Jo Dereske Mystery Collection

Jo Dereske Novels

Miss Zukas in Death's Shadow by Jo Dereske

Booked for Trouble; With an audit going on at Bellehaven's Public Library, it couldn't be a worse time for librarian Helma Zukas to be serving a sentence of fifty hours of community service. But Miss Zukas stubbornly refused to pay what she thought to be an unjust traffic fine and now she's doing time at the Promise Mission for Homeless Men--ladling soup and clearing tables for a motley group of ungrateful down-and-outers. When Helma discovers there's a rash of thefts going on at the mission, she's appalled. Add to that, the unannounced visit of a high school flame who intends to win her hand, and Helma's ready to run to the auditors for relief.

But none of that can compare to the shock when, during the first night of her service, a body is found just outside the mission's back door. Suddenly in the wake of a heartless homicide, Helma becomes one of the suspects, and her fifty hours of service are looming like a life sentance. Fortunately for the otherwise law-abiding librarian, her gaudy, bawdy good friend Ruth is close at hand to help her solve the case...before she ends up doing hard time in a much worse place than the mission house.

Miss Zukas Shelves the Evidence by Jo Dereske

This Ain't No Garden Party
In a boldly personal move, Police Chief Wayne Gallant has arranged a meeting between his children and Bellehaven's beloved librarian Helma Zukas. But the fates have not yet smiled on this pair, as the long overdue introductions are interrupted -- by murder. For not only is Helma's newest neighbor pushing up roses in her garden, her latest crop's a corpse. And when the chief's investigation has him digging too close to the truth, he's helped to a nearly fatal fall from a cliff, a potentially incriminating library book found within reach.
The police demand the library turn over the borrower's name. Determined to uphold the privacy rights of library patrons, the ever mindful Miss Zukas deletes the information from library records -- but not before she takes note of it. And now it's up to Helma -- with teenagers in tow and an assist from bohemian buddy Ruth -- to get to the bottom of this murderous mess before Wayne Gallant's assailant makes sure the evidence Miss Zukas holds is shelved...permanently.

Miss Zukas and the Island Murders by Jo Dereske

An anonymous note in the morning mail reminds librarian Helma Zukas of her long-forgotten promise to bring her high school classmates together for a twenty-year reunion. Never one to break a promise, the very conscientious Miss Zukas plunges into the task of organizing the perfect celebration . . . despite some mysterious warnings of dire consequences.
But someone is sabataging her well-laid plans for an island get-together, and soon the old classmates find themselves stranded on a fogbound island with a murderer in their midst. Help can't reach them from outside, so it's up to Miss Zukas, with a dubious assist from her raffish friend Ruth, to close the books on crimes both current and overdue for solution--before the killer takes her out of circulation . . . permanently.

Miss Zukas and the Raven's Dance by Jo Dereske

Amazon.com
Within the category of mysteries known as "cozies," Dereske's series about Helma Zukas, a lively and courageous librarian in the small Washington town of Bellehaven, is near the top in terms of good stories, interesting characters, and smooth writing. This time out, Miss Zukas is asked to replace a murdered curator of Native American books, and, of course, finds herself compelled to put a hold on the killer. Past entries in the series include Miss Zukas and the Island Murders; Miss Zukas and the Library Murders.

Out of Circulation : A Miss Zukas Mystery by Jo Dereske

After aiding in the rescue of a gravely injured man, Helma Zukas and her friend Ruth search for the victim's missing companion and are stranded in a snowstorm with a group of strangers, one of whom is a killer.

Final Notice : A Miss Zukas Mystery by Jo Dereske

Librarians seldom have as much fun--or as many direct references to dead bodies--as Miss Helma Zuckas, master sleuth and loaner of all things literary. When Miss Zuckas, librarian to the core, starts digging in the family archives, she turns up some deadly secrets. Unless she can learn the whole story, the final chapters are about to be written as a tale of mystery, mayhem...and murder.Librarians seldom have as much fun--or as many direct references to dead bodies--as Miss Helma Zuckas, master sleuth and loaner of all things literary. When Miss Zuckas, librarian to the core, starts digging in the family archives, she turns up some deadly secrets. Unless she can learn the whole story, the final chapters are about to be written as a tale of mystery, mayhem...and murder.

Short Cut by Jo Dereske

They were sisters separated by distance, hurt and secrets. Now murder is bringing them together....
It was a long way from northern Michigan to the mountains above Albuquerque. But the distance between Ruby Crane and her glamorous, successful sister, Phyllis, was even greater. Until Phyllis trekked through the Michigan snow in her designer boots to beg Ruby for help. And while Ruby knew there were some things she couldn't help her sister with--like her drinking--she couldn't say no to a matter of life and death.

A boy had died on a construction site, and Phyllis, the engineer on the project, was being blamed--for a design she claimed someone had altered. While Ruby, an expert in handwriting analysis, tries to find out if the designs are forgeries, a sudden, vicious murder changes everything. Now a stalker is lurking around Phyllis's once-elegant life. And for the two sisters, the time has come for unspoken words--and a fight for both of their lives....

Miss Zukas and the Library Murders by Jo Dereske

When a dead body turns up right in the mid le of the fiction stacks, the police are baffled. But Helma Zukas, who never fails to make note of the slightest deviation from the norm of everyday life, is tracking some bafflinhttp://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/external-search?tag=drjohnholleman&keyword= &mode=booksg questions of her own. With the help of her not-so-proper best friend, Ruth, a six-foot-tall bohemian artist with a nose for gossip and a penchant for getting into trouble, the two are soon in hot pursuit of the truth... and getting lose enough to find they're about to become the killer's next victims.

Miss Zukas and the Stroke of Death by Jo Dereske

Called on to prevent her flaky artist friend, Ruth Winthrop, from being falsely accused of murder, civic-minded librarian Miss Helma Zukas unearths several local scandals surrounding the victim.

OxfordBooks.com / Oxford, MS

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