BARBARA BARRETT SERIES:

Measure Twice, Murder Once

Measure Twice, Murder Once

Barbara Barrett

Fiction / Memoir / Suspense

It's bad enough when your business partner buys a property without consulting you, but when she accidentally acquires a brothel, it's enough to make Rowena Summerfield want to throw away her hammer. Still, the house is a bargain, and maybe it's just what Ro and her daughter need to turn around their home renovation business. As Ro, a former homicide detective, comes to terms with the deal, she gets a shock when the former owner—and madam—turns up dead. Soon someone from Ro's past shows up at the work site: her ex-partner, who needs a temporary sidekick to help him solve the case. Reviving their investigative team isn't easy, especially when Herc gets jealous of the hunky deli owner who takes an interest in widow Rowena. Until now, she was fine with one man in her life—her cuddly cat, Jason. Ro and Herc discover the previous residents of the house, including the victim's daughter, have less than fond memories of their former boss....
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Curtains for the Condo Casanova

Curtains for the Condo Casanova

Barbara Barrett

Fiction / Memoir / Suspense

Dumped from the lead role on her detective show, snubbed by Hollywood and hurting for cash, TV star Marla Dane sees only one way out: running home to Minnesota. There she can lick her wounds, eat ice cream and check up on her seemingly capricious sister. Bonus: She'll never again have to think about catching killers. But that's before a resident in her sister's condo building is found dead on the front lawn. There's just something about Marla that makes the neighbors and overworked cops think she can help solve the case, no matter how many times she tells them she was just a pretend sleuth who never worked off-script. Trusting that Marla can get an insider's take on the suspects, the police chief pairs her with Rex Alcorn, an ex-cop who lives in the same condo complex. Rex is less than enthusiastic about working with a lay person who's also a celebrity, but he owes the chief from way back, and doing this favor should get the guy off his back. And...
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  • 490
Murder on the Court

Murder on the Court

Barbara Barrett

Fiction / Memoir / Suspense

No good deed goes unpunished, as television star Marla Dane learns the hard way. The recently fired TV detective, trying to figure out her next move at her sister's Minnesota condo, reluctantly agrees to sub as Water Girl at a weekend pickleball match. Which makes her the first suspect of many when the team captain turns up dead. Eloise Wallace, owner of a local PR company, will never receive the title Boss of the Year. She's dragged her staff, her old college roommate, and even her ex-husband and ex-employees onto her pickleball team. No wonder their success on the court is so sad. They all have reasons for wanting her dead, and Marla and former cop Rex Alcorn are enlisted to figure out who poisoned her. As Marla's sister Kitty distracts them with a new obsession, pie baking, Marla and Rex find their suspects crusty and evasive. The victim excelled at making everyone around her miserable, so what did the killer have to gain by staying in her life — or...
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  • 170
Saved by the Salsa

Saved by the Salsa

Barbara Barrett

Fiction / Memoir / Suspense

Junior architect Lacey Rogers welcomes the opportunity to work with Jack Dalton, the firm's golden boy, that is, until her hormones can't resist his charm and spectacular looks. How can she keep her mind on their design project when her most potent designs are on him? Jack Dalton has always worked alone. Now he's got a partner. Is he losing his touch? To make matters worse, he can't take his eyes off the petite designer. If he can't find some way to cool his jets, he won't be able to keep his hands off her either. But on the dance floor, their mutual resistance melts as their bodies meet in the vibes of the Salsa. Can the dance keep them collaborating after the music ends?
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  • 64
Death by Drywall

Death by Drywall

Barbara Barrett

Fiction / Memoir / Suspense

Renovating a restaurant is hard enough. Renovating it for your boyfriend who thinks his million-dollar smile will make up for his ever-changing whims is even harder. But running the job when a woman is murdered in a house your colleague is renovating? It's almost more than Rowena Summerfield can handle—especially when she's once again pulled into her old role of homicide detective to find the killer. Ro dives in to clear her friend so she can go back to her real job, especially since the rocky renovation threatens to wreck her relationship with charming Chuck. But this mystery is anything but straightforward. The victim wore drywall stilts. Her nearest relatives are either uncooperative or dead. And everybody's lying to Ro and her old partner, Herc. With support from her daughter and her finicky cat, Jason, Ro puts her new love and young company on the line to crack the case—even when the only solution seems to be a dangerous plot to...
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  • 59
And He Cooks Too

And He Cooks Too

Barbara Barrett

Fiction / Memoir / Suspense

Three men, three lies. One thought it was for her own good, one did it for his own good, and the third nearly destroyed her career. Blacklisted by the city's finest restaurants, Chef Reese Dunbar must now put the resuscitation of her battered reputation in the hands of yet another man. The television experience Nick Coltrane's cooking show offers is her best option for restoring her name and becoming the Big Apple's super chef. But after giving her body and heart to him, her trust is put to the test when she discovers that Nick has lied about the real reason he brought her on board, and worse yet, Nick can't cook.
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  • 57
Loose Screw

Loose Screw

Barbara Barrett

Fiction / Memoir / Suspense

All Rowena Summerfield wants to do is finish her latest home renovation with her daughter, Valerie. And it seems like all building inspector Mortimer Fonseca wants to do is get in her way. His refusal to help Ro's Nailed It company meet his impossible expectations has her fuming, and she's not the only one — as she learns when Fonseca turns up dead, run over in a parking lot in the middle of the night. His colleagues say he was a loose screw, even if he was wound too tight. But Ro and her former colleague on the police force, Detective Hercules Morgan, soon discover he was a lot more than that. And a lot of people might have wanted to wrench the life out of him, from disgruntled builders to his sneaky co-workers to a relative who stands to inherit everything. The more Ro, Val and Herc interview suspects and other persons of interest, the less they are able to hammer down a motive. But as the case takes an unexpected turn and becomes doubly...
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Tough Enough to Tango

Tough Enough to Tango

Barbara Barrett

Fiction / Memoir / Suspense

When her father's heart problems sideline him, Shae Harriman agrees to oversee Sullivan's Creek, the largest residential building project the company has ever tackled. Though she has the education, her lack of management or supervisory experience alienates her crews. Megastar singer Ned Collier undertook Sullivan's Creek to get his mother into safer housing while he is on the road. But he's running out of money and doesn't want her, or anyone else, to know. To Shae's consternation, he insists on serving as project manager to control costs. Their inexperience, pitted against her desire to succeed, his penny-pinching, and high stakes construction issues propel them into each other's arms. Can they build a life, as well as housing, together?
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