The debut of Philly Prep English teacher and accidental sleuth, Amanda Pepper, (and of C.K. Mackenzie, homicide detective) won the World Mystery Convention's "Anthony" for best first mystery. When the body of a colleague is found dead in Amanda's living room, she has to clear herself of suspicion - and make sure she isn't the next victim as well. And all she's got as a clue to the real killer's identity is a locket shaped like Winnie-the-Pooh.

Marin County is famous for its affluent pleasures and the beauty of its beaches, mountains and redwood forests. In Time and Trouble, a teen-aged runaway, a yellow hearse, an insurance scam, a heart-shaped talisman, a baby's skeleton in a meadow, and something ugly and odd going on in a Sausalito houseboat all converge there to provide the first-and nearly last-case for Billie August, the new hire of seasoned P.I. Emma Howe. Billie, a single parent with no practical job skills, desperately needs the job, and Emma, whose personality has caused most of her employees to head for the hills, hires...