Most Popular Books by Earlene Fowler

Leaving behind memories of her late husband, Benni Harper is making a fresh start...Moving to the trendy California town of San Celina, she takes an exciting new job as director of a folk-art museum. While setting up an exhibit of handmade quilts, she stumbles upon the body of a brutally stabbed artist. Hoping to conduct an investigation on her own, she crosses paths with the local police chief, who thinks this short and sassy cowgirl should leave detecting to the cops and join him for dinner. But it''s hard to keep a country girl down, and soon Benni uncovers an alarming pattern of family secrets, small-town lies--and the shocking truth about the night her husband died...

Benni and her relatives and friends are gathered for the family''s annual barbecue and cattle roundup. Among the guests is Shelby Johnson, a young photography student from a wealthy Chicago family. In Benni she finds a favorite subject and a new friend. But when the young woman''s body is discovered on the ranch the next morning, Benni''s closest relatives suddenly develop into prime murder suspects...

When the musical director of Benni Harper''s church is called away, Benni is dragged into a musical mission of mercy in which murder hits a sour note.

After a whirlwind marriage to San Celina Police Chief Gabe Ortiz, Benni Harper is excited to visit her Kansas hometown. At a rowdy backyard barbecue, she meets Tyler Brown, an aspiring country singer with a promising future--and a fascinating past. Once, Tyler had lived the simple Amish life. Now she''s determined to make it on her own selling her exquisite handmade quilts. But Tyler''s gifts--and her life--are cut short when she''s murdered. Out of his jurisdiction, Gabe is frustrated to sit on the sidelines while his friends are investigated by his own sleuthing wife. And Benni realizes that her hasty marriage will be much like Kansas weather: unpredictable and bound to be stormy...

Ruby McGavin has inherited part of a cattle ranch from her late husband, only to discover that his family is very much alive, in contrast to what he told her. Even as she is drawn to handsome saddlemaker Lucas McGavin, she learns more about her late husband''s family-and wonders if she ever really knew him. Piecing together the truth, Ruby uncovers a legacy of pain and denial that has pursued the McGavin family for too long.

Benni stitches together an event from her past and a crime in the present.

Living a solitary life as a writer for a regional magazine and pondering past events that ripped her family apart, Love Mercy Johnson gets a chance at redemption when her granddaughter unexpectedly arrives at her door and gives her the opportunity to heal old wounds.

Ninth in the Agatha Award-winning series that''s been hailed as engrossing, Steps to the Altar finds California folk art expert Benni Harper preparing for two upcoming weddings, digging up clues to a decades-old unsolved murder-and struggling with a very personal crisis of the heart...

Soon after arriving in Sugartree, Arkansas—where she spent many lazy, languid childhood summers—folk art expert Benni Harper discovers that there''s something seriously sinister brewing in this usually-peaceful town...

To claim an inheritance that a mysterious stranger left her, Benni must delve into the secrets of her own past--and a place she once called home.

Meet Benni Harper…a spirited ex-cowgirl, quilter, and folk-art expert who’s staking out her own corner of the contemporary American West. She’s got an eye for murderous designs—and a talent for piecing together the most complex and cold-blooded crimes. When Benni’s stepson announces his plans to marry into the wealthy, influential Brown family, she and her husband are invited to the Browns’ sprawling ranch, Seven Sisters, to celebrate the engagement. But the party takes a tragic turn when a member of the esteemed family is murdered. While trying to unravel the feuding clan’s tangled past, Benni uncovers a shocking pattern of tragedy—and stitches a hodgepodge of clues into a very disturbing design. . . Seven Sisters, a challenging pattern that features a single six-pointed star surrounded by six identical stars, was most likely inspired by an observation of nature—the Seven Sisters is a loose grouping of stars in the constellation Taurus. Although the stars in the cluster appear to be close together, they are, in fact, quite far apart.

Folk art museum curator, rancher and sometime sleuth Benni Harper is back in an unforgettable new mystery, organizing a Memory Festival. But a sniper threatens to make it a day to remember in the worst way… Benni and the ladies of her Coffin Star Quilt Guild are excited to display their Graveyard Quilt at the first ever San Celina, California, Memory Festival. The fair promises to be a moving event celebrating memories through quilts, crafts, scrapbooks, photographs, written word, oral histories, and tributes to loved ones. But when a local cop is wounded by a mysterious sharp shooter with a vendetta against the police, Benni fears for her loved ones—especially her police chief husband, Gabe. Soon Benni is drawn into the search for the sniper, determined to make her hometown safe again…before their peaceful street fair becomes a shooter’s deadly target range.

Benni Harper—spirited ex-cowgirl, quilter, and folk art expert—finds herself on the trail of a storybook killer in this mystery from Agatha Award-nominee Earlene Fowler. Hoping to relax after solving a murder in Wichita, Kansas, Beni and her new husband Gabe Ortiz are back in San Celina, California. But while Benni is jogging in the park, she happens upon the dead body of a library storyteller. It''s an odd and disturbing scene—the woman is still dressed in her Mother Goose costume, lying facedown in the lake. Benni''s investigation takes her inside the Storyteller''s Guild, where she finds out that Mother Goose was telling more than fairy tales. She was capable of airing the kind of secrets that destroy lives—and inspire revenge...

Meet Benni Harper...a spirited ex-cowgirl, quilter, and folk-art expert who''s staking out her own corner of the contemporary American West. She''s got an eye for murderous designs--and a talent for piecing together the most complex and cold-blooded crimes. Benni''s taking time from her job at the folk-art museum to sponsor a "senior prom" at San Celina''s retirement home. During the dance, she''s surprised to find herself waltzing with Clay O''Hara, the Colorado cowboy she had a crush on when she was seventeen. She''s even more surprised when Clay''s uncle and an elderly woman are found dead in one of the residents'' rooms. Now Benni''s trying to find a link between the two victims--and the common thread that bound them together in death...

"Each Benni Harper mystery is better than the previous" (Midwest Book Review) Folk art museum curator, rancher, and sometime sleuth Benni Harper returns with a long-awaited new mystery that has her attending the San Celina Mid-State Fair-a place for caramel apples and 4-H calves, colorful quilts and homemade jams, and maybe just a little murder...

In the new novel in the “breezy [and] humorous” (Chicago Sun-Times) series, Benni Harper is carrying a bundle of holiday stress—as she unwraps the secrets of an elite and possibly murderous society… San Celina’s most exclusive society suddenly has an opening and Benni Harper has been tapped—not to join, but to investigate. The upper crust, female-only “49 Club” is restricted to exactly that many members, and one must die before another joins. When the latest socialite de-pledges in her sleep, Benni’s boss wants the mystery solved—and naturally, it’s landed on Benni’s to-do list. Reluctant at first, she profiles a few women whose social ambitions give them an obvious motive. But with a famously reclusive artist about to put Benni’s quilting museum on the map—and her daunting mother-in-law soon to arrive—Benni’s holiday is already hectic. Nevertheless, she’ll need to crack this exclusive circle of suspects, before one more gourmet goose gets cooked. “Benni delves into the secrets of the town''s elite with her usual flair, unraveling a plot that is as dangerous as the bulls on her father''s ranch and as cozy as the quilts she reveres.”—Publishers Weekly “The rich cast of secondary characters [and] plenty of humor…enrich this thirteenth in the long-running series.”—Booklist

In this heartwarming follow-up to Earlene Fowler’s national bestseller, The Saddlemaker’s Wife, Ruby McGavin returns to the small town of Cardinal, California, where a year ago she brought her husband’s ashes back to his family’s ranch, and discovered safety, peace, and love... Back in Cardinal, Ruby is hoping the place and people who gave her so much can give her brother, Nash—who’s been drowning in drink in Nashville—the fresh start he so desperately needs. Saddlemaker Lucas McGavin is thrilled that Ruby is back. He hasn’t given up on his love for her, despite the awkward fact that she’s his brother’s widow—and that this may be his last chance to win Ruby’s heart. When Nash starts drinking again and has a devastating accident, Ruby seeks out their estranged mother to help with an intervention, not realizing that Etta Walker harbors a horrible secret that keeps her from reconnecting with the children she deserted so many years ago. As Ruby, Lucas, and Etta struggle with the present and confront the past, they each learn the power of forgiveness…and reach for a new future filled with hope, grace, and love.

When Benni Harper''s friend passes away, he leaves his Broken DIS ranch to his daughter Shawna and her husband. Instead of raising cattle, the couple decides to turn it into a dude ranch. And while their intentions may be good, business is not. Leave it to Benni and her family to come to the rescue. Her plan? To tempt vacationers with a quilting and western extravaganza. It works. And soon, Benni and her family are cooking, quilting, and horseback riding with a whole slew of western tenderfoots." But the west gets a little too wild when one of the ranch dogs discovers a human bone on the property. It''s enough to scare any reasonable guest away. To top it off, there''s a rumor that one of the visitors is a nationally known travel writer, secretly working on a write-up. A bad review could easily kill business. Before long, Benni''s old nemesis, Detective Ford "Hud" Hudson, is on board investigating. Together they uncover the remains of a murdered man buried in a shallow grave. Now, Benni must keep the guests safe and happy while unearthing the truth behind a terrible crime.

Nichts mag Benni Harper lieber, als Geheimnissen und ungelösten Kriminalfällen auf den Grund zu gehen. Deshalb ist sie Feuer und Flamme, als sie völlig unerwartet Haus und Vermögen eines ihr unbekannten Mannes erbt. Ehe Benni das Erbe von Jacob Chandler antreten kann, muss sie allerdings eine Zeit lang allein in diesem Haus wohnen. Schon bald stellt sie fest, dass der Verstorbene sehr viel von ihr wusste. Und direkt nach ihrem Einzug geschehen allerlei merkwürdige Dinge: Sie findet Blut auf der Türklinke, die Garage brennt ab, sie wird verfolgt. Doch Benni lässt sich nicht abschrecken, sondern ist fest entschlossen, herauszufinden, wer der alte Mann war und warum er gerade ihr sein Vermögen vererbt hat. Doch die Lösung reißt alte Wunden wieder auf ...

Benni Harper ermittelt weiter! Hochspannung aus Kalifornien: Ein Mitglied der wohlhabenden Brown-Familie wird erschossen, während Benni Harper bei den Browns zu Gast ist. Benni beginnt sofort zu ermitteln. Sie stellt fest, dass die Familie ein Geheimnis hat und erpresst wird, und schnell wird klar, dass der Mörder kein Problem damit haben wird, eine neugierige Ermittlerin umzubringen, wenn sie ihm auf die Schliche kommen sollte. Aber Benni lässt sich nicht einschüchtern und stößt schließlich auf das schreckliche und unsagbar traurige Geheimnis der Brown-Familie.

Benni in Gefahr! Das Wiedersehen mit der berühmten Krimiautorin Emma Baldwin, die in ihre einstige Heimatstadt San Celina zurückgekehrt ist, birgt für Benni Harper viele Erinnerungen an eine sehr unbeschwerte Zeit in ihrem Leben. Aber dann wird ein alter Freund ihres Mannes ermordet und Benni selbst verfolgt und bedroht! Benni, die doch eigentlich für ihr Leben gern Nachforschungen anstellt, weiß nicht mehr, worum sie sich zuerst kümmern soll - doch so langsam stellt sich heraus, dass es eine Verbindung zwischen diesen Ereignissen geben muss - und wieviel Macht die Vergangenheit haben kann ...

Zwei Hochzeiten und ein Todesfall Benni hat alle Hände voll zu tun, denn sowohl ihre beste Freundin Elvia als auch ihre Großmutter Dove heiraten. Und dann sind da auch noch die Koffer von Maple Sullivan, die Benni für das Museum begutachten soll. Die junge Journalistin soll in den Vierzigerjahren ihren Ehemann erschossen haben und verschwand danach spurlos. Doch als Benni Maples Tagebücher und Briefe liest, ist sie sich sicher, dass die junge Frau ihren Mann nicht umgebracht hat. Sie fängt an nachzuforschen und stößt auf eine große Liebe und ein dunkles Geheimnis ...

Endlich auf Deutsch - Band 2 der beliebten Benni-Harper-Serie! Benni Harper hat sich breitschlagen lassen: Neben der Ausstellung, die sie gerade für das Volkskundemuseum plant, organisiert sie auch noch einen Kostümball im Altenheim von San Celina. Am Ballabend findet sie sich auf der Tanzfläche plötzlich in den Armen ihrer Jugendliebe Clay O''Hara wieder. Doch aus der Wiedersehensfreude wird tödlicher Ernst, als Clays Onkel und Bennis ehemalige Lehrerin tot aufgefunden werden - ermordet! Doch welche Verbindung gibt es zwischen den beiden Opfern, die sich im Leben nicht einmal besonders mochten? Benni wird neugierig und muss erfahren, dass Hass nicht verjährt ... eBooks von beThrilled - mörderisch gute Unterhaltung.

Als die Organistin von San Celina das beschauliche kalifornische Städtchen plötzlich verlassen muss, erklärt Benni Harpers energische Großmutter Dove sich bereit, gemeinsam mit Benni die Proben an deren Kindertheaterstück fortzusetzen. Die Proben kommen allerdings abrupt zum Stillstand, als das Faktotum der Kirche, Walt Adams, ein freundlicher älterer Herr, grausam ermordet aufgefunden wird. Die einzige Zeugin des Mordes ist ein kleines Mädchen - und das weigert sich, etwas zu sagen. Bennis Mann Gabe warnt seine neugierige Frau, sich in den Fall einzumischen, aber die kann das Ermitteln einfach nicht lassen und findet bald heraus, dass der nette alte Mann eine dunkle Geschichte hatte ...

Benni Harper fängt nach dem tragischen Unfalltod ihres Mannes noch einmal von vorne an: Sie verlässt ihre Ranch, und zieht ins kleine kalifornische Küstenstädtchen San Celina, wo sie die Leitung des Volkskundemuseums übernimmt. Doch kaum hat sie ihren neuen Job angefangen, gerät sie in Schwierigkeiten: Während der Vorbereitungen für eine Ausstellung stößt sie auf die Leiche von Marla Chenier, einer äußerst attraktiven jungen Töpferin, die im Museum auf brutale Weise niedergestochen wurde. Aber was noch schlimmer ist: Benni sieht, wie ihre eigene Cousine Rita fluchtartig das Museum in Marlas Wagen verlässt ...

Tod auf der Familienranch. Benni hilft ihrer Freundin Shawna bei der Eröffnung ihrer neuen Ferienranch. Wer hätte denn ahnen können, dass ein Hund dort menschliche Knochen ausgräbt und sie direkt in ihren nächsten Fall stolpert? Nun muss Benni nicht nur die Eröffnungsfeierlichkeiten retten, sondern auch das Geheimnis des Toten aufdecken. Nach und nach wird klar, dass sich vor Jahren eine unfassbare Tragödie auf der Ranch abgespielt haben muss und dass auch Menschen in den Fall verwickelt sind, die Benni über alles schätzt und liebt ... eBooks von beTHRILLED - mörderisch gute Unterhaltung.

12 quilts inspired by the Benni Harper mystery seriescplus all-new stories!