Why am I passionate about this?

Prior to my becoming a cozy mystery author, I was a ladies’ apparel sales rep traveling a territory in the deep southern states. During my four-year stint I spent a great deal of time in a variety of southern cities and small towns. I interacted with progressive as well as traditional, conservative people. My experiences gave me a unique perspective with respect to the social mores and hierarchy of Southern society. 


I wrote

Death by Surfboard

By Susie Black,

Book cover of Death by Surfboard

What is my book about?

Set in the competitive Los Angeles apparel industry, Death by Surfboard is the story of how one man’s life of…

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of Malice in Maggody

Susie Black Why did I love this book?

In a town the size of Maggody, Arkansas, population 755, nothing much ever happens, so Arly Hanks figures she’s safe as the town’s first female chief of police.

But Arly no sooner pins her badge on, and she’s contending with two manhunts and an EPA problem no one is willing to talk about. 

Give me an irreverent protagonist, dialog dripping sarcasm, and a zany plot that spits in the eye of the absurdness of our society. Malice in Maggody, the first book in The Arly Hanks Mysteries-has them all.

Life-long Arkansan author Joan Hess gleefully makes mincemeat of the hypocrisy of social mores and the foibles of the caste hierarchy often found in small southern towns by reducing them to a parody of themselves. 

By Joan Hess,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Malice in Maggody as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

After a crossbow killing at a cheap roadside motel, Ozarks police chief Arly Hanks finds herself investigating her first murder case.

Her marriage over and career gone bust, Arly Hanks flees Manhattan for her hometown: Maggody, Arkansas. In a town this size, nothing much ever happens, so Arly figures she's safe as the town's first female chief of police-until the husband of one of the local barmaids escapes from state prison and heads for town. And that's not all. An EPA official with ties to polluting the local fishing hole has suddenly vanished off the face of the earth.

As…


Book cover of Permed to Death

Susie Black Why did I love this book?

Maybe it’s because I am naturally curious and ask a lot of questions, I’m a sucker for a protagonist who sticks her nose everywhere it doesn’t belong.

South Florida hairstylist Marla Shore is already having a bad hair day when one of her clients dies in the shampoo chair at her salon. Then Detective Dalton Vail accuses Marla of putting poison in the woman’s coffee creamer. Grumpy Bertha Kravitz might not have been Marla’s favorite customer, but the hairstylist wouldn’t have murdered the lady.

I love that no matter how much danger she gets herself into, Marla stands up for herself and leaves no stone unturned when she decides it’s up to her to unmask the real killer.

By Nancy J. Cohen,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Permed to Death as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Meet Marla Shore, a Florida hairstylist and salon owner with a knack for styling hair and solving mysteries.

Hairstylist Marla Shore is already having a bad hair day when one of her clients dies in the shampoo chair at her salon. Then Detective Dalton Vail accuses her of putting poison in the wealthy woman's coffee creamer. Grumpy Bertha Kravitz might not have been Marla's favorite customer, but she wouldn't have murdered the lady. With her reputation at stake, Marla decides it's up to her to unmask the killer.

Combing the woman's privileged world for clues, Marla discovers the town is…


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Book cover of Brighter Than Her Fears

Brighter Than Her Fears By Lisa Ard,

The 19th century women's rights movement and the rise of public education intertwine with one woman's story of struggle, perseverance, and love.

Alice Harris is pressed to marry a Civil War veteran twice her age when her family’s inn fails in 1882 in western North Carolina. She remakes herself by…

Book cover of Miss Julia Speaks Her Mind

Susie Black Why did I love this book?

Newly widowed Miss Julia, a pillar of her small southern community, is the poster child for my wise Nana’s theory that things never turn out the way you think they will when she finds herself smack dab in the center of a smarmy love triangle scandal involving her late husband.

I adore Miss Julia’s razer-sharp wit as she morphs from a clueless stuffed shirt into an endearingly strong southern woman who doesn’t take crap from anyone.

I am a big fan of a fast-paced tale that deftly weaves comic characters through a plot wrought with hand-wringing angst. Miss Julia and her cast of crazy characters does not disappoint.   

By Ann B. Ross,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Miss Julia Speaks Her Mind as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Miss Julia, a recently bereaved and newly wealthy widow, is only slightly bemused when one Hazel Marie Puckett appears at her door with a youngster in tow and unceremoniously announces that the child is the bastard son of Miss Julia's late husband. Suddenly, this longtime church member and pillar of her small Southern community finds herself in the center of an unseemly scandal-and the guardian of a wan nine-year-old whose mere presence turns her life upside down.

With razor-sharp wit and perfect "Steel Magnolia" poise, Miss Julia speaks her mind indeed-about a robbery, a kidnapping, and the other disgraceful events…


Book cover of Elvis and the Dearly Departed

Susie Black Why did I love this book?

Nothing tickles my funny bone more than my husband describing the antics of his boyhood family dog, a singing ninety-pound boxer aptly named Troubadour.

So, naturally, I fell in love with mortician Callie Valentine Jones’ basset hound who’s convinced he is the reincarnation of the King of Rock n’ Roll. Business takes a nasty nosedive when the corpse of a local doctor goes missing from the Eternal Rest Funeral Home.

I almost died laughing when kookie Callie and her wake caterer cousin Lovie race in hot pursuit of the recently embalmed, last seen bound for Las Vegas by way of downtown Tupelo, Mississippi.

The fast-paced plot is nothing short of sheer Southern fried lunacy as Callie, Lovie, and Elvis track the dearly departed doctor inside a freezer owned by his showgirl mistress. 

By Peggy Webb,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Elvis and the Dearly Departed as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

They say you can't get to Heaven without passing through the Eternal Rest Funeral Home. And no one gets into Eternal Rest without passing muster with Elvis--the basset hound who's convinced he's the reincarnation of the King of Rock 'n' Roll. Brewing up a big ol' pitcher of Mississippi mystery, Peggy Webb's delightful new series is as intoxicating as the Delta breeze.

Normally, Callie Valentine Jones spends her days fixing up the hairdos of the dead, but when the corpse of local, prominent physician Dr. Leonard Laton goes missing, it's bad for business. So Callie and her cousin Lovie (Eternal…


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Book cover of God on a Budget: and other stories in dialogue

God on a Budget By J.M. Unrue,

Nine Stories Told Completely in Dialogue is a unique collection of narratives, each unfolding entirely through conversations between its characters. The book opens with "God on a Budget," a tale of a man's surreal nighttime visitation that offers a blend of the mundane and the mystical. In "Doctor in the…

Book cover of Iced Chiffon

Susie Black Why did I love this book?

Maybe it’s because I had to do it throughout my career as a sales exec in a historically male-dominated industry before I became an author, that I am a hopeless sap for a heroine who picks herself up no matter how many times she gets knocked down.

So, it is no surprise that Savannah, Georgia-based recent divorcee Reagan Summerside has a special place in my heart. Reagan, left with almost nothing, thanks to the ruthless tactics of her husband’s divorce lawyer, discovers the bimbo her ex dumped her for dead in her former Lexus.

I cheered the consignment shop owner on as she relentlessly searched for the murderer.

By Duffy Brown,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Iced Chiffon as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

There's always something to gossip about in Savannah, Georgia, and Reagan Summerside always seems to be in the middle of it. She's busy enough running her consignment shop, The Prissy Fox, with her vivacious Auntie KiKi, but now the gossip-and the sales-are about to pick up after a gruesome discovery...

Reagan's messy divorce has left her with nothing but a run-down Victorian and a bunch of designer clothes. Strapped for cash, Reagan makes use of the two things she has left, turning the first floor of her home into a consignment shop and filling it with the remnants of her…


Explore my book 😀

Death by Surfboard

By Susie Black,

Book cover of Death by Surfboard

What is my book about?

Set in the competitive Los Angeles apparel industry, Death by Surfboard is the story of how one man’s life of lies, delivered by smoke and mirrors, cost him everything. No one is more stunned than Mermaid Swimwear sales exec Holly Schlivnik when a fisherman hooks her unscrupulous colleague’s battered corpse attached to a surfboard and hauls it onto the Washington Street Pier. The ME ruled Jack Tyne drowned, but “had help dying”, and Holly’s boss is wrongly arrested for the crime. To save him from a life behind bars, the wise-cracking, irreverent amateur detective dons her sleuthing hat to find Jack’s real killer. The trail has twists and turns, and nothing turns out the way Holly thinks it will as she tangles with a clever killer hellbent on revenge.

Book cover of Malice in Maggody
Book cover of Permed to Death
Book cover of Miss Julia Speaks Her Mind

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