Southern Fiction Mystery

New Orleans novice detective, Brenda Shapira, investigates murders committed by a vengeful killer, only to discover that the killer has been dead for 100 years.

Leslee Stanton Nix-a.k.a. "Nixy" - thought moving to small-town Lilyvale, Arkansas, would be about as thrilling as watching paint dry. But keeping up with her retired Aunt Sherry and her troublemaking housemates - collectively known as the Silver Six - has proven to be as exciting as it is exasperating. To kick off the grand opening of their craft shop, the Handcraft Emporium, Nixy and the Silver Six invite Doralee Gordon to teach a gourd painting class.

Only 24 years old, Naomi Scott was just getting started. A law student, tending bar to make ends meet, she wanted to change the world. Instead, her life ended in the dead of night at the hands of an unseen gunman. There are no witnesses to the crime. The police have three suspects. All three men claim to love her. Could one of them be her killer?

I was only inside the corner store for less than a minute before a masked man entered the front door carrying a gun. The brawny man headed directly toward the counter. A short and thin woman stood behind the register. Her name tag read “Sheila.”

Since the night Atlanta mayor, self-made millionaire, and womanizer Jamison Jackson plummeted from the top floor of a downtown hotel, everyone seems to have profited, from vicious criminals to corrupt politicians. Everyone except his jilted first wife Kerry. Once a socialite, she's now the prime suspect in Jamison's alleged murder. But she swears she's no killer - and surprisingly, Jamison's widow Val agrees. For all they know, it was Coreen, the mother of Jamison's secret love child.

What if the faith you were raised in, professed to love, and thought would protect you from all evil turned out to be the very thing you now feared? And what if public servants, sworn to protect and serve, kept and withheld secrets, both professional and personal, too horrifying to even be known? Sariah could have never known what was to be discovered after simple inquiries of her polygamous faith.

With this critically acclaimed debut collection, Frank Bill announces himself as an author of fiercely defined vision. In these vivid tales, Bill’s southern Indiana proves a literary destination of immense nuance, even as his mostly working-class characters cry out in voices that cannot be denied.

Dale and Deloris Justen have searched for weeks for the perfect place for a long delayed honeymoon. When the messages start showing up in Deloris' business emails, the one she uses only for her book sales under the name of Deloris Blue, she wondered if the last name had something to do with the fantastic offers and coupons for the Bonnie Blue Lakeside Lodge. She never considered for a second the final decision to go there was anyone's but her own.

On one Indian summer Friday night, things happen that change the course of hundreds of lives. In Winston-Salem, a tobacco and mill town in central North Carolina, people like to relax as the weekend comes nigh, and depending on whether they sit above or below the salt, they'll do so in different ways. Both the well-to-do and the less-thans are wizened practitioners of the art of steam blowing, all in the name of fun and respite. And in doing so, violence and deceit and sadness mingle with money and alcohol to create a dangerous, crackling third rail of despair.

Swift Justice tells the story of Leon Brooks, an educated black man, who comes under the wrath of the Texas KKK for initiating a voting drive. The Klan, which is led by the Imperial Wizard Atwood Baker, who is called "Judge" because he is the Chief Justice of the Texas Supreme Court, cannot allow the voting drive to happen. His solution - lynch Leon Brooks and set an example.

After her father’s murder, Janet Wright returns to her folksy childhood home to tie up loose ends and mend her broken heart. But the sassy heroine soon discovers that there is more than meets the eye within the enigmatic small town entangled in secrets, scandals, and lies. This suspenseful southern thriller will have Wright facing pieces of her broken childhood and fighting for her life. Mystery, murder, and romance converge to keep you listening section after section.

To what lengths will a woman go to save her family? Web-radio personality Bo Riccardi is pushed beyond her mental and physical limits when her husband, Oscar, is kidnapped by a man from her dark past. The abductor commands her to interview him live on her show, with Oscar’s life on the line. Giving in, though, creates an endless nightmare for Bo, as Oscar’s captor begins to destroy her career and alienate everybody she loves. Bo’s secret asset is chromesthesia, seeing colorful shapes that reveal the intentions behind anyone’s speech. She can literally watch what they say.

CJ Turley is excited to begin her new life as overseer of Heavenly Acres, a tiny house community in the Ozark mountains. As she's handed the keys to her new house by a woman who seems far too eager to leave the job to someone else, CJ is told the community is experiencing a rash of burglaries and that she should visit the nearby park ranger for help.

When a wedding party show up at Happy Trails Campground, Mae West is thrilled. She's all things girly and excited to assist the bride in all things southern, which is what the bride is hankering for. Mae recognizes the parents of the bride when they arrive. They are from her past. The past she's been desperately trying to escape...especially since it was the time she was married to Paul West. This just isn't any couple, it's the owners of the famous Moonbucks Coffee Company.

The legend of John Swift Silver Mine has been a tale told around the Daniel Boone National Park for over 400 years. This year the treasure hunters have descended upon Normal and staying in Happy Trails Campground before they head out on their yearly expedition to find the treasure. Once again, Mae and the Laundry Club ladies, along with Mary Elizabeth, find themselves doing things they never thought they'd never do, including going on a treasure hunt!

It's early October - time for the Fall Folk Art Festival and Bake Sale in Lilyvale, Arkansas. Every business along the town square will benefit from the event, including the craft store run by Leslee Stanton Nix - a.k.a. Nixy - and the Silver Six, a group of retirees. In charge of making the festival go smoothly, Nixy is confident that it will be a success.

As the old gods are eroded by the new church and and ambitious men vie for power, blood is shed throughout the land. In the south, ealdorman Aelfhere believes that for his only daughter, 16-year-old Cynethryth, marriage to a Saxon king is the way to security. And so, against her own wishes, Cynethryth is betrothed. Yet as battle rages around her, Cynethryth too becomes a victim of war. Taken prisoner by the warrior invaders, she is forced into the presence of another Saxon king, who would also have her for his wife. A man she actually loves.

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.

When Tess Tremaine starts a new life in the colorful town of Goose Pimple Junction, curiosity leads her to look into a 75-year-old murder. Suddenly she's learning the foreign language of Southern speak, resisting her attraction to local celebrity Jackson Wright, and dealing with more mayhem than she can handle. A bank robbery, murder, and family tragedy from the 1930s are pieces of the mystery that Tess attempts to solve.

Realtor Chelsea O'Connell is found dead in a model home of the new development in Normal. She was not popular in the small tourist town located in the Daniel Boone National Park because the last thing this town wants is for more development to come in to take away anymore of the forest.