Check It Out:

Summer is here and you have Janet Evanovich’s newly published, “Fearless Fourteen,” but what does that leave you with for the remainder of the summer when you’re finished?

If you are looking for a follow-up to Evanovich’s latest Stephanie Plum caper, dive into these series starters. They’re perfect to take with you in your beach tote this summer, so lay down your towel, open up your umbrella, and laugh out loud while you follow along with these heroine sleuths to solve the mysteries.

Begin on a cruise with ER nurse Darcy Cavanaugh in Candy Calvert’s “Dressed to Keel.” Darcy needs a break from her everyday life on land. In hopes of cheering her up, Darcy’s best friend Marie suggests she take a cruise aboard the ship Marie works on. What’s expected to be a relaxing getaway turns into a high-seas mystery when a cabin steward is found killed and a series of jewelry thefts take place aboard the ship.

Like Darcy, Izzy Spellman wants to escape her everyday life, but it’s easier said than done. Everyone in the Spellman family knows one another’s business. They are a family of private investigators, so they’re good at uncovering dirt for clients and on each other. It’s not so good for Izzy, who decides she has had enough personal invasions and wants out of the family business. She makes a deal with her parents to work one last case and in return the family meddling will cease. Can Izzy escape the watchful eye of her family? Find out in “The Spellman Files” by Lisa Lutz.

These next two leading ladies are more than just crime solvers. They are fashionistas on the case. Manhattan writer Molly Forrester finds her Jimmy Choos stumbling over the dead body of one of her colleagues in “Killer Heels” by Sheryl J. Anderson. And out on the West Coast, L.A. shoe designer Maddie Springer finds herself stepping out of her design studio and into a hunt for her missing boyfriend in Gemma Halliday’s “Spying in High Heels.” A hunky detective enters the picture in each of the capers and provides the ladies with an added distraction. The detectives are as much fascinated with their leading lady as they are aggravated with them. Molly and Maddie lust after expensive shoes and often trip over the clues, but that doesn’t stop their determination to find the culprit. Follow their Manolos as they figure out whodunit.

You’ll have enough hysterics and antics to get you through the beach season and more with these books and the remaining titles in each series.

To find out more about these escapades, their subsequent books, and other author read-alikes, visit the library’s website at www.newportbeachlibrary.org and access the NoveList database using your library card. NoveList is a fiction database that provides author, title and subject access, series information, book reviews, and annotations for more than 150,000 fiction titles.

CHECK IT OUT is written by the staff of the Newport Beach Public Library. For more information on the Central Library or any of the branches, please contact the Newport Beach Public Library at (949) 717-3800, option 2.