Books by Terry I. Miles

A Recipe for Murder!

& Cruisin' Cookbook - Cozy Little Murder Mystery Style

Five thousand antique cars and trucks have descended upon Lafouchfeye County Township and the entire Mississippi Gulf Coast for The Cruisin' Recipe Jamboree. To sweeten the pot, Bea Winslow, Private Investigator and her Aunt Julia McKenna, whom she fondly calls Aunt Jewels, have penned a Cruisin' Cookbook, Cozy Little Murder Mystery Style. However, both ladies are unaware several of the recipes hold a hidden treasure. A map to where fifteen gold bars are buried.

          Fifty years ago, the MS Lafouchfeye Bank had a daring morning bank heist, which netted the culprits a lumber payroll of $500,000.00 dollars and fifteen Gold bars that were slated to be shipped to Fort Knox, Kentucky. There were four men and a woman involved. Within hours, three of the bandits were apprehended and the money recovered, but not the gold bars.

As You Lie There... Sleeping

Lafouchfeye County, Mississippi, and the entire Mississippi Gulf Coast were still reeling from the double murder in August of 1987 of a distinguished Judge and his wife, when a week before Christmas of the same year, the newlywed couple of recently elected District Attorney Wendell Matthew Holmes, Jr. of Warren County, Mississippi, and his wife Emma, are discovered dead in a refrigerator car in the Lafouchfeye County railroad yard.

Percy (Teaspoon) Dinwiddle was found guilty of the Holmes' murders and sentenced to thirty years in prison. The first case went unsolved, Sheriff Travis died of a heart attack and after the first of the year, his son, Jim Travis was elected Sheriff on January 6, 1988.

Twenty years later a young lawyer named Taylor L. Lipton, was researching both sets of homicides. New evidence through DNA was introduced concerning Percy Dinwiddle and Percy was set free February 1, 2009.

This One's Gonna Kill Ya

Lenny Faison has served six years in Parchman Prison for assault and battery. During this time he has honed his comedy skills. When he is released, he hits the comedy circuit and finally is going to get his big break at the Saenger Theatre in Biloxi, MS. While daydreaming about his premiere performance, someone takes several shots at him. He falls and his sight is impaired.

While attending Lenny's performance several nights later, Bea Winslow, private investigator and her Aunt Jewels, plus Bea's fiance, Sheriff Jim Travis of Lafouchfeye County, MS and Aunt Jewels boyfriend and Lenny's uncle, Captain Eric VonBoatner witness another attempt on his life.

From then on, murder doesn't take a holiday and Bea and Aunt Jewels end up with Lenny staying at their house. There are enough twists and turns to keep the pages tuirning, wondering what is going to happen next!

A Christmas Carousel

of Children's  Stories

          My first book, Gussie the Christmas Goose and Other Stories was a complete success!  Everybody will enjoy my second children's book called, A Christmas Carousel of Children's  Stories.

Girls of the Garden Club

The Christmas holidays are just around the corner and Mrs. Julia McKenna, fondly referred to as Aunt Jewels, has stumbled off the curb and broken her ankle. Her niece Bea Winslow, a retried FBI Criminal Investigator turned Private Investigator, has admitted her Aunt to the Hodgekiss Hospital in Lafouchfeye County, Mississippi where she is immobile with a cast up to her thigh.

While in ‘bondage’, as Aunt Jewels puts it, she observes shady shenanigans happening outside, from her hospital window , at the attached building named The Rogers Eye Clinic. When she attempts to have some acquaintances snoop around…she learns a few of her Garden Club friends have turned up missing, and…well, the fun begins!

Throw in the discovery of a seven year old skeleton, some greedy manipulative people, identity theft, illegals crossing the border smuggling priceless artifacts and you have the makings of a Cozy Little Murder Mystery.

Join Bea, her fiancé Sheriff Travis, Captain VonBoater, Aunt Jewels’ boyfriend, and a variety of their friends…and enemies, as they ready themselves for the upcoming holidays and try to bring peace again to Lafoucheye County.

Until Death Do Us Part

Terry I Miles’ new novel, “Until Death Do Us Part,” with its multiple story lines and exciting plot devices, is a fast-paced read.  From Lafouchfeye County, Mississippi, to the nation’s capital, you will be drawn into the action and humor produced by Bea Winslow and her Aunt Jewels, who continually places herself and Bea in harm’s way.  This is the eighth “cozy little murder mystery” in the Bea and Jewels series. 

Gussie the Christmas Goose

and Other Stories

This is THE BOOK to buy for that special someone this coming Christmas! FIVE adorable animal stories with a special message tucked inside each story. I encourage you to look into this product the very minute it hits the presses!

Enjoyment is guaranteed by both the reader and the child.

Gussie the Christmas Goose and Other Stories is a collection out of the imaginative mind of Terry I. Miles. This is her first children’s book. With the artistic help of Authorhouse’s illustrators and design team, this is destined to be a collector’s item.

A Catnip Christmas

   In Moriah County, Mississippi on Christmas Eve 2001, the Moriah County Patrol Boat operated by Deputy Cecil Watson and a crew of three believe they have cornered the suspected smugglers dubbed "The Christmas Jewels."  Their burglary consisted of transferring from Russia five million dollars, which supposedly has been traced to Serene Cove, located in Moriah County.  After the Patrol Boat explodes and the thieves escape, another unfortunate accident happens.

   Five years later, Bea Winslow, a Private Investigator who lives in the neighboring county of Lafouchfeye, receives an important phone call from Mack Dupree, one of the suspected smugglers.  After driving over to Moriah County with her Aunt, amateur sleuth Mrs. Julia McKenna, (whom she fondly calls aunt Jewels) and Sheriff Jim Travis of Lafouchfeye County, they find Mack Dupree murdered.

   When bodies begin piling up and Aunt Jewels is hijacked...well, murder doesn't take a holiday and mystery, suspense, and intrigue keeps your mind guessing and your fingers eagerly turning the pages during this dazzling Christmas season!

Looks Can Be Deceiving

          Bea Winslow, Private Investigator, drives her Aunt Julia McKenna (whom she fondly calls Aunt Jewels) to explore the beach in Lafouchfeye County, Mississippi after Katrina for buried treasure.  With her new metal detector, Aunt Jewels discovers not only a body, but also a woman who has been dead for over a hundred years! Sheriff Jim Travis of Lafouchfeye County notifies his friend, Dr. Nathan Tate, the recently retired Medical Examiner and Coroner of New Orleans, Louisiana, to become a Forensic Pathologist. He is quick to recognize several clues to her identification.

          Dr. Tate suggests the three of them, Bea, Aunt Jewels and Sheriff Travis, travel to mysterious and exotic Blackbayou Plantation, located in Quitmann, Broookes County, Georgia, a small community of about four hundred people.  Upon their arrival, they are amazed by the youthful facial features of people who are eighty and above!

          But, when people start dying…

          Add a heroine, several shady characters, a snoopy mailman, a feisty lady and a house and motel any Psycho movie buff would recognize and viola! You have the makin’s of a Cozy Little Murder Mystery… enjoy!

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See review from the Sun Herald, 11/19/06

DOG Gone Christmas

Seven years ago the housekeeper, Maudelle Perkins, found Horace Fletcher, Director of Shady Rest Funeral Home, dead at his desk. Cyrus Dedeaux, one of three morticians hired by Mr. and Mrs. Fletcher, was declared guilty. However, new DNA evidence, presented by his lawyer, had proven Mr. Dedeaux innocent and he has been set free!

Three days after Cyrus returned, there has been an alleged attempted murder on Rose Fletcher, Horace's widow, and a body has washed up on the beach.

Before attending the gala benefit honoring environmentalist, Dr. Horatio Banks, in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, Mrs. Julia McKenna and her boyfriend, Captain Eric VonBoatner, are supposed to pick up a 1927 Model T. Ford, which she won two months earlier in a drawing.

During an impromptu shopping spree, Aunt Jewels and a dog named Maggie May are kidnapped and dog napped respectively. Upon inspection of the floorboards inside of the antique car, her niece, Private Investigator Bea Winslow, discovers small specks of dried blood.

Mystery, mayhem and merriment, follow these two sleuths as they weave their humor, crime solving tactics and hilarious antics, through a host of unsavory characters, the funeral parlor, saving the environment, Christmas festivities in the Bay and finding Aunt Jewels and Maggie May.

Say A Little Prayer For Me

In 1982, Sister Mary Catherine O’Neal, from Holy Sisters of Coventry Baptist Orphanage in Bonne Place, Louisiana, is murdered at St. Mark’s Baptist Church in Moriah County, Mississippi. Now eighteen years later, young Sara Millicent (Millie) Forrester is found strangled in the old Winslow boathouse. Her uncle, Garrett Forrester hires his old college sweetheart, Private Investigator Bea Winslow to solve the crime.

When Garrett’s fiancée, Rachel disappears, Bea suspects the worst and when she discovers that Garrett is the beneficiary to the four-million dollar trust fund, she soon realizes there has to be a connection between the 1982 death and Millie’s murder.

Another death occurs, each time she unravels a clue. To complicate matters her Aunt Julia, whom she fondly calls “Aunt Jewels”, an amateur sleuth, wants to help Bea solve the crime, but just when Bea believes she has the killer cornered, a shocking incident occurs and Aunt Jewels falls under police suspicion! Now, Bea is faced not only with solving the crime, but also keeping Aunt Jewels out of harm’s way…again!

This is the fourth novel in a series of six about Bea Winslow, P.I., a witty, wonderful heroine from Terry I. Miles, author of her Cozy Little Murder Mysteries. Exciting and captivating, Say A Little Prayer for Me is a heart-stopping story to get under your skin and haunt you.

Laughing All the Way

It's Christmas time and Bea Winslow, Private Investigator and her Aunt, Ms. Julia McKenna, whom she fondly calls Aunt Jewels, along with friends, Sheriff Jim Travis and Captain Eric VonBoatner, are shopping.  On a previous trip to the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana, Aunt Jewels has spied a painting of a laughing clown, juggling three striped balls and must have it!

Errol Frazer, a gigolo, con man and thief, returns to New Orleans after spending forty years in an Italian prison for a murder her didn't commit.  He discovers the painting he heisted forty years ago from El Prado Museum in Madrid, Spain and sent to his partner, Art Collector, Simon Dufuss, is in Lafouchfeye County, Mississippi.

With its multiple storylines, jovial characters and exciting plot, Laughing All the Way is a delightful read.  Ms. Miles tells her tale with warmth and you will not only get caught up in the mystery, but also the personal lives of Reba, Lulu and Daffy, making them as real as our neighbors.  When plucky Aunt Jewels is kidnapped, Bea's exciting, climatic ride through New Orleans escalates as she races against time to save her!

Death Has No Appeal

Just before midnight on Christmas Eve, December 24 in Lafouchfeye County, Mississippi, distinguished Judge Joseph Patrick Winslow was found murdered.

At the scene of the crime, Mrs. Julia McKenna, a long-time adversary was discovered standing over the deceased with the gun still in her hand, by Sheriff Jim Travis.

A jury of her peers have found her guilty of murder.  Did she do it?  December 23, the day before, Bea Winslow, Private Investigator boarded All Nippon Airways, flight 1073 for Luizhou, China.  She didn’t know the plane had been sabotaged.

  That same afternoon, Judge Joseph Patrick Winslow intently watched Bea’s Aunt, Mrs. Julia McKenna, while she stood on the lower deck of the Coral Princess waiting to get underway for a Christmas in the Bahamas.  Slowly he withdrew his cell pone from inside his overcoat and dialed the Captain’s number.  He smiled as the Captain handed Julia the phone.  “Hello Julia,” he softly spoke, “I have some tragic news…”

I'll Love You Till You Die

When Private Investigator Beatrice (Bea) Winslow’s Aunt Julia McKenna purchases a used car, little does she realize she acquired more than meets the eye. A receipt, a body and a cruise to the Caribbean unravel murder, greed and jealousy.  Later, Bea receives a desperate phone call pleading for assistance in the disappearance of Ms. Cora Leigh Bowles.  Mrs. Lydia Gross’ sister and the secrets of these siblings are revealed adding to the intrigue.  I’ll Love You Till You Die is a taut mystery and suspense.  Clues and suspects will keep you turning the pages.

This is the first novel in a series of five about Beatrice (Bea) Winslow, P.I., a gutsy, witty heroine.  Beguiling characters intertwine giving suspense to the multitude of suspects.

Feisty yet gullible Aunt Julia, and amateur sleuth, wants to help her niece solve the crime, throwing herself constantly in harm's way.  A late romance, a deftly-plotted mystery and Miles' multilayered plot constantly excites and bedazzles the reader, pulling the wool over our eyes in grand style for a fine surprise ending!

About the author:

Terry I Miles lives on the MS Gulf Coast and is a ‘97 graduate of JDCC and a ‘99 alumni of USM with a BA in English and History. She is retired from the Education/Psychology Dept. of USM as a Receptionist. Her creative writing talents have garnered her numerous awards in poetry, short stories and presently twelve Cozy Little Murder Mysteries which she began in ‘04. Since then she published two children's books. Her Cruisin' Cookbook, Cozy Little Murder Mystery Style and 12^th murder mystery will be a joy to read and a culinary treasure to own!

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