Rural Town Mystery

For nearly a decade, twenty-nine-year-old Hudson Miller has made his living in the boxing ring, but a post-fight brawl threatens to derail his career. Desperate for money, Hudson takes a gig as a bouncer at a dive bar. That’s when life delivers him another hook to the jaw: his estranged father, Leland, has been murdered in what appears to be a robbery-gone-bad at his salvage yard, Miller’s Pull-a-Part.

Jenny Newberg, Queen of Bad Decisions, is about to make another one. In a small town where everyone knows everyone’s business, down-on-her-luck single mother Jenny is on a first-name basis with the debt collector at the bank, who is moving toward foreclosure. She is constantly apologizing to her precocious young daughter, Billie Starr, who is filling a book with her mother’s sorries, and it seems to Jenny that no apology will ever be enough. Then a pair of strangers in black suits offers her a hefty check to seduce someone known as the Candidate. Finally, something will go her way.

After the family's devastating tragedy, Detective Dave Burrows is crystal clear that his wife, Mel, is no longer interested in their marriage. Before Dave can talk to Mel, he and his partner, Bob Holden, are sent to investigate a suspected sheep stealing at a station north of Carnarvon where they very quickly realise that this crime is a lot more than just stock theft. As a ferocious tropical storm floods the airstrip and uncovers more than anyone expected, Dave and Bob find themselves isolated, outnumbered and in extraordinary danger.

Dove Connolly is dead. That’s not good for anyone in Tullyanna, never mind Dove. Now his best friend, Sharkey, is home asking awkward questions about Dove’s death, about the strange graphic novel he left behind and, most of all, about Sandra. Sandra Mohan. Missing now for more than a decade, whereabouts unknown. This, however, is a town dead-set on keeping its secrets. And Sharkey is already drawing attention from all the wrong quarters.

Maria lebt allein im Wald. Sie hat zwei Ehen hinter sich, ihr erste Gatte war ein Choleriker, der zweite ein Säufer. Beide sind lange tot. Die Leute aus dem Dorf halten sie für eine Hexe, der man besser aus dem Weg geht. Wenn jemand stirbt, gibt man der Hexe die Schuld. Doch niemand ahnt ihr wahres Geheimnis - und wie gerne der Tod ihr zur Hand geht.

Jonathan and Lily McCoy are an elderly couple surviving off the land of Northeastern Tennessee. When a stray coonhound steals Jonathan’s hunting spoils, he sets out to tame the dog he names Rawhide. Rawhide is friendly and loyal, but his battered body suggests mistreatment and pain. And when troublemaker Ed Carter comes to claim Rawhide as his property, the McCoys are willing to fight him in court to protect their canine companion against renewed threats of violence, in this riveting mystery novel filled with American history.

Erin Sloane was sixteen when high school senior Andre Villiers was murdered by his friends. They were her friends, too, led by the intense, charismatic Ricky Hell. Five people went into West Cypress Woods the night Andre was murdered. Only three came out. Ativan, alcohol, and distance had dimmed Erin’s memories of that time. But nearly twenty years later, an aging father will bring her home. Now a journalist, she is asked to write a story about the Southport Three and the thrill-kill murder that electrified the country.

In the darkest hour, a blood-soaked teenager flees the rural Gerandaroo football oval. Eight months later, Bess, a young teacher, returns home to Gerandaroo. A childhood game of dare with her former best friend forces Bess to form a women's footy team to play against Denby, a rival town. Bess reluctantly recruits players, but the team has to contend with hostile locals - including Bess's own father. Will this help the small community to come back together - or will it be the final thing that blows everything apart?

When Sassi Stapleton receives a middle-of-the-night phone call to tell her that her beloved grandmother is unwell, she quickly puts her job on hold, packs her ute and sets off on the long drive home, knowing her grandfather will need her. Less than an hour away from Sassi's hometown, Barker, she swerves to miss a roo and her car rolls down an embankment. By the time Sassi is found, her grandmother has already passed away.

Zahn can't get the missing girl he found—and the one he can't find—out of his mind. Someone in this mountain valley is collecting children, and Zahn is gradually drawn into the case while still trying to break through to his daughter. Then she disappears too.

Knox Thompson thinks he's working a hustle, but it's a hustle that's working him. Trying to keep his pizza shop and parents afloat, he cleans out a backroom Kentucky poker game only to be roped into dealing marijuana by the proprietor—an arrangement Knox only halfheartedly resists. Knox's shop makes the perfect front for a marijuana operation, but his supplier turns out to be violent and calculating, and Knox ends up under his thumb. It's not long before more than just the pizza shop is at risk.

Its 1943 and the war continues on in Ambridge. But the minds of the villagers are focused a little closer to home. For many centuries, a local tradition has told of a mystic living in a hermit’s cave just outside the village. Legend tells that she has hidden her prophecies around the area, but none have ever been found. When a visiting academic arrives in Ambridge, there for war work, but personally intrigued by the prophecies, he becomes determined to find out more. And as the prophesies are uncovered, it appears the mystic knows more than anyone could have predicted.

Myles's courtroom testimony should have put Pryor, their one-eyed ringleader, behind bars after the bank robbery gone wrong, yet somehow Pryor got off scot-free while Myles served time. Now, upon his release, Myles decides he is done with his life of wrongdoing—a change that will only be possible if he can kill Pryor and turn over a new leaf. Pryor has other ideas, and the collision between these two deadly forces soon leaves the ex-con in critical condition, clinging to life in a hospital bed.

Ein Geheimnis kommt selten allein! Mia will die Zelte in der Stadt abbrechen und im Haus ihrer Großmutter mitten im Schwarzwald neu beginnen. Dass sie allerdings gleich am ersten Abend ihres neuen Lebens gemeinsam mit ihrer besten Freundin Chrissi bei Nacht und Nebel einen völlig verwahrlosten struppigen Esel klaut und anschließend in ihrer Scheune über eine Leiche stolpert, gehört natürlich nicht zum Plan.

Magpie Beach is a quiet seaside town – full of small-town prejudices and small-town cliques. Meg, Rosemary and Lily are all outsiders. Meg and Lily because they came to Magpie Beach to escape their former lives, Rosemary because her upbringing was the subject of much local gossip and upturned noses. The three women come together as friends, partly because their homes are so close together on the outskirts of town – and partly because their neighbors treat them with such suspicion. When Jessie Else goes missing – it's easy to see why this small band of outcasts are first on the list of suspect.

Based on true crime, Jar of Pennies follows the story of how a murderer was brought to justice in small town east Texas. A book as much about east Texas culture deep in the pine forests of the state as it is about a chain of murders and the gathering of evidence, this riveting narrative has elements of both humor and noir as it rockets to its conclusion.

At a bleak boys boarding school in Cornwall in the eighties when bullying is rife, Will and his best friend Luke are involved in a horrific incident that results in Luke leaving. Twenty-five years later their paths cross again and memories of a painful childhood come flooding back to haunt them both. Will’s wife, Harmony, is struggling after a miscarriage that has hit her hard, and wishes Will would open up about what happened. But as Will withdraws further, she finds herself drawn to the charismatic stranger from her husband’s past.

On a 10-year mission to avenge the brutal sacrifice of her man by Stargut, the local sheriff, himself on a mission to create the perfect man-beast, Lovey, abandoned by her spellbound friend Patty, is joined by a stranger. Tom is a preacher of sorts who has followed the scent of evil for a hundred years. He mysteriously appears in the village of Wrong, a rural Midwestern town, its mutant inhabitants mere creations of the devil lawman. Together, the three converge under the moon into the wood down by the river at the doorsteps of hell.

Der Lehrer Steiner hat einen Turm bauen lassen. Angeblich für Vermessungszwecke. Doch im Wirtshaus erzählen sie sich, er beabsichtige, seine Frau dort hinunterzuwerfen. Aber dann liegt er selber unten, mit zerschmettertem Schädel und leeren Augen. Wer hat seinen perfiden Plan für sich missbraucht? Und wer erbt jetzt den Hof, den der Lehrer nie haben wollte? Seine Frau? Oder der ungeliebte Bruder, dessen Name voreilig ins Kriegerdenkmal gemeißelt worden war? Doch er kehrte zurück, und statt seines Lebens hat er nur einen Arm im Krieg gelassen - und jegliche Menschlichkeit.

Agata gegen Goliath - Ein kleines sizilianisches Dorf. Als der Tabbacchere Costanzo plötzlich stirbt, gerät seine Frau Agata ins Visier des rücksichtslosen Bürgermeisters und seines korrupten Klüngels: Sie wollen ihr das üppige, mit Orangen- und Zitronenbäumen bepflanzte Land abnehmen. Doch Agata wehrt sich. Sie schart eine Reihe von Verbündeten um sich. Und die rebellische Gemeinschaft nimmt es mit dem hinterhältigen Bürgermeister und seinen Kumpanen auf... Götz Otto wurde weltweit bekannt mit dem James-Bond-Film "Der Morgen stirbt nie".