by Sunny Frazier

Details at the end of this post on how to enter to win a signed copy of Still Knife Painting by Cheryl Hollon along with a bookmark, two paper coasters and a pad of sticky notes. Still Knife Painting was featured in a past Coming Attractions.

Hot summer weather makes us yearn for the beach, and what goes with the beach? Beach reads! This month I feature two new books, a new series plus cozies set in beach towns and bookstores. Enjoy!

Vicki Delany offers up Tea & Treachery in her first Tea by the Sea mystery. Lily Roberts has left New York City and now owns an English tearoom on Cape Cod. It’s right across from her grandma’s Victorian B&B. But a developer wants to build a resort which will drive Lily and her grandmother out of business. When the man is found dead at the foot of her grandmother’s property, the police are suspicious. While investigating, Lily discovers the man had enemies all over town: his jilted lover, trophy wife, and shady business partners. It’s up to Lily to find the killer.

Chloe Jackson also left a cold Chicago winter for the Florida Panhandle to help run the Sea Glass Saloon. A late friend’s grandmother owns the place. Emerald Cove is not the sleepy fishing village Chloe expected. Instead, it’s overrun with land developers and tourists. When a Sea Glass regular crosses Grandma, he’s found dead behind the bar. The feisty old lady is Suspect #1. But something is brewing in the small town. Will the killer go as far as murder to keep secrets hidden? From Beer to Eternity is the first Chloe Jackson, Sea Glass Saloon mystery by Sherry Harris.

In her fourteen Booktown mystery, Lorna Barrett hands us a Handbook for Homicide. Tricia Miller is the owner of Haven’t Got A Clue bookshop in Stoneham, New Hampshire. When her assistant finds the body of a homeless woman behind her store, suspicion falls on the woman. With only an anchor insignia earring as a clue, Tricia discovers the woman was involved in a scandal before retiring from the Navy. It’s all hands on deck for this cozy mystery.

Editor Sugar Calloway and baker Dixie Spicer produce cookbooks at their business, Sugar & Spice Community Cookbooks. The Abbott family, famous for their quiches, have asked the duo to do a cookbook of family recipes. They are invited to the Abbott family gathering. When the only grandson arrives with his flaky fiancée, the woman immediately starts trouble. She’s found dead the next day and family secrets unfold. Quiche of Death is Mary Lee Ashford’s third in her Sugar and Spice series. Oh yes, and recipes are included!

Pepper Reece never expected to find The Solace of Bay Leaves when her life fell apart in her 40s. The solution? Buying the rundown Spice Shop in Seattle’s Pike Place Market. She’s in a good place now, filled with managing her shop, worrying about her staff, and navigating a new relationship. When a childhood friend is shot and gravely wounded, the crime is linked to an earlier unsolved murder. Convinced both incidents are tied to the history of an old building, and having second thoughts about her girlfriends, Pepper must face her own regrets and emotions. This is the fifth Spice Shop mystery by Leslie Budewitz.

BEST OF THE REST

Sara Bourgeois—Book of Dark Magic Familiar Kitten #4

Agatha Frost—Coconut Milk Casualty Claire’s Candles #3

Leena Clover—Pancakes and Parrots Pelican Cove Cozy #11

Dianne Freeman—A Lady’s Guide to Mischief and Murder Countess of Harleigh #3

Trixie Silvertale—Bars & Boxcars MItzy Moon #6

Anna Gerard—Peachy Scream Georgia B&B #2

Maggie Robinson—Just Make Believe Lady Adelaide Mystery #3

Lucia Ashta—Power Shifter Magical Creature Academy #3

Amanda Flower—Mums and Mayhem Magic Garden #3

Catherine Bruns—It Cannoli Be Murder Italian Chef #2

Molly Fitz—Grizzly Grievance Pet Whisperer P.I. #16

Spencer Quinn—Of Mutts and Men Chet and Bernie #10

S.C. Perkins—Lineage Most Lethal Ancestry Detective #2

To enter to win a signed copy of Still Knife Painting along with a bookmark, two paper coasters and a pad of sticky notes, simply email KRL at krlcontests@gmail[dot]com by replacing the [dot] with a period, and with the subject line “summer attractions” or comment on this article. A winner will be chosen July 4, 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.

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