Southern Fiction Mystery

Verity Long is proud to say she gets along with just about anybody—dead or alive. But she’s put to the test when her well-meaning boyfriend and her sweet-as-pie sister con her into a remote island “double date” weekend with her sister’s new flame and Verity’s long-time nemesis, Alec Duranja. Her plans to avoid the uptight police officer go up in smoke when the four of them team up for a weekend treasure hunt competition based on the island’s legendary pirate past. And it doesn’t take long for Verity and her team to discover more than game clues.

Patricia Anne and Mary Alice are “60-something” twin sisters who, after years of sibling rivalry, have discovered a mutual interest in folk art. However, Patricia Anne never dreamed that attending a gallery opening would land them in the middle of a murder investigation. Patricia Anne, a retired school teacher, is pleasantly surprised to see that Claire, a former student, is in charge of the show.

It’s homecoming weekend in Sugarland, Tennessee, and ghost hunter Verity Long is tickled to see so many souls - living and dead - back in town to celebrate. But not all reunions are happy ones, and when Verity stumbles upon a dead body by the football field, it appears someone has already evened the score. With her long-lost mother in tow and her ghostly sidekick Frankie showing her startling glimpses of a time long past, Verity untangles the secrets and scandal behind her town’s favorite traditions. Even more shocking? The murderer is tracking her.

Three full-length novels. Several hours of listening. Sweet Southern Magic includes the first three books in the Sweet Tea Witch Mysteries series: Southern Magic, Southern Spells, and Southern Myths.

It’s a hot and sticky Sunday in Lafayette, Louisiana, and Glory has settled into her usual after-church routine, meeting gamblers at the local coffee shop, where she works as a small-time bookie. Sitting at her corner table, Glory hears that her best friend—a nun beloved by the community—has been found dead in her apartment. When the police declare the mysterious death a suicide, Glory is convinced that there must be more to the story and, with her reluctant daughter in tow, launches a shadow investigation in a town of oil tycoons, church gossips, and a rumored voodoo priestess.

When the most powerful witch in North Carolina, Madame Ti, is abducted, the Porter Agency is called upon to find her. With no leadership over magic in the state, many have come to fill the power void, and this appears to be the first overt move. Is it the Brotherhood — a group seeking to restore ancient magic that pre-dates witchcraft? Or Sister Sadie — the insane witch that used the Porter Agency to free herself from cursed captivity?

When Pepper teaches a class at the Southern School of Magic, she expects a run of the mill experience. But when a gaggle of mean teachers invades her classroom, Pepper is on high alert. These women are nasty and they make no bones about disliking Pepper. Pepper does her best to stay far away from them, but when one of the witches is murdered in broad daylight, everyone's a suspect, including Rufus Mayes, who's moved back into town.

Emma Lee Raines, proprietor of a small-town Kentucky funeral home, Eternal Slumber, is a "Betweener". She helps ghosts stuck between here and the ever-after-only murdered ghosts. After Emma Lee solves who murdered them, only then can they cross over to the Great Beyond, Big Guy in the Sky. Emma Lee is up against a cold case that happened before she'd even gotten her "Betweener" gift.

After elementary school teacher Nichole Miller discovers the woman's body, she makes two phone calls: first to the police, who call Beverly's death a slip and fall, and second to her best friend, journalist Jenny Martin. Jenny is attempting to revive her flailing marriage and her all-but-DOA career, and she knows foul play when she sees it. The two women enlist the help of Beverly’s daughter-in-law, Robin, who’s eager to expose the truth.

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.

Now that attorney Jason Rich has returned home to Guntersville, Alabama, the “In an accident? Get rich!” lawyer is anxious to leave his checkered past behind. Jason hopes this next chapter in his life will be a chance to confront his personal troubles while making amends with his family. But when a former high school football star stands accused of killing a police officer, Jason is unwillingly thrust into the chaos.

Judith Kratt inherited all the Kratt family had to offer - the pie safe, the copper clock, the murder that no one talks about - and she knows in her old bones that it's time to make an inventory of her household and its valuables. But she finds that cataloging the family belongings - as well as their misfortunes - won't contain her family's secrets, not when her wayward sister suddenly returns, determined to expose skeletons that the Kratts had hoped to take to their grave.

In just one week, Hannah will pick her new dream home and start her new life. That is, assuming she survives her current case tracking down a nasty killer.

For years Helen Knightly has given her life to others - to her haunted mother, to her enigmatic father, to her husband, and grown children. When she finally crosses a terrible boundary, her life comes rushing in at her in a way she never could have imagined. Unfolding over the next 24 hours, this searing, fast-paced audiobook explores the complex ties between mothers and daughters, wives and lovers, the meaning of devotion, and the line between love and hate.

With the Mississippi sun beating down, An'gel and Dickce are taking a break to cool off and pet sit their friend Charlie Harris's cat, Diesel, when their former sorority sister, Rosabelle Sultan, shows up at their door unexpectedly, with her ne'er-do-well adult children not far behind. Rosabelle's selfish offspring are desperate to discover what's in her will, and it soon becomes clear that one of them would kill to get their hands on the inheritance.

After years of self-exile, Jacinda “Jac” Brodie is back in Brook Haven, South Carolina. But the small cliffside town no longer feels like home. Jac hasn’t been there since the beloved chief of police fell to his death—and all the whispers said she was to blame. That chief was Jac’s father. Racked with guilt, Jac left town with no plans to return. But when her granddad lands in the hospital, she rushes back to her family, bracing herself to confront the past.

Once the flashy, successful lawyer known for his in-your-face billboards—IN AN ACCIDENT? GET RICH—Jason Rich has fallen from grace, his reputation scrubbed of its glitz and his life stripped of the people he cares about. All thanks to meth kingpin Tyson Cade. But when Cade is shot and killed in the heart of his territory, things go from bad to worse for Jason as he is charged with his murder.

The Wallace women have always been known for their fiery and outspoken nature, and Sarah Wallace is no different than her ancestors before her. But in the city of Sugar Grove, Florida, not much has changed. Racism and hate still lie deep in the families that have inhabited the area since the 1800s. As she takes over as CEO of the Sugar Grove Sugar company, she soon discovers just how deep that hatred goes. Her new venture of turning her family's old plantation into a recovery and therapy ranch is on the line as evil rears its ugly head and she discovers a body on her property.

When a young woman dies in a late-night restaurant fire, the owner, Bobby Carter, is charged with arson and murder. The evidence is stacked against him, but something doesn’t add up. And his only chance for justice rests on the shoulders of small-town lawyer Leland Munroe… Leland is convinced someone’s out to frame his client. But as the trial heats up, he realizes that he's facing more than just a legal battle.

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.