Rural Mystery

For two decades, Lena Blackwell has kept her sons at her side, teaching them everything she knows about running their successful river lodge in Northern Maine. But what she really wants is to keep her boys in the dark about their tragic past. Her son Luke is right where he belongs, working at the family inn sheltered by acres of pine forest that stretch along the Penobscot River. Lena is determined to thwart her adopted son Jonah’s search to uncover his own history. But the unexpected arrival of old friends looking for a weekend off the grid at the inn throws her plans into disarray.

I ran from a monster. A monster I thought was gentle and kind. A monster I thought loved me. I was wrong. So very wrong. I took a bus out west and landed in a small town in Wyoming. Ryker, the town’s sheriff, has been helping me to settle in. But I can’t get that comfortable, even if things seem quiet around here. I’ll keep looking over my shoulder, no matter how safe Ryker thinks he can keep me. I know the monster is waiting in the shadows.

Crookedwood, quiet Irish midlands town, place of secrets, past and present. Sarah left it behind years ago for life in the city, where she's now a rising star of the Dublin culinary scene. She's home to help her mother sell the family farm. One evening, while out walking in the nearby woods, Sarah is chased by a man and his vicious dog, narrowly escaping injury. In the days to follow—as painful memories resurface of another dark night in the woods years before—further unsettling events unfold, and Sarah becomes convinced that she is under threat.

Ist der Ort verflucht? Oder sind es die, die hier leben? Ein schweres Unwetter legt die Überreste eines Toten frei. Handelt es sich bei der Leiche um die Knochen des Hirscher-Buben, der vor fast hundert Jahren spurlos aus dem Ort verschwand? Oder handelt es sich um das Opfer eines Mörders, der heute noch in Talberg lebt? Die Ermittlungen führen den ausgebrannten Dorfpolizisten Josef Wegbauer tief in die eigene Familiengeschichte.

When a shocking abduction sends shockwaves through the tranquil town, one woman is thrust into a perilous journey. She's the wife of a trusted colleague in the sheriff's department, making this case deeply personal, and time is running out. This tale is more than just a desperate rescue mission; it's a story of redemption and love. Cate, a woman marked by her past, yearns for her own shot at happiness. Can she truly start over and trust that she's found the love she's always dreamed of?

Beaufort is in North Carolina's 'Inner Banks,' and it's where Stormie Arrington calls home. Stormie is a feisty, stubborn, strong Alabama-born and raised woman who just happened to have had the misfortune of marrying the wrong man. Ben Arrington is a well-known prosecutor who married Stormie for reasons that are all his own. Ben wants to be the next governor of North Carolina, and he'll do anything to make that happen. When FBI Agent Nathan Emerson arrives to investigate the mysterious deaths and disappearances of a few local girls, he stumbles across a conspiracy.

Escaping personal upheaval, city accountant Billie Gibbs takes a break in a friend's country lakeside shack. Local farmer Noah Sutton arrives at the shack to investigate the unexpected visitor on a neighbouring property. He wants her to stay, but needs her to leave. Resisting an instant attraction in the face of mysterious happenings around the lake, Billie believes Noah is not all he seems, and sets out to discover why.

The thing is…when your intention is to remain below the radar, an ever-expanding reputation is the last thing anyone needs, and soon, old problems and long-forgotten adversaries begin to resurface. Despite his reluctance to revisit the ghosts of his past, sometimes in order to move forward, you have to go back again. In doing so, Malcolm realizes that a few of the broken things requiring his attention…aren’t things at all.

Jimmy is a kid growing up fast on the poorest street in town. He tries to do everything right and look out for his mum and his younger brother. His older brother is in jail, so it's up to Jimmy to hold things together. But small-town life is unforgiving if you're from the other side of the tracks.

Things in the fishing town of Cold Storage, Alaska, are changing. It's the summer of 1968; the men are wearing their hair long, the Vietnam War is at its height, and multiple assassinations have gripped the country. But some things remain the same. Ellie's bar is still the place to catch up on the town gossip, and there's a lot to talk about, from the boys who have returned from the war (and the ones who haven't), to the robberies that are plaguing the locals, to the new guy in town: a famous monk from Kentucky.

Set in the early 1960s, this is the story of a family-oriented community, surrounding a winterbourne stream, in Northern California. It is full of average law-abiding citizens who live in picturesque equestrian properties with white three-rail fences. A violent motor vehicle accident and the attempted resuscitation of the victim, a homeless drug addict, by surgeon Doctor Franklin Carson and his Labrador, Winston, begins a fast-paced story of deception and lies. The event calls attention to a problem in the small community.

The Maine of Not When I'm Gone is about mother nature, the sea, the woods, the tides, the seasons, sunrise and sunset. It is also about human nature. Central are events that happen on the Fourth of July weekend. Locals are drinking, partying, waiting for fireworks. The Coast Guard is like them, cruising the bay, but not patrolling much, most of the sailors below deck, with girlfriends, celebrating the holiday. It is the perfect moment for a multi-million drug drop to take place. A boat from Panama is hardly noticed when it slips into the bay.

Forced to reassess her future, IT nerd and country girl Addie Kendall returns to her family's Wimmera farm. When she contacts her former school friend Harry Chandler with alarming news, they're compelled to unite to solve a criminal injustice. In pursuit of answers, they stumble upon a shocking find in the district's iconic Banyandah homestead, deserted since a family tragedy ten years ago.

An isolated Welsh island seemed like the perfect escape for a convict on the run, a jilted woman, and a policeman seeking a quiet life. When the surly locals turn to murderous violence, the three visitors are forced to flee together, trying to stay one step ahead of their increasingly insane pursuers. The bad news keeps coming. There are too many to fight. There is no escape from the island. And the worst storm in years has just begun. They can only run and hide as they face a night of horror and madness. If they don't work together, then none of them will live to see the light of day.

For nearly a decade, twenty-nine-year-old Hudson Miller has made his living in the boxing ring, but a post-fight brawl threatens to derail his career. Desperate for money, Hudson takes a gig as a bouncer at a dive bar. That’s when life delivers him another hook to the jaw: his estranged father, Leland, has been murdered in what appears to be a robbery-gone-bad at his salvage yard, Miller’s Pull-a-Part.

On a 10-year mission to avenge the brutal sacrifice of her man by Stargut, the local sheriff, himself on a mission to create the perfect man-beast, Lovey, abandoned by her spellbound friend Patty, is joined by a stranger. Tom is a preacher of sorts who has followed the scent of evil for a hundred years. He mysteriously appears in the village of Wrong, a rural Midwestern town, its mutant inhabitants mere creations of the devil lawman. Together, the three converge under the moon into the wood down by the river at the doorsteps of hell.

Türkisfarbenes Wasser, einsame Sandstrände und ein vergifteter Taucher – der 10. Fall für den liebenswerten Ermittler Pierre Durand! Es ist Mai in Südfrankreich. Pierre Durand und seine frisch angetraute Frau Charlotte erfreuen sich an den weiten Sandstränden der Côte Varoise, wo sie ihre Flitterwochen verbringen. Doch als Pierre eines Morgens einen verunglückten Taucher entdeckt, ist es vorbei mit der Idylle. Die Polizei geht von einem Kreislaufversagen aus, der Notarzt allerdings hat Zweifel. Pierre verdrängt die Bedenken, er will Charlotte zuliebe den Urlaub nicht gefährden. Aber dann verschwindet der Arzt spurlos.

When Sassi Stapleton receives a middle-of-the-night phone call to tell her that her beloved grandmother is unwell, she quickly puts her job on hold, packs her ute and sets off on the long drive home, knowing her grandfather will need her. Less than an hour away from Sassi's hometown, Barker, she swerves to miss a roo and her car rolls down an embankment. By the time Sassi is found, her grandmother has already passed away.

All Tara wants is to forget. Home again after years traveling the world, she’s determined to put her painful past behind her. Surrounded by her big, loving, loud family, and with the distraction of her new restaurant, she feels like she’s finally beginning to heal. Then in walks Jace Travers. With one quirk of his beautiful, full lips, he shoots her carefully constructed life to smithereens. She does her best to avoid him, but that quickly proves hard to do when mysterious things begin to happen.

Popular author Susan Wittig Albert and her China Bayles Herbal Mysteries have been hailed for their intelligent plots and quirky characters. China is a member of the Pecan Springs, Texas Picklefest planning committee. When the Pickle Queen disappears just days before the festival, China and her husband P.I. Mike McQuaid relish searching for the clues in this dilly of a case. This exciting whodunit is packed with plenty of pickle jokes, folklore, and homespun recipes.