Mystery Reads

Unmarked Grave by Vickie Britton and Loretta Jackson

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Ardis Cole travels to Scotland to do a facial reconstruction on a skull her friend Bruce McBrier has discovered in the woods outside his ancestral castle. Because of an ancient ax buried in the skull, Bruce presumes the skull to be a historical relic, possibly the remains of a medieval ancestor murdered in battle. When Ardis makes the shocking discovery that the remains are that of a more recent murder, Constable Mark Ridley asks her help in going ahead with the facial reconstruction in hopes the victim can be identified. But someone is willing to go to great lengths … even murder … to keep the skull’s deadly secret.

Targeted Age Group:: General Readership

What Inspired You to Write Your Book?
My sister and I took a trip to Scotland and we saw many interesting castles and heard intriguing stories about Scottish history. We just had to write a book set in Scotland, so we chose this setting for our second Ardis Cole mystery.

A Deal on a Handshake by Vickie Britton and Loretta Jackson

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What a deal! This short story book introduces Sheriff Jeff McQuede, the hero of the High County Mystery Series. In these seven mysteries Sheriff Jeff McQuede finds himself square in the middle of a deal made on a handshake—where the result is murder. Set in modern-day Wyoming, the stories take place at an old-time mountain man rendezvous, in a pawn shop where traders vie over rare Native American pottery, and after an engagement ceremony where two family patriarchs pretend to bridge a lifetime of feuding by the gift of a rare peace pipe. McQuede’s arch-enemy Ruger, is a suspect in many of these tales, and just manages to evade his traps. In each of these stories McQuede= relentlessly seeks out the dangerous men who have broken trust.

Full-length novels in the High Country Mystery Series include Murder in Black and White, Whispers of the Stones, Stealer of Horses, and The Executioner’s Hood.

Targeted Age Group:: General Readership

What Inspired You to Write Your Book?
The inspiration to write this book and all the books in the High Country Mystery Series arose from the Wyoming setting and the many stories we’ve heard, both past and present. Our background in antique dealing also led to the creation of many stories that deal with rare finds and artifacts discovered in unusual place such as swap meets. The High Country of Wyoming seemed a perfect place to tell our tales.

Red Dog Saloon by R.D. Sherrill

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Six men commit an unspeakable act during the foolishness of their youth while at a country bar. Twenty years later, long after the Red Dog Saloon has burned to the ground, someone has come back for revenge. Now they fear for their lives as the mysterious reaper takes them one at a time. Meanwhile the county sheriff is trying to unravel the mystery of why his normally quiet town has become a killing field.

Targeted Age Group:: 15 and up

What Inspired You to Write Your Book?
The inspiration came during a Sunday morning service. The minister was preaching about how you can be forgiven for your sins in Heaven but you still have to pay the price here on earth. That’s what gave me the idea of that for some acts there is no redemption.

Featured Book: It’s Just One Of Those Days by Melissa Burke

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What Liz expects is a normal day at work. Making pizzas, avoiding her short-tempered boss, trying to ignore the guy she’s convinced she doesn’t like… all part of her uneventful and boring life. What she gets instead is an unexpected nightmare beyond anything she could have ever imagined. Abducted by a violent man and trapped in her own personal prison, Liz sees no hope of escape. Then again there are a few twists – surprises that leave Liz shocked, in awe, and thinking that maybe she has a chance at survival after all.

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The Origin Of Murder by Jerold Last

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Roger and Suzanne take a vacation cruise through the Galapagos Islands, 600 miles west of Ecuador. Suzanne finds a dead body floating with a couple of bullet holes in its back floating in the Pacific Ocean and we’re off to solve another deadly mystery. Among the suspects is a treacherous travel agent with an eye-opening secret, a cheerful couple of bird watchers from Germany, a happy honeymooning couple, two sensual sisters from San Francisco, two recent retirees from Australia working through their bucket list, and two middle-aged Montevideo residents seeing the wonders of the world while they can. Lurking in the background behind the scenes is a mysterious Ecuadorian general. One reviewer says, “A fast-paced, exciting mystery I didn’t want to set aside till finished… A great continuation of the series!”

Targeted Age Group:: Adult

What Inspired You to Write Your Book?
Rediscovering my wife’s journal from our own tour of the Galapagos Islands a few years ago. It gave me most of the background material I needed to write this novel.

The Deadly Dog Show by Jerold Last

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Private detective Roger Bowman is hired to impersonate a wealthy sponsor showing a champion German Shorthaired Pointer named Juliet at dog shows in California. His undercover assignment is to ferret out whether some of the winners are cheating. Before long, bodies of murdered judges start popping up at dog show venues and Roger’s wife Suzanne is being stalked by a mysterious admirer. With Juliet’s help, Roger and his fellow detective, professional dog handler Bruce, find a key clue. The trail leads from San Francisco to West Texas. Reviewers love the whodunit mystery and the inside information about how dog shows work.

Targeted Age Group:: Adult

What Inspired You to Write Your Book?
My wife breeds and shows German Shorthaired Pointers. I write mystery novels. The stars converged and we decided it was time to have my series characters solve a series of murders at dog shows.

Mediums Guild by Lee Fishman @leefishman1

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Real estate agent Margo Fellshur can’t catch a break in a slow housing market. With her teen-age daughter dreaming of high end colleges, hopes of financial stability grow dimmer by the minute. For extra cash, the single mother works weekends as a psychic, reading cards at parties – and she’s good at it. Too bad she can’t resolve her own issues.

As a kid, Margo took her intuitive ability for granted. Couldn’t everyone see auras and hear the thoughts of their friends? Discovering tarot cards helped Margo focus, creating more faith in her “second sight”.

A chance encounter connects Margo with Greg, a pilot whose brush with death leaves him shaken. They click and he asks for her help in finding his sister and her friend, who disappeared months before. Margo recruits fellow psychics but they come up short until a dream changes everything.

Targeted Age Group:: Adult readers

What Inspired You to Write Your Book?
It was a story that wouldn’t go away. Some scenes in my novel, Mediums Guild are based on real life happenings. Years back, I found myself working part-time with a group of psychics. At parties and fund raisers, we shared our intuitive knowledge through tarot and palm readings. Several incidents occurred within this group of friends and they’ve always stayed with me.

Satan’s Garden: A Novel by Kit Lyman

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Dani and Keely imagined that life was more magical than others believed. If they had to be summed up, their one plus one would equal three. Together, they became something greater. It was twin sisters against the world.

But the world had different plans.

The man followed them to their secret tree house that unusually warm day in September. He only came for one, there and gone in the blink of an eye.

“Satan’s Garden” takes you on the six-year journey of two sisters who learn what it means to survive. It’s a story of resiliency, hope, and above all, a bond that cannot be taken away. It teaches us how quickly life can change and yet how much of it we can change ourselves.

Targeted Age Group:: 16+

What Inspired You to Write Your Book?
Although I originally pursued comedy as a screenwriter, I have always been drawn to the thriller genre and its evolution over the years. Psycho-thrillers are challenging to write and exciting to imagine, and their authors have been pushing the boundaries more and more. Desensitization is a concern for writers because it creates this plaguing pressure to be more shocking than the next, to be darker and more twisted. I was inspired to take a step back and not give in to that pressure. “Satan’s Garden” does capture the horrors and devastation that we may come across in life, but those parts aren’t what I hope to leave behind.

Stealer of Horses by Vickie Britton and Loretta Jackson @vickiebrit

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The famous Carlo painting Stealer of Horses sells for cash in a small Wyoming town and gallery owner Sheldon Spence gives the $200,000 to his wife, who walks over to the bank to make the deposit…and never returns.

A witness claims to have seen a frightened-looking Susan Spence in a battered old Chevy, speeding out of town. And each succeeding clue reveals a different angle on her disappearance. Sheriff Jeff McQuede begins to wonder if this is more than a simple case of kidnapping and robbery. Was Sheldon involved in Susan’s disappearance? Or did Susan and a lover fake the scheme, planning to run off with the money they stole from Sheldon? The identity of a victim found shot behind the wheel of the Chevy holds the key to one ominous question: Is Susan Spence a kidnap victim—or is she part of some sinister ploy?

Targeted Age Group:: General Readership

What Inspired You to Write Your Book?
We actually heard a similar story about a woman who went to make a large bank deposit and didn’t return for a long period of time. There were concerns at the time that she might have been kidnapped and abducted. While there was a logical reason for her temporary disappearance, this event inspired our story.