USA Today Bestselling author Tonya Kappes brings you southern and quirky characters in her mystery series. Her stories are charged with humor, friendship, family and life in small southern towns.
Welcome to Normal, Kentucky where NOTHING is normal.
Abby Fawn, the librarian, cannot believe her luck. Her favorite romance author, Nadine White, has rented a cozy camper at the Happy Trails Campground for the winter months.
Abby is devastated. She discovers Nadine White is nothing like the person she portrays in interviews. Nadine is also different from how she presents herself on social media. In fact, Nadine White is not nice at all. Abby lets her feelings be known. She thinks Nadine is a fraud. . .after she finds out Nadine has a ghost writer.
When Nadine White is found dead in the Normal Library, Abby Fawn is Detective Hank Sharp’s number one suspect.
It’s time for Mae West to put up her camping gear for the winter months. It’s also time to put on her sleuthing gear. She needs to figure out who is framing Abby Fawn. Mae must act before Abby becomes the ending in Nadine White’s final chapter.
Festival-set Southern cozy mystery at a campground
Welcome to Normal, Kentucky—where nothing is ever normal, especially during a holiday weekend.
It’s Labor Day at Happy Trails Campground, one of the busiest times of the year for campers, RV travelers, and local businesses. But the holiday rush takes a dark turn when Daniel Boone National Park faces possible closure due to a drought—and the one person with the power to shut it all down is found murdered.
With the campground at the center of the investigation, suspicion falls on both locals and visitors alike. If the park closes, Normal’s small businesses won’t survive. This scenario gives nearly everyone a motive. It turns a packed campground into a pool of suspects.
Mae West is determined to uncover the truth before the fallout destroys the town she’s grown to love. As rumors spread and tensions rise, Mae digs into campground politics, local grudges, and secrets hiding behind friendly campfire smiles.
A Southern cozy mystery is filled with small-town gossip, holiday chaos, and amateur sleuthing. It’s perfect for readers who love campground settings, festival weekends, and clean whodunits with heart.
A small-town cozy mystery with a quirky amateur sleuth, a murdered nanny, and a pampered show poodle at the center of the case—Normal, Kentucky has another problem on its hands.
Mae West is settling into her new life. She is the owner of Happy Trails Campground. At the campground, RV living, Southern hospitality, and gossip all travel fast. Normal is usually quiet this time of late summer. However, chaos erupts in the town when Mae takes a cleaning job at the mansion of heiress Tammy Jo Bentley. With the Kentucky Kennel Association’s annual gathering about to descend on the estate, even the poodle has security.
Fifi Bentley—prized, pampered, insured, and treated like royalty—is set to charm every top breeder in the region. But when Fifi’s devoted nanny, Camille Braun, is found murdered just days before the big event, Normal’s newest scandal threatens both the kennel show and the town’s reputation.
Tammy Jo begs Mae to help uncover the truth. Mae has already shown she is talented at solving small-town mysteries. This delights the Laundry Club Ladies but frustrates the sheriff. Local tourism, business, and Happy Trails itself are on the line. Mae refuses to let a killer ruin the town she’s finally come to call home.
With the Laundry Club Ladies sleuthing at her side, Mae digs into a world of dog-show politics. She encounters jealous rivals and unravels small-town secrets. The victim may have been hiding more than anyone realized.
In Normal, Kentucky, nothing is simple—unless you count murder. And Mae West is determined to sniff out the truth before another body turns up.
A warm, witty, Southern cozy mystery in development for a Hallmark Channel television adaptation, perfect for readers who love quirky characters, small-town secrets, and a dash of homicide with their hospitality.
Small-town Southern charm, a down-on-her-luck amateur sleuth, and a campground with a murder problem—Normal, Kentucky is anything but normal.
Mae West loses everything after her husband’s massive Ponzi scheme collapses. She’s left with something she never asked for: a rundown campground in Kentucky. There’s also a set of old camper keys. Determined to rebuild her life, Mae heads to Normal hoping for peace, quiet, and maybe a little sweet tea.
Instead, she gets FBI agents, furious townspeople, and a dead body floating in her own lake.
Now Mae is the number-one suspect in a murder she didn’t commit, and the only way to clear her name is to team up with the quirky locals—including the Laundry Club Ladies, a gossip-loving group of sleuths who treat crime-solving like a community sport. Mae encounters suspicious neighbors. She discovers buried town secrets. The sheriff is equal parts handsome and exasperated. Mae quickly learns that her new home comes with more mysteries than amenities.
But if there’s one thing Mae refuses to lose again…it’s her freedom.
A Camper & Criminals Cozy Mystery is a warm, witty, Southern whodunit series now in development for a Hallmark Channel television adaptation. Perfect for readers who love small-town secrets, clever amateur sleuths, and mysteries served with humor, friendship, and a touch of homicide.
The rabbi looks into a professor’s death, in the New York Times–bestselling series that’s “the American equivalent of the British cozy” (Booklist). Rabbi Small has retired from his job at the synagogue in Barnard’s Crossing, Massachusetts. He now teaches Judaic studies at a Boston college. The rabbi finally enjoys theological contemplation without the annoyance of temple politics. He is shocked when one of his colleagues is found dead in his car. The clues at the scene point to murder.
The deceased English professor was notoriously selfish. He held long-standing grudges against other members of the faculty. Therefore, the list of suspects is long. But the rabbi who took over Small’s position in Barnard’s Crossing is implicated. Small must clear his name. He needs to find the true killer one last time.
Editorial Reviews
Review
“Vintage Kemelman—clean prose, quiet wit, absorbing characters, and revealing conversations, with David’s discourses on Judaism as fascinating as ever.” —Publishers Weekly
“Ingenious . . . Highly recommended.” —TheNew York Times on Thursday the Rabbi Walked Out
“A first-rate mystery.” —The New Yorker on Friday the Rabbi Slept Late
From the Publisher
When I was a young boy, the first real mystery I ever read was FRIDAY THE RABBI SLEPT LATE. I loved reading about a rabbi solving crimes. When I went to temple while studying for my Bar Mitzvah, during the rabbi’s sermons I’d try to imagine him catching the myriad murderers in Barnard’s Crossing; somehow, he just wasn’t quite Rabbi David Small. And it was more than just the Jewish protagonist that drew me to the writing of Harry Kemelman; it was the spirit with which he told the story. When I came to Ballantine, I was so happy to be able to work on these terrific books. Unfortunately, Mr. Kemelman passed away shortly after THAT DAY THE RABBI LEFT TOWN was published. There may be no more new Rabbi David Small mysteries coming, but that won’t prevent me from revisiting an old friend, time and time again.
Mark Rifkin, Managing Editorial
From the Inside Flap
Times Book Review called Harry Kemelman’s last Rabbi Small novel, The Day the Rabbi Resigned, “a deft murder mystery. . .very smooth and wonderfully sly.” Now, in The Day the Rabbi Left Town, America’s most unorthodox detective deserts his old haunts for new challenges. But the more things change the more they stay the same, especially where murder is concerned. . . .
Having resigned as rabbi of Barnard’s Crossing Temple, Rabbi David Small is delighted to accept the newly created post of Professor of Judaic Studies at Windermere College in Boston. The position is just what he wanted, even though the English faculty, with whom he is temporarily domiciled, appears oddly unsettled by his presence.
Nevertheless, when an elderly English professor disappears during a snowy Thanksgiving weekend, no one expects him to turn up dead. Professor Kent’s body is found in a snowdrift–very near the home of an English Department colleague and the home of Barnard’s Crossing’s new r
About the Author
Harry Kemelman (1908–1996) was best known for his popular rabbinical mystery series featuring the amateur sleuth Rabbi David Small. Kemelman wrote twelve novels in the series. The first of these, Friday the Rabbi Slept Late, won the Edgar Award for Best First Novel. This book was also adapted as an NBC made-for-TV movie. The Rabbi Small Mysteries inspired the NBC television show Lanigan’s Rabbi. Kemelman’s novels garnered praise for their unique combination of mystery and Judaism. With Rabbi Small, the author created a protagonist. Rabbi Small played a part-time detective with wit and charm. Kemelman also wrote a series of short stories about Nicky Welt. Nicky Welt was a college professor who used logic to solve crimes. The stories were published in a collection entitled The Nine Mile Walk.
Aside from being an award-winning novelist, Kemelman, originally from Boston, was also an English professor.
Book Reviews by the Reluctant Retiree 