Paper, Scissors, Death

Old money and tradition are the hallmarks of the St. Louis prep school that Kiki Lowenstein's daughter Anya attends. But the elite academy is stamped with scandal when Anya finds the dead body of teacher Sissy Gilchrist in its elegant theatre. Even worse, Anya might have seen the killer.

Pegged as a shameless flirt and a lousy teacher, Sissy would've made everyone's "least popular" scrapbook page. Especially for those who were seeing red over Sissy's mixed-race romance with a colleague. Fearing her daughter is in danger, Kiki sifts through the school community's many shocking secrets to pin down the murderer, while doing all she can to avoid starring in her own memorial album.

Includes scrapbooking tips and a special offer from the sponsors of Spotted Canary!

Acclaim for the Kiki Lowenstein Scrap-N-Craft Mystery Series

Agatha Award finalist: Paper, Scissors, Death, the first Kiki Lowenstein Scrap-N-Craft mystery

"A nicely crafted cozy full of amusing moments, real-life insecurities, and scrapbooking tips."-Kirkus

 "This [series] should quickly become a favorite."-Booklist

 "Settle in for a fast-paced adventure . . ."-Emilie Richards, bestselling author of Beware False Profits 

Dumpster diving for her lost paycheck is definitely the low point of Kiki Lowenstein's day—that is, until she finds a severed leg thrown in with the trash. Who'd toss a body part in the garbage outside the scrapbook crafts store where Kiki works?

Accompanying the grisly "gift" is a creepy computerized voice message, a warning to the store's "rich and snotty" female shoppers. Kiki soon discovers that the leg belonged to Cindy Gambrowski, a customer with a tyrannical and violent husband—who's now harassing Kiki. Combing through Cindy's scrapbook projects for hidden clues, Kiki tries to find the killer. Was it a crime of marital malice, or did someone else beat Cindy's husband to the punch?

Includes holiday-themed projects and recipes!

With bills piling up and a brassy new partner at her scrapbooking shop, the last thing Kiki Lowenstein needs is a surprise visit from her browbeating mother. But when shots fired into the crowd narrowly miss Kiki at her daughter’s May Day pageant, it’s another mother—St. Louis’s wealthiest matriarch—who winds up dead.

While creating a memorial album for the murdered beer heiress, Kiki becomes bait in a dangerous trap as threats from her old foe mount against her. With help from friends in high and low places, including hunky beau Chad Detweiler, Kiki finds herself facing a grave ultimatum: catch the killer or be cropped out of her own family album.

Praise:
"Enjoyable first-person account of a single mom . . . Crafters will enjoy the project instructions peppered throughout."—Booklist

"Slan’s scrapbook mysteries are most valuable for the well-developed characters and the issues they raise."—Kirkus Reviews

Acclaim for Paper, Scissors, Death, the first
Kiki Lowenstein Scrap-N-Craft Mystery:

An Agatha Award Finalist!

"A well-turned cozy with loads of scrapbooking tips."
—Kirkus

"Settle in for a fast-paced adventure . . ."
—Emilie Richards, bestselling author of Beware False Profits

"A wonderful read."
—Crimespree Magazine

Creative Revenge

All it took was one scone. When the hot-tempered (and widely hated) hobbyist Yvonne Gaynor eats a tainted pastry at Kiki's scrapbooking crop party, it triggers an allergy that leads to Yvonne's death. Even worse, the police suspect foul play when they realize that someone tampered with the treats and swiped the victim's allergy medication.

An expert at stealing design ideas, Yvonne had enough enemies to fill a memory album. Soon, the scrapbooking community pins her murder on Kiki's friends and our ace scrapper finds herself dealing with anti-Semitic threats at the shop, a quarrelsome pre-teen daughter at home, a meddlesome mother-in-law, and constant financial pressure. Despite help from the handsome yet annoyingly coy Detective Detweiler, Kiki has her work cut out for her in solving the crime.

Includes innovative scrapbooking tips.

When Gwen Katz inherits her late uncles kosher deli, Murrays Pastrami Swami, little does she know that murder is always on the menu. Now Nashville Katz, as shes quickly nicknamed, has landed her first catering gig: Social butterfly Lolo Bakers audience-participation mystery party, where someone is “murdered” and the other guests must figure out who the killer is. Its all in good fun…until the “victim” comes crashing through the ceiling and lands—fatally—in Gwens once-tasty gravy, literally smoked to perfection.

The amateur sleuth in Gwen knows the newly deceased, Hoppy Hopewell, was in quite a pickle. He squandered his familys vast fortune while having simultaneous affairs with Nashvilles wealthiest women…many of whom were at the party. But as Gwen digs deeper, she finds the case is messier than chopped liver…and discovers that shes somehow sandwiched between her boyfriends possibly cheating heart and the deliciously handsome eyes of the detective working the case…

Eleanor knows Gregg would never have lethally bashed his own brother in the head with a pizza-rolling pin. Sure, Wade was greedily claiming far more than his fair share of their family inheritance. And Gregg did catch his ex-girlfriend Katy smooching on the couch with Wade. It's no wonder that Timber Ridge's police chief--and Eleanor's ex-sweetheart--has his sights set on finding and arresting poor Gregg.

But as Eleanor and her saucy sister Maddy dig a little deeper into the mystery, they find Wade's enemies begin to outnumber the slices on a large pie. This is one mystery that's made to order, and if Eleanor and Maddy don't find out who killed Wade, Gregg's delivery days are over. But while finding the killer is one thing, escaping alive to dish the goods to the police is quite another.

Annie resurrects her reporting skills and discovers that Maggie Rae was a closet scrapbooker who left behind more than a few secrets--and perhaps a few enemies. As they sift through Maggie Rae's mysteriously discarded scrapbooks, Annie and her "crop" sisters begin to suspect that her suicide may have been murder. It seems that something sinister is lurking beneath the town's beguilingly calm façade--like a killer with unfinished business. . .

"A scrapbook of zany small town life with characters you'll want to visit again and again in each new novel." --Emilie Richards, author of Sunset Bridge

"Imagine the housewives of Wisteria Lane sipping tea, scrapbooking, and solving murders, and you have this gem of a debut." --Lois Winston, author of Assault with a Deadly Glue Gun

"Intriguing characters, eerie happenings. . .kept me guessing 'til the end." --Clare O'Donohue