Hayley Powell is a single mom raising her teenage kids in Bar Harbor, Maine. While working as the office manager for local paper The Island Times, she gets the opportunity to also run a food and cocktails column, which takes off. But then, a rival writer winds up dead, with her as the main suspect. From then on, Hayley finds time to snoop into murder cases between mothering, writing, and cooking.
The series consists of:
- #0.5* : "Death By Haunted House" (2019)note
- #01: Death of a Kitchen Diva (2011)
- #02: Death of a Country Fried Redneck (2011)
- #03: Death of a Coupon Clipper (2012)
- #04: Death of a Chocoholic (2014)
- #05: Death of a Christmas Caterer (2014)
- #06: Death of a Cupcake Queen (2015)
- #07: Death of a Bacon Heiress (2016)
- #08: Death of a Pumpkin Carver (2016)
- #08.5: "Death by Eggnog" (2016)note
- #09: Death of a Lobster Lover (2017)
- #10: Death of a Cookbook Author (2018)
- #10.5: "Death by Yule Log" (2018)note
- #11: Death of a Wedding Cake Baker (2019)
- #12: Death of a Blueberry Tart (2020)
- #13: Death of a Wicked Witch (2020)
- #13.5: "Death of a Christmas Carol" (2020)note
- #14: Death of an Italian Chef (2021)
- #14.5: "Death of a Halloween Party Monster" (2021)note
- #15: Death of an Ice-Cream Scooper (2022)
- #15.5: "Death of an Irish Coffee Drinker" (2023) note
- #16: Death of a Clam Digger (2023)
- #16.5: "Death of a Christmas Mitten Knitter" (2023) note
- # 16.7: "Death by Easter Egg" (2024) note
- #17: Death of a Gingerbread Man (announced for September 2024)
This series provides examples of:
- Accidental Murder:
- The murder in book 5 (Death of a Christmas Caterer). Nick Ward was drinking with the other guys in the warehouse office next to Garth. He started waving around his gun, thinking the safety was on, only to find it wasn't, with the bullet going through the wall and hitting Garth Rawlings on the other side.
- Conrad Janice's fall off that cliff was because he got in a fight with his killer, who ended up causing him to fall over in the scuffle. What makes it a particular kick in the gut is that his killer is series regular Lex Bansfield.
- Alpha Bitch: Sabrina Merryweather, the Bar Harbor coroner for the first few books, until her resignation in book 5 (Death of a Christmas Caterer), and then reinstatement in book 15 (Death of an Ice Cream Scooper), was one of these to Hayley in high school. She gets better as the series progresses... albeit slowly.
- Asshole Victim: It's a murder mystery series, ain't it?
- Karen Applebaum of book 1 (Death of a Kitchen Diva), who writes the cooking column at the Bar Harbor Herald (a rival paper to Hayley's own Island Times), is known for having a vicious mean streak and doesn't take it well when Hayley's first column gets a lot of approval from the other islanders (including the woman Hayley's replaced), having expected the Times to just end its cooking column and leave hers as the only one on the island. In retaliation, she publicly accuses Hayley of stealing a recipe from her when Hayley had literally just gotten it over the phone from her mother earlier that day (and has it with her in the grocery store to make sure she's got all the ingredients), then steals the paper it's written on during that encounter and rushes it to print in order to make Hayley look bad when her own copy is printed in the next day's column just hours after Karen's is released. The thing is, most of the people in town don't think of her as this trope, publicly viewing her as a good person and her murder as a tragedy.
- Mickey Pritchett from book 2 (Death of a Country Fried Redneck) was a mean homophobic drunk who punched Randy in the face, nearly sexually assaulted Hayley, and tried to proposition sex from Gemma's friend Carrie... who is underage if Gemma's age (fifteen in the first book) is any factor. He also stole Reid Jennings' song and claimed it as his own, causing the guy to shoot him.
- Garth Rawlings from book 5 (Death of a Christmas Caterer), a narcissistic jackass who flipped out over anything.
- Big Damn Heroes: In the climax of book 1 (Death of a Kitchen Diva), Hayley is trapped on a boat, her feet tied to sandbags, and fighting off her would-be killer... when her friends Mona and Liddy come to the rescue in Mona's boat, and Mona personally leaps onto the killer's boat to knock him out.
- Blackmail: In book 1 (Death of a Kitchen Diva), Hayley accidentally hits Lex Bansfield with her car, and despite her getting him to the hospital, he later blackmails her into going on a date with him, claiming she should be "scrambling to make it up to me" for hitting him and threatening to sue her for doing so unless she agrees to a date. She can't find a way out of it, and ends up agreeing... only for it to be canceled when the police take her in for questioning over Karen Applebaum's murder.
- By-the-Book Cop: Chief Sergio Alverez. In book 1 (Death of a Kitchen Diva), his boyfriend (and Hayley's brother) Randy admits that Sergio doesn't think she's behind Karen's murder, but he can't take her off the suspect list or even announce that she didn't do it because it'd look like he was being soft on her just because she was his boyfriend's sister. Zig-zagged later when he agrees to let her stay out of prison, despite having broken the terms of her bail, but only if she tells him everything she found at Karen's house when she and Randy snuck in.
- Cat Scare:
- Briefly in book 1 (Death of a Kitchen Diva). Hayley, having been invited over to Karen Applebaum's house, goes over and, not getting an answer from Karen when she first knocks on the door, finds it unlocked and goes in. While walking through the living room, a large and very fat cat suddenly jumps out at Hayley, prompting her to let out a startled scream. Fortunately, the cat's apparently just as scared as it runs upstairs.
- In the same book, when Hayley and her brother Randy sneak over to Karen's house after dark, Hayley sees what appears to be a little man standing in the yard and about jumps out of her skin... until a better look reveals it to just be a lawn gnome.
- Cement Shoes: Variant in the climax of book 1 (Death of a Kitchen Diva), where the book's killer attempts to dispose of Hayley by dumping her in the ocean with her feet tied to sandbags. Thing is, he didn't think to tie her up first, so she's able to fight him off.
- Chalk Outline: Referenced in book 1 (Death of a Kitchen Diva), where after Hayley and her brother Randy sneak over to Karen's house after dark and get inside, they find one of these on the kitchen floor to mark where Karen died.
- Clear My Name: In book 1 (Death of a Kitchen Diva), after Karen Applebaum is murdered and Hayley is made out to look like the killer, she initially thinks she can leave it to the cops... but when she finds out that even the local preacher thinks she did it when she speaks to him at Karen's funeral, and then later when she's taken in for questioning, she becomes determined to solve the murder herself (and ultimately does).
- Conspiracy Theorist:
- Downplayed with Hayley's mother Sheila. She's harmless, but as seen in book 1 (Death of a Kitchen Diva), she doesn't trust computers (being convinced that every website is ridden with viruses just waiting to infect her machine), is suspicious of any phone call she receives (even nervously asking "Who is it?" when it's just Hayley calling) and is convinced that the government is listening in on everyone's calls, making her reluctant to share information over the phone. She also sends out mailings about conspiracies — one in the same book apparently involves Elvis still being alive and in hiding.
- Played straight with Karen Applebaum's son Bradley in book 1 (Death of a Kitchen Diva). Utterly paranoid, convinced the government is out to get everyone, doesn't trust his father or grocery stores because he thinks they're part of the same plot, and planning an outright violent uprising with others like him.
- The Corpse Stops Here: In book 1 (Death of a Kitchen Diva), a lot of people think Hayley's guilty simply because she found the body (on top of the earlier fight between them at Bar Harbor's library bake sale and the death threat Hayley made).
- Crossover: Towards the end of book 13 (Death of a Wicked Witch), Hayley follows up on a tip to look into a fire at Trudy Lancaster's old high school where a large fire broke out. Her contacts once she arrives (given to her by Sal) are Sandra Wallage and Maya Kendrick, the protagonists of Lee Hollis' Maya And Sandra Mysteries series.
- Dope Slap: Variant in book 1 (Death of a Kitchen Diva) — after her brother Randy makes a snarky remark to Hayley about how "the next mystery we need to solve is 'The Case of Your Missing Life'" (after he learns she picked up some of her detective skills from watching NCIS, and that she has a major crush on Mark Harmon), Hayley delivers one of these to his shoulder.
- Drunk Driver: Cassidy Culpepper does this in book 3 (Death of a Coupon Clipper), and nearly hits Hayley when she does.
- F--: Variant in book 1 (Death of a Kitchen Diva), where Hayley catches a glimpse of a paper sticking out of her son's backpack and manages to get it before he can stop her, resulting in her learning that he got an "Incomplete" on his first history assignment of the semester. And in science too. Hayley's response is to ground him for a week, until she can talk with his teachers at the next week's scheduled Parent-Teacher Conference. (And also to confiscate his X-Box 360 and put a lock on his computer so he can only use it for homework.)
- Food Fight: In book 1 (Death of a Kitchen Diva), after Karen Applebaum goes out of her way to make Hayley look bad again at the local library bake sale by squirting her rear with whipped cream, Hayley loses her temper and smashes a brownie on Karen's sweater, with Karen retaliating by throwing another dessert at Hayley, only to miss and hit the head librarian. One of the other attendees then retaliates against Karen, with things quickly escalating until all the edible merchandise is destroyed... and then when Karen blames Hayley for it all, despite having been the one to start it, an angry Hayley threatens Karen's life (despite not really meaning it).
- Foreshadowing: In book 5 (Death of a Christmas Caterer), when Hayley goes to the house Hugo goes into to be alone or to think, the book tells that it is the summer home of a Chicago family with a fortune in bacon products, mostly used by a snooty granddaughter of its founder. This would be Olivia Redmond, who becomes the victim of book 7 (Death of a Bacon Heiress).
- Frame-Up:
- In book 1 (Death of a Kitchen Diva), when Hayley is in the grocery store getting ingredients for the recipe her mother had just given her, Karen Applebaum sees it, accuses her of stealing it from Karen, and then actually steals it from Hayley and publishes it in her column at the Bar Harbor Herald (and Hayley believes Karen also somehow rigged the computers at the "Island Times, where Hayley works, so they'd be down and not allow the Times to be published before Karen's own paper was available), thus making it look like Hayley was the thief when she publishes it in her column just hours later. Later on, Hayley threatens Karen for what happened at the local Library Bake Sale. As a result, the actual killer later plants a vial of cyanide (the murder weapon) in Hayley's purse, where crime columnist Bruce Linney finds it and uses this as proof, on top of Hayley's threat, to accuse Hayley of the crime. Hayley also finds out that they set her up to be at the scene of the crime by sending an e-mail to her after'' the timeframe for Karen's death.
- The killer of book 2 (Death of a Country Fried Redneck) used Ned Weston's gun to kill Mickey so that if it was ever discovered, Ned would take the blame to save Carrie.
- Gold Digger:
- In book 1 (Death of a Kitchen Diva), Martin Applebaum (Karen's despicable ex-husband) is regularly targeted by these, due to having inherited millions from his father. Hayley and Randy later find that he might not be so rich due to some bad investments of his own, and add him to their list of suspects, since he was still the beneficiary of Karen's million-dollar life insurance policy.
- In the same book, Karen Applebaum was this to Edgar Hollingsworth. She planned to marry Edgar, inherit his fortune and then get together with Lex Bansfield. Unfortunately, this got in the way of Travis's plan to inherit his grandfather's fortune, so she had to go.
- Harassing Phone Call: In book 1 (Death of a Kitchen Diva), after returning to the office for the first time after getting out of prison, Hayley receives a few of these — one an obvious prank call, the other a call from someone who speaks in a raspy voice and tells her she'll burn in Hell for her actions. Hayley responds by doing her best to ignore them.
- He Knows Too Much: In book 1 (Death of a Kitchen Diva), the book's killer attempts to ambush and kill Hayley while she's out walking her dog Leroy one night in order to stop her from snooping around and investigating. Said killer later claims it was just meant to scare her, but by this point, he's trying to kill her for real because she really does know his identity.
- The Hermit: Karen Applebaum's son Bradley, as described in book 1 (Death of a Kitchen Diva). He's short-tempered and doesn't do well around people, so his father bought him a cabin on the far side of the island. He doesn't even have electricity or running water, and the only time anyone hears from him is when he writes anti-government letters to the local paper. He doesn't even show up for his own mother's funeral, though when Hayley goes to speak to him, he admits he knew about it, but his father had forbidden him from attending. He also claims to be in regular contact with other people who are as anti-government as him.
- Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Each book is titled Death of a [something related to whoever's bought the farm this time]. Subverted for the first three novellas, #8.5 ("Death By Eggnog"), 10.5 ("Death By Yule Log"), and #11.5/#0.5 ("Death by Haunted House").
- Improbable Weapon User: In the climax of book 1 (Death of a Kitchen Diva), Mona saves Hayley's life by knocking her would-be killer out with a lobster buoy.
- Incest Subtext: In book 1 (Death of a Kitchen Diva), while meeting with Bradley Applebaum, Hayley gets the definite uncomfortable feeling that he was interested in his late mother Karen in a sexual or romantic manner, even mentally describing the "oedipal undertones" in his voice when he talks about her (and that he seems to be transferring them to Hayley herself), while he clearly doesn't trust his father and sees him as a rival for Karen's affections.
- I Never Said It Was Poison:
- In book 2 (Death of a Country Fried Redneck), Hayley catches Stacy Jo Stanton in a lie that she didn't hire Jesse DeSoto to scare her away from Wade when Stacy calls Jesse's mother white trash, despite the fact that Hayley never mentioned Jesse's mother.
- In book 5 (Death of a Christmas Caterer) Hugo mentions that Garth Rawlings was shot, despite the fact that the papers hadn't mentioned such a thing. Adding to it, Dr. Merryweather's report more indicates that he was beaten to death. It turns out she was mistaken.
- Inheritance Murder:
- Sort of in book 1 (Death of a Kitchen Diva). Travis Hollingsworth was willing to wait for his grandfather to die to get his money. The person he killed was the woman attempting to marry Edgar and inherit his money.
- In book 4 (Death of a Chocoholic), Marla Heasley kills her biological mother, Bessie Winthrop.
- In Medias Res: Book 1 (Death of a Kitchen Diva) opens with Hayley preparing food for her kids before heading out for a date. The chapter ends with her being arrested for the murder of Karen Applebaum, being put in the cruiser just as her date, Lex Bansfield shows up. The second chapter jumps back a week earlier to explain how we got here.
- In the Back: Candace Culpepper of book 3 (Death of a Coupon Clipper) is found stabbed in the back with a pair of scissors. The killer stabbed her once in the back, once in the chest when she turned (which punctured her lung), and then stabbed her again in the back for good measure.
- Ironic Echo: In book 2 (Death of a Country Fried Redneck), when Jesse DeSoto crashes the car he stole into a tree, he says "I think I broke my arm". When Reid Jennings gets hit by Hayley's car driven by Gemma, he says the same thing.
- Key Under the Doormat: In book 1 (Death of a Kitchen Diva), when Hayley and her brother Randy sneak over to Karen's house after dark, they find that Karen has a large collection of lawn gnomes, one of which is designed to look like he's waving "Welcome". Hayley correctly puts two and two together to realize the gnome is Karen's version of a welcome mat, and by extension that he's also a hiding place for her spare key.
- Locked in a Freezer: In book 5 (Death of a Christmas Caterer), the killer locks Hayley in the freezer of Garth's kitchen when she goes snooping around in it.
- Locked Room Mystery: Book 5 (Death of a Christmas Caterer) has caterer Garth Rawlings found beaten to death in his warehouse office/kitchen, with him having the key on him and no-one being seen entering the only way into the building. The solution is that he was actually killed by a gunshot through the wall of the neighboring office.
- Lured into a Trap: Variant in book 1 (Death of a Kitchen Diva) — the killer, it's revealed, lured Hayley to the scene of the crime so she'd find Karen Applebaum's body and thus be set up as a major suspect.
- Malaproper: Since he was born in Brazil and English isn't his first language, Chief Sergio has a habit of getting some English words mixed up, such as confusing "iconic" and "ironic" early in book 1 (Death of a Kitchen Diva). He finds it just as frustrating as the people he talks to, but doesn't take offense when someone corrects him as a result, only getting mad at himself.
- Manipulative Bastard: Lex Bansfield. In book 1 (Death of a Kitchen Diva), he blackmails Hayley into going on a date with him by threatening to sue her for accidentally hitting him with her car (she misses out on it by getting taken in for questioning) and basically says she owes him. She only agrees because she can't think of a way out. After Karen's killer is exposed, he still expects Hayley to go out with him, which she actually agrees to, feeling he deserves a second chance.
- Manly Gay:
- Chief Sergio Alvarez, the boyfriend of Hayley's brother Randy. He knew he was gay for a long time before coming to the United States, but isn't flamboyant about it, works hard at any job he got, and ended up as Bar Harbor's chief of police when the old one retired because everyone knew he had a good personality and work ethic.
- Book 2 (Death of a Country Fried Redneck) introduces Wade Springer's bodyguard Curtis King, a large black man who turns out to be gay and into Randy.
- Massive Numbered Siblings: At the start of the series, Mona has five kids and quickly announces she's expecting her sixth.
- Medication Tampering: In book 4 (Death of a Chocoholic), it's revealed that this is how Marla killed Bessie Winthrop, by switching out Bessie's blood thinner medicine with Marla's own blood clotting medicine.
- Never Heard That One Before: Wade Springer's manager from book 2 (Death of a Country Fried Redneck) is Billy Ray Cyrus. No, not that one, and he's irritated by the confusion, stating that "There are two of us. And it's been a pain in my ass ever since he became famous for 'Achy Breaky Heart'."
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Variant in book 1 (Death of a Kitchen Diva) — at the Bar Harbor Library's bake sale, Karen Applebaum goes out of her way to anger Hayley and make her look bad, and ends up inspiring a Food Fight that destroys all the baked goods for sale. However, in spurring on said food fight, she inadvertently turns the sale into a smashing success for the library, as everyone outside is so entertained that they make donations on the condition that the "show" gets repeated the next year.
- Not Me This Time: In "Death of a Pumpkin Carver," Hayley recalls an incident back when she was still married to Danny. They were on vacation and he went out to get groceries, but was seemingly taking forever. Hayley found him in a nearby bar chatting up with some other woman, lost her shit, and dumped a pitcher of beer on his head... at which point it turned out the guy in question was a total stranger, and then Danny then entered the bar. It turned out he'd gotten a flat tire and was held up for hours trying to get the car towed while also doing the grocery shopping. To make matters worse, he'd bought Hayley roses to apologize for the delay. It was one of the few times in their marriage Hayley had been the one to screw up big time.
- One Phone Call: In book 1 (Death of a Kitchen Diva), after Hayley is taken in for questioning, she asks for this in order to at least let her kids know about the situation. The local cops, however, won't let her because they can't reach the chief and get permission. She finally gets it (calling her friend Mona to have her tell the kids and call a lawyer for her) after Sergio gets back into the office.
- Papa Wolf: Ned Weston from book 2 (Death of a Country Fried Redneck) is perfectly willing to confess to Mickey Pritchett's murder to save his daughter from going to prison for it. It's ultimately unnecessary, since she didn't kill him either.
- Plagiarism in Fiction: The killer's motive in book 2 (Death of a Country Fried Redneck). Reid Jennings was inspired to write a song about a woman winning a man's heart through his stomach from Hayley doing the same as Wade's personal chef for the tour. He passed the song to Mickey so Wade could hear it, but Mickey claimed he wrote the song himself. When Reid found this out, he forced Mickey into a tour bus, shot him dead, then lit the bus on fire.
- Pregnant Badass: Mona can kick some serious ass in the early books of series, taking down the killer in book 1 (Death of a Kitchen Diva) with a blunt object and even being able to choke out Mickey Pritchett in book 2 (Death of a Country Fried Redneck). She's usually in the very early stages of pregnancy, but it still counts.
- Prequel: "Death by Haunted House" takes place before the series proper begins, so much so that the food articles are by Hattie Jenkins, the woman who retires from the paper and Hayley replaces.
- Red Herring: In book 1 (Death of a Kitchen Diva), while poking around Karen Applebaum's house, Hayley listens to her answering machine and hears a threatening message. Hayley thinks she's found the killer, but it turns out the call was from Karen's close friend Winnie Cornbluth, whom she's had a falling-out with after Winnie accused Karen of having an affair with Winnie's husband. Winnie, it turns out, was mistaken — she later learned her husband was having an affair with a different woman, and she has an alibi for the murder because she was out of town speaking to a divorce lawyer that day. It's zig-zagged though in that Winnie does give Hayley another important clue, revealing Karen was having an affair with someone — just not with Winnie's husband.
- Secret Other Family: Death of a Wedding Cake Baker reveals that Sonny Lipton has not one, but two other wives.
- Series Continuity Error: In book 5 (Death of a Christmas Caterer), Nick Ward of the contracting crew working in Garth Rawlings' building is said to be a former part of Lex Bansfield's caretaker crew for the Hollingsworth estate. However, the books calls the late Hollingsworth "Arthur" instead of "Edgar".
- Stylistic Suck: Wade Springer's music from book 2 (Death of a Country Fried Redneck). One of his songs is called "I'm Not a Wifebeater, I Just Wear One".
- Take That!:
- In book 3 (Death of a Coupon Clipper), Hayley meets the host of "Wild and Crazy Couponing", Drew Nickerson. She says that with his good looks, he would have made a much better movie version of Dudley Do-Right than Brendan Fraser.
- Book 8 (Death of a Pumpkin Carver) has Hayley's ex-husband Danny take her and the kids to a showing of The Exorcist, as the kids have never seen it before. Danny gets spooked and makes everyone leave before the ending because two goons working for a Loan Shark that have been following Danny arrive, and when Gemma complains they haven't seen the ending, Danny says "they all live happily ever after until the sequel which sucked big time."
- Tampering with Food and Drink:
- In book 1 (Death of a Kitchen Diva), Karen Applebaum was killed when cyanide was put into her clam chowder. What makes Hayley look suspicious even outside of being the one to find the body is that Karen had accused Hayley of stealing the recipe for the chowder from her (when in fact it was Karen who stole the recipe from Hayley).
- Referenced briefly in the same book during Karen Applebaum's funeral, where it's mentioned that her son Bradley refuses to shop at grocery stores because he thinks the government is doing this to the food sold there.
- Tap on the Head: Late in book 1 (Death of a Kitchen Diva), Hayley spots the car belonging to the man who'd tried to kill her earlier on... and is then struck from behind by its owner with a tire iron. She recovers, with nothing worse than mild blurry vision and nausea, a little while later.
- Tempting Fate: At the end of book 1 (Death of a Kitchen Diva), Hayley thinks to herself that "What are the odds of her stumbling across another dead body?". Given it's the first book in the series, very likely.
- Ungrateful Bastard: Hayley shows signs of this in book 1 (Death of a Kitchen Diva) out of jealousy when her coworker Bruce Linney tries to keep her away from Lex Bansfield. Hayley can tell Lex is a jerk from the start, as demonstrated by his attempt to blackmail her into a date; when he tries to set up another date after the first got cut off by Hayley's being taken in for questioning by the police, her coworker Bruce Linney turns up in her office to bug her about something and interrupts him. Hayley, however, thinks he's just jealous. Bruce later shows her the information he's dug up on Lex, including police reports on his history of violence (including towards at least one woman). While Hayley concedes the point, she tosses Bruce's cup of ice cream in his face instead because she's tired of his meddling in her personal life. She doesn't even apologize to Bruce after learning that Lex was interested in Karen Applebaum.
- Vorpal Pillow: At the end of book 5 (Death of a Christmas Caterer), Nick Ward tries to kill Hayley this way after she finds the gun used to kill Garth Rawlings in his closet and tries to leave with it.
- Waving Signs Around: In book 1 (Death of a Kitchen Diva), after Hayley's been arrested, her friend Liddy Crawford organizes a protest outside the police station to get her freed. Some of them have signs with them, including Liddy herself, who actually bonks Officer Earl on the head with hers.
- Wedding Episode: Death of a Wedding Cake Baker, naturally. The twist is that the wedding is not Liddy and Sonny's wedding as the book would have one believe, but Hayley and Bruce's.
- Wedgie: Referenced in book 1 (Death of a Kitchen Diva). While Hayley is in jail, officer Donnie goes out to get her some dinner. When he gets back in, having had to fight his way through a mob of protesters, he mentions that one of them tried to do this to him... and implies that he had to deal with the same thing in high school.
- Wham Episode:
- Death of a Cookbook Author, where it is found that Lex Bansfield is a murderer, albeit by accident.
- Death of a Wedding Cake Baker, where Hayley and Bruce get married.
- Death of an Italian Chef, where Hayley Hayley leaves her office manager role at "The Island Times" in order to start her own restaurant (while still doing her column, of course).
- Yandere: In book 2 (Death of a Country Fried Redneck), Stacy Jo Stanton is one of these, considering she hired Jesse to scare Hayley away from Wade.
- You Are Grounded!: In book 1 (Death of a Kitchen Diva), Hayley learns her son hasn't been doing some of his homework, and responds by grounding him for a week (along with confiscating his X-Box 360 and putting a lock on his computer so it can only be used for school work) until she can talk with his teachers.
