by Sunny Frazier

Details at the end of this post on how to enter to win a copy of Murder at Morrington Hall by Clara McKenna, featured in a past Coming Attractions.

While June brings sunshine into our lives, and possibly an end to quarantining, it also brings sad news of the loss of one of our authors. The rest of the titles are all new series for your summer reading.

It’s with much sadness that I announce the last book in the Victorian Village series. Author Sheila Connolly passed away in late April. Kate Hamilton is planning to make Asheboro, Maryland, back into the Victorian town it once was. While renovating the kitchen in Barton Mansion, a hidden stairway is uncovered, along with a body. An autopsy reveals the man was murdered around 1880. While trying to uncover the truth, Kate realizes someone doesn’t want her digging up the past. The Secret Staircase is the third in Sheila’s Victorian Village mysteries. (this book will not be released until May 2021)

Max Sayers has risked her life savings to purchase Seaside Cottage Books in Snug Harbor, Maine. At the grand opening a famous author shows up to speak with Max’s ex on her arm. When Winston, the rescue dog, finds a dead man on the beach, killed by one of Max’s antique bookends, is this the beginning or the end of the bookseller’s venture? Karen MacInerney’s A Killer Ending is the first in her new Snug Harbor series.

Who wouldn’t want to stay in a B&B just for book lovers? In the historic town of Beaufort, North Carolina, Charlotte Reed inherited Chapters from a relative. During an event celebrating Josephine Tey, a rare book collector is found dead in the carriage house. Her daughter points a finger at Charlotte. Turns out the dead woman had a beef with Charlotte’s relative. With the help of an older neighbor, a visiting author and members of a book club, Charlotte sets out to solve the crime. Booked for Death, the first in A Book Lover’s B&B Mysteries by Victoria Gilbert, will keep you turning pages. (Due to the pandemic this book has been postponed to August 2020)

Fruit is in season and you’re about to get Peach Clobbered by author Anna Gerard. Nina Fleet got a tidy sum from her divorce and bought a Queen Ann house in Cymbeline, Georgia. She’s turned it into a B&B and has barely settled in when a man in a penguin suit shows up. He’s an ice cream shop mascot and has a letter pledging him the house. Next, a convent is closing in order to open a golf community, and the mayor asks Nina to take in the Sisters of Perpetual Poverty. That’s when she finds the penguin in an alley with a kitchen knife in his chest. Only it’s not him, it’s the real estate developer who threw the nuns out. Divine intervention? This is the first in the Georgia B&B series.

Another knife shows up in Cheryl Hollon’s Still Knife Painting. Once again, we have an heiress who has inherited her uncle’s homestead in Red River Gorge in Kentucky. Miranda Trent comes with a plan: why not combine outdoor painting for tourists with sips of moonshine and Southern cooking? It’s a success until someone kills the cook, who was the best biscuit maker in the area. High crime! This is the first in the Paint & Shine series.

In her first year of retirement, Jane Darrowfield has traveled, planted a garden and organized her photos, recipes and spices. After fixing a friend’s problem, word goes out in West Cambridge, Massachusetts, that she’s a professional problem solver. Her first client is the owner of a 55 and older community who is dealing with hostilities among the residents. Working undercover, all goes well until a resident is clubbed to death by a golf club. Jane Darrowfield, Professional Busybody, is the first in the Jane Darrowfield mysteries by Barbara Ross.

There’s A Sprinkling of Murder in Daryl Wood Gerber’s first Fairy Garden mystery. At 29, Courtney Kelly rediscovered her love of fairies. She started Open Your Imagination to teach garden design and sells everything from wind chimes and fountains in Carmel, California. Now she’s going to open a book tea club. But when the owner of a dog grooming business is found dead by a fountain, Courtney is the prime suspect. ?

Helga owns an antique shop in the French Quarter of New Orleans. Three ghosts keep her company, which is okay since Helga’s a witch. When a body with an arrow to the heart lies in her path, will she be the one who is blamed? After all, the man had a jealous wife. Or could Cupid be on the warpath? Is the deed black magic or a lurking evil? Helga turns to her coven for help, which consists of her sister and friends from the Shear Magic hair salon. Down the Hatch is Constance Barker’s Witches Be Crazy series.

In North Harbor, Connecticut, we find another witch. Violet Mooney owns The Full Moon crystal shop. Some of the locals aren’t happy with her “voodoo” venture. When Violet has a very public fight with one of the people and the woman turns up dead, it’s easy for the town to blame the strange newcomer. Violet is shocked when two cops show up at her door, but that’s nothing compared to the appearance of her sister and estranged mother. Mom reveals a secret that will rock Violet’s world and reawaken her dormant power. Witch Hunt is the first in Cate Conte’s Witch Hunt series.
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BEST OF THE REST
CeeCee James—Kicked the Bucket Chelsea Lawson #3

Julie Anne Lindsey—Pulp Friction Cider Shop #2

Sara Bourgeois—Sympathetic Magic Familiar Kitten #3

Dianne Freeman—A Lady’s Guide to Gossip and Murder Countess of Harleigh Mystery #2

Clara McKenna—Murder at Blackwater Bend Stella and Lyndy #2

Juliet Blackwell—The Last Curtain Call Haunted House Renovations #8

Molly Fitz—Blueberry Bay Pet Whisper P.I. #15

Kay George—Deadly Sweet Tooth Vintage Sweets #2

Kaitlyn Dunnett—A Fatal Fiction Deadly Edits #3

Amanda Flower—Death and Daisies Magic Garden #2

Julia Buckley—Death of a Wandering Wolf Hungarian Tea House #2

Kate Carlisle—The Grim Reader Bilbiophile #14

Maddie Day (AKA Edith Maxwell)—Nacho Average Murder Country Store #7

Lynn Cahoon—Murder In Waiting Tourist Trap #11

Donna Andrews—Terns of Endearment Meg Langslow #25

Ellie Alexander—Nothing Bundt Trouble A Bake Shop Mystery #11

Alexis Morgan—Death By Auction Abbey McCree #3

Addison Moore & Bellamy Bloom—A Claw-some Affair Meow for Murder #3

Addison Moore & Bellamy Bloom—Peach Cobbler Confessions Murder in the Mix #24

Laurien Berenson—Game of Dog Bones Melanie Travis #25

Sara Bourgeois—Besoms & Buttercream Wicked Witches of Brookdale #3

To enter to win a copy of Murder at Morrington Hall, simply email KRL at krlcontests@gmail[dot]com by replacing the [dot] with a period, and with the subject line “farewell” or comment on this article. A winner will be chosen June 6, 2020. U.S. residents only, and you must be 18 or older to enter. If entering via email please include your mailing address in case you win, it will be deleted after the contest is over. BE AWARE THAT IN THE CURRENT CRISIS IT MAY TAKE QUITE AWHILE BEFORE THE WINNER RECEIVES THEIR BOOK. You can read our privacy statement here if you like.

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.

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.