Small Town Crime

Detective Sergeant Mark Ariti has taken a few days' holiday in Broken Bay at precisely the wrong time. The small fishing town on South Australia's Limestone Coast is now the scene of a terrible tragedy. Renowned cave-diver Mya Rennik has drowned while exploring a sinkhole on the land of wealthy farmer Frank Doyle. As the press descends, Mark's boss orders him to stay put and assist the police operation. But when they retrieve Mya's body, a whole new mystery is opened up, around the disappearance of a young local woman twenty years before.

Doyle Redmond, 35-year-old nowhere writer, has crossed the line between imagination and real live trouble. On the lam in his soon-to-be ex-wife's Volvo, he's running a family errand back in his boyhood home of West Table, Missouri - the heart of the red-dirt Ozarks. The law wants his big brother, Smoke, on a felony warrant, and Doyle's supposed to talk him into giving up. But Smoke is making other plans: he is about to harvest a profitable patch of homegrown marijuana.

After a tumultuous marriage, Mary Wilson is happy in her uncomplicated life, focusing on her twelve-year-old son. She’s always been content with her little family - but then she finds an old postcard that throws her whole past into question... When an invitation arrives for her high school reunion, Mary jumps at the chance of a distraction from the shock discovery, and meeting her old classmate April feels like a gift. Despite barely remembering April, Mary throws herself into the new friendship and finds her previously quiet social life reinvigorated.

A death rocks the Gulf Coast town of Port Leo, Texas. Beach-bum-turned-judge Whit Mosley is summoned to a yacht where the black-sheep son of a senator lies dead. Was it suicide, fueled by a family tragedy? Or did an obsessed killer use the dead man as a pawn in a twisted game? When Whit defies political pressure and conducts an inquest, he and Detective Claudia Salazar expose a nest of drug lords, con artists, and power-hungry sharks - all out for blood. With their careers - and their lives - at stake, Whit and Claudia must unearth a lethal trail of passion and deceit.

In this atmospheric and profoundly moving debut, Cathy and Daniel live with their father, John, in the remote woods of Yorkshire, in a house the three of them built themselves. John is a gentle brute of a man, a former enforcer who fights for money when he has to, but who otherwise just wants to be left alone to raise his children. When a local landowner shows up on their doorstep, their precarious existence is threatened, and a series of actions is set in motion that can only end in violence.

In the heart of Amblewood’s bustling downtown, Café Cozy is the go-to spot for warm conversations, freshly brewed coffee, and a touch of autumn magic. Owned by Emma Blake, the café is more than just a place to grab a latte—it’s a community hub where friends gather, secrets are shared, and the espresso is always made with love. But when ruthless food critic Derrick Matheson collapses after sipping the café’s newest seasonal drink, the cozy atmosphere turns cold. Whispers of poisoning spread through the town like wildfire, and business drops as suspicion swirls around Emma and her ...

When the police refuse to investigate the disappearance of Mallory Carver’s niece, Julie, her family turns to private investigator Tucker Randall and thus set off a dangerous chain of events. Julie disappeared while hiking in the beautiful yet treacherous Cherokee National Forest, and Randall, a former FBI agent with a haunted past, can’t understand why the police won’t get involved. But as he delves deeper into the forest’s secrets, he realizes that someone is willing to do whatever it takes to keep the truth buried, and he’s determined to solve the case and bring the missing girl home.

Thanksgiving usually kicks off the Christmas season with plenty of turkey and football. But in Coyote Wells, Gemma’s dinner for twenty is hijacked when a dead body turns up in Christmas Creek. Chief of Police Lando Bonner soon arrives on the scene and realizes it’s one of the town’s most prominent citizens. When the body count keeps going up, he discovers the killer has a penchant for shotguns. Anyone could be next, including those closest to him Is the motive money or a personal grudge? There are enough suspects to fill out Santa’s naughty list two times over. The main target had a...

Disappearing wasn’t going to be enough…they needed a plan…some answers…and a safe place so they could figure out what to do next and stop running in circles trying to stay one step ahead of the guys who seemed to want her dead. Simon Sullivan might not be who Ava always believed him to be, but along with his brother, he’d spent his life trying to protect her. That wasn’t going to change especially now when everything they’d planned for, hoping against hope it would never be needed, was playing out exactly as they’d feared. But he’s not alone. Harper Riley isn’t about to ...

From the outside, the house in Lakeview Terrace looks perfect, and the Bigelows seem like the perfect family: the respected surgeon father, the glamorous, devoted mother and two beautiful children. A perfect family, in a perfect house, living their perfect lives. But perfect surfaces can hide dark undercurrents, and behind closed doors lies a very different story. Teenager Zane and his younger sister, Britt, are terrorised by their violent father and dysfunctional mother.

Date with Poison is the brilliant fourth novel in Julia Chapman's Dales Detective Agency series and is perfect of fans of M C Beaton's Agatha Raisin series and Gervase Phinn. A young teenager has gone missing. Can Samson O'Brien and Delilah Metcalfe find him? Spring is in the air in Bruncliffe. But not everyone is filled with the joys of the season. Implicated in the murder of a man in Leeds, the Dales Detective Agency’s Samson O’Brien is facing tough questions from the police....

Welcome to Beaumont Cove, a slowly decaying tourist town at the edge of the world, and the place where Maggie James’s worst fears for her estranged twin sister, Lilly, have come true. Lilly is dead, and Maggie has arrived to identify her body. Lilly’s husband, Mike, is in custody for her murder. With the help of the local sheriff, a retired private investigator, and a strange but friendly carnival psychic, Maggie begins to uncover the truth about what really happened to her sister. But the truth comes at a price....

Police Officer Brooke Patterson is dedicated to her calling to help others, despite having to deal with the difficulties of being female in a male-dominated profession. To help her de-stress from her job, Brooke's friends talk her into taking a vacation the weekend before Christmas. The trio head to Clear Mountain Resort to ski, spend time at the spa, and relax. When they arrive and their suite isn't ready, the front desk clerk suggests they go on a sleigh ride-a new feature of the resort. Little does Brooke know, the last-minute activity will change her life forever. After a difficult ...

Wesley Crocker is accused of the murder of young Maria Ibarra, who was found near the "camping place" of the drifter. Crocker's account of the previous night leads Undersheriff Bill Gastner to more troubling questions.

In July 1933, a gangster staged the kidnapping-for-ransom of an Oklahoma oilman. He would live to regret it. What started clean soon turns messy as two of “Machine Gun” Kelly’s partners cut themselves into the action, a determined former Texas Ranger makes tracking Kelly his mission, and his wife, ever alert to her own self-interest, starts playing both sides. Set in the first days of the modern FBI, Infamous is a blend of historical novel and crime story featuring an unexpected hero, some of the most colorful supporting characters in recent crime fiction, and femme fatale Kathryn Kelly.

2024 BRONZE MEDAL WINNER GLOBAL BOOK AWARDS – MYSTERY / DETECTIVE CATEGORY "So many interesting aspects to snag the reader’s attention.” –The New York News JournalFoundling Museum archivist Wrenn Grayson is called on to resolve two conspiracies. The call from the first is closer to a fading whisper since it steps out of 1879. It revolves around a small temple-like structure, known as a folly, and Thomas Longstretch, the stained-glass artisan hired to design the folly’s windows. Longstretch’s extended stay on the Summoner Park estate coincides with the disappearance of a ...

A short read cozy mystery with a twist... Dive into a twisty whodunit cozy mystery set in Cloverville on St. Patrick’s Day! Come join the town’s thrilling annual hunt for the hidden Leprechaun Emeralds, only this year, the joy turns to dread when renowned jeweler Liam O'Brien is found murdered in his shop. Step into the shoes of Detective Annie Murphy and unravel clues while interrogating quirky suspects like Liam’s mysterious brother Seamus, his struggling business partner Maggie, and rival jeweler Sean. It’s your chance to crack the case! Can you solve the St. Patrick’s Day ...

A murder mystery book set in the village of Bracken during a seemingly peaceful summer evening. When Inspector Windmere escapes to the idyllic Dahlia and Crown inn for a much-needed holiday, he finds his retreat cut short by the shocking murder of Sir Henry Walden. In the quaint village of Bracken, where gossip runs rampant and the simplest conversations are laced with tension, the tranquility is shattered as dark secrets threaten to unravel the lives of its inhabitants. The investigation into Sir Henry's death reveals a tapestry of suspicion woven with hidden motives and long-buried ...

Lacy Marie Crocker has settled into a comfortable groove back home in New Orleans, and with Valentine's Day right around the corner, she's busier than ever running a thriving pet boutique, helping her mother organize the upcoming National Pet Pageant, and untangling her complicated love life. But when delivering a king-sized order of dreidel-shaped doggy biscuits for a Saint Berdoodle's bark-mitzvah, Lacy stumbles into yet another murder scene - and the last person to see the victim alive was her own father.

Murder in the dunes: A new mystery series where dark secrets lurk beneath the surface, with a dash of humor to keep things afloat. Off the coast, a fisherman pulls a dead body out of the sea. She is covered in nothing but a series of strange symbols. The coroner discovers that the woman, suffering from terminal cancer, appears to have drowned without any outside influence—but no one can find the boat she must have fallen from. Enna and Pavel are faced with a baffling mystery: Was it suicide or something far more sinister? The case takes a darker turn when the dead woman’s cell phone ...