Mystery Reads

The Crimson Masquerade by Vickie Britton

Trouble precedes Ardis Cole to the site of a Han Dynasty tomb in China. Dr. Yong Po, who has asked for her assistance, is being stalked by a person wearing a crimson opera mask. Ardis is concerned when her co-worker, Grant Merlin, fails to arrive at the project, and his ex-wife, Sheri, takes his place. More problems arise when Sheri is attacked on the cliffs by the same masked intruder. Ardis’ search for the tomb of emperor Sun Yan leads to ancient intrigue surrounding a captive princess, referred to in his poetry as the “Lady of White Jade.” As Ardis delves deeper into the tomb’s secret, a centuries old crime of passion is eerily replayed in the present.

Targeted Age Group:: General Readership

What Inspired You to Write Your Book?
A fabulous, exotic trip to China and a visit through an old tea plantation was the inspiration for this mystery set China. We were also fascinated by the many tombs which still remain unexcavated throughout China and the fascinating legends that surround them.

Gift Guide: Bribing Saint Anthony by Rita Moreau

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Targeted Age Group:: 30+
Category: Women Sleuths

About Bribing Saint Anthony:
Bribing Saint Anthony is an entertaining and humorous mystery.

A missing husband.
A plot to blow up a national treasure.
Fortune telling aunts.

Mary Catherine, MC for short, didn’t move as the Queen of Boca Vista, Babbs La-Fleur, placed a pile of cash, which appeared out of a purse she knew cost more than her car, smack dab in the middle of her desk.

Word at all the cocktail parties was that MC had a skill that came in handy for an aging socialite going through a divorce. She was good at finding cash in hidden bank accounts. Cash to pay for a nip and tuck and a new identity: Cougar.

Hired that day by Queen Babbs to find her bad boy husband, Charlie, MC was back on familiar ground, tracking down bad guys through clues left in the DNA of their paper life.

Asking her Aunt Sophia to read the family fortune telling cards might have helped. Instead, the paper trail Charlie left takes MC from a murder in the world of rich socialites to working with covert government agents deep in the world of counter terrorism.

Featured Book: A DEAD HUSBAND by Anna Celeste Burke

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Jessica Huntington, shopaholic sleuth with a black AMEX card is in over her head, but a damn good swimmer! Jessica is hiding out from her own well-planned life, now in shambles. Her law career tanked by the Great Recession, she failed miserably as a desperate housewife in the Silicon Valley. Playing beat-the-clock with her 30-something hormones for 3 long years her final reward was a little baby fat, but no baby. The final blow, though, was walking in on her husband in bed with a well-known Hollywood blond.

The Rancho Mirage home where she grew up, surrounded by the beauty of the desert resort town near Palm Springs, seems the perfect place to take refuge. That is until her best friend’s husband is murdered. Jessica and her friends are soon swept into the fray, stalked by scoundrels in pantyhose, stilettos, Bruno Maglis, and Armani suits. Roger Stone had something that got him killed. What was it and to what lengths will they go to get it back? Can this flawed, but resourceful heroine get to them before they get to her?

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A Model Murder by Celia Conrad

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A Model Murder is part 1 of the Alicia Allen Investigates crime trilogy featuring Alicia Allen, the Anglo-Italian Pringle munching lawyer with a passion for solving crime.

When an aspiring Australian model, Tamsin Brown, who lives in the apartment below Alicia’s is found raped and murdered and her body dumped in an alleyway in Soho, Tammy’s flatmate Kim begs for Alicia’s help. Alicia feels compelled to assist with the murder inquiry and having discovered that Tammy has been working in a hostess club in Piccadilly, Alicia is sucked into the sleazy world of nightclubs. Soon after, Alicia takes a new position at a firm where Kim works as a legal secretary, but it becomes clear that nothing is as it seems and nobody can be trusted. Is there some connection between the firm and Tammy’s murder? When her elderly neighbor Dorothy is brutally attacked for something she has witnessed in connection with the murder, Alicia risks everything to solve the crime thereby endangering herself and those around her in her quest to bring the perpetrator(s) to justice.

Targeted Age Group:: Adult

What Inspired You to Write Your Book?
I come from a legal background and I had the idea to write a novel building upon my experiences from within the law. I was relaying to a friend one day about one of my “experiences” and he suggested that I write it down. After I left the law, through a chance meeting I was offered a modelling assignment and as a result I met several models who talked to me about their experiences and how they supplemented their income when work was in short supply. This inspired me to research the “club” world which features prominently in this book. It was an eye-opening experience for me!

Definitely Dead by Lois Winston

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When her career is outsourced to Asia, fledgling romance author and empty-nester Gracie Elliott wants a job that will allow her time to write. So she opens Relatively Speaking, becoming a wing woman to the senior set. Since her clients need several hours each morning to find their teeth, lube their creaky joints, and deal with lower GI necessities, and they always turn in after the early bird specials, she has plenty of time to pen her future bestsellers.

Gracie deliberately avoids mentioning her new business venture to husband Blake until after she signs her first client. Blake joins the company as a not-so-silent partner, tagging along to make sure Gracie doesn’t cause a septuagenarian uprising. When Client #13 is found murdered in the parking lot behind the Moose Lodge, Gracie knows, no matter how much Blake protests otherwise, she can’t wait around for the police to find the killer if she wants to save her livelihood.

Targeted Age Group:: adult

What Inspired You to Write Your Book?
I’ve always loved the old Thin Man movies from the 1940’s and wanted to create a modern day spin of them. With my husband and wife sleuthing team, the wife is the sleuth, and her husband tags along to try to keep her out of trouble.

To Catch a Creeper by Ellie Campbell @ecampbellbooks

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Cathy is riding high in her brand-new job at a (surprisingly bitchy) top London advertising agency working with best friend Rosa. But when Rosa’s pregnancy goes amiss and enemies sabotage her new career, she finds herself leading a chaotic double life of lies and deception, hiding a shameful secret from all, especially husband Declan who appears in the throes of a nervous breakdown. Meanwhile she’s agreed to unmask the notorious Crouch End Creeper, a burglar terrorizing their neighbourhood. Little does she know that her meddling, assisted by fellow mothers (the Wednesday Once Weeklies) and the Neighbourhood Watch, will lead their dangerous opponent to murder. And that it’s not only the tall elegant transvestite who is placing herself at risk…

Targeted Age Group:: 25-65

What Inspired You to Write Your Book?
Lots of things. With How To Survive Your Sisters we wanted to explore the dynamics between four sisters, their similarities and differences, the way they can drive you crazy one minute and be your best friend the next. In When Good Friends Go Bad we were imagining what it would be like to meet your old schoolfriends again and how you would get along, what you’d still have in common – especially if you discovered one of them had betrayed you in a significant way. Our third novel Looking For La La was inspired by a postcard someone sent to Pam’s husband, proclaiming passionate love and signing herself La La. We got a kick out of using it as the first chapter of our novel. To Catch a Creeper follows on from Looking for La La, although it is a stand alone novel. We intend it as the second book in a The Crouch End Confidential Mystery series – but it totally stands alone if someone hasn’t read the first. We love human interest stories, the dynamics of relationships and we love using humor to get our point across. And also because life is basically funny.

Dead Like Me by Kelly Miller @MillerMystery

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On edge after a two-week mandatory leave, Homicide Detective Kate Springer is blindsided when she discovers she shares a link with Tampa’s newest murder victim. A troubled teen found strangled and dumped in a remote part of town. The bond between them threatens to expose Detective Springer’s past—a past she’s been hell bent on keeping secret. When the killer finally emerges from the shadows, Kate’s secrets aren’t the only thing on the line. So is her life.

Targeted Age Group:: 18+

What Inspired You to Write Your Book?
Having the victim and the case detective look alike isn’t a new idea. But I was inspired to create the Kate Springer character when I was at the park with my then two children. That day I saw a grandfather there with his granddaughter. There was an odd dynamic between the two. Now I’m pretty good at reading moods, and I could tell by the girl’s body language she was uncomfortable with the touch of her grandfather. I’m a mom. I know the difference between when a child is being moody and when something else is bothering them. This was definitely something else. I regret not striking up a conversation with the child but soon after they arrived, my son fell down, scraped his knee, thus ending our day out.

I’ve never been able to get that little girl out of my head. And in my writer’s mind, she developed into something more. Eventually, I created a whole scenario around her thinking what her life would be like if she grew up the victim of childhood sexual abuse at the hands of her grandfather. Thus Kate Springer was born. I took it a step further, wondering what if Kate became a detective and one day looked into the face of a thirteen-year-old victim, realizing it was like looking into a mirror. What kinds of emotions would it stir up? Would the memories of Kate’s life at thirteen come rushing back?

The Profiler’s Daughter: A Sky Stone Thriller by P. M. Steffen @pm_steffen

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A grisly murder. A six-year-old eyewitness. A gun from the grave.

The Profiler’s Daughter is a psychologically haunting thriller that combines murder mystery, love triangle, and family intrigue in one satisfying page burner.

Sky Stone was born into the wealth and privilege of Boston’s oldest Brahmin family but chooses instead to follow in the footsteps of her deceased father, legendary FBI profiler Monk Stone. In the chilly morning hours before the Boston Marathon, when a beautiful university student is found strangled and mutilated, her body left at the base of Heartbreak Hill, Sky returns from self-imposed exile to investigate. Thirty-six hours into the investigation, Sky’s world turns upside down when she is fired from the Homicide team. They pin the murder on an innocent man, forcing Sky into a treacherous game of cat and mouse with the real killer. From the stately mansions of Beacon Hill to the flat scrubland of central Texas, Sky keeps the reader on a razor’s edge, culminating in a no-holds-barred shoot-out.

The Profiler’s Daughter, the first in the Sky Stone Thriller series, introduces a moody, enigmatic, and brilliant female sleuth with the fierce bite of Stieg Larsson’s Lisbeth Salander. As adeptly written as Martin Cruz Smith’s complex Arkady Renko novels, this thriller offers an intriguing plot, richly detailed characters, and an astonishing conclusion guaranteed to leave the reader begging for more.

Targeted Age Group:: Adult

What Inspired You to Write Your Book?
I wrote the book that I wanted to read, in the sense that I longed for a female protagonist that I could relate to: Sky Stone is the quintessential female, a woman who anguishes over love, who doubts herself, whose search for the killer is fraught with obstacles and and hurdles, both personal and physical, that she must overcome. A woman who prevails in the end.

The Devil Drinks Coffee by Destiny Ford @AngCorbett

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A cow suicide, a revolving door rescue, and the birth of a bright purple pig are starting to make Kate Saxee wonder if taking a job in her small hometown of Branson Falls, Utah, was such a great idea. As The Branson Tribune editor, Kate covers local news, which, more often than not, involves her accident-prone mom. Nothing truly newsworthy has ever happened in the quiet town until local teen Chelsea Bradford turns up dead in a Branson Falls lake.

The police rule Chelsea’s death an accident, but Kate suspects there’s more to the story—and she’s not the only one. Two of Branson’s most eligible bachelors are determined to help her solve the crime—among other things. But the small town social network is faster than Twitter, and gossip about Kate’s love-life is quickly branding her the Branson Falls hussy.

As Kate learns more about Chelsea, she discovers that plenty of people are trying to cover up the real story behind the girl’s death—including Chelsea’s parents. Now Kate has to juggle work, men, her mom’s most recent disaster involving a low-speed John Deere Combine chase on the freeway, and fend off the Mormons heaven-bent on saving her soul—all while solving Chelsea’s murder. Dealing with this is going to require a lot of coffee, chocolate frosted donuts, Neil Diamond’s greatest hits, and a slew of words not on the town approved imitation swear list.

Targeted Age Group:: 18+

What Inspired You to Write Your Book?
I wanted to write a funny mystery/romance about living in a small Utah town.