Wendy Delaney Books In Order

Publication Order of Working Stiffs Mystery Books

Wendy Delaney is a cozy mystery author, who likes to write not only in the mystery genre but also in the romance, humor and comedy genres and she seems to do it quite well as she has gained so many devoted fans with her books that contain all of these genres. Delaney is an award-winning author of the cozy mystery series called the Working Stiffs. She is a long-time member of the groups: Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, and Romance Writers of America. She is also an avid Food Network enthusiast, who aspires to be a great pastry chef. She also collects recipes to use in her cozy mystery books and she welcomes recipe submissions from her many cozy mystery fans, and she has actually included some recipes that were brought to her by her fans. Delaney lives in the Seattle area with her husband and together they have two sons. She is also a fan of Seattle sports teams the Seattle Seahawks and the Seattle Mariners.

The main character of Wendy Delaney’s Working Stiffs series is named Charmaine Digby, who is the County Coroner’s assistant, or Deputy Coroner by day and a pastry chef in her spare time, when she has spare time and she isn’t trying to solve the murders plaguing her Washington State home town. She is very adept at spotting a lie and has a talent for finding trouble. The Working Stiffs series takes place in a fictional town in Washington state called Port Merritt, which is set across Puget Sound from Seattle, where Delaney lives in real life. Charmaine Digby debuted in the first novel of the Working Stiffs series called Trudy, Madly, Deeply, which was first published on July 1st, 2013.

Trudy, Madly, Deeply is about Charmaine Digby who is going through a difficult year in her life. She went through a nasty divorce, she’s unemployed and she is up to her throat in debt. In need of a huge change and a new beginning, Charmaine decides to go back home to the city of Port Merritt, Washington, where she quickly gets a new job as the County Coroner’s new assistant, in which she will undoubtedly take the opportunity to make good use of her talent for sniffing out the lies and following her instincts that can find trouble. But a wet blanket is thrown over her happiness with her new job when a doctor, who works at the hospital reports the dubious death of Port Merritt’s most revered citizen named Trudy, the Story Lady. It’s particularly difficult for Charmaine to deal with because Trudy was a beloved family friend. What’s even more shocking is that Trudy isn’t the only recent patient who has died under mysterious circumstances. There were several elderly patients who died suddenly, in the same way that Trudy died. Their hearts mysteriously stopped. Could this possibly be the work of a serial killer? There is no physical evidence to suggest that this was the work of a serial killer, let alone, any evidence to suggest foul play, at all. But that doesn’t matter because Charmaine is on the case, using her talents to spot the lies and stir up trouble, much to the annoyance of the detective in charge of this case, Detective Steve Sixkiller. Detective Sixkiller wants Charmaine to do her own job and allow him to do his job as the detective leading this case and keep her nose out of his investigation. Regardless of being repeatedly told to butt out of this case, she is determined to uncover the truth behind the mysterious deaths, but she better watch herself because she may be the next person who finds herself on the way to the morgue.

Charmaine Digby and many of the same characters return in book two of the Working Stiffs series called, Sex, Lies, and Snickerdoodles which was published on August 18th, 2014. We meet a few new characters in this installment. It seems many of the citizens of Port Merritt, Washington, has got a secret, whether it’s a secret crush, a secret about an affair, a secret recipe, and for a few of the potentially homicidal citizens, a secret murder. Port Merritt’s resident bad guy and womanizer, Russell Falco, was a long-time expert at keeping secrets, especially of his secret liaisons. Maybe keeping all those secrets proved deadly to Falco, because his body washes up on the Merritt Bay beach, one day, and Deputy Coroner Charmaine Digby, has her suspicions that one of those secret liaisons was responsible for Falco’s death. There are many secrets. There are many lies. There are a few secret cookie recipes leading to cookie-baking rivals. There is also a dead guy who’s dead because of one of his many secrets. Charmaine is again on the case and she is determined to find the killer, whether Detective Steve Sixkiller likes it, or not. But she’ll have to figure it out fast, before she is the killer’s next victim.

With every book that Wendy Delaney writes and publishes, her fan base gets larger. Her fans love her books because they are hilarious, fun, a page turner, fast paced, light-hearted, with beloved, well developed characters. It seems when her fans review her books, they can’t say enough positive things about them. It is rare to find anything negative written about Delaney by anyone who reads her books, because they’ve all become her fans. Her fans are desperately waiting for her next book to be written and published, and they are also eager to submit recipes that Delaney can use in her cozy mystery books, because she features the recipes on the menu at Duke’s Cafe, the cafe mentioned frequently in the Working Stiffs series. Wendy Delaney is easily approachable to her fans and she likes to interact with them. She welcomes their suggestions and their compliments. Her books are extraordinarily entertaining to read, in which they are impossible to put down including lovable characters, with ingenious plots, intelligent writing, thrills and suspense that keep the reader turning the pages.