and decides that the big city lights—even when they've gone out in the apocalypse—are much preferable to the countryside. Of course with a big city comes big city crimes and when a fellow American is accused of murdering a popular pastry chef in Aix, Jules knows she has to help. Unfortunately tracking a dangerous killer when you don't know the language—or the French people themselves—soon has Jules bumbling into one dangerous situation after another. All the wonderful pastries aside, will this be lights out for Jules too?  

Life in post-apocalyptic France has finally begun to settle down. The cafés all have candles, the bakery ovens are all coal-fired and reliance on electricity and electronics are now a thing of the past. So when the Provençal village of Chabanel decides to go ahead with its annual pastry contest it's a shock to everyone when one of the celebrity judges down from Paris dies a gruesome—and very public—death. When a plate of poisoned chocolate éclairs turns out to be the murder weapon, it's up to expat and amateur sleuth Jules Hooker to prove that the little old ladies who made them aren't the murderers. Because much in the same way that Jules can't stop after one profiterole, it soon becomes clear that this murderer doesn't intend to stop with one dead chef. This book is a clean read: no graphic violence, sex or strong language Genre: cozy culinary mystery, women amateur sleuth, cozy animal (dog)  

Murder, Voila! Book 9 in the Stranded in Provence Mystery Series shows just how far Jules has come in the three years since the EMP stranded her in Provence. Limited electricity has come back to the area and phone lines are back up—at least for the sick and the elderly. Jules continues to make her living as a private investigator—although she still struggles with the language—but life is full of rose wines, amazing food and the scent of lavender everywhere. On top of all that, she's getting married! Just when life seems perfect with her pending nuptials to the Chabanel Police Chief, his contentious mother comes to town to stop the wedding—and ends up dead. Will Luc be able to see past his mother's murder—and the fact that it appears as if one of Jules' elderly roommates did the honors? Murder, Voila! is a cozy crime romp full of gourmet food and wine with the same quirky characters you've grown to love. This book is a clean read: no graphic violence, sex or strong language Genre: cozy culinary mystery, women amateur sleuth, cozy animal (dog)  

In this festive holiday novella, Jules Hooker is having her first post-apocalyptic Christmas in the small French village of Chabanel when a mysterious stranger and an unholy secret from the past come together to try to ruin everybody's holly jolly time.