Books in the Mae December Mystery series

It's January in Rosedale, Tennessee, and Mae December is preparing for her March wedding to Sheriff Ben Bradley. Mae, who boards dogs for a living, is also busy tending to her pregnant dog and scouting locations for the movie featuring the music of her former fiance Noah West, who died in a car accident four years earlier. Fortunately the picturesque old house at the end of Little Chapel Road is for rent. Just as filming is about to begin, a man is shot on the set, but manages to drive himself to the hospital, where he dies before he can ID his killer. He was a member of the film crew, but also a local, and circumstances point to his being a confidential informant for Ben's predecessor, Sheriff Trey Cantrell, also the owner of the house turned movie set. At the time of the shooting, the victim had been stealing a large sum of money from a safe on the premises. Whose money is it, and where does it come from? The Rosedale Sheriff's Office not only has another murder case on its hands, but one that will dredge up a past long buried. How far will the guilty parties go to protect their secrets? The sixth and final book in the Mae December Mystery series, which began with One Dog Too Many.

It''s bitter cold in Rosedale, Tennessee, the most frigid January in decades. The kind of chill they used to describe as requiring sleeping with three dogs just to make it through the night. Mae December has found yet another body, this one on the banks of the Little Harpeth River. It''s another murder for her boyfriend, Sheriff Ben Bradley, to investigate. Only Mae''s broken her wrist, which makes helping out with the case difficult. That''s okay, because the murdered man was found near a puppy mill, and all evidence points to the owner as the killer. Surely the case will be a slam dunk. Mae''s injury also hampers her ability to run her dog boarding business and care for the three pit bull puppies she''s fostering, so she hires Ray Fenton, the kid who blew the whistle on the now-shuttered puppy mill. Meanwhile, Sheriff Bradley''s office manager, Dory Clarkson, struggles to pass the physical tests that will allow her to fulfill her dream of becoming a deputy, Mae and her friend Tammy are busy planning Tammy''s Valentine''s Day wedding to the brother of Mae''s deceased fiancé, and Detective Wayne Nichols must revisit his painful past as he fights to free his foster mother from prison. Rosedale is the last place you''d expect to harbor a killer. Now the sheriff''s department must solve its third murder in a year. Three Dog Day is the third book in the Mae December mystery series, which began with One Dog Too Many.

On a hot, humid July 4th evening in Rosedale, Tennessee, a young man is dead on arrival at the hospital where Dr. Lucy Ingram works. Lucy recalls the affable young man, Chester Willis, from an earlier visit. The death is pronounced a suicide from an overdose of the insulin used to treat his diabetes, but Lucy isn''t convinced. The man just wasn''t the suicidal type. She pushes for another autopsy, and they find an injection site proving that someone else administered the deadly dose. Later in the week his ailing father dies as well. Now there is the matter of the father''s will. Who stood to benefit if Chester was taken out of the equation? The easy answer is Chester''s brother Rick, who is in debt and has an expensive fiancée. Then there''s Brooke, the struggling massage therapist the old man befriended. The will has made her a wealthy woman. Sheriff Ben Bradley and Lucy''s boyfriend Chief Detective Wayne Nichols are on the case, along with newly appointed investigator Dory, Ben''s girlfriend Mae December, and the rest of Ben''s office staff. Soon they must accept that there will be no easy answers. The heat has tempers flaring, and Wayne, Ben, and Mae are distracted: Wayne by his changing relationship with Lucy and by having to cope with dark episodes from both their pasts, Ben and Mae by his reelection campaign and the couple''s upcoming wedding. Then there is Cupcake, the new basset hound puppy owned by Ben''s son Matthew, who becomes the fourth canine to take up permanent residence at Mae''s house. Book 4 of the Mae December Mystery series, which began with One Dog Too Many.