Southern Fiction Mystery

Based on true crime, Jar of Pennies follows the story of how a murderer was brought to justice in small town east Texas. A book as much about east Texas culture deep in the pine forests of the state as it is about a chain of murders and the gathering of evidence, this riveting narrative has elements of both humor and noir as it rockets to its conclusion.

The fact that Katrina Pomeroy had been murdered was in and of itself a newsworthy event. The fact that she had been murdered on Friday October 13 exactly 11 years after she’d been one of five teenagers to survive the Friday the 13th Massacre made her passing worthy of notice by the national news agencies Jillian Hanford used to work for. When an old editor of Jillian's offered her the chance to write a human interest piece about Katrina’s life and subsequent death, she jumped at the chance to relaunch her currently defunct career.

Mandy Rose Bokum wanted to go home. Her mind and body were getting sicker. Three lonely years living in one room in California were enough. She yearned for peace. She craved love. She wanted answers. Why was her child stolen? Did the thief know her? Was it somehow her fault? The townies blamed her. Accused her of murder. It was time to tell Clyde Boudreaux that he was Hannah's daddy. Clyde fought his own demons. He was seven when he'd watched his granddaddy get lynched. Mandy struggled for years with her own dark secrets. Maybe two halves could make a whole.

Proprietor of the Eternal Slumber Funeral Home, Emma Lee can see, hear, and talk to ghosts of murdered folks. And when her high school nemesis is found dead, Jade Lee Peel is the same old mean girl - trying to come between Emma Lee and her hot boyfriend, Sheriff Jack Henry Ross, all over again. There's only one way for Emma Lee to be free of the trash-talking ghost - solve the murder so the former prom queen can cross over.

When she runs into her friend's deadbeat dad at the local deli, undertaker Emma Lee Raines can't wait to tell Mary Anna Hardy that he's back in Sleepy Hollow, Kentucky, after five long years. Cephus Hardy may have been the town drunk, but he didn't disappear on an epic bender like everyone thought: He was murdered. And he's heard that Emma Lee's been helping lost souls move on to that great big party in the sky. Why do ghosts always bother Emma Lee at the worst times?

Andy Buckland is no stranger to TV. The worst moment of her career happened when a live studio audience got food poisoning from one of her dishes. But when the pasta guru is given a slot in the televised cooking competition Diced Showdown, she sees her chance at redemption. In exchange for the shot at vindication, Andy and her fiancé, Malcolm Jones, are tasked to find the identity of a mysterious blogger who has a nasty habit of revealing detrimental secrets of the show’s top celebrity chefs.

After seven long years in prison, Colt Hudson is finally returning to Blake County, Georgia. But in his hometown, he's treated like just another criminal—with good reason. The scion of a tight-knit southern clan, Colt's family is deeply involved in one of the most dangerous meth operations in Georgia. Colt's early release from prison comes with strings attached—a deal with narcotics squad commander Tim Dawson, who wants information that could help bust the family business. But when the drug agent who put Colt away seven years ago turns up dead, a dangerous conspiracy begins to unravel.

The fact that Katrina Pomeroy had been murdered was in and of itself a newsworthy event. The fact that she had been murdered on Friday, October 13th, exactly 11 years after she’d been one of five teenagers to survive the Friday the 13th Massacre, made her passing worthy of notice by the national news agencies Jillian Hanford used to work for.

Bopped on the head from a falling plastic Santa, local undertaker Emma Lee Raines is told she's suffering from "funeral trauma." It's trauma all right, because the not-so-dearly departed keep talking to her. Take Ruthie Sue Payne - innkeeper, gossip queen, and arch-nemesis of Emma Lee's granny - she's adamant that she didn't just fall down those stairs. She was pushed. Ruthie has no idea who wanted her pushing up daisies, but she can't cross over until the matter is laid to eternal rest. Emma Lee's high-school crush, Sheriff Jack Henry Ross, isn't ready to rule out foul play.

As Beatrice’s wedding day approaches, murder finds a way to make her pressed for time. Beatrice and Wyatt’s days are spent planning their cozy, chapel wedding. Both widowed, they mean to keep their wedding an intimate, family affair. But everyone in Dappled Hills still wants to celebrate the happy couple. Beatrice and Wyatt find themselves at dinners, picnics, and barbeques in their honor.

Retired school teacher Patricia Anne has a knack for landing right in the middle of murder investigations, but this time she is fighting to clear the accused. Patricia Anne has been good friends with her neighbor Mitzi for 40 years. She’s surprised when she sees Mitzi’s husband Arthur having lunch at the Hunan Hut with an attractive woman. She’s positively shocked when that same woman drops dead moments later. Then Arthur is accused of murder, their home catches fire, and he gets shot in the butt.

Some say it was the spirt of one of the pirates that haunt the island that killed him. Others say the death was the result of greed and revenge. All that was known for certain, was that death did not come peacefully for the last inhabitant of a now deserted island.

When 16-year-old Emily Halliwell ran away from home, she agreed to send her half sister a photo every week to prove she was okay. And she did. For a while. But then the photos stopped coming. Nicole Carrington, Emily's half sister and the newest permanent resident of the Gull Island Writer's Retreat, decides to ask the Mystery Mastermind Group for help. The trail has gone cold, but Nicole is desperate, so the group decides to accept the challenge in spite of the staggering odds of finding Emily alive after all of this time.

A serial arsonist is slowly burning Gull Island one building at a time. A local hero is falsely accused of taking his own life. A young widow raising four children with a fifth on the way faces losing her home.

I told you I was sick, reads the headstone above Mamie Sue Preston's grave. She was the richest woman in Sleepy Hollow, Kentucky, and also the biggest hypochondriac. Ironic, considering someone killed her - and covered it up perfectly. And how does Emma Lee, proprietor of the Eternal Slumber Funeral Home, know all this? Because Mamie Sue's ghost told her, that's how. And she's offering big bucks to find the perp.

Some say it was the spirt of one of the pirates that haunt the island that killed him. Others say the death was the result of greed and revenge. All that was known for certain, was that death did not come peacefully for the last inhabitant of a now deserted island. The lighthouse on Skull Island is a mysterious place steeped in legend and folklore.

Fifty-three years ago, Francine Kettleman was found dead in a cemetery fifty miles from Gull Island. Her body was found in a graveyard and most believe she was the fourth victim of the Silk Stalking Strangler, a mass murderer credited with killing thirteen women over a ten-month period from 1964 to 1965.

Culpable in an exposé gone tragically wrong, investigative journalist Jupiter Bellarose takes her boss’s advice: head back to her hometown for a fluff piece and get her world in balance. But in Savannah, the past is waiting. Twenty years ago Jupiter’s mother, actress and celebrated beauty Marie Nova, was murdered, leaving many in her wake: Jupiter’s father, who has erased memories of his wife’s murder with alcohol. The matriarch of the cosmetics company who helped make Marie a star—and who takes every opportunity to reopen old wounds.

In 17th-century Peru, St. Martin de Porres was torn from his body after death. His bones were pillaged as relics, and his spirit was said to inhabit those bones.

When the small North Carolina mountain town of Eli was flooded in the early 1940s to make way for a TVA dam and lake, the homes and businesses were buried beneath the water - but buildings weren’t the only things buried. There are hushed stories of a spirit that lingers beneath the murky waters, hiding a dark secret. Judy and her husband Craig journey to the area to care for her ailing adopted grandfather. The elderly man reveals some interesting anecdotes about his own life in Eli, but the sharing of this information is more than mere storytelling.