Contemporary Cozy Mystery

The Movie Town Theater is holding its first ever Film Noir Festival, with Pen handling book sales for the guest speakers, including screen actress Hedda Geist. The legendary femme fatale has been out of the spotlight for decades. Unfortunately, the moment she steps back into it, she's nearly killed. Then other guests start to die, and Penelope wants to know why her little town's Film Noir weekend has taken a truly dark turn.

Beloved author Mary Stewart's long-lost novella, now available again for the first time in 40 years. In 1879 a wealthy young woman elopes with an impoverished fisherman, leaving her family, who live on the volcanic island of Lanzarote, distraught. In 1968, 23-year-old Perdita West, secretary to the famous author Cora Gresham, visits Lanzarote, the strangest and wildest of the Canary Isles, on a research trip. They meet Cora's estranged son, Mike, and fall in love with the unusual, beautiful little island.

Bookshop assistant Aurora "Rory" Hawthorn thinks reality will never be as interesting as fiction. It turns out her dad was keeping a secret or two...most importantly, that he was a wizard and that Rory has a hidden magical family she's never met. Juggling a new family and job would be enough of a challenge without also having to deal with a murder mystery, cranky familiars, and the attention of the local reaper - even if he is the hottest guy in town.

A girl with a canister of pepper spray. A guy with an odd recurring dream. A tiny colony of nervous California sea lions. They all come together in Dana Point Harbor.

Not only is Scarlett Parker's love life in the loo - as her British cousin Vivian Tremont would say - it's also gone viral with an embarrassing video. So when Viv suggests Scarlett leave Florida to lay low in London, she hops on the next plane across the pond. Viv is the proprietor of Mims's Whims, a ladies' hat shop on Portobello Road bequeathed to both cousins by their beloved grandmother, and she wants Scarlett to finally join her in the millinery business. But a few surprises await Scarlett in London.

For feline PI Joe Grey and his companion, Dulcie, life is a bittersweet mix of endings and beginnings. While they joyfully await their first litter, they are also sad for their friend, the old yellow cat Misto, whose time on Earth is drawing to an end. But Misto tells them an exciting future awaits: Among the litter will be a little calico from the distant past who will be born with ancient markings and the adventurous spirit of Joe Grey.

No stranger to fear since meeting the unhuman Inspector Hobbes, Andy Caplet fears getting fired from his reporting job (again). His main concern, though, is a shady property developer who has designs on Sorenchester Common, and more annoyingly on his wife. Perhaps a trip to the mountains will help him relax, but this proves even more perilous with foul weather, inedible food, brigands, and a terrifying cruise. Fortunately, mountain leopards, Yetis and Flossy, the yak, take a shine to Andy.

La memòria es bifurca per camins diversos, convergeix en el present i es projecta alhora com a llavor atemporal. La vida de Joan Sella Monserrat -la real o la recreada-, les iniciacions gastronòmiques, les històries de la mar nostra, els personatges del carrer amb atributs universals i els pintors que ens expliquen com som teixeixen a El misteri de "La nena de la clavellina" un tapís amb reminiscències homèriques.

Welcome to Hawkwood Hollow, where the dead outnumber the living. When a local witch shows up in an apparent drowning, everyone thinks it's a tragic accident. New witch in town Maura would, too, except her Reaper senses are telling her there's something not quite right about the woman's death. When the victim's ghost vanishes, she knows her instincts were right. Unfortunately, her attempt to find the truth is derailed by an annoying spirit who's moved into her room and an obstructionist coven leader. And then there's the detective she might be interested in romantically...

Welcome to Hawkwood Hollow, where the dead outnumber the living. Maura is settling into her new life. She's working at the local inn, helping Carey hunt for ghosts in her free time, and she even has a date with the local detective. But she's always feared her past would catch up to her, and it turns out she has a good reason to worry when a new Reaper shows up in town. As the local ghosts start vanishing, Maura is inclined to blame the newcomer, but something more may be going on. Can Maura protect Hawkwood Hollow before the notorious Reaper Council takes away her new life for good?

Tara's looking forward to a challenge, but back at the office, everyone's looking for love. Her boss, Lu "The Lobo" Lobozinski, and office virgin Josh Schmidt are signing up for an online dating service, and - to Tara's dismay - so is her crush, Special Agent Nick Pratt. Tara's trying to act chill. But when she learns that her next case involves cash-funneling to terrorists, it's not just her love life that's on the rocks. It's her life, period.

One should never meddle in the affairs of dragons, but someone has been doing just that. They've been making imitation dragon scale baubles that are nothing short of lethal, and kidnapping delivery drivers all over the Yorkshire Dales. They've also been leaving behind some distinctly dragon-ish traces. Beaufort Scales, High Lord of the Cloverly Dragons, is hot on the trail—or would be, if he wasn't having political problems at home.

The recently rediscovered short story 'The Lost One', perfect for fans of Daphne du Maurier, Santa Montefiore and Anya Seton. First published in Woman's Journal in 1960, and set against the backdrop of unfenced country and dark winding valleys at night, the aptly named 'The Lost One' features The Wind off the Small Isles heroine Perdita West, who brings her characteristic pluck and courage to this classic Mary Stewart tale of suspense and intrigue....

Halliday resumes the story of Maddie Springer, shoe designer and amateur sleuth, a week before her marriage to hunky Los Angeles police detective Jack Ramirez. When she finds her wedding planner face down in frosting with a knife sticking out of her back, she knows that to leave on time for their honeymoon, she needs to help Jack solve the case. Her two best friends step in, not only to help find the killer, but also to serve as her new wedding planners.

When Europe's designer du jour, Jean Luc LeCroix, invites Maddie to show her creations at Paris Fashion Week, Maddie's sure she's died and gone to heaven. That is, until Jean Luc's top model is found dead on the runway, stabbed with a familiar stiletto heel. Sure someone is trying to frame her, Maddie enlists the help of her friends, including the sexy Detective Jack Ramirez, to uncover a daring jewel heist, a devious blackmailer, and even a few skeletons lurking in the closets of those closest to her.

With just two weeks until the highly anticipated Christmas on Main event, the tiny town of White Eagle, Montana, is all decked out for the season. With the annual tree lighting just around the corner, Tess and Tony are busy with their own holiday preparations, until someone close to Tess is shot and killed in front of her own home.

Sixty years ago a man made a promise to the woman he loved to meet her on Saint Patrick's Day. They were to meet in the park on the bench where they liked to sit and watch the world go by. The couple were deeply in love and planned to marry, but he never showed up at the rendezvous point. Every Saint Patrick's Day since then the woman has made a pilgrimage to the bench to wait for her one true love.

When she moved back to Cottonwood Springs after a divorce and the publishing company she was working for went bankrupt, Brigid never thought she’d have a ready-made teenage daughter, a huge Newfoundland dog, and a hunky neighbor who wants to get to know her better, a lot better. But first she has to solve Maggie’s murder. When a woman has stolen money and someone else’s husband, finding her murderer is not everyone’s top priority.

Wedding bells are ringing as Tara and her soon-to-be-husband Nick prepare for their big day. But along with all the RSVP cards are a series of death threats from an unknown source. The culprit must be someone from an earlier investigation-a white-collar criminal with a red-hot grudge-but Tara has run across too many lawbreakers to narrow down the search. And time, like her biological clock, is ticking.

Donna needs a getaway, and fast. After some gentle nudging from her best friend Janice, they set sail on the high seas with visions of sipping exotic drinks and relaxing under the sun. But just as Donna begins to unwind, she discovers half the town is coming along for the ride, including her mother, brother, and her very pregnant sister-in-law. Less than 48 hours later, a guest inexplicably plummets to his death, and you-know-who has a whole other case on her hands.