by Sunny Frazier

April showers, flowers, and two new mystery series brings in spring. Plus, mysteries with recipes to try for Easter.

In the new Home to Ireland series, Carlene O’Conner gives us Murder in Galway. At her mother’s dying request, Tara Meehan takes her ashes back to the Emerald Isle and to an uncle she’s never met. He owns a salvage business. The medieval city is charming, but a gypsy warns Tara that death is all around. At her uncle’s cottage she finds a body on the threshold. He’s the uncle’s rich client, and her uncle is missing. While trying to solve the crime, Tara uncovers her mother and uncle’s troubled past.

An Awful Cat-titude is a real mystery since the creative blurb doesn’t reveal the name of the main character. All we’re told is she’s a faulty psychic living in Starry Falls who has ticked off the mob, the feds, and her ex. Now she’s starting over with a new name and hair color but still relying on her psychic abilities, as inaccurate as they are. Meow for Murder is a new series by Addison Moore and Bellamy Bloom.

It’s an Easter Hair Hunt in the sixteenth Bad Hair Day mysteries by Nancy J. Cohen. Hairstylist Maria Vail is at an Easter egg hunt at the historic Tremayne Manor to fix a client’s hair. When asked to search the grounds for leftover goodies, she discovers a body in a bunny costume and her client missing. Maria takes the mystery to her husband, a homicide detective. Although seven months pregnant, she’s not about to pass up a hare-raising adventure. Recipes are included.

More recipes are in Tina Kashian’s latest, On the Lamb. Lucy Berberian is prepping Easter dinner at the family’s restaurant, Kabab Kitchen, on the Jersey Shore. Bikers are gathering at the seaside town of Ocean Crest for the annual fund raiser for injured veterans. Local businesses thrive, including the local candy shop. But Melanie, the owner, has a nasty relationship with a local landlord. When he chokes on a piece of her salt water taffy, Melanie is the prime suspect. This is the fourth installment of Kabab Kitchen mysteries.

It’s Deep Fried Revenge for Angie Turner as she and her crew from County Seat restaurant prepare to enter the Boise Best Restaurant competition at the Idaho State Fair. When tempers heat up over a corn dog recipe, the top contender is felled by foul play. This is Lynn Cahoon’s fourth Farm to Fork mystery.

Emmy Oak gave up her career as personal chef to the stars to go back to the family’s Oak Valley Vineyards in California. Now one of her celebrity clients purchases a home in the area, Emmy is asked to cater the housewarming. When one of the guests is killed, the socialite’s husband is the main suspect. However, an estranged family, a shifty cowboy, and a blackmail scheme lead Emmy to believe there are many more suspects at large. Death in Wine Country is Gemma Halliday’s fifth book in Wine & Dine mystery.

Pastry chef Kate McGuire, baker at the Cookie House, is launching a cookie-of-the-day challenge in Coral Cay, Florida. This is for the reception of the new veterinarian and coincides with the Pirate Festival that brings in tourists. It also brings in her former fiancé who wants to win Kate back. When a skeleton is found behind the floral shop, the town wonders if it’s the pirate of urban legend. Sugar and Vice is the second Cookie House mystery by Eve Calder.

At another bakery, Fairy Tale Cupcake, Angie Harper and Melanie Cooper are running a profitable business. They have regular customers, including a local glass artist. When the woman gets ill, her doting husband brings her a four-pack of cupcakes every week. But when she dies, detectives discover the last thing she ate was a Fairy Tale’s signature pumpkin spice confection. Pumpkin Spice Peril is the twelfth Cupcake Bakery mystery from the pen of Jenn McKinley.

Did you know that Murder Can Confuse Your Chihuahua? That’s what Celeste Cabot found out when she and her dog Van Gogh attend a craft fair in North Carolina. Celeste has two talents: painting and a bit of paranormal ability. She’s at the fair to sell some of her artwork when Van Gogh discovers a body. To draw out the killer, she needs to balance the victim’s past, a love triangle, and a long-ago accident. She also looks for help from a medium and a spirt. Rose Pressey includes tips and recipes in her second Haunted Craft Fair mystery.

BEST OF THE REST

Krista Davis—The Diva Spices It Up Domestic Diva #13

Lee Goldberg—Fake Truth Ian Ludlow Thriller #3

G.A. McKevett—And the Killer Is… Savannah Reid #25

Barbara Allen—Antiques Fire Sale Trash ‘n Treasures #14

LynDee Walker—Hidden Victims Headlines in Heels Mystery #8

Susan Hill—The Benefit of Hindsight Simon Serrailler Mystery #10

Anna Lee Huber—A Stroke of Malice Lady Darby #8

Victoria Thompson—Murder on Pleasant Avenue Gaslight Mystery #23

Ann B. Ross—Miss Julia Knows a Thing or Two Miss Julia Mystery #22

Molly Fitz—Scheming Sphynx Pet Whisper P.I. #13

Danielle Garrett—Sassy Witch Beechwood Harbor Magic #9

Shelly West—Body in the Turkish Bath SS Mystique Cozy #2

Andrea Penrose—A Tangle of Serpents Lady Arianna Hadley Mystery #6

Anna Lee Huber—A Stroke of Malice Lady Darby #8

Beth Byers—Murder Most Odd Violet Carlyle #21

Ellery Adams—Murder in the Storybook Cottage A Book Retreat Mystery #3

Paige Shelton—The Stolen Letter A Scottish Bookshop #5

Jenna Bennett—Collateral Damage Savannah Martin #19

Carolyn Haines—Game of Bones Sarah Booth Delaney #21

Lauren Elliott—Proof of Murder A Beyond the Page Bookstore Mystery #4

Check out other mystery articles, reviews, book giveaways & mystery short stories in our mystery section. And join our mystery Facebook group to keep up with everything mystery we post, and have a chance at some extra giveaways. Be sure to check out our new mystery podcast too with mystery short stories, and first chapters read by local actors. A new episode went up this week!

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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.

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