women sleuths

Featured Book: Miz Scarlet and the Holiday Houseguests by Sara M. Barton

By Mystery Reads Curator Leave a Comment

One of two perma-free books in the Scarlet Wilson Mystery Series!….Divorced parents who won’t stop bickering, a sassy teenager, and a killer stalking her are just what homicide investigator Laurencia “Larry” Rivera doesn’t need for Christmas! The short-handed state police investigator can’t get a handle on the latest murder case…things just keep going wrong. Is someone trying to intimidate Larry and her team, to protect the killer and prevent him from being caught?

Innkeeper Scarlet Wilson is a good friend. That’s why she invites the entire Rivera family to spend Christmas at the Four Acorns Inn. But a killer comes a-calling in the middle of their holiday preparations. “Miz Scarlet” may not have Larry’s professional cop training, but that doesn’t stop her from enlisting boyfriend Kenny Tolliver and Larry’s former partner, Max, to rescue the uncooperative damsel in distress. If only she stuck to guest services….Before the Rivera visit to the Four Acorns Inn ends, not only will a killer be sent packing, everyone will learn two things: the shocking reason for the bitter divorce of “The Spitball King” and the “Queen of Clean”, and how the granddaughter of a Red Sox assistant coach came to be named after a famous Yankee center fielder.

Buy Miz Scarlet and the Holiday Houseguests Here
Sara M. Barton’s Website
Follow Sara M. Barton on Facebook
Follow Sara M. Barton on Twitter

Gemini Rising (Mischievous Malamute Series, Book 1) by Harley Christensen

By Mystery Reads Curator Leave a Comment

Gemini Rising (Mischievous Malamute Series, Book 1) by Harley Christensen

There’s a body in your alley…

Arianna Jackson—AJ to her friends—and her occasionally well-behaved Alaskan Malamute, Nicoh, live a normal, uneventful, admittedly mundane existence, where nothing out of the ordinary ever happens.Until it does.Early one morning, AJ stumbles upon a horrifying scene—a girl’s body lies broken in the dumpster behind her home, her face beaten and mutilated.

A secret reveals you’re living a lie…

As if that weren’t enough to upset the balance of normal, things go from bad to worse when she learns of her connection to the murdered girl. Suddenly, AJ realizes her entire life has been filled with secrets and lies.

A killer hunts for you…

Together with her trusty sidekick, Nicoh, and BFF, Leah, AJ must search for answers. But can she, when finding the truth proves to be more deadly than living the lie?

Would you search for the truth if you knew it could kill you?

Join AJ and her pals as they race to unravel the mystery of her past, where the pieces of the puzzle bring more questions than answers and the only certainty is the killer’s end game—AJ’s life.

Find your truth…

Grab your copy of Gemini Rising TODAY and join others who’ve enjoyed this suspense-filled page-turner that keeps you guessing to the end…and beyond.

Featured Book: Evonta’s Revenge by Danyelle Scroggins

By Mystery Reads Curator Leave a Comment

Evonta’s Revenge is the thrilling first installment of the Jacobs Family Novels, christian murder mysteries and suspense stories. “Vengeance is mine,” said the Lord, but Evonta is determined to help Him in all matters concerning her and the Jacobs family.
Moving by her own will and stopping at nothing to get those responsible for her twin brothers death, she becomes an unstoppable force that even the CIA cannot stop.
Even though some view her as an unmerciful killer, she believes in an all-powerful God who simply–needs her help to free the world from the likes of those who do not care about anything except, power and money.
After a trip back to a small town close to where she was raised, Evonta unravels the mystery surrounding Evan’s death. Evonta’s Revenge is full of turns, curves, and twist no one will ever expect and as she puts every piece to the puzzle in its perspective place, she’s falling in love with a hot undercover agent who absolutely adores her.
Who would have ever known that underneath the heart of vengeance, was a woman desiring love?
Her twin brother Evan’s death will expose more than just his killer, but a gift of life that is sure to cause the Jacobs family to feel whole again.
This amazing, riveting story set in Florida and Louisiana, and is sure to ignite your hunger for mystery, suspense, and solving unforeseen problems. It is a dose of girl power that will challenge your desire to do what is right, even though the urge to do wrong is present.

Buy Evonta’s Revenge Here

Danyelle Scroggins’s Website
Follow Danyelle Scroggins on Facebook
Follow Danyelle Scroggins on Twitter
Danyelle Scroggins’s GoodReads Profile

Featured Book: The Reluctant Coroner by Paul Austin Ardoin

By Mystery Reads Curator Leave a Comment

Free Promo!

Blood is thicker than oil… until murder is involved.

Fenway Stevenson doesn’t want to return to the coastal town where her estranged father is practically king. But the death of her mother draws her back home–and the murder of the county coroner draws her into a deepening conspiracy. As the body count rises and all signs seem to point toward her father’s oil company, will Fenway uncover the truth before family bonds become deadly?

Buy The Reluctant Coroner Here

Paul Austin Ardoin’s Website
Follow Paul Austin Ardoin on Facebook
Follow Paul Austin Ardoin on Twitter
Paul Austin Ardoin’s GoodReads Profile

The Reluctant Coroner by Paul Austin Ardoin

By Mystery Reads Curator Leave a Comment

The Reluctant Coroner by Paul Austin Ardoin

Blood is thicker than oil—until murder is involved.

Fenway Stevenson doesn’t want to return to the coastal town where her estranged father is practically king. But the death of her mother draws her back home—and the murder of the county coroner draws her into a deepening conspiracy. As the body count rises and all signs seem to point toward her father’s oil company, will Fenway uncover the truth before family bonds become deadly?

Profit and Loss by Kelly Wood

By Mystery Reads Curator Leave a Comment

He proposed. She ran. Right into a murder.

Regan Harris lives her life full of adventure and fun, but when her long-time love pops the question, she panics. Seeking friends and some advice, Regan runs to Chicago only to walk into a murder investigation, intrigue, and her ex-boyfriend. The one who broke her heart and soul.

Torn between her old love and her new one, Regan throws herself into the murder investigation. With her emotions riding high and blinded by friends and love, Regan finds herself in the sights of the killer.

Caught between love, friends, and murder, who will she choose? And will she solve the mystery before her time runs out?

Profit and Loss is the first book in Kelly Wood’s Regan Harris Romantic Mystery Series. If you like Sara Rosett and Cee Cee James then you’ll love this light-heart and humorous romantic mystery!

Read now to follow Regan on her first adventure!

Targeted Age Group:: 25-60

What Inspired You to Write Your Book?
I loved writing as a kid and making up stories. On an adventure with my husband I finally had the time. We'd taken a year off to backpack around Central America. While my husband worked on his computer, I started the first book. It was such an exciting time!

Danger Music by Jacqueline Diamond

By Mystery Reads Curator Leave a Comment

Her quirky assignment: solve a famous cold-case mystery for a magazine article. Then the killer reawakens.

Offbeat writer Kenny Rubin lands a freelance job to figure out who killed actress Melinda Rivers five years earlier. And she’s supposed to do it before the airing of a TV movie on the same subject.

Many of the people involved in the filming knew Melinda, and one might be the murderer. As Kenny investigates, people start dying around her. Will she be next?

She has another tough challenge: bipolar disorder makes her perceptions unreliable. Will she recognize the killer before she plays right into his hands?

Alreaders.com said: “The story line is fast-paced … a wonderful Hollywood mystery.” Jacqueline Diamond, the USA Today bestselling author of the Safe Harbor Medical Mysteries, is a former Associated Press news and entertainment reporter in Los Angeles.

Targeted Age Group:: General adult

What Inspired You to Write Your Book?
My experiences as a reporter and TV columnist for The Associated Press in Los Angeles provided a wealth of background for Danger Music. The choice of a heroine with bipolar disorder sprang from my relationship with a close friend who struggled with this condition.

Featured Book: A Devious Mind by Brigid George

By Mystery Reads Curator Leave a Comment

FREE! For a short time only.
It was a silent death. One blow to her head was all it took. The killer struck Marcia Hamilton, a sixty-year-old grandmother of slim build, from behind. Marcia’s status as a distinguished author could not save her. The killer rolled her body, ‘like a piece of discarded junk’, down into a gully where it remained for almost two weeks. The callous killer taunts Dusty Kent who has been called in to investigate.

‘A Devious Mind’ is an enthralling whodunit awash with mystery and atmosphere — from the message seemingly sent by the murder victim after her death, to the intrigue of family dynamics, to the ambling lifestyle of Byron Bay: Australia’s famous beach town. If you like a good mystery, don’t miss this one!

Buy A Devious Mind Here

Brigid’s Website
Brigid’s GoodReads Profile

The Secrets of Chateau Swansea by R.C. Matthews

By Mystery Reads Curator Leave a Comment

When the hunter becomes the hunted ~

A grisly murder leaves a haunted estate without an heir, and a powerful medium scrambles to find answers from beyond the grave.

Determined to escape the nightmarish memories of her childhood, heiress and psychic Maribeth Sommerset pursues the adventurous life of a psychic investigator, beginning with a murder and the spirits who hover behind at the haunted Chateau Swansea.

Meanwhile, devoted steward of the chateau Arthur Dunn plays a dangerous game of deception to shield his employer’s good name, landing himself at the top of Maribeth’s suspect list.

Amid scandalous secrets and destructive lies, will Maribeth uncover the secrets of Chateau Swansea before the killer strikes again?

Targeted Age Group:: 18+

What Inspired You to Write Your Book?
My mother loves reading cozy mysteries and I love writing gothic romance, so I married the two!

A Cherry Sinister Murder

By Mystery Reads Curator Leave a Comment

A Cherry Sinister Murder

AUTHORS: Nancy McGovern & Cyra Bruce

Faith Franklin is a dreamer. She dreams of cakes & pies. She dreams of crepes & brownies. And, more than anything, she dreams of making a career of serving her delicious treats to an adoring public.

So, when her grandmother calls and asks her to move to Florida to help run her café, she cannot get out of Minnesota fast enough! And before she knows it she is standing in Paradise Point, the beautiful, oceanside plaza in which Bessie’s Café is located, hardly able to believe her good fortune.

Life is now exactly how Faith had imagined it could be. She’s made wonderful friends. The café, now renamed the Slice of Paradise, has been renovated to showcase her amazing desserts. And both locals & tourists are loving it!

Well, all except for one…

The owner of a nearby cupcake shop is not at all happy with Faith’s arrival in Paradise Point. She has accused Faith of trying to ruin her by stealing her recipes & designs. And she is not shy about letting everyone know it.

So, when the woman is found dead the day after their confrontation, people immediately begin to consider whether Faith is the killer…

Is Faith guilty of murder? If not, who is? And can Faith find a way to clear her name before her dreams turn into nightmares?

Find out in A Cherry Sinister Murder!

“Slice of Paradise Cozy Mysteries” is a Culinary Cozy Mystery series written by #2 Bestselling Author, Nancy McGovern, and the talented newcomer, Cyra Bruce.

Join the “Slice of Paradise Mailing List” inside this book and receive updates on the series, behind-the-scenes info & a FREE “SLICE OF PARADISE” STORY called The Cream Pie Alibi!