The Pete Bartholomew Mysteries
Fire Water
When five-year-old Lucy Suggs finds a human skull while playing, the residents of Nashtoba Island are horrified. Pete and Connie Bartholomew, who took Lucy in after her mother died, are even more shocked to learn that the skull was found in their marsh
—and that it was all that remained of Susan Jameson, a stunning redhead and an old flame of Pete's who disappeared fifteen years earlier. Matters only get muddier after a second skull is unearthed
—this one identified as Manny Rose, a legendary bootlegger from the 1920s.
The police are baffled by possible connections between the deaths, but they're clear about whom to pursue. As the owner of the makeshift burial ground and Susan's jilted lover, Pete tops the list of murder suspects, and suspicion spreads like wildfire to include his wife as well. Now, with a burning desire to clear himself and Connie, Pete embarks upon his own investigation, and uncovers shocking secrets, buried truths, and scandalous lies that leave him up to his neck in fire water.
Dirty Water
Pete and Connie Bartholomew are making a second go at marriage, and this time around they're determined to make it work...come hell or high water. But the honeymoon's been cut short by a phone call from the police chief of Nashtoba Island, suggesting they return home. Pete's old friend Sarah Abrew, eighty-eight and counting, has made a rather startling confession: she caught local accountant Webster Sutton in a compromising position with an innocent young girl and proceeded to shoot him dead....
As if there isn't enough excitement for one honeymoon, a hurricane is set to slam into the island -- but its churning power is nothing compared to the destructive force of the dark memories and secret sins about to rise to the surface in Dirty Water.
Muddy Water
When his friend's bride turns up late for her wedding--murdered--it's up to Peter Bartholomew to investigate. What he discovers hits uncomfortably close to home and exposes a tangle of jealousy, love, and murderous anger lurking beneath some very muddy water.
Deep Water
Cobie Small was Nashtoba's local die-hard drunk who inhabited a floating wreck offshore. It's a shock when Cobie shows up at a local bar flashing a wad of cash, and even more shocking when his dead body is hauled in the next morning with a net full of mackerel. Now, Peter Bartholomew and his errant sister, Polly, wind up investigating the case, and find themselves in Deep Water.
Still Water
Peter Bartholomew is busy trying to romance his ex-wife and catch up on the paperwork in his office, when Anthony Simmons shows up with a problem--someone may be trying to kill his young bride. He wants Pete to go undercover as the household handyman. When murder does occur, it's swift, brutal and unexpected. Now it's up to Pete to catch a wily killer.
Rough Water
Fifth in Gunning's popular mystery series featuring odd-job entrepreneur Peter Bartholomew. Peter takes ex-wife Connie, sister Polly, and her fiance, Jackson Beers, on a whale-watching cruise. But when the would-be sightseers are treated to the grisly spectacle of Beers impaled on a harpoon, the expedition turns into the hunt for a killer.
Troubled Water
Gunning takes her popular sleuth, Peter Bartholomew, into his roughest waters yet. The surprising double death of beloved spinsters on the usually quiet New England island of Nashtoba leaves amateur sleuth Peter with plenty of questions . . . and trouble.
Ice Water
It's beginning to look at lot like murder for Peter Bartholomew in the third installment of this popular mystery series. When a local businessman is killed at a Christmas party, it may have been because he refused to sell out to a powerful condo developer. Pete sets out to expose the murderer, but his real concern is for his ex-wife--who may be next on the killer's list.
Under Water
When Peter Bartholomew finds a teenager's body drifting in the Sound, the only clues are a class ring and the murdered girl's pregnancy. Peter and his ex-wife Connie determine to search for the truth, and their most memorable encounter traps them in the rising waters of a tidal cave, where a killer feels free to let nature take its deadly course.
Not Water
Peter Bartholomew's odd-job company does just about anything that needs doing on the Cape Hook island of Nashtoba. He's all set to catalogue the books at Edna Hitchock's place when he finds her lifeless body in a bath. It looks like a clear case of too much bourbon and Seconal until Pete notices that the bathwater is still hot. To top it off everyone on Nashtoba can't wait to tell Pete that his ex-wife Connie is back in town, Edna's sexy daughter Martha is looking to Pete for consolation, and the local police chief is looking to Martha as the main suspect in the crime.