Southern Fiction Mystery

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.

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.

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.

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.

Old Relics, New Power Max and the gang are no strangers to battling ghosts, witches and curses. But when they are hired to free a family of witches who have been locked in their mansion by magic, they find themselves on strange ground. After all, helping witches never was in the job description.

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.

Just because she can see the dead doesn't mean Verity Long wants to spend her days hunting ghosts. Instead she's over the moon to land a marketing job at the local bank...until she finds her new boss dead in the vault. Even her ghost friend, Frankie, knows that's no way to start a career. Relieved to let the police take charge, Verity steps aside, bound and determined to keep her ghost sightings to herself. But when she learns the main suspect in the murder is a very crooked, very dead mobster, Verity knows it's up to her to solve the case.

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.

The case is simple enough - spend the night in the famed Reynolda House to discover what’s haunting the place. Then, take care of it. But for Max, Sandra, and Drummond, nothing is ever simple. Over the course of one long night, they will face numerous evil forces unleashed with careless abandon. They will endure attacks physical, mental, and magical.

Southern belle Verity Long is back in business - as a ghost hunter. Now all she has to do is visit the town's creepiest mansion and exorcise a family of vengeful spirits. Piece of cake. After all, ghosts love her and need her...that is until she meets the ghosts of Rock Fall mansion. They'll do anything to keep their murderous secrets hidden within the cliffside fortress - even if that means getting rid of one meddling ghost hunter.

On a chilly November morning at the University of Georgia, a fraternity brother steps off a busy crosswalk and is struck dead by an oncoming car. More than a dozen witnesses all agree on two things: the driver looked identical to the victim, and he was smiling. Detective Marlitt Kaplan is first on the scene. An Athens native and the daughter of a UGA professor, she knows all its shameful histories, from the skull discovered under the foundations of Baldwin Hall to the hushed-up murder-suicide in Waddel.

Lucy is terrified and puzzled by this latest murder in her small town. It seems a dark cloud has settled over her town as rumors abound about why the killer did it and when they did it. Eventually, the prime suspect is identified as the former classmate Lucy hired at her bakery. Many people witnessed an altercation this person had with the deceased and they’ve been judged guilty in the court of public opinion. But Lucy knows there’s more to this murder mystery than meets the eye.

For the Temple women, the winds of change are blowing. And if they're not careful, it could sweep them all away. After rising from Temple servant to tea shop owner, Violet finally feels in charge of her destiny. While learning Gullah folk magic from her aging grandmother, she worries much of her cultural heritage will be lost to the grave. Is there enough time for Old Sally to pass down all her special wisdom? Bride-to-be Queenie has never felt younger at heart.

Niall Howell's Only Pretty Damned is a taut noir that takes you behind the big top, revealing rough and tumble characters, murderous plots, and crooked schemes designed to keep Rowland’s World Class Circus afloat for another season. When Toby, former trapeze artist turned disgruntled clown, begins seeing Gloria, a young and beautiful dancer longing for a bigger role under the spotlight, his hardboiled past resurfaces.

Ethan Faulkner is a precocious child with a brilliant but troublesome sister, a war vet for a father, and a weary mother trying to manage their family. One night a young woman rings their doorbell, desperate to hide from two men who are pursuing her, when one of the two barges in after her. The struggle leaves both of Ethan's parents dead. Years later, Ethan has a successful teaching career and a budding relationship with a coworker. But he hasn't quite followed through on his promise to his dying father - to take care of his sister. Susannah is not an easy person to keep tabs on....

One sunny Spring morning, EJ's simple life is turned upside down when the town's master gardener unceremoniously hands her a stack of handwritten letters that have all been addressed to a nonexistent person at the garden. This simple act sets in motion a chain of events that will lead EJ on a life-altering quest to uncover the identity of the mysterious letter writer―and into a surprising head-on confrontation with the harsh realities of the racial injustice that is as deeply rooted in the life of her community as the ancient herbs cultivated in the Moravian garden.

Mae West is getting settled into the RV lifestyle as the owner of a Happy Trails Campground in Normal, Kentucky. Betts Hager is desperate for help with her cleaning business, and Mae offers her services. Heiress Tammy Jo Bentley's mansion is the first one on her schedule, and Mae makes sure Tammy Jo's house is spotless because the Kentucky Kennel Association's annual meeting is going to be held at the mansion. Fifi, Tammy Jo's high pedigree, insured poodle, is going to be on display, but before the annual meeting, Camille Braun, Fifi's nanny, is stabbed to death.

In 1913, on a summer's day at Half Moon Lake, Louisiana, four-year-old Sonny Davenport walks into the woods and never returns. The boy's mysterious disappearance from the family's lake house makes front-page news in their home town of Opelousas. John Henry and Mary Davenport are wealthy and influential, and will do anything to find their son. For two years, the Davenports search across the South, offer increasingly large rewards, and struggle not to give in to despair.

Life for Pepper Dunn is just beginning to slow down in the magical town of Magnolia Cove, Alabama, when her Uncle Donovan, who is supposed to be deceased, appears on her doorstep very much alive. Turns out Uncle Donovan faked his death to avoid the werewolf mafia, a dangerous group who will stop at nothing to get their hands on him.