Cynthia E Hurst: 38 books

Twenty years ago, Gus Novak committed a crime and fled the country, only to die in the Mexican desert. But Zukie Merlino thinks she's just seen him on a downtown Seattle street, and being perpetually curious, she wants to know what he – or his ghost – is doing there. With her cousin Lou temporarily...

  A street party on a hot summer evening takes a deadly turn when one of the revellers dies, apparently from food poisoning. But there's more to the death than first meets the eye, and the five  R&P Labs staff members find themselves drawn into a case of love, loathing and lemon meringue pie. 'Halfbaked'...

Zukie Merlino finds it hard to settle back into her daily routine after the trip of a lifetime, so she’s pleased to receive an invitation to her high school reunion. Not only will it break the boredom, but also give her the chance to confront Sylvia, a woman she’s hated for years. Away from her...

Most people would jump at the chance of a free, relaxing vacation on a picturesque island, but not Zukie Merlino, to whom ‘rest’ is a four-letter word. Her outlook improves, however, when there’s a death at the rustic inn where she’s a reluctant guest. Despite the best efforts of her cousin...

Having lost both her husband and her job, Zukie Merlino has time on her hands and a mystery to solve. Night after night, someone is searching the empty house next door, whose elderly owner died following an unusually explosive Fourth of July. A second death in the house brings out all Zukie's detective...

Teenager Austin Barrett made a big mistake when he tried to mug Zukie Merlino, but now he's on the run after witnessing a murder and he needs her help. And why not? Whether it's helping her friends at the delicatessen to corner an olive oil shoplifter or tracking down a killer who seems to have vanished...

Back in the swinging '60s, Neil Brewer and Virginia McClain were lovers. Four decades on, Neil is recovering from a heart attack and his thoughts return to Virginia, now the senior bacteriologist at R&P Labs. He suggests a romantic reunion but Virginia turns him down, only to find when Neil is...

It was a generous gesture for Angel Wineries to send their lawyer a complementary case of wine at Christmas, but it probably would have been better if it hadn't contained two bottles of moldy Merlot and a scribbled note pleading for help. The lawyer is intrigued, and fortunately, he knows where to...

   The five staff members of R&P Laboratories have an unfortunate habit of getting involved in criminal investigations when they should be pursuing scientific activities. In these four short stories, Rob, Phil, Ellis, Virginia and Mitch tackle four mysteries involving a possibly poisoned pie,...

    R&P Labs want a mass spectrometer, but their bank account is running on empty. Wealthy Jason Drake wants a product to remove barnacles from his yacht and is willing to pay handsomely for its development. It seems like an ideal trade-off until a corpse turns up on the waterfront and Drake...

Strange things are said to happen on Twelfth Night, although few as strange as the ghost of a man believed drowned years earlier appearing in the midst of the town's celebration, vowing revenge on his killers. The sighting might have been blamed on the potent punch being served, but after two bodies...

Jacob Silver's wrought iron garden gate disappears, and two lovers vanish into the night with a stolen horse and cart. There appears to be no connection between the events, until the gate reappears, along with a corpse and a terrified girl. Although Jacob and his housemaid Sarah Simm are both...

All sorts of things had been donated for St Augustine's Christmas bazaar -- books, second-hand clothes, cookies, murder weapons ... 'Zukie's Gift' is a Zukie Merlino Mysteries short story for the holiday season.

A young woman falls to her death in a crowded shopping mall during the Black Friday sales frenzy. Her family think it must have been a tragic accident. The police suspect it was suicide. But Zukie Merlino thinks Mimi Carr was murdered, and she sets out to prove it, with the reluctant assistance of...