Book picks similar to
Bright Young Witches & the Restless Dead by Beth Byers
historical-mystery
paranormal
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As Witch Would Have It
Mara Webb - 2020
Weeks. Months. Years. When real life gets too hard Chelsea decides to fly back to Pendle Island, a place she has not been since she was born. She’s looking forward to a vacation, but when she arrives, she’s quickly thrown into mayhem. Her Great Aunt Griselda has died, and Chelsea is needed at the funeral. She’s barely halfway through a stack of breakfast pancakes when her cousin Lizzy drops another bombshell. Chelsea is a witch, and her Great Aunt didn’t just die. She was murdered. Things go from bad to worse when Chelsea and her cousin start to follow the breadcrumbs. Her Great Aunt had been an infamous miser and hated by just about everyone on Pendle Island. Witches don’t get much more wicked than Griselda. After an ancient legal loophole leaves Chelsea as the sole heir of Griselda’s estate, she suddenly finds herself in charge of a haunted house on a hill, home to a mad pirate ghost, a talking cat, and a burly lumberjack with a curious secret. If that wasn’t enough, she’s got a dreamy sheriff to contend with, and a silver-tongued lawyer who is as charming as he is cunning. It’s a lot to process, especially when Chelsea learns about a family curse dangling over her head. The last thing she wants is to end up like her man-eater mother, but it seems she can’t help attracting attention… With a curse to run from, a murder to solve, and a needy cat to please, Chelsea finds her plate fills up very quickly. There’s also the small matter of avoiding death and learning magic, but that’s easy enough. Right? As Witch Would Have It is the first book in the Wicked Witches of Pendle Island mystery series. It’s fast, funny, and may contain a sassy animal or two.
Bound for Magic
Constance Barker - 2021
But when a witness claims to have seen a strange animal with a human in its mouth, can Mary believe it, even if her instincts tell her it's true?Her cat Ugly seems to be making noises other than the usual meows...like she's trying to communicate. Is Mary losing it or is Ugly attempting to speak or something even more unusual?Mary's dreams are also trying to tell her something....that a group called the Soul Brokers are in need of payment. Make remuneration or forfeit an innocent soul. What the heck has she gotten herself into?***Find out in the First book of the Tortie Kitten Mystery Trilogy***
Wands Upon A Time In Brimstone Bay (Witches Of Brimstone Bay #2)
R.K. Dreaming - 2020
Witch Esme Westbrim is settling into a new life in Bewitching Brimstone Bay when the murder of a tourist hits too close to home. The second body in a few months has turned up on her doorstep!To make things worse Esme has seen someone she knows all too well lurking around the scene of the crime. Afraid her family will come under suspicion, Esme must attend a magical fairy-tale reunion ball and uncover deadly secrets from the past. Even help from a psychic cat, magically marvellous cupcakes, and a wild witch cousin might not be enough when a certain ridiculously handsome Special Agent keeps getting in Esme's way! Can Esme find happily ever after for everyone or will her belief that fairy tales always end badly come true?
Read it now and join Esme on her latest charming and funny witch cozy mystery adventure!
This is a full-length humorous cozy mystery that can be read as a standalone mystery story or enjoyed as part of the series.
Books In This Series:
Book 1 - Witch In Charm's WayBook 2 - Wands Upon A Time In Brimstone BayBook 3 - Witch Way To The Wicked...
Poison at Pemberton Hall: the first Vita Carew historical mystery (Vita Carew mysteries Book 1)
Fran Smith - 2020
A Fairy Situation
Misty Bane - 2020
It’s where I live and where a lot of other fairies live too. Yup, fairies.Cute, right? Except most of what you think you know about fairies is wrong. We aren’t sweet little things that flutter around singing songs and throwing fairy dust around. Okay, okay … some fairies fit this stereotype— not me. It might be because of the whole curse thing, but I’ll explain that later. Right now, I’ve got a dead body on my hands.Someone killed our mayor. And since I’m an agent for the Fairy World Bureau of Investigations, I kind of have to deal with it as part of the job description.Add in my best friend who owns the local salon, my eccentric grandmother and her doubly eccentric twin sister, and my oldest friend—a vampire cursed to live out the rest of his existence as a bumblebee bat—and you can see my life has all of the promises of a typical cozy paranormal story … except it’s a little more complicated than that.I’m Jade Honeyblossom: half witch, half wicked, full fairy. Welcome to my world.
A House of Mirrors (Mrs Hudson & Sherlock Holmes, #1)
Liz Hedgecock - 2016
Placed under protection by Inspector Lestrade, Nell is ripped from her old life and her own secret police work. Instead she must live as a widow, Mrs Hudson, in a safe house: 221B Baker Street. Two years on, with the case still unsolved, Nell vows to defy Lestrade and use her skills to discover what happened. She takes a lodger to cover her tracks; a young man called Sherlock Holmes. Before long, he is working on her case - and Nell is assisting him.But as Nell delves into her past she raises ghosts whom one person would rather keep buried. Will she face danger, and risk her new life in the process? 'It's always been fun before - but now the police are the enemy...’A House of Mirrors is the first book in the Mrs Hudson & Sherlock Holmes series, which documents life at 221B Baker Street from Nell Hudson’s point of view.
Still Life with Murder
P.B. Ryan - 2003
Born into dismal poverty, young Nell Sweeney scratches by on her wits and little else until fortune blesses her with a position as nursery governess to the fabulously wealthy Hewitts. But she soon learns that ugly secrets lurk beneath the surface of their gold-plated world.The Hewitts’ eldest son, William, a former Union Army battle surgeon and the black sheep of the family, was reported to have died three years before in a notorious Confederate prison camp. But one snowy February afternoon, his parents learn that he is, in fact, still alive—and in jail for having murdered a man while intoxicated on opium. Infuriated by his son’s deception and convinced of his guilt, August Hewitt forbids his wife from coming to Will’s aid, so she begs Nell to help exonerate him. Nell finds that she must delve into the kind of dark and treacherous underworld she thought she’d left far behind if she is to unearth the truth before the hangman’s noose tightens around William Hewitt’s throat.
The Whore's Tale: Sarah (A Jacobite Chronicles Story)
Julia Brannan - 2018
This is a companion series and can be read independently of the Chronicles. The year is 1731 and in a small village in Cheshire, England, the Reverend Browne has determined the future of his young daughter Sarah. Her life will be dedicated to caring for him and his household affairs while he, acting as one of God’s chosen few, saves souls from the devil. Sarah dreams of a different future, one in which she will be happy and independent. As she grows older she starts to see glimpses of a tantalising world beyond her reach and longs one day to escape the drudgery of her life, to become part of it all and maybe even have her own business. However, a chance meeting leads first to joy and blossoming and then to the destruction of her whole world. It changes her life forever, forcing her down a path which is the very opposite of the glittering one she had hoped for, one for which she has to pay a terrible price to survive.
The Impersonator
Mary Miley - 2013
Now, years later, her uncle Oliver Beckett thinks he's found her: a young actress in a vaudeville playhouse is a dead ringer for his missing niece. But when Oliver confronts the girl, he learns he's wrong. Orphaned young, Leah's been acting since she was a toddler.Oliver, never one to miss an opportunity, makes a proposition—with his coaching, Leah can impersonate Jessie, claim the fortune, and split it with him. The role of a lifetime, he says. A one-way ticket to Sing Sing, she hears. But when she's let go from her job, Oliver's offer looks a lot more appealing. Leah agrees to the con, but secretly promises herself to try and find out what happened to the real Jessie. There's only one problem: Leah's act won't fool the one person who knows the truth about Jessie's disappearance.Set against a Prohibition-era backdrop of speakeasies and vaudeville houses, Mary Miley's Minotaur Books/Mystery Writers of America First Crime Novel Competition winner The Impersonator will delight readers with its elaborate mystery and lively prose.
Werebear Scare
Nova Nelson - 2021
Now in her mid-forties, she’s starting to feel like she’s seen it all.But that’s about to change.When a simple case of a missing werebear takes an unexpected turn, Eastwind’s angel sheriff enlists Ruby’s psychic gifts to help find the culprit. But a string of suspicious attacks and rumblings of an old sinister legend lead Ruby True and Sheriff Bloom into uncharted territory.Will they find the one responsible for the carnage before it finds them?Werebear Scare: An Eastwind Witches Paranormal Cozy Mystery is the first book of the Ruby True Magical Mystery series that takes place 30 years before the Eastwind Witches Cozy Mysteries. If you like strong female friendships, gossipy quaint towns, and lighthearted humor, you will love Nova Nelson's delightful tale!Buy Werebear Scare to solve the mystery today!Note: This is a second edition and was previously published under the series True & Bloom.
A Man of Some Repute
Elizabeth Edmondson - 2015
Or so it seems to intelligence officer Hugo Hawksworth, wounded on a secret mission and now reluctantly assuming an altogether less perilous role at Selchester. The Castle’s faded grandeur hides a web of secrets and scandals—the Earl has been missing for seven years, lost without a trace since the night he left his guests and walked out into a blizzard. When a skeleton is uncovered beneath the flagstones of the Old Chapel, the police produce a suspect and declare the case closed.Hugo is not convinced. With the help of the spirited Freya Wryton, the Earl’s niece, he is drawn back into active service, and the ancient town of Selchester is dragged into the intrigues and conspiracies of the Cold War era. With a touch of Downton Abbey, a whisper of Agatha Christie and a nod to Le Carré, A Man of Some Repute is the first book in this delightfully classic and witty murder mystery series.
The Colour of Betrayal
Toni Mount - 2017
Fearful that his opponent is dying from his injuries, Lawrence seeks sanctuary in a church nearby. When Ducket is found hanging from the rafters, people assume it's suicide. Yet, Sebastian Foxley is unconvinced. Why is his young apprentice, Jack Tabor, so terrified that he takes to his bed?Amidst feasting and merriment, Seb is determined to solve the mystery of his friend’s death and to ease Jack’s fears.
Design for Dying
Renee Patrick - 2016
Lillian Frost has traded dreams of stardom for security as a department store salesgirl . . . until she discovers she’s a suspect in the murder of her former roommate, Ruby Carroll. Party girl Ruby died wearing a gown she stole from the wardrobe department at Paramount Pictures, domain of Edith Head.Edith has yet to win the first of her eight Academy Awards; right now she’s barely hanging on to her job, and a scandal is the last thing she needs. To clear Lillian’s name and save Edith’s career, the two women join forces.Unraveling the mystery pits them against a Hungarian princess on the lam, a hotshot director on the make, and a private investigator who’s not on the level. All they have going for them are dogged determination, assists from the likes of Bob Hope and Barbara Stanwyck, and a killer sense of style. In show business, that just might be enough.
Flappers, Flasks and Foul Play
Ellen Mansoor Collier - 2012
Prohibition is in full swing in 1920s Galveston, Texas: the "Sin City of the Southwest." Jasmine Cross, a young society reporter, feels caught between two clashing cultures: the seedy speakeasy underworld and the snooty social circles she covers in the Galveston Gazette. During a night out with her best friend, Jazz witnesses a bar fight at the Oasis--a speakeasy secretly owned by her black-sheep half-brother, Sammy Cook. But when a big-shot banker with a hidden past collapses there and later dies, she suspects foul play. Was it an accident or murder?Soon new Prohibition Agent James Burton raids the Oasis, threatening to shut it down if Sammy doesn't talk. Suspicious, he pursues Jazz, but she refuses to rat on Sammy. As turf wars escalate between two real-life rival gangs, Sammy is accused of murder. To find the killer, Jazz must risk her life and career, exposing the dark side of Galveston's glittering society.