Planted 4 Murder

A Sophie Kimball Mystery Book 15

Author:    J.C. Eaton

Genre:     Mystery

Paperback; Digital Book

ISBN #:    9781966322306

Beyond The Page Publishing

220 Pages

$14.99; $5.99 Amazon

October 28, 2025

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

When the seniors of Sun City West take over a garden plot, they have no idea they'll unearth a plot for murder...

At the urging of the guys in the pinochle club, the members of the Sun City West book club decide it's time to grow their own vegetables and join the local agriculture club.  But when tending to their plants turns up a skeletal hand, the gang begin to feel like they're working in a graveyard instead of a garden.  It's clear that whoever the bones belong to was the victim of foul play, and soon the seniors are pleading with Sophie "Phee" Kimball to step in and help them weed out the killer.

As rumors and speculation flourish, Phee begins to grow suspicious of the other members of the community garden.  Certain that one of them chopped up a body and scattered the parts, she has to deal with invasive insects, sabotaged crops and her mother's hairbrained schemes as she digs for evidence.  Her efforts are finally rewarded when a ring found on the skeletal hand yields a clue that will lead her straight to the culprit.  The only problem is that the killer is one step ahead of her, and Phee discovers too late that she's in for a hoe lot of trouble...

✽✽✽✽✽✽✽✽

Sophie "Phee" Kimball-Gregory lives in Arizona and works for a private investigator, along with her PI husband, Marshall.  Life for Phee is never normal, mainly because her mother Harriet and Harriet's book club ladies seem to find trouble no matter what they're doing.

Today Harriet and her friends are convinced by the men's pinochle group to plant their own vegetables in a community garden.  But it's more than dirt they're turning up.  Since Harriet brings her chiweenie Streetman with her everywhere, he's of course running wild -- until he pulls up a skeletal hand, and Harriet needs Phee to get it away from him.  The only identifying item is a ring on the hand, and it's marked with strange letters that mean nothing to the officers, nor to anyone else.

But the ladies seem to think there's more body parts, even when Phee tries to tell them no.  When they're convinced that one of the gardeners (not their book group, of course!) is guilty of murder, it's all Phee can do to keep them out of trouble...temporarily.

But does anyone listen?  Nope.  Is Phee involved again?  Yep.  And this time, she sees more of local fisherman Paul Schmidt than she'd like to (who wants fish smell in their office?).  But does Paul have information?  Is her Aunt Ina going off the deep end while reading Edgar Allan Poe?  Are the seniors forming their own investigation?  Is Phee at her wits' end?

With Marshall and their boss Nate out of town on a cat kidnapping caper along with her uncle Louis (who does not want to be around Ina during her week of Poe), they may need him for information for themselves.  Which leads Phee to be on her own... and trying to stay alive.  Because when a killer discovers that Phee just might know who they are -- they aren't going to want to let her breathe...

I have read all of this author(s) Sophie Kimball mysteries, and I have been entranced by all of them.  Phee somehow manages to keep sane during her mother's imaginative scenarios, which usually turn out to be true (to an extent).  She's trying to do her job and still keep the women in line, which isn't easy.  And her mother manages to foist Streetman the Maniac Dog on her if she can.  

This book is no different than the others.  It is funny, witty, delightful, full of mystery (what cozy wouldn't be?), and hilarious characters that make you glad you don't live anywhere near them.  Harriet is a hoot, along with Herb; and Ina is a throwback hippie who thinks she has it all together (she doesn't).  I don't want to say anything else about this book that will spoil it for anyone else, but trust me, it's worth the trip to Sun City to see how it all turns out.  Highly recommended.

I was given a copy of this book from the publisher and NetGalley but this in no way influenced my review.

https://www.amazon.com/Planted-Murder-J-C-Eaton-ebook/dp/B0FS7XGCLQ/ref=

Goodreasds:    https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/7990182449

More on J.C. Eaton's Books:    https://www.fantasticfiction.com/e/j-c-eaton/

Strike Out 4 Murder (A Sophie Kimball Mystery #11)

Author:    J.C. Eaton

Genre:     Mystery

Paperback; Digital Book

ISBN #:     9781960511058

Beyond The Page Publishing

202 Pages

$14.99; $3.99 Amazon

March 21, 2023

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

When softball fever overtakes Sun City West, foul balls and foul play add up to murder...When a member of the local pinochle club rallies everyone in the community to come cheer on the softball team he's joined, Sophie "Phee" Kimball can't imagine a worse way to spend a free afternoon.  But before anyone can take them out to the ball game, her mother's friend Shirley spots a dead body, only to have it vanish before anyone else sees it.  Soon Shirley and her friends can't decide whether she's losing her marbles or being stalked by the living dead -- until an attempt is made on her life.

Wondering if the body Shirley saw belongs to a missing ballplayer who may have been murdered, Phee begins to suspect that Shirley's in danger from a menacing killer.  Following the clues at the ball park and eyeing the crowd for a likely perpetrator, she devises a clever scheme to sniff out the culprit, but she'll have to act fast before she strikes out for the last time!

✽✽✽✽✽✽✽✽

Sophie Kimball-Gregory is newly married and works for a private investigator in Arizona as a bookkeeper/accountant.  She's happy in her new life.  Well, almost.  There's the fact that her mother Harriet lives in Sun City West, and she and her book club ladies keep Phee busy trying to convince her that there's people after them (really).

But when Harriet's friend Shirley Johnson insists she saw a dead body, Phee and her PI husband Marshall go to investigate -- along with the ladies who insist on coming -- there's no body and no indication there ever was.  While Shirley wonders if she's going crazy, Phee and Marshall aren't so sure.  Especially when Shirley has an attempt on her life and she swears she saw the same body in another location.  Eventually the body of the dead man turns up, and it also is discovered he was a member of the local senior softball team, the one their friend Herb just joined.  

Now the PIs are not only involved in a fraud case, they're looking into the possibility that Shirley did see what she claims -- and that the dead man, Buster, had a lot of enemies who all had motive and opportunity.  Phee is working to find out the truth, under the radar, of course, and what she finds isn't pretty.   Especially when there's a killer on the loose...

This is the eleventh book in the series and I have loved them all.  The author(s) have done another excellent job of bringing the characters to life, and what characters they are.  Phee's mother Harriet is a hoot, as always, and her Chiweenie Streetman is his usual mischievous self, although in this book he has at least managed to put some decorum in his behavior (until he finds a reason not to, and it's funny as can be).  Then there's a scene with Harriet's on-air companion Paul, who thinks of nothing but fishing, that has you laughing aloud (at least it did me, and I had to read it to my husband, who wanted to know what was so funny).  That scene alone is worth reading the entire book, and no, I am not going to give any part of it away.

When Phee gets into her investigating, she's surprised at what she finds out about Buster.  Passing the information along to the PIs, Nate and Marshall, she continues on and decides that she needs to go undercover to get the info she wants.  That also turns out to be chaos, and Paul is right there with her for the ride.

When the ending comes, we have a chaotic scene as well, and Phee doesn't let the opportunity pass.  It's a lot of fun and laughter as well, and I applaud the author(s) for their ability to keep things moving along and keep us interested throughout the book.  The mystery was done very well, and I look forward to the next in the series.  Highly recommended.

I received an advance copy of this book from the publisher and NetGalley but this in no way influenced my review.

https://www.amazon.com/Strike-Murder-Sophie-Kimball-Mystery/dp/196051105X/ref

Goodreads:    TBA

More on J.C. Eaton's Books:    https://www.fantasticfiction.com/e/j-c-eaton/

Railroaded 4 Murder (A Sophie Kimball Mystery Book 8)

Author:    J.C. Eaton

Genre:     Mystery

Mass Market Paperback; Digital Book

ISBN #:    9781496724571

Kensington Publishing

336 Pages

$8.41; $7.99 Amazon

August 24, 2021

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Phee's marriage to Marshall Gregory promises to be the wedding of the year in Arizona's Sun City West -- that is, if you ask her mother Harriet.  But before she can walk down the aisle, it looks like she has to solve one more murder.  At a model train exhibit, Phee, Harriet, and her beloved Chiweenie, Streetman, discover the body of Sun City West's railroad club president, with an incriminating tap shoe near his lifeless corpse.

Wilbur Maines may have loved model trains but apparently he was not a model husband.  There are rumors of affairs with hot-to-trot hobbyists the Choo-Choo Chicks.  The police suspect his wife--and Harriet's friend -- Roxanne, who dances with the Rhythm Tappers, but Phee's mom is convinced they're on the wrong track.  Before the poor woman is railroaded into spending the rest of her life behind bars, Phee, Harriet, and the book club ladies will need to do some fancy footwork, infiltrate the dance group, and find the real culprit before the killer leaves the station...

✽✽✽✽✽✽✽✽

Sophie "Phee" Kimball lives near Phoenix, Arizona and works as a bookkeeper for Williams Investigations.  She's also engaged to one of the PIs, Marshall Gregory.  Her mother Harriet lives in Sun City West and spends her free time nagging Phee and imagining murders are taking place all over the city...or she could be right...

Phee is trying to sleep when she receives an early morning phone call from her mother Harriet.  Harriet insists she come to the model train building, because her friend Cecilia has found a body.  Although Phee thinks it's not true, she finds out she's wrong.  It certainly turns out to be a body -- the body of Sun City West's railroad club president, Wilbur Maines.

But when Wilbur's widow Roxanne is looking to be the guilty party by the police, Phee's not so sure.  Neither is her employer, Nate Williams, nor Marshall.  So now Phee's wedding plans are on hold while they search for the killer.  Unfortunately, Phee is getting dragged into another of her mother's hare-brained ideas, and she needs to go along with it, even if just to keep her mother and her friends out of trouble.  But that's not going to happen.  Not if Harriet has anything to say about it...or her Chiweenie, Streetman...

This is the eighth book in the series and I have read them all.  I have also loved how each one has gotten better than the last.  I have no idea how they do it, but the authors seem to have found a golden key to making each book better.  This one is all about model trains.  I remember my brother had a Lionel train, and we would play with it quite a bit.  (He probably still has it somewhere).  To this day, I love watching the trains at Christmas, so it's memories for me.

But the memories for Wilbur Maines ended when he died.  However, it seems he left memories with plenty of women, and now Phee doesn't know if a man or woman killed the man.  All she knows is that every time she seems to get closer to a killer, it doesn't pan out.  And with her bosses running around catching other leads, she's on her own (unless you count her mother, friends, and her Aunt Ina).  

This book has quite a few funny moments, one involving Ina, which I wouldn't have expected, and another involving Streetman, which I would.  And I love how the stories reflect on different characters in each book; this one involving Cecilia, the poor thing; who just doesn't understand how modern society works.  It's quite interesting.

The mystery itself is intriguing, with the clues few and far between; but each thread leads back to another, and when the murderer is finally caught it comes as a complete surprise, although I did have a clue as to the reason why, and I was close in that, at least.  I thoroughly enjoyed this book and hope that others will, too.  Highly recommended.

https://www.amazon.com/Railroaded-Murder-Sophie-Kimball-Mystery/dp/1496724577/ref

Goodreads:    https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4140542613

More on J.C. Eaton's Books:    https://www.fantasticfiction.com/e/j-c-eaton/