Womens Fiction Thriller

New York Times best-selling author Joanne Fluke will leave listeners hungry for more with this, her best recipe for murder yet. Devil’s Food Cake Murder finds the residents of Lake Eden, Minnesota, buzzing with activity. Perhaps busiest of all is Hannah Swensen, proprietor of The Cookie Jar, who is experimenting with a devil’s food cake recipe. But no matter how hectic times may be, Hannah can always find time to help a friend—particularly a dead one.

Police Constable Matthew Riley is called to an emergency on a hot day in Langthorne. He is forced to read out words live on police radio. Then he is shot dead. Someone is killing the officers of the Langthorne Police one by one. And in a sadistic twist he makes each victim push their radio panic button before they die, thus broadcasting their last moments to the entire force. And as the police face this ruthless adversary, detective George Elms is in no fit state to help. He can barely keep his life together and is desperate to sort things out with his estranged wife and daughter.

As Hannah prepares to run a bakery and move out of her mother's house, it'll be a true miracle if she can prevent another yuletide disaster by solving a mystery as dense as a Christmas fruitcake....

The house has sat empty for 15 years, taking up prime real estate along the picturesque coastline. Built by one of the founders of South Cove, its last known owner, Maryanne Demerit, vanished without a trace. Now her home will be demolished for a condo development, but until then, it's the perfect spot for a Halloween haunted house. Jill Gardner, her boyfriend, and three other couples are spending the weekend in the Demerit home. But what begins as an all-in-good-fun fright fest turns into a mystery begging to be solved as Jill is contacted by the ghost of Maryanne.

Siobhán O'Sullivan's hopes for a quiet Irish Christmas are dashed when the local Santa turns up dead in a carnival dunk tank of hot cocoa. Now instead of hunting down holiday gifts, she's pursuing a heartless killer. Seems the dead Santa was no angel either, stealing neighborhood dogs to guide his sleigh. But was it his holiday antics - or worse - that led to his death by chocolate?

Lily grew up on a farm and always considered herself resilient. But when the small town’s high school football hero is arrested and convicted for the attack, Lily and her family suffer retaliation from some of the community, enticing Lily to wrap herself in an opioid cloud. When she puts her daughters’ lives in jeopardy, the wake-up call motivates Lily to flush the narcotics and clean up her life. But the clarity she expects is overshadowed by unnerving memory lapses.

A crime of passion strikes close to home when Gemma and her best friend, Hazel Cavendish, travel to Scotland, a land of mists and fine whiskey, of hidden pasts and dangerous secrets, or so Gemma discovers when an unexpected meeting with Hazel's old flame yields shocking—and mortal—consequences. Hazel is the logical suspect, but Gemma knows nothing is simple in this place of secrets and long-seething hatreds.

Published in instalments in 1859, The Woman in White is often considered to be one of the very first detective novels. Although critics weren’t impressed at the time, the novel proved to be a hit with the public and has since gone on to become one of the timeless classics of the Victorian era. Following the adventures of Walter Hartright, this is a story of sleuthing, inheritance, ghosts and mistaken identity and was recently the subject of a hit TV adaptation by the BBC.

When Jill hosts a talk at Coffee, Books, and More on the topic of elder abuse, all that's really on her mind is lunch. But the topic hits close to home when she discovers Aunt Jackie has been getting mysterious calls. Jill's certain the caller is a con artist, of course, but her feisty aunt claims to understand this, though she's still shaken-and Harrold's still heartbroken. Who's behind the scam and why was her aunt targeted? When a volunteer from the Senior Project is found murdered, Jill's detective boyfriend is on the case - and it soon becomes clear no one is safe.

Frances Wynn, the American-born Countess of Harleigh, enjoys more freedom as a widow than she did as a wife. After an obligatory year spent mourning her philandering husband, Reggie, she puts aside her drab black gowns, leaving the countryside and her money-grubbing in-laws behind. With her young daughter in tow, Frances rents a home in Belgravia and prepares to welcome her sister, Lily, arriving from New York - for her first London season.

Determined to find the men responsible for her disgraced father's murder, Lady Arianna Hadley disguises herself as a man and contrives to be hired as a chef in one of London's aristocratic households. But when the prince regent is poisoned by Arianna's special chocolate dessert, she finds her own quest has become intertwined with a far more deadly intrigue. The earl of Saybrook is asked by the government to investigate. When someone tries to kill them both, they become reluctant allies in the hunt to discover what evil is afoot.

New York Times best-selling author Laurie R. King has won or been nominated for every major award in mystery writing. King's beloved sleuth Mary Russell here attempts to reverse her legendary husband, Sherlock Holmes', greatest failure.

London 1884. Electricity pioneer Simon Borthwick lights up Victorian London with a stunning illuminations display - then shoots himself in a hansom cab. Plucky Fleet Street reporter Penny Green witnesses the inventor's death and suspects the clue to his suicide lies in a mysterious letter he left behind. But can she persuade Inspector James Blakely of Scotland Yard that a crime has been committed? Borthwick isn't the only person who died that day, and Penny soon encounters a shadowy world which the police can't get close to.

Mind Game takes Jane MacGuire back to Scotland, where she continues her search for the treasure she's been chasing for years. But now she's being plagued by dreams of a girl in danger. Who is this girl, and what is she trying to tell Jane? And will Jane figure it out before it's too late - for her and the mysterious young woman? Things are further complicated when Seth Caleb comes back into Jane's life. This time he's the one in trouble, and Jane will find herself pulled unexpectedly into his world as she fights to save him.

For 25 years, Anne Mitchell was enslaved by what she called the "Boogeyman" - images from her lost childhood that appeared in the shadows behind her reflection in mirrors and wine glasses, haunted her dreams, and attacked her in screaming night terrors. Fear of facing that secret held her hostage. Like a schoolyard bully, it twisted her arm behind her back and forced her to accept that her life began in the dirt beside a ditch when she was 11 years old.

Delaney Nichols, originally of Kansas but settling happily into her new life as a bookseller in Edinburgh, works at The Cracked Spine in the heart of town. She's recently befriended a few medical school students after they came into the shop to sell some antique medical tomes. But when one of the students' friends is found murdered outside in the alley, Delaney takes it upon herself to help bring the murderer to justice.

Recently engaged and deeply ensconced in her third year of surgical residency in Chicago, Emily Hartford gets a shock when she is called home to Freeport, Michigan, the small town she fled a decade ago after the death of her mother. Her estranged father, the local medical examiner, has had a massive heart attack. At the hospital, she finds her father in near total denial of the seriousness of his condition. He insists that the best thing Emily can do to help him is to take on the autopsy of a senator's teen daughter whose sudden, unexplained death has just rocked the sleepy town.

A cursed Fox. A vengeful Silver. A whole lot of trouble. Lydia Crow has long suspected there is more beneath London than just trains but has never been keen to poke around in the dark. But when Paul Fox, powerful member of the Fox Family, blackmails her into taking a case, she has no choice. Investigating a suspicious death in a disused tunnel of the London Underground for her ex-boyfriend causes friction between her and DCI Fleet - and not the fun kind.

Though she's the vampire queen, Betsy Taylor is much more like a princess. In MaryJanice Davidson's novels, this high-maintenance monarch is finally coming to terms with her new status.

Innkeeper Alison Kerby is determined to keep her mind, body, and soul focused on bringing high-spirited hospitality to her lodgers at the Haunted Guesthouse. She simply has no time for any more murder investigations, no matter what Paul Harrison, her resident ghost detective, says. But this time, the mystery comes looking for Alison. Workers unearth a 1977 Lincoln Continental buried in the sand behind Alison's guesthouse - and they discover a skeleton still belted in behind the steering wheel.