Val Fremden Mysteries 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.

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.

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.