Southern Fiction Mystery

On the banks of the North Santee River stands a moss-draped oak that was once entrusted with the dreams of three young girls. Into the tree's trunk they placed their greatest hopes, written on ribbons, for safekeeping - including the most important one: friends forever, come what may. But life can waylay the best of intentions....

When her husband dies unexpectedly, Maggie Royal is struck with sinister visions that foretell danger for her and for her five-year-old daughter. Her mother and grandmother were said to have “the sight,” but it was never like this. With no one alive to turn to, Maggie must move quickly to uncover the meaning of her visions before her candle is snuffed out.

Old wars, new battles. Fighting ghosts, witches, and curses is nothing new for Max and Sandra Porter. But when a Civil War ghost gets tethered to their teenage son, J, everything is new. And terrifying. With the help of their partner and ghost, Marshall Drummond, the team will be up against serious and deadly problems - dealing with the head witch of North Carolina, raising ancient bones from the bottom of lake, breaking forgotten curses, and far more. But worse than that, they will have to face the most difficult challenge of all - J starts dating.

When former Klansman and piney-woods outcast Aaron Crown is finally imprisoned for a decades-old murder, it is to Detective Dave Robicheaux that he proclaims his innocence loudest. Crown seems to be a lightning rod for every kind of trouble that the state of Louisiana can unearth. A documentary film writer seeking to prove Crown's innocence is found murdered; a button man for the New Orleans mob accuses Robicheaux of taking a pay-off to ignore Crown.

But it is when Buford LaRose -- scion of an old Southern family and author of a book on the Crown case -- is elected governor that Dave Robicheaux's involvement with Aaron Crown deepens to a level he can barely fathom. And it is Buford's social-climbing wife, Karyn, with whom Robicheaux had an affair years before, who proves to be his most poisonous adversary.

Filled with thrilling adventure, lightning-paced action, and street smart realism, Cadillac Jukebox is a brilliant addition to Burke's standout Dave Robicheaux series.

Key West is paradise - unless you're the dead woman in the Toucan Suite. The Hemingway cats, Megs and Bartholomew, who wander the grounds of the B&B, think Liberty Anderson was a spy. But spying on whom? And why? Trouble, the black cat detective, must decipher their cryptic communications and piece together a motive for murder.

The sheriff's deputy at the front door brings hard news to Ree Dolly. Her father has skipped bail on charges that he ran a crystal meth lab, and the Dollys will lose their house if he doesn't show up for his next court date. Ree's father has disappeared before. The Dolly clan has worked the shadowy side of the law for generations, and arrests (and attempts to avoid them) are part of life in Rathlin Valley.

Axel’s parents are visiting for the holiday and Pepper wants things to go smoothly. But when his mom insults the town Scrooge things turn rocky fast. Worse, when the town Scrooge is murdered, fingers quickly point to Axel’s mom.

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.

After striking out on her own as a teen mom, Madi Price is forced to return to her hometown of Brandywine, Virginia, with her seventeen-year-old daughter. With nothing to her name, she scrapes together a living as a palm reader at the local farmers market. It’s there that she connects with old high school flame Henry McCabe, now a reclusive local fisherman whose infant son, Skyler, went missing five years ago. Everyone in town is sure Skyler is dead, but when Madi reads Henry’s palm, she’s haunted by strange and disturbing visions that suggest otherwise.

When Max and Sandra moved to North Carolina, they walked into a world of ghost, witches, and curses. Over the years, and with the help of the ghost of 1940s detective Marshall Drummond, they have fought to build a life for themselves. But now, it all goes on the line. No fight from their past can match what awaits when the Hull family and the Magi Group go to war. Caught between the magic and muscle of these groups, Max and Sandra will have to call in all the help they can find if they are to survive.

It’s Pepper Dunn’s first Thanksgiving in the magical town of Magnolia Cove, Alabama. The entire town is ready to celebrate—except Pepper, who’s still yearning for her boyfriend, Axel Reign, to return. But she has little time to mourn. When a new baker sets up shop across the street from Pepper’s cousin and starts stealing customers, it’s all out war. But when the storeowner ends up murdered and Pepper’s cousin becomes suspect number one, it’s up to Pepper to help.

After spending years in North Carolina, Max and Sandra thought they knew how the world of ghosts, witches, and curses worked. With the aid of a ghost, they had defeated the dreaded Hull family. Now, without the Hulls, control of magic in North Carolina is in free fall. When graves from the 1700s start breaking through to the surface, Max and his team find themselves caught in the middle of the fight, and every decision he makes could have consequences that reverberate through the entire magic world.

For Max and the gang, the idea that dead is not the end has become second nature. But the idea that a ghost who has moved on could be ripped back into the world? That is new. And terrifying. When a woman hires the Porter Agency to help with this very problem, she doesn’t know half of what she’s roping them into. Now, it is up to Max, Sandra, and Drummond to find who is behind this atrocity and stop them. Plus, there’s a spirit to return to the Beyond, a missing girl who might have been murdered, and a possible murderer who happens to be the new client.

For Max and Sandra Porter, building a family seemed unattainable. But since moving to Winston-Salem and starting a business with the ghost of a 1940s detective, the unattainable did not sound so far-fetched. Over time, they brought two homeless boys into their work and eventually to their home. But this ad hoc family has a lot of unknown histories. Dark secrets that threaten to crawl to the surface. When one of those secrets breaks through, Max finds himself in a fight - not only for his own survival, but for the survival of his family as well.

For many years, Max Porter and his team have been caught between Mother Hope and Grandma Mobley, two witches that hated each other for over a century. Both witches hold power and both are dangerous. But now, their hatred has finally boiled over, and that power is about to be unleashed. Now, Max finds himself the rope in a tug-o-war that threatens to destroy his budding family, if not all of North Carolina. He will have to risk everything he knows and loves, push himself further than ever before. Because Max Porter will be in the fight of his life. And his death.

When a boyfriend from Sandra’s past hires the Porter Agency to investigate a haunted firehouse, Max and Drummond know there’s going to be trouble. Yet nobody is prepared for the twisted path they embark on. A path that takes them into a harrowing murder, a botched curse, and the rumblings of a witch war. But after Sandra’s life is placed in jeopardy, Max throws off the gloves. To save her, he’s ready to take on the toughest witches in all of North Carolina if he must - nothing will stop him when his love is on the line.

Max Porter has had his share of odd cases. That goes with the territory when one of your partners is the ghost of a 1940s detective. But the idea of being hired by a witch coven to save witches seems wrong from the start, and it only gets worse.

When Max and the gang are hired by an art forging ghost to find a lost painting, Max thinks it'll be easy money. But villains old and new come out, and the race is on for the painting and the secrets it contains. A race that will lead Max into a mess of magic spells, haunted houses, ancient curses, and even Blackbeard the Pirate.

Trapped in a dead-end town, Justin Warren has had his life defined by the suspicious deaths of his grandparents. The unsolved crime happened long before Justin was born, but the ripple effects are still felt after thirty-eight years. Justin always knew he wouldn’t have much of a future. He just never imagined that his life might take him backward.

Toya Gardner, a young Black artist from Atlanta, has returned to her ancestral home in the North Carolina mountains to trace her family history and complete her graduate thesis. But when she encounters a still-standing Confederate monument in the heart of town, she sets her sights on something bigger.