by Sunny Frazier

Details at the end of this post on how to enter to win a copy of Tailed by Joyce Ann Brown, mentioned in this column. There are also links you can use to purchase any of these books.

Spring break is over, and the kids are back in school. Time now for reading and your favorite authors are starting a new series. Enjoy!

Kathi Daley is starting a new Haunting by the Sea series. Amanda Parker goes home to the small seaside town where she lived for two years in the Witness Protection Program. A ghost image of her alias while she was hiding has been waiting for her return. Not sure how to handle this, she reaches out to a close friend. Another close friend is murdered, and now it’s up to Amanda and friends to dig for clues and track down the killer. The more they learn, the more they realize the roots of the murder could go back centuries. Check out Homecoming by the Sea.

Lexy Campbell left Scotland for the California Dream. She’s married and building her marriage counseling business. Six months later she’s divorced, broke, and plans to head back across the pond. When a client is jailed for killing her husband with a firework rocket, she delays her homecoming and checks into the Last Ditch motel, which brings in more characters with problems of their own. Scot Free is the first in Catriona McPherson’s Last Ditch Mystery Series.

In the first of the Mystery Bookshop Mysteries, V.M. Burns takes us on a Read Herring Hunt. In the town of North Harbor, Michigan, the MISU quarterback is the local hero and like a son to Samantha Washington, owner of the Market Street Mysteries Bookstore. When his ex-girlfriend is murdered, the jock is the prime suspect. Sam’s mystery writer instincts kick in, and her lawyer sister comes to play defense. Sam, her granny, and the Sleuthing Senior Book Club are in the line-up to stop the killer and his deadly game.

Denise Swanson introduces a new Chef-to-Go series with Tart of Darkness. Dani is at the dead-end of her cooking career when she inherits a huge old house in a quaint college town. Her new business makes ready-made meals for students as well as personal services and catering. She also rents rooms to students. When a friend of one of the boarders is found murdered, Dani becomes the police’s #1 suspect. Now she has to snuff out the heat or get out of the kitchen.

There is no Expiration Date for the new Cook-Off mystery series by Devon Delaney. Sherry Frazzelle is single and living it up in the small Connecticut town with her Jack Russell, Chutney. She’s gotten into competitive cooking, so when a CEO of an organic food company puts up a $1,000 prize, Sherry knows her recipe for pork tenderloin is a winner. But when a chef falls face-first into a seafood flatbread pizza, suspicion falls on Sherry. Now she’ll have to get out of a stew of corruption, broken rules, and gossip to get off the chopping block. Recipes included.

Melanie Cooper is to be maid of honor and best man for her best friend’s wedding. She doesn’t have time to concentrate on her role because her Fairy Tale cupcake bakery has been hired to supply cupcakes to the book signing of a very controversial author. He’s just published a steamy bestseller which includes local gossip. However, one by one the people hired to work the wedding are killed. Next the author turns up dead. What’s the connection? Mel needs to bake up an idea of how to stop a killer. Wedding Cake Crumble is Jenn McKinlay’s tenth in her Cupcake Bakery series.

There’s also a wedding on the horizon in Cleo Coyle’s Shot in the Dark, nook seventeen in her Coffeehouse Mysteries. Village Blend’s manager Clare Cosi now has a fixed date for her wedding. However, she finds her coffee shop has turned into a place for people to use a dating app to swipe and meet their matches. Even her ex-husband and octogenarian boss is in on the fun. Expresso shots are flowing so it’s good for business. But when a Lothario who broke many hearts is found dead for her to discover, the police arrests one of his recent conquests. The sister claims she was framed and Clare believes her. Teaming up with her ex, Clare is swiping through customers to find the killer before another shot is fired.

Psycho Cat is back! It’s almost a perfect RV vacation to Texas for Beth the landlady, her husband, sister, brother-in-law, and Sylvester (aka Psycho Cat). When the foursome hears gunfire and discover their cars broken into and a gun missing, the brother-in-law is the main suspect. It’s time to get out of San Antonio and head back to Kansas City. Little does Beth realize that two thugs have hidden some very important cargo in their RV. Only one very smart feline knows the score and tries his best to alert his people. The crooks follow them and aren’t giving up until they get their stash back. Tailed is the fourth in the Psycho Cat and Landlady Mysteries by Joyce Ann Brown. Recipes from meals mentioned in the book are included.

Storyton Hall in Virginia is the kind of retreat you would love. There’s the Agatha Christie Tea Room and ground has been broken for the Walt Whitman spa, But when a collection of unusual bones are uncovered and a very old book, manager Jane Steward has a problem on her hands. The attendees of the Rare Book Conference are eager to help unravel the mystery. Murder steps in when a visitor meets an untimely death in the Henry James Library. Now Jane has to find a happy ending before there’s another victim. Murder in the Locked Library is Ellery Adams’ fourth in the Book Retreat Mysteries.

To enter to win a copy of Tailed by Joyce Ann Brown simply email KRL at krlcontests@gmail[dot]com by replacing the [dot] with a period, and with the subject line “tailed,” or comment on this article. A winner will be chosen April 7, 2018. U.S. residents only. If entering via email please include your mailing address, and if via comment please include your email address.

Check out other mystery articles, reviews, book giveaways & short stories in our mystery section. Check back every month for Coming Attractions!

Click on this link to purchase any of these books. Keep in mind that this link just takes you to Amazon where you can look up these books & purchase them:

Or click on this link to take you to Mysterious Galaxy’s website where you can purchase any of these books & a portion will go to help support KRL:

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.

Disclosure: This post contains links to an affiliate program, for which we receive a few cents if you make purchases.

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