Ann Charles

Whatever lies in wait in the jungle isn’t just history ... it’s hungry! Deep in the Yucatán Peninsula sits a long forgotten, mysterious site—lost to time, swallowed by the jungle, haunted by ancient secrets.

Deadwood, late 1876. A rowdy and reckless undertaker’s delight. What better place for a killer to blend in? Enter undertaker Clementine Johanssen, tall and deadly with a hot temper and short fuse, hired to clean up Deadwood’s dead...and the “other” problem. She’s hell-bent on poking...

Someone is spreading rumors around Deadwood that Violet Parker likes to chat with dead folks. With her reputation endangered, her bank account on the verge of extinction, and her career at risk of going up in flames, Violet is desperate. When the opportunity to sell another vintage home...

Meanwhile, back in Deadwood...the mystery and mayhem continue. Between the butchered body parts, creepy killers, dogged detectives, ghoulish ghosts, and ever-present television cameras, Violet Parker's purple boots are itching to skedaddle. But there is no escaping another murder investigation...

"Trespassers will be gutted and hung!" - Slagton's unofficial town motto Normally, not even drunk on a bet would Violet Parker go to Slagton, a creepy ghost town inhabited by those too stubborn - or deranged - to leave. But a certain bullheaded Deadwood detective has a problem - his informant...

"This here place? Worse than the backside of Hades.” (Hank Varney) First, let me say, this here trip to Slagton weren’t my idea. This place is chock full of bad company done helped itself to a double dose of bad medicine. Slagton needs cleanin’, accordin’ to Miss Clem, and I know the...

Time is a tricky devil. And so is that blasted imp! Violet Parker needs to catch the little terror before it wreaks even more havoc in the Black Hills. But now that she’s saddled with this dang Timekeeper gig, she has a lot to juggle, like the real monsters wanting to tear the flesh from her...

“There’s gold in them there hills!” ...and something deadly, too. Danger the likes Boone McCreery has never seen is brewing in the Black Hills. Fresh in from Santa Fe, he’s returned to Deadwood to seek justice for his uncle - and maybe to see about a girl. Little did he know his search...

Get ready for more laughs, sizzle, and sleuthing in this fourth Deadwood mystery from author Ann Charles! One dead body, one century-old haunted opera house, one zombie musical... one pissed-off detective - will Violet "Spooky" Parker keep her tail out of trouble, or will she end up as one of...

"Nothing good ever happens at the butt-crack of dawn. No doubt, the headless corpse on the autopsy table in front of me would agree." – Violet Parker Real estate agent Violet "Spooky" Parker stumbles upon a body-part theft ring at the local funeral parlor and suspects her caustic coworker has...

Violet Parker has big troubles these days—the ticking kind. To duck the Grim Reaper, she needs to get her hands on eighty-plus rare, mystical clocks locked up tight by a thick-headed detective. The solution? Hijack the truckload of ticking time bombs out from under Johnny Law’s nose. But no...

A scrappy, hot-blooded woman can only take so much! Violet Parker is on fire...or rather under fire yet again. New evidence has fanned the embers of a cold murder case, and her alibi is smoldering at the corners. While battling a dogged detective determined to pin the murder on her, Violet...

Some old flames won't stop smoldering.... Zoe Parker knew better than to play with fire. Fireman Reid Martin sparked a flame in her that she couldn't put out. Will Zoe be able to escape with her heart before she gets burned? Cold Flame is the third story in the Deadwood Shorts collection, set...

It’s all fun and games at the circus...until everyone’s favorite clown winds up dead. Someone killed Clint the Clown. Madam Electra’s crystal ball could help find the murderer, but she risks exposing her own secrets in the process. Secrets that could land her on the endangered species...

There’s a real trick to catching a soul-stealing Hungarian devil made of shadow and smoke. Unfortunately, Violet Parker doesn’t know what that trick is, and her aunt’s life depends on her figuring it out. But killing is an old family tradition for her...or rather a fatal tradition....

What do you get when you combine a chicken named Elvis, a locked diary, and a secret Violet Parker does not want share with her daughter? Find out....

Mystery, mayhem, and monkeys, oh my! Welcome to the jungle, a treacherous place teeming with terrible secrets better left buried. "This dig site isn't cursed. It's doomed!" Ancient history.... A small civilization in the Maya jungle suffered a mysterious, bloody ending. Recent history.... A...

All Violet Parker wants is a day off. Better yet, just a “normal” day. But things never go as planned, especially in Deadwood. Someone - or rather something - broke into the local taxidermy shop and took bites out of the critter displays before racing off into the dark. But this is no random...

It's not really about the boots … or is it? Boot Points is a set of short tales about Violet Parker's purple boots....

Some things you just can't ride around.... Jack “Rabbit” Fields knew a good thing when he saw it, whether it was a sound horse, a sure bet, or a pretty sage hen. When it came to locking horns with any curly wolves he ran into along the trail, he tended to shoot first - a notion that had...