The Benni Harper Mysteries

Benni Harper is a young widow who works at a folk art museum in San Celina, a California coastal town. Raised on a ranch by her father and her beloved grandmother Dove, Benni is spunky, intelligent and resourceful. While Benni is trying to put together a quilt show at the museum, a potter is killed and Benni tries to find out who did it.

In this outing Benni has her hands full at work planning a cross-stitch exhibit, a Senior Citizen's Prom and an oral history project. And if that’s not enough on her plate she discovers not one, but two bodies and she investigates against the wishes of her new love, Chief of Police Gabe Ortiz.

This time around newly married Benni travels to Kansas to meet her in-laws, the Ortiz family. While in Kansas Benni becomes embroiled in finding out who killed Gabe’s friends country singer girlfriend.

Oh dear. A storytelling festival and one of the story tellers is murdered.

Benni’s wonderful Southern cousin Emory is in town for a big family gathering that's taking place at the family ranch. Benni’s grandmother Dove figures prominently in this delightful outing, And guess what? There’s a new man in Dove’s life.

A strange inheritance leads Benni to unsettling information about her deceased mother in this suspenseful outing.

Benni takes her husband Gabe and her best friend Elvia back to Arkansas, where both she and her grandmother Dove were born.

In this outing Benni’s black childhood friend is running for mayor against a man whose son is a white supremacist. The son will do just about anything to see that a black woman does not win the office of mayor in this small town. The son is found with his head bashed in and Benni’s friend’s nephew is the prime suspect.

The author does a wonderful job of incorporating serious statements about racism in the story. On a lighter note there is a new development in the relationship between Elvia and Benni’s cousin Emory.

Meet Benni’s delightful 19-year old stepson Sam Ortiz in book number eight in this lively series. Sam wants to get married to the daughter of a prominent San Celina rancher. The daughter also happens to be a cop that works for Gabe’s dad, who is not too pleased with his son’s decision. The reader will also get to meet Gabe’s ex-wife in this book.

In this outing Benni is all caught up in wedding preparations for two weddings of people she adores: her best friend Elvia and her cousin Emory, and her grandmother is getting married after forty years of being a widow. This time Benni ends up trying to solve a 50-year old mystery and the reader finds out the identity of Benni’s secret admirer.

Both Benni and Gabe have old friends visiting and Gabe’s old police friend ends up murdered. Interspersed with the mystery, the reader will get to see how Benni’s grandmother Dove is enjoying married life as well as Elvia and Emory’s life as newlyweds.

Benni’s friend and her husband have opened a dude ranch — the 'Broken DIS' — and it's about to go belly up. Benni agrees to help her friends at the ranch and things go well until one of the ranch dogs digs up a human bone on the property. And to throw a little sizzle into the story Benni catches the eye of Detective “Hud” Hudson. The clever back-and-forth between Benni and Hud is too much fun to miss.

Benni finds herself “volunteered” to take over the directing of a children’s play at the church. Rehearsals come to a halt when Benni finds the church handyman’s dead body in the front pew of the church. With only a little girl as a witness Benni must figure out who committed the murder before its curtains for the play.

Christmas is just a few weeks away and Benni’s demanding boss insists that she investigate the possible murder of a local socialite. And she thought she had enough to do preparing for a new exhibit and with her mother-in-law and her surprise new husband coming for Christmas.