Rural Mystery

Three years ago, Danny 'Abs' Abbingdon, star of Laid in Essex!, was living the dream. And then, on the night of the party, everything changed. It was supposed to be an intimate gathering. Just a few close friends in a remote cottage in Wales. But one thing led to another and the party spiralled out of control. Then a local girl was reported missing, presumed dead. Abs and his friends had been the last to see her alive.

When Jennifer Smiley’s grandmother, Ginny, leaves her an old farmhouse on Edgewater Road in seemingly quiet Ross County, Ohio, Jennifer can’t pass up the opportunity for a new beginning. Almost immediately, she meets a group of men who generously help her move in. When she realizes that they work for Lincoln Bennett, her next-door neighbor, she’s intrigued. Lincoln is gorgeous and has dark lapis-blue eyes she could get lost in...but he doesn’t seem all that friendly. She’s torn between getting to know him and sticking with the solitude she knows so well.

When Detective Karen Hart hears a scream echoing out of beautiful Lincoln Cathedral one snowy evening, she is the first officer on the scene. In the chapel a man lies murdered, a bloody cross carved into his forehead. A note to the police from the murderer, signed by "The Cleanser", confirms their worst fears: this sadistic slaying is the first of many. When early leads become dead ends, Karen starts to wonder if there’s a link to a rumoured conspiracy within police ranks - particularly when an abrasive new officer is assigned to the case.

It's the 1790s, and the circus has arrived in Durham, Maine. Before weaver Will Rees is able to take in its spectacle, he spots Magistrate Hanson - the man he blames for his family's having to flee Dugard two years earlier. On his journey home he encounters Shaker brothers searching for a girl from their Zion community. Despite women not being allowed inside the circus, Leah had snuck out to visit it. They quickly come across her lifeless body beaten and thrown into a farmer's field on the road leading to the circus.

Nine years ago, 30-year-old Chelsea Taylor left the small country town of Barker to rise to the top as a concert pianist. Yet here she was, back again with her four-year-old daughter, Aria, readying herself to face her father, Tom. The father who'd shouted down the phone nine years ago never to come home again....

Mit einem Mord hätte Taissa Lausen nun wirklich nicht gerechnet! Hier im beschaulichen Bad Bekenborn in Ostwestfalen. Dabei hat Taissa schon genug um die Ohren. Erst vor kurzem hat sie von ihrer Tante die kleine Tankstelle im Ort geerbt - und prompt sitzt ihr das Finanzamt im Nacken. Und jetzt ist auch noch ihre Nachbarin tot! Ermordet! Der Hauptverdächtige ist ausgerechnet Taissas einziger Mitarbeiter Vinzent, dessen Hilfe sie dringend benötigt, wenn sie die Tankstelle am Laufen halten will.

Mai in Cornwall. Die junge Gärtnerin Mags Blake und ihr frischgebackener Ehemann Sam haben sich in Rosehaven ein altes Cottage gekauft. Sie machen sich voller Energie daran, es zu renovieren und den Garten zu gestalten. Eines Tages entwurzelt ein Sturm die Weide hinter dem Haus und legt eine Blechkiste mit rätselhaftem Inhalt frei, die offenbar vor vielen Jahren dort vergraben wurde. Ehe Mags den Mann befragen kann, der mehr über die Vergangenheit ihres Cottages weiß, wird er ermordet in seinem Fischerboot gefunden.

Ma tu guarda: un'altra rogna per il povero don Prusòt. Che poi lui non chiede tanto: giusto pace, tranquillità, un bicchiere di vino a pranzo, e magari un piatto di pere caramellate. E invece no, ogni volta ce n'è una a destabilizzare Pravorino, che è sì solo un paesello, ma dà grattacapi come se fosse una città. Questa volta proprio al campo di bocce, tra l'altro. Forse il maresciallo dei Carabinieri dovrà intervenire. Chissà, sembra essere una cosa seria, conviene controllare.

Es ist so weit: Endlich können Taissas Nachbarn Magnus und Vinzent ihre Pension "Zur Berghütte" eröffnen! Und die ersten Gäste reisen auch schon an. Die Teilnehmer der alljährlichen Notarkonferenz hat es nach Bad Bekenborn verschlagen und die Gruppe macht es sich in der Pension gemütlich. Womit niemand gerechnet hat: Unter den Notaren befindet sich ein Mörder! Gleich am ersten Tag liegt eine Leiche im Billardzimmer - mit einem Messer im Rücken. Vinzent und Magnus sind entsetzt. Wenn das rauskommt, können sie ihre Pension gleich wieder schließen.

Lilien, Leichen und Lemon Curd. Die junge Gärtnerin Mags Blake begleitet als Expertin eine Reisegruppe zu den spektakulärsten Gärten in Südengland. Zwischen atemberaubender Natur und außergewöhnlichen Unterkünften könnte das Leben kaum schöner sein, doch irgendetwas stimmt nicht mit dieser scheinbar harmlosen Gruppe aus Garten-Enthusiasten. Bald häufen sich die seltsamen Vorfälle, bis einer von ihnen tödlich endet... Nun ist es an Mags herauszufinden, wer in der Reisegruppe nicht das ist, was er zu sein scheint.

Violetta detta Vetta, giornalista di viaggi in una redazione romana, si è fatta spedire dal suo capo nell'isola della sua infanzia, Carloforte, dopo aver trovato nella giacca del fidanzato una scatoletta: una scatoletta da anello di fidanzamento. Terrorizzata dalla prospettiva del matrimonio, oltre che dal tradimento di Federico con cui si erano sempre detti che mai e poi mai si sarebbero convinti a quel "mercimonio orrendo", Vetta approda sull'isola pronta a scrivere un reportage leggero sulla tonnara e a godersi qualche giorno da sola.

Come Away From Her is a boldly written mystery-suspense novel set in the rural town of Black Walnut. The story revolves around the arrival of Tess, a deaf woman running from her past, who unwittingly sets into motion a chain of disturbing events as she is forced to share her secrets with the strangers around her. Her presence upsets the status quo for the townspeople, none more so than for Cap, the pastor of the local church whose life has been marred by substance abuse and tragedy. The morning that Cap discovers a dead body outside the church, life as the town knows it is forever changed.

When irascible Farmer Guy Beardon meets a very dirty death in his own farmyard, it seems like an accident initially - despite the fact that he was widely disliked. Only his daughter, Lilah, is prepared to defend his memory. And when, slowly, Lilah begins to suspect foul play, no-one is eager to help her investigate. Suspicion becomes certainty when two more deaths occur - and both of them are unmistakably murder. There is certainly no shortage of suspects, and it falls to local Policeman Den Cooper to investigate the mysterious deaths.

Karen Slocombe isn’t sure why she visited SuperFare that day - as a committed member of the Food Chain group and a regular stallholder at local farmers’ markets, it’s a place she would normally avoid. Luckily for Karen, she leaves moments before a bomb explodes. Only a few days later, Karen finds herself in the midst of another horrific crime. When friends from the Food Chain group start warning Karen not to tell the police certain details, her suspicions are instantly aroused. Could the two events be linked?

With Peaceful Repose Cemetery, Drew Slocombe is determined to revolutionise the entire death industry. Unfortunately, Drew’s Gravedigger has just discovered that their cemetery has one too many corpses when the body of an elderly woman is found. The police seem to think that the body is that of a vagrant, but for Drew things don’t add up. The mystery deepens when Genevieve Slater turns up at Drew’s door. As a man looking to escape both money worries and marriage problems, Genevieve proves impossible to resist.

Maggie Gerber - one of the founding members of the Good Buy Girls - loves her quiet life in St. Stanley, Virginia. But all that changes when Sam Collins, her old flame, moves back to town as the new sheriff. On top of that, Claire Freemont, a librarian and the newest member of the Good Buy Girls, starts acting utterly strange. When Maggie goes to visit her the next day at the library, she finds the body of a very dead man. Turns out the man is someone from Claire's past.

When the biggest legal case of her career brings Eliza Carmody back to Kinsale, the hometown she thought she had left forever, she witnesses an old friend commit a crime that sends her on a dangerous quest to uncover the mysteries of her childhood that the rest of the town seems willing to ignore. With her friend on the run and the police investigating the bones of an unidentified dead body at a historic homestead near town, Eliza becomes convinced that the truth lies in her memories of the New Year’s Eve years ago when her friend Grace disappeared from Kinsale forever.

As the owner of Old Hat Vintage Fashions, Charley Carpenter supplies retro apparel to the residents of Oakwood, Ohio, but she’s been known to set business aside to play detective when a mystery rears its head. And there’s no bigger mystery in Oakwood than the murder of Regan Fletcher - a case that’s haunted the town for decades.

Single-mother bounty hunter Lori Anderson has finally got her family back together, but her newfound happiness is shattered when she’s snatched by the Miami Mob – and they want her dead. Rather than a bullet, they offer her a job: find the Mob’s ‘numbers man’ - Carlton North - who’s in protective custody after being forced to turn federal witness against them. If Lori succeeds, they’ll wipe the slate clean and the price on her head - and those of her family - will be removed. If she fails, they die.

Thea Slocombe, nee Osborne, is trying to settle into normal, domestic life with Drew and his two children in Broad Campden. But in the course of an attempt to make friends locally, she finds the body of a close neighbour and suddenly feels much less settled and secure. No longer a house-sitter, she has no choice but to stay in the village and deal with whatever happens next. And doing this risks damage to her marriage.