Best of
Amateur-Sleuth

2014

Summer Shadows


Killarney Traynor - 2014
    Medallion Honoree!Mystery. Romance. Danger. Murder. Not the typical family vacation. When Julia Lamontaigne arrives in Franklin, New Hampshire, she's looking for an escape from the tragedies that have taken over her life. Haunted by the legacy of her beloved sister, and entrusted with her sister's three orphaned children, Julia hopes for a summer of peaceful healing... And hopefully, bonding. At first, the small New Hampshire town seems to be the perfect location. They quickly settle in and make friends with their eccentric neighbors, then begin work on their summer house - while Julia is drawn into a relationship with Robert Wilde, the handsome cop next door. But Franklin is haunted, too - by the decades-old murder of a beautiful young artist, killed in the house at the end of Julia's street. Even though everyone says that the case is solved, Julia can't escape the feeling that there's more to the story than she's being told. She's right. Someone doesn't want the murder case re-opened. And they're willing to kill again to stop it. The house at the end of the street hasn't begun to give up its secrets.

Checkered Crime


Tonya Kappes - 2014
    Orphaned and with one heckuva checkered past, she’s grown street smart and no one is going to tell her different, even if it means getting tangled up with the wrong side of the law. After terrorizing Walnut Grove, Kentucky all her adolescent life, she’s back and she’s ready to go on the up and up. Make something of herself. Prove the citizens of Walnut Grove wrong and make them admit she’s somebody. But when mobster Trigger Finger Tony Cardozza jumps in the back of Laurel London’s car mistaking it for a taxi, she’s up to her ears in no good. Recently fired and checkbook in the red, when Trigger offers to pay Laurel large wads of cash to drive him where he needs to go and keep her mouth shut, she’s all in. That is, until FBI agent Jax Jackson jumps in the back of Laurel London’s car threatening to take her to jail for her past crimes if she doesn’t cooperate with the FBI by going undercover to help bring down the mob. Laurel finds herself battling the past and good vs evil and she’s not sure which is more deadly.

A Mansion, A Drag Queen, And A New Job


C.C. Dragon - 2014
    The universe has other ideas. When the grandmother she never knew dies and leaves her everything, Deanna enters a different world. In New Orleans anything goes and her psychic powers aren’t a secret. She doesn’t plan on staying but a psychic vision puts her on the trail of a killer. Deanna can’t turn her back on the future victims and becomes immersed in her grandmother’s world. She isn’t sure how to manage the mansion and fortune she inherited or the people who came with it. An ex-priest, a Latina drag queen and a socialite beauty queen are the living entourage. Add in a houseful of ghosts and haunted objects and Deanna needs a little help. In over her head, she struggles to catch a killer who is out to get her as well.

The Shipshewana Amish Mystery Collection


Vannetta Chapman - 2014
    As different as night and day, Deborah and Callie are uneasy partners who simply want to make the best of a temporary situation. But a murder, a surprising prime suspect, a stubborn detective, and the town's reaction throw the two women together, and they form an unlikely alliance to solve a mystery and catch a killer.Set in the well-known Amish community of Shipshewana, Indiana, Falling to Pieces will attract both devoted fans of the rapidly-growing Amish fiction genre, as well as those who are captivated by the Amish way of life.A PERFECT SQUAREIn A Perfect Square, Amish-English sleuthing duo Deborah Yoder and Callie Harper set out to solve a murder. But more than an innocent man’s future is at stake. In book two of the Shipshewana Amish Mystery series, God’s grace touches the long-lost past as well as lives shaken by current tragedy.There’s more to the quaint northern Indiana town of Shipshewana than handcrafted quilts, Amish-made furniture, immaculate farms and close-knit families. When a dead girl is found floating in a local pond, murder is also afoot. And Reuben Fisher is in jail as the suspect! Reuben refuses to divulge any information, even to clear himself of a crime Deborah is certain he didn’t commit. So, with her English friend, Callie—fellow sleuth and owner of Daisy’s Quilt Shop—Deborah sets out to uncover the truth. But the mystery deepens when an elderly man seeks Callie’s help in finding his long-lost daughter, missing since the days of the 1965 Palm Sunday Tornadoes. An old man who has lost his past. A young man who may lose his future. Once again Deborah and Callie find themselves trying to piece together a crazy quilt of lives and events—one that can bring unexpected touches of God’s grace and resolve the tragedy that has shaken this quiet Amish community.MATERIAL WITNESSThe Fall Crafters Fair has barely begun in Shipshewana when murder strikes the small town once again—this time on the property of Daisy's Quilt Shop. It will take all of the sleuthing skills Deborah Yoder and Callie Harper possess to catch the perpetrator. But the stakes are higher than ever before, since the material witness is their best friend's child.Masked identities, antique quilts with hidden messages, an Amish boy whose handicap makes him stronger, one brave dog, and a possible hidden treasure ... this time it's nonstop action, danger, and a dash of romance. This mystery takes everyone on a journey of faith deep into the heart of God’s grace.

Brilliant Disguise


Mary Anne Edwards - 2014
    Turns out his first case is the most complicated of his career. A young woman is found shot and while everyone is telling him suicide, his gut, and the dead woman’s beautiful neighbor, are telling him something quite different. How far can he dig before he uncovers secrets never meant to be unearthed? Throw in a shady police chief and an unexpected love interest and McClung quickly finds himself with more trouble than he ever imagined. What fans are saying about Brilliant Disguise! "So glad I found this author! Kept me on the edge of my seat. Could not put it down!" ~Amazon Customer "Loved this book! It was suspenseful, exciting, AND had romance...not much more you can ask for from a great story! It was also so well written. I can't wait to read the rest of the series!!" ~Lindsay R. "I'm a huge mystery buff. I laughed, was puzzled, cheered on Charlie and Marian and can't wait to read the next book in this series. If you enjoy a good whodunit, mystery, suspense, touch of romance, clean read, you'll absolutely love this mystery. Kudos to Mary Anne and her brilliant storytelling!"~M. Gray "Brilliant Disguise is a first-rate mystery that harkens you back to the days of Agatha Christie. You’ll feel a sense of nostalgia as you immerse yourself in the story, investigating alongside Det. McClung and eagerly awaiting clues at every turn. It’s an edge-of-your-seat whodunit!” –Monique Michelle Mason, Author of Moving at the Speed of Single

An Uncollected Death


Meg Wolfe - 2014
    Finding her new boss battered and left for dead on her first day, however, was most definitely not in the job description. She turns amateur sleuth in an attempt to continue with her editing assigment but complications set in from the start. The notebooks that she needs are well hidden and the only clues to their whereabouts are extremely cryptic. To add to Charlotte's problems, she is not the only one with an interest in the notebooks. The town's criminal element will stop at nothing, up to and including murder, to get their hands on the prize.

Death by Blue Water


Kait Carson - 2014
    When she discovers a man’s body at 120’ beneath the sea, she thinks she is witness to a tragic accident. She becomes the prime suspect when the man’s identity is revealed as Richard Anderson, the brother of the man who recently jilted her. A migraine stole Hayden’s memory of the night of Richard’s death. As the evidence mounts, she joins forces with an Officer Janice Kirby. Together the two women follow the clues that uncover criminal activities at the highest levels and put Hayden’s life in jeopardy while she fights to stay free.

Messin’ with the Kidd : Samantha Kidd Style & Error Mysteries Box Set #1-3


Diane Vallere - 2014
    ISBN 9781939197177- Alternative Cover Edition

Bait & Switch


Jerusha Jones - 2014
    Then the FBI comes knocking. Turns out Nora doesn’t know her husband as well as she thought she did, and the feds are equally anxious about Skip’s fate. Is Skip Sheldon a con man or some kind of Robin Hood or simply misunderstood? And if he really loved her, why did he drag her into this mess? She’d interrogate and then throttle him herself (and save his kidnappers the trouble) if she could — but she’s not so sure he’s still alive to bear the brunt of her worry. Nora and her stalwart executive assistant, Clarice, seek refuge on one of Skip’s properties — an abandoned poor farm on the edge of the Dark Divide in Washington State — to wait for a ransom call and entertain obnoxious FBI agents. Can Nora wriggle through the maze of Skip’s accounts and questionable acquaintances before she falls under suspicion herself? And for what crimes, exactly? She wishes she knew.

Suede to Rest


Diane Vallere - 2014
    THE FIRST BOOK IN THE ALL-NEW “MATERIAL WITNESS” MYSTERY SERIES With her career as a dress designer in shreds, Polyester Monroe is looking forward to a fresh start. But as it all unfolds, the pattern to a new beginning looks a lot like murder. When Poly Monroe was little, she loved playing in her family’s textile store. But after a fatal family tragedy, Land of A Thousand Fabrics was boarded up and Poly never expected to see the inside again. Now, as inheritor of the long-shuttered shop, she’s ready to restore the family business. However her two new kittens, Pins and Needles, aren’t the ones causing a snag in her plans… Not everyone wants Poly back in San Ladrón, especially a powerful local developer pressuring her to sell—and leave town fast. But even when the threats turn deadly, she’s not ready to bolt. Because Poly is beginning to suspect that the murder behind the shop is tied to a mystery in her family’s unsettled past that she’s determined to solve…before her own life is left hanging by a thread.INCLUDES A CRAFT PROJECT