How far would you go to help a friend? Private investigator Peri Minneopa finds out when she takes a case spying on a cheating wife and ends up being hunted by the wife's circle of pals. After all, a friend will help you move - a good friend will help you move a body.

No one in the small town of Placentia, California is surprised when Benny Needles's house catches fire. The outside hasn't seen a paint brush in years. The inside is stuffed with Dean Martin memorabilia. It would be a simple case of homeowner negligence, except for the body found inside. Under suspicion of both murder and arson, Benny turns to the one person who has always helped him, private investigator Peri Minneopa. Fire investigation isn't on her menu of services, but Peri's weak spot for Benny overrules her reluctance, and she agrees to look into things. Her investigation takes a...

"When I was a young horse, I thought if I wasn't always good, I could at least be useful. Then I broke my leg." When Snoopy was three years old, he won the 2007 Pacific Coast Quarter Horse Association Trail Futurity. His trainer and his owner had his career mapped out-he would be campaigned around the circuit and qualify to be invited to the AQHA World Show. Then in 2008, Snoopy broke his left hind sesamoid, a small bone in the leg. This injury can mean anything from surgery to euthanasia. Surgery didn't guarantee he could be ridden again, much less shown. In the tradition of Black Beauty,...

When housecleaner-turned-detective Peri Minneopa agrees to clean a former client's freezer, she discovers a severed hand inside, wearing an expensive ring. Now she must find the rest of the body and keep her client, a Dean Martin fanatic, out of jail.

Willie Adams is at the L.A. Equestrian Center shopping for her first horse. A young widow struggling with the idea of dating again, she never expected that a gorgeous trainer like Tyler Ransome would notice her. But he did. He wasn't the only one, either. Bobby Fermino is not as handsome, nor as pleasant. After attacking Willie he ends up dead in her tack room, leaving her the most likely suspect. Willie has to convince Detective Lucas Macy that she's innocent, but her physical attraction to him isn't making the task easy. With growing evidence pointing to her, and two famous actors drawing...

Gayle Carline does not believe in perfect families. She does believe in tall tales, however, and is willing to stretch the truth until it's paper thin. She's been writing a humor column for the Placentia News-Times, a local paper affiliated with the Orange County Register, since 2005. Aiming for slice-of-life, Erma Bombeck-style stories, she tells tales about her husband, their son, and their various distractions, from pets to car repair. At first, she thought she was writing to entertain people. After she heard from readers telling her how much their lives mirrored her own, she realized why...

For the record, Placentia (pronounced Plah-SEN-cha) consists of about 50,000 residents living in 6.6 square miles in north Orange County. There is a hospital, a library, a country club, and some of the best restaurants in the O.C. In 2005, I began writing a weekly humor column for the newspaper, a slice-of-life look at an average wife, mother, homeowner, and city resident-in other words, me. This collection is centered on the places and people of my hometown. If you are from P-Town, I hope they resonate with your experiences. If you're not, I hope they serve as an introduction, and an...

Happy-Merry New-Thanks-Christmas-Year When columnist Gayle Carline thought of a holiday-centered book, she intended to include all her holiday essays, from New Year's musings, Mother's Day fantasies, all the way to the inevitable Christmas. Then she counted how many she had written in her 10 years as a columnist for the Placentia News-Times. There were over 80 essays, so she decided on Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's, and noticed two common themes: gratitude and hope. She is grateful for the opportunity to write for the paper, and she hopes these essays resonate with you as much as...

"When I was a young horse, I thought if I wasn't always good, I could at least be use-ful. Then I broke my leg."

When Snoopy was three years old, he won the 2007 Pacific Coast Quar-ter Horse Asso-ci-a-tion Trail Futu-rity. His trainer and his owner had his career mapped out--he would be cam-paigned around the cir-cuit and qual-ify to be invited to the AQHA World Show.

Then in 2008, Snoopy broke his left hind sesamoid, a small bone in the leg. This injury can mean any-thing from surgery to euthana-sia. Surgery didn't guar-an-tee he could be rid-den again, much less shown.

...