Discover Mysteries to Read
Tree of Lives by Elizabeth Garden
Based on true events, Tree of Lives is a riveting two-track story of a horrific public murder in 1930 that became a long buried family secret. The lost ghost of the murderer, Raymond, roams the earth until his abused great niece, Ruth, a promising artist, confronts her deeply troubled family. It is a story of unfolding forgiveness, survival and triumph over unaddressed trauma as this determined woman navigates her thorny life path. Illustrated.
Good Bones by L. A. Kelley
No matter how challenging the case, psychologist Katherine Fleming never shirks from helping a patient confront a painful issue. With keen powers of observation and a compassionate nature, she applies talent and training to help any troubled soul, but accepting a new patient who happens to be dead adds an unexpected wrinkle.
The first time Detective Jake Sumner of the Sandy Shoals PD spied the old house he sensed the good bones. Little did he know the purchase of the property included an unusual tenant far from resting in peace. Can the new psychologist in town help him treat a ghostly trauma case and stop a murderer from claiming the next victim?
With the aid of a mysterious white cat and a mystic mirror, Katherine and Jake join forces to hunt a killer. Because if the living won’t seek justice for the dead, who will?
Sometimes people vanish for a reason…
Spending three weeks of her summer at the Foxwoode Riding Academy in northern Michigan should have been one of the happiest times of sixteen-year-old Brynlei’s life. But from the moment Brynlei arrives at Foxwoode, she can’t shake the feeling she’s being watched. Then she hears the story of a girl who vanished on a trail ride four years earlier. While the other girls laugh over the story of the dead girl who haunts Foxwoode, Brynlei senses that the girl–or her ghost–may be lurking in the shadows.
Brynlei’s quest to reveal the truth interferes with her plan to keep her head down and win Foxwoode’s coveted Top Rider Award. To make things worse, someone discovers her search for answers and will go to any length to stop her. As Brynlei begins to unravel the facts surrounding the missing girl’s disappearance, she is faced with an impossible choice. Will she protect a valuable secret? Or save a life?
Targeted Age Group:: 12-18
What Inspired You to Write Your Book?
I always wanted to write a mystery that was set against the backdrop of a horseback riding academy/summer camp. I thought to myself, what if a girl went out on a trail ride and her horse came back without her? What if no one ever knew what really happened to her? I couldn't stop thinking about that scenario, so I knew I had to write a book about it!
2016 New York Book Festival Award Winner!
A psychic interior designer reluctantly agrees to renovate a sexy investor’s abandoned hotel on Loch Sheldrake, a lake rumored to have once been the mob’s body dumping ground.
Interior designer Kate Bardach loves her single girl’s lifestyle, living in Manhattan and spending weekends at her lake house. She’s passionate about her career, too–reinventing old buildings. But there are some projects she can’t take on because of the spirits trapped inside. Kate is psychic–she sees dead people.
Marco Lareci is one of Wall Street’s most successful investment brokers who’s achieved all of his life’s goals–except for finding his soulmate. His latest project, an abandoned resort on Loch Sheldrake, needs a savvy designer to transform the crumbling complex into a boutique hotel. When Marco meets Kate, he can’t believe his luck. She’s the perfect match for his business and his heart.
Marco’s body excites Kate even more than does his renovation project. But he wants more than a casual relationship, and she’s not willing to give up her freedom. Plus, the haunting at Marco’s resort, a bonafide poltergeist, affects her on an intensely personal level. Kate’s aunt disappeared from the place fifty years ago.
Will the spirit doom Kate and Marco’s love, or drive them closer together?
Targeted Age Group:: 18+
What Inspired You to Write Your Book?
The story concept for Hearts Unloched hit me out of left field while I was in the middle of writing another novel. My husband grew up in Sullivan County, N.Y., near Loch Sheldrake. We were in the area visiting friends & family when he told me a few stories about growing up there. He also told me the urban legend about the lake… .
A visit to the Sullivan County Historical Society's Museum in Hurleyville (just a few miles from the lake) confirmed the legend: back in the 50s and 60s, rumor had it that thugs in the Mafia used to drive up from NYC and dump their victims' bodies in Loch Sheldrake – a small lake in a remote location that's very, very deep. That sparked an awesome story idea.
Over the next few hours, we drove around the lake, I took photos, and I talked, asking the question "What if?" During the four hour journey back to Massachusetts (where we now live), I literally wrote the book – verbally, creating the story and relating it to my husband. Upon arriving home, I frantically hit the keyboard and typed an outline. Two months later, Hearts Unloched was born.
There are bits and pieces of truth in Hearts Unloched: my husband actually did work for a resort near Loch Sheldrake, parking cars. He and his buddies did take them out for a spin in the wee hours of the morning. The ethnic/religious differences between Italian hero Marco Lareci and Jewish heroine Kate Bardach also have roots in our family, where there have been two such marriages.
I'm a big fan of ghost stories and romantic novels, so it's only natural for me to write a combination of both. My debut novel, Phantom Traces, takes place in an old, haunted library. The kernel of truth in that story is the May-September romance: my husband is fifteen years older than I am, and we've been happily-ever-after married for thirty-eight years.
If you enjoy romantic suspense with intensely emotional plots, you have found your author. I hope you enjoy Hearts Unloched, and will look for my next paranormal romance – ghost story, Spirits of the Heart, coming later in 2016. And become another of my super fans. 🙂
Set in the fictional town of Caldwell, N.C., “Phantom Traces” is the contemporary story of Abigail Stryker, a young librarian struggling to revive the antiquated and reportedly haunted Harvey Library. A pipe-smoking ghost has suddenly begun hurling books at anyone he doesn’t like, and if the haunting isn’t stopped, the library will be shut down. Abby enlists the help of history professor Jack Wood to figure out what has stirred the spirit of the library’s founder, and why he’s still trapped within its walls after over 100 years. In unraveling they mystery, they uncover a tragic, 19th century tale of love and loss, and discover one of their own.
Addressing the themes of May-September romance and the heartbreak of Alzheimer’s, “Phantom Traces” combines a modern love story, a historical tragedy, and a spooky paranormal in a multilayered, fast-paced plot guaranteed to take the reader on an emotional ride.
Targeted Age Group:: 21+
What Inspired You to Write Your Book?
I’ve always been fascinated by the unexplained and the paranormal, and also love to read fiction, particularly romance. I ran out of titles in this pseudo-genre, so decided my only choice was to start writing them myself.
Having lived a number of years in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in western North Carolina, I was struck by the magic in this place—some parts of that wilderness have remained untouched for hundreds of years. It was the perfect place to set a mysterious romance.
