Amateur Sleuth Cozy

Change is afoot in Shady Hollow, with an unusually tense election shaping up between long-serving Chief of Police Theodore Meade and Vera's beau, Deputy Orville Braun. But the political tension takes a back seat when resident eccentric Dorothy Springfield becomes convinced her beloved husband, Edward, is dead, and that the rat claiming to be him is actually a fraud.

July 1912. Lady Hardcastle and her tenacious lady’s maid, Florence Armstrong, are enjoying a convivial gathering at the home of their dear friends, the Farley-Strouds. The only fly in the idyllic ointment seems to be the lack of musical entertainment for the forthcoming summer party—until, that is, Lady Hardcastle’s brother Harry calls with news of a murder.

From the authors of the best-selling series "Cherringham". It's Midsummer in Mydworth - and celebrated medium Bellamy Smythe is in town with his lucrative supernatural show, claiming he can contact the departed. Still deep in mourning from the loss of her father in the Great War, spinster Alice Wetherby is desperate to make contact with 'The Other Side' and Smythe is happy to oblige - even though Alice is quite broke. Suspecting that Alice is being played, Harry and Kat investigate.

Nora is known for her window displays, and as Halloween approaches, she decides to showcase fictional heroines like Roald Dahl’s Matilda and Madeline Miller’s Circe. A family-values group disapproves of the magical themes though and wastes no time launching a modern-day witch hunt. Suddenly, former friends and customers are targeting not only Nora and Miracle Books, but a new shopkeeper, Celeste, who’s been selling CBD oil products. Nora and the Secret, Book, and Scone Society are doing their best to put an end to the strife - but then someone puts an end to a life.

from the start, Eve finds herself in a sticky situation. Famous guest artist Nena Field is a complete nightmare, painting everyone in a bad light. So when Eve finds her body in Blind-Eye Wood, there’s no shortage of suspects. But who could have hated her enough to take her life? Was it the curiously over-qualified cook, the secretive manager, or the chatty receptionist, mysteriously missing at the time of the murder? Determined to find the killer and save Simon’s business, Eve sets to work sketching out a theory of the crime.

Even with her life in ruins in New Mexico, Shay feels uneasy about settling into the small seaside town where she grew up on California's Monterey Peninsula, and taking over an estate bequeathed to her by Bridget Early, a woman she had barely known. Her heightened senses—an empathic gift she's had since childhood—go into overdrive upon touring Crystals & CuriosiTEAS, Bridget's eclectic tea and psychic shop brimming with Irish lore and Celtic symbols. They reach a boiling point when Shay looks up to discover a stranger's body sprawled across the shop's greenhouse roof . . .

A trio of sweet-toothed Halloween cozy mystery tales by nationally bestselling authors: Halloween Cupcake Murder by Carlene O'Connor, Mrs. Claus and the Candy Corn Caper by Liz Ireland, and A Triple Layer Halloween Murder by Carol J. Perry.

When Kelly volunteers to take a troop of tourists to visit Vickie Claymore's alpaca farm, she discovers Fort Connor isn't as sedate as it seems. Instead of a warm welcome, they find Vickie splayed out on her original hand-woven rug, her blood seeping into the design. The police jump on the case, but Kelly can't resist doing a little investigation work of her own.

Lana Lee is a dutiful daughter, waiting tables at her family’s Chinese restaurant even though she’d rather be doing just about anything else. Then, just when she has a chance for a “real” job, her parents take off to Taiwan, leaving Lana in charge. Unfortunately, the newlyweds who just opened the souvenir store next door to Ho-Lee have turned up dead...and soon Lana finds herself in the midst of an Asia Village mystery.

Addie leaves her Greyborne Harbor bookstore in the capable hands of her assistant while she travels to the neighboring town of Pen Hollow to attend a book sale at a library that is closing due to lack of funding. But the real find is a bookmobile bus, which she's excited to refit as a traveling bookstore to hit all the summer festivals. But before the bookmobile can be delivered to Addie, a fatal car crash occurs. When an autopsy reveals poison in the victim's system and the first editions go missing, it's up to Addie to determine what would drive someone to murder.

When a prominent family's daughter flees sleepy Sussex to seek a career on the stages of a glittering West End, Harry and Kat are asked to check in on the young woman. But the two of them soon discover that there is a much bigger danger to the woman and her family than mere acting dreams being crushed. Nathaniel Parker, born in 1962, graduated from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art and went on to join the Royal Shakespeare Company. His television career began in 1988 when he played Flying Officer 'Flash' Gordon in the LWT mini-series "Piece of Cake".

Assisting an overwhelmed insurance appraiser with the inventory, Addie discovers an 1887 magazine containing Arthur Conan Doyle's first Sherlock Holmes novel, A Study in Scarlet, which she estimates to be worth over $150,000. But when Addie later finds the appraiser dead in the estate's private library, with the door bolted from the inside, and the priceless edition missing, it's a mystery worthy of the Great Detective himself. She's certain the death and the robbery are connected - but who, other than a ghost who can walk through walls, could have gotten in to do the deed?

The Shakespearean hamlet is bursting with fresh spring energy. Fragrant lilacs and the sweet aroma of vanilla cake fill the air as everyone in town gathers at Lithia Park for the celebration of the year—Thomas and Kerry’s wedding. It’s a picture perfect day. Guests gather on picnic blankets in front of the bandshell to watch Kerry walk down the aisle and wed Ashland’s favorite detective in training, Thomas.

Flavia de Luce - "part Harriet the Spy, part Violet Baudelaire from Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events" ( The New York Times Book Review) - takes her remarkable sleuthing prowess to the unexpectedly unsavory world of Canadian boarding schools in the captivating new mystery from New York Times best-selling author Alan Bradley.

It was supposed to be a fancy, intimate dinner party by the pool. Instead, Lana Lee’s first-ever catering event turns into full-course madness when a domestic worker is found dead. Is the party’s host Donna Feng, the sweet-and-sour owner of the Asia Village shopping plaza where Ho-Lee is situated, somehow to blame? That’s what Lana―whose plate is already plenty full with running the restaurant, pleasing her often-disapproving mother, and fretting over her occasionally serious boyfriend Detective Adam Trudeau―must find out.

Book restoration expert Brooklyn Wainwright returns home to San Francisco to teach a bookbinding class. Unfortunately, the program director, Layla Fontaine, is a horrendous host who pitches fits and lords over her subordinates. But when Layla is found shot dead, Brooklyn is bound and determined to investigate - even as the killer tries to close the book on her for good.

Geez, make a splash in the world of art forgery at the age of 17 and people can't stop bringing it up. Lesson learned: genuine art is priceless, and forgery gets you arrested. Now Annie puts her artistic talents to honest use as a faux finisher in San Francisco. But carving out a new reputation can be a creative challenge.... Modernism isn't Annie's thing, but even she is surprised to discover that the "sculpture" in a prestigious gallery's grisly new exhibition is an all-too-real corpse - the artist's.

Meg Langslow is pregnant with twins when Michael asks if she wouldn't mind having a houseguest. One of his doctoral students is directing his new translation of a play by a minor Spanish playwright, who will come to town for the production. Señor Mendoza turns out to be a partygoer who loves to spend raucous evenings among adoring students...at Casa Langslow. Into this chaos arrives the dean of the English department, who insists the play be canceled. Then the dean is found murdered.

Many residents of South Lick, Indiana, claim the Outhouse Race, in which competitors push old-timey outhouse replicas on wheels at the annual Abe Martin Festival on Memorial Day, is the best thing since indoor plumbing. Just because country store and restaurant owner Robbie Jordan has too much to do managing her new deep fryer as well as an old lover reappearing, she's not going to miss out on the fun. Plus, it's good for business. But when a dead body and a cast-iron skillet tumble out of the Pans 'N Pancakes outhouse entry on the race route, it seems someone is trying to frame Robbie.

When the body of the glamorous film star Margot Browne washes ashore, Max's former colleague, Patrice Logan, requests his help. It's a perfect closed-circle murder: Margot must have been killed by one of the actors, stylists, scriptwriters, or second-tier royalty aboard the yacht. Patrice suspects the yacht's owner, a playboy film director she's been keeping tabs on for smuggling, but Max isn't so sure.