Author: samcheever

She’s just a country girl who loves her dog…and her cat…and her pig. But protecting them from a killer might suck the sweet right out of her bucolic little world. Pence Lucklin has always had the luck of the Irish, though he’s about as far from Irish as you can get. It is, after all, how he got his nickname, Lucky Lucklin. But it appears that his luck has run out in a big way. That’s putting it … putting it mildly, I guess. Since Lucky just turned up dead, hanging from a tool hook at my family’s auction business.…

Rudy-Bob Hortmann has never quite gotten the hang of making friends. He doesn’t much like peopling, mostly preferring the company of his pot-bellied pig, Ethel Squeaks to humanoid types. But there’s one exception. Rudy-Bob loves kids. So for Christmas every year he gives himself a present. He plays Santa at the annual Deer Hollow Christmas party. Only this year, Rudy-Bob doesn’t make it out of … the Santa suit when the Pageant is done. Instead, Deputy Sheriff Arno Willager finds Rudy-Bob literally chillin’ in a snow bank, his bulbous nose flashing red through the snow.That’s where I come into the…

SERIES PREQUEL – THIS STORY OCCURS BEFORE THE EVENTS DEPICTED IN THE REST OF THE SERIES AND IS GEARED TOWARD ROUNDING OUT THE CHARACTERS AND ADVENTURES OF THE ASSOCIATED BOOKS. IT DOES NOT NEED TO BE READ FIRST TO MAXIMIZE THE SERIES. ENJOY How in the name of the goddess’s favorite sports bra am I going to do this Magical Librarian job? I have no idea what I’m doing. And the woman who’s supposed … And the woman who’s supposed to be training me is…well, let’s just say she’s distracted and leave it at that. I guess I’ll bumble through.…

Good parenting advice: Only allow your small frog, cat, and hobgoblin limited and supervised television time, or risk stunting their mental and physical growth.Yeah, it might already be too late for that… harmless. The “kids” loved the old, black and white shows. But, per usual at Croakies, things devolved quickly, transforming “quiet” time into a heart-pounding adventure.And of course, as you’d expect, the frog, the cat, and the hobgoblin are right in the middle of it all.I’m a total derf at this whole parenting thing.And my “children” are brats.Holy flippin’ frog flatulence. So much for the good old days…more

Ancient Chinese proverb says, give cat mouse and give frog fly, they’ll soothe your monsters so you won’t die.Okay, maybe I just made that up. But I’ll try anything at this point.Croakies is suddenly being overrun by monsters. Yeah. Monsters. And I have no clue where they’re coming from. Are they tied to something we’ve done in the past? Do they have anything to do with the strange phone calls … anything to do with the strange phone calls I’ve been getting from a really prickly local author? Most importantly, how are we going to explain to the humans about…

Come to Silver Hills. Where making friends can prove deadly and creating enemies might be easier than you think. Emotions are aflutter at Silver Hills as a new heartthrob moves into the residence. Will all that fluttering still a single heart? And if love dies, will Flo’s very own amore fall under the crosshairs of the estimable Detective Brent Peters?Agnes and Hertz are on the outs. Secrets tear … and Hertz are on the outs. Secrets tear the tender fabric of a pulsing heart. What do the secrets have to do with murder?Affairs of le cœur aside, will Agnes break…

Farmer Blue has lost his cows and doesn’t know where to find them. But Farmer blue has found guess who, to wrangle the magic that hides them.  I’m really not much of a country mouse. Up until recently, my idea of the great outdoors has been Enchanted Park in the center of the city. But my job is to wrangle magical artifacts. So, when a local farmer calls to tell me his dairy cows are disappearing … tell me his dairy cows are disappearing and he thinks it’s the work of a rogue artifact…sigh…it appears I’m about to get a…

‘Tis the season for great folly…walawalawalawalala…ribbit. It’s Christmas time at Croakies. The tree is up. The stockings are hung. And Christmas tunes are turning the atmosphere jolly. After a tumultuous Samhain, I’ve found my chi again and I’m starting to enjoy the season of love and giving.Yeah. You probably know how this is going to end.When Sebille suggests I open the bookstore up to a small … Sebille suggests I open the bookstore up to a small holiday party, I foolishly agree. How was I supposed to know that the hobgoblin would decide it would be fun to hide everybody’s…

Magical chaos, old enemies, new adversaries, and danger around every corner…I HATE this time of year!Okay, I’ll admit it, this is my least favorite time of year. Yeah, I understand the enchantment of the season…I get that…but most people don’t have jobs that involve wrangling magic. During the last three months of the year, magical influences run rampant. And that means a lot more work for me.And … that means a lot more work for me.And this year is the worst of all.Why you ask?Because I’m not only trying to wrangle the out-of-control magic artifacts flying around all over the…

Sticks and stones can break my bones, but wrinkles can actually kill me! Just when I think I understand life, the Universe flings a magic booger at me. It just doesn’t pay to think you’ve got a handle on things. For example, my favorite customer, Mrs. Foxladle, got into a simple disagreement with her book club friends over their obsession with youth and beauty. The next thing you know, they’re … and beauty. The next thing you know, they’re all dead. Did Mrs. Foxladle kill them?It certainly seems like a possibility. But I’m still holding on to the hope that…