by Sunny Frazier
Tired of quarantining? I’m prescribing 3 new series and cozies set in the South. Get comfy, curl up with tall glass of sweet tea and put the AC on.
Amanda Flower adds another new series to the eight she has already (and a tenth one coming next year). Dead End Detective is the first of the Piper and Porter mysteries. The Two Girl Detective Agency is down by one girl. Darby Piper is shocked when her partner is killed in a car crash that doesn’t look like an accident. Darby discovers that half the agency wasn’t left to her but to her partner’s nephew. He doesn’t know the business, but does have a knack for the job.
Leaving Charlotte, North Carolina, Jenna Quinn goes to stay with her uncle in Hokes Folly, North Carolina, and help in his antiquarian bookstore. Soon after, she finds his body at the base of the staircase. Jenna learns she’s the heir to everything her uncle owned plus a million dollars. She’s looking suspicious to the police, especially when a second murder occurs. The debut of the Antique Bookshop series by Laura Gail Black begins with For Whom the Book Tolls.(this book has been moved to a September 8 release)
Meanwhile, In Asheville, NC, Charlie Harris, his fiancé and his cat Diesel attend a gathering of mystery readers. The club consists of patrons of the Athena Public Library and will give talks on their favorite authors. When an uninvited guest turns up dead, only one person has a connection to the deceased. But is that the only one with a motive? Cat Me If You Can is the thirteenth entry in the Cat in the Stacks mysteries by Miranda James.
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Lilly Echosby’s best pal Scarlett “Dixie” Jefferson has convinced a poodle-loving billionaire to sponsor a fundraiser for the Eastern Tennessee Poodle Rescue. When he’s murdered at the event, Lily fosters his poodle pup. But she’s barely welcomed Rex into her home when there’s an attempted poodle-nabbing, More people want to get their hands on the canine in V.M. Burns Paw and Order, the fourth in the Dog Club series.
Welcome to Shenandoah Springs, Virginia, where Brynn MacAlister keeps cows and makes cheese at her organic micro-dairy. With a foster cow and a new calf on the way, she hardly has time to prep for the First Annual Cheesemakers Contest at the summer fair. Brynn hopes it will become a tradition. But when a tractor accident looks more like murder and a second murder is pinned on her best cheesemaker, she suspects someone is up to no-gouda. Goodnight Moo is the second in the Buttermilk Creek series by Mollie Cox Bryan.
Something’s going on in the mystery field (which I had no clue about) with a multi-author series called High-Tech Crime Solvers. Each book, written by a different author, has interlocking characters. So far there are eight books in the series. Libby Fischer Hellman’s contribution, Virtually Undetectable, came out in June. Rachel Foreman has been fired from her bank manager position because she fell for a cyber-scam resulting in identity theft and blamed for accusing a high-ranking woman of murder. Luckily, mom is a renown investigator, so the two dive into the dark web to find the cyber-criminals.
BEST OF THE REST
Carol J. Perry—Murder, Take Two A Witch City Mystery #10
Elizabeth Penney—Thread & Dead The Apron Shop Mystery #2
Devon Delany—Eat, Drink and be Wary A Cook-Off Mystery #4
Emily Brightwell—Mrs. Jeffries Demands Justice A Victorian Mystery #39
Jennifer Ashley—Murder in the East End A Below Stairs Mystery #4
Vivien Chien—Killer Kung Pao A Noodle Soup Mystery #6
Winnie Archer—Flour in the Attic A Bread Shop Mystery #4
Bailey Cates—Cookies and Clairvoyance A Magical Bakery #8
Tegan Maher—Murder in the Mansion Witches of Keyhole Lake Mysteries #10
Dale Meyer—Footprints in the Ferns Lovely Lethal Gardens #6
Christine Zane Thomas/Paula Lester—Reap What She Sows Tessa Randolph #3
Elizabeth Hunter—Psychic Dream Glimmer Lake #3
Julia Henry—Tilling the Truth A Garden Squad Mystery #2
J.C. Eaton—Molded 4 Murder A Sophie Kimball Mystery #5
Lily Harper Hart—Raging Seas A Rowen Gray Mystery #9
Steve Higgs—The Kidnapped Bride A Patricia Fisher Mystery Cruise #2
Ceecee James—Mid-Century Murder A Flamingo Realty Murder #5
Donna Andrews—The Falcon Always Wings Twice A Meg Langslow #27
Sally Goldenbaum—A Patchwork of Clues A Queen Bees Quilt Shop #3
Laura Childs—Mumbo Gumbo Murder A Scrapbooking Mystery #16
Danielle Garrett—Bad Ghosts Club Beechwood Harbor Magic #37
Lynn Cahoon—Penned In A Farm-to-Fork Mystery #5
Sara Bourgeois—Bad to the Cone An Allegra Darling Cozy Mystery #4
Kathi Daley—Ghost in the Gallery The Inn at Holiday Bay #11
J.A. Whiting—The Diamond Deception Tipperary Carriage Company Mystery #2
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:
Disclosure: This post contains links to an affiliate program, for which we receive a few cents if you make purchases.
I really enjoy getting notifications from you about upcoming books, contests, giveaways etc. I would like to get the notifications before the giveaways are over though. Can you put me on a email list so I can find out about this kind of news before the deadline? Thank you. 🙂