by Sunny Frazier

This month we have a giveaway of a regular paperback or Large Print copy of Don’t Judge a Book By Its Hover by Amy McNulty, and an ebook copy of Portent in the Pages by Kathi Daley featured in past Coming Attractions columns. Details on how to enter below.

After turkey and pumpkin pie, settle down with Alka Selzer and a good book. Here’s some suggestions (most of these books are already out but they fit with the season):

First, I must confess that I did a gender change in Kate Thornton’s Medium Dead. The visitor who becomes a corpse is a man.

It’s Murder by the Bookend in Laura Gail Black’s second Antique Bookshop Mysteries. When Jenna Quinn inherited Twice Upon a Time bookstore in Hokes Folly, North Carolina, she plans a November reopening event. But the party’s over as a library director is found dead with his head bashed in. The murder weapons are vintage glass bookends. The only witness is the victim’s dog, who leaves bloody paw prints behind. Suspicion falls on three people who left the party early. Which one will be booked for murder?

In the New England coastal town of Greyborne Harbor, it’s three weeks before Thanksgiving. Addie Greyborne is going to make it special in the Beyond the Page bookstore. Her window display is all about nineteenth-century books. There’s also a Civil War-themed cooking and baking competition. When a man is murdered, Addie must figure out the connection between the death, a vintage briefcase, and first edition copy of Mary Had a Little Lamb. To the Tome of Murder is seventh in Lauren Elliott’s Beyond the Page Bookstore Mysteries.

Although it came out in August, Devon Delaney sets her fifth Cook-Off mystery in Connecticut on Thanksgiving weekend. Sherry Oliveri goes from competing in the cookie competition to being a judge. She invites her Home EC teacher to dinner, but the next day he’s found deceased at the marina along with all the prizes. Recipes from Sherry’s Kitchen are included, so munch while reading Double Chocolate Cookie Murder, a Cook-Off Mystery.

Follow up cookies with a swig of Death by Hot Apple Cider. Krissy Hancock’s bookstore/café, Death by Coffee in Pine Hills, Ohio, is pairing up with the library to supply refreshments and the apple-bobbing contest in the town’s Autumn Event. When a man sticks his head in the water and doesn’t come up, the celebration is over. The man harassed her bookstore and the library for carrying “scandalous” books. Now someone has censored him permanently. This is the ninth book of Bookstore Café Mystery by Alex Erickson.

If cider’s too sweet, try a beer from Nitro, a brewery in Leavenworth, Washington. The IceFest is coming to the Bavarian town, which means brewmaster Sloan Krause has to get the guest rooms ready. With no more room at the inn, Sloan goes ahead and lets a woman stay overnight. The next morning the woman’s room is trashed, hateful messages are painted on her car, and she’s missing. Sloan is left Without a Brew in the fourth Sloan Krause mystery by Ellie Alexander.

Meanwhile, down in Honeytree, Oregon, it’s harvest time, and Leona Davis is up to her elbows in eggs and apples at Lucky Cluck Farm. But when a body crops up at the pumpkin patch with a carton of her eggs, suspicion falls on Leona. Now she must navigate a corn maze of clues to carve out a solution. A Farm & Alarm is the sixth Clucks and Clues Cozy by Hillary Avis.

Welcome to the Library of the Damned. Seventeen years ago, Akos Kazsmer was trapped in Gehenna by the Unholy Hosts. Now he hopes his son, magician Leopold, can save him. To do so, Leopold must travel to the hinterlands between two worlds to prevent a war with London. With him are a Special Inspector, an imp, a ghost, an automaton, and a friendly daemon. All hell breaks loose in the last book, third in the Enchanter Chronicles by Jeri Westerson.

BEST OF THE REST

Peggy Ehrhart—Knitty Gritty Murder: A Knit & Nibble Mystery #7

Samantha Price—Amish Dead & Breakfast: Ettie Smith Amish Mysteries #24

Amanda Flower—Marriage Can Be Mischief: An Amish Matchmaker Mystery #3

Deborah Blake—Doggone Deadly: A Catskills Pet Rescue #2

Maddie Day—Murder at the Lobstah Shack: A Cozy Capers Book Group Mystery #3

Lee Hollis—Murder at the Bake Sale: A Maya and Sandra Mystery #2

Ellen Riggs—How to Get a Neigh with Murder: Bought-the-Farm Cozy Mystery #10

Bailey Cates—Spirits and Sourdough: A Magical Bakery Mystery #10

V.M. Burns—Killer Words: Mystery Bookshop #7

Amy Lillard—A Murder Like No Author: Main Street Book Club Mystery #3

Jenn McKinlay—Killer Research: A Library Lover’s Mystery #12

Becky Clark—Fatal Solutions: A Crossword Puzzle Mystery #3

Jeri Westerson—The Deadliest Sin: Crispin Guest Medieval Noir #15

Jess Dylan—Petals and Poison: A Flower House Mystery #2

If you are looking for more new books to try be sure to also check out Queer Mystery Coming Attractions and Crime Writers of Color Coming Attractions!

To enter to win a print copy of Don’t Judge a Book by Its Hover and an ebook copy of Portent in the Pages, simply email KRL at krlcontests@gmail[dot]com by replacing the [dot] with a period, and with the subject line “thankful” or comment on this article. A winner will be chosen November 6, 2021. U.S. residents only, and you must be 18 or older to enter. If entering via email please also 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 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.