Sarah Osborne books in order

Pediatrician Mabel Aphrodite Brown adores kids. So when a childhood friend asks Ditie to babysit her kids for a few days, she jumps at the chance. She never imagined she’d be solving a murder too... 

Despite growing up together, Ditie hasn’t seen Ellie Winston in two years, and she didn’t even know Ellie was living in Atlanta. But when Ellie asks her to take care of Lucie and Jason for the weekend, she thinks nothing of it. They’ll bake cookies together, play with her dog—it’ll be fun! Until the police call with terrible news...

Ellie may not have been the best friend, but who would want her dead? Could it have something to do with the vague get-rich-quick scheme she mentioned to Ditie? Or the men in a black truck following her and breaking into her home? Not sure who to trust other than her best friend, Lurleen, Ditie’s buried maternal instincts kick in to protect the kids and find their mother’s killer—before they’re orphaned again...

Includes Family-Friendly Recipes!

Mabel Aphrodite Brown has quickly learned that motherhood can sometimes be a real skirmish. But when death visits a Civil War reenactment, it’s murder that’s a battlefield... 

In the thick of a hot, muggy Atlanta summer, all Ditie Brown wants to do is keep her kids occupied and get them ready for school in the fall. When her ex-boyfriend, Phil Brockton, shows up for a Civil War reenactment, she thinks it might be fun and educational for the kids. Plus, her best friend Lurleen wants to put on the costumes and get in on the action, and Ditie isn’t one to rebel.

But things go south after a cannon misfires, resulting in the death of Phil’s med school rival. Was it an accident or something more sinister? Ditie soon realizes the past rarely stays buried, and her digging reveals longstanding enemies, killer motives, and new jealousy. When another reenactor is “accidentally” shot, the pressure is on for Ditie to solve the murders—or else her friends may be history... 

Includes Family-Friendly Recipes!

Mabel Aphrodite Brown unpacks her knives—and her detective skills—when she joins a cooking competition that someone would kill to win... 

Somehow, Ditie’s best friend, Lurleen, has sweet-talked Ditie into a spot on the next edition of The Great Southern Baking Contest. It’ll mean leaving her almost-adopted kids for a little while, but they love spending time with their uncle. And she can’t turn down the chance to bake at celebrity chef Savanah Evans’s antebellum estate in Beaufort, South Carolina...

Even when Savanah’s husband dies suspiciously at the welcome party, the show doesn’t stop. As technical problems plague filming and the body count rises faster than a soufflé, it becomes clear that everyone is hiding more than just biscuit recipes. It’s up to Ditie to sift through a slew of suspects and motives to cut through a mystery with more layers than her Georgia peach strudel. If she doesn’t come through with a killer soon, she might get chopped—from real life. 

Includes Family-Friendly Recipes!

Mabel Aphrodite Brown (Ditie) is thrilled when her best friend, Lurleen, wants to buy a 1920s mansion and create a cooking school in Atlanta. An old murder in the house simply adds spice to their intentions. Back in 1949 an innocent Black man was convicted of the crime. Ditie and Lurleen can investigate the murder, right a terrible wrong, and design a cooking school for women who need a second chance in life.

A perfect plan! As Lurleen says, “A new house and an old murder, what more could a girl want?” But “a perfect storm” might be a more accurate description. Conflicting forces swirl around Lurleen even before she purchases the house. Outside the crumbling mansion, a well-tended rose garden seems to welcome her, while a chalked threat on the broken front porch tells her to stay away before a second murder occurs. Good karma and bad—that’s the way Lurleen sees it, and nothing will deter her from her decision to buy and renovate the house.

Ditie tries to protect her friend from harm, but she can’t stay in the mansion all the time—she has her work in the refugee clinic and two children who need her. Will the force of good or evil triumph in a mansion that holds so many secrets?

Includes Family-Friendly Recipes.

Ditie’s wedding is in the works!

Pediatrician Mabel Aphrodite (Ditie) Brown has imagined this day since the first time Atlanta Detective Mason Garrett kissed her. She and Mason will wed in the place she calls heaven—on the warm sands of Cape Azul bordering the Gulf of Mexico. Her newly adopted children, Lucie and Jason, will stand beside them, and family will help them celebrate.

Lurleen and Danny, their best friends, will see to everything, so what can possibly go wrong?

Mason and Ditie wed on a glorious sunny morning, but storm clouds are not far behind. First, the owner of their rental house disappears. Two days later his body washes ashore steps from where they are staying. He’s been murdered. Is this a warning of more trouble to come? Should they get out of the house and away from Cape Azul?

Ditie isn’t one to leave a job half-done in her cooking, her care of her patients—or in this case—an unsolved murder. But she will never put her children at risk or disappoint her new husband who wants a quiet honeymoon on the beach and not a busman’s holiday.

The Old Dames Protection Agency solves murders before they happen. Curmudgeon Flo and gentle Maude, octogenarians and founding members of the organization, are on the road from Boston to LA, Atlanta to Cape Cod, ready to save the innocent (and not so innocent) from harm. Their side-kick, young Kate, does the heavy lifting and carries a gun.It all starts when Flo rescues Maude from the clutches of would-be murderers and jewel thieves hanging out at one of Boston’s finest hotels in "Malice at the Palace."

Flo and Maude deliver a cranky Cape Cod resident from harm in "A Curmudgeon’s Last Christmas." It’s on to "California Dreamin’" for an LA author whose death is foretold in the mysteries she writes. Flo must prevent the murder of her father’s best friend in "Mrs. Claus and the Littlest Reindeer." And finally, if you’ve been missing Ditie and the kids (from the Ditie Brown Mysteries Series published by Kensington), here they are once more. Ditie needs the help of Flo and Maude in "Old Friends and Older Crimes" to prevent murder in an old folks home.

The Old Dames Protection Agency (ODPA) is at it again!

Octogenarians Flo and Maude, with younger sidekick Kate, are asked once more to prevent a murder before it happens. A Santa in Maine has been threatened. His Santa suit has been viciously ripped to shreds. Is the perpetrator done with mischief or are they intent on destroying more than just a costume?

It’s ODPA to the rescue. Flo will get the white Christmas she craves—along with a heavy dose of adventure in the rural coastal town of Menescotta. Maude will go anywhere at any time, and in this case it’s a friend who needs their help. And Kate? Kate seems to know the town of Menescotta although she won’t reveal why she knows it.

Menescotta is famous for many things—its oysters, its magnificent fall festival, and of course its Christmas parade and festivities. Bob Quellette has been the town Santa for fifteen years now, but will he live to see a sixteenth season? Will the town get to watch him riding his magnificent sleigh through Main Street once more? And what has Bob done that could make a person mad enough to want to kill him?

Flo, Maude, and Kate must find the perpetrator before he (or she) finishes the job. Can they do it in time to save Christmas?

The Old Dames Protection Agency (ODPA) has no one to protect this holiday season!

Has their organization run out of steam?

Octogenarian Flo hates to fly, but sacrifices must be made. She’s promised to meet the grandmother of Kate’s boyfriend in Naples, Florida if no one needs their protection this Christmas. Little does she know that one terrifying flight will lead Maude, Kate, and Flo to the greatest adventure of their lives.

They land in the middle of a spy thriller in St. Augustine with the Nights of Lights glittering around them.

But will everyone survive? Including a hapless, greedy and unsuccessful politician who claims to have invented a machine guaranteeing eternal youth? And will Flo be able to tell the good spies from the bad ones?