Mystery Women Authors

Valerie Wolzien

Biography

Valerie Wolzien is the author of the Susan Henshaw suburban mysteries and the Josie Pigeon seashore mysteries. Ms. Wolzien lives in an old house overlooking the Hudson River. She loves to hear from readers and can be reached on-line at [email protected]

To read how Valerie started her prolific writing career - click here

Books

Susan Henshaw Mysteries

Weddings Are Murder (11)

Suburban housewife Susan Henshaw dips into the middle-age blues after hearing the news that her little girl, Chrissy, is getting married. To bolster her spirits, Susan plans to produce the wedding to end all weddings.

Chrissy's college roommate, now a designer in Italy, agrees to create an original wedding dress. Then, on the day before the ceremony, the long-anticipated box arrives. Yet the contents are a bit unexpected. For instead of a delicate confection of lace and tulle, nestled inside is a strangled corpse. Is someone trying to ruin the season's biggest wedding?

Over Susan's dead body . . .


Published Mass Market Paperback 1998

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Murder at the PTA Luncheon (1)

A cyanide-laced canape -- and the death of the PTA president who devoured it -- had quite upset the spring luncheon of the affluent suburban Connecticut PTA, when a second PTA member dropped dead from a poisoned packet of artificial sweetener. Now Susan Henshaw, vice-president of the PTA, leads an investigation into an organization riddled with scandal, sex and drugs . . .

Published  Mass Market Paperback  1990

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The Fortieth Birthday Body : A Suburban Mystery (2)

Down-to-earth housewife Susan Henshaw is turning forty -- and feeling ancient. Adding insult to injury is the return of gorgeous local hussy Dawn Elliott, rumored to have slept with half the married men of quiet Hancock, Connecticut. To lift her sagging spirits, Susan's loving husband throws her a surprise party. But one guest gets the surprise of her life -- or death. Dawn Elliott is found murdered. And Susan herself is the prime suspect . . .

Published Mass Market Paperback 1991

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We Wish You a Merry Murder (3)

Although Kelly Knowlson firmly thought her newly remarried ex-husband, Evan, would return to her, did she set him by the fire, egg nog by his side, THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS in his hands, and put a bullet in his head? By the time the police
show up, the body is gone, so of course Kelly is the prime suspect. Between molding cheese balls and salmon mousse for a holiday dinner, suburban sleuth Susan Henshaw fits in a little Yuletide detecting to discover if Kelly Knowlson iced her ex. And if not, who would dare send such an uncharitable Christmas greeting...?

Published Mass Market Paperback 1993

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An Old Faithful Murder (4)

The Henshaw family vacation at Yellowstone National Park turns tragic when George Ericksen -- whose family has been befriended by the Henshaws -- is found murdered at the foot of Old Faithful. When amateur sleuth Susan Henshaw takes the case, a web of twisted emotions and buried secrets quickly unfolds, and Susan finds that everyone had a reason to kill George. But there can only be one killer . . . can't there?

Published Mass Market Paperback 1992 (reissue)

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All Hallows' Evil (5)

At first Susan Henshaw thought the body in the library was a Halloween trick -- but then she saw the blood and heard the man's dying gasp. Then a second body -- celebrity morning talk-show host Jason Armstrong -- was found stabbed on his front porch. Now, as Susan begins to investigate the deaths, she uncovers secrets that a killer would go to any lengths to keep hidden . . .

Published  Mass Market Paperback 1997 (reissue)

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Elected for Death

Hancock, Connecticut, historic enclave of wealth and conservatism, is in the final heat of a three-way mayoral election. Then long-shot candidate Ivan Deakin takes a sip of cyanide-laced water and is retired to the morgue. When Susan Henshaw tries to find the killer, she learns the murkiness of Ivan's business dealings were matched only by the notoriety of his love life.

Published Mass Market Paperback 1996

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A Good Year for a Corpse

Mr. Horace Harvey had mounds of money he wanted to give away. But the giving was over the day he was found dead with a wad of bills stuffed in his mouth, and a money belt wrapped around his neck. Despite a home life that is not exactly calm, Susan Henshaw has the time to conclude that the prime murder suspect is innocent, but that observation only leads her to more questions. One thing is clear, though. All sorts of sordid activities are going on in the private lives of Hancock's most civic-minded citizens. And at least one of them had reason to kill....

Published Mass Market Paperback 1994

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Tis the Season to Be Murdered

Exhausted after shopping for teenagers, struggling with cappuccino machines, and eating way too many cookies, Susan Henshaw is glad she hired "The Holly and Ms. Ivy" to cater her annual New Year's bash. But when the blond and buffed Z Holly, chef extraordinaire and notorious ladies' man, is found strangled in a van full of helium balloons, Susan starts hunting for a killer -- and a way to save her party!

Published  Mass Market Paperback 1994

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Remodeled to Death

With the kids away, Susan and Jed Henshaw are in the mood for a lazy, romantic August. Then the pipes in an upstairs bathroom burst and water inundates the floors below. Suddenly their cozy twosome is joined by a dozen plumbers, plasterers, and carpenters, who leave the house looking worse than the water damage.

The only bright spot is that they won't have to deal with the town's hated building inspector, for the excellent reason that he has just been murdered. And most people in Hancock say they'd like to shake the hand of the man who did it. Susan has enough problems without trying to nail Simon Fairweather's killer; but she just can't resist, especially since chances are good that the murderer is actually at work in her bathroom....

Published Mass Market Paperback 1995

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A Star-Spangled Murder

Susan Henshaw and her family have been coming to their summerhouse in Maine for years, but when neighbor Humphrey Taylor is found bludgeoned to death in her living room, Susan's relaxing holiday goes out with the tide as she searches to find the killer before he or she strikes again. But the killer may just find her first . . .

Published Mass Market Paperback 1993

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Josie Pigeon Mysteries

Deck the Halls With Murder

Building contractor Josie Pigeon and her all-woman construction crew have a big project to wrap up before the holidays--and they're hard at work when carpenter Caroline Albrecht keels over, fatally poisoned. Suddenly, suspicion chills the cheer of this quiet island resort town, and Josie realizes that one of her employees must be Caroline's murderer.

Published Mass Market Paperback 1998

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Shore to Die

Summer's coming, and Island Contracting's all-woman construction crew is working overtime, glitzing up the old house on the north end of the island. Then the firm's owner, redheaded Josie Pigeon, discovers a murdered body under a drop cloth-- a body that vanishes as mysteriously as it appears.

With a complicated job to finish and clients who'd bring out the killer in anyone, Josie doesn't need a murderer on her job site. But she can't erase the horrid suspicion that one of her excellent crew may be moonlighting as a killer. Melissa? Chris? Evelyn? Sexy Betty? It seems impossible.

The one bright spot in Josie's life is the new owner of the local liquor store, who's not only attractive but amazingly helpful at amateur detecting. . . .

Published Mass Market Paperback 1996

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Permit for Murder

Josie Pigeon, proprietor of Island Contracting, is bothered to find she has a double--a gorgeous redheaded carpenter who's being mistaken for her all over the island. And when this mysterious look-alike turns up murdered on Josie's job site, Josie is highly indignant.

Can it possibly be--Ms. Pigeon's all-woman construction crew and her boyfriend Sam, fear--that the intended victim was Josie herself? She doesn't think she has any enemies. In waters more troubled than she suspects, Josie goes fishing for the truth--and makes a catch that she wishes she could throw back. . . .

Published Mass Market Paperback 1997

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Web site address

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Page created by Leone Moffat.

Last updated April 24, 2002