by Sunny Frazier

Details on how to win a copy of a book from a past Coming Attractions column-The Grim Steeper by Amanda Cooper, at the end of this column.

There’s flowers in bloom, magic in the air, Georgia on our minds, and these terrific books to read!

After a successful party at Bodie Island’s Lighthouse Library in North Carolina’s Outer Banks, librarian Lucy Richardson is ready to curl up with Charles the cat and a good book. A small boat crashes and two shipwrecked sailors survive until one turns up dead a few days later. For the thirty-fifth time our plucky librarian finds herself roped into a murder investigation and navigating a sea of suspects. This time author Eva Gates doesn’t make it easy in Reading Up a Storm, Book 3 in the Lighthouse Library Mystery.

Debuting a new series, author Amanda Flower gives us Crime and Poetry, a Magical Bookshop mystery. Rushing home to sit by her ailing grandmother’s bedside, Violet Waverly is shocked to find Grandma Daisy the picture of perfect health. Grandma wants her granddaughter to move back and work at Charming Books. Imagine you’re browsing and the perfect book for you flies off the shelf. Wouldn’t that be convenient! Violet isn’t buying it and is ready to go back to Chicago until a corpse is discovered. The man had just put Grandma in his will, so she’s the prime suspect. It will take Violet and a cat named Emerson to stop Grandma for being booked for murder one. Fun stuff!

Novice psychic Clyde Fortune is An Unhappy Medium in Crystal Haven, Michigan. Her nephew has organized a Zombie Fun Run, but Clyde is worried because her sister has returned to town after a 15-year absence. When one of the zombie runners is found murdered and Grace disappears, Clyde and her police detective boyfriend must find the murderer to remove her sister off the suspect list. Family secrets, grudges, and stolen diamonds complicate things in Dawn Eastman’s Book 4 of the Family Fortune Mystery.

In the town of Sweet Briar, Georgia, Ella Mae LaFaye’s pies are the talk of the town. When the President of the Camellia Club asks Ella Mae to go to their retreat to teach these affluent Southern ladies a few pie-making tips, she willingly agrees. But when the president is found floating in the lake, it’s going to take more than magic to find the killer. Breach of Crust is Book 5 in Ellery Adams’ Charmed Pie Shoppe Mystery.

It’s Sweet Briar, South Carolina, with the Southern Sewing Circle for Needle and Dread, Book 11 in Elizabeth Lynn Casey’s seamless mystery. Rose, the owner of SewTastic, sponsors do-it-yourself weekends for sewing enthusiasts. But an argumentative customer is strangled by a power cord, and it’s up to the Sewing Circle to stitch together the clues.

PATTERN AND SEWING TIPS INCLUDED

We’re still in Georgia for Book 2 of the Georgia Peach Mystery series. The Peach Cotillion in Cays Mill is an annual debutante ball. Nola Mae Harper has her hands full with the dinner and opening her shop, Peachy Keen. When the mother of the spoiled Peach Queen is stabbed to death, Nola’s friend is the prime suspect because she fought with the mother over a cotillion gown. Rest In Peach is Susan Furlong’s Book 2 in the Georgia Peach Mystery.
INCLUDES RECIPES!

What’s Quincy, the butterscotch and hefty tabby, up to in his third outing, Fat Cat Takes the Cake? Dessert shop owner Chase Oliver and her friend Julie have bittersweet memories of school in Minneapolis and are not thrilled about a class reunion. Julie doesn’t want to see a creepy and socially awkward boy who had a crush on her. When Quincy finds the guy’s body, Chase must prove her friend’s innocence before the killer strikes again. Janet Cantrell keeps us on our paws.

Melanie Cooper and Angie DeLaura are taking a gamble with the Vegas opening of the Fairy Tale Cupcakes Bakery’s first franchise and manager. She’s a former showgirl and the owners have reservations. Then the bakery is blown up. So, who’s trying to undermine their venture? Vanilla Beaned is Book 8 in Jenn McKinlay’s sweet Cupcake Bakery Mystery series.

While Destiny, NY, is focused on the arrival of a perfume mogul, bakery owners Molly Tyler and Olivia Williams are concerned that her mother, the library director, made front page news photographed having a romantic dinner with a library board member. When the man is found, the homicide detective hones in on Mom; it scorches his budding romance with Molly. Injured during the course of his investigation, Molly and Olivia step in to sift through the clues and clear Mom’s name. Raisin the Dead is Book 2 in the Bread and Batter Mystery by Karoline Barrett.

There’s A Clue in the Stew for Lucky Jamieson when she books an event with a famous author at her soup shop, By the Spoonful, in Snowflake, Vermont. The author’s exasperating entourage gives fresh meaning to the phrase ‘Too many cooks spoil the broth.’ The evening ends with a murder right out of the author’s fiction, and the police suspect it’s a copycat killer. Lucky hopes one of her regular customers who has gone missing isn’t involved. Connie Archer stirs the pot in Book 5 of A Soup Lover’s Mystery.

Sally Solari quit her job as an attorney to help her widowed dad run his old-style Italian eatery in Santa Cruz, California. Then her aunt is found murdered in her own restaurant, and Sally is the only one who can keep the place running. But when her sous chef is accused of the crime and she finds herself suddenly short-staffed, Sally must delve into the world of sustainable farming and family secrets to clear his name and catch the real murder. Dying for a Taste is Book 1 of the new Sally Solari Mystery by Leslie Karst.

Key Zest magazine has assigned Hayley Snow to write a piece on Key West’s annual Mardi Gras and the food trucks. Hayley’s co-worker was recently elected Queen of Fantasy Fest. But when a royal rival is killed Hayley needs to figure out who served up a side of murder before Danielle gets crowned a killer. Killer Takeout is Book 7 in A Key West Food Critic Mystery by Lucy Burdette.

Sarah Winston thought it was a ‘keystroke’ of genius when she started the virtual garage sale during the long New England winter. Now it’s become a nightmare. Online she can avoid the crowds–but not the crazies. When a client is murdered, it’s time for Sarah seek the help of her ex, the chief of police. Forging a tense alliance, they search–online and off–for the killer. All Murders Are Final! is Book 3 in Sarah Winston Garage Sale Mystery by Sherry Harris.

It’s Silence of the Lamps in Book 5 of Caprice De Luca Home Staging Mystery by Karen Rose Smith. Caprice’s house staging is disrupted by a caterer who opened Portable Edibles, a business in direct competition with her sister’s Catered Capers. Sis turned him down as a partner, and he seems determined to bury her. His deal for his blackberry barbecue sauce stirred up enemies. When he is found dead, murdered with the base of a Tiffany lamp, investigation uncovers that he stole recipes from a chef, has friends who hold grudges, and a sister who now inherits half of her grandmother’s estate. Caprice follows the suspect trail, putting herself in danger.

Brandy Borne’s eccentric mother is preforming a one-woman show playing all the parts in MacBeth in the town of Old York, Mississippi. Brandy and her shih tzu, Sushi, tag along. As soon as they arrive the theater owner drops dead onstage. Besides cream teas and Chippendale chairs, there are skeletons lurking in Old York’s pubs and antiques stalls. When a second victim turns up, Brandy, Mom, and the dog have to step into the spotlight. Author Barbara Allan includes Brandy Borne’s tips on antiques fairs in Antiques Fate, Book 10 in the Trash ’n’ Treasures Mystery.

Baby, it’s cold outside in Massachusetts, but despite the snow Cam Flaherty’s organic farm is managing. While supplying fresh produce to the assisted living facility, one of the elderly dies from the food. But this woman had lots of enemies, including a real estate developer who wanted her land and a care provider fed up with her verbal abuse. A blizzard strands Cam in the dark with the killer. It’s Farmed and Dangerous in Edith Maxwell’s Book 3 of A Local Foods Mystery.

Flower shop owner Abby Knight and her husband Marco are finally moving into their new home. Their new subdivision has welcoming neighbors and manicured lawns. When a body is found floating in a nearby pond, the police think the newlyweds’ next door neighbor is the culprit. As Abby and Marco dig through secrets in search of a killer, they discover danger stalks even the sunniest neighborhoods. It’s Moss Hysteria in Kate Collins’ Book 18 in the Flower Shop Mystery.

China Bayles is back in her twenty-fourth outing, Blood Orange. China is renting her guest cottage in Pecan Springs, Texas, to a woman who needs a temporary place to live during a nasty divorce. She refuses to sell her part ownership of the Comanche Creek Brewing Company. The woman also discovers suspicious practices and the murder of a patient at the hospice where she works. On her way to China’s house, she is forced off the road and critically injured, putting her in a medically induced coma. Who wanted her out of the picture–her soon-to-be ex, his new lover, or someone connected with the corruption at the hospice? Susan Wittig Albert keeps us in suspense.

Moving from Los Angeles to Mackinac Island, Michigan, to work in a bike shop might seem crazy, but Evie Bloomfield knows it’s the best decision she’s ever made. But things go downhill when a ferry full of tourists, including her friend’s former boss at a sleazy rag in LA, arrives on the island. Things aren’t looking good for her friend when he’s found dead. Now Evie has to get a grip on the truth if she wants to clear her friend’s name. Braking for Bodies is the second in A Cycle Path Mystery by Duffy Brown.

To enter to win a copy of The Grim Steeper by Amanda Cooper, simply email KRL at krlcontests@gmail[dot]com by replacing the [dot] with a period, and with the subject line “spring” or comment on this article. A winner will be chosen after April 2, 2016. U.S. residents only.

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Sunny Frazier worked with an undercover narcotics team in Fresno County for 17 years before turning her energies to writing the Christy Bristol Astrology Mysteries. Based in the San Joaquin Valley of California, the novels are inspired by real cases and 35 years of casting horoscopes.