Holiday Thriller

It's Christmas and a chocolatier shows up at Sweet's Sweets, offering to create a special line of hand-dipped chocolates for Sam's customers. He says he will work for no pay, just to prove himself. But she learns that he has connections to the wooden box that seems to give Sam her mystical powers, and discovers that certain evil people will do just about anything to take it away from her.

When a local dog walker witnesses something odd, which in her mind could only have been the aftermath of a gruesome murder, she calls Colt, only to find that by the time he arrives the body, along with any evidence that ever existed, is long gone. Colt wants to believe the woman but the evidence suggests otherwise, so when he suggests that maybe this particular dog walker hadn’t seen what she thought she had, she hires Beck to prove otherwise.

With the remodel complete, Lou and the gang have settled into what Lou hopes will be a regular weekly routine including the new senior sleuthing group Murder on Tuesdays. When the investigation into the authenticity of the haunted house the group selects begins to create modern-day problems for Lonnie, who has won the bid to remodel the mansion, Lou is forced to admit that the group may have gotten themselves in to something they likely shouldn't have.

When Dan Coast is notified by Town of Webb police investigator, Eric Stone, that the caretaker at his camp in Old Forge has been murdered, Dan and his trusty sidekick, Red Baxter, head to New York. And what could be better for two Key West guys than a winter in upstate New York. What starts out as a search for a new caretaker, soon ends up being a search for a killer.

It’s summertime in Holiday Bay, and between the outdoor dining options provided by the new rooftop bar and eatery and the summer concert series held on the roof every Thursday night, the Bistro is busier than they’ve ever been.

In book 28 in the series, Abby finally has a moment to sit down with the manuscripts her friend Gayla left to her in her will and realizes that the murder Gayla wrote about in her stories might actually be a fictional accounting of the real unsolved murder that were still baffling police a decade after it was a front page story in the local news.

I wear many hats. I'm a friend. A sort-of girlfriend. A ghostwriter, and...oh yeah, a witch. My editor always tells me to “write what you know.” Unfortunately, that’s what’s happening...literally. When the main character in my latest novel - a witch herself - takes a new job with the Magical Bureau of Investigators, she stumbles upon a threat so big, it could destroy everything she holds dear. Fiction, right? Nope. For reasons beyond my witchy sixth sense, everything I write is now happening to me in real life!

I have a perfect life. I recently rented the most adorable little apartment on top of my favorite bookstore coffee shop on Main Street in Holiday Hills, the charmingest of charming small southern towns. I spend my days ghostwriting a cozy mystery series for a well-known author, and maybe just a minute or two crushing on the town’s police chief. But of course, I’d never let that cat out of the bag.

For nearly three decades, one man has used his twisted sense of justice to rid the world of racism and hatred by very simple means: he finds and kills racists. But on his very first outing, one victim escaped his bullet. Now, 30 years later, that job left unfinished could very well be his undoing.

A teenager turns up dead in the woods, brutally murdered, and it looks like it might be politically motivated.... The short-handed homicide team can't seem to get a handle on the case...things just keep going wrong.... Is someone trying to intimidate Laurencia Rivera and her investigators, to protect the killer and prevent him from being caught?

My name is Abby Odell, and I’m leading a double life. Don’t get me wrong. I love it! But being a witch in a predominantly human world is challenging sometimes. My hometown, Holiday Hills, isn’t your typical small town. It’s a magical town, but not to the humans. At least not until recently. Something’s happening, and it’s not good. Magic is no longer hidden, and people are starting to witness events that don’t seem humanly possible.

Georgia Winston is now dating Detective Cal Perkins, planning a Christmas program, and navigating her relationship with her twin stepbrothers. Just another day. But then her church’s youth pastor dies of poisoning, and she’s the only one who hears his final word, “Anchor.” After the youth pastor’s girlfriend disappears, Georgia starts asking questions. Too many. When she’s almost run off the road, she goes on the offensive - with her stepbrothers’ help - and starts putting the pieces of the murder together.

Christmas is here, and Harper Harlow and Jared Monroe have big plans for the holidays. Harper is ready to move into their new house - and find him the perfect gift. And Jared? Well, he’s gearing up to propose, and he’s making Zander ring shop with him. All those plans go out the window when a little girl named Zoe Mathers goes missing, and her traumatized mother is zero help in tracking down the culprit. Suspects are few and far between, although Zoe’s deadbeat father is of immediate interest.

It's Halloween at the Global Tower Theatre, a fantastic and historic theater owned by Adam Harrison and run by spouses of Krewe members. During a special performance, a strange actor makes an appearance in the middle of the show, warning of dire events if his murder is not solved before another holiday rolls around. Dakota McCoy and Brodie McFadden dive into the mystery. With the help of Brodie’s diva mother and his ever-patient father - who were killed together when a stage chandelier fell upon them - Dakota and Brodie set out to solve the case.

Christmas is supposed to be a happy time, but Aisling Grimlock is feeling anything but festive. For her, the world seems to be shrinking, and good cheer is hard to find. Aisling’s worry about meeting her live-in boyfriend Griffin Taylor's mother takes a backseat when a new enemy appears, this one haunting Aisling in mirrors and turning up at the exact wrong time. The creature seems fascinated with Aisling - following her from one mirror to the next and threatening her very survival.

The best thing about the holiday season is spending time with family. At the same time, sometimes the worst thing about the holiday season is spending time with family. The stories in this collection touch on that and more as Mandy Nichols, Jeff Resnick, and Judi Straub struggle through what's supposed to be the joyous season. One family contemplates murder; another wants to end what they see as a bad relationship, while another can only see their loved one for what she can do for them. Sound familiar? Happy Holidays? puts the Christmas fun into dysfunction!

Hope Hadley is at a holiday crossroads. She wants to feel festive. She would love to have a good time. But she is waiting on news that might change the course of her life. How will things play out? Is a joyous Christmas in the cards for her? Or, will her holiday be ruined?

After suffering a personal tragedy, Abby Sullivan buys a huge old seaside mansion she has never even seen, packs up her life in San Francisco, and moves to Holiday Bay Maine, where she is adopted, quite against her will, by a huge Maine coon cat named Rufus, a drifter with her own tragic past named Georgia, and a giant dog with an inferiority complex named Ramos.

Pru Parke takes on the most serious challenge of her life: cooking an entire Christmas feast alone. But she is distracted by a mysterious plant vendor at a local holiday market, who appears and disappears into the night. He seems familiar, and yet... Join Pru and Christopher as they suss out this stranger while Pru contends with cooking a turkey fit for a crowd. Just how many potatoes and sprouts can two people eat?

With the festive season fast approaching, amateur sleuth Juno Browne helps organise a Christmas Fair to raise funds for Ashburton’s local animal sanctuary. The event is a success, but whilst Santa is handing out presents in the fairy-lit grotto, a murder is being committed in a dark corner of the garden. Juno discovers the body of Bob the Blacksmith, found clutching a horseshoe decorated with a sprig of elder. Suspicion falls on Bob’s longsuffering wife, Jackie, and on Don Drummond, with whom Bob violently quarrelled in the past