The body on the beach throws Libby Forest's new life into turmoil. Everyone in town knows the dead woman under the lighthouse, but no one seems to care how or why she died. Only Libby believes someone murdered the ageing rock-star. A woman talks to Libby. Then she, too, dies... Discover how Exham on Sea's first female sleuth, helped by an enormous dog called Bear and an aloof marmalade cat, unpicks the clues to solve the mystery. Amateur female sleuth Libby Forest arrives in the small town after years in a disastrous marriage, determined to build a new life making cakes and chocolates in Exham on Sea. She joins forces with the attractive but secretive Max Ramshore and risks the wrath of the townspeople as she pieces together the jigsaw to solve the mystery of Susie Bennett's death. The first short read in the series, set in the coastal resort of Exham on Sea, Murder at the Lighthouse introduces a cast of colourful local characters, including Mandy the teenage Goth, Frank the baker and Detective Sergeant Joe Ramshore, Max's estranged son. The green fields, rolling hills and sandy beaches of the West Country provide a perfect setting for crime, intrigue and mystery. For lovers of Agatha Christie novels, Midsomer Murders, lovable pets and cake, the series offers a continuing supply of quick crime stories to read in one sitting, as Libby solves a mixture of intriguing mysteries and uncovers the secrets of the small town's past.

    This scenic stretch of Long Island’s East End is renowned for beautiful beaches, quaint villages, spectacular houses...and murder! In Carrie Doyle’s fast-paced new mystery, Death on Windmill Way, readers join gourmet chef and innkeeper Antonia Bingham as she delves into an investigation to learn who’s behind the suspicious deaths of the Windmill Inn’s innkeepers, past and present. Sumptuous settings and mouth-watering food descriptions keep things cozy, like a stay at your favorite country inn!

    In the run-up to Christmas Eve, organizer of book-themed tea parties Callie Aspen and her lovable Boston terrier will have to conquer threefold trouble—a mysterious will, a missing heirloom and a dead body—to restore the festive spirit to their small town.This Christmas, Callie Aspen returns to her childhood hideout Heart's Harbor, Maine where her great aunt runs Book Tea, a vintage tearoom where every sweet treat contains a bookish clue. Upon arrival in the fairy-tale snowy town, Callie is drawn into the preparations for a special tea party at Haywood Hall, the rambling house of Heart's Harbor's oldest resident, rich but lonely widow Dorothea Finster, who invited her estranged relatives, old friends and the elite of the town to make a mysterious announcement about her will. Believing they can touch a part of her fortune, everybody is determined to come, despite not liking each other or even their hostess. And Callie's old friend Sheila complicates things by using the tea party to announce her daughter's engagement, even though her daughter isn't sure she's in love with the young lawyer her mother thinks so perfect for her. Catering to people who each have their own agenda isn't easy for the Book Tea crew, especially once the valuable engagement ring goes missing and a dead body turns up in the conservatory. Can Callie and her great aunt use their love of clues to dig into the crimes and show their unhappy hostess and squabbling guests the true Christmas spirit?

    What she gets instead is a dead body on a carnival float, and an extraordinary assortment of suspects. Is the enigmatic bookseller Hector Munro all he seems? And what about the over-friendly neighbour who brings her jars of honey? Not to mention the eccentric village shopkeeper, show committee, writers' group and drama club, all suspiciously keen to welcome her to their midst. For fans of cosy (cozy) mysteries everywhere, Best Murder in Show will make you laugh out loud at the idiosyncrasies of English country life, and rack your brains to discover the murderer before Sophie can.

    But as Cat soon discovers, starting fresh on the East End can be deadly . . . Cat Cooper never imagined selling off her in-demand marketing firm would mean going from the pinnacle of success to a walking hot mess. Gouged from an unexpected divorce, Cat suddenly finds herself struggling through a new career as a business-savvy life coach for the hopelessly adrift in East Hampton and contending with Heather Holland--a spiteful neighbor who will do anything to bully her out of town. But her second act may very well continue behind bars when Heather's dead body turns up next to a shattered punchbowl . . . and Cat's pinned as the murderer.But given Heather's mean girl reputation, any one of the guests at her invite-only luncheon could have committed the crime before planting Cat's punchbowl next to the body. Determined not to trade designer duds for an unflattering prison jumpsuit, Cat sides with her best friend Gilley to scour chic boutiques and oceanfront mansions in search of the criminal who framed her. With a stoic detective looking to get her in cuffs, it's up to Cat to catch the real killer and land on her feet once again . . .

    But murder was definitely not on the to-do list . . .   Maggie McDonald has a penchant for order that isn’t confined to her clients’ closets, kitchens, and sock drawers. As she lays out her plan to transfer her family to the hundred-year-old house her husband, Max, has inherited in the hills above Silicon Valley, she has every expectation for their new life to fall neatly into place. But as the family bounces up the driveway of their new home, she’s shocked to discover the house’s dilapidated condition. When her husband finds the caretaker face-down in their new basement, it’s the detectives who end up moving in. What a mess! While the investigation unravels and the family camps out in a barn, a killer remains at large—exactly the sort of loose end Maggie can’t help but clean up . . .

    But once there, she runs straight into her ex-ex husband, a rigged slot machine, her evil twin, and a trail of dead bodies. Davis learns the truth and it does not set her free—in fact, it lands her in the pokey. Buried under a mistaken identity, her hot streak runs cold until her landlord Bradley Cole steps in. Make that her landlord, lawyer, and love interest. With his help, Davis must win this high stakes game before her luck runs out.

    But it was nothing compared to finding a dead body in her store.For the grand opening of her shop, the Seven Year Stitch, Marcy throws a soirée. Her friend Sadie, who owns the coffee shop down the street, provides the delicious refreshments, and the party goes swimmingly. Marcy’s registration sheet for embroidery classes fills up, and everyone in town seems willing to raise a glass—or a needle—to support the shop.But the morning after the party, Marcy and Angus, her pooch, find a nasty surprise: The man who leased the shop before Marcy is lying dead in the storeroom, with a message scratched by a tapestry needle on the wall beside him. Now Marcy’s shop has become a crime scene, and she’s a suspect in the murder. But Marcy will be darned if she doesn’t get to the bottom of this mystery, because it’s starting to look as if someone’s intent on putting the final stitch in her.

    Sage Caplin has high hopes for her coffee cart, Ground Rules, which she runs with her business partner, Harley - a genius at roasting beans and devising new blends. That's essential in a city where locals have intensely strong opinions about cappuccino versus macchiato - especially in the case of one of Sage's very first customers....Sage finds the man's body in front of her cart, a fatal slash across his neck. There's been plenty of anger in the air, from longtime vendors annoyed at Ground Rules taking a coveted spot in the food truck lot, to protesters demonstrating against a new high-rise. But who was mad enough to commit murder? Sage is already fending off trouble in the form of her estranged, con artist mother, who's trying to trickle back into her life. But when Sage's very own box cutter is discovered to be the murder weapon, she needs to focus on finding the killer fast - before her business, and her life, come to a bitter end . . .

    But even as Phyllis engages in some amateur sleuthing, she won't let it distract her from out-baking her rivals and winning the upcoming Peach Festival contest.She and all the other contestants guard their secret, original recipes with their lives-and talk a whole lot of trash. With her unusual Spicy Peach Cobbler, Phyllis hopes to knock 'em dead. But that's just an expression-never in her wildest dreams did she think her cobbler would actually kill a judge. Now, she's suspected of murder-and she's got to bake this case wide open.

    Among the invited guests is American antique dealer Kate Hamilton. Returning to the island where her husband died is brutal, but Kate is determined to repair her relationship with her sister-in-law, Elenor Spurgeon, the proprietor of Rothsay's deluxe country house hotel.Kate has hardly unpacked when a body turns up, murdered in an eerie recreation of an infamous unsolved murder two hundred years before. And the only clue to the killer's identity lies in a curiously embellished antique casket. When Bo Duff, the gentle handyman who had tried to save Kate’s husband's life, is taken into custody, she teams up with vacationing Detective Inspector Tom Mallory to clear Bo’s name. To accomplish that, they’ll have to unmask a killer who seems bizarrely fixated on the past…because two hundred years is an awfully long time to hold a grudge in A Dream of Death, the tantalizing series debut by Connie Berry.

    But Lucy has barely finished putting up her first batch of Killer Dewberry Jam when an oil exploration truck rolls up to the farm and announces plans to replace her broccoli patch with an oil derrick. Two days later, Nettie Kocurek, the woman who ordered the drilling, turns up dead at the Founders’ Day Festival with a bratwurst skewer through her heart and one of Lucy’s jam jars beside her…and the sheriff fingers Lucy as the prime suspect.Horrified, Lucy begins to talk to Nettie’s neighbors, but the more she gets to know the townspeople, the more she realizes she’s not the only one who had a beef with Nettie. Can she clear her name, or will her dream life turn into a nightmare?

    Posing as a former beauty queen turned librarian in a small, bayou town seems worse than death to Fortune, but she's determined to fly below the radar until her boss finds the leak and puts the arms dealer out of play.Unfortunately, she hasn't even unpacked a suitcase before her newly-inherited dog digs up a human bone in her backyard. Thrust into the middle of a bayou murder mystery, Fortune teams up with a couple of seemingly-sweet old ladies whose looks completely belie their hold on the little town. To top things off, the handsome local deputy is asking her too many questions. If she's not careful, this investigation may blow her cover and get her killed.Armed with her considerable skills and a group of old ladies referred to by locals as The Geritol Mafia, Fortune has no choice but to solve the murder before it's too late.

    Neither do her friends at the Mount Airy Dog Park. When the apparent suicide of Lia's deadbeat boyfriend draws the attention of Detective Peter Dourson, he decides to adopt the dead man's dog to infiltrate the tight group he's certain conceals Luthor Morrissey's killer. As his investigation uncovers secrets, a grieving Lia fights her growing attraction to the laid-back detective. Meanwhile, Luthor's killer lurks, desperate to stay ahead of the investigation--no matter who has to die... If you like believable characters, a multi-layered plot, and a compelling sense of humor with your intrigue, pick up this can't-put-down whodunit for a romp through the dog park with Lia and the gang. This extended edition includes new and expanded scenes. (69,000 words)

    The middle-aged widow owns the Misty Bay Tearoom, a quaint, English-accented shop on the Oregon coast. But on the eve of the tearoom's second anniversary, the dream turns nightmarish when a man falls to his death from a hotel balcony.The body belongs to Dean Ramsey, ex-husband of Vivian's assistant, Jenna. Detective Tony Messina quickly zeroes in on Jenna as prime suspect, since she was seen leaving the hotel shortly before the body was found.Vivian and her other assistant, Gracie, set out to help clear Jenna's name, using their wit and a bit of criminology know-how Vivian picked up from her late attorney husband. Detective Messina is on board, but he's starting to develop feelings for his number one suspect. Puzzling questions persist--chief among them, whose clothes was Dean wearing when he landed on the rocky shore?To complicate matters, Vivian's friend, pet shop owner Hal Douglass, seems to know some secrets about the hotel that could add a long list of names to the suspect list...including Hal's own. Vivian must work quickly because if she can't, Jenna faces a murder rap...or worse.