Rural Town Mystery

Things in the fishing town of Cold Storage, Alaska, are changing. It's the summer of 1968; the men are wearing their hair long, the Vietnam War is at its height, and multiple assassinations have gripped the country. But some things remain the same. Ellie's bar is still the place to catch up on the town gossip, and there's a lot to talk about, from the boys who have returned from the war (and the ones who haven't), to the robberies that are plaguing the locals, to the new guy in town: a famous monk from Kentucky.

Set in the early 1960s, this is the story of a family-oriented community, surrounding a winterbourne stream, in Northern California. It is full of average law-abiding citizens who live in picturesque equestrian properties with white three-rail fences. A violent motor vehicle accident and the attempted resuscitation of the victim, a homeless drug addict, by surgeon Doctor Franklin Carson and his Labrador, Winston, begins a fast-paced story of deception and lies. The event calls attention to a problem in the small community.

The Maine of Not When I'm Gone is about mother nature, the sea, the woods, the tides, the seasons, sunrise and sunset. It is also about human nature. Central are events that happen on the Fourth of July weekend. Locals are drinking, partying, waiting for fireworks. The Coast Guard is like them, cruising the bay, but not patrolling much, most of the sailors below deck, with girlfriends, celebrating the holiday. It is the perfect moment for a multi-million drug drop to take place. A boat from Panama is hardly noticed when it slips into the bay.

A story of small-town intrigue that begins with a large sum of money being entrusted and then mysteriously disappearing. The novel was extremely popular and one of Bennett's greatest successes.

After many months of grief over her brother's illness and death, journalist Zara Ellison is finally ready to begin a new chapter of her life and make a commitment to her boyfriend, Senior Constable Jack Higgins. But when she's assigned to investigate the Barker arrest, Jack begins to believe that Zara is working against him.

Caitlin has been having an affair for over a year when the country enters lockdown. Suddenly, seeing her lover, Daniel, without alerting her husband becomes almost impossible. When she does manage to sneak to his home, she finds him lying in a pool of his own blood, dead. Ali is a just-about-functioning alcoholic, recently laid off and feeling rather lonely. Each day she goes to her local shop to buy her permitted two bottles of wine, leaving food parcels for neighbours on her way home. While keeping an eye on what they are up to, of course.

Alma, periodista y escritora de treinta y cuatro años, regresa a Paraíso, la urbanización en pleno campo en la que vivió hasta la adolescencia, veinte años después de que un trágico accidente acabara con su felicidad familiar. Llamada por un impulso inconsciente, alquila la casa en plena naturaleza donde creció para tratar de reencontrarse con los recuerdos, en la esperanza de que sirvan de respuesta a sus preguntas vitales.

Jon Frederick spent his adolescence protecting his mentally ill brother and worrying about his parents' farm as it headed toward bankruptcy. So when Mandy Baker, the alluring new girl in town, pursued him, he was easily enamored. But on the day he ended their tryst, Mandy vanished. There is no doubt in the small Minnesota town of Pierz that the flirtatious girl is dead, and there is little doubt that Jon got away with murder.

Documentary filmmaker Riley Vasher has been living a low-key life on the island of Oahu with her long-time boyfriend Brody. This all changes when Brody overhears on his police scanner that popular TV weathergirl Piper Kingsley has been murdered. When Piper’s boyfriend, Ethan Jakes, is arrested for the crime, a high-profile murder trial is sure to follow - and Riley and Brody sense their chance to make a name for themselves. Riley convinces Ethan she can help him if they make a documentary about the trial, and recommends the brilliant but eccentric defense lawyer Nicholas Church.

Red Dirt Country features the thrilling return of Detective Dave Burrows, now a member of the stock squad in Western Australia. Recovering from an undercover case in outback Queensland, Dave Burrows finally returns to Perth, to join his pregnant wife, Melinda, and their small daughter, Bec. Things have been off-kilter between Mel and Dave for some time and nothing he says or does seems to make it right.

Was würden wir tun, um unsere schamvollsten Geheimnisse zu bewahren? In der Kleinstadt Miracle Creek geht eine Scheune, die zur Therapiezwecken eingesetzt wurde, in Flammen auf. Zwei Menschen sterben - Kitt, die eine Familie mit fünf Kindern zurücklässt, und Henry, ein achtjähriger autistischer Junge. Im Prozess wegen Brandstiftung und Mord sitzt Henrys Mutter Elizabeth auf der Anklagebank. Hat sie ihren eigenen Sohn ermordet? Die Beweise sind erdrückend. Doch während des Prozesses wird klar: In Miracle Creek hat jeder etwas zu verbergen.

It’s been seven years since Gloomy Knob landed in the Ted Stevens High-Security Federal Penitentiary and five years since the end of the war, the one North Korea started when they sent a missile to Cold Storage, Alaska. Serving a life sentence for the murder of his sister, Gloomy spends his time trying to forget about the past. Then one day, Gloomy is snatched from his off-site work station. Instead of celebrating his newfound freedom, Gloomy comes unmoored - he feels he belongs in prison. But his kidnappers believe Gloomy knows where a second nuclear warhead is hidden.

When Orla Macrae receives a letter asking her to return to the family cattle property where she grew up, she does so grudgingly. Her estranged uncle, Palmer, may be dying, but he is the last person she wants to see, especially since she's made a new life far away from where she lost so much. But on his deathbed he utters a few enigmatic words about a secret locked away and a clue as to its whereabouts.

In the vein of The Lovely Bones and The Little Friend, Ghosts of the Missing follows the mysterious disappearance of a 12-year-old girl during a town parade and the reverberations of this tragedy throughout the town.

Sonny and Clara Myers struggle on their Kansas farm in the late 1930s, a time the Lord gave up on: their land's gone dry, barren, and worthless; the bankers are greedy and hungry, trying to squeeze them and other farmers out of their homes; and, on top of that, their marriage is in trouble. The couple can struggle or surrender and hightail it to California like most of the others. Sonny refuses to abandon the family farm, so Clara takes off westward in their old battered truck. Alone on the farm and determined to get back Clara and the good old days, Sonny comes up with an idea....

When 25-year-old journalist Zara Ellison receives her mother's ominous text message, 'Call me when you can', Zara knows it's not good news. Two weeks later, Zara has left her much-loved city life to relocate to Barker, the sleepy country town in which she grew up. For Zara, family comes first. But she needs to work too, and the town's police force is a rural journalist's best source of information. Meeting Detective Dave Burrows and Dave's second-in-charge, Senior Constable Jack Higgins, is a priority.

The body of a young man has been found in the woods outside Newberg, dead from a close-range shotgun blast. The gun - his own - lies beside the body. Certain things don’t add up for Detective Tia Suarez. Where did the fat envelope of cash in his pocket come from? Who called the police to report the body, then disappeared before the cops arrived? The trail leads Tia to an institution for juvenile incarceration and to the leader of a local mega-church, a political and economic powerhouse in the region. Newberg’s mayor and the medical examiner keep trying to close the case.

Judith Kratt inherited all the Kratt family had to offer - the pie safe, the copper clock, the murder that no one talks about - and she knows in her old bones that it's time to make an inventory of her household and its valuables. But she finds that cataloging the family belongings - as well as their misfortunes - won't contain her family's secrets, not when her wayward sister suddenly returns, determined to expose skeletons that the Kratts had hoped to take to their grave.

Bringing together six short stories - two of which are previously unpublished - One Last Dram Before Midnight is perfect for fans of Denzil Meyrick. These tales take us from Jim Daley's early days pounding the beat in Glasgow as a young constable to a lighthearted whisky smuggling romp involving Hamish and some ghostly pipers.

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.