New Orleans Mystery

Blackmail in the Big Easy turns to cold-blooded murder in this debut cozy mystery perfect for fans of Jane K. Cleland. When the mysterious letter arrives by courier, Valerie Cooper doesn't know what to make of it. She's become the beneficiary of her late husband's estranged uncle's will-a man she never knew-and inherited a majority partnership in the family's company, New Orleans Fine Antiques. Valerie knows nothing about antiques, but she decides to learn the business and become an active partner. She's also got her hands full fending off Collette, a woman who wants to sell the huge old house in the Irish Channel neighborhood Valerie and her husband painstakingly renovated. Valerie isn't interested in selling-but when her best friend Lauren, drags her to a costume party for the women's Mardi Gras club, the Krewe of Athena, she stumbles over Collette's body, a jeweled dagger sticking out of her chest. In a rush of panic, Valerie recognizes the dagger from her shop-and before she knows it, she's become murder suspect number one. Egged on by Lauren, she starts digging into Collette's business dealings, and the deeper she digs, the dirtier it gets. Now all fingers are pointing at Valerie. In a desperate bid to clear her name, Valerie frantically tries to find who could have gotten hold of the dagger. But among a cadre of guests in full costume, it could be impossible to find the thief-and unmask the real killer.

A young woman is gunned down during a detective's wedding; then several young women are found dead in a shipping container. Could these two cases be related? Two homicide detectives are searching for answers, along with the help of the detective's sister, an erotic romance writer, familiar with the chief suspects through her online connections. Take a walk on the wild side with this riveting New Orleans mystery. Louise Hathaway is a pen name of a husband and wife writing team. They write in several different genres including murder/ mystery; romance, travel, time travel, and literary criticism. This series stars female homicide detective Yvonne Dauphin and takes place in New Orleans. Although the stories in the series occur in numerical order, each can be read as a stand-alone.Fighting Demons opens with my main character checking herself out of a psychiatric hospital determined to show her boss that she is up to the task of capturing a serial killer.Deadly Promises is about human trafficking. Several young women are found dead in a shipping container from Poland. Yvonne and her team must figure out how they came to meet such fate.Fifty Shades of Dead is the most recent release. In this story, a young woman goes out to dinner with a man she's just met at the theater where they've watched 50 Shades of Grey. He bears a striking resemblance to the actor in the movie and also had a "red room" as she finds out when she goes with him to his house. She takes a walk on the wild side with deadly results.