by Sunny Frazier

This month we have a giveaway of Double Chocolate Cookie Murder by Devon Delaney and A Brush With Murder by Bailee Abbott, both featured in past Coming Attractions columns. Details on how to enter below.

Books make good presents, easy to find, easy to wrap. Listed at the end of this column are eighteen holiday books which came out months ahead of time. Yule enjoy them!

Laura Bradford has started a new series, A Friend for Hire Mysteries. When her travel business goes under, Emma Westlake becomes a paid companion. Need a wingman at the senior dance, a workout partner, someone to applaud at an open mic night? Emma’s your girl. But when a writer asks her to cheer him on in an audience who want him dead, she thinks he’s joking. He drops dead at the mic and suddenly Emma finds herself as A Plus One for Murder.

There’s an Absence of Mallets in the ninth Fixer-Upper mystery by Kate Carlisle. Contractor Shannon Hammer is happy her thriller-writer boyfriend has moved in. He hosts writing retreats at a lighthouse mansion while she builds tiny houses for veterans. But when a friend of Shannon’s is found bludgeoned with a mallet near the lighthouse and another attack puts a victim in a coma, the couple has to find the killer before he demolishes anyone else.

Another thriller writer lives in the remote town of Benedict, Alaska. Beth Rivers is hiding out after being kidnapped by a crazy fan. Her mother went undercover to find the culprit, but now she shows up at Beth’s house. And with the cold winter, comes the dreaded “census man,” unwelcome by the secretive community. A battered woman stumbles into the bar one night, and her husband is found dead the next morning. Suspicion falls on the census man, but he goes missing, too. Everyone, even the police chief, is a suspect. Beth and mom need to figure out what’s going on. Meanwhile, in the lower forty-eight, another author disappears and the police think the kidnapper is at it again. It’s a Dark Night, the third Alaska Wild book by Paige Shelton.

In the fifth Abby McCree mystery, Abby is drafted to organize a charity run in the Snowberry Creek, Washington, Founders Day celebration. Everything is going smoothly until a city council member is found dead in a ravine along the route. It’s Death by the Finish Line in Alexis Morgan’s latest.

The Doyle Assignment takes Edward and Janet Markham Bennett across the pond to Florida. Something odd is going on in the Sunshine Sunset Acres retirement community. Between discovering how two men die, they set out to discover what’s going on after dark in the community center. Also, they must dodge the relentless sales pitch from the community’s real estate agent. This is the fourth Janet Markham Bennett Cozy Thriller by Diana Xarissa.

EARLY SHOPPERS
Lynn Cahoon—Have a Holly, Haunted Christmas: Kitchen Witch Mysteries #2.5
Maria DiRico—It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Murder: A Catering Hall Mystery #3
Connie Shelton—The Ghost of Christmas Sweet: A Sweet’s Sweets Bakery Mystery #15
Maggie Blackburn—Once Upon a Seaside Murder: A Beach Reads Mystery #2
Amy Patricia Meade—The Christmas Fair Killer: A Tish Tarragon Mystery #3
Amy Pershing—An Eggnog to Die For: A Cape Cod Foodie Mystery #2
Laura Childs—Twisted Tea Christmas: A Tea Shop Mystery #23
Lena Gregory—Mistletoe Cake Murder: All-Day Breakfast Cafe Mystery #6
Joanne Fluke—Christmas Dessert Murder: A Hannah Swensen Mystery (2 books in one: Christmas Caramel Murder and Christmas Cake Murder)
Jacqueline Frost—Slashing Through the Snow: A Christmas Tree Farm Mystery #3
Louise R. Innes—Death at Holly Lodge: A Daisy Thorne Mystery #3
Donna Andrews—The Twelve Jays of Christmas: A Meg Langslow Mystery #30
Emily Brightwell—Mrs. Jeffries and the Midwinter Murders: A Victorian Mystery #40
Ellie Alexander—Bake, Borrow, and Steal: A Bakeshop Mystery #14
Rosemarie Ross—Christmas Candy Corpse: A Courtney Archer Mystery #3
Carolyn Haines—A Garland of Bones: A Sarah Booth Delaney Mystery #22
Donna Andrews—The Gift of the Magpie: A Meg Langslow Mystery #28
Darci Hannah—Murder at the Christmas Cookie Bake-Off: Beacon Bakeshop #2
Winnie Archer—A Murder Yule Regret: A Bread Shop Mystery #7

BEST OF THE REST
Jennifer S. Alderson—Death by Flamenco: An Easter Murder in Seville: Travel Can Be Murder #7
Catherine Bruns—The Enemy You Gnocchi: Italian Chef Mysteries #3
Cate Conte—Witch Trial: A Full Moon Mystery #2
Julia Buckley—Death on the Night of Lost Lizards: A Hungarian Tea House Mystery #3
Victoria Gilbert—Renewed For Murder: Blue Ridge Library Mystery #6
Vicki Delany—A Curious Incident: Sherlock Holmes Bookshop Mystery #6

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 copies of Double Chocolate Cookie Murder by Devon Delaney and A Brush With Murder by Bailee Abbot, simply email KRL at krlcontests@gmail[dot]com by replacing the [dot] with a period, and with the subject line “December” or comment on this article. A winner will be chosen December 4, 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.

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