OTHER BOOKS Leslie has written two previous series of books under her real name, Leslie O'Kane. One is the Molly Masters series about a greeting card designer; the other is the Allie Babcock series about a dog therapist. MOLLY MASTERS SERIES DEATH AND FAXES Death and Faxes is the first in the Molly Masters series. This witty, sometimes cynical, debut introduces Molly Masters, a greeting card designer who returns to her hometown in upstate New York while her engineer husband is sent on a job in the Philippines. With their two young children in tow, Molly starts up a faxable-greeting service and reunites with her lifelong friend, Lauren. She receives a note from a high-school teacher whom she had satirized in a poem in the school newspaper years before, but before Molly responds, the woman dies. Molly gets a series of faxes implying that she is responsible for the teacher's death and threatening her and her children. Nearly everywhere she turns, Molly encounters members of her graduating class who remember the nasty poem: Tommy Newton, a nerd who is now the investigating police officer; "Miss Popularity," Stephanie Saunders, the current PTA president; football hero Jack Vance, who has become the elementary school principal. When a classmate's husband is murdered, Molly's suspicions focus on all the nearby alums. Peppered by Molly's greeting card brainstorms, O'Kane's engaging mystery takes a slanted, entertaining glance at high-school figures we all loved to hate. (Publishers Weekly review) JUST THE FAX MA'AM Just the Fax Ma'am is the second in the Molly Masters series. In a follow-up to Death and Faxes, greeting-card cartoonist Molly Masters returns, with engineer husband Jim and two young children, to Carlton, her hometown, after a 17-year absence. Living nearby are little-liked Preston Saunders; his pregnant, shrewish wife Stephanie; and their daughter Tiffany, a high- schooler. One morning Saunders visits Molly to tell her that he entered a raunchy cartoon of hers in a porn magazine contest – and it's won the $1,000 prize. A bit later a messenger arrives, leaving a nasty package and a threat from STOP, a feminist anti-porn group. That same morning Molly gets a frantic call from Stephanie, who has found her husband shot to death on the kitchen floor. She wants Molly to help find the killer, although she appears to suspect Tiffany or Cherokee Taylor, her daughter's teenaged Romeo. Meanwhile, Molly, infuriating Sergeant Tommy Newton of the local police, to say nothing of long-suffering husband Jim, embarks on an investigative crusade. It takes her, in disguise, to Tiffany's school, then to the country club golf course where Saunders had a regular foursome with partners who heartily detested him... THE COLD HARD FAX The Cold Hard Fax is the third book in the Molly Masters series. Gardening is not usually considered a blood sport, but whenever cartoonist Molly Masters is out in the yard she must contend with the harassing comments of her neighbor, Helen Raleigh, who once owned Molly's house. Then, after a particularly unpleasant confrontation, Helen is shot dead on Molly's property – and a shocking secret is revealed. THE FAX OF LIFE The Fax of Life is the fourth book in the Molly Masters series. Violets are blue Roses are red One of you bitches Will soon be dead. Those lines weren't quite what greeting-card entrepreneur Molly Masters had in mind when she encouraged her weekend workshop students to write a bit of verse, anonymously. Eerily, within hours, one of her aspiring writers is murdered, apparently without rhyme or reason. Or so Molly thinks until a storm and a blackout isolate the group in their mountain retreat. Katherine the professor, Nancy the shrink, Lois the doting mom, Julie the dog breeder, and Celia the big pest. Behind each one's suburban facade lurk passions unfit for family greeting cards, and a rage for life – and death. . . . THE SCHOOL BOARD MURDERS The School Board Murders is the fifth book in the Molly Masters series. Funding for sports or funding for the arts? There's not enough money for both, and a ruthless battle is raging among the seven members of the Carlton school board. Sylvia Greene, the board's unbalanced president, is even threatening to expose the members' most private secrets if they don't vote her way. But a sudden dose of poison takes care of Sylvia . . . permanently. The bad news is that Molly Master's dad, the board member who was Sylvia's first blackmail target, is now the prime suspect for her murder. Shocked and furious, Molly hits the warpath, determined to find the real killer. A deadly field trip tells her almost all she needs to know – except her own perilous fate. . . . WHEN THE FAX LADY SINGS When the Fax Lady Sings is the sixth book in the Molly Masters series. Dress rehearsal for the PTA fundraiser is at its chaotic peak when one of the seven identical clowns cavorting on stage pulls out a gun and shoots the director, Corrinne Buldock. Molly Masters, also dressed as a clown, is a stunned and baffled witness to the killing. She wonders: which of her fellow performers, all of them respectable parents and teachers, can conceivably be a murderer? The rumor is that Corrinne and her old boyfriend split up . . . and that she had just confessed to a sexual involvement with a student. Soon Molly knows more dirty little school secrets than she would care to – and more than enough to send a desperate killer back into action. . . . DEATH OF A PTA GODDESS Death of a PTA Goddess is the seventh and final book in the Molly Masters series. Everybody agrees that talented mom Patty Birch is the perfect president to lead the Carlton Central School PTA to new accomplishments. Under her steady stewardship, the organization verges on winning a prestigious award. Her skills, however, are sorely tested when angry board members assemble to discuss a secret video that reveals their pettiness and ineptitude. Not long after the meeting adjourns, Patty's tenure is cut short by a knife-wielding killer. When Molly Masters, the town's unofficial sleuth, gets on the case, Perfect Patty turns out to be not so perfect after all. She not only instigated the notorious video but also some of its most humiliating episodes, many of which remain on the cutting-room floor. It's no wonder someone in PTA-land is ready to kill – and Molly is destined to be the next victim. . . . ALLIE BABCOCK SERIES PLAY DEAD Play Dead is the first book in the Allie Babcock Mystery Series. Meet Allie Babcock – An intrepid dog therapist with a knack for sleuthing! After Allie Babcock sets up shop in Boulder, her first client is a despondent collie whose previous owner apparently took her own life. But Allie soon suspects murder – and figures her canine client was a witness to the crime. Before making another movie, Allie counts her enemies: several suspicious dog owners, a violent boyfriend, and a mysterious door-to-door salesman. One thing's for certain: All of them deserve a serious once-over or Allie's own life may be brought to a heel... RUFF WAY TO GO Ruff Way to Go is the second book in the Allie Babcock Mystery Series. Dog Therapist Allie Babcock is back – and she has a bone to pick with a killer! Allie's dog therapy practice is booming. Her divorcing neighbors Edith and Travor have hired her to choose which one should have custody of Shogun, their silky terrier. Another neighborhood pair, Cassandra and Paul, need help with a fostered Siberian husky and her pups. Everything's great until Allie finds Cassandra's bludgeoned body on Edith's deck with a bloody pawprint beside it – and Shogun long gone. Who murdered Cassandra? Where's Shogun? What makes the old couple down the block so hostile? Hounded by the police and in the doghouse with just about everybody else, sleuthhound Allie cuts to the chase – and unleashes a close encounter with a cold-hearted killer. . . . GIVE THE DOG A BONE Give the Dog a Bone is the third and final book in the Allie Babcock Mystery Series. No mere murder is going to make dog therapist Allie Babcock roll over and play dead. As canine shrink Allie Babcock knows, behind every neurotic dog stands a neurotic human. But the rambunctious golden retriever named Maggie can't even begin to compete with the nuttiness of her owner. Befuddled millionaire Ken Culberson insists that he killed his wife and that Maggie is channeling her spirit. He talks Allie into becoming the dog's legal guardian in case he, too, should die, which he promptly does, thanks to a murderer. Friends and relatives immediately gather to sniff after the fortune that will go to whomever Allie picks to be Maggie's new owner. Wondering who in the pack did the deed, sleuthhound Allie vows that Maggie and her millions will only go to a killer over her own dead body...