New Releases For The Week of November 28th, 2021–Part 3

Petals and Poison is the second in a colorful cozy mystery series from Jess Dylan, set in a flower shop with a knack for attracting trouble as well as customers.

“Like her protagonist Sierra, Jess Dylan has manifested a charming cozy with humor, folksy dialogue, Southern charm, and a page-turning mystery.” –Peg Cochran, USA Today Bestselling Author

Sierra Ravenswood has embraced her role as owner of Flower House floral shop and companion to her former boss’s pet, Gus the Corgi. Sierra’s team are enjoying their new jobs too. At least until everyone realizes their lack of experience might be contributing to their lack of customers . . .

Sierra decides they need a change in luck, so she creates a special window display featuring lucky bamboo and auspicious flowers. It seems the new arrangement has worked when the shop is flooded with customers the next day, including a van full of college students on a horticulture club field trip. Unfortunately, Sierra doesn’t notice that the students’ distracted professor has gone missing until Gus’s urgent barking leads her to the storeroom – and the body of the unfortunate professor.

With folks now referring to Flower House as “Poison House” and suspects galore, Sierra fears her new business is doomed before it has a chance to get off the ground. Determined to reverse course and see justice served, she sets out to solve the crime and change her luck once more.

The Flower House is no place for shrinking violets. (Amazon)

Editions Available: Kindle, Paperback, Audiobook

Christmas has come early to the beautiful Poconos resort that’s the setting for the American Baking Battle’s holiday special, where chef Courtney Archer is on hand to sample festive fare—and lift the lid off a killer . . .
 
Six ambitious bakers are competing for glory and a grand prize, showcasing their most delicious candies, cookies, and desserts. Courtney detects some on-set grinchiness from her coworkers, especially judge Shannon Collins, but she’s hoping the sweet treats will restore everyone’s festive spirits. That Christmas wish swiftly fizzles when assistant director Kinzy Hummel is found strangled—with an apron from Shannon’s new product line . . .
 
Shannon insists she’s innocent. Meanwhile, Kinzy had been under pressure from a disgruntled attorney to settle her late grandfather’s estate. But could that be a motive for murder? The show must go on even as Courtney sifts through competitors and crew for likely suspects. But unless she can quickly get to the truth, there’ll be another helping of homicide amid the pinwheel cookies and fruitcakes . . . (Amazon)

Editions Available: Kindle, Paperback Audiobook

When Pomeranian immigrant Hanneke Bauer reaches Wisconsin in 1855, she believes her dearest dreams are coming true. After reuniting with her husband Fridolin at his farm near Watertown, she will help create a true home. Instead, she receives the shocking news that he is dead.

Hanneke quickly learns that Wisconsin life is not as bucolic as it seems. Alone and destitute, she is determined to discover the details of Fridolin’s death. Her efforts prompt animosity from his friends, anger the deputy sheriff, and entangle her in the rising tide of anti-immigrant sentiment. Finding herself in danger, Hanneke races to learn the truth about her husband’s secrets and lies…before a killer can silence her forever. (Amazon)

Editions Available: Kindle, Paperback

Teddy bear shop manager Sasha Silverman must step fast to find a murderer before an upcoming Scottish festival . . .

It’s springtime in Silver Hollow, Michigan, and Sasha is looking forward to the village’s inaugural Highland Fling weekend. Plans are underway for a Kilted 5K, athletic competitions, dancing, live music, and even a Hurl-the-Haggis contest. Meanwhile, Sasha’s staff is busy crafting custom teddy bears in kilts for the Silver Bear Shop’s vendor booth. But trouble’s brewing behind the scenes, as the obnoxious Teddy Hartman, former owner of a rival teddy bear company, sows seeds of discord about town, targeting Sasha’s family and their business.

Things go from plaid to worse when—just a week before the festival kicks-off—the disgruntled gossip is found murdered with an ax buried in his back. Sasha’s dad is arrested, since he’s a champion ax-thrower. But she doesn’t give a dram what it looks like—Sasha knows that despite the old business rivalry with Hartman, her father is innocent.  So with a spot of help from her friends, Sasha must bag the real killer before her first Fling also becomes her last.

Praise for BEARLY DEPARTED

“You’ll fall in love with this delightful debut mystery.”
—Victoria Thompson, bestselling author of Murder in Morningside Heights

“The first in a new series features a complex plot awash in red herrings, a perky heroine . . . and everything you ever wanted to know about teddy bears.”
—Kirkus Reviews

“The appealing, impulsive amateur sleuth, dedicated to the family business, will appeal to fans of character-driven cozies.”
—Library Journal

“Entertaining . . . inhabited by quirky, fully developed characters and good dogs and cats.”
—Publishers Weekly (Amazon)

Editions Available: Kindle, Paperback

Millie Fisher may be widowed, but she leads a full life in her Amish hometown of Harvest, Ohio. There’s her quilting circle, her Boer goats, her gift for matchmaking—and the occasional murder . . .
 
Millie is happy that her childhood friend, Uriah Schrock, has returned to Harvest after decades away. He was sweet on Millie in their school days, but she only had eyes for her future husband. Now, there’s a new spark between them, so Millie is concerned when Uriah doesn’t show up at the Harvest concert series—or for his job as the Village square’s groundskeeper. Perhaps Millie has been involved in too many murder investigations, but she has a sinking feeling. And when she and her best friend, Lois, find Uriah with the police, it seems she’s right  . . .
 
A film crew is in Harvest to make a movie about a forty-year-old unsolved murder. A skeleton has been found at the bottom of a ravine—and Uriah is certain it’s his sister, Galilee. Right before Uriah left Ohio, she disappeared, and her harsh husband, Samuel, was found fatally stabbed with a knitting needle. The sheriff declared that Galilee killed him and ran away. Uriah never believed the theory, and he’s come back to Harvest hoping, Gott willing, Millie will help him stitch together the truth . . .
 
Praise for Amanda Flower and her Amish cozies

“As it turns out, Amanda Flower may have just written the first Amish rom com.”
—USA Today

“At turns playful and engaging . . . a satisfyingly complex cozy.”
—Library Journal (Amazon)

Editions Available: Kindle, Paperback, Audiobook

Bookstore owner Arlo and her Friday Night Book Club sleuths are going to have to read between the lines to solve this mystery!

It’s movie time in Sugar Springs and the whole town is pitching together to get the historical Coliseum Theater ready for the event of the year—the premiere of Missing Girl, local author Wally Harrison’s bestselling novel turned film.

Thrilled to bring tourists to Sugar Springs, the town comes together to host the late author’s event. But when a stranger arrives, boasting he has definitive proof that Wally didn’t write Missing Girl…well, drama leaps from the page into real life. Mishaps start taking place around the theater—and then the stranger is discovered dead in his hotel room right before his press conference.

Can Arlo and her Friday night book club to sleuth out the killer and solve the mystery before the town’s Hollywood dreams go up in smoke? (Amazon)

Editions Available: Kindle, Paperback, Audiobook

In this thrilling mystery by USA Today bestselling author Sarah Fox, deadly happenings stick around like red wine stains on white tunics when the Renaissance faire visits Shady Creek, Vermont.

The Trueheart Renaissance Faire and Circus has rolled into town, attracting locals who can’t wait to spend a few summer days lost in a whimsical world of all-knowing fortune-tellers and daring acrobats. Well-read pub owner Sadie Coleman is swept up in the magic herself when she serves drinks to the faire’s resident wizard, the shamelessly brazen illusionist Ozzie Stone, and scores two tickets to his dazzling performance.

Sadie has no complaints about indulging in a free show with her new beau, craft brewery owner Grayson Blake. But while Ozzie is an instant crowd-pleaser, the real surprise comes when he collapses in the middle of his set. It’s not part of the act—Ozzie is dead, seemingly poisoned by  someone who wasn’t clowning around about writing the roguish showman’s final chapter.

The terrifying situation intensifies when the police eye one of Sadie’s employees, last seen caught in a suspicious fistfight at the fairgrounds. With so much at stake, Sadie must strain through a suspect list longer than her cocktail menu to find the real knave of a killer. But when another performer is murdered, it becomes clear that bringing the mixed-up murderer to justice will be about as dangerous as walking the high wire after happy hour . . . (Amazon)

Editions Available: Kindle, Hardcover, Audiobook

Maya and Sandra are friends, fellow moms, and private-detective partners in the picturesque waterfront city of Portland—where sometimes their cases can get as rocky as the Maine coast . . .

While private investigator Maya Kendrick is still mentoring her new partner, PTA president Sandra Wallage, in the detective game, the two women don’t need incredible powers of deduction to know their marriages are on the rocks. With Maya’s ex-cop husband in prison and Sandra’s senator spouse separated from her, both find themselves investigating the dating scene. Until Diego Sanchez turns up dead. The flirtatious high school Spanish teacher who had eyes for Maya was poisoned by cookies from a bake sale fundraiser for a Portland High school class trip to Spain.
 
Hired by the students to find out who killed their popular and beloved teacher—including their own children—Maya and Sandra get a real education in parenting, relationships, and murder as their search for whodunit leads them deep into the unpleasant realities found in the small town politics and gossip of their Maine community . . . (Amazon)

Editions Available: Kindle, Paperback, Audiobook