The theater is no place for murder—but a case of backstage betrayal drags library director Amy Webber into a case that could mean curtains in critically acclaimed author Victoria Gilbert’s Blue Ridge Library mystery.
It’s early summer, and while Richard Muir and his dance partner, Karla, are preparing their new choreographic piece, Richard’s wife, Amy, is gathering the dance’s source materials. Based on folktales and the music of the Blue Ridge Mountains, the production is set to premiere at an old cinema that has been converted to a theater. But when dancer Meredith Fox—Richard’s former fiancé—is found dead backstage, Amy is once again propelled into a murder case that threatens the careers and lives of those she loves.
After Amy teams up with Chief Deputy Brad Tucker and the sheriff’s department to discover the killer, they find that there’s no shortage of suspects: Meredith’s wealthy ex-husband, several fellow dancers, a romantically spurned accompanist, and others whom the talented but haughty dancer dismissed or betrayed over the years.
With Richard and Karla’s help, and information gleaned from locals who know a wealth of small-town secrets, Amy desperately tries to unveil the killer before the premiere. But she’s pursuing a ruthless murderer who’s willing to kill again—and who might just be waiting for Amy in the wings. (Amazon)
Editions Available: Kindle, Hardcover
In a new Yarn Retreat Mystery from national bestselling author Betty Hechtman, it’s knit one, kill two when Casey Feldstein hosts a murder mystery weekend that turns into the real thing . . .
At the urging of Vista Del Mar’s owner, Casey Feldstein takes on the job of combining a murder mystery game with her next weekend yarn retreat. Enlisting the help of the hotel’s staff to play the roles of victim and suspects, she lays out a plot and plants some red herrings. And as her intrigued guests watch the murder play out and the clues unfold, Casey is certain she’s pulled off the perfect make-believe murder—until a real murder intrudes and everyone at the hotel is named as a suspect.
As her retreat guests turn away from the fake murder to solve the real one, Casey has her hands full trying to keep them from meddling in police business. But even as they’re dead-set on unraveling the mystery in their midst, Casey has her eye on a few of them, some of whom don’t seem to be who or what they claim. With time ticking down on her weekend and her guests more interested in nabbing a killer than knitting, Casey will have to stitch together her own solution before the killer can stop her and declare game over . . .
Includes a fun, easy knitting project and delicious muffin and biscuit recipes!
Praise for the Yarn Retreat Mysteries:
“A cozy mystery that you won’t want to put down. It combines cooking, knitting and murder in one great book!” —Fresh Fiction on Yarn to Go
“If you haven’t read this series yet, I highly recommend giving it a go. The mystery will delight you, and afterward you’ll be itching to start a knitting or crochet project of your own.” —Cozy Mystery Book Reviews
“The California seaside is the backdrop to this captivating cozy that will have readers heading for the yarn store in droves.” —Debbie’s Book Bag on Yarn to Go
About the Author:
Betty Hechtman is the national bestselling author of the Crochet Mysteries and the Yarn Retreat Mysteries. She grew up on the South Side of Chicago and has a degree in Fine Art. Since College, she has studied everything from improv comedy to magic, and has had an assortment of professions, including volunteer farm worker, nanny at a summer resort, waitress at a coffee house, and telephone operator. She lives with her family and stash of yarn in Southern California. You can learn more about Betty and find excerpts from all her books at BettyHechtman.com. She blogs on Fridays at Killerhobbies.blogspot.com, and you can join her on Facebook at BettyHechtmanAuthor. (Amazon)
Editions Available: Kindle, Paperback
A Library Reads Pick
The blockbuster conclusion to the bestselling Sunshine Vicram trilogy
“Laugh-out-loud funny, intensely suspenseful, page-turning fun.” —New York Times bestselling author Allison Brennan
Some people greet the day with open arms. Sheriff Sunshine Vicram would rather give it a hearty shove and get back into bed, because there’s just too much going on right now. There’s a series of women going missing, and Sunny feels powerless to stop it. There’s her persistent and awesomely-rebellious daughter Auri, who’s out to singlehandedly become Del Sol’s youngest and fiercest investigator. And then there’s drama with Levi Ravinder—the guy she’s loved and lusted after for years. The guy who might just be her one and only. The guy who comes from a family of disingenuous vipers looking to oust him—and Sunshine—for good.
Like we said, the new day can take a hike.
Compulsively readable, laugh-out-loud funny, and brimming with big-hearted characters, A Hard Day for a Hangover will have readers cheering to the very last page.
“Fans will be delighted.” –Publishers Weekly (Amazon)
Editions Available: Kindle, Hardcover, Audiobook
From debut author Alex Kenna comes a pulse-pounding tapestry of secrets, retribution, and greed for fans of Jeffrey Archer.
Kate Myles was a promising Los Angeles police detective, until an accident and opioid addiction blew up her family and destroyed her career. Struggling to rebuild her life, Kate decides to try her hand at private detective work—but she gets much more than she bargained for when she takes on the case of a celebrated painter found dead in a downtown loft.
When Margot Starling’s body was found, the cause of death was assumed to be suicide. Despite her beauty, talent, and fame, she struggled with a host of demons. But as Kate digs deeper, she learns that Margot had a growing list of powerful enemies—among them a shady art dealer who had been selling forged works by Margot. Kate soon uncovers a dirty trail that leads straight into the heart of the city’s deadly underworld.
Margot died for her art—and if Kate doesn’t tread lightly, she could be the next to get brushed out. (Amazon)
Editions Available: Kindle, Hardcover, Audiobook
The second entry in the fun-filled The Fortune Telling Mysteries series sees the Bailey sisters offering light-hearted fortune telling for charity that soon turns deadly.
Sisters Hope and Summer Bailey run Bailey’s Boutique, a mystic shop in Asheville, North Carolina. The annual charity festival is approaching, and the sisters are roped in to offering fortune telling to raise money.
Before proceedings can begin, Summer receives a bad Tarot card reading. She fears she’ll be left destitute from her upcoming divorce battle as the realtor charged with selling her and her soon-to-be ex-husband’s home, Davis Scott, keeps making unwelcome appearances.
Davis’s most troublesome appearance comes when he’s found dead at the festival. Davis had a bad reputation amongst the Ashville community, but who would go to the lengths of killing him . . . and during a charity event, no less! The Tarot cards predicted a death, but do they hold clues to who the murder is? (Amazon)
Editions Available: Kindle, Hardcover, Audiobook
In this darkly funny mystery Lexy Campbell’s first love turns up dead at the Last Ditch Motel on Thanksgiving . . . and she becomes the prime suspect!
A mysterious object the size of a suitcase, all wrapped in bacon and smelling of syrup, can mean only one thing: Thanksgiving at the Last Ditch Motel. This year the motel residents are in extra-celebratory mood as the holiday brings a new arrival to the group – a bouncing baby girl.
But as one life enters the Ditch, another leaves it. Menzies Lassiter has only just checked in. When resident counsellor Lexy Campbell tries to deliver his breakfast the next day, she finds him checked out. Permanently. Shocking enough if he was a stranger, but Lexy recognises that face. Menzies was her first love until he broke her heart many years ago.
What’s he doing at the Last Ditch? What’s he doing dead? And how can Lexy escape the fact that she alone had the means, the opportunity – and certainly the motive – to kill him? (Amazon)
Editions Available: Kindle, Hardcover
Claire Macintosh is about to get engaged to a man she doesn’t love at the holiday gala she is hosting as director of the Museum of Literature. Her mother, Hildy Macintosh, has made it clear that if the museum is to continue to receive the enormous donations from the family trust that Hildy has approved all these years then Claire will marry the man Hildy has chosen for her and start to produce some grandbabies. At forty and single, Claire feels she has no choice. But when the horse and carriage arrive at the gala with the driver dressed as Santa to deliver Claire’s engagement ring, she just can’t go through with it. She hijacks the horse and carriage with Santa still on board and escapes!
Reporter Sam Carpenter thought he was being so clever convincing his friend to let him step in as Santa so he could get up close and personal to the subject of his upcoming magazine expose. He is completely unprepared for the events that unfold and finds himself dashing through Central Park with a runaway would be fiancé. Now the only way to save his story is to broker a deal with Claire Macintosh. In exchange for his help in getting her to her cottage in Maine by Christmas Eve, she’ll grant him an exclusive interview. As their journey takes a series of unexpected twists, turns, and misadventures, both Claire and Sam realize that there’s more than their careers on the line. And it’s going to take a Christmas miracle to find their happily ever after. (Amazon)
Editions Available: Kindle, Audiobook
a When Maddie McGuire lands an archeology internship at the Roman Baths in England, she assumes everything will go her way.
When Maddie McGuire lands an archeology internship at the Roman Baths in England, she assumes everything will go her way. But when this college sophomore discovers a severed human ear on her doorstep, she must solve its meaning before she becomes the next victim, or worse, gets deported. Her tentative friendship with young constable Edward Bailey and the beauty of the Bath Abbey are no comfort as her aristocratic coworker Simon Pacock sabotages her every move. And the danger only increases when she discovers a dead body, both ears intact. (Amazon)
Editions Available: Kindle
Christmastime in Little Leaf Creek comes with delicious cookies, festive decorations, and a dead body…
With Christmas just around the corner, Cassie Alberta is in full swing getting ready for the celebrations. Her house is decked out, and she is looking forward to spending the festive season with her neighbor’s lovable collie mix, cheeky goats, and friends, who have become more like family. But her fun outing to the Christmas tree farm is cut short when there’s a murder.
Cassie joins forces with Tessa, her ex-cop, next-door neighbor, to do a little sleuthing and try to find the murderer. But with a little help from their friends, they soon discover that the victim had more than her fair share of secrets and enemies.
With a long list of suspects, can Cassie, Tessa, and their trusty sidekicks catch the killer before Christmas? Or are they barking up the wrong tree?
Recipe included: Christmas Sugar Cookies
Felled in Little Leaf Creek is the fast paced seventeenth book in the Little Leaf Creek Cozy Mystery Series. If you like unexpected twists and turns, lively personalities, lovable animals, yummy food and a never-ending list of suspicious characters, then you’ll love this clean, heartwarming whodunnit by USA Today and Wall Street Journal Bestselling Author Cindy Bell.
Buy Felled in Little Leaf Creek to start solving the murder today! (Amazon)
Editions Available: Kindle, Paperback
A baking competition with your archenemy… what could possibly go wrong for detective chef Guy Vanduex?
It’s almost Christmas and former chef turned private investigator Guy Vanduex and his partner in crime-solving Sylvia Parker are enlisted to discover who is sabotaging a baking competition show. And it’s not just any competition, it’s hosted by Vanduex’s former business partner and archenemy Flynn ‘Barney’ Baker.
But when contestants receive mysterious packages with gingerbread houses in the likeness of their restaurants and dead-looking gingerbread men in their likeness… things start to heat up. Who could be the culprit? Guy Vanduex must find out, and not just as an investigator, but as a contestant.
Join detective chef Guy Vanduex and Sylvia Parker on this Christmas culinary cozy mystery as they attempt to solve another case in the small town of Tempest, North Carolina. (Amazon)
Editions Available: Kindle
LIBBY SARJEANT IS BACK
‘Lesley Cookman is the Queen of Cosy Crime’ PAUL MAGRS
‘A real page turner’ KATIE FFORDE
Libby Sarjeant returns to take on her latest case in the twenty-third gripping and twisting whodunit from Lesley Cookman. Perfect for fans of Faith Martin, J. R. Ellis and LJ Ross.
Super-sleuth Libby Sarjeant returns with a baffling new case . . . two people missing in a single week.
When a homeless man from the old-fashioned seaside town of Nethergate appears to go missing – and the police are not available to investigate – amateur detective Libby Sarjeant and her psychic friend Fran are called in to search for him.
But it seems the case might be far more complex than they anticipated – and when a second person disappears without trace, Libby suspects there must be a sinister connection between the two.
Following a murky trail to uncover the truth, Libby and Fran find themselves uncovering secrets hiding in plain sight.
Can they solve a puzzling mystery before anyone else suddenly vanishes?
READERS LOVE THE LIBBY SARJEANT SERIES:
‘I’ve read all of the books in this series and love them all’ 5* Reader Review
‘Just can’t get enough of reading about Libby and her friends’ 5* Reader Review
‘Libby’s gang are like old friends and I was hooked from the start’ 5* Reader Review
‘Love this series, roll on the next one!’ 5* Reader Review
‘I adore the characters and the village. I wish I could live on All Hallows Lane and be a part of this gang. Hoping for a new novel soon. Highly recommend’ 5* Reader Review
‘The characters are so likeable. I would love to visit the mythical Steeple Martin!’ 5* Reader Review (Amazon)
Editions Available: Kindle, Paperback
Nothing takes a detective’s mind off Christmas like a murder.
Embroiled in a generations-long feud, an oil baron is convinced someone in his family will die soon—and it will probably be him. When blind PI Steve Smiley is called in to find answers, it seems like the perfect opportunity to avoid another bleak Christmas.
After a body is discovered in the tycoon’s home, the man is convinced someone’s picking off his family one by one. With the clock ticking and the feuding families closing ranks against Smiley, the wily detective must get creative with his investigation.
As he digs deeper, generations of intrigue rise to the surface. Lies and coverups swirl around him like snowflakes. Can Smiley stop the killer before he strikes again, or will this be one case he can’t put a bow on?
Join Smiley and McBlythe in Mistletoe, Malice and Murder as they search through a sleigh full of suspects to find the killer in this clean read Christmas mystery! (Amazon)
Editions Available: Kindle, Paperback
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