Photos: Weidner Photography and FBJ Studio
Mysteries with A Southern Accent
Author Biography
Heather Weidner writes the Pearly Girls Mysteries, the Delanie Fitzgerald Mysteries, The Jules Keene Glamping Mysteries, and The Mermaid Bay Christmas Shoppe Mysteries.
Her short stories appear in the Virginia is for Mysteries series, 50 Shades of Cabernet, Deadly Southern Charm, and Murder by the Glass, and she has non-fiction pieces in Promophobia and The Secret Ingredient: A Mystery Writers’ Cookbook.
She is a member of Sisters in Crime – Central Virginia, Sisters in Crime – Chessie, Sisters in Crime - Grand Canyon Writers, Guppies, International Thriller Writers, and James River Writers, and she blogs regularly with the Writers Who Kill.
Originally from Virginia Beach, Heather has been a mystery fan since Scooby-Doo and Nancy Drew. She lives in Central Virginia with her husband and a pair of Jack Russell terriers.
She earned her BA in English from Virginia Wesleyan University and her MA in American literature from the University of Richmond. Through the years, she has been a cop’s kid, technical writer, editor, college professor, software tester, and IT manager.
Represented by
Cindy Bullard, Birch Literary
Novels - The Mermaid Bay Christmas Shoppe Mysteries
Sticks and Stones and a Bag of Bones
When a beat-up suitcase full of bones washes up by the pier, the residents of the quaint resort town of Mermaid Bay are whipped into a hurricane-sized frenzy over the gruesome find in the middle of their Christmas in July festivities. The holly jolly mood retreats like the tide with everyone wondering who was in the suitcase.
Christmas shoppe owner, Jade Hicks, wades into the fracas when voodoo dolls and mysterious notes and posters about impending doom start popping up all over town, threatening to destroy the economy of a community that lives and dies by tourist dollars. Then tensions crest when the prickly bookstore owner is found strangled to death with a string of holiday lights.
Jade and her French bulldog Chloe, have to solve the crime before anyone else gets hurt and her business and the festival are forever tainted.
Twinkle Twinkle Au Revoir
Love is in the air when Hollywood arrives in Mermaid Bay, and the town may never be the same. Fans will do almost anything to get a glimpse of the actors or a chance to be an extra in the Love Channel’s “My Coastal Valentine.” Crowds flock to the cozy beach town from all over and business is booming for Christmas shop owner, Jade Hicks until the body of a testy reporter is found in one of the actors rooms. And if murder isn’t bad enough, someone tries to kill the show’s star, hunky Raphael Allard. The cozy little beach town feels cursed, as the Love Channel threatens to pull out of the project. Jade and the gang, Lorelei, Peppermint Patti, Bernie, Chloe, and Neville the Devil Cat, have to solve the crimes before it ruins the town’s reputation and breaks the hearts of fans across the country.
Novels - The Jules Keene Glamping Mysteries
Vintage Trailers and Blackmailers
There is nothing like finding a dead body, clad only in a red satin thong, on your property to jolt you from a quiet routine. Jules Keene, owner of the posh Fern Valley Camping Resort in the Blue Ridge Mountains, is thrust into the world of the Dark Web when one of her guests, Ira Perkins, is found murdered in the woods near her vintage trailers. Jules quickly discovers that the man who claimed to be on a writing retreat was not what he seemed, and someone will go to any length to find what he left at her resort. Jules, along with her Jack Russell Terrier sidekick Bijou, has to put the rest of the missing pieces of a blackmailing scheme together before her business is ruined.
Jules’s resort, set in the heart of Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains near Charlottesville in the quaint town of Fern Valley, offers guests a unique vacation in refurbished and upcycled vintage trailers. Hoping to expand her offerings, she partners with her maintenance/security guy to create a village of tiny houses, the latest home DIY craze, but a second murder of a reporter interrupts Jules’s expansion plans. Curiosity gets the best of her, and she steps up her sleuthing to find out what Ira Perkins was really up to and what he was really hiding at her resort.
Film Crews and Rendezvous
Hollywood has come to Fern Valley, and the one stoplight town may never be the same. Everyone wants to get in on the act.
The crew from the wildly popular, fan favorite, Fatal Impressions, takes over Jules Keene’s glamping resort, and they bring a lot of offscreen drama and baggage that doesn’t include the scads of costumes, props, and crowds that descend on the bucolic resort in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Added security, hundreds of calls from hopeful extras, and some demanding divas keep Jules’s team hopping.
When the show’s prickly head writer ends up dead under the L. Frank Baum tiny house in what looks like a staged murder scene with a kitschy homage to the Wizard of Oz, Jules has to figure out who would want the writer dead. Then while they are still reeling from the first murder, the popular publicist gets lost after a long night at the local honky-tonk and winds up strangled. Jules needs to solve both crimes before filming is canceled, and her business is ruined.
Christmas Lights and Cat Fights
Christmas has come to Fern Valley, and the town’s decked out with enough glitter and sparkle for a month’s worth of celebrations, each more over-the-top than the previous one. The idyllic setting, filled with laughter, carols, and sweet treats, is shattered, along with some of the decorations, when the current wife and the ex-wife of a big-cat showman have a knock-down, drag-out fight in the center of town. Jules Keene, owner of the Fern Valley Glamping Resort, tries to keep peace among her guests and with the town council, but it turns into a catastrophe when Tabbi Morris, winds up dead in one of her ex-husband’s tiger cages.
And if the murder wasn’t enough, Jules discovers that some of the big cats are missing, but the owner and his family insists that nothing is wrong.
Curiosity gets the best of her, and she has to solve the murder and figure out if the owner of Cal’s Cats is pussyfooting around or whether it’s something more sinister before it ruins the holiday season and her business.
Novels - The Delanie Fitzgerald Series
Male Revues and Subterfuge
Sleazy strip club owner, Chaz Wellington Smith, III is at it again with an all-male revue called the Cheeky Monkey, catering to girls’ nights out and bachelorette parties. Recently, his new venture has been plagued with annoying pranks that have turned costly, and of course, private eye Delanie Fitzgerald is the one he calls to find out who is center stage for all the mayhem.
In this fast-paced mystery, Delanie and her computer savvy partner, Duncan Reynolds, are hired to uncover the culprit who ordered five hundred mattresses for Chaz’s new club, the origin of a creepy, child-sized cowboy doll, and the instigator of rowdy mob protesting false claims of human trafficking. And if Chaz’s problems aren’t enough, Delanie has two attractive men vying for her attention and distracting her from signs of impending danger.
The team from Falcon Investigations has to connect the dots before it’s lights out for Delanie, and someone closes the curtains on Chaz’s new business.
Glitter, Glam, and Contraband
Private investigator, Delanie Fitzgerald, and her computer hacker partner, Duncan Reynolds, are back for more sleuthing in Glitter, Glam and Contraband. In this fast-paced mystery, the Falcon Investigations team is hired to find out who is stealing from the talent at a local drag show. Delanie gets more than she bargains for and a few makeup tips in the process. Meanwhile, a mysterious sound in the ceiling of her office vexes Delanie. She uses her sleuthing skills to track down the source and uncover a creepy contraband operation.
Glitter, Glam, and Contraband features a strong female sleuth with a knack for getting herself in and out of humorous situations like helping sleazy strip club owner, Chaz Smith on his quest to become Richmond’s next mayor, tracking down missing reptiles, and uncovering hidden valuables from a 100-year-old crime with a Poe connection.
The Tulip Shirt Murders
Private investigator Delanie Fitzgerald, and her computer hacker partner, Duncan Reynolds, are back for more sleuthing in The Tulip Shirt Murders. When a local music producer hires the duo to find out who is bootlegging his artists’ CDs, Delanie uncovers more than just copyright thieves. And if chasing bootleggers isn’t bad enough, local strip club owner and resident sleaze, Chaz Smith, pops back into Delanie’s life with more requests. The police have their man in a gruesome murder, but the loud-mouthed strip club owner thinks there is more to the open and shut case. Delanie and Duncan link a series of killings with no common threads, and they must put the rest of the missing pieces together before someone else is murdered.
The Tulip Shirt Murders is a fast-paced mystery that appeals to readers who like a strong female sleuth with a knack for getting herself in and out of humorous situations such as larping and trading elbow jabs with roller derby queens.
Secret Lives and Private Eyes
Business has been slow for Private Investigator, Delanie Fitzgerald, but her luck seems to change when a tell-all author hires her to find rock star, Johnny Velvet. Could the singer whose career purportedly ended in a fiery crash almost thirty years ago, still be alive?
And as though sifting through dead ends in a cold case isn’t bad enough, Chaz Wellington Smith, III, a loud-mouthed, strip club owner, also hires Delanie to uncover information about the mayor’s secret life. When the mayor is murdered, Chaz, is the key suspect. Now Delanie must clear his name and figure out why landscaper Tripp Payne, keeps popping up in her other investigation. Can the private investigator find the connection between the two cases before another murder – possibly her own – takes place?
Secret Lives and Private Eyes is a fast-paced mystery that will appeal to readers who like a strong, female sleuth with a knack for getting herself in and out of humorous situations.
Short Stories
“Out of Commission” in Murder by the Glass
Sassy private investigator, Delanie Fitzgerald, gets more than she bargains for at a girls’ night out painting party where she picks up a new client and a cold murder case that’s as icy as her glass of pink punch. She and her partner, Duncan Reynolds, combine good old gumshoe detective work and some white-hat hacking to figure out why the victim is linked to a beautiful, empty home that’s been on the market way too long.
“Art Attack” in Deadly Southern Charm
An art gallery owner's flirtation with a mythical goblet and its promise of power turns deadly when he succumbs to its charm.
“Par for the Course” in 50 Shades of Cabernet
Business mogul Mona McKinley Scarborough doesn’t take no for an answer. When she’s not successful at convincing her granddaughter, Amanda, to make the right choice – to join the family’s winery, she plans a day of golf at an exclusive course as a chance to draw them closer together. Their chat reveals some deadly secrets, and they learn that the grape may not fall far from the vine.
“Derailed” – in Virginia is for Mysteries Volume III
Sassy private investigator, Delanie Fitzgerald, gets more than she bargains for when sleezy strip club owner and her best, cash-paying client, Chaz Smith, hires her to find out who’s blackmailing him and his buddies. She and her partner, Duncan Reynolds, have to find out what happened one summer evening twenty years ago and what it has to do with the Church Hill Tunnel cave-in. While trying to figure out the connection to the spooky, abandoned site where the train and several victims lie buried beneath a busy Richmond neighborhood, Delanie discovers the origin of Chaz’s mysterious teardrop face tattoo.
To read more of the sassy private investigator’s adventures, check out Heather Weidner’s Delanie Fitzgerald mysteries.
“Spring Cleaning” in Virginia is for Mysteries Volume II
Medical records manager, Douglas Weimer, gets more than he bargained for when he’s moved onto a new team and receives a project with a drop-dead delivery date. His assignment in Roanoke, Virginia, gives new meaning to work deadlines. This mystery is set under the Mill Mountain Star.
“Washed up” in Virginia is for Mysteries
A suitcase with a rusty gun and shriveled hand appears on the beach outside of a struggling bar near the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel in Virginia Beach. A friend of the bar’s owner seems to know where it came from, and he gains instant celebrity with his story about a paranormal experience. The attention does wonders for the bar’s profits until something ordinary provides the missing piece of the puzzle. Virginia is for Mysteries is an anthology of mystery stories from fourteen Virginia authors. All stories are set in a Virginia location.
Nonfiction
Novellas
“Diggin’ up Dirt” in To Fetch a Thief
Amy Reynolds and her Jack Russell Terrier Darby find some strange things in her new house. Normally, she would have trashed the forgotten junk, but Amy’s imagination kicks into high gear when her nosy neighbors dish the dirt about the previous owners who disappeared, letting the house fall into foreclosure. Convinced that something nefarious happened, Amy and her canine sidekick uncover more abandoned clues in their search for the previous owners.
“The Fast and The Furriest” in To Fetch a Scoundrel
Isn’t there enough action under the lights at the Amelia Race Track without the drama of a love triangle? An altercation leads to murder, and owner Cassidy Green and her Rottweiler Oliver have to uncover clues and find the killer before the bad publicity destroys her business.
“Strut Your Mutt” in To Fetch a Villain
Sassy Private Investigator, Delanie Fitzgerald, plans to spend her day off relaxing at the Strut Your Mutt festival, where her partner’s English bulldog is a finalist in a pampered doggie pageant. Little did she know that Margaret the bulldog would turn into an overnight social media influencer and a magnet for new clients. Her first call is to find a missing poodle, a star of the dog show circuit who has been dognapped. Delanie, and her computer hacker partner, Duncan Reynolds, sniff out information from the deep web and put paws to the pavement to track down clues. But can she find the missing poodle before it’s too late?
“Wags to Riches” in To Fetch a Killer
Cassidy Green’s sole focus is to keep her eyes on the checkered flag and her racetrack business from crashing into the wall. She spends most of her waking hours looking for new marketing ideas to attract visitors. Her latest event is a giant rummage sale with booths lining the oval track. Before she can bask in the success of guests flooding through the gates, one of her prickly vendors ends up dead in his booth of antique furniture. Cassidy and her Rottweiler Oliver have to sniff out clues and find the killer before another murder is forever linked to her business.