by Sunny Frazier

Details at the end of this post on how to enter to win copies of Claws for Celebration by Linda Reilly and Eggs on Ice by Laura Childs-all from past Coming Attractions columns.

If one of your 2019 resolutions is to add more books and reading time to your life, here are some suggestions to help you keep your promise!

Diane Kelly, author of the Paw Enforcement series and the Tara Holloway Mysteries, now introduces us to her first House-Flipper Mystery. Whitney Whitaker is in real estate in Nashville and loves a fixer-upper. When a client decides to get rid of a run-down property, she grabs it up. Next thing you know, Sawdust the cat finds a body in the flower bed. Dead as a Door Knocker is a great way to start the year.

It’s Death by Committee in a new series by Alexis Morgan. When Abbey McCree inherits a ramshackle estate in Snowberry Creek, Washington, she also inherits a slobbery Mastiff and a sexy tenant. She becomes involved with a quilting guild and discovers the body of her aunt’s rival buried in the backyard. Unable to believe her aunt could commit murder, Abbey launches her own investigation.

New on the scene is Julia Henry and her Garden Squad Mysteries. Retired Lilly Jayne has the most manicured garden in Goosebush, Massachusetts. Hundreds are attending her garden party, including her ex and his unruly wife. After she gets drunk and shoves a guest into the koi pond, the wife is escorted off the property. When she’s found dead in a pile of mulch, Lilly and the Garden Squad get to work Pruning the Dead.

Boston, summer of 1930. Doctor Haley Higgins is a pathologist’s assistant. Her brother was murdered five years ago. The trail might have gone cold, but it’s set Haley on the path to crime solving. When a man is found dead in the city’s oldest tavern, a “coffee and tea” house since Prohibition, it leads Haley to the world of underground rum running. Death at the Tavern is the first in the Higgins and Hawke mysteries by Lee Strass.

The Gun Also Rises in Ellington, Massachusetts. Sarah Winston, garage sale expert, is asked by a wealthy widow to sell her collection of mysteries. Sarah is amazed to find a case of lost Hemingway stories stolen from a Paris train in 1922. Someone wants them enough to kill the maid and assault the widow. Soon Sarah is mixed up with a mobster, The League of Literary Treasure Hunters and a rare books dealer. This is the seventh in the Sarah Winston Garage Sale Mysteries by Sherry Harris.

Two yummy mysteries tempt you this month. In Bake Shop Mystery #7, Torte, a bakery in Ashland, Oregon, is run by Jules Capshaw. The Shakespeare Festival is on and Torte is to supply Elizabethan treats. On the eve of opening night there’s a brawl between a friend of Jules, the director and an actor. The actor is found dead the next day. It’s up to Jules to navigate backstage betrayals and catty co-stars who have their own secrets. Another One Bites the Crust is served up by Ellie Alexander.

Got a dessert emergency? Who you gonna call? The Emergency Dessert Squad, of course! Business is booming for owner and baker Winnie Johnson in the town of Silver Lake, Ohio. An order from an artist’s retreat for “motivational” desserts keeps her busy and her mind off relationship troubles. When Winnie discovers the body of the retreat owner and five eccentric suspects, she needs to uncover who iced the woman. Dial M For Mousse is the third in the series by Laura Bradford. Recipes included.

Finally, let Father Time take us through the centuries to a Season of Blood. It’s 1390 in Hailes Abbey, Gloucestershire, England. Two monks have been murdered and their Holy Blood relic stolen. Disgraced former knight Crispin Guest finds the relic and attempts to return it to the abbey where it belongs. Caught between church politics, intrigues of King Richard’s court, and a mysterious woman, can the relic point Crispin to a killer? This is the ninth outing for the knight penned by Jeri Westerson. (this is a paperback release, the hardback was released in January 2018)

BEST OF THE REST

Sheila Connolly—The Lost Traveller County Cork #8
Gigi Pandian—The Alchemist’s Illusion Accidental Alchemist Mystery #4
Lorna Bartlett—The Reluctant Bride Life on Victoria Square #5
Stephanie Blackmoore—Murder Borrowed, Murder Blue A Wedding Planner Mystery #3
Kathi Daley—Eighth Witness Writers Retreat #8
Sara Rosett—Murder at Blackburn Hall High Society Lady Detective #2
Tracy Weber—Pre-Meditated Murder Downward Dog Mystery #5
Liz Mugavero—Murder She Meowed A Pawsitively Organic Mystery #7
Mildred Abbott—Killer Keys Cozy Corgi Mysteries #10
E.J. Copperman—Bones Behind the Wheel A Haunted Guesthouse #10

To enter to win copies of Claws for Celebration by Linda Reilly and Eggs on Ice by Laura Childs simply email KRL at krlcontests@gmail[dot]com by replacing the [dot] with a period, and with the subject line “new reads,” or comment on this article. A winner will be chosen January 5, 2019. U.S. residents only. If entering via email please include your mailing address (so if you win we can get the book sent right out to you), and if via comment please include your email address. 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. Check back every month for Coming Attractions! Don’t forget to to check out for our mystery podcast.

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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