Ellen Hart Libri

MURDER A LA CARTEIf all goes according to plan, Connie Buckridge's culinary empire will soon boast a state-of-the-art cooking academy and restaurant in her home town of Minneapolis-St. Paul. Unfortunately, just when the kitchen queen and her bickering entourage hit town on a publicity tour, so does a bestselling investigative writer who is hot on her scandalous trail.Primed by an anonymous e-mail informer, Marie Damontraville is preparing to cook Connie's goose with a major expose of her strategies for success. The one missing ingredient in this unsavory stew is murder, and when food critic Sophie Greenway finds a cooking colleague stabbed with his own kitchen knife, a fire that has been smoldering for forty years suddenly bursts into flame. . . .SPECIAL AUTHOR INTERVIEW INSIDE

"A SMART AND SHOCKING THRILLER." --The Minnesota Daily When Cordelia Thorn ventures to Summer Green, Wisconsin, for a reunion with some old college friends, she finds trouble in paradise. Twenty-plus years have definitely changed things. Soap opera star Diana has become an alcoholic. Curt and Annie's marriage is falling apart. Orson is hostile and surly. And Theo, the most passionate of them all, suddenly dies--of an apparent heart attack. Alarmed, Cordelia sends for her old friend Jane Lawless to do some quiet snooping. Together they follow their hunches--into the not-so-carefree past and back to the troubled present, where they find a single match could blow up all their lives . . . . "Cordelia and Jane are at their wise-cracking, risk-taking best as they tail suspects, stake out a sleazy motel, and burn rubber in a high-speed chase. As in all of Hart's well-written, fast-paced novels, motives abound, clues appear and disappear, and suspects seem alternately harmless and menacing . . . . A SMALL SACRIFICE is another entertaining addition to Hart's collection." --Lambda Book Report "Hart tells the story of this fateful reunion with deep compassion, strong psychological insight, bravura wit, and a clever plot." --Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine

THE DEAD OF SUMMER The first of the dead is wealthy Belle Dumont, who vanished from her home in the Minnesota woods only hours before she was to reveal startling news to her three grown children. The kids and Belle's lover deny any knowledge of this mysterious bombshell, but amateur sleuth Jane Lawless, Belle's old friend, suspects these charming folk of being less than forthright. In fact, Jane suspects coldhearted murder. . . . WINNER OF THE LAMBDA LITERARY AWARD FOR BEST LESBIAN MYSTERY

Theaterleiterin Cordelia Thorn trifft sich mit Studienkollegen, als einer der Freunde plötzlich an Herzversagen stirbt. Sie glaubt nicht an einen natürlichen Tod und bittet Hobbydetektivin Jane Lawless um Hilfe.