The five staff members of R&P Laboratories have an unfortunate habit of getting involved in criminal investigations when they should be pursuing scientific activities. In these four short stories, Rob, Phil, Ellis, Virginia and Mitch tackle four mysteries involving a possibly poisoned pie, an unusual Christmas present, a harmonica-playing uncle and a stolen Volkswagen Beetle. These four stories - 'Halfbaked', 'Potluck', 'Livewire' and 'Scoreboard',...

Things are not going well at R&P Labs. Not only is there a body in the biology lab and a staff member suspected of murder, but someone has broken in and wrecked their most important piece of equipment - the coffeemaker. This is one case that is too close for comfort, so in 'Childproof', the sixth R&P Labs mystery, the team of Rob, Phil, Ellis, Virginia and Mitch swing into action again to find out what's in two mysterious bottles, why a quiet health-food...

The five R&P Labs staff members travel south for a three-day scientific conference in San Diego, expecting nothing more exciting than sunshine, salsa and swimming pools. At least, they certainly aren't expecting one staff member to disappear and another to become a murder suspect when a controversial and unpopular scientist is found dead in his hotel room. In 'Pushover', the tenth R&P Labs mystery, Rob, Phil, Ellis, Virginia and Mitch find that although...

Back in the swinging '60s, Neil Brewer and Virginia McClain were lovers. Four decades on, Neil is recovering from a heart attack and his thoughts return to Virginia, now the senior bacteriologist at R&P Labs. He suggests a romantic reunion but Virginia turns him down, only to find when Neil is murdered that he has left a substantial legacy to the lab. But there's a catch; to receive it, they must first solve a series of clues. In the second R&P Labs...

In the fifth R&P Labs Mystery, a bachelor party camping trip takes an unexpected turn when the participants discover they are sharing their campsite with a skeleton -- a biologist who was murdered three decades earlier. As the R&P staff -- Rob, Phil, Ellis, Virginia and Mitch -- are drawn into the ensuing homicide investigation, witness after witness disappears, reputations are smeared and they begin to wonder if some things would have been better...

The R&P Labs staff members are planning their Christmas potluck lunch when a stranger arrives on the doorstep with an announcement that threatens to turn several lives upside down. 'Tis the season to be wary, and in this short story, the five scientific sleuths have to do some rapid research to discover whether one of them will be getting a very unusual Christmas present.

A street party on a hot summer evening takes a deadly turn when one of the revelers dies, apparently from food poisoning. But there's more to the death than first meets the eye, and the five R&P Labs staff members find themselves drawn into a case of love, loathing and lemon meringue pie. 'Half baked' is a short story of about 16,500 words. It also appears in the collection 'Four by Five' and introduced Zukie Merlino, who then insisted on being featured...

Rob Mangan has problems. His small independent research lab is on the brink of bankruptcy and his wife's gone off with the fish tank cleaner. So when Rob and his brother Phil are offered a small fortune to develop surgical dressings using sphagnum moss, they jump at the opportunity. But things that seem too good to be true, usually are. In Mossfire, the first R&P Labs mystery, the five scientists-turned-detectives - Rob, Phil, Ellis, Virginia and...