by Sunny Frazier

Details at the end of this post on how to enter to win a copy of Deadly Verse by Elizabeth Varadan, mentioned in a past Coming Attractions column.

Books are better than candy. Take a book bag door to door and trade books with neighbors. Here’s some cozies coming out this month and Christmas books for early shoppers.

Carlene O’Conner has started a new series, her third set in Ireland. Veterinarian Dimpna Wilde hasn’t been home in Dingle for years because of family drama. But when a wealthy racehorse owner’s corpse is found on the beach with a cryptic message spelled out in stones and a vial of deadly horse meds nearby, her family is under suspicion. The man was in a relationship with her mother and her dad has dementia. It’s a race to find the killer in No Strangers Here.

It’s A Trip With Trouble for the ladies of the Dangerous Curves Motorcycle Club during their autumn ride in the Blue Ridge Parkway. Fifty-year-old Misty Murphy is thrilled they’re staying at her Mountaintop Lodge and happy to be invited on the ride. But when the last rider goes missing, the rest go looking for her. This ride-or-die mystery is the second in the Mountain Lodge mysteries by Diane Kelly.

Kathi Daley gives us two spooky mysteries this month. Moonlight and Broomsticks is the second in the Bistro at Holiday series. It’s the first Halloween since Shelby Morris inherited the Bistro in Holiday Bay, Maine, and the Bistro’s first holiday event. But when somebody turns up dead, it throws a wrench into the plans. Do Shelby Morris and her staff have a ghost of a chance of finding the killer?

Pawn in the Pumpkin Patch is twentieth of Kathi Daley’s Inn at Holiday Bay series. After suffering a personal tragedy Abby Sullivan bought an old seaside mansion she’d never even seen, packed up her life in San Francisco, and moved to Holiday Bay. She’s been adopted by Maine Coon cat Rufus, giant dog Ramos, and drifter Georgia. For the Harvest Festival, staff members have planned Halloween events that get too real when a body of a coworker is found in a pumpkin patch.

Meanwhile, over in Briar Creek, the town library has inherited books from a Victorian estate. A secret passage leads to a skeleton clutching a book by Edgar Allan Poe. Library director Lindsey Norris uses the 80’s era clothing to try and track down a missing person from that time period. Turns out a bride went missing just weeks after the wedding. The case has sat on the shelf until Lindsey and the reading group, the Crafternooners, decide to open the casebook up. The Plot and the Pendulum is the unlucky thirteenth in Jenn McKinlay’s Library Lovers Mysteries.

Interior decorator Madison Night is surprised to find her obituary in the local paper. The woman’s real name was Addison Nigh, and she was once a jazz vocalist. The name mix-up causes all sorts of problems with cancelled credit and lots of condolences to Madison’s loved ones. Taking a closer look at the singer’s life, Madison discovers evidence that she played a part in an unsolved murder—and someone wants that to stay secret. Love Me or Grieve Me is the tenth Madison Night mystery by Diane Vallere.

BEST OF THE REST
Carol J. Perry—High Spirits: Haunted Haven Mystery #32
David Rosenfelt—Santa’s Little Yelpers: Andy Carpenter Mystery #26
David Rosenfelt —Best in Snow: Andy Carpenter Mystery #24 (paperback release)
Carolyn Haines—Bones of Holly: Sarah Booth Delany #25
Alice Duncan—Christmas Angels: Mercy Allcutt Mystery #7
Edward Marston—The Railway Detective’s Christmas Goose: Railroad Detective #24

To enter to win a copy of Deadly Verse, simply email KRL at krlcontests@gmail[dot]com by replacing the [dot] with a period, and with the subject line “verse” or comment on this article. A winner will be chosen October 1, 2022. 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. 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 last 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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