Small Town Thriller

Cecil Younger is a man who takes comfort in the absurdity of the universe, and the universe is obliging him when he gets a call from his lawyer and psychiatrist, who offers him a job. A client wants to hire Younger to kill someone. Though common sense tells him murder just isn't a good career move, his finances tell him it can't hurt to meet his potential client, hoping he can succeed in appeasing him - without a dead body.

China Bayles gave up jurisprudence to settle down in small-town Texas and set up shop as an herbalist. But crimes that need solving keep coming her way, so China's back in action in this seventh book of the best selling, critically-acclaimed herbal mystery series. The story centers around an annual chili cook-off where a judge dies of a severe allergic reaction...to a peanut. Everyone knows peanuts don't belong in a bowl of Texas chili, so it's up to China to uncover the truth.

How do you live with yourself when you don’t even know who you are? On a chill October night, a girl goes missing setting the small town of Oakridge on edge. James has spent the last five years running from a past that still haunts him to this day. Now he finds himself thrust back into a life he thought he left behind. Finding out his new home may be haunted and reconnecting with an old friend while being thrust into a murder mystery, James finds himself trying to figure out which end is up while questioning his own sanity. **AUTHOR’S NOTE** Buried Secrets is a New Adult, mystery ...

Aspiring musician Pete Hamilton has nothing in common with his older brother, Leo, an aerospace engineer. Until their late father leaves them the family farm, a sprawling dairy operation in Vermont. Pete wants to hold on. Leo wants to sell. All the embattled brothers can agree on is to skydive over the fields and sprinkle their father’s ashes—a grand gesture the old man would have loved. But when the plan goes terribly wrong, only one unexpected eyewitness can see what’s really going on.

Manhattan fashionista Kelly Quinn thought she'd left her upstate New York town far behind...until the Seventh Avenue expat returns home to revamp her grandmother's consignment shop into an upscale boutique - and unwittingly sets a trend for murder....After her rising career as a Manhattan buyer is derailed, Kelly has mixed feelings about relocating back to Lucky Cove, in spite of her big plans for the soon-to-be-renamed Curated by Kelly Resale Boutique. What's left of her luck starts running out when a customer puts on a black lace dress that triggers visions of someone being murdered.

Claudia Shephard’s husband died in a fire. Everyone says it was tragic. Accidental. She doesn't remember much—just smoke, panic, the way her lungs burned as she ran. But three weeks after the funeral, a manuscript arrives on her doorstep. A book she didn’t write. A book that describes, in disturbingly intimate detail, her husband’s affair… and the precise steps she took to murder him. It’s written in her voice. With her quirks. Her phrases. Her secrets. And page by page, Claudia feels her grip on reality begin to unravel. As whispers swirl through their coastal town and friends ...

Emily thought she knew what love was—until she found herself locked away in a secluded cabin by the one person she trusted the most. What began as a romantic weekend escape quickly turns into a twisted nightmare. Jason, her seemingly perfect boyfriend, takes control of everything—where she goes, what she eats, even when she sleeps. As the walls of their idyllic cabin close in, Emily starts to see the truth behind Jason’s charm: a dark obsession that runs deeper than she ever imagined. But Jason isn’t the only one hiding secrets. When Rachel, a mysterious woman with her own dark past...

Every grave keeps a secret. Toby Maddox has long listened to the whispers of the dead, but nothing can prepare her for the nightmare about to erupt from the forgotten graves of Elkhorn. As she struggles to piece together her shattered childhood, Toby is dragged into a world of gruesome murders and whispered legends where secrets fester like wounds. Alongside Christian—a hardened investigator whose haunted heart mirrors her own—Toby must confront the malevolent spirit of Abel Younger before it consumes her. When every revelation reveals another ghost waiting to be unearthed, only the ...

A former bull riding champion and an uptown clothing boutique owner (who don't get along) get elected to serve on Heart Lake’s town council together. Decker Kingston is always looking for ways to give back to his community, so he eagerly throws his Stetson into the ring to fill one of the two vacancies on the town council. Fashion boutique owner Chanel Remington is excited about continuing the Remington legacy of always having a family member on the town council. Unfortunately, her ideas for running Heart Lake are the polar opposite of Decker’s ideas. Their heated bickering during ...

North Carolina, 2018: Morgan Christopher’s life has been derailed. Taking the fall for a crime she did not commit, she finds herself serving a three-year stint in prison. Her dream of a career in the arts is put on hold - until a mysterious visitor makes her an offer that will see her released immediately. Her assignment: restore an old post office mural in a sleepy southern town. Desperate to leave prison, Morgan accepts. What she finds under the layers of grime is a painting that tells the story of madness, violence and a conspiracy of small-town secrets.

The complicated history of the Blackridge house has been long forgotten. Felicity confronts her husband's secret double life and discovers a doppelgänger threatening her. At the same time, decades later, nursing assistant Ramona Elwood delves deep into the estate's ghostly phenomenon as she cares for the cryptic Martha Black. But she soon experiences terrifying supernatural encounters tied to the deadly secrets of the paranormal. Can they solve the mystery in time? Or will they face the same doomed fate as those who came before them?

Grace Evans, an overworked New Yorker looking for a total escape from her busy life, books an Airbnb on a ranch in the middle of Wyoming. When she arrives at the idyllic getaway, she’s pleased to find that the owner is a handsome man by the name of Calvin Wells—and he’s eager to introduce her to his easygoing way of life. But there are things Grace discovers that she’s not too pleased about: A lack of cell phone service. A missing woman. And a feeling that something isn’t right with the ranch.

She thought her boyfriend cheating on her was the worst thing that ever happened to her . . . until she was kidnapped.Bree feels like she has it all. She has the perfect relationship with her perfect boyfriend Travis, and she is only months away from graduating high school and moving away from her small home town to a good college, paid for in full by her boyfriend's parents. But her whole world is shattered when she discovers that Travis has been cheating on her. Devastated, Bree ends the relationship as soon as she learns the truth, but her decision to break up with Travis leads to ...

With Holding Lies, John Larison takes us deep into a thriving subculture of the Northwest, one born of the ferns and firs, rain and hot-springs, firebombs and whitewater. He takes us even deeper into the troubles of Hank Hazelton, a 59-year-old river guide, as he struggles to reconnect with his only daughter after a 14-year estrangement. His failure as a father haunts him, along with other deep regrets, tragedies, and longings. In the days before his daughter's arrival, Hank discovers a drift boat stranded below a rapid, empty except for a long smear of blood on its seat.

After an EMP knocks out power across the region, Big Rock, NC, is plunged into post-apocalyptic chaos. With no heat, no light, and dwindling resources, survival becomes a race against time in this dystopian nightmare. The townspeople are on the brink, but Lacey faces an even greater challenge—her daughter has been captured by a violent group of terrorists determined to destroy everything she holds dear.

Vera Martinez wants nothing more than to escape Roaring Creek and her parents' reputation as demonologists. Not to mention she's the family outcast, lacking her parents' innate abilities, and is terrified of the occult things lurking in their basement. Maxwell Oliver is supposed to be enjoying the summer before his senior year. Instead he's taking care of his little sister while his mom slowly becomes someone he doesn't recognize. Soon he suspects that what he thought was grief over his father's death might be something more sinister.

A policeman exclusively works the night shift to hide his scars, while an undercover detective investigates a cold case in search of the justice she feels he deserves. The trail of clues leads to an unexpected complication. Newly promoted Police Sergeant Luke Hawling is determined to eliminate the growing drug problem in his hometown, even if it means going toe-to-toe with a dangerous motorcycle gang. The house fire they set a few years earlier left one side of his face permanently disfigured. A chance meeting with a gang member brings him closer to making an arrest — a job that would be ...

Jo Peters, a former LA County district attorney, once thought that big-city life and glamor were her future. But after a brush with death and a truckload of murder and mayhem in LA, Jo decides that home, Mirasol, CA, doesn't look so bad after all. She is content to be the new city attorney for her home town. No more grisly murder scenes, just boring administrative law. A small-town pace, reconnecting with old friends. Life is good. When the body of one of those old friends is found, Jo finds herself drawn to the investigation.

A waitress is keeping a huge secret to protect two people she loves — a task that would be a lot harder if the bachelor sheriff she's crushing on wasn’t forever lending her a hand. Tiva Nez's life has been a hot mess since the day she was born, so it’s just her misfortune to find herself posing as a single mom to protect her sister and nephew. No, Christmas is NOT the most wonderful time of the year. She would rather skip it altogether. Everyone knows Police Chief Adriel Montana is married to his job. He lives to serve his tribe on the reservation, including his favorite waitress who ...

She says I’m a beast. She's right. But I’m the man she needs if she wants to survive. I’m no family man. Big, bearded, tatted – I’m no teddy bear either. As a member of the Twisted Devils MC, I fix bikes and break heads. At night, it’s all about easy riding and fast women. No commitments, except to my club. Until Trixie. That night, everything changes. The curvy bar singer takes the stage and my world shifts. She’s gorgeous. And her sinful voice stirs an animal inside me. All I want is one night. Nothing more. She tells me I'm full of it. She wants nothing from a man like me. ...