Cortland Fitzsimmons

A Percy Peacock Mystery In the small Cape Cod village of Chatwich, the only time that the church bell rings outside of Sundays is to announce the death of one of the residents. Therefore, when the bell begins to ring in the middle of a weekday, the townspeople rush out to see what had happened only to discover a fire in the cupola of the town hall and the body of a woman as well. Their amazement turns to fear when scarcely an hour later the man who had sounded the alarm fell to his death from the church steeple housing the bell. Why had these two people been murdered? And, just as importantly, why had Abe Tucker's cow been killed? These are the questions that Percy Peacock, professor of psychology and part time actor finds himself trying to answer when . . . Death Rings a Bell

An Ethel Thomas Detective Story When Ethel Thomas, octogenarian writer of mysteries and sometime amateur detective, received a telegram from her niece Stella that read "Am in ghastly mess, trapped, no place to turn," she arranged a seat on the next transcontinental flight bound for Hollywood, only to discover on her arrival that the "ghastly mess" was murder. Despite her age, Miss Thomas was no stranger to murder, having participated in a number of cases in her native New York, but now she finds herself in the unfamiliar world of the motion picture industry an enmeshed in a web of blackmail, corruption, and murder while having to deal with an unknown, and unfriendly, police detective. With the bodies piling up it will require all her wits and charm to extricate her niece and herself from the "ghastly mess" they find themselves in.

An Ethel Thomas Detective Story When someone, in a response to an approaching storm, said that it would be a good night for a murder, no one expected one to happen. But the residents of Hidden Harbor find themselves cut off from the mainland with electricity and telephones cut off and with one of their number dead in a bedroom at the Club House. Fortunately for the islanders, not one, but two women with experience in such matters and ties to the island are visiting when the storm hits; Abbie Abernathy a special investigator and Ethel Thomas, a spinster with a knack for solving murders. Together, they must discover who killed Henry Baldwin before the police arrive on the scene, no easy task when all of the prime suspects are old friends.

Hal Harrison and his orchestra The Harmony Men were one of the hottest new bands in the country. Their two night stand at the Crystal Gardens in San Francisco was going to be the biggest thing to hit that city in years. But when threats turn into reality during the first show when a rival band-leader is killed on stage in front of the entire audience the band seems headed for disaster unless Hal can prove he

An Ethel Thomas Detective Story A little shoving and pushing on Sale Days at a major New York department store is not unusual, and murder is definitely something out of the ordinary. But when one of the buyers at Doane's Department Store is found dead at her desk it becomes a matter not just for the police, but for Miss Ethel Thomas, who, at seventy-five, becomes a most unlikely detective as she attempts to unravel not only the murder, but the mysterious losses that have been plaguing the store. Are the two related? And if so, who is the culprit? Charlie Doane, the owner of the store, Herbert Hastings, Doane's brother-in-law and manager of the store, or the dead woman's son? Or was the murder a woman, Beth Oliver or Eva Sutton, both of whom are more than just store clerks? And what does Mrs. Kelly know that has made her a target?

An Ethel Thomas Detective StoryWhen a set of diaries containing shocking revelations about some of New York's social elite come into the hands of publisher Terry Lassimon he was at first unsure what to do with them. But when an attempt is made on his life, he turns to an old friend, Ethel Thomas for help and advice. Thomas, though a seventy-five year old spinster, is no stranger to murder, and the pair soon find themselves caught in a web of blackmail, intrigue and murder as they fight to survive the struggle for the control of the diaries.