Southern Fiction Mystery

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.

Travel writer Jill Curtis loves her job, but she desperately needs a break if she's to achieve her dream of becoming an investigative reporter. Sent to Kentucky by her boss to find out why thousands of tourists flock to Bourbon Country every year, Jill's dream seems to be slipping further away. After all, nothing interesting ever happens in small-town America...does it? Staying at an estranged relative's B&B, Jill's plan to uncover what makes the state's bourbon tours so popular goes awry when she trips over a body at one of the distilleries.

Andy Buckland is determined that nothing will interrupt her first Christmas with Malcolm Jones and her last holiday spent in her childhood home. When the family recipe book disappears from the Bowtie Angel, and Aunt Cecily threatens to put "The Eye" on the entire population of Beaverton if it isn't returned, Andy and Jones decide to put the eggnog on hold for a little old fashioned sleuthing. But as one secret leads to another and rumors are served up along with hot buttered penne, Andy can't shake the suspicion that her life is about to change forever.

Private investigator Hannah Huntsford just wants to have a relaxing Christmas with her detective boyfriend. But holiday trouble is brewing in the small town of Treasure Trove.

Private investigator Hannah Huntsford is looking forward to settling in for a lazy Sunday at her tiny home when her detective boyfriend, Tyler O'Connor, seeks out her help in solving a murder.

Life has been difficult lately for Somerton County Deputy Sheriff John Lee Quarrels. He's on the trail of a sexual predator, his love life is in turmoil, his soon-to-be ex-wife just served him with divorce papers, someone has stolen his police car and is using its radio to broadcast offensive jokes, a 350-pound redneck named Baby Bubba just tried to brain him with a shovel, and all of that happened before John Lee shot the dead guy.

Benjamin Church came to the Grange Hall expecting to meet someone else, but then the girl in the red dress looked across the dance floor and smiled.... Passing Through Perfect is a heart-wrenching Southern family saga that starts on the night Benjamin falls madly in love with Delia. Once he tastes the sweetness of her kiss, he envisions them spending the rest of their life together. He doesn't stop to consider that her daddy is a learned Pastor, and her mama a woman with a college degree; he knows only that she sets his heart to racing.

Ava, 14 years old and totally on her own, has still not fully processed her mother’s death when she finds herself on a train heading to New Orleans, to stay with Lane, the grandmother she barely remembers. Lane is a well-known artist in the New Orleans art scene. She spends most of her days in a pot-smoke haze, sipping iced coffee, and painting. Her grip on reality is shaky at best, but her work provides a comfort. Ava’s arrival unsettles Lane. The girl bears an uncanny resemblance to her daughter, whom she was estranged from before her death.

Attorney Avery Andrews has returned to her humdrum hometown of Dacus, South Carolina, leaving her job at a powerful law firm in the rearview mirror. But with her Donna Karan suits she's struggling to fit back in. Is it still a place she's able to call home now that she's swapped her prestigious clients for high school bullies and formidable aunts? She finds sanctuary in her grandfather's cabin on Luna Lake until police arrive to investigate a mysterious rumor. But more than secrets lie beneath the dark surface of Luna Lake.

Marci thinks mouthwatering pastries are just what her small Southern hometown needs. Most residents agree, saying that her baked goods are magical, creating love and good fortune all over town. When Kelly Lowry is shot in front of the shop, it gives the pastries a new meaning behind “to die for.” Who killed her, and why was her murder followed by a strange Frenchman’s appearance? When Antoine Dubois wanders into her quaint shop, Marci is smitten immediately. But soon, more questions arise than answers: How did Antoine end up in Kentucky? And what was his connection to the dead woman?

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.

Lila Grace Carter talks to dead people. Admittedly, that's not out of the ordinary in Lockhart, South Carolina. In her words, "I'm Southern. We all talk to dead people down here. As a matter of fact, I don't believe I can truly trust anybody that doesn't speak to at least two or three dead relations on a daily basis. The difference is, they talk back to me." Now there's a murderer on the loose in Lockhart, and Lila Grace is the only one who knows a crime was committed. Can she convince the sexy sheriff that Jenny Miller didn't fall down the steps on her own? Will she catch the killer?

Lou might be only 12, but she's never been one to take things sitting down. So when her Civil War-era house is about to be condemned, she's determined to save it - either by getting it deemed a historic landmark or by finding the stash of gold rumored to be hidden nearby during the war. As Lou digs into the past, her eyes are opened when she finds that her ancestors ran the gamut of slave owners, renegades, thieves, and abolitionists.

A young woman is rescued from an attempt by her poacher father to drown her in a Florida swamp by a mysterious woman alleged to have magical powers. Fearful at first, the young woman learns to trust the secretive woman, who has chosen to hide out in the depths of a hostile environment. The younger woman returns to civilization to claim the farm her father would have stolen from her and to build a relationship with the man she has loved since they were children.

Jerica and Jesse settle into Summerleigh and count themselves lucky to start their family in the beautiful old home. With the renovations nearly complete, Jerica uncovers Loxley Belle's name carved into a wooden desk in a forgotten shack near the old home. Along with the discovery comes the feeling that the last Belle girl needs her help. Jerica and Jesse do their best to piece together the past and find that the youngest Belle had secrets of her own.

Mardi Gras has secrets. Like why would Felix's brother, a well-off and successful doctor, let the midnight train roll over him? Especially just as his new Carnival Krewe prepares for their inaugural parade? Felix has had an easy life, coasting by as the black sheep of a wealthy family. He spends his time under the green canopies of Uptown New Orleans, whiling away his days in leisure and mediocrity.

After their mama's passing, Marygene Brown returned to Peach Cove Island to help her sister, Jena Lynn, run the family diner, renowned for its homemade peach desserts. But Mama is never too far away - her sassy spirit haunts the island, and more specifically Marygene. Lately Mama has been warning her that the dead will seek her out to solve their murders, an idea Marygene is far from peachy keen on. But that prophecy appears to be coming true when she goes skinny-dipping off the island and swims right into a woman's charred corpse floating in the waves.

When the queen of the tabloids, Juliette Cadbury, decides to film a movie in Fort Rosalie, Mississippi, local Tourism Bureau executive Mary Dell Hoskins is given the unenviable task of setting up a whirlwind inspection tour of the town's three bed-and-breakfasts, only one of which can win the right to host the outrageous actress and her hunky actor boyfriend during their three-month location shoot.

After seven months laying low in Ocean Beach, California, Seattle PI Leo Waterman has finally stopped looking over his shoulder - specifically, for the vengeful band of Washington white supremacists who blame Leo for blindsiding their big plans for America. Where better to disappear with his bodyguard, Gabe, than this laid-back stretch of San Diego heaven? But when Leo finds a boy’s body on the beach, he comes out of hiding to investigate.

The terrorized children of Governor's Road grew up without resolution or closure to the most devastating event of their young lives. Their friend, a child their age, disappeared one afternoon and somehow, they never seem to learn what happened. Saddened parents decide to protect their children, and the obvious fear recedes in the face of the calm that settles back over the neighborhood. But, fear never really disappears until it's confronted.