Erica J Whelton

Galveston, 1900. Beatrice Whitmore knows her husband's secrets: his gambling debts, his mistress, his lies. When she threatens to expose him, he silences her forever. Hours later, the deadliest hurricane in American history erases all evidence of his crime. Galveston, present day. Doctoral student Julia Lynn moves into the historic Whitmore house, expecting to research the Great Storm. Instead, she encounters a ghost desperate to be heard, a woman with bruises on her throat and a story that refuses to stay buried. As Julia uncovers the truth hidden in the walls, she realizes some secrets survive even the worst disasters. And some women refuse to be silenced, even by death. The storm buried his crime. It couldn't bury her truth.

When the Metropolitan Museum of Art invites retired fashion designer Dora Lee Griffen to a gala honoring the bold designers of the 1980s, she expects champagne, old friends, and a pleasant walk down memory lane. What she gets is murder. Fashion historian Regina Thornwood has spent years researching a tell-all book about the industry's golden era. Her upcoming release has ruffled plenty of feathers, digging up old scandals and questioning long-held reputations. By the end of the evening, Regina is dead on the museum floor, and everyone Dora Lee shook hands with that night seems to have a reason to want her silenced. A bitter designer dismissed as derivative. A photographer whose career Regina destroyed decades ago. A legendary mentor with secrets he'd rather stay buried. And somewhere in the shadows, Dora Lee's oldest friend Viola seems to know more than she's saying. At seventy-eight, Dora Lee has perfected the art of appearing harmless. But beneath the gray hair and gracious smile lies a sharp mind that notices everything. With her Boston terrier mix Pippa by her side and a legal pad full of suspects, she's determined to find the truth before the killer decides that some legacies are better left buried. In the fashion world, history is written by the survivors. And someone at that gala is willing to kill to control the narrative. Chic Happens is the third book in the Royal Griffen Hotel Mystery Series, a cozy mystery featuring a seventy-eight-year-old amateur sleuth, her adorable dog, and the glamorous world of New York fashion.

Some secrets stay buried for fifteen years. Some demand to be uncovered. When Melody Beniot returns home from college for winter break, she brings more than dirty laundry. Her forensic science project has reopened a cold case that someone in Prairie Rose desperately wanted to stay closed. Fifteen years ago, environmental engineer Bobby Pritchard was murdered the night before he was scheduled to testify about illegal dumping that poisoned the local water supply. His death was ruled accidental. His evidence disappeared. And everyone who knew the truth stayed silent. Now Melody's investigation has connected Bobby's murder to a conspiracy involving wealthy investors, a corrupt former sheriff, and a cover-up that cost innocent lives. But as the sisters dig deeper into Prairie Rose's darkest secret, witnesses start dying again, and the people responsible will do anything to protect their legacy of lies. With Christmas approaching and Jackie's estranged sons arriving for an unexpected reunion, the family faces threats from all sides. A killer is eliminating anyone who can testify, and Melody has made herself the biggest target of all. As the investigation races toward a deadly confrontation, the women must decide how much they're willing to risk for a man who died protecting his community. Because in Prairie Rose, some truths have been buried so long that digging them up might destroy everything. Justice delayed. Revenge unleashed. Family redefined.

At seventy-eight years old, Miss Dora Lee Griffen has mastered the art of being underestimated. Let them see the silver hair, the shuffling walk, the adorable dog in the coordinating outfit. Let them speak too loudly, assuming her hearing has gone. Let them dismiss her as harmless. It only makes the truth easier to uncover. A legendary fashion designer whose 1987 collection revolutionized how the industry thought about traditional techniques, Dora Lee now runs a quiet custom design shop just a block from her penthouse at the Royal Griffen Hotel. Her family once owned the grand old building, back when it was still a proper hotel, and when it converted to luxury apartments, she came with the deal. So did the fresh flowers in every hallway. Mother would have insisted on that. Life has settled into a comfortable rhythm of beautiful fabrics, loyal customers, and afternoon walks with Pippa, her Boston terrier mix with the too-big ears and the talent for tricks that always charm a crowd. Then rising star designer Ethan Kemper is found dead in the building's sauna. The jammed door makes one thing horrifyingly clear: someone trapped that young man inside and left him to die. This was murder. The police launch their investigation, but Dora Lee has advantages they don't. She saw Ethan arguing bitterly with his business partner just hours before his death. She's heard whispers about stolen designs and threatened careers. She knows about the service entrance that lets people slip in and out unseen. And she knows, better than anyone, how sharp the knives are beneath all that silk and sequins. As she digs deeper, Dora Lee discovers Ethan wasn't the golden boy everyone remembers. He built his rising career on the backs of desperate interns. He stole ideas from young designers too afraid to speak up. He made enemies of people with everything to lose. Now Dora Lee finds herself navigating a world of jealous rivals, ambitious prot g s, and old friends who might not be telling her everything. His business partner stands to inherit the brand they built together. A young model Ethan dropped without explanation keeps appearing at Dora Lee's shop, wanting to talk. A ruthless designer circles the now-leaderless company like a vulture. And her best friend Viola seems eager to help, perhaps a little too eager, always steering the conversation in curious directions. Someone in this building is a killer. And with her sharp eye for detail, five decades of fashion industry knowledge, and a gift for playing harmless when it suits her, Dora Lee Griffen intends to find out who. Even if the truth hits closer to home than she ever expected. Haute Mess is the first book in the Royal Griffen Hotel Mysteries, a cozy mystery series featuring a seventy-eight-year-old fashion designer who proves that age is just a number when it comes to solving murders.

When the annual Hill Country Thunder Rally brings three thousand bikers to Prairie Rose, Jackie Prescott and Lauren Benoit are ready to serve the biggest crowd Charlie Joe's BBQ Shack has ever seen. But the rumble of engines soon turns deadly when a body is discovered at the Iron Wolves campsite, and the murder is just the beginning. As rival motorcycle clubs point fingers and old feuds resurface, a second victim falls. Then a third. The killings are connected to a disbanded club called the Lone Road Riders, whose treasurer vanished three years ago with $47,000 in stolen funds. Now someone is eliminating everyone who knows the truth about what really happened. With the FBI descending on their small town and the killer still among the rally crowd, Jackie, Lauren, and Melody must navigate a dangerous web of embezzlement, faked deaths, and bitter revenge. Complicating matters, their estranged mother Dawn has arrived on their doorstep with nothing but a small suitcase, humbled and seeking a second chance. The sisters cautiously put her to work at the restaurant, where Dawn proves surprisingly capable, though her old habits around attractive men threaten to cause problems with the motorcycle clubs. The rally coordinator is hiding his identity. A terrified witness holds explosive secrets. And threatening messages make clear that asking questions could be fatal. As the sisters dig deeper into the past, they discover that some debts can never be repaid and some secrets are worth killing to protect. When the final confrontation comes, the family will need all their courage to survive a killer who's been planning revenge for three years. In Prairie Rose, the road to justice is paved with smoke, secrets, and the ghosts of crimes that refuse to stay buried.

He returned with lies. They came with consequences. When Melody's long-lost father walks back into her life after twenty years of silence, she knows something doesn't add up. Ryan's carefully crafted story about reconciliation has too many holes, and his suspicious questions about the restaurant's operations suggest motives that have nothing to do with family. Jackie and Lauren thought they'd faced the worst Prairie Rose had to offer. They were wrong. Because Ryan didn't return alone. He brought a million-dollar debt to a Chicago-based criminal organization, and those debts are collected in blood. As a parade of suspicious investigators descends on Charlie Joe's BBQ Shack, each with their own agenda and questionable credentials, Charlie Joe's nieces must determine who's legitimate, who's compromised, and who's working directly for the criminals hunting Ryan. When the danger escalates from surveillance to direct threats, they realize they're not just dealing with one deadbeat father's mistakes. They're caught in the middle of an organized crime operation that views them as collateral damage. With Sheriff Ray Martinez coordinating federal assistance and Melody's brilliant analytical mind working overtime, the family races to uncover the truth before Ryan's past destroys their present. But in a game where every investigator could be an enemy and trust is a luxury they can't afford, survival means making impossible choices about family, loyalty, and the price of protection. In Prairie Rose, some family reunions are better left uncooked, and some debts demand more than money can pay.

When the competition is rigged, everyone's a target. Jackie and Lauren thought running their inherited barbecue restaurant was the hardest challenge they'd face. They were wrong. When respected competition judge Tex Morrison dies from poisoning at the Prairie Rose Barbecue Championship, the sisters find themselves prime suspects in a murder investigation. Determined to clear their names and honor their friend's memory, they begin their own investigation, only to uncover a conspiracy that reaches far beyond a single death. What starts as a quest for justice reveals a massive criminal organization that has been systematically corrupting barbecue competitions across multiple states. With the help of Jackie's brilliant niece Melody and their growing ally Sheriff Martinez, they discover that Tex wasn't just a victim, he was an FBI informant gathering evidence against a network involving illegal gambling, money laundering, and competition manipulation worth millions of dollars. But when the FBI reveals that Tex was continuing an investigation started by his murdered brother, the stakes become personal. The criminal masterminds behind the corruption have killed before to protect their empire, and they won't hesitate to eliminate three women who've stumbled onto their biggest secret. As the sisters navigate federal investigations, legal intimidation, and escalating threats, they must decide how far they're willing to go for the truth. Because in a world where competition results are bought and sold, and where asking the wrong questions can be fatal, some corruption runs too deep to escape. Someone seeks justice. Someone demands silence. They're all running out of time.

Someone wants the land. Someone wants the business. They just want to survive each other. When Austin lawyer Jackie Prescott inherits half of her estranged Uncle Charlie Joe's barbecue restaurant, she plans to sell her share and get back to her real life. But her financially struggling sister Lauren needs this inheritance to survive, and the will requires both sisters to run the restaurant together for at least a year or lose everything. Forced to work alongside the sister she's barely spoken to in years, Jackie discovers that Uncle Charlie Joe's death wasn't the peaceful passing everyone believed. Someone wanted him dead, and that someone is now targeting the new owners with increasingly dangerous threats. As the sisters navigate their complicated relationship and learn to smoke brisket at 4:30 AM, they uncover a web of secrets that Uncle Charlie Joe died protecting. Hidden documents, mysterious photographs, and a trail of evidence point to a conspiracy that reaches far beyond their small Texas Hill Country town. With the help of Jackie's brilliant teenage niece Melody and local law enforcement, the women must decide: are they brave enough to face the truth about their uncle's murder? And can two sisters who've spent decades hurting each other learn to trust again before the killer strikes? In Prairie Rose, Texas, some family recipes are worth killing for and some truths are worth dying to protect.

In book 4, Disaster strikes Dashwood Dumpling recipe included at the end of the book. Alphabet Soup recipe is available when signing up for my newsletter.A fire burns down an abandoned building that was set to be renovated into a high-end apartment complex. It was part of a larger improvement and beautification project for the city with boutique shops, restaurants, and art galleries.This doesn't impact the Crock Pot or Chef Jessica, at least not until the police show up to arrest Marco, one of the bussers, for murder.It turns out that there was a man killed inside the building. Initially, they thought he died from the fire, but the autopsy showed blunt force trauma, and Marco was the last one to see him alive.Chef Jess believes his pleas of innocence and decides to lean into her new nickname. The crime-fighting chef is determined to find the real killer and prove Marco's innocence, unless she lets the handsome project manager distract her from her goal.

Book 3 is here. In this book, you will find a recipe for Cornbread. Alphabet Soup Recipe is available by signing up for my newsletter.Chef Jessica is asked to cater a funeral service for a family friend. Not something she typically would say yes to, especially with her commitment to the restaurant. But if she can pull this off, it could mean another source of income.But, as she and her team are ready to go, Jess goes to leave the invoice in the office, only to find the assistant funeral director dead near the kitchen area.Initial evidence points to poisoning which leads to suspicion being on Jessica's food.Why do bodies keep ending up dead around Jess? Was this another plot to sabotage her business? Or is something else nefarious happening at Caruso's Funeral Home?With the help of her two besties, Sawyer and Vee, she is determined to find out and once again, clear her name.

Jess has some time off, so for the first time in a while, she is going on a date. It's a blind date set up by her General Manager, Noah. However, after waiting for two hours, Jessica is devastated to think she's been stood up. He seemed so nice via texts.As she is leaving the restaurant they were meeting at, she sees police have blocked off the street two blocks down.That's when she learns the truth about her date. He was murdered. For her peace of mind and at the begging of Noah, she begins investigating his death and things get strange and too close to home.

The first in the Alphabet Soup Mysteries and opening night is here One recipe is included in each book Opening night of Chef Jessica Vasquez's new restaurant: The Crock Pot. With the media spotlighting the opening on the evening news and food bloggers featuring the restaurant online, the pressure is on.At the end of the night, The Crock Pot is a smashing success and Jessica is beaming with pride. That is until she realizes her Sous Chef, Earl, is missing. After a short search, she finds him by the dumpsters, shot to death.Suspicion is cast on Jess. She doesn't want to be compared to her father, so that thrusts her into the role of sleuth to clear her name and save her business. As she digs into the murder, her business is vandalized, and she's harassed by an unknown source.Along with her two besties, Sawyer and Vee, they find the murderer may be closer than they thought.

Four middle-aged friends embark on a week-long treasure hunting girls' trip as a distraction from the pressures of everyday life, but as it does, life catches up, and they are forced to face their struggles and insecurities.Amy is concerned her third marriage is going the way of the first two. She has no escape because even her job is a source of stress and the mundane tasks drone on. She just needs a break to think.Heather is bored and lonely with her two sons grown and moved away. She lost her identity when she became Tyler's mom and Cody's mom. She needs this trip to feel like Heather again.Marissa is burning the candle at both ends, but the burnout is coming. Between her parents living with her and requiring her full attention to her teenage kids' demands, she needs to get away or lose her mind.Denise was just diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer. This may be the last fun thing she gets to do. Never wanting to be a burden to anyone, she doesn't mention it to anyone. Now, if only she can hide it from her closest friends, they'll only have good memories to remember her by.They may or may not find the treasure, but they gain something much more valuable.