Plane View Books: 27 books

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.

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...

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...

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...

   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...

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...

The police are chasing a ring of art thieves. The thieves are chasing Zukie Merlino’s cousin Lou, who’s accidentally interrupted a handover of stolen goods. And Zukie? She’s causing chaos as only she can, in between baking lemon meringue pies, thwarting burglaries and trying not to end up as...

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...

Everybody liked good-natured Jimmy Battista, so when he died of a heart attack, no one suspected foul play. No one, that is, except his elderly sister-in-law, who confided her suspicions to her niece Zukie. Being seriously snoopy and a magnet for trouble, Zukie is soon up to her multi-colored wigs in a mystery involving Italian relatives, a German shepherd and a Canadian corpse.

  The five R&P Labs staff members travel south for a three-day scientific conference in San Diego, expecting nothing more exciting than sunshine, salsa and swimming pools. At least, they certainly aren’t expecting one staff member to disappear and another to become a murder suspect when  a...

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...

The R&P Labs staff members are planning their Christmas potluck lunch when a stranger arrives on the doorstep with an announcement that threatens to turn several lives upside  down. 'Tis the season to be wary, and in this short story, the five scientific sleuths have to do some rapid research to discover whether one of them will be getting a very unusual Christmas present.