The Hannah Ives Mysteries Series

The bride thought they’d live happily ever after — until a murderer struck….

The guests were off the wall. The would-be groom was off the wagon. And the bride certainly wasn’t blushing.

Aside from that, it was the perfect occasion: a party for Hannah Ives’s widowed father and the younger woman he had suddenly decided to marry. Then the evening takes a strange turn, with a sudden death and disappearance.

For Hannah, the stunning turn of events came after a Christmas season slide into anger and confusion. First her father had found a floozy who had already buried three husbands. Then her late mother’s jewelry started showing up around the gold digger’s neck.

Now Hannah, who has just put her life together after a bout with cancer, is desperately searching for her missing father. Because this poor man has either made a terrible mistake, committed a terrible crime, or fallen victim to a killer who seized the moment for murder….

Is the key to a therapist’s murder hidden away…in a patient’s mind?

Is a shrink’s death fall a Freudian slip?

Hannah Ives has every reason to mind her own business. Having survived a recent bout with breast cancer, she’s opting for reconstructive surgery and a fresh start. Her Annapolis home is decorated for better feng shui. Her parents are living close by. And her sister, Georgina, is finally getting help for recurring depression. Everything is coming up roses-until her sister’s therapist takes a nosedive off a balcony.

Now, with Georgina a prime suspect in the murder, Hannah needs to do some analysis of her own. A few pages torn from an appointment book may hold a crucial clue. And some bizarre memories from her sister’s past may point to a motive…if Hannah can keep a clear head and dare to enter the darkness of a killer’s twisted mind….

Winner of the 1998 Malice Domestic Grant • “Marcia Talley’s terrific debut novel has wit, warmth, and a spunky new heroine who must not be missed.”—Sujata Massey, Agatha-winning author of The Salaryman’s Wife

She lost her job. She almost lost her life. Now Hannah Ives is taking her first brave steps back into the world, wearing a wig and her heart on her sleeve after a frightening bout with breast cancer. But in the small Chesapeake Bay town where she came for a vacation, she does not find the relaxation she deserves. Instead Hannah finds a body — of a girl who disappeared eight years before.

Suddenly Hannah is asking hard questions of the good and solid citizens of Pearson’s Corner, peering behind the facade of the perfect small town and piecing together the last days of a girl who died on her high school homecoming night—a girl about the same age as Hannah’s own daughter. Uncovering some dangerous secrets, Hannah can feel her own spirit and body surging back to life. After all, she beat death once. Now, with a killer on the loose, she has to face an even deadlier foe. . . .

“A shining new talent . . . Hannah Ives tackles life’s up and downs with humor, intelligence, and courage.”—Deborah Crombie, Macavity Award-winning author of Dreaming of the Bones