Works by
Barbara Jaye Wilson
(Writer)

Brenda Midnight Series

1. Death Brims Over (1997)
   Meet Brenda Midnight She's a savvy young designer with her own hat shop, who has never even thought of chasing crooks. But when crime invades her cobblestone Greenwich Village neighborhood and the cops don't have a clue, Brenda has to drop everything, including her hats, to catch a thief. . .and a killer.
   
   Chasing The Lady In Pink
   
   There's big money to be made if Brenda and her dress designer friend Carla can create the high society wedding of the year. Carla's covering the bride and her maids with dresses to die for, and Brenda's doing the hats. But just as Brenda's finishing the last of the exquisite headgear, she's held up by a woman in a hot pink suit, who escapes with the entire collection. Brenda takes off after her high priced hats and runs straight into her friend Carla -- dead! It's bloody murder -- but Brenda can't convince the men in blue that they should be chasing the mysterious Lady in Pink -- who may have come up with her own design. . . .for murder.

2. Accessory to Murder (1998)
   BRENDA WILL DO ANYTHING FOR A FRIEND. . . Irrepressible Greenwich Village milliner Brenda Midnight has already proved she's as good at unmasking murdered as she is creating gravity-defying hats. This time she's in hot water. Worse, she's dragged others in with her--and all because she's willing to so anything for her friends--no questions asked.
   
   ESPECIALLY AFTER MIDNIGHT
   
   A pair of wacky friends need a hand to get an embarrassing corpse out of the family feather showroom. Brenda is willing to help on one condition--that they'll dump the body at the city morgue, where it'll be properly taken care of. In agreement, Brenda borrows a car from talent agent Lemmy Crenshaw. All goes according to plan except for one hitch--the friends hadn't revealed the whole truth. This was not a case of a bad ticker; this was murder. And, since Lemmy's car was their temporary hearse, the cops nab him. To get the innocent agent off, Brenda is forced to put her spring line on hold and devote full time to unveiling the killer.

3. Death Flips Its Lid (1998)
   In her colorful, tree-lined neighborhood, Brenda Midnight has set Midnight Millinery, where she creates gravity-defying hat designs. But when Brenda's ex-husband Nado P. Sharpe finds a very dead body on the garage floor where he parked his van, it's all too clear that danger lurks in the lot. So Brenda Midnight, milliner and sleuth extraordinaire, is back in action for the third time to catch a killer.

4. Capped Off (1999)
   Motif for Murder
   
   Word is out that Doreen Sands, millinery buyer for an up-scale department store, is in a frenzy, spending like it's going out of style-and Greenwich Village hat designer Brenda Midnight arrives on the scene to unveil her gravity-defying creations. But before the hat-hopeful can pop the top off a hatbox, someone slams the lid on Doreen's life. And now Brenda, in the wrong place at the wrong time, finds herself tangled up in murder.
   
   Keeping It Under Their Hats
   
   The cops need help in probing New York's eccentric millinery community for answers. Brenda's old pals Detectives Turner and McKinley ask her to teach Officer Nicole (Gung-Ho) Gundermutter, a pony-tailed motorcycle-riding lady cop with some designs of her own, the tricks of the hat trade. She agrees, and soon discovers much more than she wants to know. Everybody's keeping secrets-including Brenda-and she's terrified too, because whoever permanently cancelled Doreen's orders might just have plans to cap off a curious neighborhood crime-solver.

5. Hatful of Homicide (2000)
   It's Brenda Midnight's birthday; she's dropped a hatful of hints and is sure her friends are planning a surprise party.  So when the Greewich Village miliner gets a phone call that her exotic friend Dweena's been kidnapped, Brenda figures she'll go along with the gag until the moment they all yell "surprise!" After practicing a stunned look, Brenda digs up Dweena's fake cash, stuffs it in a hatbox, and hands the ransom over to the fake kidnapper. The bad actor pops off a couple of shots and drives off with the cash and Dweena, bound and gagged.  Surprise!
   
   Brenda's friend Dweena, whose self-appointing gig is boosting illegally parked diplomatic cars, he has been heisted by a sleazy ambassodor.  When the Not-So-Excellency from Gintoflakokia ends up in the pokey, accused of killing a local barfly, Dweena expects Brenda to find the real murderer so they can spring the sleaze and get her look back.  And while she's doing that, Brenda blows the lid off more than she bargained for-about the past, the present ...and even her trusted friend.

Other

• Murder and the Mad Hatter (2001)
  Hell Hat(H) No Fury
  
  Slimy low-rent talent agent Lemon B. Crenshaw exceeds the bounds of friendship when he cons Greenwich Village hat designer Brenda Midnight and entangles her in a terrible legal bind. Vowing to get even, she hits Lemmy where it hurts by stealing his beloved brassiere collection right off his living room walls. While filching the bras, Brenda hears a thud, which she later learns was the sound of a dead body hitting the floor above.
  
  An Accusation with No Foundations
  
  Bra-napper Brenda is sure the murderer is the hurried, briefcase-toting man who slams into her as she smuggles the bras out of the building. But Briefcase Boy has an alibi -- and he tells the cops Midnight dunnit. Now Brenda needs the uplifting support of her wacky Village pals -- as she dons her sleuthing hat...and sets out to find a killer before she, herself, is busted for murder!