by Sunny Frazier

Details on how to win copies of Ladle to the Grave Connie Archer, Furtive Investigation by Joyce Ann Brown, and Manhattan In Miniature by Margaret Grace, all featured in past editions of Coming Attractions. There’s also a link at the end of this post where you can purchase any of these books.

What better gifts for a mystery-lovin’ mom than these new titles?

For the mom who has trouble finding time to read, we have Murder, Fantasy and Weird Tales, a collection of 18 short stories put out by Rosemary & Larry Mild. Nothing “mild” about these offerings!

Another quickie read for busy moms is the novella Code Name: Gypsy Moth by Canada’s “Queen of Comedy” Melodie Campbell. Set in the future, it’s the story of Nell Romana, who loves two things: running the Blue Angel bar and her hunky squeeze Dalamar. He doesn’t know she’s a spy, and love is put to the test when she uncovers a rebel plot against the Federation.

Mom may not have a local book club to join, but she can vicariously enjoy The Return of the Fallen Angels Book Club, third in the series by R. Franklin James. Hollis Morgan is one of the white-collar ex-felons of this group, now a probate attorney in the San Francisco Bay area. When their parole officer is murdered, the club can read between the lines and sets out to solve the case.

Working mothers in dead-end jobs will enjoy the series by the same name penned by Elaine Viets. In her fourteenth outing, Checked Out. Helen Hawthorne is tasked by a wealthy socialite to find a missing John Singer Sargent painting accidentally included in a stack of donated books. Taking a job as a library volunteer, Helen discovers a list of complaints, from a calico cat named Paris to a kleptomaniac ghost. It takes a dead body in the parking lot to up the ante for our sleuth.

Is Mom a military veteran? She might enjoy Can’t Sing or Dance by David J. Barrett. When a retired chief petty officer is found murdered after what looks like a drug deal, the police won’t do an autopsy. It’s up to Coast Guard Chief Warrant Officer Joe Traynor to investigate. He uncovers the largest meth case on the southeastern seaboard and some very unhappy members of the Russian Mafia.

Bone To Be Wild whisks Mom to New Orleans for the Black & Orange Ball. Sarah Delaney plans to get her party on—until the band receives a death threat. When the bartender dies in a drive-by, Sarah enlists her law enforcement friends in Mississippi to help solve the case. Carolyn Haines keeps the party going in the fifteenth installment of this series.

Mom can spend Sunday afternoon with Saving St. Teresa by Joseph Benevento. When a monsignor is strangled after a debate with Tony Cupelli, his detective brother Mike links it with an apparent suicide of a Carmelite nun in Brooklyn. Could a cult of women devoted to St. Teresa be behind the murders? The brothers set out to decipher clues in the secret writings of the saint with their second case.

Moms have intuition but few are dreamwalkers like Baxley Powell. Baxley communicates with the dead to help her solve cases. When the dying words of a victim are “Bubba done it,” three Bubbas in town are suspect—and one is Baxley’s brother-in-law! Bubba Done It is Maggie Toussaint’s second book in the Dreamwalker series, and this time ghosts aren’t going to help.

If shopping is Mom’s passion, Tails, You Lose by Carol J. Perry would be a good gift. After losing her job as a TV psychic, Lee Barrett becomes an instructor at a college in Salem, Mass. When the school handyman turns up dead on Christmas, Lee can’t stop her sixth sense from surfacing. The school used to be an old department store, and Lee and her students embark on making a documentary of the store’s history. They uncover family secrets, deathbed whispers, and tunnels beneath the streets of Salem. The town witches and the ghosts in the attic are spooked. What’s a psychic to do? This is the second in the series.

Happy Mother’s Day!

To enter to win copies of Ladle to the Grave Connie Archer, Furtive Investigation by Joyce Ann Brown, and Manhattan In Miniature by Margaret Grace, simply email KRL at krlcontests@gmail[dot]com by replacing the [dot] with a period, and with the subject line “Mother’s Day” or comment on this article. A winner will be chosen after May 2, 2015. U.S. residents only.

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!

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.