murder

Guilty Knowledge by Linda Griffin

By Mystery Reads Curator Leave a Comment

She’s a witness. She may be lying. And he’s falling in love with her.

Detectives Jesse Aaron and Camille Farris have no leads in the murder of Rosa Logan when pretty blonde Sariah Brennan claims to have seen the killer—in a vision. Unfortunately the man she identifies is dead—or is he?

Sariah is an unsophisticated small town girl, but her background and her motives are mysterious. Jesse is increasingly convinced that she has guilty knowledge of the crime, even as he finds himself more and more attracted to her. Can he and Camille unravel the web of secrets before the killer strikes again?

Targeted Age Group:: Adult

What Inspired You to Write Your Book?
I had been considering writing about a witness who claims to be psychic, and another subject I was reading about fit with it to create the plot, but the trigger came when a TV character asked a question and I thought about what my answer would be. I gave that answer to Sariah, and the words started flowing.

Featured Book: Killing The Girl by Elizabeth Hill

By Mystery Reads Curator Leave a Comment

Only 99p / 99$ until 16th February on Amazon UK and USA!

This tense psychological thriller of deceit and murder takes you on a journey to madness and fantasy and ends with a killer twist!

In 1970 Carol Cage commits the perfect murder and buries her boyfriend in the orchard of her home, Oaktree House.

Today her home will be demolished and her secret revealed. She fears the judgment of strangers, so writes her confession to mitigate her guilt.

As she prepares to leave her home secrets and lies are uncovered. She wasn’t the only one guilty at the time, so why should she be the only one to pay?

She sets out to avenge those who’d deceived her before she has to atone for her sins.

Who else deserves to die?

Buy Killing The Girl Here

Elizabeth Hill’s Website
Follow Elizabeth Hill on Facebook
Follow Elizabeth Hill on Twitter
Elizabeth Hill’s GoodReads Profile

Blowback by H. Max Hiller

By Mystery Reads Curator Leave a Comment

Louisiana State police Detective Cooter Holland has worn out his welcome with the New Orleans Police Department, but is given a time-sensitive mission that NOPD’s Chief of Detectives hopes will either give him enough justification to fire the son of his predecessor or earn himself an IOU with the mayor. Detective Holland needs to find a murder suspect before he carries out his phone threats against the primary witness against him. The troubled detective doesn’t make his own job any easier when he begins to question the case against the suspect, or when his search keeps turning up things to investigate that aren’t part of what he is expected to do. Fast paced and witty, this novella is the opening salvo in the award-winning “Cadillac” Holland Mystery series.

Targeted Age Group:: 18+

What Inspired You to Write Your Book?
I am a huge fan of the Foyle's War series on the BBC and decided to write a series of books set in New Orleans in the early years after Hurricane Katrina, when cases were as likely to be hampered by recovery efforts as Detective Foyle was to be thwarted by events during WW2. I also wanted to develop a character who had figured out a way to incorporate his PTSD into his crime-solving toolbox.

The Blue Garou by H. Max Hiller

By Mystery Reads Curator Leave a Comment

Louisiana State Police Detective Cooter ‘Cadillac’ Holland is asked to determine whether the dog that killed one of New Orleans’ most notorious felons was the murderer or just the murder weapon. The investigation finds far more than an answer to this question, including a rogue FBI operation, the blackmailing of a Hollywood actress, and even the elusive answer to his own father’s disappearance following Hurricane Katrina.

Targeted Age Group:: 18+

What Inspired You to Write Your Book?
I was looking for a way to tell stories about the recovery effort from Hurricane Katrina and chanced upon the Foyle's War series. I pieced together a jigsaw puzzle of actual and fictionalized pieces from New Orleans' storied past and used the recovery to cause my fictionalized detective problems in solving the case. I incorporated hyper-aware PTSD into his character as well as an additional hurdle, which was mitigated by the extensive PTSD of the storm's survivors he interacted with on a daily basis.

Hostile Witness by Rebecca Forster

By Mystery Reads Curator Leave a Comment

Hostile Witness by Rebecca Forster

A judge is brutally murdered; a sixteen year-old girl is accused. Josie Bates, an attorney who left her high powered law practice when her skill inadvertently led to the deaths of two small children, cannot turn her back on this one. Reluctantly she takes on a case that will put both their lives on the line and change one of them forever.

A Corpse in the Chapel by J.B. Hawker

By Mystery Reads Curator Leave a Comment

Years ago a teenager’s romantic fantasies turned to tragedy. The young girl’s bones, hidden for decades in the deep woods, continue to cry out for justice.

A life cut short, a cowardly killer, and a middle-aged flower child are stirred together into a tasty stew of wild mushrooms, herbs, vanity, and deceit in award-winning author, J. B. Hawker’s book.

Scavenging in the woods for natural ingredients to tempt her husband’s taste buds, pastor’s wife, Judy Falls, uncovers more than a new vegan recipe. Many lives will be changed forever in the small seaside community of Bannoch, Oregon, as the result.

Can the girl’s killer be found and brought to justice? Will his innocent young victim finally rest in peace?

Targeted Age Group:: adult

What Inspired You to Write Your Book?
Living on the beautiful Oregon Coast led me to set this series here. Having been a pastor's wife, I wanted to write about the unique experiences, joys, and challenges those of us married to the ministry face. I have a special heart for the unborn and the struggles of young mothers forced to come to terms with an unexpected pregnancy. In this book I've combined those issues in what I hope is an entertaining story.

Fireman Down – Incipient by Stan Loveday

By Mystery Reads Curator Leave a Comment

A late season storm starts a disaster in motion. Where human error had left the door open for a catastrophe, was it truly just bad luck that caused his friends death? Or was it something more? Was it greed that drove the pyres of these fires higher. At least one fireman was dead, many more are injured. As a firefighter struggles to clear his departments good name, others conspire to stop him at all costs.

From a story that could have been ripped from the pages of the news, our intrepid hero Kent Ward works to find out the truth over why his friend had died. Why the fires seem to target the firefighters. Who was behind setting all those fires? Were they untouchable? Just how high did the corruption go?

Follow along as Kent tries to bring those that are responsible to justice, before they remove all traces of evidence. Can he flush out the firebug before he becomes their next casualty? Locked fire escapes! Malfunctioning radios! Armed residents. Kent is facing corruption all the way to the top. Can he find a way to bring honor back to his profession?

This extremely raw and visceral story follows the camaraderie and life threatening events that real firefighters face every day. A story that will leave you looking to hide under your covers at night, unable to put the book down.

Targeted Age Group:: 18+

What Inspired You to Write Your Book?
Having responded on thousands of calls over my years with the fire service, so many stories of love, loss and death are lost to the pages of history. Bringing some of those stories to the light of day shares those experiences with my readers. While the names and locations have been changed, the action is drawn from real life.

You Yet Shall Die by Jennifer Barraclough

By Mystery Reads Curator Leave a Comment

Southern England 2005. Dr Nicolas Harper, retired neurologist, is being buried in a country churchyard beside his long-dead wife. A strange young woman attends the funeral. Soon after, Dr Harper’s daughter Hilda – who lives on the North Kent marshes alone but for her rescue cats – receives a visit from this same woman, who claims to be her half-sister. This prompts her to venture beyond her secluded lifestyle and explore the truth about her parent’s marriage: Was there another side to her father’s life as an eminent doctor? What really happened on the day of her mother’s death? Meanwhile Hilda’s brother Dunstan, weighed down by the loss of his job and the breakdown of his marriage, is appalled by the secrets and lies that are emerging. His desperation to preserve his father’s reputation and his own inheritance leads to tragedy on the Sussex cliffs. The shocking revelations about their background lead both Hilda and Dunstan to reassess their identities and future options. With flashbacks to Oxford in the 50s, and the London nightclub scene of the swinging 60s, the novel explores the darker side of an outwardly respectable family’s life in postwar England. Despite the rural setting and the cats, this mystery is not “cozy”.

Targeted Age Group:: 40+

What Inspired You to Write Your Book?
An unexpected discovery about my own background inspired me to write about family secrets that can come to light many years after the death of those involved, potentially with devastating impact on the survivors. The setting for the book was inspired by revisiting some areas of rural England where I grew up in the 1940s and 50s – the desolate Kent marshes, the cliffs of the Sussex coast.

Featured Book: Obsession by Belinda Austin

By Mystery Reads Curator Leave a Comment

On Sale for .99!
Forced into marriage by a shotgun wedding, Dr. Brad O’Boyle and his wife, Ronni, have always had a horrible marriage. When Brad returns home from a medical convention, he seems transformed into a loving husband and father. But then Brad begins acting like a Jekyll-Hide. He is the nice Brad and then he is the Brad who looks at his wife as if he would like to kill her. Something bad happened at that medical convention.

Buy Obsession Here

Belinda Austin’s Website
Follow Belinda Austin on Facebook
Follow Belinda Austin on Twitter
Belinda Austin’s GoodReads Profile

Once Upon a Trailer Park by Maggie Pill

By Mystery Reads Curator Leave a Comment

A new series that’s suspenseful, hilarious, and focused on mature spouses with loving (but sometimes contentious) relationships.
*Once Upon a Trailer Park* begins with a murder on the streets of the Beautiful Bird RV Park in Palm Hill, Florida. As residents learn bits and pieces about the crime (some true, some less so), they form and reform theories of the killer’s identity. It’s the park weirdo. It’s the ex-wife. It’s the victim’s employer.
Residents want to find out the truth, some due to friendship, some from fear, some to protect themselves. It soon becomes clear that asking too many questions leads to danger. In fact, it could spell disaster.

Targeted Age Group:: Adult

What Inspired You to Write Your Book?
My Sleuth Sisters Mysteries are very popular, but after seven books, I was looking for something new and fun. People in the RV park we winter in suggested a book about "us," and I'd been wanting to do something with husbands and wives. Like the sisters in my Sleuth Sisters series, the couples in this book love each other but don't always see the world in the same way. That makes for irritation…and humor.