by Sunny Frazier

Info on how to win 2 books (one print and one ebook) by past Coming Attraction authors at the end of this post.

Summer is upon us, which means fun in the sun (with plenty of sunscreen) and time to read. Here are some suggestions:

We cannot get enough of those thriller heroes, so Michael Connelly, Dennis Lehane, Jeffrey Deaver and 20 other writers of the genre got together to produce 11 stories for the anthology, Faceoff. Each story contains two characters from different authors solving crimes. Double the reading pleasure!

Get your snorkeling gear out for C.L. Swinney’s Gray Ghost. Two Miami narcotic detectives head to the Bahamas for a bit of fishing when they are roped into a murder investigation. The locals are also in a frenzy about the speedboat, Gray Ghost, now sitting in the bottom of the ocean with millions of dollars of cocaine on board.

Fly fishing is also part of the excitement of Warren C. Easley’s Dead Float. Small town lawyer Cal Claxton is flattered when asked to take Portland executives on an expedition to Oregon’s Deschutes River. When a member of the party is murdered, everyone is a suspect. Does the fact that their company’s value was about to explode on the market make a motive for murder

Father-daughter Civil War re-enactors have a bigger battle on their hands when the daughter’s boyfriend goes missing after giving her two encrypted flash drives. The daughter is then killed and her father, now in intensive care, asks Dr. Hand to investigate. So, why is a Black Ops unit after him? Timothy Desmond’s The Doc is on the case!

In the sixth Eve Pennington outing, Damsels of Diversion, Walter Luce has his heroine inheriting three banks after her father’s suicide. When she realizes 90% of her customers are women but men are in charge, she forms a women’s bank to set things straight. You go girl!

Another Eve to keep an eye on is Eve Appel, consignment shop owner. Her uncle and his companion expect to be entertained on their visit to Florida. However, an airboat ride through the swamps ends with a bullet through his head. When a connection to the mob is discovered, the Russian mafia shows up and Eve’s best friend is kidnapped, well, what’s a girl to do? Call in the cavalry, which includes a mob boss, an Indian and her ex. Dead in the Water is the second in Lesley Diehl’s Eve Appel series.

FOR YOUR E-BOOK SHELF

Mobsters and Indians also show up in the third in the Jim Wolf trilogy, The Curse of the Chameleon by Tim Wohlforth. We are invited to enter Big Emma’s in Jack London Square (Oakland) where an assassin known as the Chameleon is hunting PI James Wolf. The Bay Area is more than just scenery, it’s another character.

Macy Stoddard lost her parents in a car crash. She tries to go on with her life by taking a job as nurse to the widow of Hallstead House. Does the house hide secrets or is it just a reflection of the actions of sinister servants and hostile relatives? Amy Reade’s breakout novel, The Secrets of Halstead House, is a spine-tingler!

Look for Scandals, Secrets, and Murder in The Widow and the Rogue Mysteries by Maggie Sefton. In 1890, Washington DC, clairvoyant socialite Amanda and English investor Devlin combine forces after a senator is stabbed to death in a brothel and Devlin’s nephew is fingered for it.

J.A. Jance’s novella is about Butch Dixon, who lost everything to a conniving ex-wife. He left Chicago for Arizona and runs the Roundhouse Bar & Grill. Now, seven years later, two cops show up investigating his ex-wife’s murder. Good thing he’s got The Old Blue Line, retired law enforcement and legal types, at his back. After the dust settles, his life is upended again when Sheriff Joanna Brady walks into The Roundhouse.

To enter to win a print copies of Devil’s Oven by Laura Benedict (Coming Attractions previewed her new book Bliss House), & an ebook of A Dead Red Cadillac by Rebecca Dahlke, simply email KRL at krlcontests@gmail[dot]com by replacing the [dot] with a period, and with the subject line “attractions beach,” or comment on this article. A winner will be chosen July 5, 2014. U.S. residents only.

Check out other mystery articles, reviews, book giveaways & short stories in our mystery section.

Click on this link to purchase any of these books & a portion goes 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.