by Sunny Frazier
Get ready to cross the country with stops in Pennsylvania, Bunyan County, Mapleton, Mangrove Bayou, Sagebrush Lane, Manhattan, the Adirondacks, and Cantua Crossing!
Nell Pratt, president of the Pennsylvania Antiquarian Society, has barely started renovations when a construction worker—who found a curious metal object while excavating an old privy in the museum’s basement—is struck by a car and killed. Now Nell must unearth a mystery with ties to both the past and the present, because when someone is willing to kill over scrap metal, there’s no telling what they’ll do next! Sheila Connolly keeps us all in suspense with her sixth Museum Mystery, Privy to the Dead
At the Bunyan County Harvest fair to promote their Bar None bakery, Chase Oliver and Anna Larson discover plus-size kitty Quincy has helped himself to their wares. He then strolls the fairgrounds and finds a contender in the butter-sculpting contest… murdered. Quincy’s vet is the top suspect, so it’s up to Chase and Quincy to clear the doctor’s good name. Fat Cat Spreads Out is the second in the Fat Cat series by Janet Cantrell.
Blackthorne, Inc., isn’t a PI firm but a band of elite covert operatives. Dalton’s obsession with a Colombian drug lord threatens to endanger his life and the lives of his team. When he blows an undercover assignment, the boss sends him on a case at a halfway house where Dalton finds death, drugs, danger, and a woman who wants to trust him with her heart. Where Danger Hides is Terry Odell’s second Blackthorn, Inc. adventure.
Terry Odell has a new title in her other series as well. It’s a Deadly Production when the mayor announces that a film company is making a movie in Mapleton. For Police Chief Gordon Helper, it means headaches, extra shifts, and scheduling issues. After a member of the film crew is found dead and other members of the cast and crew don’t report in, Helper has to risk his job to find the truth. This is Number Four in the Mapleton series.
Police chiefs just can’t get a break. As soon as Troy Adams becomes the Mangrove Bayou, Florida, police chief, a prominent citizen is found dead. Although the medical examiner rules the case an accident, Troy believes all signs point to murder. As a hurricane arrives, Adam and his team are up to their elbows in storms and suspects. Mangrove Bayou is the first in a series by Stephen Morrill.
It’s another bad call on the part of a coroner when a citizen stands in the way of a corporation’s land grab and the man is found dead from an overdose of heart meds. Father Frank and Georgia Peitz don’t believe it’s a suicide. The more clues the priest and his sidekick uncover, the more danger they find themselves in. Can they find the real killer before they become victims? Over My Dead Body is the second in the Father Frank series from the pen of James Callan.
One forgotten jewel heist. One ongoing crime spree. One tortured detective. And one reporter in over her head. A body was buried in a shallow grave, then dug up and scattered by wildlife. It’s up to Dallas Starr and Jessie West to solve a pair of grisly murders while searching for stolen diamonds. The Tell-Tale Stone is the second Twist of Poe Mystery by Velda Brotherton.
Harrie McKinsey goes to retrieve her morning paper and instead finds a small child in blood-soaked PJs. The journey to find the parents becomes a grisly investigation into a second murder, an attempted kidnapping, a plot to steal top-secret data, and an encounter with a desperate killer. Murder On Sagebrush Lane is the second in the series by Patricia Smith Wood.
Ronnie Allen gives us Gemini: The Sign Behind the Crime, a story about psychic Dr. John Trenton, a forensic psychiatrist who heads a hospital for the criminally insane in Manhattan. He lives his life on the edge, just the way he likes it. Then he meets Gemini. Stripper by night, school psychologist by day, Gemini is committed for observation. When she escapes, she vows to kill the doctor’s wife and unborn child, along with everyone else who’s ever caused her pain, whether real or imagined. John is forced to use all his ESP to unravel her dark past. Can he track her down and bring her to justice before she destroys his world completely?
The Tremont family is in danger. As a storm approaches a house in the Adirondacks, two escaped convicts converge to wreck havoc on the family. One is a murderer who brings terror and a secret that threatens to drag Sandy Tremont with him into darkness. Keep your lights on when you read As Night Falls by Jenny Milchman!
It’s Amore Chocolate’s 50th anniversary and Domestic Diva Sophie Winston is running the show. But when the CEO goes missing and the body of a competing chocolatier is found in the guesthouse, the event turns downright deadly.The Diva Steals Chocolate is the yummy ninth outing for author Krista Davis. Recipes and entertaining tips included!
It’s also a missing-person case for Kelly O’Connell. Arson, a young girl’s disappearance, two men using the same name, and a surprise inheritance figure in Desperate For Death, the sixth outing by Judy Alter. Kelly knows she has to make the pieces fit if she’s to protect her family and all she holds dear. But in this puzzle the pieces don’t fit. Before Kelly can get the whole picture, she helps the family of a hostage, rescues a kidnap victim, and attends a wild and wonderful wedding.
Hostages also are taken in the Old West. The year is 1871 and stagecoaches are being held up in alarming numbers. A woman passenger is missing after a notorious outlaw robs the Visalia Overland Stage, and ranch owner Harry Caldwell joins the posse to pursue the bandit. He once enjoyed a short dalliance with the feisty hostage, but finding Cora Belle and unraveling the mystery surrounding her disappearance proves to be as difficult as capturing the outlaw. Cantua Crossing by Mary Martin Benton is woven around historical facts and established landmarks in the region known as the Arroyo de Cantua in the San Joaquin Valley of California.
On the day NJ mobster Sal Caetano becomes a grandfather, the newscast reported that by the time his granddaughter reached college, climate change would make the world a disaster area. Sal therefore decides to apply his Mafia skills to save the environment. Along the way he encounters criminals, crooked politicians, and ecoterrorists. Greenfellas by Robert Lopresti—don’t fugetaboutit!
On another mob front, publisher “Fat Vinny” Vitali signed Danny Garrett and Margaret Stanton to write mob wife Maria Mancuso’s true story, but what he really wanted was a mob exposé. Being the Publisher From Hell, he threatens to shelve the book forever and won’t give back the rights: the only way they can get them back is if Vinny disappears. But Vinny seems to have nine lives, as every scheme backfires! Dennis N. Griffin and Morgan St. James are all for Bumping Off Fat Vinnie: Revenge Is Sweet.
I’m also very proud to announce the publication of Justice Shall Be Served, an anthology put together by Officer Chris Sweeney with short stories from law enforcement and military authors. My story “Baby Blue,” based on a true murder case and the forensics that kept the criminal behind bars, is included. Proceeds from sales go to families of fallen members in law enforcement and military. Available on Amazon and Kindle.
MY BAD!
In last month’s column I changed the name of the author of Can’t Sing or Dance. His name is Daniel J. Barrett.
Check out other mystery articles, reviews, book giveaways & short stories in our mystery section. Check back every month for Coming Attractions!
Click on this link to purchase most of these books!
Wow! Talk about keeping us busy for the summer — all sound like next on my to buy, borrow lists! Thanks for info!
Thanks. Lots of good looking and good sounding books. A wide variety of plots and settings too. Wish I could take the summer off to do nothing but read.
Certainly looks like plenty of good, interesting books to keep us busy during these lazy summer days. Thanks for alerting us to so many good books.
I love Jenny’s books!
Lots of great titles there…adding a couple to my TBR list!