BOOK 1: THE WINTER WIDOW High-flying career cop Susan Donovan never expected to wind up in Hampstead, Kansas. But she moved here to be with the man she loves. Then, one freezing cold morning, six weeks after their wedding, Dan is gunned down by a sniper. Killed in the line of duty. Can she track down her husband’s murderer?
BOOK 2: A LESSON IN MURDER Professor Carena Egersund is out walking in the woods, when a dog comes bounding over. Carena looks for the owner — and spots a dead body floating face-down in the creek! Then a second body surfaces, in an equally watery grave, and Susan realizes the clock is ticking to catch a ruthless killer . . .
BOOK 3: A PRESCRIPTION FOR MURDER The medical center waiting room is deserted. Except for Susan Wren and feverish little Jen Bryant. Suddenly, a gunshot rings out, killing Dr Dorothy and critically wounding Jen. Susan couldn’t protect little Jen from the bullet. Now she will do whatever it takes to catch the elusive shooter. Dr Dorothy wasn’t short of enemies. What skeletons hide in their respectable family closet?
BOOK 4: TAKE TWO There’s a Hollywood crew in town. On day one of the shoot, stunt double, Kay, must film a brutal murder scene. When the cameras stop rolling, Kay’s left lying in a pool of blood. The crew race over — to find there’s nothing fake about this murder! Police chief Susan Wren is determined to find out. Can she solve the case before the killer returns for the final cut?
BOOK 5: A COLD CHRISTMAS Single mom Caley James has three kids, a good-for-nothing ex and the flu. When her furnace dies, she thinks Christmas can’t get worse. Until her youngest finds a dead body in the basement. Police Chief Susan Wren is on the case. But she soon realizes Caley’s busybody neighbor knows more than they’re letting on. Are they hiding a secret — or hiding a killer?
BOOK 6: UP IN SMOKE Police Chief Susan’s never been so pleased to see her cousin, footloose reporter Sean Donovan. He turns up out of the blue to tell Susan he’s on to something big — a dark secret in the governor’s murky past! A woman’s battered body is then found, locked in the trunk of an abandoned Mustang. She scours the trunk for evidence — to find Sean’s business card. Stained with blood . . .
Charlene Weir was born in Nortonville, Kansas. She grew up in Hutchinson, Kansas. After graduating from nurses' training she attended the University of Oklahoma and worked as a public health nurse. She is the creator of "Susan Wren", police chief in Hampstead, Kansas.
They're certainly compelling reading with well-drawn characters and the usual abundance of false trails, misleading clues, etc. But as the stories got darker and darker I wasn't so sure "cozy" applied. I thought the essence of cozy mysteries was to kill off less well-known characters or at least unlikeable ones, preferably off stage, so the focus is on the unravelling of the puzzle. Making me care about characters, putting them in jeopardy, and then bumping them off isn't what I expected. Methinks the author has veered closer to the "psychological thriller" genre.
The final story was hard to read because of all the political stuff. The rest of the story was interesting and ended well. If it had not been, I wouldn't have finished the story.
Interesting Stories but Too Much Bashing of Kansans and Kansas Weather
While the mysteries had interesting twists, the author spent an inordinate amount of time describing weather in Kansas. As someone who lives in Kansas City, we do have four distinct seasons but the weather is not nearly as volatile or unpredictable as the author portrays and it took away from the story lines.
I really enjoyed several of these ‘books’, but two were difficult to ‘get into’. I had difficulty keeping the characters straight in the last one. Still, I enjoyed reading them!!