Amateur Sleuth Suspense

Summer 1911. A scorching heatwave engulfs the quiet town of Littleton Cotterell and brings about an unusually early harvest. The villagers are thrilled, but events quickly turn sour when one of them turns up dead in an apple orchard, stabbed through the heart. Amateur sleuth Lady Hardcastle and her trusty lady’s maid, Flo, suddenly have a juicy case on their hands. Might the mysterious stranger they recently met in the village be to blame?

Meet Jen Dawson, mystery writer, coffee lover, and amateur detective? Crime writer Jen returns to her small hometown with a bestselling book behind her and a bad case of writer’s block. Finding sanctuary in the local bookstore, with an endless supply of coffee, Jen waits impatiently for inspiration to strike. But when the owner of the bookstore dies suddenly in mysterious circumstances, Jen has a real-life murder to solve. The stakes are suddenly higher when evidence places Jen at the scene of the crime and the reading of the will names her as the new owner of the bookstore.

Gemma and Jayne are busy managing both the bookshop and the adjoining Mrs. Hudson's Tea Room in anticipation of the upcoming book signing with Renalta Van Markoff, the author of the controversial Hudson and Holmes series. However, tragedy strikes during the author Q&A session of the signing when a dedicated Sherlockian verbally attacks the series for disgracing Sherlock's legacy and is then publicly humiliated when the author triumphantly lashes back and gains the upper hand - that is, until she collapses on the table and is pronounced dead.

Innkeeper Alison Kerby is determined to keep her mind, body, and soul focused on bringing high-spirited hospitality to her lodgers at the Haunted Guesthouse. She simply has no time for any more murder investigations, no matter what Paul Harrison, her resident ghost detective, says. But this time, the mystery comes looking for Alison. Workers unearth a 1977 Lincoln Continental buried in the sand behind Alison's guesthouse - and they discover a skeleton still belted in behind the steering wheel.

With the arrival of six senior reading group members at the Merry Ghost Inn, the long-awaited grand opening week has finally begun for Melanie West and her grandmother Liza. All is well with the Oregon coast-side B&B until Melanie's dog, Max, finds the dead body of one of their guests.

Hannah’s up to her ears with Easter orders rushing in at The Cookie Jar, plus a festive meal to prepare for a dinner party at her mother’s penthouse. But everything comes crashing to a halt when Hannah receives a panicked call from her sister Andrea - Mayor Richard Bascomb has been murdered...and Andrea is the prime suspect. Even with his reputation for being a bully, Mayor Bascomb - or “Ricky Ticky”, as Hannah’s mother likes to call him - had been unusually testy in the days leading up to his death, leaving Hannah to wonder if he knew he was in danger.

Under the auspices of New York City's legendary mystery fiction specialty bookstore, The Mysterious Bookshop, and aided by Edgar Award-winning anthologist Otto Penzler, international bestseller and MWA Grandmaster Sara Paretsky has selected the twenty most puzzling, most thrilling, and most mysterious short stories from the past year, collected now in one entertaining volume.

It's Christmastime in Rudolph, New York, which means it's time for the December Santa Claus parade. This year, shop owner Merry Wilkinson has decided to decorate her float as Santa's elves' workshop and invites her landlady, Mabel D'Angelo, to help supervise the excited children playing the elves. But when Mrs. D'Angelo doesn’t show up, Merry begins to worry. Worry quickly turns into frustration when Mrs. D'Angelo reveals she was delayed by new neighbors moving in. As the center for all things gossip, Mrs.

When Gemma finds a rare and potentially valuable magazine hidden in the bookshop, she and her friend Jayne set off to find the owner, only to stumble upon a dead body. The highly perceptive Gemma is the police's first suspect, so she puts her consummate powers of deduction to work to clear her name, investigating a handsome rare books expert, the dead woman's suspiciously unmoved son, and a whole family of greedy characters desperate to cash in on their inheritance.

In the seaside town of Lighthouse Cove, everyone knows the best man for the job is actually a woman - contractor Shannon Hammer. But while Shannon can do wonders with a power drill and a little elbow grease, her love life needs work. On a blind date with real estate agent Jerry Saxton, she has to whip out a pair of pliers to keep Jerry from getting too hands on.Shannon is happy to put her rotten date behind her, but when Jerry's found dead in a run-down Victorian home that she's been hired to restore, the town's attractive new police chief suspects that her threats may have laid the foundation for murder.

October 1912. The inhabitants of Littleton Cotterell emerge from their homes after a week of torrential storms to the gruesome news that one of Sid Hyde’s prized sheep has been mauled to death. As rumours abound of a vicious beast stalking the Gloucestershire countryside in search of prey, Lady Hardcastle and her fearless lady’s maid, Florence Armstrong, set out to find what is surely a rational explanation. Then Hyde himself is brutally killed in a similar attack, and the villagers go from curious to terrified.

Crishell "Shell" McMillan sees the cancellation of her TV series as a blessing in disguise. The former actress can now take over her late aunt's pet shop, the Purr N Bark, and do something she loves. While getting the shop ready for re-opening, Shell is asked to loan her aunt's Cary Grant posters to the local museum for an exhibit. She finds the prospect exciting - until a museum board member, who had a longstanding feud with Shell's aunt, votes against it.

Georgie's best friend, Belinda, inherits a spooky old house in Cornwall and asks Georgie to go with her to inspect the property. When they arrive, they meet Rose, a woman Belinda knew as a child when she spent her summers with her grandmother in Cornwall. Belinda never liked Rose, who has always been bossy and a bit of a bully, but when Belinda's house proves to be uninhabitable, Rose invites them to stay with her. Rose is now married to Tony Summers, Belinda's childhood crush, and lives in the lovely house on the cliffs that he has inherited.

When Hank Sharpe asked the Laundry Club Ladies to join him in an undercover investigation to help find a missing person, we grabbed our sleuthing notebook without hesitation. When we found Kyra Tenney's body in what appeared to be an accidental forest fire, we thought we were finished with our undercover act. Only the coroner's report came back that she had been killed before the fire. Join the Laundry Club Ladies as they take their investigation skills to a whole 'nuther level!

New York Times and USA Today best-selling author Charlaine Harris has won an Anthony Award for her one-of-a-kind Sookie Stackhouse mystery series. Sookie, a Louisiana cocktail waitress, skilled telepath, and friend to vampires, has a dedicated fan base that grows larger every day.

When Mma Potokwane suggests to Mma Ramotswe that she run for a seat on the city council, Mma Ramotswe is at first unsure. But when she learns about the proposed construction of the flashy Big Fun Hotel next to a graveyard, she allows herself to be persuaded. Her opponent is none other than Violet Sephotho, who is in the pocket of the hotel developers.

Victorian adventuress Veronica Speedwell is whisked off to a remote island off the tip of Cornwall when her natural historian colleague Stoker's brother calls in a favor. On the pretext of wanting a companion to accompany him to Lord Malcolm Romilly's house party, Tiberius persuades Veronica to pose as his fiancée. But upon arriving, it becomes clear that the party is not as innocent as it had seemed. Every invited guest has a connection to Romilly's wife, Rosamund, who disappeared on her wedding day three years ago, and a dramatic dinner proves she is very much on her husband's mind.

Devon Mayes thought she was done with the small conservative town she once called home. She fled when she was eighteen after her best friend Summer took her own life, leaving Summer’s twin brother, Keaton, lost in his grief. But when tragedy strikes again, Devon has nowhere to turn but back to the place that first broke her heart. Being back in Arkana means struggling with the old guilt that shrouds her bisexuality and her feelings for Keaton. There’s so much she’s still hiding from him—and so much of their shared past that’s now resurfacing.

Former paralegal Rhonda Campbell left the law behind when she swapped legal pads for latex. Now, as Mistress Kali, she runs the most exclusive BDSM dungeon in Atlantic City, where pleasure pays the bills and fantasy is always in play—until a longtime client is smothered with a French tickler. Enter Detective Jason Dee, fresh off the streets of Philly and itching for a case—because so far, New Jersey’s biggest offense seems to be overpriced cocktails. When he finally lands a murder investigation, his prime suspect is a whip-smart, leather-clad domme who’s as infuriating as she is intriguing.

In The Revenge Podcast, two scorned lovers, Deb and Avantika, dive headfirst into a whirlwind of raw emotions and burning questions with their podcast that they start to bitch about their partners who cheated with each other. Together, they unravel the truths behind their partners' deceit, wrestling with the thoughts of revenge and forgiveness.