Linda Baten Johnson

What could go wrong when jigsaw puzzle enthusiasts get together? How about four murders and a couple thefts? Can clues be pieced together to solve these puzzling crimes? Elvis Has Left the Building by Cynthia Hickey Cee Cee is hosting a jigsaw puzzle party in Apple Blossom, Arkansas, and everyone is expected to bring a brand-new 500-piece jigsaw puzzle to work on that depicts something from the 1950s. With a vintage car show, vendors, live music, and a dance, the night promises to be a great one--until the Elvis impersonator is murdered and a priceless puzzle is missing. The Puzzle King by Linda Baten Johnson Jane enters a jigsaw puzzle competition at the Fargo, North Dakota, fairgrounds. When a fellow competitor is poisoned, all suspects are confined at the hotel during the investigation, and Jane is determined to use her puzzle-solving skills to root out the killer. A Puzzling Weekend by Teresa Ives Lilly Tabitha's first event at her new bed and breakfast in Pumpkin City, Pennsylvania, is a jigsaw puzzle mystery weekend. All is going well until the hired cook is found stabbed to death. As the prime suspect, Tabitha works with the handsome investigator--and two wily beagle dogs--to clear her name. Mystery at the Jigsaw Swap by Janice Thompson Mariah hopes to sell her vast puzzle collection at a jigsaw puzzle swap in Camden, Maine, at the historic opera house. But her most valuable puzzle ends up missing when another vendor is stabbed to death. Enjoy four short cozy mysteries...all involving jigsaw puzzles

With Depression blanketing the nation in 1937, Fern Dempsey employs her creative sewing ability to sustain her family. An opportunity as an air hostess promises to fulfil her personal obligations and satisfy her own hope for a flying career-but at a price. Will Fern's devotion to her brothers and sisters allow her to follow her personal wishes or confine her to a life of spinsterhood? Gene Lamar's assignment of breaking rocks for an amphitheater project in a CCC camp fuels his determination to obtain a life of wealth and privilege. With his meager monthly stipend supporting his parents, he imagines his own future filled with riches and sets goals to obtain his objectives. His plan allows for marriage-but not necessarily a love match. Can the desires of the heart overcome the shroud of Depression days and fuel a happy future for two determined dreamers?

A magnolia means stability and grace through changing times, and times were certainly changing in Louisiana after the Civil War.Energetic, hard-working Martha Bodine and her mother survive the war, but Captain Bodine does not return from the Confederate Army when expected, and the women must pay the back taxes or lose the family farm. A neighbor is eager to join his land with the Bodine property by marrying Martha, a solution which does not appeal to the young woman. In a desperate attempt to get the needed funds, the women rent a room to a controversial Northern gentleman, but this decision causes a rift between them and their neighbors.Peyton Anderson, a soldier from the same unit as Martha's papa, pays a visit to the farm on his way to join his family in Texas. He identifies their home by his officer's description of the large magnolia tree in the front yard. Sympathetic to their dismal circumstances, he offers to help the feisty Martha and her gentle mother. Determined to honor his obligations, Peyton fears that even his best efforts may not change the course mapped out for Martha's life or his own.