Town Mystery

Penn Cage is no stranger to death. As a Houston prosecutor he sent 16 men to death row, and watched seven of them die. But now, in the aftermath of his wife's death, the grief-stricken father packs up his four-year-old daughter, Annie, and returns to his hometown in search of healing. But peace is not what he finds there.

It’s February 1976, and Odessa, Texas, stands on the cusp of the next great oil boom. While the town’s men embrace the coming prosperity, its women intimately know and fear the violence that always seems to follow. In the early hours of the morning after Valentine’s Day, 14-year-old Gloria Ramírez appears on the front porch of Mary Rose Whitehead’s ranch house, broken and barely alive. The teenager had been viciously attacked in a nearby oil field - an act of brutality that is tried in the churches and barrooms of Odessa before it can reach a court of law.

Twelve-year-old Epic McDade isn't ready for middle school. He'd rather help out at his family's dog-friendly bed-and-breakfast all summer or return to his alternative elementary school in the fall, where learning feels safe. But change comes in all shapes and fur colors. When Carmelito, California, is named America's number one dog-friendly town, all the top dogs and their owners pour into Epic's sleepy seaside neighborhood for a week of celebration.

Just when Sarah Quilliam (Quill) hopes a wealthy investor from Finland will allow her to buy back her beloved Inn at Hemlock Falls, things start to unravel. Her sister, Meg, the Inn’s three-star chef, plans to marry and move to New York; Quill’s investor delays signing the check - and mysterious “accidents” occur after a couple of Hollywood scriptwriters and their producer show up at the inn. Quill and Meg set out to uncover the truth - before the number of dead bodies can escalate further.

Someone is trying to turn Portland High into a school for scandal with a gossipy website called Dirty Laundry. The latest target of ruinous rumors is newly elected PTA President Sandra Wallage. After a heated meeting with outraged parents, Sandra runs into fellow school mom and Private Investigator Maya Kendrick, who's discovered the person behind the website. But when the women storm into the venomous gossip columnist's office they find a lifeless body - along with a confession.

DI Tom Stonem’s peaceful holiday is cut short when a body is discovered nearby, in the shadow of the Angel of the North. The dead man is bound, his arms outstretched in the sculpture’s iconic pose. In the man’s pocket is what appears to be a little girl’s Christmas list, with the first item – 1. Angel delight – crossed off. When a second body is found – a woman, stabbed in the abdomen after her work Christmas do – Stonem can’t help but notice a grim connection between the crime scenes and the items on the seemingly innocent list. 2. Red party dress. Could this be a murderer’s twisted code?

The town of Sarlat is staging a reenactment of its liberation from the British in the Hundred Years’ War when the play’s French hero, Brice Kerquelin, is stabbed and feared fatally wounded. Is it an unfortunate prop malfunction—or something more sinister? The stricken man happens to be number two in the French intelligence service, in line for the top job. Bruno is tasked with the safety of the victim’s daughter Claire, as well as her father's old Silicon Valley buddies, ostensibly in town for a reunion.

Big secrets run deep. Former FBI agent Jack McBride took the job as chief of police for Stillwater, Texas, to start a new life with his teenage son, Ethan, away from the suspicions that surrounded his wife's disappearance a year earlier. With a low crime rate and a five-man police force, he expected it to be a nice, easy gig; hot checks, traffic violations, some drugs, occasional domestic disturbances, and petty theft. Instead, within a week he is investigating a staged murder-suicide.

On a winding mountain road into the town of Denton, Pennsylvania, Detective Josie Quinn finds the body of a local teenage girl, Dina Hale. The sight of plum-colored bruises gathering around the girl’s neck pierces Josie’s heart, but the discovery of a second girl’s empty purse in the dirt nearby gives her a flicker of hope that one person, at least, made a lucky escape. Dina’s parents are grief-stricken as the town rallies together in a desperate search for the second girl, who waitressed with Dina. The two best friends were on their way to a shift when they were attacked.

This is the story of Del Parsons, whose parents rob a bank and fracture his life into a before and an after, crossing the threshold that cannot be uncrossed. After his parents' arrest and imprisonment, Del and Berner, his twin sister, face a blank future of foster care and social services visits. Berner, willful and burning with anger, runs away. Then a family friend intervenes, spiriting Del across the Montana/Saskatchewan border. There, in a dilapidated town floating in the sea of the Canadian prairie, he's taken in by Arthur Remlinger - an enigmatic, charismatic man.

Bristol detective DS George Cross, champion of the outsider, the voiceless and the dispossessed. DS George Cross can be rude, difficult and awkward with people. But his unfailing logic and dogged pursuit of the truth means his conviction rate is the best on the force. An outsider himself, having been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, DS Cross is especially drawn to cases concerning the voiceless and the dispossessed. Now, Cross is untangling the truth about a young woman who died three days ago.

Michael and Maggie Butler are found naked and dead in a Wisconsin wheat field, murdered by two vicious shotgun blasts. But no one gets murdered in Kickapoo Falls, a peaceful, picturesque vacation retreat on the edge of the Wisconsin Dells, home of the politically powerful Kickapoo Gunn Club. Deputy Pennington is convinced the answer lies back in the wheat field. But the town's ruling elite closes ranks and turns on him as he zeroes in on the truth. What appears to be a husband-wife murder-suicide soon opens doors into a deadly conspiracy set for election night.

Private McAuslan’s admirers already know him as court-martial defendant, ghost-catcher, star-crossed lover and golf caddie extraordinary; in this third and final volume of army memoirs, he appears as the most unlikely of batmen to his long-suffering protector and persecutor, Lieutenant Dand MacNeill; as guardroom philosopher and adviser to the leader of the Riff Rebellion; and even as Lance Corporal McAuslan, the Mad Tyrant of Three Section!

Meet Tannie Maria - recipe writer turned crime fighter - and before she has time to take her Venus Chocolate Cake out of the oven, our glorious heroine finds herself embroiled in another mystery. In this wonderful sequel to Recipes for Love and Murder, Slimkat the bushman finds his life under threat and Tannie Maria is determined to find out who wants to kill him. But her new boyfriend, Detective Lieutenant Henk Kannemeyer, is keen to keep Tannie out of danger.

The eccentric, and sometimes lovable, characters of Spookie have returned for another series of mysterious adventures. Frank Lester, ex-Chicago homicide detective and mystery author, after his and Abigail’s long-awaited vacation is over, and they’re home again, has once more come out of retirement this time to take the position of sheriff of Spookie, because of Sheriff Mearl’s murder.

For many years Zeke Caldwell has been concocting home remedies made from natural ingredients found in the coastal marshes near Wilmington, North Carolina. One of his remedies proved so effective that he patented it with the help of David’s father. Now he suspects a big drug company has stolen his formula. What he doesn’t know is that the theft has deeper, more evil roots. When Zeke asks David to help fight the drug company, David knows the suit is beyond his expertise and experience.

FBI Agent Dillon Savich is on a challenging case involving the kidnapping of two teenage boys when trouble boils up in his personal life. His younger sister Lily has crashed her Explorer into a redwood in California's Hemlock Bay. Is it another suicide attempt, the second since the loss of her young daughter some seven months before? Savich and Sherlock discover that four of Lily's paintings, left to her by their very famous grandmother, artist Sarah Elliot, now worth millions, are at the heart of an intricate conspiracy.

A film company is coming to the Cornish village of Penstowan, and the whole community turn up to be cast as extras, even Jodie ‘Nosey’ Parker. Determined to join in with the fun and ignore any dramas, Jodie intends to make the most of this time with her mum and daughter and hopefully see their names in lights…or really small writing on the credits page. But right on cue, the company’s caterer is sabotaged and Jodie must step up. It soon becomes clear that someone is out to spoil the filming.

Tatum hasn’t seen her daughter, Adrienne, in years, not since Tatum’s husband—the pastor in their small California town—all but disowned her. When she finally gathers the courage to secretly reconnect with Adrienne, Tatum’s thrilled she’s even willing to talk to her. But then—Adrienne disappears. When Adrienne doesn’t show up for her shift at the bar where Tatum’s been visiting her, she knows something is wrong. Adrienne may have been a bit of a wild child, but she hasn’t missed a day of work without calling in for years.

In February, 1806, the frigate carrying Vice-Admiral Sir Richard Bolitho drops anchor off the shores of southern Africa. Bolitho's instructions are to assist in hastening the campaign in Africa where an expeditionary force is attempting to recapture Cape Town from the Dutch. Bolitho is still brooding over the loss of his flagship, and hi socntinuing personal troubles are only brightened by his love for Catherine, Lady Somervell.