New Releases For The Week Of October 4th, 2020–Part 4

Welcome to Hazard Valley, population 113.

Marley Bloom couldn’t be happier. The grand opening of her juice truck, Juiced Around the Corner, went off without a hitch, and she’s ready to drum up more business not only for herself but also for all the other local businesses in town.

A stranger with a similar idea shows up looking for a place to host a writer’s retreat, thinking they’ve found the perfect spot. The folks of Hazard Valley are quick to judge and aren’t so keen on the idea of bringing any sort of hustle and bustle to the place they call home.

Disagreements are plenty, and when a body is found where Marley has been parking her truck and serving her customers, she’s forced to adjust her plans and is left wondering just how strange this stranger really is.

In Kiwi Killer, Marley races to solve the latest mystery before Hazard Valley is changed forever. (Amazon)

Editions Available: Kindle

Morgan Jones is trying to enjoy date night, but when her best friend, Birdie, starts running towards her screaming their secret code, it becomes clear that something’s going on.

Someone has triggered the secret network of communication beacons and it is Birdie’s responsibility to light the beacon in Vanish Valley to pass on the message, dragging Morgan along for the ride. Forty-five minutes pass and the beacon in the next town is still dark, they are going to have to drive over there to investigate… the beacon lighter has been killed.

In the neighboring town of Tick Top, Morgan is tasked with getting to the bottom of the murder. The victim’s house is a hoarder’s paradise and it seems the guy hadn’t spoken in months, but somehow has a long list of enemies. What happened here?

Was someone trying to prevent the beacon message being spread? Was Birdie now in danger too? Was Chuck, the slightly incompetent police chief from Vanish Valley, the only person that was available to help? At least he isn’t easily distracted. Oh wait…

All Broom No Bite is the second book in the Wicked Witches of Vanish Valley series. (Amazon)

Editions Available: Kindle

Sometimes dead men do tell tales.

Titus Strong, criminal defense attorney, has had some unusual clients since moving to Shipwreck Point. But none as extraordinary as Fannie Tyler.

The beautiful young widow still talks to her husband every day, even though he perished in a blizzard six years ago.

And he talks back.

Through him, Fannie brings the bereaved women of Whitby communications from beyond the grave.

Her séances aren’t enough to support herself and her son, and in summer she rents rooms to vacationers from Boston. This year, a nearby theater in the formerly family-friendly neighborhood has booked a burlesque troupe.

And the visitors are moving out.

In desperate financial straits, Fannie asks the lawyer to convince the theater owner to replace the scandalous show.

But when the proprietor is found murdered, and all the clues point to his client, Titus must change course.

Will the clever defense attorney be able to prove Fannie’s innocence?

Or will the stunning sibyl be fated to join her spouse by way of the hangman’s noose?

Read The Case of the Comely Clairvoyant to find out! (Amazon)

Editions Available: Kindle

Mocha, Murder and Magic…

Disillusioned by magic, Sally Talbott turns her back on witchcraft and jumps realms to Luna Brook, a small, quiet town nestled into the hills of the Cotswolds, England and lands a job in the local café.

Instead of a normal life filled with coffee and customers, Sally discovers her employer and landlady, Betty, fights crime for a side income and is faced with a dead body, a spilt mocha and a murderer on the loose.

A corrupt mayor with Luna Brook’s reputation to keep clean is the perfect brew for trouble and Sally soon finds the finger of blame pointing to her.

Can Sally solve the crime, clear her name and make a new life for herself before she lands herself in jail? Can she continue the presence of normality or will she have to resort to magic? And why won’t Betty’s cat leave her alone?

Mocha, Murder & Magic is the first book in the Witches, Mystery & Coffee Syrups series. If you love believable characters, crumbs of clues and a sprinkling of magic, you’ll love Agnes Reed’s new cozy mystery series.

Contains British English spellings and usage. (Amazon)

Editions Available: Kindle

After recovering from her last wrangle with a bad guy, Lydia Everett rejoins small-town life only to be kidnapped her first night out. Little does she know, escaping the threat was the easy part.

Now, she and her gal pals have to hunt down the nabbers before they become full-fledged murderers. With the help of a quirky young barista, Lydia pieces the stories around her together to unravel a past crime and solve a suspicious death in the present.

Will she tackle this murder mystery and come out the other side unscathed? Or will Lydia, and those around her, become collateral damage as they untangle the clues of the past?

Find out.★ Read Write and Wronged today.★

Don’t miss a clue in the ongoing Honey Pot Mystery Series.
Books 1-6 of this thrilling Christian Mystery Series now available. (Amazon)

Editions Available: Kindle

In the summer of 1545, Caterina Konarska undertakes the long journey from Bari to Kraków in search of a cure for her ailing son Giulio. In Poland, she finds a court far different from the lively, cultured place she remembers from twenty-five years ago. The old king lies on his deathbed, and the once-charming Queen Bona has aged into a bitter, lonely woman—isolated from power and estranged from the heir, Zygmunt August.

Haunted by memories of a crime she solved long ago, Caterina approaches the queen with caution. Bona promises medical assistance for Giulio, but at a price: Caterina must travel with her son to Vilnius where, in exchange for a medical consultation with a royal physician, she will attempt to dissuade Zygmunt August from marrying his scandal-ridden mistress, Barbara Radziwiłł.

Caterina agrees, but she soon learns that Zygmunt August listens to no one, especially when it comes to his love life. And when a puzzling murder shakes the Vilnius court, the duke immediately suspects his mother’s agents. Caterina is thrust into yet another investigation, but as bodies and clues pile up, she realizes that in trying to clear the queen’s name, she has placed her and Giulio’s lives in grave danger.

The second Jagiellon Mystery, Midnight Fire explores the nature of duty and sacrifice and the unpredictable ways in which personal and political events can trigger buried traumas, with explosive and deadly consequences.

“A compelling mystery written in an elegant and readable style. Midnight Fire takes readers on a highly satisfying journey into the heart of the 16th century Polish-Lithuanian court where no one is safe. A treat for those looking for something refreshingly new and smart.” – Wendy Long Stanley, author of The Power to Deny (Amazon)

Editions Available: Kindle, Paperback

The next book in the Bestselling Sunny Cove series!

Celia is a beauty consultant in a small town who loves making her clients look good and helping her friends get out of trouble. She also has a bad habit of poking her nose in some police investigations.

She’s delighted when her dear friend announces that she’ll be opening a nail parlor in the heart of town. Still, she’s a little bit concerned about her friend’s lack of business experience and the characters who’ll be helping her in this venture.

Celia becomes a nervous wreck when she hears that there’s been a death at the nail parlor. Several questions race through her mind as she races to the scene of the crime like:

Who did it?

Was it one of the business owners?

Or her friend’s competitor?

Or a disgruntled employee?

Celia doesn’t know yet but she’s determined to find out. Will she be successful or ruffle too many feathers and become the killer’s next target?

If you want to enjoy a light-hearted read, with an amateur female sleuth and a gripping murder mystery with a touch of romance, then you’ll love Celia Dube and all the friendly and not-so-friendly characters in Sunny Cove.

No cliffhanger, swearing or graphic scenes!

Buy New Nails and a Nasty Nightmare to discover how events unfold in this cozy murder mystery.

OUT SOON! (Amazon)

Editions Available: Kindle

The Resort at Cozy Mountain has always enjoyed great prosperity, primarily through buying or destroying anything that gets in the way.

Fleeing her unhappy marriage, wealthy socialite Blythe Buffington has returned to Cozy Mountain to visit her invalid mother. After being harassed by her spoiled daughter, greedy first husband, and multiple buyers vying for her family home, Blythe discovers she may be flat broke.

What’s a former debutante to do?

Close friends Emma, Abby, and Georgie rally around their old friend Blythe and encourage her to move back home. Blythe promises to consider this proposition but then disappears under suspicious circumstances. It seems as if their good friend may have left Cozy Mountain forever. Or has she?

It’s spring in Cozy Mountain, and the stately homes on Grandview Boulevard are hiding some dreadfully dark secrets, both old and new. (Amazon)

Editions Available: Kindle

A novice witch. A collie companion. Can this clever duo put noses to the ground to chase down a killer?

Sarah Spellwood can’t wait to learn all her powerful ancestor’s magic and repair the reputation of witches. But despite hours of study and her talking dog’s support, she still doubts her spellcasting skill. And she’s about to face a major test when she’s plunged into a battle between good and evil after the enchanted forest’s protective deed is stolen and the town clerk brutally murdered…

With the finger pointing at woodland wolves for the fatal mauling, Sarah and her pooch pal vow to help the handsome police officer Eli Strongheart dig up the truth and clear the innocent creatures’ names. But when darkness rises to threaten the unprotected woods and its inhabitants, she’ll need to fight a formidable magical enemy to stop its destruction.

Can Sarah save the wolves and recover the deed before Witchland meets a terrible fate?

Howl Play is the second book in the sweet Spellwood Witches cozy mystery series. If you like cute flirty romance, discovering one’s true destiny, and love for animals, then you’ll adore Melanie Snow’s barking-ly fun adventure.

Buy Howl Play to let supernatural talent off the leash today! (Amazon)

Editions Available: Kindle

The roguish Dan Mallett is back in this cosy English mystery! Perfect for fans of Agatha Christie, M C Beaton, Sophie Hannah and Faith Martin.

Dan Mallett is on the hunt for a silent witness…

1980, West Country of England

Since her husband died, the wealthy Lady Dodds-Freeman has been drinking her days away. Concerned for her welfare, Dan Mallett — gardener by day, poacher by night — resolves to keep an eye on her.

But then the body of one of her neighbours is found in her ladyship’s flat, murdered with a gin bottle. What’s more, a lot of money has gone missing.

As a known felon and employee of Lady Dodds-Freeman, Dan is soon established as a likely suspect.

During the course of the investigation, it comes to light that someone may have seen the crime unfold while spying through her ladyship’s window.

With the police hot on his trail, Dan vows to find the silent witness and discover what really happened that night…

Who was the mysterious face at the window? Why haven’t they come forward?

And can Dan unmask the killer before they strike again…?

Face at the Window is the fifth cosy village mystery in the Dan Mallett Investigation series: private investigation murder mysteries set in rural England.

THE DAN MALLETT INVESTIGATIONS SERIES:
Book One: Fire in the Barley
Book Two: Sting of the Honeybee
Book Three: Snare in the Dark
Book Four: Bait on the Hook
Book Five: Face at the Window
Book Six: Fly in the Cobweb
Book Seven: Caught in the Birdlime
Book Eight: Voices From the Dark (Amazon)

Editions Available: Kindle

“Di Marco’s series starter features a clever plot and a smart and feisty heroine with feet firmly planted on the ground while she searches the stars.”
—Library Journal

San Francisco astrologer Julia Bonatti’s life is turned upside down when she becomes the target of the city’s newest cult leader, Reverend Roy of the Prophet’s Tabernacle. Driven out of her apartment in the midst of a disastrous Mercury retrograde period, she takes shelter with a client who’s caring for two elderly aunts. One aunt appears stricken with dementia and the other has fallen under the spell of the Reverend Roy. To add to the confusion, a young man claiming to be a long-lost nephew arrives. The longer he stays, the more dangerous things become. Is the young man truly a member of the family? Can astrology confirm that? Julia’s not sure, but one thing she does know is that Mercury wasn’t merely the messenger of the gods—he was a trickster and a liar as well. (Amazon)

Editions Available: Kindle, Paperback

“[A] taut, beautifully-written novel.” —Sarah Pekkanen, #1 New York Times bestselling author of An Anonymous Girl

From master of suspense Lisa Unger comes a riveting thriller about a chance encounter that unravels a stunning web of lies and deceit.

Be careful to whom you tell your darkest secrets…

Selena Murphy is commuting home from her job in the city when the train stalls out on the tracks. She strikes up a conversation with a beautiful stranger in the next seat, and their connection is fast and easy. The woman introduces herself as Martha and confesses that she’s been stuck in an affair with her boss. Selena, in turn, confesses that she suspects her husband is sleeping with the nanny. When the train arrives at Selena’s station, the two women part ways, presumably never to meet again.

But days later, Selena’s nanny disappears.

Soon Selena finds her once-perfect life upended. As she is pulled into the mystery of the missing nanny, and as the fractures in her marriage grow deeper, Selena begins to wonder, who was Martha really? But she is hardly prepared for what she’ll discover.

Expertly plotted and reminiscent of the timeless classic Strangers on a Train, Confessions on the 7:45 is a gripping thriller about the delicate facades we create around our lives. (Amazon)

Editions Available: Kindle, Hardcover, Paperback, Audiobook

The Finder of Lost Things” is the name Blanche Wainfleet’s three sisters bestowed on her when they were young, not only for her ability to locate missing handkerchiefs and runaway pets, but also because she was so good at finding solutions to all manner of puzzles. Now, in the winter of 1590-1, twenty-eight-year-old Blanche, a London merchant’s wife whose husband is traveling abroad, is faced with a much more serious mystery, one she is desperate to solve.

Late Elizabethan England is an era rife with treason and conflicting political and religious loyalties. Priest-catchers target Catholic households in the hope of being able to arrest and execute priests. The householders themselves have to pay ruinous fines if they do not attend Anglican services. And yet leaders of both faiths agree that a bewitched person can be cured by exorcism.

When Blanche’s youngest sister, Alison, fell in love with a Catholic gentleman, she converted to Catholicism and went to live at Otley Manor as Lady Otley’s companion. Arrested for illegally hearing mass, she died under mysterious circumstances while imprisoned in Colchester Castle. Some say she was bewitched to death.

To discover the truth about how Alison died, Blanche contrives to have herself confined with Lady Otley and other members of the Otley household in Colchester’s dungeon. She tells no one of her connection to Alison, but does pretend that she, like her sister, wishes to convert. Still without answers when a royal pardon sets all women prisoners free, Blanche accepts Lady Otley’s invitation to join her household and take instruction in the Catholic faith. She’s just begun to make progress when a second murder puts her in mortal danger from powerful figures on both sides of the religious divide. (Amazon)

Editions Available: Kindle, Paperback