Dead-End Job Mystery Books in Order

Helen's off-the-books job at a Fort Lauderdale bookstore ends in chaos when the arrogant owner is killed. With suspects everywhere and danger closing in, she has to read the people around her fast.

Hiding out in Fort Lauderdale, Helen takes a cash job at an upscale boutique serving the rich and Botoxed. Theft, scams, and a fashionable murder make it clear her new life is anything but safe.

Helen takes a telemarketing job and thinks she hears a murder happen over the phone. With only a voice, a scream, and her instincts to go on, she starts chasing a killer who may already know about her.

Working in a bridal salon, Helen expects tears and tantrums, not murder. When a domineering mother of the bride is found dead, Helen becomes a suspect and must solve the case without exposing her own past.

This darkly funny short mystery looks back at younger days in the world of beauty, ambition, and trouble. It also gives readers a glimpse of Margery Flax before she became Helen Hawthorne's unforgettable landlady.

Helen's job at a pampered pet boutique turns ugly when a delivery drops her into a murder scene. Between rich dog owners, a missing pet, and a hurricane closing in, the case gets stranger by the hour.

As a hotel maid, Helen finds an employee's body in the dumpster and soon another guest is murdered. With her ex-husband back in town and the police circling, staying invisible is no longer an option.

A job at an exclusive country club puts Helen among rich members with oversized egos and messy secrets. When two people are bludgeoned and her ex-husband disappears, the police start looking hard in her direction.

Helen is working at a glam hair salon when a loud, powerful bully turns up dead around his own wedding. Her boss is the obvious suspect, so Helen has to cut through gossip and vanity to find the real killer.

At a high-end resale boutique, Helen's latest case starts when a difficult customer ends up dead, suspended by a designer scarf. The murder also pulls Helen back to St. Louis and the life she thought she'd escaped.

Helen's new PI life starts with undercover work at a gym and a second case tied to an old South Florida killing. Fitness obsessions, cheating suspicions, and buried secrets keep both Helen and Phil off balance.

Working undercover as a yacht stewardess, Helen expects smugglers, not murder. When a crew member vanishes, she has to untangle luxury, lies, and danger at sea before she becomes the next person overboard.

Helen and Phil are hired to protect a South Florida paddleboard business from sabotage. Then a customer dies on the water, and the case opens onto corruption, competition, and a beach town with plenty to hide.

A simple job, retrieving a prized show cat, becomes murder when Helen and Phil find the owner dead and the cat gone. Helen goes undercover in the cutthroat cat-show world to learn who had reason to strike.

Helen volunteers at an exclusive private library to hunt for a missing watercolor said to be hidden in a book. Ghost stories, demanding patrons, and a million-dollar secret turn a quiet assignment into a dangerous case.

When an artist dies after a class at Fort Lauderdale's Bonnet House Museum, Helen Hawthorne goes undercover among painters and patrons. With Phil busy on another case, she has to sort out jealousy, money, and a very calculated murder.