Karen MacInerney Bücher

Margie Peterson ist eine typische Hausfrau und Mutter, bis sie den Abwasch gegen die Verbrecherjagd eintauscht und die außergewöhnlichste Privatdetektivin von Austin, Texas, wird. Schon bald steckt sie bis zum Hals in Fällen mit untreuen Ehemännern, Transvestiten und vor allem in jede Menge Ärger. Mit einem Ehegatten, der Überstunden macht, um Partner zu werden, sowie zwei lebhaften Kindern, die sie den letzten Nerv kosten, geht es Margie Peterson wie jeder anderen ausgelaugten Vorstadtmutter. Als sie jedoch beschließt, einen Job als Privatdetektivin für eine zwielichtige Agentur vor Ort anzunehmen, ändert sich das. Es dauert nicht lange, bis Margie alles über den Kopf wächst: An ihrem ersten Arbeitstag fährt sie ihren Minivan zu Schrott, nimmt irrtümlich an einem Dragqueen-Wettbewerb teil und findet sich schließlich mit einem toten Transvestiten auf der Toilette wieder. Als Margie jedoch ihre eigene Festnetznummer im Handy des Opfers findet, fängt die Sache wirklich an, interessant zu werden.

Lucy Resnick's nerves are as tight as a tea cozy. Her new goats, Hot Lips and Gidget, keep making a break for the town square, her truck is dying, and her boyfriend's gorgeous ex-wife is in town for the holidays. Worse, someone's digging holes on her land...and uprooting her peach orchard and dewberry patch in the process. Lucy needs additional holiday stress like she needs a blow to the head--which she receives one night, courtesy of the mystery digger. When the dim-witted sheriff arrests one of Lucy's best friends, the former reporter puts her own problems on the back burner and starts investigating. What she finds is a patchwork of clues--an injured puppy, a sapphire necklace gone missing, and a string of poison-pen letters--that draws her deep into a web of small-town secrets. Word travels fast in Buttercup. When the killer learns Lucy's on the trail, Lucy finds she needs more than her reporting skills to save her friend--she needs a Christmas miracle.

"Sophie Garou is a master at taming her inner beast, which comes in handy since she's a werewolf. With a big promotion at work and a supersexy boyfriend, Heath (whom she recently spotted leaving a jewelry store with a beguiling ring box), she's one happy girl. But when Heath starts spending long nights at the office with his new associate--a dead-ringer for Career Day Barbie--Sophie smells trouble. And when her professional relationship with her big new client--who also happens to be Texas's brilliantly blue-eyes most eligible bachelor--begins to sizzle, she wonders if her animal instincts are leading her in the wrong direction. Just when it seems that things can't get any more complicated, they do. The Houston werewolf pack has sniffed Sophie out, and their message is chillingly clear: you're either with us or against us. And unless she can prove that she's with them, the next full moon may just be her last." ---- From Back cover

When Houston reporter Lucy Resnick cashes in her retirement to buy her grandmother’s farm in Buttercup, Texas, she’s looking forward to a simple life as a homesteader. But Lucy has barely finished putting up her first batch of Killer Dewberry Jam when an oil exploration truck rolls up to the farm and announces plans to replace her broccoli patch with an oil derrick. Two days later, Nettie Kocurek, the woman who ordered the drilling, turns up dead at the Founders’ Day Festival with a bratwurst skewer through her heart and one of Lucy’s jam jars beside her…and the sheriff fingers Lucy as the prime suspect. Horrified, Lucy begins to talk to Nettie’s neighbors, but the more she gets to know the townspeople, the more she realizes she’s not the only one who had a beef with Nettie. Can she clear her name, or will her dream life turn into a nightmare?

WILDLY INDEPENDENT, SHE’S NOT ONE FOR PACK MENTALITY.On the outside, Sophie Garou is living every woman’s she has beauty, brains, and a big-time position in Austin’s most respected accounting firm (not to mention a very sexy, very successful new boyfriend). But there’s one Sophie would rather keep under she is a werewolf.Sophie’s life gets a little more hairy when her long-estranged father, Luc, arrives in the Live Music Capital to attend the werewolves’ annual Howl and reconnect with his daughter. But Luc’s plans fall apart after he’s accused of murder and arrested by his archrival, Wolfgang, leader of the Houston pack (and one notoriously dirty dog). Wolfgang drools at the thought of Luc’s impending execution, but Sophie won’t let her father die without a fight. Determined to prove his innocence, she and her friends set out to find the real killer. Along the way, Sophie must deal with taboo attractions, Machiavellian intrigues, sinister agendas, and hair-raising betrayals.

Romance is about to get a little hairy.Sophie Garou seems to have it all: a great job at a prestigious accounting firm, a closet that rivals a Nordstrom showroom, and a terrific boyfriend who isn’t afraid to use the “M” word. There’s just one little itty-bitty problem: Sophie is a werewolf–and her time of month has a whole new meaning.Needless to say, life among yummy flesh-and-blood humans is no piece of steak . . . er, cake!, but regular doses of wolfsbane tea and a mother who runs a magic shop have helped Sophie keep her paranormal pedigree under wraps. Still, when a sexy, golden-eyed werewolf prowls into town, Sophie finds herself struggling to keep her animal impulses in check–not to mention trying to keep things on track with her super hot (and super human) lawyer boyfriend. What’s more, someone is threatening to expose Sophie for what she really is. And when her mother is accused of selling a poison-laced potion, Sophie must sniff out a culprit before the fur hits the fan.