Requirements: .ePUB reader, 4.2 MB | 2024 Reissue
Overview: R.T. Jordan served for 30 years as a Senior Publicist with the Walt Disney Studios motion picture marketing division, where he worked on over 500 feature films. In addition to his many published books, including the Polly Pepper mystery series, and untold numbers of feature articles, he also wrote the seminal nonfiction Hollywood/Broadway book, “But Darling, I’m Your Auntie Mame!” a history of the immortal fictional character created by author Patrick Dennis. He enjoys living half the year in the Lake Arrowhead area in Southern California mountains, and the other half in a cottage (a converted 18th-century stable) in the English countryside.
Genre: Fiction > Mystery/Thriller Cozy
Set Sail for Murder (#1)
Welcome aboard the Polly Pepper Playhouse reunion cruise, where the golden age of TV celebrities collides with treacherous tides in this page-turning cozy comedy/mystery.
Polly Pepper, the queen of TV musical comedy, is battling professional stagnation and a bank account on life support. So, when her scene-stealing former co-star and eternal diva, Laura Crawford, extends an invitation for a nostalgia-infused voyage, Polly jumps at the chance. Little does she know that this high-seas Hollywood reunion is about to become a shipwreck of Titanic proportions—minus the iceberg, of course!
As the cruise liner sets sail, Polly’s excitement curdles to dread when she discovers that beneath the glitzy façade, old rivalries and simmering tensions are ready to boil over. Things take an absolutely bananas turn when Laura is found—in a twist worthy of a comedy sketch gone fatally wrong—whacked by none other than the elusive Season Six DVD of The Polly Pepper Playhouse collector’s edition box set.
Now, Polly must step into her favorite role—detective—to uncover the truth behind this maritime mystery. With every corner of the ship hiding secrets and each passenger a potential suspect, Polly must navigate a sea of deception so treacherous even Captain Hook wouldn’t dare sail into it.
Will Polly manage to cut through the labyrinth of lies and deceit and find the killer? Or is she about to make waves as the star of Polly Pepper’s Perilous Plank Plunge?
A Talent for Murder (#2)
Polly Pepper, once the queen of musical comedy TV, now finds herself playing a less glamorous role in the real-life drama of “Where Did My Career Go?” In a last-ditch effort to reclaim the spotlight (and refill her dwindling bank account), Polly takes a gig as a judge on the latest reality TV circus, “I’d Do Anything to Be Famous.” It’s the kind of show where dignity goes to die, and the contestants are so desperate for fame they’d marry Quasimodo’s less attractive sibling if it meant going viral on TikTok.
The plot thickens when Thane Cornwall, the show’s resident Simon Cowell-wannabe with a British accent as sharp as his critiques, ends up dead. The main suspect? Lisa Marrs, the producer’s overworked assistant, who is caught with a very sharp knife, and what looks suspiciously like a motive and a guilty expression.
But Polly, with her finely tuned drama radar, smells a setup fishier than week-old sushi. The line-up of suspects reads like a who’s who of reality TV rejects: contestants who’ve suffered Thane’s tongue lashings, a producer too eager to fill the dead man’s seat at the judges’ table, and a makeup artist with an eye for scandal.
Determined to clear Lisa’s name and save what’s left of her own reputation, Polly dives mascara-first into the investigation. With her knack for hitting the high notes of comedy and tripping over murder investigation clues, Polly must navigate through this mystery to unmask the killer. Can she save the show, restore her name, and ensure her star on the Walk of Fame continues to shine bright? Or will it be dimmed by the flashing lights of police cars and ambulances? One thing’s for sure: The show must go on—even if it’s a murder mystery with more twists than the plot of a daytime drama. Polly’s ready to take center stage in this investigation because, let’s face it, nobody can steal a scene quite like her!
Final Curtain (#3)
Polly Pepper, the legendary superstar of television’s golden age, is finally back in the entertainment headlines. She’s landed the title role in a new production of the musical Mame, and though it’s off-off-off-off Broadway (Glendale, California, actually), Polly’s bank account—and her ego—need the job. And if all goes well, the show just might go to New York! There’s one minor detour, though: on the second day of rehearsals, wunderkind director Karen Richards turns up dead.
Of course, Polly’s nose for news needs to know, and though Karen was well-liked, it seems some last-minute casting changes from artistic director/megalomaniac Gerold Goss did her in. Sadly, Polly’s Suspect #1 is her new friend and co-star Sharon Fletcher, who also plays a delicious, sultry bad girl on the popular daytime soap It’s Never Fair Weather. Sharon was the last person seen with the deceased director… and her Emmy matches the dent in Karen’s head.
But as Gerold takes over the director’s chair, Polly finds her cast member suspect list reaching epic proportions. Could it be Charlotte Bunch, whom Karen politely corrected until she got her Irish brogue right? Everyone knows actresses can be very touchy. Or Gerold’s sweetly innocent girlfriend, Mag Ryan, who drunkenly reveals that she wouldn’t let anything stand in the way of her landing a part in the possibly Broadway-bound musical? Or maybe even Karen’s young assistant Jamie, who Polly discovers was promised a role in the play… after Karen’s untimely demise?
The more Polly sniffs, the surer she is that Sharon didn’t haul off and bash Karen with her Emmy. But the evidence is mounting, and it’ll take all of Polly’s wits—and some help back at Pepper Plantation from her ever-dependable son Tim and their perpetually wisecracking maid Tiara—to save the jailed soap star from a murder rap… and a starring role in a real-life drama tentatively entitled Framed!
Remains to be Scene (#4)
Polly Pepper is a living legend, complete with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. With her brilliant comic timing, she could send audiences into tearful hysterics with even the lamest rubber chicken joke. But that was thirty years ago. Those glory days are now as faded as her sequined jumpsuits from the ‘90s. Really, would it kill someone to offer her a decent role? Apparently so, because the untimely death of character actress Trixie Wilder opens up a part in the new teen movie musical Detention Rules! for Polly. But the catch? She’ll be playing (gulp) a grandmother! Insulted? You bet!
But before Polly can say, “pass the prune juice,” her showbiz arch-rival, Sedra Stone, swipes the role right from under her nose, just as she’d previously stolen Polly’s first husband… and her second one, too! But sinister Sedra’s clutch on the prize is short-lived because she winds dead after falling from a diving platform into an empty swimming pool. Polly suspects it was murder!
Stepping into Sedra’s vacated orthopedic shoes, Polly quickly discovers that many on the set of Detention Rules! weren’t all that upset to see Sedra permanently fade to black. In fact, the cast of potential murder suspects is longer than the waiting list for a Beverly Hills plastic surgeon. There’s Dana Abbott, the teen mean girl nymphomaniac, who has her hormones set on Jack Wesley, the sexy singer-turned-bad-boy-actor. And it seems Jack was making some nightly career moves of his own with Sedra. Or how about Hollywood darling Missie Miller, a straight-A Harvard freshman living at home to care for her nearly blind mother, who was overheard telling Sedra, “Drop dead, Paleolithic relic,” just before she did exactly that.
Now it’s up to Polly Pepper, along with her adorable adult-but-still-living-at-home son Tim and their sassy-but-wise maid Tiara to see to it that someone will be starring in a real-life drama tentatively titled Life Without Parole!
A Corpse in the Castle (#5)
Hollywood icon Polly Pepper receives the ultimate tribute when she inherits a rundown English castle from a devoted fan. But owning a castle is no fairy tale, especially when it comes with a resident ghost and a murder investigation. Polly’s dream of turning the castle into a lucrative tourist destination and up-scale wedding venue hits a snag when the loathsome housekeeper, Gwellyn Clogg, is found dead in the larder. The police write it off as a heart attack, but Polly’s convinced there’s something more sinister at play. With the help of her sassy maid Tiara, her adult but still-living-at-home son Tim, an arrogant cat named Mr. Boots, and a cast of curious characters from the village, Polly sets out on a heart-pounding and hilarious quest to uncover the truth and catch the killer … before she becomes the next victim.
Shadows at Midnight (#6)
House guests and fish are best enjoyed fresh; after a few days, it’s time to chuck them out. Iconic TV star Polly Pepper learns this the hard way when Lester Lynch, the grumpy costume designer from her classic variety show, barges into Thistlethorne Lodge—the English castle she inherited from a fan—to write his juicy Hollywood tell-all memoir. Armed with a pen sharper than his fashion sense, Lester’s unwelcome stay turns Polly’s life upside down as his manuscript reveals scathing secrets about her and all her movie star friends. Just when Polly’s patience reaches its limit, a stormy night brings a shocking twist: Lester is found dead behind a secret panel in the castle’s library. It appears someone had a buried past they couldn’t risk Lester unearthing.
Chaos ensues, and Polly is once again forced to become an amateur sleuth. With old grudges and celebrity gossip swirling like whispers at a Hollywood dinner party, she dives into the murky waters of hidden motives. Can Polly unmask the killer before they strike again? And can she survive the sinister secrets that lie in wait?
Join Polly Pepper in Shadows at Midnight, where old Hollywood glamour meets English castle intrigue (and a sympathetic ghost, too), for a clever and gripping whodunit.
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