LOL Mysteries

 Love Janet Evanovich but you’ve finished Dirty Thirty and can’t wait until November’s Now or Never comes out? Here are some other authors who might just tide you over: 

With a heroine named Bubbles Yablonsky, Sarah Strohmeyer dives right into laugh-out-loud land in Lehigh, Pennsylvania. Bubbles is an investigative reporter whose native costumes might include leopard print, mini-skirts and high heels.  Strohmeyer also has written several stand-alone novels, both for adult and young adult audiences. The first in the series is Bubbles Unbound.

 Jesse Q. Sutanto writes in difference genres, including some truly warm, wonderful, and very very funny mysteries.  In Dial A for Aunties, Meddelin Chan accidentally kills her blind date and has to call her mother and aunties for help. Since they love to meddle in Meddy’s life, they’re only too happy to help her dispose of a body.  Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers features another determined mother. When Vera finds a body in her tea shop, she decides she is going to solve the crime.  After all, she’s watched many, many episodes of Law & Order. On the way, she’ll take charge of her suspects’ lives in ways they could never imagine. Intended as a stand alone novel, Vera’s fans have demanded more so a second book is in the works.

Michael Lee West (otherwise known as Piper Maitland) says she was raised by a tribe of wild Southern foodies, so it’s no wonder food plays a major role in her books. A sense of humor is also standard!  There are three books in her Teeny Templeton series, the first of which is Gone with a Handsomer Man 

Elle Cosimano started out writing YA fiction before debuting her adult mystery, Finlay Donovan Is Killing It.  Finlay’s life is chaos.  She’s a recently divorced author with two small children, deadlines she isn’t going to be able to meet, and bills piling up.  When she meets her agent to pitch a non-existant new book about a hit woman, someone overhears the conversation and believes Finlay is a killer for hire. She’s offering a lot of money—a LOT.  Surely it can’t hurt or Finlay just to take a look at the guy, right? This is the first book in a laugh-out-loud series with a full slate of memorable characters. 

Meg Lanslow is a blacksmith/artist who has a knack for solving mysteries in Donna Andrews’ long running series.  She has an interesting family, to say the least.  In Murder with Peacocks, she is the default planner for three family weddings with brides who keep changing their minds. Then of course there’s a murder…. The titles all have bird themes, mostly puns such as Owl’s Well That Ends Well.    

Carl Hiaasen writes very funny mystery stories that are set in Florida. Off-beat characters and outlandish situations are hallmarks of Hiaasen’s books, which makes trying to describe them rather difficult. Just to give you an idea, one of his most popular characters is Skink, a former Florida governor who lives off the land and eats roadkill. Hiaasen does have some series, but the books can be read as standalones.  He’s also an award-winning author of children’s books. 

Sophie Littlefield’s Stella Hardesty series is about a formerly timid housewife, who finally got fed up with her husband berating and abusing her.  Ever since she took care of her husband, Stella has been doling out vigilante justice to other philandering and just plain mean men.  Stella keeps the scoundrels in line and her women friends just a little bit safer. The first in the series is A Bad Day for Sorry.

 

Newly elected sheriff of Del Sol, New Mexico, Sunshine Vicram hits the ground running as she returns to her hometown. With a teenage daughter, a bad boy ex, an elderly flasher on the loose, and a kidnapped prize rooster, Sunshine has to prove (to herself) that she can make it in her new law enforcement career in this trilogy by Darynda Jones.The first title is A Bad Day for Sunshine. 

Jaine Austen—no, not THAT Jane Austen—is a freelance writer. While that sounds fancy, it really means she takes on writing commercials, jingles, personal ads, you name it.  She is looking for love, but tends to find Chunky Monkey instead.  Subplots usually involve her cat Prozac and her parents, both of whom complain about the other to Jaine. Breezy and over the top, Jaine never met a situation she couldn’t complicate in Laura Levine’s fun series.

The Southern Sisters mystery series by Anne George features two delightful but entirely opposite sisters:  Mary Alice (“Sister”)—the flamboyant, many times married, life of the party; and Patricia Anne (“Mouse”)—the calm, retired school teacher married to the same man for forty years.  Set in Alabama, this series is laugh-out-loud funny. The first in the series is Murder on a Girls’ Night Out.