Barbara Allan

Brandy Borne's new life in the small Mississippi River town of Serenity is anything but serene. Moving back in with her bipolar mom, Vivian--an antique herself, who treats Brandy like a perpetual five-year old--is challenging enough, but stocking and running their antiques holiday booth at the mall together is positively daunting. And as the big Christmas season gets into full swing, they find themselves in the midst of small-town mayhem when an

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Brandy Borne finds her return home met with mayhem and murder when her mother, a larger-than-life actress and gossip, is swindled out of some priceless antiques by Clint Carson who then winds up dead, making Brandy the prime suspect in the murder investigation. Reprint.

Brandy Borne's exceedingly eccentric mother, Vivian, has been invited to perform her one-woman interpretation of "the Scottish play" (sometimes called Macbeth)--with different hats for different characters--at the neighboring town of Old York's annual fête. The weekend festival celebrates the quaint village's English flavor. Brandy, sensing a possible theatrical disaster, and savvy shih tzu Sushi, sensing possible doggy treats, tag along with the...

Brandy Borne knows the outcome of her mother Vivian's plan, however, is more likely to lean toward bizarre, especially when she hears Mother wheedle a reclusive Russian heiress into donating a truly rare item: the last Faberge egg ever created! As private bidders and representatives from Christie's and Sotheby's go at each other, and local-theatre diva Vivian barks her way into auctioneering infamy, Brandy tries her best to stay calm - all this craziness...

The quaint Midwestern town of Serenity is about to hit the small screen. Brandy Borne and her dramatically ditzy mother, Vivian, will be starring in Antique Sleuths, a reality TV show based on the duo's antiquarian adventures--and their troubling talent for solving deadly crimes. What better shooting set than a creepy old house, the site of a 60-year-old unsolved axe murder? The location is perfect until Bruce Spring, the show's producer, meets a...

"Brandy Borne and her suspiciously well-informed mother, Vivian, have the winning bid on an abandoned storage unit's "mystery" contents, which they discover includes a vintage cornet. But when they arrive to claim the rest of their loot, the space is empty-except for the recently stowed body of Big Jim Bob, Vivian's tipster-a.k.a. former flame. Only one thing is certain: someone has definitely put the "rage" in storage! Murder turns to mayhem when...

A special Christmas short story in "one of the funniest cozy series going" (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine).
The Christmas rush is on as Brandy Borne and her quaintly quirky mother, Vivian, sniff out plum collectibles for resale, only to find the owner of a Santa's workshop worth of treasures has received some deadly tidings. It's beginning to look a lot like murder. . .but who wanted the deceased closed for the holidays—permanently?...

A special holiday short story in the series starring "a hilarious team of snoops" (Joan Hess).

Hey Santa, get a clue . . .

Baby, it's cold outside at the small town of Serenity's annual Holiday Stroll festivities. But that doesn't stop Brandy Borne and her theatrical mother, Vivian, from making merry. That is, until the two find something frosty in Santa's workshop—the jolly man in red, dead as...