Laura Fleming Series by Toni L. P. Kelner
Laura Fleming #2
Toni L.P. Kelner - Laura Fleming 02 - Dead Ringer
Toni L. P. Kelner
A Burnette family gathering is no small affair, thanks to Laura Fleming’s ever-extending extended clan. Being back in Byerly, North Carolina, gives Laura and her scholarly husband, Richard, a chance to catch up on gossip about old rivalries and rekindled romances. New love is in the air too, though uncharitable kinfolk speculate that cousin Thaddeous’ girlfriend, mill receptionist Joleen, has an ulterior motive for dating him.Byerly’s mill has long been the town’s lifeblood, but when Laura arrives to try and fix Joleen’s faulty PC, she finds that death has just paid a visit. A stranger’s body lies on the office floor, and the victim bears a striking resemblance to Big Bill Walters. Did the mill’s founder have a doppelganger, or was someone in Byerly’s first family spreading wild oats?Laura isn’t planning to get involved—she’s busy trying to help Aunt Daphine, who’s being blackmailed over a decades-old secret. But the twin mysteries will have other deadly repercussions, unless Laura can see through a killer’s disguise.
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Laura Fleming #2
Toni L.P. Kelner - Laura Fleming 01 - Down Home Murder
Toni L. P. Kelner
They say you can’t go home again, and Laura Burnette Fleming thinks they may have a point. Moving to Boston has made her a bona fide Yankee in the eyes of her Byerly, North Carolina, family. Yet Laura—forever Laurie Anne to her kin—still rushes back to see her ailing grandpa.Paw is in a bad way, rousing just long enough to tell Laura he didn’t fall—he was attacked—before passing away. Why would anyone harm the beloved Burnette patriarch? True, the family has its share of issues lately, from Aunt Nellie’s doomed get-rich-quick schemes to Aunt Edna’s fixation with the local pastor. But surely not even the grasping cousins slyly sizing up Paw’s possessions could commit murder. With the aid of her Shakespearean scholar husband, Richard, and her indomitable great-aunt Maggie, Laura confronts a slew of family secrets. Turns out Paw may have seen something that a killer is determined to keep quiet. And Laura will have to untangle the truth, before this homecoming leads to another homicide.
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Laura Fleming #3
Toni L.P. Kelner - Laura Fleming 03 - Trouble Looking for a Place to Happen
Toni L. P. Kelner
Bells are ringing in Byerly, and fifth time might be the charm for Aunt Ruby Lee. Laura Fleming and her husband are back in town to celebrate Ruby Lee remarrying her ex, Roger, though the run up to the big day is fraught with complications. Aunt Nellie’s triplets are all feuding over the same man. Then there’s Ruby Lee and Roger’s rebellious teenage daughter, Ilene, who’s dating a notorious bad boy.When Ilene runs off to take part in the neighboring town’s country music Jamboree, Ruby Lee begs Laura to intervene. Before Laura can bring her errant kin home, Ilene’s beau, Tom Honeywell, is found dead on a tour bus. Laura is sure that Ilene’s only crime is bad taste in boyfriends, and Tom had enough enemies to fill the whole parking lot.But with Ilene in jail, Ruby Lee frantic, and the police chief sticking to his guns, it’ll take quick sleuthing for Laura to shine a spotlight on the real culprit in time for Ruby Lee and Roger to say “I do” again.
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Laura Fleming #4
Toni L.P. Kelner - Laura Fleming 04 - Country Comes to Town
Toni L. P. Kelner
You can take the girl out of the country, but you can’t take the country out of Laura Fleming. Though she’s happily settled in Boston, Laura is thrilled to hear that her cousin Thaddeous is visiting from North Carolina. Before she can begin showing him the best of Beantown, however, bad news also comes to call.Laura’s college boyfriend, Philip, is found dead behind her apartment building. Philip had recently contacted Laura, trying to mooch a place to stay. Guilt and old ties compel her to investigate, and Thaddeous’ Southern charm is a real asset in wheedling information out of Philip’s loved ones and friends. Not that Laura’s difficult ex had many of either; his wife had kicked him out and he was on the brink of getting fired.Working undercover at Philip’s software company, Laura begins to decode the murderer’s motive. But as she and Thaddeous root out a mess of blackmail and revenge, they edge closer to a killer who’s just waiting for them to make a permanent fatal error.
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Laura Fleming #5
Toni L.P. Kelner - Laura Fleming 05 - Tight as a Tick
Toni L. P. Kelner
There’s nothing Laura Fleming’s Southern family likes better than a get-together, and cousin Augustus returning from the Army is a perfect reason to gather for a party in Byerly, North Carolina. While Laura and her scholar husband, Richard, are in town, her formidable great-aunt Maggie has an assignment in mind.Carney Alexander was recently found dead under his own table at Tight as a Tick Flea Market, where Aunt Maggie is a regular dealer. She and the other vendors weren’t overly fond of Carney—general opinion is that the man was nosy, ornery, and had a mean streak a mile wide. Why Aunt Maggie is so intent on solving the crime is a mystery in its own right, but Laura can’t let her down.The flea market’s regulars prove as colorful and quirky as the goods they offer, and plenty had reason for wanting to see Carney and his stall shut down permanently. But locating the genuine article among a slew of motives won’t be easy—especially with the killer in the market for another victim.
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Laura Fleming #6
Toni L.P. Kelner - Laura Fleming 06 - Death of a Damn Yankee
Toni L. P. Kelner
Laura Fleming is always happy to visit her ever-extending family in Byerly, North Carolina. This time, though, it’s not kin calling her back home, but businessman Burt Walters. Burt’s hoping Laura can dig up dirt on Marshall and Grace Saunders, proposed buyers of Walters Mill.Laura knows Burt has good reasons for opposing the deal, and not just because the Saunderses are Yankees. But the mill has long been Byerly’s bread-and-butter, and stakes are high. Half of her family is pro-buyout and half against—Laura’s Shakespeare-quoting husband, Richard, likens it to the feud between the Montagues and the Capulets, only nastier.Soon it’s more than tempers flaring, for a spate of suspicious fires culminates in Marshall’s death. With her cousin Linwood a prime suspect, Laura is called to uncover the truth. Amid a mess of double-crossing, blackmail and fraud, she sets a trap to catch a killer—but may catch more than she bargained for.
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Laura Fleming #7
Toni L.P. Kelner - Laura Fleming 07 - Mad as the Dickens
Toni L. P. Kelner
Laura Fleming’s theater-loving husband, Richard, is getting an early Christmas present—he’s been asked to direct Byerly’s production of A Christmas Carol. To Richard’s annoyance, the play is beset by practical jokes and glitches, and Seth Murdstone makes an unconvincing Scrooge. Unfortunately, he makes an all-too-convincing corpse. When Seth is found murdered backstage, Laura agrees to investigate.This time, she has an unexpected sidekick: Byerly’s police chief Junior Norton, who’s determined to solve the case before her ambitious deputy does. Junior’s inside information is a definite boon—for one thing, she knows that Seth was a longtime moonshiner. And the man had a veritable stockingful of secrets.Between grudge-filled rivals and feuding family members, there are plenty of likely suspects. But which one decided to bring the curtain down on Seth, and can Laura and Junior stop the culprit from staging an unwanted encore performance?
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Laura Fleming #8
Toni L.P. Kelner - Laura Fleming 08 - Wed and Buried
Toni L. P. Kelner
Laura Fleming knows that love plays by its own rules. After all, she did the unthinkable and married a Yankee. But even she is shocked to hear that her indomitable Aunt Maggie, a spinster closer to 80 than 70, has eloped with Big Bill Walters.Laura, her husband Richard, and their baby daughter hightail it home, where Laura discovers the real motive behind Aunt Maggie’s marriage. Someone is trying to kill Big Bill, and Aunt Maggie plans to stick close enough to find the culprit—with Laura’s help.Big Bill is Byerly’s wealthiest businessman, so it’s little surprise certain folks have a beef with him. In fact, there’s a stack of threatening letters going back decades to wade through. Claims of land theft and worker injury abound, plus Aunt Maggie’s one-time beau, Pudd’nhead Wilson, is back in town.Innocents are getting caught in the crossfire, and Laura concocts a risky plan to lure the killer into the open. But she’ll need to keep Aunt Maggie safe, too, or Byerly’s oldest newlywed will soon be its newest widow.
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