by Sunny Frazier

Details on how to win a copy of 2 books from a past Coming Attractions column-an e-book copy of House of the Hanging Jade by Amy M. Reade and a print copy of One Dead Two to Go by Elena Hartwell, at the end of this column.

June is often time to get hitched, so let’s start with Wedding Bel Blues, the first in a new series by Maggie McConnon. Belfast McGrath has spent 15 years avoiding her brash Irish family. But when her culinary career goes up in flames, she goes home to Foster’s Landing. She’s asked to be her cousin’s maid-of-honor, but the bride is having one last single fling. When her lover falls from the balcony during the reception, Bel doesn’t think his death was an accident. Soon a detective, Bel’s long-ago love, arrives on the scene. Heartbreak and homicide hardly help Bel to feel at home, but if she is going to put the past behind her, she must first steer clear of a killer.

I’ve got 3 more “yummy” debut mystery series to talk about.

In Ashland, Oregon, Jules Capshaw is Caught Bread Handed. Her bakeshop, Torte, is bustling and the dough is rolling in. But it’s a hot mess when husband Carlos returns to town hoping Jules takes him back. Then a restaurant owner, who nobody liked, winds up dead. Ellie Alexander heats things up in her new Bakeshop Mystery series.

It’s an Éclair and Present Danger in the first outing of the Emergency Dessert Squad series by Laura Bradford. Bakery owner Winnie Johnson hoped for an inheritance from her wealthy friend. Instead all she inherits is the widow’s hostile tabby, Lovey, and a vintage ambulance. When she delivers a peach pie to an elderly widower, she finds him lying on his kitchen floor, smothered by a pillow. To comfort his grieving neighbors, Winnie brings baked goods and an idea is born: The Emergency Dessert Squad delivered by ambulance. She’s also tracking down the killer before a real ambulance is needed for the next victim.

The Calamity Café is a Down South Café Mystery by Gayle Leeson. Tired of waiting tables at Lou’s Joint in Winter Garden, Virginia, Amy Flowers offers to buy the place to serve Southern down-home cooking. Dishes. When Amy goes to the restaurant to negotiate the deal, she finds her former employer murdered. As the prime suspect, Amy will have to clear her name by serving up the real killer. Includes delicious Southern recipes!

Meanwhile, in the Chesapeake Bay town of Bayport, Val Deniston is busy running a café and helping grandpa get his fondue ready for the tri-centennial celebration dessert cook-off. When Val finds a houseguest strangled in her grandfather’s backyard, it’s up to her to stop the killer from committing another murder. Author Maya Corrigan includes 6 recipes in Final Fondue, the third book in the Five-Ingredient Mystery series.

Lucy Stone is saying, “Au revoir!” to Tinker’s Cove, Maine, and “Bonjour!” to Paris to learn how to bake French pastries. But when a renowned pastry chef is discovered on death’s doorstep, Lucy is detained for questioning. She’ll have to find the culprit or she might end up in the Bastille. It’s a French Pastry Murder, twenty-first book in the Lucy Stone Mysteries by Leslie Meir.

Nothing goes better with dessert than tea, and The Diva Serves High Tea in the tenth outing of Krista Davis’ Domestic Diva series. When The Parlour opens up Sophie Winston finally has a place to go for tea and crumpets. It’s also the perfect place for ladies to gather and gossip, especially since it’s conveniently located right across the street from the antique store and its handsome owner. When he dies of poison after attending a fundraiser at The Parlour, Sophie will have to strain out a killer from a strange brew of suspects.

It’s Tea Cups and Carnage in the California coastal town of South Cove. Tea Hee has just opened and Jill Gardner, owner of Coffee, Books and More, wonders about the new owner. She ‘says’ she came to town to get away from her family, but when a woman claiming to be her sister and a body is found in a motel, Jill is steeped in the mystery. Lynn Cahoon offers up the seventh book in her Tourist Trap Mystery series.

It’s not reading tea leaves but reading horoscopes in The Madness of Mercury, a new Zodiac Mystery by Connie di Marco. Turned out of her place after a disastrous Mercury retrograde, astrology columnist Julia Bonatti, aka Zodia, moves in with a client and two elderly aunts: one has dementia, the other is under the spell of a cult leader. Then a young man claiming to be a long lost nephew shows up. Can astrology confirm he is who he says he is? Julia knows Mercury wasn’t just the messenger of the gods?he is a trickster and a liar. For extra fun check out Ask Zodia www.conniedimarco.com/ask-zodia-3.

In Savannah, Georgia, retro candy store owners Taylor Blake, her sister Allison, and the Dream Club ladies get invited by a reclusive heiress to lunch at her mansion. The heiress has been having dreams of her death, which comes true when she’s pushed down the stairs. Now the Dream Club needs to catch a killer before someone else gets killed. A Premonition of Murder is the third outing for author Mary Kennedy.

Grace Wheaton, manager of Marshfield Manor, comes to the aid of her assistant at an upscale nursing home. When she gets to the facility, the coroner and police are already there. An elderly man has been found dead and the assistant was arguing with him earlier. Can Grace clear her friend’s name before the killer strikes again? Grace Sees Red is the seventh book in Julie Hyzy’s Manor House Mystery.

Murder Has Nine Lives is the fourteenth book in Laura Levine’s Jaine Austen Mystery. Jaine, freelance writer, has a new job and her cat Prozac is going to star in a commercial. Who knew the world of cat food would be so catty? When the kibble’s inventor drops dead on the set, everyone is a suspect. Now Jaine will have to get her paws on the truth before the killer takes a swipe at another victim.

Hitchcock the cat and his owner Sabrina Tate return in the second book of A Bad Luck Mystery, The Black Cat Knocks On Wood. When a local business owner is found dead in an accident right after a black cat was seen in her office, the townsfolk think the bad luck cat has struck again. Sabrina suspects there might be something more murderous afoot. With a twisted killer on the loose, she’ll have to round up clues quickly. This fun Texas mystery comes to you from author Kay Finch.

Also set in Texas is James Callan’s second Crystal Moore Mystery, A Silver Medallion. Crystal comes face-to-face with slavery in today’s Dallas. A woman is held by threats to her two children left behind in Mexico. Crystal would like to walk away and forget she ever heard this, but her conscience won’t let her. The only way to free the woman is to go to Mexico. Along for the ride is former bull rider Brandi and Crystal’s 76 yr old grandmother.

To enter to win copies of the following 2 books from a past Coming Attractions column-an e-book copy of House of the Hanging Jade by Amy M. Reade and a print copy of One Dead Two to Go by Elena Hartwell, simply email KRL at krlcontests@gmail[dot]com by replacing the [dot] with a period, and with the subject line “busting” or comment on this article. A winner will be chosen after June 4, 2016. 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!

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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.