historical mystery

Featured Book: Murder Under A Blue Moon: A 1930s Mona Moon Mystery by Abigail Keam

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Top 10 mystery reads by Kings River Life Magazine!

Mona Moon is not your typical young lady. She is a cartographer by trade, explorer by nature, and adventurer by heart. But there’s a problem. Miss Mona is broke. It’s during the Depression, and National Geographic has just turned down her application to join an expedition to the Amazon. What’s she to do? Perhaps get a job as a department store salesgirl. Anything to tide her over until a next assignment.

There’s a knock on the door. Who could this be in the middle of the night? Holding a revolver, Mona reluctantly opens her door to a man wearing a Homburg hat and holding a briefcase. “I bring glad tidings. Your Uncle Manfred Moon has died and left you as his heir to the Moon fortune. You are now one of the richest women in the country!” he says. Mona’s response is to point her revolver in his face. If the stranger is telling the truth, she will apologize. If he is a fraud, she will shoot him. That’s how Mona does things in 1933.

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Murder Under A Bridal Moon: A 1930s Mona Moon Mystery by Abigail Keam

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CONTENDER FOR TOP MYSTERY 2022 BY KINGS RIVER LIFE MAGAZINE!

Mona Moon is planning her wedding to Robert Farley, Duke of Brynelleth, when preparations go haywire after one of the maids is found murdered. With just days before the blessed event, unwanted guests invade Moon Manor throwing a wrench into Mona’s plans and making it more difficult to seek the truth. Now Robert is a suspect in the maid’s murder. A missing gold brooch and twenty five-dollar bills are the only clues Mona has to find the murderer. She must clear Robert from suspicion or he will call off the wedding, saying he refuses to taint Mona’s good name. Can she discover the killer before the wedding, or will the murderer witness the breakup between Mona and Robert? Was that the intention all along?

Targeted Age Group:: 18+

What Inspired You to Write Your Book?
One thing Miss Abigail loves to do as an author is to write real people and events into her stories. “I am a student of history and love to insert historical information into my mysteries. My goal is to entertain my readers, but if they learn a little something along the way—well, then we are both happy."

Royally Dispatched by P.C. James and Kathryn Mykel

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Royally Dispatched by P.C. James and Kathryn Mykel

A new series from best-selling authors P.C. James, and Kathryn Mykel–author of award-winning Sewing Suspicion.

A Duchess, her trusted butler and a nose-it-all furry sidekick. Can Lady Mary uncover the secret plan before she’s dispatched like her predecessor?

London, 1958. Lady Mary, Duchess of Snodsbury has received a royal dispatch to travel to London to prepare the last of the debutants for entrance into society. News of the demise of the previous trainer has Mary on high alert–as is her sharp nosed corgi, Barkley. Add in a gaggle of teenaged debutants, a protective butler, and a spirited cook and our heroine will be embroidered in a murder mystery of generations. Will the debutants prove helpful in uncovering secret plans or will she find out that the culprit is within her ranks?
Royally Dispatched is a fun first in series, cozy mystery with a historical nod. If you like crafty sleuths, animal sidekicks and a gang of amateur detectives, then you’ll love P.C. James and Kathryn Mykel’s Duchess of Snodsbury Series.

Murder Under A Bridal Moon: A 1930s Mona Moon Mystery by Abigail Keam

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Mona Moon is planning her wedding to Robert Farley, Duke of Brynelleth, when preparations go haywire after one of her maids is found murdered. With just days before the blessed event, unwanted guests invade Moon Manor throwing a wrench into Mona’s plans and making it more difficult to seek the truth. Now Robert is a suspect in the maid’s murder. A missing gold brooch and twenty five-dollar bills are the only clues Mona has to find the murderer. She must clear Robert from suspicion or he will call off the wedding, saying he refuses to taint Mona’s good name. Can she discover the killer before the wedding, or will the murderer witness the breakup between Mona and Robert? Was that the intention all along?

Targeted Age Group:: adult

What Inspired You to Write Your Book?
I wanted to write about American history without writing a history book.

The Case at Barton Manor (Mrs. Lillywhite Investigates #1) by Emily Queen

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The Case at Barton Manor (Mrs. Lillywhite Investigates #1) by Emily Queen

1920’s London
If one more person gives Rosemary Lillywhite unwanted advice on when to stop mourning the loss of her beloved husband, she fears she will lose control of her sensibilities. All she wants is to be left alone to drown her misery in a glass of gin and tonic, but when Grace Barton knocks on the door of her dead husband’s investigative office, Rosemary faces a choice: come out of hiding or turn away someone in need of help.
As Grace recounts her tale of intrigue, Rosemary discovers a shared connection with the woman that has her accepting an invitation she can’t refuse. With bright young thing, Vera Blackburn, by her side Rosemary trades her widow weeds for a party dress and heads to a fancy do at Barton Manor where the drinks flow freely, but there’s an undercurrent of unease.
The night ends in a murder for which Rosemary’s brother is the prime suspect. What’s worse, the handsome chief inspector on the case is a man Rosemary knows well. He was her husband’s best mate, and he takes a dim view of lady detectives. Or maybe just of Rosemary becoming one.
What will it take for Rosemary to solve the crime before her brother hangs for a murder he didn’t commit?

Book one in The Mrs. Lillywhite Investigates series.

Are you ready to escape to the roaring twenties? For fans of Beth Byers, Leighann Dobbs, Lee Strauss, and cozy historical murder mysteries.

A light, cozy mystery with no swearing, graphic scenes, or cliffhangers.

Featured Book: The Carnation Murder (Adele Gossling Mysteries: Book 1) by Tam May

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***This is a free book***
*Can a forward-thinking woman help the police solve a murder in a backward-thinking town?*

“Great new series, the time period details are interesting and the mystery intriguing.”

California, 1903: Smart, inquisitive, and a firm believer in the new progressive reforms, Adele Gossling seeks a new life after the devastating death of her father. She flees San Francisco for the small town of Arrojo, planning a life of peace and small pleasures with nothing more exciting than selling fountain pens to the locals in her stationery shop and partaking in the town’s favorite pastime: gossip.

Peace is exactly what she doesn’t get when she discovers her neighbor’s dead body in her gazebo. The police think they have a firm suspect: the young man who was secretly engaged to the victim. But Adele and her clairvoyant new friend Nin Branch are sure he’s innocent. In spite of the raised eyebrows from Arrojo’s Victorian-minded citizens, they set out to prove the young man didn’t do it. But if he didn’t, who did?

Can Adele and Nin solve this puzzling case involving a striped carnation, a diamond ring, a note, a muddy pair of boots, and a broken promise?

Buy The Carnation Murder (Adele Gossling Mysteries: Book 1) Here

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Featured Book: Evil on the High Seas by Emily Queen

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Let’s sail to America, Desmond suggested. It will be fun, he promised. Except, no matter where Rosemary goes, murder seems to follow–even in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean!

The journey was supposed to be part of the adventure, and what could be more fun than a few days aboard a veritable floating palace?
Except Rosemary should have known it wouldn’t be all fun and games. She should have known bunking across the hall from a murder mystery author would come to no good. She should have followed her mother’s advice and stayed safely on dry land.

It doesn’t take long for our intrepid sleuth to stumble onto another dead body, and even less time for her to figure out it wasn’t just an accident: it was murder!

She’s prepared to let security handle the investigation, but when Desmond opens his big mouth and brags too loudly within earshot of the captain, Rosemary finds herself embroiled in another quest for justice. Except now, she’s surrounded by would-be sleuths, and time is running out.

If she doesn’t solve the case before the boat docks in New York, a murderer will go free!
Join Rosemary and her friends for a new mystery as they confront evil on the high seas.

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Featured Book: The Carnation Murder (Adele Gossling Mysteries: Book 1) by Tam May

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Adele Gossling seeks peace and small pleasures in Arrojo after the death of her father. Peace is exactly what she doesn’t get when she discovers her neighbor’s dead body in her gazebo. The police have a firm suspect but Adele is sure he’s innocent. But if he didn’t do it, who did? – “Really well paced and researched appropriately for the era.”

Buy The Carnation Murder (Adele Gossling Mysteries: Book 1) Here

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Then There Were … Two Murders? by P.C. James

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Then There Were … Two Murders? by P.C. James

‘Then There Were … Two Murders?’ is the second book in the Miss Riddell Cozy Mystery series. It follows directly after ‘In the Beginning, There was a Murder’ where, at the end, Miss Riddell receives a letter asking for her help.

The letter is from an elderly widow living out in the English countryside. It’s winter 1953/54 and England is still suffering from the after-effects of WW2 and the costs of the ongoing Korean War. Miss Riddell goes to meet the woman, arrives at her house only to find her dead, suicide apparently.

She tells the police why she was invited by the woman — the woman thought her friend had been murdered months before. However, the police and coroner rule this death to be suicide and dismiss the idea the earlier old woman’s death was anything but natural causes.

Miss Riddell sets out to prove them wrong with her friend Poppy and the old lady’s dog, Jem. Unfortunately, like the police, Miss Riddell can find no conclusive evidence and her supporters give up. Her only hope in the end is to put herself in harm’s way and hope the murderer takes the bait.

In the Beginning, There Was a Murder: An Amateur Female Sleuth Historical Cozy Mystery by P.C. James

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In the Beginning, There Was a Murder: An Amateur Female Sleuth Historical Cozy Mystery by P.C. James

When her best friend is murdered, Pauline Riddell finds she must take the law into her own hands if she is to see justice done.

It’s northern England, 1953, rationing is still in place and the Cold War is heating up. Her fiancé is out in Korea, where thankfully that war is winding down, and she’s just setting out in adult life working at a local armament factory. She’s hard-up, everyone is, but Pauline can see better times ahead, a home, a family, a responsible job, and she’s preparing for that future. Then her friend, Marjorie, is stabbed to death.

At first, Pauline is only concerned with helping the police. She’s intelligent and resourceful but also inexperienced, just out of school and still believing the world runs in trustworthy ways.

Then she finds the police think they’ve caught her friend’s killer and they’re winding down the investigation. Pauline now realizes this is a world where you can’t always leave things to others, you have to get involved yourself. But, as she investigates and puts pressure on the police for more action, she finds the killer wants her out of the way and the police have come to suspect she killed her friend. Can she catch the killer before she either faces the same fate as Marjorie or is hanged for killing her?