Showing results by author "Alice Duncan" in All Categories

Historical cozy mystery set in Los Angeles, CA, in 1926. Mercy Allcutt, Boston Brahmin, wants to experience life in all its grittiness. How better than by working for a down-on-his luck PI in Hollywood? Once she discovers what PI actually stands for, she knows Mr. Ernest Templeton is the boss for her. Together, they must cope with a stray child, kidnapping, blackmail, murder, a toy poodle, a vamp, a stalker, Mercy's overactive imagination and Ernie's strong protective streak.

In 1920s Pasadena, California, Daisy Gumm Majesty caters to the rich and famous as a medium who puts the "con" in conjurer. When she's blackmailed by Detective Sam Rotondo into spying on the wealthy Kincaid family, Daisy isn't quite sure what he's trying to sniff out. When Daisy gives Sam his own private reading, she tells him the spirits have a lot more in store for him. Original.

Transplanted Boston Brahmin, Mercy Allcutt, has had some very exciting times as secretary to private investigator, Ernie Templeton. While it’s true she’s been in what she considers a wee bit of trouble (and Ernie considers out-and-out danger) a time or two, she’s determined to continue learning the ways of the “real” world. However, when she sets out to find her wandering boss, Ernie, one hot September afternoon, she not only discovers a corpse, but she also finds Ernie, bound and gagged. Worse, when the police arrive to investigate the crime, they peg Ernie as the killer.

Former Boston Brahmin Mercy Allcutt is excited to be renting out suites of rooms to deserving working women in her new home on Bunker Hill in Los Angeles. She considers she's performing an act of good-heartedness, no matter skeptical her boss, private investigator Ernie Templeton, is about her endeavor. Mercy not only takes driving lessons from Ernie, but she discovers there's more to being a landlady than meets the eye. Is one of her Angels of Mercy not what she appears to be? Only time, and perhaps Mercy and Ernie, will tell...

Thanksgiving Angels brings Mercy Allcutt and Daisy Gumm Majesty together for the first time when Mercy's parents buy a winter home in Pasadena, CA, and force Mercy to visit for Thanksgiving. To Mercy's shock, Mrs. Allcutt hosts a séance, conducted by Daisy. Mayhem ensues.

It's a warm August morning in 1926 Los Angeles, California. Mercedes Louise Allcutt (Mercy to her friends) is thrilled to be going to her job as secretary to private investigator Ernie Templeton - until she opens the door and discovers her mother on the doorstep. Known to her friends as Honoria and her daughters as The Wrath of God, Mrs. Allcutt is the very last person earth whom Mercy wants to see, barring a couple of coldblooded murderers she's met in the past few weeks.

Set in Pasadena, California, in the 1920s, this fresh, funny romance follows the exploits and adventures of a medium who caters to the rich and famous... and puts the “con” in conjurer!

1920s, Pasadena, California: People are dropping dead after communion services at Daisy's church; Detective Sam Rotondo has finally professed his love for Daisy; and Daisy sees swaying trees in her crystal ball, a prop in which she doesn't place any faith. But when the crystal ball's image leads Daisy to her client's missing butler, and then a bunch of bootleggers, Daisy unknowingly bumps into the man responsible for the parishioners' deaths. She doesn't recognize him, but he recognizes her and that lands Daisy at the top of his to-be-murdered list.

Daisy Gumm Majesty, Pasadena's spiritualist-medium to folks with more money than sense, is talked into playing the role of mean Katisha in her church's production of Gilbert and Sullivan's operetta The Mikado. As rehearsals progress and Daisy falls into her role, the producer's wife experiences a mysterious decline in health, a cast member claims someone is trying to kill her, and the husband of another cast member is murdered.

Daisy Gumm Majesty, spiritualist to folks with more money than sense, can scarcely believe that her best client wants her to get her spiritual control, Rolly, to appear at a séance in a speakeasy. Bad enough that Daisy made up Rolly when she was ten, but now Rolly has to perform at a séance for a bunch of murdering gangsters?

It's 1924 and spiritualist-medium Daisy Gumm and her fiancé, Detective Sam Rotondo, discover a dead body tucked away in the Pasadena Public Library's bibliography stacks.

It's 1924, and spiritualist-medium Daisy Gumm joins with friends Flossie and Harold to help Lily Bannister, whose abusive husband nearly killed her. Meanwhile, Mrs. Pinkerton - Daisy's best client - is in a tizzy, insisting Daisy use her (fake) spiritualist talent to end the engagement between her daughter and a most unsuitable man. To Daisy's surprise, the two cases collide, placing her in the middle. Now, Daisy must prove Lily's husband and Mrs. P's soon-to-be-son-in-law are in cahoots with nefarious human traffickers...before it's too late.

The Ku Klux Klan has opened a chapter in Daisy Gumm Majesty's home town of Pasadena, California. Worse, Klan members are harassing Joseph Jackson, the gatekeeper for Daisy's best client, Mrs. Pinkerton. When Mrs. Pinkerton also becomes a target of vicious pranks, Daisy tries to get Detective Sam Rotondo, her new leading man, involved. Sam isn't thrilled. Worse, the bodies are piling up, and now he needs Daisy's help speaking to some of the Klan's victims. That makes Daisy a target, forcing Sam to redouble his efforts and keep Daisy from doing in the Klan with a bucket and baseball bat.

Daisy conducts a séance, and a real, live ghost appears. She has to figure out how he died and who dunnit, because the police have closed the case of his death, deeming it a suicide. According to the ghost, he was murdered.

Daisy Gumm Majesty is back and she's up to her ears again. Not only does she have to deal with her husband Billy's declining health and her dog Spike's obedience training, but she's been hired by Lola de la Monica, a fabulously spoiled silent-screen beauty, to be her spiritual advisor on the set of her next picture.

When Daisy Gumm Majesty, spiritualist to people with more money than sense, is asked by her good friend, Johnny Buckingham, a captain in the Salvation Army, to teach a cooking class for disadvantaged ladies, she's sure Johnny is nuts. She earns her living raising the dead, for goodness sake! The only thing she's ever been able to do in the kitchen is burn things. Yet, she gallantly sets out to teach the class, using a cooking booklet Johnny provided, fully expecting calamity to ensue.

Nothing interrupts a good lover’s spat like a dog—Daisy Gumm Majesty’s Dachshund, Spike, in particular. Of course, they were in a graveyard, and Spike did have a shoe in his mouth—and the shoe did have an occupant. Well, a foot, if that counts. Daisy is horrified until she discovers that the occupying foot belonged to Dr. Everhard Allen Wagner, a notorious abuser of women and young girls. Good riddance!

Mercy Allcutt's imagination is more exciting than her job as secretary to P.I. Ernie Templeton. As usual, she has nothing to do except gaze out the office window overlooking Pasadena and imagine the plots of stories she plans to write someday. Generally, when she watches the alley behind the Figueroa Building, she needs to imagine someone being strangled, but today was different. She calls the police to report the murder, but the corpse is gone before she hangs up the phone.

Young widow Maggie Bright had her hands full raising a baby daughter and running a farm with no one to help her except her lazy drunk of a hired hand. The last thing she needed was a bullet-riddled, half-dead stranger riding into her front yard. As she nursed Jubal Green back to life, Maggie found him by turns enchanting, stubborn, caring and handsome as sin - but most of all, dangerous.

Unlike most girls her age, Polly MacNamara did not go out with friends to parties or on sleigh rides with charming beaux. She stayed home to take care of her ailing mother and only dreamed of a world of boundless riches and endless fun. But when shopping for a Christmas gift in Chinatown, she received a mysterious coin from an ancient-looking woman--and watched a series of remarkable events unfold.