New Releases For the Week Of November 22, 2020–Part 4

The Dreamtime and a Deadly Kiss

She’s a widowed, city-slicker businesswoman. He’s an enigmatic Aboriginal elder. Will they find the killer in the Outback before another murder is committed or will they be too late?

Traveling to the timeless Australian outback has long been on Diana Daniels’ bucket list. With her husband’s death now two years behind her, she heads off on a well-earned vacation to the ancient Kimberley region in northern Western Australia. Accompanied by Mimi, her zany, artistic sister-in-law, Diana plans to trek the imposing gorges, relax in her luxury cliffside retreat, and experience the enchantment of the Aboriginal Dreamtime.

But her plans are soon shattered when a young Aboriginal girl goes missing under suspicious circumstances. As if by design, Diana is commissioned by the girl’s grandfather, Tommy George to solve the mystery under the skeptical watch of the local police headed by Senior Constable Mitchell. Against the lavish backdrop of an international art festival and surrounded by a group of secretive guests, Diana finds herself running out of time. She knows a killer lurks among them, and it’s up to her to solve the mystery before more guests are murdered.

Killer in the Outback is the second installment in the Diana Daniels Mysteries. If you are a fan of Agatha Christie-style ‘whodunnits’ and page-turning plots, then you’ll love this clever, cocktail mystery by award winning author, Diane Demetre

PUBLISHER NOTE: A Cozy Murder Mystery of 75,500 words. (Amazon)

Editions Available: Kindle

Would Sadie Hayes and her family ever be safe?
After Carter’s latest betrayal and their breakup, Sadie feels ready to break herself. But she can’t. She’s a single mother and has a business to run.
When the crime leader Xavier Gallagher shows up at her salon, she realizes how great a danger she faces. People who oppose him die or disappear. How can she refuse to help him when his offer includes a blatant threat against those she loves?
After she ended their engagement, she doesn’t trust Carter to protect her and her family. She’s also afraid that anyone she asks for help will be targeted by Gallagher.
Her only hope is to gather evidence against Gallagher and pray she can do it before she becomes his next victim.
With the news that her friend Donetta eloped, she feels alone and on her own, but soon discovers she has true friends who will never desert her, including one who helps her from beyond the grave. (Amazon)

Editions Available: Kindle, Paperback

Fixated on researching ways to break her curse once and for all, jinxed witch and do-gooder Dahlia Poplar doesn’t know how well she’ll do in the upcoming Euchre Tournament, the Luna Lane Spooky Games Club’s first sponsored event. With visiting professor Cable Woodward due to depart to spend more of his sabbatical on the road, Dahlia can’t admit that he may be the reason she’s so determined to finally leave behind the cozy comforts of home.

Unfortunately, her efforts stir up unwanted attention from the one who cursed Dahlia to begin with, the evil witch whose shadow has loomed over all of the dreadful events in Luna Lane. When the tournament ends prematurely, there’s a body charred to ashes, and Dahlia takes it upon herself to figure out if the wicked witch is behind the disaster. Somehow, she needs to brew the right potion to break her curse while solving the paranormal message encoded in the club’s playing cards, all while keeping her loved ones safe.

Her very life may be the ante she risks to get to the bottom of everything that’s been plaguing her since birth—and if she can’t bluff her way to winning, Dahlia Poplar may prove to be the dead card that’s no longer in play. (Amazon)

Editions Available: Kindle, Paperback

After the damage done by a hurricane, the vendors of Magic Row are cleaning up. With the worry of a warlock in the wind some of them are considering clearing out of Urbana for good. The highest ranking witches and wizards have come to the city to catch the criminal warlock, O’Crowly, whose secret plans have the community speculating about end of the world prophecies. The Seer is nowhere in sight to set the record straight, so when a wizard in witness protection goes missing and a witch is found dead, the vexed vendors demand the council choose a new leader – someone who will ensure O’Crowly is caught.
For the first time since she discovered the magical community, Alice Adelcraft believes she has powers of her own to help her new friends. But Alice is showing no signs of talent in her lessons with the handsome wizard Sebastian Delvaux, and her genie, Naveed, is no longer there to protect her. Naveed has ventured off with his newfound sister to find his missing family members. He’s no longer answering Alice’s wishes, which makes things all the worse when she discovers O’Crowly is after her and the last of her family’s magic. Will Alice Adelcraft unleash her inner witch in time to save her magical friends from the warlock’s evil plans? Or will it truly be the end of the world –at least as Alice knows it? (Amazon)

Editions Available: Kindle

Black Cats, Magic Lamps, Witches, and Thrift Shops: What more could you want in a cozy?
Book 1: Mysterious Merchandise
When Alice Adelcraft follows a black cat down an alley, she finds a street that wasn’t there yesterday. The sign reads “Magic Row,” and the stores have names like “Spellbinders” and “A Witch’s Thrift Shop.” Most intriguing of all is the dead body Alice finds behind a dumpster. She’s seen enough of the world to know that if she doesn’t stand up for the teen wizard orphan accused of the murder, no one will help prove his innocence. But, stepping into the Magic Row means posing as a witch, and being found out means facing a terrifying hex. Will Alice’s choice become the biggest mistake of her life or the best discovery of her lifetime?
Book 2: Bewitching Bargains
Alice Adelcraft is pretending to be a witch on Magic Row, a street full of shops for those with magic. She has befriended the owner of A Witch’s Thrift Shop, where a saleswoman has quit without notice. While the open position is good news for the teen witch, Hazel, whom Alice has recommended for the job, Alice can’t help but wonder what happened to the employee, Mara Blest. Hazel and her twin brother, Zade, are sure Mara is missing. When Hazel and Zade’s mother gets a hazy vision of a kidnapping and odd incidences begin to occur at the thrift shop, Alice worries she’s placed Hazel in a dangerous position. Can she keep the twins safe? Or will uncovering the truth to Mara’s disappearance unveil other secrets in Magic Row – including Alice’s identity as an impostor?
Book 3: Wicked Wishlists
When ordinary Alice Adelcraft met wizard Sebastian (Baz) Delvaux, he nearly hexed her for wandering into Magic Row. But, now that she’s pretending to be a witch, Alice has gotten to know him and the rest of the magical community. She’s even starting to like Baz, maybe more than she should considering he’s engaged to a witch from a prominent magical family. Rich and powerful wizards like Baz live in their own social circles, but he’s shown himself to be different. That’s why she can’t believe it when he is accused of murdering his uncle for his fortune. Can she prove his innocence without exposing her lack of magic? Or will she discover that on Magic Row, secrets are everywhere?
Book 4: Spellbinding Sales
While the witches and wizards of Magic Row are preparing for a storm, Alice Adelcraft is searching for a warlock threatening her city. When a witness to the warlock’s crimes turns up dead, Alice believes Urbana is about to be hit by more than a hurricane. Her worst fears are realized when she is receives a warning: Surrender your magic or die.
Alice has come to love the magical community, especially a certain wizard who hasn’t yet shown signs of returning the feeling, but she has no magic of her own. If only Alice’s genie could turn her into a witch, then she might be able to protect the community. What’s more, Alice might understand why a seer says she is the key to saving Urbana—or destroying it.
Book 5: Vexed Vendors
After a hurricane, the vendors of Magic Row are cleaning up. But with a warlock in the wind, some of them are considering clearing out of Urbana for good. The elite witches and wizards have come to catch the criminal warlock, O’Crowly, whose secret plans have the community gossiping about end of the world prophecies.
For the first time since she entered Magic Row, Alice Adelcraft believes she has magic of her own to help her new friends. But Alice is showing no signs of talent in her lessons with the wizard Sebastian Delvaux, and her genie, Naveed, is no longer around. He’s ventured off with his newfound sister to find his missing family members. Naveed is no longer answering Alice’s wishes, which makes things all the worse when she discovers O’Crowly is after her family’s magic. Will Alice unleash her inner witch in time to save her magical friends from the warlock’s evil plans? (Amazon)

Editions Available: Kindle

The United States is falling further under Predator’s control with every passing day, and time is running out to stop them. Separated and forced to trust those that have betrayed them, Lee and Winfield must find a way to fight back. But when the enemy is everywhere and knows everything, there is nowhere you can hide. With Winfield hunted by Predator and the Secret Service, Lee remains imprisoned by Lever, who has plans for him and pushes him to the edge of breaking. Loyalties will be broken, secrets learned, and beliefs tested. And in the end, Lee’s mind may hold the key to Predator’s destruction, though to do so might cost him everything.Join Lee, Winfield, and many other familiar faces in the sixth and final installment in the AKA Simon Lee series. (Amazon)

Editions Available: Kindle

Award-winning author Cheryl Denise Bannerman delivers another helping of tasty Italian dishes, adorable cats, and a side of murder.

In book three of this cozy culinary series, mystery author and part-time meddler, Anna Romano, opens her home to her detective boyfriend’s troubled brother, Scott. But the happy family reunion was over before it began when a body is found in her home, and Scott subsequently disappears.

Was Scott somehow involved in the murder? While her boyfriend, John, and his partner investigate, Anna is mysteriously snatched. No one knows how or why Anna is kidnapped, except that it must have something to do with Scott.

Will the detectives reach Anna in time or will John’s brother have to make the ultimate sacrifice to save her?  (Amazon)

Editions Available: Kindle, Paperback

A broody hen. A dead body. The ultimate test of a relationship.

Pet psychic Frankie Chandler finally (and reluctantly) agrees to meet Detective Martin Bower’s family. All she has to do is impress the pack of sisters who raised him. Not difficult, right? The only thing at stake is her relationship with the man she loves.

The weekend at his eldest sibling’s farm surpasses her worst nightmares. His former guardians excel at finding her faults. Even the chickens have it in for her. Then her first moment alone with Bowers on a romantic stroll ends with the discovery of a murdered farmhand.

Now the marshal is fixed on Bowers’ sister Dymphna as the chief suspect. On a homestead overrun with animals, there must be a witness. The broody hen? The carrot-obsessed horses? The suspect’s self-involved dog? As she wrangles information from animals both furry and feathered, the case against Dymphna worsens. Should Frankie’s loyalty be to the truth? Or to Bowers’ family?

Join Frankie and Bowers on their most personal case yet. (Amazon)

Editions Available: Kindle

The murder of a glamorous DC socialite becomes Alex Cross’s deadliest case since Along Came a Spider.
Kay Willingham led a life as glamorous as it was public-she was a gorgeous Georgetown socialite, philanthropist, and the ex-wife of the vice president. So why was she parked in a Bentley convertible idling behind a DC private school, in the middle of the night, with the man who was the head of that school? Who shot them both, point blank, and why? The shocking double homicide is blazed across the internet, TV, newspapers — and across Alex Cross’s mind. Kay had been his patient once. And maybe more.

While John Sampson of DC Metro Police investigates the last movements of Christopher Randall, the educator killed along with Kay Willingham, detective Alex Cross and FBI special agent Ned Mahoney find unanswered questions from Willingham’s past, before she arrived in DC and became known in DC society as someone who could make things happen. They travel to Alabama to investigate Kay’s early years. There they find a world of trouble, corruption, and secrets, all of them closed to outsiders like Cross and Mahoney.

Kay had many enemies, but all of them seemed to need her alive. The harder the investigators push, the more resistance they find when they leave behind the polite law offices and doctors’ quarters of the state capital. Alex Cross will need to use all his skills as a doctor, a detective, and a family man to prevent that resistance from turning lethal…again. (Amazon)

Editions Available: Kindle, Hardcover. Paperback, Audiobook

A riveting debut thriller by Andrea J. Johnson, and the first in the VICTORIA JUSTICE series. Twenty-five year old Victoria Justice has never really gotten over a near drowning at the hands of a high school bully, but has attempted to build her confidence and career as a court stenographer under the mentorship of The Honorable Frederica Scott Wannamaker, the county’s first African-American Superior Court judge. But when her old nemesis appears on the court docket, Victoria’s carefully crafted world implodes―evidence goes missing, a potential mistrial abounds, and the judge winds up drowned in the courthouse bathroom. Victoria realizes her transcript of the proceedings unlocks everyone’s secrets…including the murderer’s. Plagued with guilt for failing to protect her mentor, Victoria teams up with Ashton North, the handsome state trooper accused of mishandling trial evidence, and starts to untangle the conspiracy surrounding the case. Meanwhile, the deputy attorney general hangs himself during the Post-Election Festival. Everyone is quick to accept his suicide note as a sign of guilt, but Victoria is convinced the truth behind her mentor’s death lies in the trial transcript. Can she suppress her fears long enough to crack the code, find her voice, and avoid the crosshairs of the killer? (Amazon)

Editions Available: Hardcover