Margaret Lashley Books in Order

Dissatisfied with her marriage and craving reinvention, Val abandons her routines for a trip to Italy. Guided more by romantic fantasies than experience, she encounters unexpected complications abroad and discovers that finding a new life requires more than a change of scenery.

When Tom cannot join their planned romantic break, Val takes a friend instead. A prank offends the wrong tourist and leads to a murder accusation, forcing Val to find the real culprit while already anxious about an impending marriage.

Broke, divorced and back in Florida, Val hopes to rebuild her life, only to lose her closest friend. When competing claimants descend on the estate, she recruits an unlikely group of helpers to find the rightful heir.

Drawing on interviews with people who remain happy through difficult circumstances, Margaret Lashley explores fourteen approaches to resilience and contentment. Personal examples and practical exercises invite readers to examine their habits and try these ideas in everyday life.

Val's relationship doubts turn into a crisis when Tom accidentally sends her mother's ashes to a junkyard. Recruiting her eccentric friends, she follows a chaotic trail through failed surveillance and mistaken plans in an effort to recover them.

Moving day turns disastrous when Tom arrives with an unwanted delivery that draws Val into a possible dismemberment case. With police attention mounting and a witness identifying her, she must rely on her unconventional friends to uncover what really happened.

Val wants a quiet holiday, but a visit to her relatives becomes another round of family competition and conflict. As she clashes with her mother, unexpected developments threaten to overwhelm both the celebrations and her boyfriend's tolerance for the chaos.

A developer plans to demolish Val's beloved beach haunt, apparently with its owner's consent. Suspecting something is wrong, Val must rally her unreliable friends and uncover the truth before redevelopment erases a place tied to their memories.

A neighborhood yard sale gives Val a chance to get rid of Tom's hated chair, but a wager creates unexpected costs. A missing friend and returning adversary turn her small campaign against clutter into a much more personal struggle.

Seeking relief from writer's block and constant company, Val escapes to the countryside. A disastrous fish fry, hostile RV campers and unsettling discoveries turn her retreat into a mystery where a killer may be more than another strange local story.

Afraid of dogs and uneasy about Tom moving in, Val takes up dog-sitting while planning to preserve her independence. When neighborhood pets begin disappearing, a suspicious new neighbor forces her into a different investigation with her eccentric friends.

Stuck in a Florida mechanic's shop, Bobbie encounters mysterious RV traveler Nick Grayson and the strange cases that follow him. Reports of a winged creature pull her into an investigation where bizarre sightings and his concealed identity are equally distracting.

After her mother's sudden death, psychologist Deanna Young uncovers a secret that unsettles everything she believed about her past. Investigating it may help her confront lifelong fears, but someone else is prepared to kill to keep the truth buried.

Bobbie and Grayson search for Florida's legendary Skunk Ape, but the creature is not the only mystery troubling her. A bad decision intensifies her doubts about Grayson, forcing the aspiring investigator to question the man she has trusted with her future.

Bobbie begins her private-investigator internship expecting a more ordinary career. Instead, Grayson leads her toward a possible alien invasion in Plant City, where doomsday preppers and other strange encounters complicate both their case and life together in an RV.

Bobbie follows rogue physicist Grayson into another investigation on Florida's stranger side. Faced with apparent vampires and other unsettling phenomena, she must sort plausible explanations from his outlandish theories before nightfall makes the choices more dangerous.

A series of disturbing fires points the Mind's Eye Investigators toward a man believed dead. To stop further attacks, they must revisit his damaged past while confronting the childhood fears and unresolved experiences that cloud their own judgment.

A trip to the Florida Panhandle takes an ominous turn when Bobbie and Grayson encounter reports of vanishing campers. As they investigate the strange threat near Torreya State Park, whatever is stalking the campsite begins taking an interest in them.

A return to Plant City brings Bobbie and Grayson a new series of disappearances. Her practical explanations clash with his otherworldly theories, while conflicting evidence and their own growing feelings make the investigation increasingly difficult to keep under control.

While shopping for an RV, Bobbie and Grayson become involved in a mystery surrounding people who appear to burst into flames. Searching for the cause also stirs tensions in their relationship, leaving both the investigation and their romance under pressure.

Aspiring actress Doreen discovers that her Florida relatives are connected to the mob just as their elderly leader approaches her hundredth birthday. With someone plotting to take over, escaping the family becomes harder than simply leaving town.

While acting in a low-budget mystery on a Florida beach, Doreen finds herself accused when a cast member dies for real. Her mob-connected relatives and two very different police officers complicate an urgent effort to clear her name.

Bad decisions and costly demands from her cousin and partner leave Bobbie struggling to hold on to her money and patience. Meanwhile, people are disappearing from a small Florida fishing village, giving her another troubling mystery to untangle.

Lashley gathers unusual facts and short accounts of history, people, and everyday oddities, presenting trivia through a comic lens. The collection invites readers to explore surprising details about the world while treating its absurdities as a source of amusement.

Doreen's portrayal of a television serial killer has brought the wrong kind of attention. Her elderly aunt's criminal connections and neighbors' expectations threaten to cast her in a dangerous new role far beyond anything she intended for her acting career.

This second collection explores more unusual people, places, and events through short, humorous accounts. Facts and trivia provide the starting point for stories about the stranger corners of the world, combining curiosity with an interest in everyday absurdity.

Val discovers that a wealthy former schoolmate built his success on an idea he stole from her. Tired of dead-end jobs and disappointment, she sets out to make him answer for it, with predictably chaotic consequences for her own future.

Trapped in a failing thrift-shop job and indebted to her boss, Val searches for a way to regain control of her finances. An attempt to simplify her life and make a fresh start instead brings an unexpected struggle over money.

When Tom disappears without saying goodbye, Val refuses to let him go without answers. Her search turns toward a suspicious new coworker and a series of disappearances, drawing her friends into an increasingly unsettling investigation.

Bobbie and Grayson attend a Halloween party at a friend's prepper compound, where strange behavior and hidden intentions complicate the festivities. As the evening grows more unsettling, distinguishing the real danger from the costumes becomes a challenge of its own.

Val starts a business with sharp-tongued Geraldine, only to wonder how much she knows about her new partner. Digging into Geraldine's past and a suspicious death puts their venture, their relationship and possibly their freedom at risk.

Doreen hopes to date a police officer and become one herself, but discovers a questionable business operating from Kitty's greenhouse. Protecting her elderly mob-connected family now threatens the future she wants, leaving her to untangle their latest scheme.

A new rumor threatens to expose the criminal connections of Doreen's elderly Florida relatives. Already struggling with the aftermath of being accused of murder, she must use her acting skills to protect their suburban lives from another scandal.