Jeremy Ransom/Emily Charters

The elderly Abigail Pearson has a heart attack at home when she has a "vision" of her long-disappeared husband. When Emily Charters goes to stay with Abigail to look after her, Emily begins to believe something nefarious is indeed afoot. The strangest case yet for Emily and her friend, Chicago police detective Jeremy Ransom, in Fred Hunter's Ransom Unpaid.

For the inaugural performance at the newly opened Sheridan Center for the Performing Arts in Chicago, the organizers have brought in a much-discussed new staging of Carmen. Even though it has been sold out for weeks, Emily Charters and a friend have secured tickets for the opening night performance. Despite widespread rumors of back-stage troubles, the performance goes off without a hitch, up until the climactic scene when the actor playing Don Jose dies onstage. It is soon evident that the actor didn't die of natural causes and Jeremy Ransom, a Detective with the Chicago Police Department and friend of Emily Charters, is assigned the case. But, as he quickly discovers, there is no lack of potential suspects. Between the out of control opera company diva, intrigues between the opera company cast, dubious financial situation of the company, not to mention the behind-the-scenes drama at the Sheridan Center itself, Ransom is facing his most complex case yet.

The Mummy's Ransom by Fred Hunter A controversial exhibit of Chinchorro mummies is about to open in Chicago at Dolores Tower, the latest building by the equally controversial local developer Louie Dolores. The mummies - dating from 2000 to 7000 BC - are incredibly fragile, making their transportation and display very risky. Even worse, the pending exhibition is being protested by a group who regard the exploitation of the mummies to be desecration of their ancient dead, leading to both tension and excitement over the coming opening. Lucky for Chicago Police Detective Jeremy Ransom none of this has anything to do with him. He figures as long as he can keep his friend, the elderly Miss Emily Charters, away from the opening, then there won't be a murder and he won't have to get involved. But first there are reports that a mummy is moving around the exhibit at night, then there are death threats against the developer, and when one night, alone in the exhibit, Louie Dolores is attacked by one of the mummies, Ransom is assigned to find out what's going on. With the sharp wits and intelligence of Emily at his beck and call, Ransom has to sort out the truth in what could be his strangest assignment ever before the a volatile situation turns fatal.

With a relaxing few days in mind, Miss Emily Charters signs up for a four-day seniors' cruise of the Great Lakes organized by her church. In the company of her friend and housekeeper, Lynn Francis, Charters and the other seniors set sail from Chicago, but while the waters on the lake are calm and predictable, her fellow passengers are not. However, a little tension is the least of the problems when one of her fellow passengers is found horribly murdered in her cabin. While the police investigate, the ship remains at port, leaving Emily stranded until her friend, Chicago Police Detective Jeremy Ransom, comes to her rescue. Together they set out to solve a most perplexing puzzle of a murder committed without seeming opportunity or plausible reason, not mention right under Emily's nose, in Fred Hunter's Ransom at Sea.