Southern Supernatural

In that special half-hour of twilight—the dark-thirty—there are stories to be told. Mesmerizing and breathtakingly original, these tales are inspired by African American history and range from the time of slavery to the civil rights era. With her extraordinary gift for suspense, Patricia C. McKissack has created a heart-stopping collection of lasting value, a book not quickly forgotten.

Foster kid Briar Givhans grew up on the wrong side of the Charleston society tracks. She has no idea who her parents are or where she came from. She showed up as a toddler on the door step of a fire station with a note stuck to her back with just her name and age on it. No one ever claimed her. Now she's an adult and has long since given up on figuring out her true identity. And then Hell's Belles comes knocking on her door.

Ghost hunter Verity Long is overdue for a little R&R (rest and romance) with her boyfriend, Ellis, and a vintage train trip through the Tennessee mountains seems like just the ticket. The Sugarland Express carries history and nostalgia in every compartment, and Verity is determined to enjoy it - without ghostly interference. But the ghosts have other plans… On a dark, desolate night nearly a century ago, the train was stranded in the mountains, and a young woman was found stabbed to death in her locked compartment.

After striking out on her own as a teen mom, Madi Price is forced to return to her hometown of Brandywine, Virginia, with her seventeen-year-old daughter. With nothing to her name, she scrapes together a living as a palm reader at the local farmers market. It’s there that she connects with old high school flame Henry McCabe, now a reclusive local fisherman whose infant son, Skyler, went missing five years ago. Everyone in town is sure Skyler is dead, but when Madi reads Henry’s palm, she’s haunted by strange and disturbing visions that suggest otherwise.

Just because she can see the dead doesn't mean Verity Long wants to spend her days hunting ghosts. Instead she's over the moon to land a marketing job at the local bank...until she finds her new boss dead in the vault. Even her ghost friend, Frankie, knows that's no way to start a career. Relieved to let the police take charge, Verity steps aside, bound and determined to keep her ghost sightings to herself. But when she learns the main suspect in the murder is a very crooked, very dead mobster, Verity knows it's up to her to solve the case.

Mason Fitzgerald is your average teenage boy. Until recently, his life has been fairly mundane: He's about to start his sophomore year of high school, hangs out with his best friend, and just went through his first breakup. All of these things seem normal, but what Mason doesn't know is that the nightmare he's had throughout his life is about to become more than just a bad dream.

Just as Hickory Grimble hits rock bottom, he inherits his grandparents’ farm and believes his luck is changing. He soon finds he inherited more than money and land. Haunted by his own inner demons, now he has new problems. He begins to see strange creatures on the dark, sprawling acreage, animals that have no business living in middle Tennessee. Balanced on a razor's edge between, addiction and fate, Hick is now face to face with an ancient evil that has returned once more to claim more of the town's children.

Emma Lee Raines, proprietor of a small-town Kentucky funeral home, Eternal Slumber, is a "Betweener". She helps ghosts stuck between here and the ever-after-only murdered ghosts. After Emma Lee solves who murdered them, only then can they cross over to the Great Beyond, Big Guy in the Sky. Emma Lee is up against a cold case that happened before she'd even gotten her "Betweener" gift.

Three full-length novels. Several hours of listening. Sweet Southern Magic includes the first three books in the Sweet Tea Witch Mysteries series: Southern Magic, Southern Spells, and Southern Myths.

Lila Grace Carter talks to dead people. Admittedly, that's not out of the ordinary in Lockhart, South Carolina. In her words, "I'm Southern. We all talk to dead people down here. As a matter of fact, I don't believe I can truly trust anybody that doesn't speak to at least two or three dead relations on a daily basis. The difference is, they talk back to me." Now there's a murderer on the loose in Lockhart, and Lila Grace is the only one who knows a crime was committed. Can she convince the sexy sheriff that Jenny Miller didn't fall down the steps on her own? Will she catch the killer?

Dale and Deloris Justen have searched for weeks for the perfect place for a long delayed honeymoon. When the messages start showing up in Deloris' business emails, the one she uses only for her book sales under the name of Deloris Blue, she wondered if the last name had something to do with the fantastic offers and coupons for the Bonnie Blue Lakeside Lodge. She never considered for a second the final decision to go there was anyone's but her own.

Old wars, new battles. Fighting ghosts, witches, and curses is nothing new for Max and Sandra Porter. But when a Civil War ghost gets tethered to their teenage son, J, everything is new. And terrifying. With the help of their partner and ghost, Marshall Drummond, the team will be up against serious and deadly problems - dealing with the head witch of North Carolina, raising ancient bones from the bottom of lake, breaking forgotten curses, and far more. But worse than that, they will have to face the most difficult challenge of all - J starts dating.

All Pepper Dunn wants is a quiet life in the witchy town of Magnolia Cove, Alabama. But when the Cotton and Cobwebs Festival arrives, her dream goes up in smoke. This year, grandmother Betty is determined to win the award for best magical creature against Melbalean Mayes, the contest matron. To win, Betty needs Pepper’s help. But when Melbalean winds up dead and Betty is accused of the murder, Pepper is thrust into one role she never expected. She must ensure the safety of her town, try to clear Betty’s name, and ensure no one else winds up a victim of the Magnolia Cove murderer.

When a boyfriend from Sandra’s past hires the Porter Agency to investigate a haunted firehouse, Max and Drummond know there’s going to be trouble. Yet nobody is prepared for the twisted path they embark on. A path that takes them into a harrowing murder, a botched curse, and the rumblings of a witch war. But after Sandra’s life is placed in jeopardy, Max throws off the gloves. To save her, he’s ready to take on the toughest witches in all of North Carolina if he must - nothing will stop him when his love is on the line.

Lots of changes in town and in her life, including her ex-fiance's upcoming wedding to her cousin, have Charli Goodwin trying to be on her best behavior. But when an outsider infiltrates Honeysuckle and another death threatens to ruin more than just the future of the upcoming nuptials, Charli winds up at the center of another murder investigation. With wolf-shifter Dash Channing cutting off all contact while away and Mason Clairmont making a new declaration, everything for Charli could change.

After the dead body of a beloved Cottonwood resident is found tangled up in an electric fence, Sheriff Kenni Lowry has a hunch that somethin' ain't right. Her investigation heats up with a fierce cook-off competition, a euchre game where the intel is sweeter than the brownies, and a decades-old family recipe that may just be the proof in the pudding. The icing on the cake is that Kenni is fighting an attraction to her recently sworn-in deputy sheriff, and election season is hot on her tail.

Get ready for three more incredible tales in The Max Porter Paranormal Mysteries. Max, Sandra, and Drummond are back. After the war between the Mobleys and the Magi, a power void has been formed. An ancient cult now resurfaces to fill that void. And with it comes new ghosts, new witches, and new magic. But that would be too easy. Max’s family has plenty of troubles as the Sandwich Boys mature, Max’s mother falls ill, and Drummond may be lost forever. You won’t want to miss a single moment in the series that blends real history with ghosts, witches, curses, and more.

Max and Sandra Porter have encountered many frightening things in North Carolina, encounters that left them broke and broken. Now, just as Max and Sandra are getting their lives back together, they meet a pregnant woman convinced her house is trying to possess her baby. But this is no ordinary haunted house. Every avenue they investigate leads Max to the same daunting conclusion - there is no ghost doing the haunting. Yet something supernatural clearly is involved.

For Max and Sandra Porter, building a family seemed unattainable. But since moving to Winston-Salem and starting a business with the ghost of a 1940s detective, the unattainable did not sound so far-fetched. Over time, they brought two homeless boys into their work and eventually to their home. But this ad hoc family has a lot of unknown histories. Dark secrets that threaten to crawl to the surface. When one of those secrets breaks through, Max finds himself in a fight - not only for his own survival, but for the survival of his family as well.

Max Porter has had his share of odd cases. That goes with the territory when one of your partners is the ghost of a 1940s detective. But the idea of being hired by a witch coven to save witches seems wrong from the start, and it only gets worse.