R&P Labs Mysteries

Rob Mangan has problems. His small independent research lab is on the brink of bankruptcy and his wife's gone off with the fish tank cleaner. So when Rob and his brother Phil are offered a small fortune to develop surgical dressings using sphagnum moss, they jump at the opportunity. But things that seem too good to be true, usually are. In Mossfire, the first R&P Labs mystery, the five scientists-turned-detectives - Rob, Phil, Ellis, Virginia and Mitch - match wits with a mint-sucking millionaire as their supposedly innocent project leads to an unexplained death, a fire and a search for a weapon of moss destruction.

Back in the swinging '60s, Neil Brewer and Virginia McClain were lovers. Four decades on, Neil is recovering from a heart attack and his thoughts return to Virginia, now the senior bacteriologist at R&P Labs. He suggests a romantic reunion but Virginia turns him down, only to find when Neil is murdered that he has left a substantial legacy to the lab. But there's a catch; to receive it, they must first solve a series of clues. In the second R&P Labs mystery, the scientific quintet reluctantly embark on their treasure hunt and try to track down Neil's killer, as Ellis fends off the attentions of an amorous chocolatier, Mitch becomes a bodyguard and Rob discovers an unexpected talent for breaking and entering.

It's the season of peace on earth and goodwill toward men except at R&P Labs, which has been drawn into the middle of a feud between two Seattle seafood restaurants. A customer has died from an unusual form of food poisoning found in oysters and the restaurant where he had his last meal is in trouble. So is R&P, which had just tested their food and given them a clean bill of health. So as Christmas approaches, the R&P team -- Rob, Phil, Ellis, Virginia and Mitch -- find their scientific jobs interrupted by the need for some urgent detective work. In the third book in the series, Mitch goes undercover as a waiter as he and his colleagues join forces with an inept electrician, a Chihuahua and a seagull named Fred to solve the mystery, salvage their reputation and lay some old ghosts to rest.

It was a generous gesture for Angel Wineries to send their lawyer a complementary case of wine at Christmas, but it probably would have been better if it hadn't contained two bottles of moldy Merlot and a scribbled note pleading for help. The lawyer is intrigued, and fortunately, he knows where to go for help in solving the mystery. In the fourth R&P Labs Mystery, the scientists turned detectives -- Rob, Phil, Ellis, Virginia and Mitch -- are off on another case, this one involving a body in a wine barrel, a sexy blonde with a talent for espionage, questionable activities in the bushes and some very sour grapes.

In the fifth R&P Labs Mystery, a bachelor party camping trip takes an unexpected turn when the participants discover they are sharing their campsite with a skeleton -- a biologist who was murdered three decades earlier. As the R&P staff -- Rob, Phil, Ellis, Virginia and Mitch -- are drawn into the ensuing homicide investigation, witness after witness disappears, reputations are smeared and they begin to wonder if some things would have been better left buried.

Things are not going well at R&P Labs. Not only is there a body in the biology lab and a staff member suspected of murder, but someone has broken in and wrecked their most important piece of equipment - the coffeemaker. This is one case that is too close for comfort, so in 'Childproof', the sixth R&P Labs mystery, the team of Rob, Phil, Ellis, Virginia and Mitch swing into action again to find out what's in two mysterious bottles, why a quiet health-food advocate has a secret life as a mojito-drinking flirt, and why vitamins have turned out to be very bad for someone's health.

When Gabriel Webb volunteered for a sleep lab experiment, he didn't expect to find himself pursued by the Grim Reaper on a racing bike. And when, on a cold October morning, Rob Mangan offered a cup of hot coffee to a shivering stranger in the R&P Labs parking lot, he never dreamed what the consequences of his act of kindness would be. In the seventh R&P Labs Mystery, the scientific quintet - Rob, Phil, Ellis, Virginia and Mitch - dodge homicidal cyclists and explore the thin line between dreams and reality as Virginia contemplates retirement, Mitch contemplates fatherhood and Ellis gets in touch with his inner lumberjack.

Unusual ingredients found in their products are threatening the good reputation of Gardener's Spice & Herb Company, so R&P Labs agree to investigate. But what seems like a simple job takes a deadly twist when one member of the Gardener family has a fatal accident on an icy road and another is freeze-dried along with the herbs. In "Icefox", the eighth R&P Labs mystery, the scientific quintet of Rob, Phil, Ellis, Virginia and Mitch referee a pair of battling brothers, babysit a lively septuagenarian and find themselves on very thin ice as they race against time to discover who is killing off their clients one by one.

R&P Labs want a mass spectrometer, but their bank account is running on empty. Wealthy Jason Drake wants a product to remove barnacles from his yacht and is willing to pay handsomely for its development. It seems like an ideal trade-off until a corpse turns up on the waterfront and Drake disappears, leaving a trail of unpaid bills and furious women behind him. In "Shotglass", the ninth R&P Labs mystery, scientific sleuths Rob, Phil, Ellis, Virginia and Mitch go in search of their missing client, a mission complicated by a vanishing aquarium, virtual pirates and a very considerate burglar.

The five R&P Labs staff members travel south for a three-day scientific conference in San Diego, expecting nothing more exciting than sunshine, salsa and swimming pools. At least, they certainly aren't expecting one staff member to disappear and another to become a murder suspect when a controversial and unpopular scientist is found dead in his hotel room. In 'Pushover', the tenth R&P Labs mystery, Rob, Phil, Ellis, Virginia and Mitch find that although they have traded the rainy Northwest for sunny California, they haven't lost their ability to stumble over homicides, and now they're caught up in a mystery whose solution is closer to home than they realize.

Property developer Leslie Henderson wants to demolish a quirky 1940s building and erect a modern office block in its place. But the building happens to be occupied by R&P Labs, and in 'Bedrock', the eleventh mystery in the series, its staff members face their biggest challenge yet. Mitch has an explosive evening, Phil hits a rocky patch and Virginia finally gets a piece of the action as the five scientific sleuths race the wrecker's ball to uncover a secret that will rip a family apart and cost two people their lives.

A simple, lucrative project to grow ferns seems an attractive proposition for R&P Labs, but that's before Florida botanist Grayson Quayle travels 3,000 miles to attach himself to the lab, bringing with him a pile of unwelcome personal baggage. The R&P staff would like to see the last of Quayle, but it appears that they're not the only ones. When arsenic from a scientific project is put to an unscientific use, Rob, Phil, Ellis, Virginia and Mitch find themselves involved in another criminal case, with a list of suspects including a wife with a grievance, an investigator with an agenda and a blackmailer with an unusual demand. Uprooted is the twelfth novel in the R&P Labs Mystery series.

The five staff members of R&P Laboratories have an unfortunate habit of getting involved in criminal investigations when they should be pursuing scientific activities. In these four short stories, Rob, Phil, Ellis, Virginia and Mitch tackle four mysteries involving a possibly poisoned pie, an unusual Christmas present, a harmonica-playing uncle and a stolen Volkswagen Beetle. These four stories - 'Halfbaked', 'Potluck', 'Livewire' and 'Scoreboard', were previously published under their individual titles.

The R&P Labs staff members are planning their Christmas potluck lunch when a stranger arrives on the doorstep with an announcement that threatens to turn several lives upside down. 'Tis the season to be wary, and in this short story, the five scientific sleuths have to do some rapid research to discover whether one of them will be getting a very unusual Christmas present.

A street party on a hot summer evening takes a deadly turn when one of the revelers dies, apparently from food poisoning. But there's more to the death than first meets the eye, and the five R&P Labs staff members find themselves drawn into a case of love, loathing and lemon meringue pie. 'Half baked' is a short story of about 16,500 words. It also appears in the collection 'Four by Five' and introduced Zukie Merlino, who then insisted on being featured in her own full-length novels.