Book picks similar to
For Want of a Penny by Fenella J. Miller


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Hanna Halfblood


Robyn Wideman - 2017
    Striving to join the ranks of the elite fighters who defend against boarding pirates, Hanna sees no better future for herself than that of a fighter. But when Thorodd Stoneblood, her grandfather, is killed by a mysterious assassin, Hanna discovers that her own life is bound to a fate she couldn't have imagined. Faced with the understanding of an unknown past and a coven of power hungry witches who will stop at nothing to see her dead, Hanna struggles to overcome the adversities of a magical world she never knew existed. With the tide of danger rising around her and the driving need to uncover the truth of why blood was spilled at her door, Hanna discovers that it won't be enough to be a warrior. In order to survive, she will have to become something more… Can Hanna uncover the truth of a mysterious new enemy? Or will her legacy end in the same manner as the Stoneblood lines always do… in bloodshed? Hanna Halfblood is the first installment of an incredible YA Fantasy series that will lead you into a rich world of magic and wonder. If you like Throne of Glass by Sarah J Maas you will love the whole Halfblood series by Robyn Wideman.

The DCI Jones Casebook Box Set


Kerry J. Donovan - 2016
    a great story full of twists, intrigue and surprises with a good plot and ending."Raymond Collins: "The story line is chilling-the scenes worded so that you feel you are right there in the action. I defy you to put this down before you are finished."Ellis Flynn: "...Donovan expertly brings about a reader's emotions with a no-holds-barred approach. The storytelling is top notch though, as is the conclusion."Read this Box Set and then move on to the next exciting case: Cryer's View (available in this bookstore)..

A Perfect Gentleman


Sarah McCulloch - 2014
    When Anne Fredericks, having very nearly reached the age of four and twenty but still unmarried, learns that she is to visit Cheltenham for the Season, her heart cannot help but beat a little faster. It was in Cheltenham, five years earlier, that she had met and fallen for the handsome Richard Wykeham, only for him to disappear—quite suddenly—from her life. And now it’s on the road to Cheltenham that their coach is waylaid—yet strangely, nothing is stolen. How long will it be before Anne solves the mystery of the notorious highwayman known as the perfect gentleman?

His Wagon Train Sweetheart


Catherine Kennedy - 2020
    

An Exhibit of Madness


Kerry J. Charles - 2013
    Dulcinea ("Dulcie") Chambers has a lot on her mind. She's just opened a new exhibit of Winslow Homer watercolors at the Maine Museum of Art where she's Chief Curator. The exhibit will be complete when the museum's director, the silver fox Joshua Harriman, buys the final piece at auction. But when Dulcie discovers a body where the painting should have been, she's one of the primary suspects. Portland Police Detective Nicholas Black is on the case but finds he is less than objective when it comes to the attractive Dr. Chambers.Lead Characters include:Dr. Dulcinea Chambers - As a native, Dulcie is firmly rooted in Maine but has risen to the top of the museum world quickly. She's confident in her work but not in her skills at a cocktail party. She'd rather be at home with a good glass of wine and a book, not to mention a hearty portion of chicken fried rice.Detective Nicholas Black - Nick grew up in the socialite-filled and privileged world of Boston's elite, groomed for a career in law. He jumped ship, much to his family's horror, and chose the life of a police detective instead. He hasn't looked back and they won't forgive him.Daniel Chambers - Dulcie's irrepressible brother Dan is her complete opposite. He loves a good party, especially if it's well attended by attractive ladies. Dan is a sailor at heart and makes his living running a tour boat around Casco Bay.Adam Johnson - Nick's partner in crime-fighting, Johnson is contentedly overweight, happily married, and at the decidedly unlofty peak of his career. He enjoys antagonizing Nick along with a good cinnamon danish and a cup of coffee.

A Beach House To Die For


K.C. Ames - 2019
    What could go wrong with starting over in a tropical paradise? Life in San Francisco was getting too expensive, too hectic, and too crowded for recently divorced Dana Kirkpatrick.When this big-city girl inherited a beach house in a coastal Costa Rica town, she took it as a sign and packed her bags.Dana imagined the small beach town would have its challenges, but she never could have predicted legal troubles, local wildlife, and being adopted by a stray cat.And now she's suspected of murder!It's not quite the fresh start she envisioned when she moved to the tropical paradise beach community of Mariposa Beach.If you love quirky characters, offbeat animals, and small beach town charm with a cozy mystery to solve, then you will love this new series!Although this is a series the books stand alone and you can read them in any order you like.

Murder On Perrys Island


J. Kevin Earp - 2017
    The boy was left a paraplegic. Marcus suffered PTSD and could no longer bring himself to carry a gun. Forced to resign the job he loved, Marcus returned to his historic family home on Perrys Island to try to put his life back together. Marcus had grown up there listening to the police chief’s stories of crime solving in the city. The chief’s stories inspired Marcus to leave the island and become the youngest detective in PD’s history. Marcus’s childhood best friend had been Jenny Gibbons, the Chief’s daughter, who was now an Ohio Wildlife Officer assigned to the island’s state park. She is determined to help Marcus face his pain and to reestablish their relationship. As they return home from an evening out, Jenny learns that the wife of an island businessman has been brutally murdered. With Chief Gibbons away for the night, a desperate Jenny turns to Marcus to use his experience to preserve the crime scene. Marcus refuses at first, unwilling to have anything to do with police work that might force him to relive recent events. Finally, he gives in to her pleas and agrees to supervise the crime scene just until the Chief can take over. Despite himself, Marcus is drawn deeper into the investigation. When a witness identifies a youth camp chaperone as the last person to be with the victim before her death, Marcus believes the man’s story of innocence. Marcus is proven correct when the elderly housekeeper who helped raise him is left for dead in his own house and the historic mansion set on fire. The attack provides a personal aspect to the case that drives him to narrow down the suspects. Marcus’s single-minded pursuit of the killer while fighting his personal demons might cost him his own life!

Small Town Mystery One


Suzie Ivy - 2020
    

Pea Pod Murder


Kerry Sharp - 2016
     Suzie is super smart, very successful and flawed, she believes herself to be unlovable. She has taken her company ‘Artificial Robotics’ from an idea to a multibillion pound sale. Released from twenty five hour working days, the repressed desire to find and destroy her Father’s murderer has re-emerged as a driving passion. Her Father’s case is cold, her route around insufficient data, is to design a cutting edge case management solution and sell it to the Metropolitan Police, so she can plunder their data. Owen was a personable, successful police officer, whose abilities were rewarded, by a rapid rise in rank to Chief Superintendent. That was until his wife and daughter were destroyed by a bomb meant for Owen. Owen no longer has a desire to live. He is seeking a path to oblivion, eschewing friendship and support in his dark quest. Suzie’s complicated plan progresses, she is seconded as a Detective Sergeant, to trial her software. On being tasked to solve a violent murder, Suzie’s singular focus is subverted by her desire to find justice for the violated victim of the crime. As the truth relating to the murders is slowly revealed, Owen who doesn’t want love comes closer to Suzie who can’t be loved. Will their budding friendship be allowed to blossom, or will death or the dark sides of their natures intervene. <

Hope Hadley Eight Book Cozy Mystery Set


Meredith Potts - 2016
     After losing both her job and her boyfriend, Hope Hadley trades Hollywood, California, for her hometown of Hollywood, Florida. Before she has a chance to piece her life back together, her best friend's boyfriend is murdered. Even worse, the local police wrongfully suspect that her friend is the killer. Determined to clear her friend's name, Hope sets out to find the real killer herself. Other Books By Meredith Potts: The Last Frontier Of Murder Murder In Happy Creek

Hot Buttered Murder


Carolyn Q. Hunter - 2017
    She adores her devoted boyfriend, who is a local sheriff, manages her own business, and has just been named the caretaker of a historical manor. Unfortunately, her idyllic life takes a sour turn, when the body of a mysterious woman shows up on the diner's front steps. What initially looks like an accident turns out to be foul play, and Sonja finds herself caught up in the middle of a murder investigation. To add insult to injury, or poison to poor health, Sonja is beginning to experience strange things again--ghostly things which compel her to get involved in solving a murder. Will she be able to tie up the loose ends of the crime before the killer ties her up? Find out in this new delicious Cozy Mystery series, starring one of your favorite amateur sleuths.

The Finnish Girl


Dennis Frahmann - 2014
    Not just those you choose to keep from others, or even those that others guard from you. There remains those secrets that you so desperately keep hidden from yourself. They all catch up with Lempi Makinen Lahti.When Lempi's teenage son Danny discovers her suicide, he seeks to solve the mysteries that defined her life and death. A pack of letters and clippings hidden in an old family trunk may be the only keep to understanding both his mother's past and his own future.The Finnish Girl is a richly told tapestry of interwoven characters - the family patriarch who emigrates from Finland to the United States to create his own future, a son who turns his back on his home as part of an ill-fated mission to Russia during the Depression, the elderly mother who faces deportation in an America driven by fear during the Red Scare, and the young Finnish girl who cares too much about the injustices she sees.Decisions in one generation propel another on unexpected paths, until on family's hope for the American dream threaten to be come its nightmare.

Me-Time Tales: tea breaks for mature women and curious men


Rosalind Minett - 2013
    This is a second and expanded edition with additional stories. Women of all ages feature together with their obsessions. There’s tattooed Jess in her prime at 16, dismal Daryl, neurotic Mrs W., multi-mother Pru, Marian fighting middle-age, a loving mattress and a prosthesis, not to mention the lady who cannot admit to her name or her age.

The Cemetery Club


Blanche Day Manos - 2011
    Darcy Campbell and her mother, Flora Tucker, had no inkling that in a few moments, the scene would change and they would face a horror on the ground and a threat from above, beyond their imaginations. Becoming entangled in a centuries-old legend, being targeted by a group of ruthless men, and discovering a long-lost love were not in Darcy's plans when she returned to her birth place, Levi, Oklahoma. She merely wanted to soak up the peace of her mother's home and try to heal the wounds left from her husband's death. Fate, however, had other plans for Darcy and Flora. Volume 1 of the Darcy & Flora cozy mystery series.

Blind Eye


S.W. Hubbard - 2015
     We see what we want to see, nothing more. When detectives Coughlin and Holzer investigate the disappearance of a successful young businessman, they’re both impressed by his beautiful wife. Slender, curvy, delicate—Michelle Fanning is not the kind of woman a man would choose to leave. Soon, a gruesome discovery leads the detectives to believe they’re investigating a murder. Reeling from the collapse of his own marriage, Detective Coughlin sees Michelle Fanning as a suspect. Detective Holzer, fascinated by her gentle femininity, sees her as a victim. Which cop turns a blind eye to the truth? Inspired by a true crime that occurred in New Jersey, this **short story** originally appeared in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine. The story introduces the character of Detective Sean Coughlin, who goes on to play a role in the full-length novels, ANOTHER MAN’S TREASURE and TREASURE OF DARKNESS, in the Palmyrton Estate Sale Mystery series. Please be aware that BLIND EYE is a short story, not a full-length novel. Chapter 1 of ANOTHER MAN’S TREASURE is also included.