Scottsdale’s favorite investigator, Laura Black, returns in a new thrilling romantic mystery. In her latest adventure, Laura Black has teamed up with sexy movie star Stig Stevens. He has a problem floating in his pool and it quickly becomes Laura’s problem as well. Next, a mysterious Australian burglar and a group of sinister foreign mercenaries come in to add to the chaos. Fortunately, Sophie and Gina are there to lend a helping hand and keep the bad guys at bay. If that weren’t enough, the gorgeous Max wants to work with Laura on a top-secret project for his crime organization. Unfortunately, this doesn’t sit very well with Reno, the hot Scottsdale Detective. What's a Scottsdale girl to do?
With equal parts of humor, romance, and adventure, Scottsdale Sting is the perfect book for a day at the beach or a night by the fire.
I'm thrilled to announce that Kristy Piper, our favorite Scottsdale wedding planner, has taken up residence in Aloha Lagoon! After the crazy events of Scottsdale Silence, Kristy has finally achieved her lifelong dream of moving to paradise. She took a job in Hawaii as the Aloha Lagoon resort wedding planner on the gorgeous island of Kauai. Sun, surf, sandy beaches, and glowing brides...what could possibly go wrong?
Turns out, everything.
Want to know more? Check out Hula Homicide, the latest book in the Aloha Lagoon Mystery Series. This series is written by several bestselling authors, including Leslie Langtry, Beth Prentice, and Cathern Bruns. Each is a complete stand-alone novel, or you can read them one after the other.
As for me, halfway through a successful career in technical writing, marketing, and sales, along with having four beautiful children, I veered into fiction. For The Scottsdale Series, I tried to combine my love of the desert, derived from sixteen years of living in Arizona, with my appreciation of the modern romantic detective story. I hope you like the results!
Thanks to all for the great comments and questions. As always, I'd love to hear from you.
I can't stop reading these great stories! Please keep writing! The I'm world needs Laura Black and her friends! Its pretty cold where I'm at I could use a little Arizona heat! I'm heading to book 6 Scottsdale Shuffle. Good stories,likable characters,always a little humor,no explicit sex but a bit of fun and romance. Really like hearing all the new bits about Arizona. Recommend this book and entire series so far! Scottsdale Shuffle starting now!
This book has its ups and its downs. I love the characters and the way new characters get introduced into this series. This book has a lot of different things going on and a lot of different characters, so it wasn't an "easy" one to follow for me. I enjoy this series, but this isn't one I will reread.
Love, love, love the Laura Black series. Scottsdale Sting is a complex exciting mystery with many twist and turns. Ugh, poor Laura loses her Mercedes in this one.
This writes is pretty darned good in terms of mysfery, suspense and frienships. The romance is minimal and sometimes it doesn't set well with me but we finally get some changes and I hope things continue to move forward and keep going that way.
Laura Black and crew at Lenny Shapiro's office are back! This time they are excited to represent a real Hollywood star, Stig Stevens. Stig comes into the office the morning after he had a party at his home out by Camelback mountain. Although he went to bed, the party continued until the wee hours. When Stig went downstairs he found a problem... Not knowing what to do, he called his friend (Muffy Sternwood) for a recommendation for the best attorney in town, and drove straight to Lenny's office. Since Lenny is in court, Laura and Sophie have Stig sign a contract and convince him to take them to his home to see what they can do. Thus Laura begins investigating one of the strangest cases they have had.
Although a murder involving Stig is an important part of the case, it soon becomes clear that other factors are involved. Stig and cast have just returned from shooting a "Hammer" movie in Shanghai where cast and crew members were all given souvenirs. Somewhere around the time of the party, Stig's jade souvenir and the exquisite wooden chest it came in are stolen or given away to a guest. Laura becomes involved with a shady character who is trying to retrieve the jade. Meanwhile Tony and Max want Laura to negotiate for them with none other than Danielle, her enemy in the Mexican cartel. Unbeknownst to anyone but Laura, Danielle is actually the head of the cartel. As much as she doesn't want to do it, she knows she must say yes to Tony.
If this isn't enough action for Laura, there are two other parties trying to retrieve the jade statue, and she gets threatened and kidnapped because of that. Secret meetings with Danielle, trying to connect with Reno and having problems with their relationship, then floundering about Max on top of Stig's problems makes it a wild 12 days for Laura. The fast paced story is interspersed with time spent at home with her cat and neighbor, Grandma Peckham, which is a whole other story.
This is the fifth book in the series, and Laura Black gets better and better at investigating. She is an interesting character and I enjoy seeing what she is up to and how she handles different situations. The mob (Tony and Max) takes a back seat to Lenny's case in this book, and even Laura's socializing is less than other books. Perhaps it is because there are so many directions that this case is going. Or perhaps Laura just doesn't have much spare time! Whatever the reason for the changes in this book, they just make her a better investigator and a stronger character. I can't wait to see what will happen next!
Poor Laura - a dead body, a movie star, a kidnapping, & international intrigue - it all comes together to make one seriously funny & deadly serious mystery. So fasten your seatbelts you're in for a wild ride!