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A modern classic, Housekeeping is the story of Ruth and her younger sister, Lucille, who grow up haphazardly, first under the care of their competent grandmother, then of two comically bumbling great-aunts, and finally of Sylvie, their eccentric and remote aunt. The family house is in the small Far West town of Fingerbone, set on a glacial lake, the same lake where their grandfather died in a spectacular train wreck and their mother drove off a cliff to her death.

Meet Molly Sutton, 38 years old and out of work, who moves to a village in France to recover from the end of her marriage. She's looking for peace, beautiful gardens, and pastry - a slower, safer life than the one she'd been living outside of Boston. But you know what they say about the best intentions.... Molly has barely gotten over jet-lag before she hears about a local student's disappearance. In between getting her old ramshackle house in order and reveling in French food, Molly ends up embroiled in the case, along with the gendarmes of Castillac.

Simon Valette, a cultured and successful Parisian, moves his family to Castillac looking for peace and quiet. But before they've had a chance to settle in, someone is found murdered in the library. Molly and Ben work double-time to disentangle all the lies - including those told by their own friends. Will they manage to trap the killer before another victim trusts the wrong person and winds up dead? 

The story opens on the first sledding day of the season, and all of the children in town are out in force. Our hero and heroine, 13-year-olds Jack Minot and Janey Pecq, go down a particularly treacherous run and are both seriously injured. Over the next year, Jack and Jill (as she is called) are nurtured back to health by their widowed mothers. As the seasons pass, we become intimately acquainted with not only Jack and Jill, but their group of friends.

When another native of the French village is found dead, Molly and the gendarmes are stumped. Complicating matters, Ben is hired to defend Molly's prime suspect. Uh oh, mixing romance with detective work can be a dangerous business...or at least, it can lead to some unsteady conclusions.

Virtually no one in the village of Castillac holds out any hope. It has been seven years, after all. Seven years since the popular, mischievous Valerie Boutillier disappeared without a trace. The exertions of the gendarmes, led by Chief Dufort, yielded almost no clues, and his failure to solve the case had been one of the main reasons he quit the force.

Things have started to look up for Molly Sutton. Her new life in the French village of Castillac isn't as peaceful as she expected it to be, but maybe that could be a good thing. Turns out a little mystery, a little excitement - it gives a girl with imagination something to do besides obsess about croissants. After Molly stumbles on another dead body, our amateur detective wastes no time before eavesdropping and butting into conversations all over town, gathering as much information as she can on everyone.

Amateur sleuth Molly Sutton has her hands full this time! Shut out of Castillac's latest murder case and running out of money, she's praying for a brilliant scheme, or at least some dumb luck to strike. Believing good food can be the solution to almost any problem, she comes up with a culinary idea designed to stave off financial disaster - and finds that even a perfect meal can end up a flop. As for the poor late Baron, once Molly manages to get inside the château, she quickly pokes her nose where it doesn't belong.

Castillac appears calm, even serene. But a dark corruption is spreading underneath the surface. Unbeknownst to anyone but those involved, the village has been infiltrated. And Molly Sutton, the best detective in town, has her eye off the ball as she juggles her gîte business along with planning her best friend’s wedding. A shocking murder shatters the illusion of peace, and Molly and Ben jump into action. This time around, the more they investigate, the longer the list of suspects grows. Will Sutton/Dufort Investigations find the killer before he or she finds them?

A man so despised, everyone who met him wanted to kick him downstairs. Or worse. News of Bernard's murder brings cheers throughout the Dordogne. A dysfunctional family, feuding neighbors, disgruntled business associates: Molly and Ben are up to their eyeballs with potential perpetrators. With a wedding to plan, Molly's up against a tight deadline, yet the list of suspects keeps getting longer. And then there's the shadowy figure, stalking her through the streets of Castillac.

Molly Sutton's B&B is jam-packed for Valentine's Day, but whatever romance is in the air is quickly snuffed out when somebody turns up dead. In addition to worrying that one of her remaining guests is a killer, Molly's not feeling tip-top and spends more time napping than sleuthing. That's no way to catch a murderer!

Ripley and her friends have escaped the University's lockdown and started their journey home on foot. They've found an opportunity to get supplies they sorely need, but the risk is high. Marco insists that the world is already far more dangerous than it seems, while Ripley's not yet convinced. She's about to get a very bloody wake-up call.

The year is 1896, and college professor Concordia Wells has her hands full: teaching classes, acting as live-in chaperone to a cottage of lively female students, and directing the student play, Macbeth. But mystery and murder are not confined to the stage, especially when the death of Concordia's sister, Mary, appears to be foul play. To make matters worse, the women's college is plagued by malicious pranks, arson, money troubles, and the apparent suicide of a college official.

Ripley's a tomboy at heart who has never met a stranger. Her plans were to finish her veterinary studies and take her family to the country, where life wouldn't be such a struggle. She thought the worst she'd have to deal with at the University of Maryland were the unwelcome advances and attitudes of affluent students, and the occasional East Coast hurricane. She never expected the sun to fall down.

Nothing is worse than trying to make the right decision when anything you choose could lead you to your death. That's what Kat and Tony are faced with in this new world without power or communications. They know they need to escape the city, but are unsure of how to do it until being forced to move out in a hurry. Will they make it out alive?

Tony and Katherine had heard of Cyber War before, but never thought they would have to figure out how to live through it taking down the grid. Chaos comes fast as people quickly realize the world has changed for good. But the battle also brews for Kat and Tony as they struggle with deciding whether to stay in the city or go to Kat's mom's in the country. Will they bug in and try to make things work in the city? Or will they leave in time to make it out, away from the mayhem?

They thought they had made it to safety once they escaped the city, but they were wrong. Tony and Kat learn the hard way that there is no such things as safe in the new world they live in. But there is hope in new friends who are no longer strangers. As they try to navigate their new surroundings, it's only a matter of time before they have to make a stand.

When Angela Ellis returns to her childhood home on St. Nabor Island, South Carolina, her junior year of college interrupted indefinitely by her mother's death, she doesn't know how she'll ever be able to function in the world without her mother's love, support, and guidance. Soon after her mother's funeral, strange sounds begin to trouble her in the night, sounds she swears are her mother's angry voice. In an effort to find peace for herself and for her mother's restless spirit, Angela begins a ghost hunt that makes her friends fear for her sanity.

One cool April day, Mike Pritcher visits the home of his estranged wife, Lael, and takes their son, Ace, for an overnight outing. "She pushed her son's black-rimmed glasses up the slope of his thin nose. He jerked away like a puppy slipping its leash. A giggle, a crunch of gravel, a single wave of a grimy hand, and her only child was gone."

USA Today best-seller Debbie Mason's Christmas short story featuring characters from the Harmony Harbor series.