Bøger i Ed Lazenby Mysteries serien

A straight line is not always the shortest distance between two points. Ed Lazenby knows that sometimes you have to aim at where your target's going to be rather than where it is at the moment. That was the last thing on his mind, though, when a neighbor he'd never spoken to before asked him to find her missing grandson. He was tired of people thinking he was a hero, just because he and his best bud, Ernesto Cardoza, had rescued their friend Violet Wertheim from kidnappers. But, he was also bored, so when Abigail Crumley came along with her request, he said yes. Ernesto, of course, went along for the ride-and, what a ride it turned out to be.

Ed Lazenby hates camping, but he has let himself be talked into spending a week on a remote island off the coast of Maine, participating in an adventure tour. Other than his friend and neighbor, Ernesto, he only knows the Wertheim sisters, Violet and Rose, fellow residents of Potomac Valley Community. On the ferry from Bar Harbor, Ed begins to form opinions of his fellow campers, and notices signs of conflict. On the island, things only get worse, and then one of the campers goes missing, and Ed suspects foul play. Problem is, he can't prove it. When a young state cop arrives, alone except for his search dog, he asks for Ed's help. The two of them resort to some 'out of the box' techniques to catch a cunning and ruthless killer.

Ed Lazenby and Ernesto Cardoza are residents of Potomac Valley Community (PVC), a full-service retirement community just outside Rockville, Maryland. Their favorite pastimes are playing golf and spending time chatting with their friends the Wertheim sisters, Violet and Rose. Except for Violet's tendency to be a bit hypercritical of everything and everyone, life is nice at PVC, until one day, Violet turns up missing. A ransom note asks for half a million dollars and warns Ed and Ernesto not to call the police. They're faced with a number of problems: someone learns that Violet is missing and calls the police; they have no idea where Violet is being held, or by whom; and, none of them have enough money to pay the ransom. Time is running out for Violet, and our heroes are running out of options to save her.

Beatrice Terwilliger, an elderly resident of the Potomac Valley Community is found dead in her home, apparently from a heart attack. But, her niece, Zelda, thins otherwise, and to make matters worse, her aunt's will is missing. At the urging of Violet and Rose Wertheim, Zelda turns to Ed Lazenby and his friend, Ernie Cardoza for help in finding out how her aunt really died, which, of course, means that Ed and Ernie are in trouble again.

When Ed Lazenby let his friends talk him into being a volunteer tutor at a local middle school, he figured it would be boring, but easy, and it was only for a couple of hours, three days a week. It's not as if he had anything more important to do, anyway. But, when the school principal is found stabbed to death in his office, by Ed of all people, life becomes anything but simple. There's no shortage of suspects, but Ed has to find out how the killer got into the school with the weapon, and out again without being seen. His motives are personal; on the one hand, he's an amateur sleuth who can't resist sticking his nose into a crime, and the other-he's one of the suspects. He knows he's innocent, but can he find the real killer before a couple of overzealous detectives decide he's their man?