New Releases For The Week Of October 24th, 2021–Part 2

A psychic travel agent and a Seattle PD detective solve a murder in this quirky mystery in the vein of Lisa Lutz’s The Spellman Files and Charlaine Harris’s Aurora Teagarden series.

Meet Leda Foley: devoted friend, struggling travel agent, and inconsistent psychic. When Leda, sole proprietor of Foley’s Flights of Fancy, impulsively re-books Seattle PD detective Grady Merritt’s flight, her life changes in ways she couldn’t have predicted.

After watching his original plane blow up from the safety of the airport, Grady realizes that Leda’s special abilities could help him with a cold case he just can’t crack.

Despite her scattershot premonitions, she agrees for a secret reason: her fiancé’s murder remains unsolved. Leda’s psychic abilities couldn’t help the case several years before, but she’s been honing her skills and drawing a crowd at her favorite bar’s open-mic nights, where she performs Klairvoyant Karaoke—singing whatever song comes to mind when she holds people’s personal effects. Now joined by a rag-tag group of bar patrons and pals alike, Leda and Grady set out to catch a killer—and learn how the two cases that haunt them have more in common than they ever suspected. (Amazon)

Editions Available: Kindle, Hardcover, Paperback, Audiobook

a

A delicious new holiday mystery from USA Today bestselling author Catherine Bruns! It’s Christmas time in Harvest Park, so grab your cocoa and sleuthing snow boots for a Christmas cozy mystery sure to sleigh!

It’s the deadliest thyme of the year…

With snow dusting the ground and sauce sizzling on the stove, local chef Tessa Esposito is ready to serve up some holiday cheer. And with the annual Festival of Lights underway, it seems nothing can dim her spirits. Not even Mario Russo, the newest scrooge in town whose espresso bar has been quickly disrupting businesses and stealing customers from Harvest Park’s favorite coffeehouse.

But when Mario is discovered at the festival’s opening, face down in a Santa suit, Tessa realizes the bah humbug runs deeper than she could have imagined. And when one of her dearest friends is implicated in the crime, she must make a list of Mario’s enemies, check them twice, and discover the cold-blooded killer. Especially before they can sleigh again. (Amazon)

Editions Available: Kindle, Paperback

Getaway With Murder is the first in a cozy series from Diane Kelly set in a lodge in the Blue Ridge Mountains, where secrets hide behind every hill.

As if hitting the half-century mark wasn’t enough, Misty Murphy celebrated her landmark birthday by amicably ending her marriage and investing her settlement in a dilapidated mountain lodge at the top of the Blue Ridge Mountains. With the old inn teetering on both a bluff and bankruptcy, she must have lost her ever-loving mind.

Luckily, handyman Rocky Crowder has a knack for rehabbing virtual ruins and for doing it on a dime, and to Misty’s delight, the lodge is fully booked on opening night, every room filled with flexible folks who’d slipped into spandex and ascended the peak for a yoga retreat with plans to namastay for a full week. Misty and her guests are feeling zen—at least until the yoga instructor is found dead.

With a killer on the loose and the lodge’s reputation hanging in the balance, Misty must put her detective-skills to the test. Only one thing is as clear as a sunny mountain morning—she must solve the crime before the lodge ends up, once again, on the brink. (Amazon)

Editions Available: Kindle, Paperback. Audiobook

Mia Malone is planning a holiday party to promote her catering and cooking school business—but she’s got a Christmas spirit to deal with first, in this new Kitchen Witch Mystery from New York Times bestselling author Lynn Cahoon . . .

For all its merriment, Christmas can also bring melancholy—and in Magic Springs, Idaho, Mia finds that the season has brought her an unhappy ghost who’s pulling poltergeist-style pranks to get her attention. When she demands an explanation, the ghost just sends a message: Ask Mary Alice—that is, Mia’s beloved Grans, who’s been training her to develop her witchy talents. If anyone can figure this out, it’s Grans . . . even if she still hasn’t managed to free Mia’s cat from a previous spell that she cast.

The restless spirit turns out to be Magic Spring’s most well-known ghost, Dorothy, who supposedly died peacefully in her sleep. Now Dorothy claims she was murdered, and she wants her killer brought to justice. And she doesn’t have much patience about it, so the pressure is on Mia—with some help from her boyfriend, Trent, and a strangely secretive Grans. There aren’t many dicing-and-chopping days till Christmas—but this year, the most important gift Mia can give is to cheer up this troubled spirit . . .

Includes Recipes!

Praise for Lynn Cahoon

“A cozy lover’s dream come true.”
—Susan McBride, author of The Debutante Dropout Mysteries on The Tourist Trap Mysteries

“One Poison Pie deliciously blends charm and magic with a dash of mystery and a sprinkle of romance.”
—Agatha Award winning author Daryl Wood Gerber

“A well-plotted mystery with a romance that rings true to life.”
—Kirkus Reviews on A Field Guide to Homicide

“[Cahoon’s] beloved for her whimsical whodunits . . . a delightful mystery.”
—Woman’s World on Sconed to Death (Amazon)

Editions Available: Kindle

a

The first in a thrilling new series from Emmy Award-winning TV Host and Journalist Tamron Hall, As The Wicked Watch follows a reporter as she unravels the disturbing mystery around the deaths of two Black girls; the work of a serial killer terrorizing Chicago.

When crime reporter Jordan Manning leaves her hometown in Texas to take a job at a television station in Chicago, she’s one step closer to her dream: a coveted anchor chair on a national network.

Jordan is smart and aggressive, with unabashed star-power, and often the only woman of color in the newsroom. Her signature? Arriving first on the scene—in impractical designer stilettos. Armed with a master’s degree in forensic science and impeccable instincts, Jordan has been able to balance her dueling motivations: breaking every big story—and giving a voice to the voiceless.

From her time in Texas, she’s covered the vilest of human behaviors but nothing has prepared her for Chicago. Jordan is that rare breed of a journalist who can navigate a crime scene as well as she can a newsroom—often noticing what others tend to miss. Again and again, she is called to cover the murders of Black women, many of them sexually assaulted, most brutalized, and all of them quickly forgotten.

All until Masey James—the story that Jordan just can’t shake, despite all efforts. A 15-year-old girl whose body was found in an abandoned lot, Masey has come to represent for Jordan all of the frustration and anger that her job often forces her to repress. Putting the rest of her work and her (fraying) personal life aside, Jordan does everything she can to give the story the coverage it desperately requires, and that Black children rarely receive.

Jordan is convinced that there’s a serial killer on the loose and he’s hiding in plain sight. (Amazon)

Editions Available: Kindle, Hardcover, Paperback, Audiobook

The first in an exciting new historical mystery series set in the home of Agatha Christie!

Colleen Cambridge’s charming and inventive new historical series introduces an unforgettable heroine in Phyllida Bright, fictional housekeeper for none other than famed mystery novelist Agatha Christie. When a dead body is found during a house party at the home of Agatha Christie and her husband Max Mallowan, it’s up to famous author’s head of household, Phyllida Bright, to investigate…

Tucked away among Devon’s rolling green hills, Mallowan Hall combines the best of English tradition with the modern conveniences of 1930. Housekeeper Phyllida Bright, as efficient as she is personable, manages the large household with an iron fist in her very elegant glove. In one respect, however, Mallowan Hall stands far apart from other picturesque country houses . . .

The manor is home to archaeologist Max Mallowan and his famous wife, Agatha Christie. Phyllida is both loyal to and protective of the crime writer, who is as much friend as employer. An aficionado of detective fiction, Phyllida has yet to find a gentleman in real life half as fascinating as Mrs. Agatha’s Belgian hero, Hercule Poirot. But though accustomed to murder and its methods as frequent topics of conversation, Phyllida is unprepared for the sight of a very real, very dead body on the library floor . . .

A former Army nurse, Phyllida reacts with practical common sense—and a great deal of curiosity. It soon becomes clear that the victim arrived at Mallowan Hall under false pretenses during a weekend party. Now, Phyllida not only has a houseful of demanding guests on her hands—along with a distracted, anxious staff—but hordes of reporters camping outside. When another dead body is discovered—this time, one of her housemaids—Phyllida decides to follow in M. Poirot’s footsteps to determine which of the Mallowans’ guests is the killer. With help from the village’s handsome physician, Dr. Bhatt, Mr. Dobble, the butler, along with other household staff, Phyllida  assembles the clues. Yet, she is all too aware that the killer must still be close at hand and poised to strike again. And only Phyllida’s wits will prevent her own story from coming to an abrupt end . . .(Amazon)

Editions Available: Kindle, Hardcover, Audiobook

Christmas in Tranquility, New Jersey, means togetherness for the Italian-American Ferrara family—and an unexpected reunion for Alberta Scaglione. But someone has murder on their holiday wish list . . .

Alberta is delighted that her estranged daughter has arrived in Tranquility, even if Lisa Marie has an ulterior motive. Her son, Alberta’s twenty-one-year-old grandson, Sergio, hasn’t been heard from in six months, shortly after taking up with a woman named Natalie. Maybe Alberta and her crime- reporting partner-in-sleuthing granddaughter, Jinx, can track him down before Christmas?

After some fruitless searching, the Ferraras take a break to attend the Mistletoe Ball, a fundraiser for the local hospital. But the night takes a chilling turn when a snowman decoration splits open, revealing a body. Lisa Marie screams that it’s Natalie—and screams again when she sees a man emerge from behind some Christmas trees. The good news is they’ve found Sergio. The bad news: he’s a prime suspect for murder.

It seems Sergio’s former squeeze had some shady secrets. And with more than one family member’s future at stake, Alberta and Lisa Marie will have to put their past behind them and work together, or it’ll be a blue, blue Christmas . . .

Includes Italian recipes from Alberta’s kitchen!

“Imagine the Golden Girls starting a detective agency and you’ll get the general idea of J.D. Griffo’s charming Ferrara Family mystery series.”
—Criminal Element (Amazon)

Editions Available: Kindle, Paperback

a

Romantic entanglements and handcrafted murder tie the Black Sheep knitters in knotswhen the local farmers’ market becomes a haven for a killer . . .

Phoebe Myers, Black Sheep Knitting Shop’s assistant manager, finally comes out from behind the counter to sell her own creations—Socks by Phoebe—at the Plum Harbor Farmers’ and Crafts Market, a lively, colorful venue that draws shoppers from miles around. But her excitement cools when she learns the previous tenant of her booth, farmer Jimmy Hooper, committed suicide. She’s barely raised her Grand Opening banner when Hooper’s death is upgraded to murder.
 
Phoebe worries that her stall is jinxed when things go from bad to worse. The last person she wants to see, her ex-boyfriend Harry “The Potter” McSweeney, appears in the stall across the aisle to sell his wares. The Black Sheep advise Phoebe to be strong and resist the handsome artist’s spell. But romantic sparks and tempers explode in a very public scene—and a pile of broken pottery. Before Phoebe can get back to business, her stall is trashed, her Facebook page hacked, and another vendor is found dead.   

The Black Sheep worry for Phoebe’s safety, especially when Harry becomes the prime suspect in both crimes. Phoebe refuses to believe he’s a killer and is determined to prove him innocent.  Her friends are not convinced, but for Phoebe’s sake—and her safety—the Black Sheep puts their wits together to catch the crafty marketplace killer who’s hiding in plain sight . . .(Amazon)

Editions Available: Kindle, Hardcover. Paperback