Mystery Reads

The Key to Murder by Jen Pitts

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Samantha thought following a mysterious diary around the French Quarter of New Orleans would be a harmless way to learn about her new hometown until it became about murder.

As the newest resident of Thibodeaux Mansion, West Coast transplant Samantha is looking forward to starting her thirties in a new place. Drawn to New Orleans for its music, food and history, she’s excited to start her future in this unique city. But Samantha is also hopeful she’ll find her past since she was adopted from Louisiana after being orphaned in a hurricane as a toddler.

An anonymous diary, unusual key, and a distinctive doll are left in her furnished apartment and her mostly friendly neighbors all deny leaving the gifts. Samantha, now Sammy to her new friends, can’t believe any of them could be a liar. When the diary leads her to a dead body, Sammy needs to find out what these clues mean and what the murderer is trying to tell her.

Although her best friends Sissy and Andrew are happy to help her with this mystery, her other friends aren’t sure the murder and diary are about Sammy. Not wanting to lose her newfound friendships and possible love interest, Sammy decides she must uncover the answers on her own.

Sammy moved to New Orleans looking for a new future, but is it her past that found her first?

The Key to Murder is the first book in the The French Quarter Mysteries featuring West Coast transplant Samantha Richardson settling into her new hometown, New Orleans. Her neighborhood is full of music, food and history as well as interesting people. Join Sammy as she explores the Big Easy by solving the mysteries of the past and present in this new modern, cozy mystery series.

Targeted Age Group:: 25+

What Inspired You to Write Your Book?
I love mysteries and New Orleans, but I couldn't find enough books like that to keep me happy. Toni Morrison said, "“If there's a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it.” I took that to heart and starting writing my French Quarter Mystery Series.

Below The Strandline by Tim Parr

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BELOW THE STRANDLINE
Dark, gripping debut crime novel
Survival – Betrayal – Justice

“Her chest fired up with pain at every gurgling intake of breath. She mustered a cry for help but managed just a whimper. She tried again and a hoarse scream was carried away in the wind. Then she heard the sound of the door opening …”

SURVIVAL – The decade is the Seventies. Jerry runs away from a chequered past to start a new life in the city. He wants to be in control of his own destiny, to live by his own rules and above all to protect the girl he is falling in love with. He finds himself homeless, at first sleeping rough on the streets until opportunity comes his way. Jerry’s actions lead readers to question how far they might go to survive, to better their futures, to right the wrongs inflicted on them and to protect those that they care about. Would they be prepared to deliver their own version of justice?

BETRAYAL – In a mansion house in London, former spymaster Sir Peter is lavishly entertaining the influential members of a powerful secret society that operates above the law. When someone threatens to expose the identity of this secretive club, they close ranks and seek to recover the list of names that has been hidden. When others fail spectacularly, Sir Peter instructs his devoted butler, an ex commando, to step in.

JUSTICE – Police investigate a suspicious fall after a woman is found fighting for her life. The case escalates to a murder hunt and the plot thickens as the search intensifies to find the killer. Female detective Janice Morgan plays a pivotal role in uncover-ing a brutal gang but fears for her safety mount when she goes missing. The chase is on to find the mystery ringleader and stop a major shipment of drugs from reaching Britain’s streets.

Themes in the story will challenge the moral compass. Readers will be rewarded with human stories and richly drawn characters in Tim Parr’s debut crime novel, Below The Strandline.

Targeted Age Group:: Adult

What Inspired You to Write Your Book?
I was a child of the Sixties, grew up in the Seventies and later spent some years in London, first as a student and then in work. The city had a gritty edge to it. I was drawn to images of decay and abandonment, particularly in the docklands where carcasses of old abandoned warehouses stood on silted up, a stone's throw from the River Thames. I remember being shocked on my first evening going out with a bunch of other students from my halls to Leicester Square and seeing a poor man lying there attended by an ambulance man, his throat slit from ear to ear. Revelers simply walked on by. I made a mental note of that.
I was one of the pioneering windsurfers who sailed on the docks and still remember the sweet, oily taste of that water. I noted that down as well.
I am intrigued by the stark contrasts found in many cities. Prosperity and poverty are often uncomfortably close neighbours. Going back to my time in London, I would see a street of gentrified mews houses with geranium-filled window boxes, but turn a corner and there would be people fighting for survival, sleeping rough, trading on street corners or under the railway arches.
I have always kept observational notes in dog-eared notebooks and sketched out plot lines on the backs of crumpled envelopes, generally shoved at the back of my sock drawers. A quest for socks with no holes in them led to the discovery of my notes and in turn I found the raw ingredients and inspiration for my debut crime novel.

Featured Book: THE ETERNAL DARKNESS: 159 TALES OF TERROR by Steven Havelock

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About Featured Book: THE ETERNAL DARKNESS: 159 TALES OF TERROR by Steven Havelock

Stephen King meets Dean Koontz. Do you like stories in the style of the Twilight zone, Outer limits and Tales from the crypt?
Then this massive book of short stories is for you, not too wordy, not too long but still packs a hell of a punch.
159 tales from the deepest depths of the psyche, this massive book by a single author has taken over 20 years to write and takes over 100 hours to read, if you want a book that's going to keep you up into the early hours of the morning then this is it.
This book is filled with bizarre happenings from axe wielding serial killers to shadow demons in the dark and things that go bump in the night.
Over 1800 pages and 159 tales from the deepest depths of the psyche. So, light the bedside lamp, draw the bed-covers close and prepare for a rare treat of a book that will have you reading into the early hours of the morning.

This Thriller book is available in these Formats: eBook

Buy Book Here.

Featured Book: Track Down Box Set: Books 1-3 (Brad Jacobs Thriller Series) by Scott Conrad

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About Featured Book: Track Down Box Set: Books 1-3 (Brad Jacobs Thriller Series) by Scott Conrad

Kindle Countdown Deal Sale Price $0.99 from 11/21/20 – 11/27/20.

Brad Jacobs has made a career out of “kill or be killed.”
Some call him cold-blooded. He’d argue that emotional sensitivity is no match for an AK47.

Then he receives the call that changes everything…

TRACK DOWN AFRICA
Brad’s mischievous cousin, Jessica Paul, has gone and got herself lost in the African jungle. They say the 26-year old treasure hunter has become disoriented, or run off with some local tribe. But Brad knows Jess. She wouldn’t leave her family behind in the name of adventure, or rebellion. Somewhere, someone— knows the truth. And in a land of deadly diseases, man-eating beasts and terrorist militias, this is one mystery he’s half-afraid of solving.
If anyone can save her, it’s a tough bounty hunter with a crack team of military buddies. But the darkness waiting for them in the Ubangi Jungle is deadlier than any they’ve faced before, and this time, the stakes are so much higher.

TRACK DOWN ALASKA
It was meant to be a hunting trip…
Until the predator became the prey.
Brad learns the plane carrying Jessica’s new boyfriend has crashed in the mountains of Alaska. If the impact didn't kill him, the grizzlies and arctic temperatures will, never mind all the strange sightings that have become local legend. Some say they're hillbillies, running from the government. Others whisper of cross-burnings, skinheads and gaunt-faced women.
Brad will do everything he can to protect Jessica. But her handsome beau is keeping secrets, and few who get lost in these mountains manage to come out alive.

TRACK DOWN AMAZON
All he wanted was a break, but Brad Jacobs should have guessed that in a world fueled by blood and greed, only the wicked get to rest.
After a perilous adventure in Alaska, the former Marine and bounty hunter is thawing his toes in Cabo when he gets a call from his colleague Ving, whose little brother has disappeared while on a DEA mission in Peru. A ransom request has arrived from Shining Path, a Maoist Guerilla Group led by the psychopath Rodolfo Abimael Guzmán. Ving wants Brad to handle the exchange, but there’s one glaring problem. The only thing Guzmán values more than cash is the mystery around his hidden headquarters. Captives who know too much are returned to their families in body bags.
Jacobs is a hostage rescue expert, not an undertaker. Can he risk the lives of his team for little more than a bag of bones?

Enjoy this starter set of the first 3 action-packed short novels in the Brad Jacobs Thriller Series and really get to know the characters before moving on to the full-length books. Ride along as Brad builds the world’s most elite Hostage Rescue Team!

This Thriller book is available in these Formats: eBook

Buy Book Here.

Featured Book: Damnable Fun by Victoria Knight and Hyperion Knight

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About Featured Book: Damnable Fun by Victoria Knight and Hyperion Knight

Revenge is a Dish Best Served in Cold, Hard Cash
Only 99¢, November 17-21 only!

A few years after high school, Christina can’t take the dull, workaday world anymore, so she gets the old gang together to pull off a small-town bank heist. Seeking the criminal mastermind status she craves, she recruits her concert pianist brother Van, car-thief friend Walter, and hot ex-boyfriend Sonny. What’s supposed to be an easy little inside job turns into a rollicking adventure as these amateur criminals attempt to go pro. In the midst of planning a major federal crime in a weekend, will the thrill of being bad reignite the romantic-crime-duo chemistry between Christina and Sonny? Will sophisticated pianist Van get caught red-handed and lose the prestigious career for which he sacrificed his youth? Will Walter’s wacky schizophrenic mom or Sonny’s nosy teen-runaway cousin be the downfall of the whole gang? Damnable Fun is more than a page-turner heist novel, it’s damn fun fiction loosely based upon the true story of the largest unsolved bank burglary in Northern California

This Fiction book is available in these Formats: eBook, Print

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Featured Book: In The Beginning, There Was a Murder by P.C. James

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About Featured Book: In The Beginning, There Was a Murder by P.C. James

Book will be $0.99 Nov 16-20 and FREE Nov 21-23.
A secret liaison. A violent murder. Can one woman solve the crime without joining the body count?
Northern England, 1953. Pauline Riddell has grand ambitions for her future at the armament factory. So, when her closest workmate reveals a salacious affair with a married man, Pauline refuses to risk her career by listening to the scandal. But she’s shaken to her core when the police arrive with news of her best friend’s homicide.
Desperate for justice, Pauline’s insistent poking into the investigation only makes her the prime suspect. And now to clear her name, she must unravel a web of deadly clues entangling her in a sinister plot.
Can Pauline catch the killer before they strike again?

This Mystery book is available in these Formats: eBook

Buy Book Here.

The Woman In The Water by Elle Gray

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The Woman In The Water by Elle Gray

Charlotte’s body lays lifeless floating in a pool. Ruby red water surrounds her.
Her daughter’s desperate screams fill the air…
“Mom?!!!!”.

Charlotte MacMillan, the mother of three, found dead. Murdered in broad daylight.
Only two know the twisted truth. The victim and her killer.
To solve this case, Paxton must bring light to the unrelenting darkness.
Unmask the truth behind the devastating lies.
And unearth the shocking secret behind Charlotte’s deadly double life…
All while trying to save an innocent man from taking a fall for a crime he did not commit.

But what happens when no one is who they appear to be?

Some secrets can destroy everything.
This secret will destroy the lives of those left behind.
The truth is a minefield that one must survive. Not everybody will.

Smokes of Death Beer by Shana Frost

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A town known for its smoked beer. What if this pint is your last?

Nina Banerjee wants to enjoy medieval architecture, history and Rauchbier in the charming town of Bamberg in Bavaria. But when she stumbles upon the dead body of a man she just shared a beer with, things take a turn for the worse.

This quaint town, with its half-timbered houses and touristy attractions, is not all that safe. It’s a playground for criminals, who run riot with murder on their minds.

What will Nina do? Will she sit still as Detective Robert Muller labels her a prime suspect, or will curiosity get the better of her?

Targeted Age Group:: 18-60

What Inspired You to Write Your Book?
Bamberg did! The book is set in this picturesque city in Germany. The enigma surrounding Bamberg and it's rich heritage made be think: what if a tourist stumbled over a dead body whilst roaming these cobbled streets?

Featured Book: Hot Pursuit by Lynn Raye Harris

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FREE BOOK!

Evie Baker’s luck just ran out. Thanks to an ex-partner with organized crime ties, she’s lost her restaurant, her money, and nearly all her self-respect. Forced to return to her hometown and work as a shampoo girl in her mother’s salon, she doesn’t think her luck can get any worse.

But then someone starts shooting at her, her sullen baby sister is suddenly missing, and the high school heartthrob who stole her heart — and her virginity — is the only man big enough and bad enough to help.

Captain Matt “Richie Rich” Girard can’t afford to get involved. He’s already on the verge of a court-martial after a Top Secret op gone wrong, and he’s been ordered to stay out of trouble while he’s home for his sister’s wedding.

But when Evie’s ex-partner turns up dead, staying out of trouble is the last thing on Matt’s mind. He failed Evie once before; he can’t fail her again. If he’s going to protect her from a killer, and find her sister before time runs out, he’ll have to risk his entire future — and both their lives — to do it.

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Featured Book: Déjà Dead by Susan Kiernan-Lewis

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Claire Baskerville is a sixty-something American who finds herself alone in Paris when her husband is brutally murdered. Reeling from the devastating secrets he left behind, Claire only knows she can’t move forward until she finds out the truth behind who killed her husband.But the killer is determined to make sure she never leaves Paris alive.

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