Rita Lakin Books in Order

In the summer of 1944, fifteen-year-old Ruth Hailey accompanies her mother to a Catskills resort expecting boredom. Encounters with other guests and the owner's son expose her to unfamiliar relationships, loneliness, and the complications of growing up.

Andy becomes alarmed when his second wife, Elinor, begins behaving like Laurie, his first wife. Her disturbing transformation draws him into questions of possession, exorcism, and secrets surrounding a woman he thought belonged to his past.

When neighbors at her Fort Lauderdale retirement community die in suspiciously similar circumstances, seventy-five-year-old Gladdy Gold suspects murder. She and her outspoken friends investigate despite a skeptical detective, hoping to stop whoever is targeting their circle.

Gladdy Gold's retirement-community detective agency juggles a wandering husband, a flasher, and murders involving wealthy Florida wives. Winning tickets for a bingo cruise puts the friends aboard a ship where their investigation becomes dangerously personal.

Gladdy Gold investigates a wealthy woman's death and a charming older man with a suspicious romantic history. Going undercover with her sister Evvie becomes hazardous when Evvie's attraction to the suspect threatens both judgment and safety.

A visit to New York pulls Gladdy Gold and her fellow retirement-community detectives into another investigation. Meanwhile, boyfriend Jack Langford reopens the unsolved murder of Gladdy's husband, confronting her with a painful mystery from her past.

A bank robber challenges Gladdy Gold's detective agency to catch him, while a hurricane uncovers an old skeleton at their retirement complex. The discovery sends Gladdy and her friends searching for a killer with buried secrets.

Gladdy Gold's wedding plans are unsettled when a glamorous Frenchwoman from Jack Langford's past reappears. Romantic jealousy becomes only part of the problem when the visitor faces a murderous threat and Jack becomes involved in protecting her.

Gladdy Gold wants her new husband to join her detective agency, prompting her friends to consider working independently. When a new resident's murder revives a decades-old romantic rivalry, the divided investigators must confront a troubling suspect.

Andy worries when his wife Elinor withdraws, hangs mysterious coins in the nursery, and asks about his deceased first wife. Her knowledge of Laurie's death and an uncanny transformation challenge a doctor's explanation of mental breakdown.

Rita Lakin recalls entering Hollywood television as a widowed mother through a secretarial job at Universal Studios. Her memoir follows her progress into scriptwriting and production while confronting the barriers facing women in a male-dominated industry.

Ida's estranged teenage granddaughter interrupts the friends' deli lunch, claiming that dangerous men are pursuing her. Gladdy Gold's agency investigates, but the girl's secrecy and a history of family resentment complicate efforts to keep her safe.

Gladdy Gold and her fellow senior detectives travel to Key West to investigate a lawyer's suspicious death. Their clients' claim that Ernest Hemingway's ghost witnessed it complicates the case, while another mystery unfolds back home.