Amateur Detective

* * * A gripping suspense in the tradition of Tess Gerritsen, Robin Cook and Alex Kava, The Slaughterhouse Secrets is the debut of Dr. Jessica Bergstrom, a smart and resourceful veterinarian thrust into a quagmire of corruption, crime and drug smuggling. * * * DR. JESSICA BERGSTROM has job pressures—deadlines, a cranky boss and a meth-addled co-worker out to kill her. As a public health veterinarian at a meat packing plant she knew the place would be rough and dirty. What she didn’t know was the depth of the corruption between industry and government. As she fits the puzzle pieces of ...

Wedding Shower Ends in Bride's Murder Everyone knows the groom's grandmother does not approve of the bride. But would she actually kill her? The richest family in town is implicated in murder and Jenny King reluctantly steps in to investigate. Jenny finds there are very few suspects and hardly any motive. Spring flings are in vogue and the pretty bride may not have been that innocent. Is the distraught groom just putting on an act? Jenny goes around in circles trying to separate the real clues from the red herrings. Meanwhile, Adam and Jenny are in no hurry to tie the knot. But the clock ...

In New Oslo, some family secrets stay buried... and some come back to haunt you. When Lena Larsen's home renovation uncovers a centuries-old burial chamber, complete with the grave of an accused witch, she knows it's going to be a wild ride. With her ghostly grandmother offering commentary from the sidelines and two modern-day mystics requesting permission to perform rituals in her basement, Lena has enough on her plate. But then her construction worker turns up dead, and suddenly the witch's grave is the least of her problems. As Lena investigates with help from her best friend Charlie and...

The most original crime novel in years - British ‘Golden Age’ sleuth meets American hard-boiled crime! It’s the summer of 1920: Kit Aston travels to San Francisco for his cousin’s marriage to the mysterious Dain Collins. When a private investigator tailing Dain Collins is killed, Kit Aston, his fiancée Mary and Aunt Agatha team up with Pinkerton detective, Dashiell Hammett, in a case involving murder, kidnap and the theft of a certain legendary bird from Malta. The latest Kit Aston mystery is a delightful reimagining of some of Dashiell Hammett’s greatest novels: the Maltese ...

Set against the luscious Miami sunsets, E. E. Williams' Tears in the Rain delivers to mystery fans a cast of unforgettable characters entwined around a fast-paced and intriguing story of sex, power, drugs and deceit-narrated by its lead character, an unfortunate would-be detective, who must choose to risk his life to prove himself.

Siblings Alex and Zoe Sherlock take their last name as inspiration when choosing a summer job. After all, starting a detective agency has to be better than babysitting (boring), lawn mowing (sweaty), or cleaning out the attic (boring and sweaty). Their friends Lina, an avid bookworm, and Yadi, an aspiring cinematographer, join the enterprise, and Alex and Zoe’s retired reporter grandfather offers up his sweet aquamarine Cadillac convertible and storage unit full of cold cases. The group’s first target is the long-lost treasure supposedly hidden near their hometown Miami.

It's National Library Week, and the Athena Public Library is planning an exhibit to honor the centenary of famous novelist Electra Barnes Cartwright - creator of the beloved Veronica Thane series. Charlie has a soft spot for Cartwright's girl detective stories (not to mention an extensive collection of her books!). When the author agrees to make a rare public appearance, the news of her whereabouts goes viral overnight, and series devotees and book collectors converge on Athena.

A missing pet. A gang of criminal pit bulls. Two cat detectives are ready to solve a mystery… Yoshi and Gatsby are two felines known as the Petectives. When they agree to help a pretty young cat find her missing brother, a routine pet investigation goes sour faster than a bowl of milk. To solve the mystery, the cat detectives must face down a gang of vicious criminal pit bulls and the neighborhood dog police. While Gatsby's up to his whiskers in danger and romance, Yoshi puts together the pieces of a puzzle that could rock their community. With enemies at every turn, can Yoshi and Gatsby ...

Gwinny Tuffel, the dog sitter, stays at an ageing rock singer's Little Venice houseboat to look after his border collie while he goes on tour. But during the annual Canal Carnival the singer's body is discovered, having never made it out of London. The police dismiss it as an accident, but Gwinny suspects murder most foul. It is up to her to solve this curious crime .

Julie has her freedom, a dream job as a pastry chef, and a corpse growing cold on her floor... Welcome to Beldoc, a small town in the heart of Provence, imbued with lavender and fresh baked bread! You can idle around, or you can puzzle out a murder mystery. When a man dies on her watch in her pâtisserie, newly divorced chef Julie Cavallo is dismayed. It isn’t that she’s a suspect. The local gendarmerie captain signs off the death as a natural event. A heart attack. But for a reason she won’t discuss, Julie suspects Maurice Sauve was poisoned. What’s a girl to do? She’ll ignore ...

London, 1853: Young Charles Lenox is called upon by the duke of Dorset, one of England’s most revered noblemen, for help. A painting of the duke’s great-grandfather has been stolen from his private study. But the duke’s concern is not for his ancestor’s portrait; hiding in plain sight nearby is another painting of infinitely greater value, one that holds the key to one of the country’s most famous and best-kept secrets. Dorset believes the thieves took the wrong painting and may return when they realize their error.

Marshall Miller would’ve remembered her face even if he hadn’t seen it on a MISSING poster. When a young woman disappears in his small town, the investigation hinges on Marshall’s haunted sighting of her, crying in the back seat of a police car driven by a cop named Maddox. There’s only one problem: no local cop named Maddox exists. But the speeding ticket he handed to Marshall certainly does.

A Celebratory Luncheon Ends with a Deadly Shot… Event planner Ivy Schaeffer is no stranger to high-profile events, but when hired to plan a luncheon for Matthew Glover’s mayoral comeback, she expects political tension—not murder. Beneath the applause and polished speeches, discontent brews, culminating in a gunshot that silences Matthew for good. The detective insists Ivy stay out of it, but Matthew’s widow has other plans, enlisting Ivy to uncover the truth buried beneath political facades. With her sharp-witted partner Phyllis and their ever-observant feline sidekick, Fable, Ivy ...

Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs are on the warpath in the village of Balfour, and the local shop owners fear that their financial sins are about to catch up with them. Meanwhile, Abbey Glen’s new Whisky Masterclass is a resounding success...until the latest group of students starts to drop dead in the night and Abi Logan fears that what they are really offering is a Masterclass in Murder. Missing money, dead bodies, and a whistle blower who may not be as virtuous as he appears leave Abi scrambling for clues in the dark. Will Abi find the killer before the inevitable happens?

Rudolph, New York, shop owner Merry Wilkinson's best friend Vicky Casey is newly engaged to Chef Mark Grosse and is moving into the historic Cole House—a home surrounded by drama, intrigue, and a possible haunting that is in desperate need of renovation. The wedding is just three weeks away, but all is not bliss for the newly engaged couple as estranged relatives of the late owner fight over her will. Then, late one night, Vicky and Merry come across a dead body in the garden of Cole House, and Mark is the one standing over the corpse.

Monroetown, where there’s a skeleton in every closet... Reece Donelly embarks on what she thinks is a small endeavor of locating her niece’s cell phone, but more items go missing and, to her horror, so does her best friend, Gordon Greene. To top it off, Reece’s ex-fiancé, Simon, blows back into town, unsettling Reece. As the days pass, and Gordon still hasn’t been found, she fears the worst. Then an unfamiliar car follows her and nearly runs her off the road… The thief has a vendetta against her. Why? And who shoved a threatening note under her apartment door? There are those ...

Another day, another dead woman in Ellison Russell's study. Only this one claimed to be Mrs. Anarchy Jones. As Ellison juggles mothers, daughter, unhappy wives, and near-miss murder attempts, one thing is clear - someone will go to any lengths to hide the truth. Can Ellison and Anarchy catch a killer before the body count rises? Or will Ellison be the next corpse in the study?

It’s another murder in the little town of Roble. But not to worry, Romaine and Auntie Zanne are on it! It’s the 100th Boule of the Distinguished Ladies’ Society of Voodoo Herbalists. They’ve gotten together to eat, drink, be merry and vote for the next Lesser Mambo, a lifetime appointment second only to the Most High (bet you’ll never guess who holds that position). But the second in command spot keeps becoming vacant—that’s because the women who fill it keep dying off. This time though, it looks like murder. During an alcohol-infused dinner and a tall glass full of absinth, a...

Years ago, Beth Lathrop and her sister Kate suffered what they thought would be the worst tragedy of their lives the night both the famous painting Moonlight and their mother were taken. The detective assigned to the case, Conor Reid, swore to protect the sisters from then on. Beth moved on, throwing herself fully into the art world, running the family gallery, and raising a beautiful daughter with her husband Pete. Kate, instead, retreated into herself and took to the skies as a pilot, always on the run.

November, 1923. An invitation to a house party at the estate of Parkview Hall is a welcome respite for Olive Belgrave, a newly minted working girl who’s become the solver of high society’s trickiest problems. But when the sumptuous black-tie event turns deadly, Olive’s cousin Peter becomes the main suspect. Olive must unmask a sophisticated killer before an innocent man takes the blame . . . because murder doesn’t RSVP.