Books by Laura Alden, Author

Curse of the PTA – to be released April 2, 2013

As the new PTA president, Beth Kennedy wants to make a difference in the lives of the students and faculty at Tarver Elementary. But with a killer on the loose, staying alive is the first order of business.

With the book sales from their Story Project, the PTA has come into some money. Now they just have to decide how to spend it. With different factions vying for their own interests, Beth brings in financial consultant Dennis Halpern. But before they can come to a resolve, Dennis comes to his final end—shot to death right in the school.

With the doors to the building unlocked, virtually anyone could have done the deed. And they soon discover that Dennis had plenty of secrets. Now locals are whispering that the PTA is cursed, and it’s up to Beth to catch the killer before she gets cashed out.

Plotting at the PTA – released July 2012

Beth Kennedy is excited about the PTA's spring Senior Story Project, which pairs elderly residents of Sunny Rest Assisted Living with Tarver Elementary students to produce a book that the PTA can sell as a fund-raiser.

But her enthusiasm is dampened when she discovers that Amy Jacobson, one of her regular customers at the bookstore, has died from bee stings. What are bees doing out so unseasonably early in Wisconsin-and why wouldn't Amy, who was deathly allergic, have taken greater care to avoid them?

Now it's up to Beth to get the buzz on who used killer bees to send Amy Jacobson to her eternal rest....

 
Foul Play at the PTA – released July 2011

PTA meetings at Tarver Elementary School can get pretty heated. But after PTA member Sam Helmstetter is strangled in his car following a meeting, Beth and her best friend, Marina, fear there may be a cold-blooded killer in the group.

Meanwhile, rumors spread that Beth’s newest employee at her children’s bookstore is the murderer. Yvonne served time for a similar crime, but DNA evidence eventually proved her innocent. As the new PTA vice president organizes a boycott of the bookstore and the real killer roams the streets of Rynwood, Wisconsin, Beth realizes she’ll need to stick her own neck out to catch an elusive strangler….

Murder at the PTA – an Agatha Award finalist for Best First Novel of 2010

As the owner of a children’s bookshop in the quaint town of Rynwood, Wisconsin, and a mother of two, Beth Kennedy has a full plate. So when her best friend, Marina, asks her to become the secretary for Tarver Elementary School’s PTA, Beth can thin of better ways to occupy what little free time she has. But after some arm-twisting (Marina’s favorite activity), Beth agrees to come on board.

The course of PTA meetings never has run smoothly, but when Tarver’s unpopular principal turns up dead, Beth realizes that making bake sales wheat-free and funding class trips weren’t the only things on the agenda. Then the local gossip blog, WisconSINS, starts fanning the flames of speculation, and it seems like everyone is a suspect – especially certain members of the PTA. Beth knows she must race to fin the killer before he teaches another fatal lesson….