Joyce & Jim Lavene Books In Order

One Last Good-Bye

Sheriff Sharyn Howard has her hands full. The county commission wants to cut her staff. Colonel John Metzger wants his brother’s killer yesterday. And the Navy wants to be sure she comes up with the ‘right’ answers to the town’s new mystery. Add to that a lovesick deputy and her mother dating Senator Caison Talbot, one of Sharyn’s least favorite people. But what really has her puzzled is the mystery everyone in town is talking about. Someone shot WWII Navy Captain William ‘Billy’ Bost as he dipped his plane’s wings to his sweetheart. The secret’s been hidden for over half a century. Is it possible that the person who killed Billy Bost, Diamond Springs’ most famous hero, is also the same person who killed the Pulitzer prize winning author looking for the truth?

The Last to Remember

On one of the stormiest, busiest night of the year, a prominent businessman stumbles into the sheriff’s office, confessing to a 40 year old murder. Just a few hours later he’s found hanging from the ceiling of the conference room. The district attorney is soon on the warpath and all the clues point to one man. Sheriff Sharyn Howard begins to search for the key to unlock a secret shared by three men for forty years. A district court judge, a prominent businessman, and her own deputy, Ernie Watkins, believe that they were responsible for a child’s death at the old Jefferson Training School for Boys when they were just teenagers. But now someone is after all the men, and it’s up to Sheriff Howard to unravel 40 years of cover ups, blackmail, lies, and guilt. But with so many suspects and such little time, can she find the real killer before an innocent man is convicted of murder or before the real killer can stalk and kill his prey?

For the Last Time

While cleaning up an old campground for new campers, volunteers discover an old suitcase containing a bloody dress, a ring, and a locket. Sheriff Sharyn Howard takes up the case and traces it back to the unsolved murder of a little camper, Rebecca Liston, that had stumped her grandfather during his term as sheriff, forty five years before. Like her grandfather, Sharyn keeps hitting dead ends and false trails that leave her confused and disheartened. The legend about the unsolved case blames the murder on a devil that haunts the campground, and Sharyn eventually begins to wonder if this may be true. After all, no suspect or motive was ever found in the original case. The locals felt the camp was haunted and jinxed; ultimately deciding to close it down. Unlike her grandfather, Sharyn continues to delve deeper, defying the fears and cautions of others, determined to solve this case once and for all.

Dreams Don’t Last

It’s summer and election fever is running high! Sharyn is running against ex-sheriff Roy Tarnower and the good old boy network that’s always run Diamond Springs. Having two unsolved murders and a shooting doesn’t help her image. It seems like a crime wave to the small town.

Senator Caison Talbot is one of Sharyn’s least favorite people, even though he’s engaged to marry her mother. Yet, when he’s accused of murder and a long forgotten secret in his past is revealed, she finds herself in the difficult position of defending him and looking for the truth.

Suddenly, Sharyn has more on her hands than she ever thought possible. Roy’s ahead in the polls. Sharyn’s sister is picked up for shoplifting. And Nick has decided that it’s time to be more than friends.

Last Fires Burning

It’s one week before the election in Diamond Springs when an old car rolls down Main Street with flames shooting out of it and a dead body in the backseat. A day later, a man is found dead on Diamond Mountain, trapped in a net that was supposed to help save wild animals trying to escape the fires in the Uwharrie Mountains. Both deaths look accidental. But both are murders. Sheriff Sharyn Howard is called a hero when a suspect is arrested quickly. The election is finally looking up for her. Unfortunately, the quick answer isn’t always the right answer. When the sheriff goes looking for the truth, she gets more than she wants. And endangers someone she loves in the process.

Glory’s Last Victim

S gi na. That’s what the Cherokee call the evil spirit that dwells within an ancient knife used to murder a young woman in a small college town outside Diamond Springs, North Carolina. With her Aunt Selma’s new beau, Sam Two Rivers, arrested for the crime and all evidence pointing heavily toward him, newly re elected Sheriff Sharyn Howard finds herself unwillingly, yet obligingly, drawn into the crime, which is outside her jurisdiction. Determined to help her friend and aunt, Sharyn attempts the impossible. She’s already up to her ears in a series of house robberies and short a deputy who was downed by a rabid raccoon. But by working outside her county with a greasy police chief and his belligerent assistant, she willend a mystery involving a string of unsolved murders that date back to the Civil War.

Last One Down

Reluctantly, Sheriff Sharyn Howard has been forced to attend a training school for the local law enforcement officers. For years she’s managed to skirt around it, but now it’s time for her to take a helicopter up to Sweet Potato Mountain to attend a rigorous weekend of training at the grounds of an old mining town. The town, long abandoned by miners, is complete with an old jail and hotel. After attending just a few clas*ses things start to go wrong. An officer goes missing, and while searching for him one of Sheriff Howard’s men falls into an old mine breaking his leg. Things go from bad to worse when a truck explodes killing the man inside. To top things off, the radio has been broken and there is a ferocious storm brewing. Stuck in the old town with a group of hotheaded officers, sheriffs, police chiefs, and deputies, Sharyn quickly realizes the person attempting to hunt them down must be hiding among them. Unable to reach her office with cell phones or radios, and with the road impassable, Sharyn is worried that they may all be killed before anyone in Diamond Springs is even aware something is wrong. Meanwhile, back in Diamond Springs, a sniper has taken a shot at Sharyn’s deputy, Ernie, and the former girlfriend of a drug dealer Ernie shot years ago has been found dead. Ernie and Nick Thomopolis, Sharyn’s boyfriend and the medical examiner, try desperately to solve the mystery without bothering Sharyn, but get suspicious when she doesn’t check in. Not once. With the help of Zeke Two Rivers, nephew of Sharyn’s long time friend Jefferson Two Rivers, they strive to catch the killer and get off the mountain alive, all while Ernie, Nick, and the entire Diamond Springs sheriff’s department desperately attempt to save them.

Before The Last Lap

This time the mystery for Sheriff Sharyn Howard and her Diamond Springs deputies hits a little bit closer to home. After a speeding boat flies up over the pier and onto the street, the sheriff’s department investigates. They become personally involved when the pocketbook of Sharyn’s assistant, Trudy Robinson, is found on the boat along with a lot of blood. Trudy has been missing for days, and things don’t look promising. While combing the crime scene at the boat a dead body washes up beside the pier. Upon discovering that the dead man was the head mechanic for a local racecar driver, Sharyn’s investigation turns to the speedway. Could legendary driver Duke Beatty be the one behind it all? Sharyn has her suspicions. Trudy is found unharmed at the speedway at the same time that Duke is shot and killed, and it appears that she may be the murderer. Trudy’s husband, Ed, one of Sharyn’s deputies who also happened to be on the scene at the time, tries to protect his wife by claiming that he is guilty of shooting Duke. Now Sharyn must prove that Ed is innocent while also trying to find the real culprit.

The First Shall Be Last

As the snow falls in Diamond Springs, the mood shifts, bringing with it a string of suspicious events. The death of deputy David Matthews has Sheriff Sharyn Howard more determined than ever in her quest to find his killer and solve the murder of her own father, the former sheriff. She knows that her old nemesis, Jack Winter, the former DA turned Senator is somehow involved in both murders and she devises her riskiest plan ever to attempt the impossible: bring Jack Winter to justice. After a young, single mother is run down on a cold winter morning and the murder is traced back to ADA Alan Michaelson, Sharon’s suspicions of Jack heighten and the hunt for Michaelson begins. Upon discovering him dead in his garage, slumped over the wheel of his Humvee with the motor running, Sharon puts her plan in full motion. Regretfully, she has broken off her relationship with her long time boyfriend Nick Thomopolis, the county coroner, and instead allies herself with her number one target: Jack Winter. Jack’s arrogance and unstoppable drive as Senator and the need to control everyone around him makes him more difficult to crack than she first assumed. With everyone, including her Aunt Selma and most of her deputies, disgusted with her new behavior, the people she loves the most begin to question her capabilities and start to lose trust in the town’s most vigilant sheriff. It’s up to Sharyn to maintain her beliefs, trust in her own instincts, and get to the bottom of the mysteries that have cast a pall on Diamond Springs for decades. In this final installment of the Sharyn Howard Mystery series, Jim and Joyce Lavene, unravel their finest story of Diamond Springs’ incredible sheriff and give her fans the answers they’ve been seeking.

Pretty Poison

It’s another busy fall day for Peggy. A quick caf lecture on African violets is followed by a minor bike accident involving a good looking Saturn driver. Upon returning to her shop, Peggy discovers one of the wealthiest men in town and one of the biggest philanderers sprawled face down across one of her seasonal displays, apparently beaten to death with a garden shovel.

When the cops pin the murder on a local homeless man, Peggy must rake through evidence and dig up secrets to root out the real killer.

Fruit of the Poisoned Tree

Everyone suspects Park Lamonte’s wife killed him for the ten million dollar insurance policy. But Peggy, of The Potting Shed, has a growing suspicion there’s more to the story and sets out to dig up the truth.

Poisoned Petals

Peggy Lee is just about to deliver some endangered sunflowers to Darmus Appleby when a gas explosion blows out his door and Peggy finds her fellow botanist dead on the kitchen floor. Two weeks later his brother dies, with an overpoweringly sweet purple hyacinth tucked in his pocket. Now Peggy must follow her nose and some cryptic clues from an internet informant to root out a killer before he strikes again.

Perfect Poison

Deadly duckweed!

When drowned bodies start surfacing with an unusual plant caught in one of the victims hair, forensic botanist and detective’s widow Peggy Lee is on the case.

A Corpse for Yew

Includes gardening tips!

No rain means profits are wilting at The Potting Shed, so Peggy Lee joins her mother on a ‘bone harvest’ expedition for the local historical society. But she stumbles upon a perplexing mystery how a fellow volunteer became a corpse with curiously red lips.

Swapping Paint

Glad Wyczhewski lives for three things: NASCAR, cold beer, and his passionate wife, Ruby. Tailing the race circuit in an RV, the newlyweds stop in Concord, North Carolina just down the road from Ruby’s hometown for the Coca Cola 600. But the excitement of race week stalls when a driver, Ricky Sanders, is found murdered. And to everyone’s shock, the prime suspect is another rookie driver, Ruby’s brother Bobby! A forty two year old ex cop from Chicago, Glad would rather party on the infield than get mixed up in a murder investigation. But there’s no way he can hold back Ruby as stubborn as she is beautiful from trying to clear Bobby’s name. High on adrenaline and exhaust fumes, Glad kicks his detective instincts into overdrive before Ruby’s good intentions put them on a collision course with the killer.

Hooked Up

On the road to the Monster Mile at Dover International Speedway, NASCAR fan and ex cop Glad Wycznewski is expecting nothing more than speed on the raceway, a cold beer in his hand, and love in the RV with his beautiful wife, Ruby.

So when Glad finds a strange man in his bed wearing his favorite PJs, he’s ready to lay down the law. But who can be angry with a wife like Ruby? Her melt your heart blue eyes defuse his anger when he hears the sleeping man is just a weary hitchhiker with a bedraggled cat. Just as things settle down, the hitchhiker turns up dead. When rumors race that ten million in cash is missing and that the hitchhiker’s twin is a powerful casino man, Ruby’s killer instincts accelerate. Glad would rather sit back and enjoy the smell of gasoline over a breakfast of Ruby’s famous flapjacks, but with her strong will and big heart, nothing’s stalling Ruby. Empty stomach aside, Glad’ll be racing after crooks whether he wants to or not.

Inside extras include Glad and Ruby’s track log

Wicked Weaves

First in the Renaissance Faire mystery series featuring craft apprentice and sleuth Jessie Morton. INCLUDES RENAISSANCE RECIPES AND FUN FACTS!Assistant professor Jessie Morton spends her summers at the Renaissance Village honing her skills and finding the lady, lord, or serf whodunnit. This summer Jessie is the apprentice to Mary Shift, a basket maker with a dark past as well as incredible weaving skills. One day a man is bid a deadly fare thee well with Mary’s signature weave around his neck. It s up to Jessie to spring Mary from the stocks of the Myrtle Beach police station. Yet innocence is hard to prove in a place where there s a fine line between reality and good theater and history is bound to repeat itself.

Ghastly Glass

At her glass blowing apprenticeship, Renaissance reveler Jessie Morton’s crabby boss and his creepy nephew are causing her problems. But when the man playing the Grim Reaper is killed, Jess has to find the lady, lord or serf whodunit.

Deadly Daggers

Jessie Morton’s latest apprenticeship at the Renaissance Faire is in service to Daisy, the master swordsmith. But when a professional dueler and Daisy’s former flame is murdered, it’s up to Jessie to keep a sharp eye out for the killer.

The Telltale Turtle

Mary Catherine has a rare gift she can talk to animals. A flamboyantly dressed four time widow, Mary Catherine pulls top ratings for her pet psychic radio show and helps run an animal shelter. Then one day Mary Catherine hears pitiful thoughts of anguish coming from a house. Rushing inside to help, she finds an injured turtle crying bloody murder and the dead body of his owner, a society matriarch with a fortune, lying nearby.

By tuning into Tommy the turtle’s thoughts and memories, Mary Catherine becomes a vital, if ridiculed, resource for the detectives. But now a psycho caller is threatening the lives of Mary Catherine and Baylor, her haughty and overprotective tabby cat, while dangling clues in front of her like bait. Despite the annoying charms of PI Charlie Dowd aka, potential husband number five can Mary Catherine use her talent to find a killer more cold blooded than the star witness?

Includes recipes for pet treats!

A Timely Vision

A seaside-set paranormal mystery-from the authors of the Renaissance Faire mystery Ghastly Glass

Meet Dae O’Donnell, a woman with a gift for finding lost things-and the stories behind lost lives…

Dae O’Donnell is the mayor of Duck, North Carolina-and the person everyone turns to when they’ve lost something. One touch and Dae can find it, and missing pieces seem to find their way to her, whether she wants them to or not.

When Miss Mildred asks Dae to find her missing watch, Dae finds herself looking for more than mislaid jewelry-she must prove the town matriarch isn’t a cold-blooded killer.

A Touch of Gold

Long before he became curator of the Duck Historical Museum, Max Caudle discovered its greatest treasure a wooden chest full of gold. But a thief with his eye on the gold fires a cannonball into the museum, destroying the building and killing Max. Injured in the explosion, Dae finds her abilities have been amplified, overwhelming her with intense visions every time she touches an object. Now if ex FBI agent and burgeoning beau Kevin Brickman can help Dae decipher her visions, she just might be able to stop the modern day buccaneer from killing again.

A Spirited Gift

As the mayor of Duck, North Carolina, Dae is playing host to twenty North Carolina elected officials attending her first Mayors’ Conference Weekend at the Blue Whale Inn. When the body of Mayor Sandi Foxx is discovered the morning after a severe storm, Dae receives a vision through the mayor’s ring; that there’s a killer among the guests who’s as deadly as any hurricane.

A Time for Love

A Time for Love is Joye’s second book for Avalon.

Only You

Only You is Joyce and James Lavene’s third book for AVALON. If Not for You and A Time for Love are also available.

If Not for You

If Not for You is Joye’s first book for Avalon.

Dowager Duchess, The

Louisa Drayton has hit upon the perfect plan to save her brother’s only child from being given to a wealthy and lecherous Viscount to pay her Mama’s debts. She will masquerade as her elderly aunt, the Dowager Duchess of Roth. Plagued by fortune hunters and a whining Marquess, Louisa is young, wealthy, and unmarried. A terrible burden that she fears will hamper Beth’s efforts. With her father lost during the war, Beth has no one to champion her but Louisa. Louisa launches Beth into society with the help of her aunt’s friends in the ton. But there are two wild cards that she does not count upon. Lord Devon Stanton, who steals her heart and a wily thief after a treasure he believes she possesses.

Madison’s Miracles

Maggie Madison has devoted her life to helping others. Practically abandoned as a child, Maggie understands what it is like to feel unwanted. Running a shelter for the street kids of Atlanta is hard work, and the necessities’money for food, repairs’are hard to come by. Maggie figures that the shelter is providing a great service to the whole community by keeping kids off the street and protecting the value of nearby businesses, and she uses this logic to solicit donations from her neighbors. Some respond with repeated generosity, but Adam The Ogre’ Fuentes has always given her a hard time. Their repeated disagreements have become personal as they find themselves less repelled by each other and more and more attracted to each other. Adam is of the opinion that it is wrong to help those who should be helping themselves, but instinctively turns to Maggie when his niece runs away and he desperately needs help finding her. While Maggie works hard to both locate Adam’s niece and council the non traditional family, she begins to face some of her own demons, including her long lost father and her inability to consider anything in her life permanent. Will Adam be able to convince her that while a temporary investment in the shelter’s street kids is worthwhile, a more lasting commitment to him could open up a whole new world for her?

The Everything Guide to Writing a Novel

Do you dream about becoming the next Ernest Hemingway, John Grisham, Amy Tan, Stephen King, or Danielle Steele? If so, it’s time to unlock your hidden potential with The Everythingr Guide to Writing a Novel.

This step by step guide teaches you the tricks of the trade, with advice on all you need to know to compete in the world of fiction. Whether you are seeking to hone your writing style, shape an existing work in progress, or begin the submission process to publishers, successfully published novelists Joyce and Jim Lavene give you all you need to know to set you on the fast track to fulfilling your writing dreams!

This authoritative guide shows you how to: