Dereske, Jo

Index to Murder: A Miss Zukas Mystery (Miss Zukas Mysteries)

No one could be more orderly or organized than dedicated librarian Helma Zukas. No one could be more rash and raucous than avant-garde artist Ruth Winthrop. Yet the two women are best friends and a resourceful, ingenious, crime-solving team. So when two of Ruth's latest paintings—each depicting an ex-lover who met a very untimely and mysterious end—are stolen, the amazing amateur detectives get to work.

But digging through Ruth's romantic rendezvous turns up more than broken hearts. There's an angry ex-wife, a jealous fellow artist, and a rampaging group of local tree-huggers. There's trouble brewing in Bellehaven . . . and only Helma and Ruth can make certain that mayhem doesn't lead to murder.

Catalogue of Death: A Miss Zukas Mystery

At last, construction begins on a new library for Bellehaven, a gift of Franklin Harrington, scion of old Bellehaven money, and one of the locally famous Harrington triplets. But when a freak snowstorm hits, Bellehaven is brought to its knees. Not so Miss Helma Zukas who is at her post, dispensing library information, overseeing wayward employees, and soothing a busload of stranded gamblers.

Suddenly, an explosion rocks the snowy day, destroying the library site, killing the benefactor and a penny–pinching city finance czar.

The snow melts but not trouble. Shockingly, Ms. Moon thrusts the new library project onto Helma. And Helma soon discovers why, uncovering secrets and shady dealings from start to finish – secrets in the library, in the City, and in the Harrington family – secrets worth killing for.

Miss Zukas and the Library Murders (Miss Zukas Mysteries)

Meet Miss Zukas . . . the very proper, exceedingly conscientious, and relentlessly curious local librarian of tiny Bellehaven, Washington—and one heck of an amateur sleuth!

The Bellehaven police are baffled when a dead body turns up right in the middle of the library's fiction stacks. But Miss Helma Zukas—who never fails to make note of the slightest deviation from the norm of everyday life—is not willing to let this rather nasty disruption stand. Her precious literary sanctuary has been violated, and if the local law cannot get to the bottom of this case, Miss Zukas certainly intends to—with the help of her not-so-proper best friend, Ruth, a six-foot-tall bohemian artist with a nose for gossip and a penchant for getting into trouble. But their research project is bringing them a little too close to a killer . . . who'd like nothing better than to write Helma and Ruth out of the story completely!

Miss Zukas and the Island Murders (Miss Zukas Mysteries)

The ever-conscientious Miss Helma Zukas of Bellehaven, Washington, is not one to renege on a promise—even one made hastily . . . and too long ago to possibly remember! So when an anonymous note in the morning mail reminds her of her vow to bring her high school classmates together for a twenty-year reunion, Miss Zukas hops to and begins organizing the perfect celebration . . . despite some vague and mysterious warnings about dire consequences.

But when a secret saboteur disrupts her well-planned reunion—stranding Helma and her old classmates on a fogbound island with a murderer in their midst—the intrepid librarian-sleuth takes charge once again. With a dubious assist from her raffish friend Ruth, Miss Zukas is determined to close the books on crimes both current and overdue for solution . . . before the killer takes the alumni out of circulation permanently.

Bookmarked to Die (Miss Zukas Mysteries)

The crime-solving doyenne of the Dewey Decimal System, Miss Zukas is back in circulation!

Librarian extraordinaire Miss Wilhelmina "Helma" Zukas wakes up on the morning of her forty-second birthday in the throes of more than one midlife crisis. Her championing a collection of local authors' works ignites a dangerous firestorm of jealousy and anger in tiny Bellehaven. She's blackmailed by her conniving boss, library director May Apple Moon, into attending group counseling sessions -- and two of the participants turn up dead. An obnoxiously bubbly new librarian is turning the head of Helma's longtime admirer, Police Chief Wayne Gallant. And worst of all, her uncuddly feline companion, Boy Cat Zukas, disappears.

Though she's been expressly forbidden to investigate (by the scheming Ms. Moon), it's Helma's nature to delve and research, and she figures there's nothing else now that she can lose. But too much nosing around in this case, and she's not going to make it to forty-three!

Miss Zukas and the Stroke of Death (Miss Zukas Mysteries)

Librarian par excellence Miss Helma Zukas is a woman of many talents—and civic-minded to boot. Which is why she agrees, albeit reluctantly, to employ her long-dormant canoeing skills in the service of the Bellehaven Library relay race team in the famous Snow to Surf Race. But first she has a more pressing obligation—namely keeping her dear, somewhat flaky artist friend, Ruth Winthrop, off Death Row.

Flamboyant Ruth, it seems, has rejected the advances of a dirty old man in a local bar, who later, rather inconveniently, turns up dead just outside her studio. Helma knows Ruth is no killer, even though the police consider her the prime suspect. Now, time is running out. By asking too many questions about one unsavory dead man, Miss Zukas is paddling in dangerous waters. And the carefully buried scandals her snooping is uncovering could sink the inquisitive librarian permanently.

Miss Zukas Shelves the Evidence (Miss Zukas Mysteries)

This Ain't No Garden Party

In a boldly personal move, Police Chief Wayne Gallant has arranged a meeting between his children and Bellehaven's beloved librarian Helma Zukas. But the fates have not yet smiled on this pair, as the long overdue introductions are interrupted -- by murder. For not only is Helma's newest neighbor pushing up roses in her garden, her latest crop's a corpse. And when the chief's investigation has him digging too close to the truth, he's helped to a nearly fatal fall from a cliff, a potentially incriminating library book found within reach.

The police demand the library turn over the borrower's name. Determined to uphold the privacy rights of library patrons, the ever mindful Miss Zukas deletes the information from library records -- but not before she takes note of it. And now it's up to Helma -- with teenagers in tow and an assist from bohemian buddy Ruth -- to get to the bottom of this murderous mess before Wayne Gallant's assailant makes sure the evidence Miss Zukas holds is shelved...permanently.

Out of Circulation: A Miss Zukas Mystery

Hitting The Books

Miss Helma Zukas is reluctant to go hiking on the Cascade mountains, but her friend Ruth is insistent. When she agrees to go, Helma, ever the librarian, does her research, reading up on survival techniques, packing like a pro, and making up a list for her irresponsible friend. As usual, Ruth comes unprepared, having neglected to read Helma's list. But even Helma's careful preparation couldn't have anticipated the discovery of a dead body high in the rocky wilderness.

SURVIVING THE TRAIL

Since it appears unlikely that the hole in the hiker's chest was caused by a fall, Helma suspects foul play. When the victim is airlifted off the mountain, Ruth is ready to accept a ride back to civilization, but Helma insists they stay and search for the hiker's missing companion. Being good samaritans is one thing, but getting stranded in a blinding snowstorm is quite another. Especially when escaping Nature's deadly fury means holing up in a little cabin with some motley strangers who may be planning a murderous adventure for a couple of dangerously inquisitive women...

Miss Helma Zukas is reluctant to go hiking on the Cascade mountains, but her friend Ruth is insistent. When she agrees to go, Helma, ever the librarian, does her research, reading up on survival techniques, packing like a pro, and making up a list for her irresponsible friend. As usual, Ruth comes unprepared, having neglected to read Helma's list. But even Helma's careful preparation couldn't have anticipated the discovery of a dead body high in the rocky wilderness.

SURVIVING THE TRAIL

Since it appears unlikely that the hole in the hiker's chest was caused by a fall, Helma suspects foul play. When the victim is airlifted off the mountain, Ruth is ready to accept a ride back to civilization, but Helma insists they stay and search for the hiker's missing companion. Being good samaritans is one thing, but getting stranded in a blinding snowstorm is quite another. Especially when escaping Nature's deadly fury means holing up in a little cabin with some motley strangers who may be planning a murderous adventure for a couple of dangerously inquisitive women...

Final Notice: A Miss Zukas Mystery

Librarians seldom have as much fun--or as many direct references to dead bodies--as Miss Helma Zuckas, master sleuth and loaner of all things literary. When Miss Zuckas, librarian to the core, starts digging in the family archives, she turns up some deadly secrets. Unless she can learn the whole story, the final chapters are about to be written as a tale of mystery, mayhem...and murder.

Miss Zukas in Death's Shadow

Booked for Trouble

With an audit going on at Bellehaven's Public Library, it couldn't be a worse time for librarian Helma Zukas to be serving a sentence of fifty hours of community service. But Miss Zukas stubbornly refused to pay what she thought to be an unjust traffic fine and now she's doing time at the Promise Mission for Homeless Men--ladling soup and clearing tables for a motley group of ungrateful down-and-outers. When Helma discovers there's a rash of thefts going on at the mission, she's appalled. Add to that, the unannounced visit of a high school flame who intends to win her hand, and Helma's ready to run to the auditors for relief.

But none of that can compare to the shock when, during the first night of her service, a body is found just outside the mission's back door. Suddenly in the wake of a heartless homicide, Helma becomes one of the suspects, and her fifty hours of service are looming like a life sentance. Fortunately for the otherwise law-abiding librarian, her gaudy, bawdy good friend Ruth is close at hand to help her solve the case...before she ends up doing hard time in a much worse place than the mission house.

With an audit going on at Bellehaven's Public Library, it couldn't be a worse time for librarian Helma Zukas to be serving a sentence of fifty hours of community service. But Miss Zukas stubbornly refused to pay what she thought to be an unjust traffic fine and now she's doing time at the Promise Mission for Homeless Men--ladling soup and clearing tables for a motley group of ungrateful down-and-outers. When Helma discovers there's a rash of thefts going on at the mission, she's appalled. Add to that, the unannounced visit of a high school flame who intends to win her hand, and Helma's ready to run to the auditors for relief.

But none of that can compare to the shock when, during the first night of her service, a body is found just outside the mission's back door. Suddenly in the wake of a heartless homicide, Helma becomes one of the suspects, and her fifty hours of service are looming like a life sentance. Fortunately for the otherwise law-abiding librarian, her gaudy, bawdy good friend Ruth is close at hand to help her solve the case...before she ends up doing hard time in a much worse place than the mission house.