Novels

Many of my novels remain out of print, unavailable at book stores. But I do have a few of most of my titles, which I'm willing to sell, so if you're interested, e-mail me, and I'll let you know what I have and what the price would be.
Thanks!


Private Lies is the first Maxey Burnell mystery, published by Harper,
available at used bookstores or new from me. The cover is deceptive. Maxey and her apartment are not glamorous, and there's no scene where she lies on a (no doubt silk covered) bed listening to earphones. I hope you aren't disappointed by this.


The second Maxey Burnell mystery, available as a St. Martin's Press Print On Demand trade paperback. ISBN 0-312-29194-9

Unsafe Keeping
Maxey's interest in saving an historic brothel from a condo developer leads to multiple murders.

The third Maxey Burnell mystery, available as a St. Martin's Press trade paperback. ISBN 0-312-30101-4

If Two of Them Are Dead
As Benjamin Franklin said, "Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead."


Who Was Sylvia?
Fourth in the Maxey Burnell series finds her living in interesting times. Called upon to release for burial a woman she doesn't know, intrigued by a futon fire in a store half a block from her apartment, suspicious that three accidental deaths might have been murders, and plagued by an admirer whose poems are a crime, Maxey still manages to put out weekly editions fo her alternative newspaper, The Blatant Regard.

But it's up to her business partner Scotty and her lover, Fire Marshall Calen Taylor, to sort the treats from the tricks the night Maxey tangles with undisguised death.




Death Kindly Stopped
Who would have thought a used book of poetry by Emily Dickinson could cause so much trouble for Boulder newspaper owner Maxey Burnell? Handwritten notes in the margins seem to threaten murder--but whose, where, when? Then there's the dead man in the back of a limousine in a city council candidate's driveway; that leads to Maxey being interrogated by her least-favorite cop. Meanwhile, her Blatant Regard co-owner Scotty wants to retire, and arranging for his replacement is murder--literally. Before it's all over, Maxey's not feeling too fit herself.


His Horror the Mayor
An amateur sleuth mystery introducing Tirzzy Quizenberry, retired high school teacher, who discovers a body and, though she doesn't know the victim, she immediately knows who the killer is.


Cupid's Ghost
San Diego policewoman Hannah Muir comes to her tenth high school reunion in Cupid, Kentucky, where she encounters a mystery (the disappearance of her best friend and stepmother, who happen to be the same young woman), and romance (the appearance of Wild Will Gillette, former nerd.


The Seeds of Time
Delia Pitman has the ability, like Macbeth's witches, to "look into the seeds of time and say which grain will grow." A dance hall girl in the Colorado mining town of Mount Melissandra in the late 1800's, Delia wants to help Sheriff Doc stop the serial murders of painted ladies, one of them her mother.

One hundred years later, archeologist Annie Darrow comes to Melissandra, now a ghost town, to search for prehistoric artifacts with son Lee and hunky assistant Jake--and finds evidence of murders past and future.



Love At Second Sight
Originally an Editor's Choice Harlequin Temptation, Love at Second Sight brings together psychic Charlie Yost and pragmatist history professor Ross Davies. She's a birthday gift from his sister and has come to the Colorado Rockies to help him find a long-lost family treasure. He doesn't want to embrace her beliefs, but her body is a different matter . . . .

I have a few copies of this; contact me at carol@carolcail.com

Mystery Novel
The second Maxey Burnell mystery involves runaway vans and historical preservation.
Maxey visits her aunt in Nebraska and learns the truth about her mother's death. Third in the series.
Halloween in Boulder, Colorado. Fourth in the Maxey Burnell series.
The fifth and newest Maxey Burnell novel. "Because I could not stop for death, he kindly stopped for me."
Retired high school English teacher Tirzzy Quizenberry sets out to prove the mayor is, indeed, a horror.
Two psychic women solve murders in two different centuries.
Romantic Suspense Novel
Being a ghost means now it's okay to run with scissors.
Searching for treasure and love in the Rocky Mountains.
E-mail me at
carol@​carolcail.com


The Maxey Burnell series, set in Boulder, Colorado, began with Private Lies, which is out of print. The rest of the novels, in order, are:

Unsafe Keeping

If Two of Them Are Dead

Who Was Sylvia?

Death Kindly Stopped


What the Reviewers Say


Maxey and other characters are rich in description and delicious in memorable speech. Cail has a clever and quick wit that Maxey and her gang pull out of a never-ending bag of chuckles. -- Joyce Davis, Longmont Daily Times Call, reviewing Death Kindly Stopped.

An archeological dig in present-day Melissandra, Colorado, a string of unsolved late-19th century murders in the same town, two psychic women and a secret worth killing for--all accelerate the pace of Carol Cail's The Seeds of Time.
--Publishers Weekly

Nifty premise, atmospheric detailing, and uncanny characterization; recommended.
--Library Journal reviewing The Seeds of Time.

Carol Cail's earlier Maxey Burnell mystery, If Two of Them Are Dead, got my attention not only by being an interesting mystery (the lead character actually tries to find out the truth about her mother's murder some years back) but it also offered one of the more interesting secondary characters I'd encountered in quite a while. And secondary characters can make an otherwise pedestrian book worth reading. Luckily, Cail is not a pedestrian writer and Who Was Sylvia? is a worthwhile sequel.
--Andi Schecter for mysterybooks.about.com

There are more than a few hair-raising moments in this riveting wilderness adventure, as well as a highly satisfying romance.
--Romantic Times Magazine, reviewing Love At Second Sight

Cail mixes a host of intriguing possibilities together and manages to keep most of them open with the clever use of red herrings, for a topical, entertaining story. I like Maxey--I wish she, and the Blatant Regard, were keeping an eye on things in my hometown.
--Barbara Blunt of Mystery News, reviewing Unsafe Keeping.