Anna Celeste Burke

Anna Celeste Burke writes California-set cozy mysteries whose amateur sleuths draw on friendship, professional experience, and local knowledge. A Dead Husband opens the Jessica Huntington Desert Cities Mystery series in 2013, introducing a wealthy attorney whose troubled marriage and return to the Palm Springs area lead into a homicide investigation. A Dead Daughter is the third full-length entry, published in 2015 after A Dead Sister. Together, these two novels show the series developing from Jessica's first case into a broader circle of recurring allies and family complications. Bibliographic series records classify the novels as cozy mystery, suspense, and women-sleuth fiction. Later audio editions from Tantor Media are read by Rebecca Mitchell. Burke builds the investigations around affluent desert communities without making wealth a solution to every problem. Jessica's legal training helps her recognize inconsistencies, but the cases also depend on loyalty, conversation, and the willingness to question the polished stories people tell about their lives.