Murder in the Rose Garden


Tabitha Tate - 2015
    As if having a murder to solve, wasn’t enough, Beth also has to fight to save her inheritance—a struggling flower shop. Not everyone is pleased to have her snooping around town, least of all her mother’s cheating boyfriend. Now, to save the flower shop and restore her mother’s legacy, Beth will have to catch a killer, with the help of Chase Crawford, the handsome private detective that makes her weak at the knees…

Be Frank With Me


Julia Claiborne Johnson - 2016
    M. “Mimi” Banning has been holed up in her Bel Air mansion for years, but now she’s writing her first book in decades and to ensure timely completion her publisher sends an assistant to monitor her progress. Mimi reluctantly complies—with a few stipulations: No Ivy Leaguers or English majors. Must drive, cook, tidy. Computer whiz. Good with kids. Quiet, discreet, sane.When Alice Whitley arrives at the Banning mansion, she’s put to work right away—as a full-time companion to Frank, the writer’s eccentric nine-year-old, a boy with the wit of Noël Coward, the wardrobe of a 1930s movie star, and very little in common with his fellow fourth graders.As she gets to know Frank, Alice becomes consumed with finding out who his father is, how his gorgeous “piano teacher and itinerant male role model” Xander fits into the Banning family equation—and whether Mimi will ever finish that book.Full of heart and countless only-in-Hollywood moments, Be Frank With Me is a captivating and heartwarming story of an unusual mother and son, and the intrepid young woman who finds herself irresistibly pulled into their unforgettable world.

Minor Dramas & Other Catastrophes


Kathleen West - 2020
    Julia resents teachers like Isobel, who effortlessly bond with students, including Julia's own teenagers, who have started pulling further away from her.Isobel has spent her teaching career in Liston Heights side-stepping the community's high-powered families. But when she receives a threatening voicemail accusing her of Anti-Americanism and a "blatant liberal agenda," she realizes she's squarely in the fray. Rather than cowering, Isobel doubles down on her social-justice ideals. Meanwhile, Julia, obsessed with the casting of the high school's winter musical, inadvertently shoves the female student lead after sneaking onto the school campus. The damning video footage goes viral and has far-reaching consequences for Julia and her entire family.With nothing to unite them beyond the sting of humiliation from public meltdowns, Isobel and Julia will find common ground where they least expect it, confronting a secret Facebook gossip site that's stirring up more trouble for this tumultuous, fractured school community.

Witch on Ice


Cat Larson - 2019
    And you thought you had problems.Hi, my name is Sammara Eve Hain and I don’t admit that to just anyone.Especially the witch part.If it were up to me, I would’ve been born into a nice, normal family. One that went camping on weekends and played board games and watched television.Not one that spent their Saturday nights cackling around a cauldron and turning people into frogs.Okay, that’s an exaggeration. They don’t cackle.But they’re definitely not normal. And the frog thing?May I introduce my fiancé, Fernando? Mr. Short, Green, and Bewitched. Courtesy of my sister.All I ever wanted when I left my small town of Bigfoot Bay thirteen years ago was to disappear into the big city and lead an ordinary life.I never expected to return.And when I stumbled upon my childhood nemesis frozen solid inside a wall of ice, I never expected I’d be forced to stay.With my betrothed frog at my side and no sister in sight.** Witch on Ice is the first in a new humorous cozy mystery series. Suitable for all ages. **

Aspen Allegations


Lisa Shea - 2013
    Her peaceful morning yoga routine is assisted by her cat, Juliet. In the evening she guides her kayak across the placid surface of Lake Singletary. Everything is in its place.When Morgan stumbles across a dead body in the shadowy depths of Sutton Woods, her stability is knocked askew. Jason, the ranger who comes to her aid, provides a steady rock of support. The death seems at first an accident, but Morgan knows in her heart that a delicate strut of life has fallen out of balance. As Morgan and Jason delve into the mystery, still waters are stirred. Danger billows from the depths of Purgatory Chasm, from the twisted histories that stretch back decades. Can they unravel the tangled skeins before the past catches up with them?All author's proceeds of this series benefit battered women's shelters.Aspen Allegations is the first novel in the award-winning Sutton Massachusetts Mystery series. It is followed by Birch Blackguards.All novels in the Sutton Massachusetts Mystery series are written in a boots-on-the-ground, chapter-a-day format. On November 1st, author Lisa Shea went to the Sutton woods, hiked through them, and then that evening she wrote up the actual sights and sounds of that visit. That was Chapter One. The same process held true for each subsequent day and location. By November 30th the book was laid out. Each book captures a moment in time; as a whole the series shows the progression of events, news, and nature in Sutton over the years.Lisa has lived in Sutton for nearly two decades and strives to craft stories which transport readers to her beautiful town. She offers a glimpse into Sutton's combination of centuries-old history and a modern, sliced-through-by-a-busy-highway existence. Lisa visits the actual locations mentioned in the story, experiences the atmosphere, and then infuses those rich colors, trilling bird-songs, and pungent fragrances into her story in a richly descriptive manner reminiscent of Annie Dillard's Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. Then toss in an ample seasoning of local culinary delights, and this is the world of the Sutton Massachusetts Mystery Series!

Fate of Perfection


K.F. Breene - 2017
    But her daughter inherits more than superior genetics…little Marie has a rare ability that the world has never seen, and her conglomerate, Moxidone, will stop at nothing to have sole possession of the child.Teamed with Ryker, the formidable master of security, Millicent must risk everything in a life-and-death struggle to tear her daughter away from the ruling force who wants to own them all. The odds are stacked against them, but Moxidone will learn that the pursuit of perfection comes at a perilous cost—and that love can’t be bought at any price.

Seven Days of Us


Francesca Hornak - 2017
    Even Emma and Andrew’s elder daughter—who is usually off saving the world—will be joining them at Weyfield Hall, their aging country estate. But Olivia, a doctor, is only coming home because she has to. Having just returned from treating an epidemic abroad, she’s been told she must stay in quarantine for a week…and so too should her family. For the next seven days, the Birches are locked down, cut off from the rest of humanity—and even decent Wi-Fi—and forced into each other’s orbits. Younger, unabashedly frivolous daughter Phoebe is fixated on her upcoming wedding, while Olivia deals with the culture shock of being immersed in first-world problems. As Andrew sequesters himself in his study writing scathing restaurant reviews and remembering his glory days as a war correspondent, Emma hides a secret that will turn the whole family upside down. In close proximity, not much can stay hidden for long, and as revelations and long-held tensions come to light, nothing is more shocking than the unexpected guest who’s about to arrive…

The Second Life of Mirielle West


Amanda Skenandore - 2021
    Based on little-known history, this timely book will strike a chord with readers of Fiona Davis, Tracey Lange, and Marie Benedict.Based on the true story of America’s only leper colony, The Second Life of Mirielle West brings vividly to life the Louisiana institution known as Carville, where thousands of people were stripped of their civil rights, branded as lepers, and forcibly quarantined throughout the entire 20th century. For Mirielle West, a 1920’s socialite married to a silent film star, the isolation and powerlessness of the Louisiana Leper Home is an unimaginable fall from her intoxicatingly chic life of bootlegged champagne and the star-studded parties of Hollywood’s Golden Age. When a doctor notices a pale patch of skin on her hand, she’s immediately branded a leper and carted hundreds of miles from home to Carville, taking a new name to spare her family and famous husband the shame that accompanies the disease.At first she hopes her exile will be brief, but those sent to Carville are more prisoners than patients and their disease has no cure. Instead she must find community and purpose within its walls, struggling to redefine her self-worth while fighting an unchosen fate.As a registered nurse, Amanda Skenandore’s medical background adds layers of detail and authenticity to the experiences of patients and medical professionals at Carville – the isolation, stigma, experimental treatments, and disparate community. A tale of repulsion, resilience, and the Roaring ‘20s, The Second Life of Mirielle West is also the story of a health crisis in America’s past, made all the more poignant by the author’s experiences during another, all-too-recent crisis.

Lucky Number Six


T.J. Loveless - 2013
    Tiffany Crews is a renowned psychiatrist, a klutz, Arkansas hillbilly born and bred with her feet firmly rooted in reality. Her two best friends, Janet and Mark, keep life interesting. Add in a duck with Houdini tendencies, and Tiffany leads a wonderfully laughter filled life.One morning, they find a unicorn in the communal courtyard of their townhouse and life takes a surreal twist. It leads to burning the bacon, along with the kitchen, yet they nevertheless refuse to leave the animal in a possibly bad situation. Until they learn it talks, anything veggie causes rancid flatulence in the form of rainbows, and its grumpy attitude can only be helped by indulging his carnivorous tendencies with Shrimp Po’ Boys.Drop in Flying Granny, sporting dragonfly wings and really flies, who calls herself The Fairy Godmother, and believes she was summoned to help find their soul mates. Reality takes another twist nobody is prepped for.The three friends are on the prowl during New Orleans’ infamous Mardi Gras to find where the two myths truly belong. Every attempt to find the truth leads to hijinks and compromising situations for the three friends, and a true appreciation for the unknown. Tiffany needs to find a way for the two myths to fit into reality, and keep her sanity in one piece.If only it was that easy.

Like Wind Against Rock


Nancy Kim - 2021
    But in the face of divorce, eviction, and the recent death of her father, she doesn’t have a choice.Watching as her mother thrives in a new job and meets younger men at the local gym, Alice struggles, reflecting on her parents’ marriage, her relationship with each of them, as she adjusts to being single again for the first time in twenty years. Then she finds her father’s old journal…and uncovers a shocking family secret that forces her to question everything she thought she knew about love, regret, family, and her own path forward.As Alice comes to terms with the man her father really was, she must finally decide who she wants to be and what it will take to get there.

Family Money


Chad Zunker - 2022
    They have two daughters and a beautiful home, and Alex’s startup business is about to explode thanks to massive private funding from his compassionate and supportive father-in-law, Joe. With millions more to come, all is perfect—until Joe is abducted and murdered during a family trip in Mexico.Alex’s world is about to be turned upside down. He can’t bear to tell his grieving wife why. The man they’ve both idolized has been keeping secrets. The pledged millions are nowhere to be found. The source of the original investment is a mystery, even to Joe’s financial adviser. No one, it seems, has any idea who the man they knew, loved, and trusted really was.As Alex digs deeper into Joe’s shadowy life, the most shocking surprises are yet to come. Deadly ones, too, because every lie that Alex uncovers in Joe’s dark past puts his family in more danger.

Cleo McDougal Regrets Nothing


Allison Winn Scotch - 2020
    From congresswoman to senator, the magnetic, ambitious single mother now has her eye on the White House—always looking forward, never back. Until an estranged childhood friend shreds her in an op-ed hit piece gone viral.With seven words—“Cleo McDougal is not a good person”—the presidential hopeful has gone from in control to damage control, and not just in Washington but in life.Enter Cleo’s “regrets list” of 233 and counting. Her chief of staff has a brilliant idea: pick the top ten, make amends during a media blitz, and repair her reputation. But there are regrets, and there are regrets: like her broken relationship with her sister, her affair with a law school professor…and the regret too big to even say out loud.But with risk comes reward, and as Cleo makes both peace and amends with her past, she becomes more empowered than ever to tackle her career, confront the hypocrites out to destroy her, and open her heart to what matters most—one regret at a time.

Waking Up Joy


Tina Ann Forkner - 2014
    When she finally wakes, her well-meaning, but bossy, brothers and sisters dismiss her claims, thinking her accident has knocked her off her rocker, but Joy has never felt better, and is determined to set the past right.Now Joy must face her darkest secret and risk reopening wounds caused by an old flame who rejected her more than twenty years ago. But taking risks brings change, as well as a new, younger man into Joy’s life, making her feel like a teenager again. Suddenly Joy’s once humdrum life is anything but boring and routine and the future beckons, exhilarating and bright.

Star Mother


Charlie N. Holmberg - 2021
    Holmberg.When a star dies, a new one must be born.The Sun God chooses the village of Endwever to provide a mortal womb. The birthing of a star is always fatal for the mother, and Ceris Wenden, who considers herself an outsider, sacrifices herself to secure her family’s honor and take control of her legacy. But after her star child is born, Ceris does what no other star mother has: she survives. When Ceris returns to Endwever, however, it’s not nine months later—it’s seven hundred years later. Inexplicably displaced in time, Ceris is determined to seek out her descendants.Being a woman traveling alone brings its own challenges, until Ceris encounters a mysterious—and desperate—godling. Ristriel is incorporeal, a fugitive, a trickster, and the only being who can guide Ceris safely to her destination. Now, as Ceris traverses realms both mortal and beyond, her journey truly begins.Together, pursued across the Earth and trespassing the heavens, Ceris and Ristriel are on a path to illuminate the mysteries that bind them and discover the secrets of the celestial world.

The Embalmer


Vincent Zandri - 2017
    1 Bestselling Thriller and Shamus Award Winning Author Vincent Zandri Comes a Brand New Private Detective Series. "The Embalmer is dying to meet you..." You might think that a guy with the name of Steve Jobz would be one lucky man. That he'd be rich and have the world at his fingertips. But instead, Jobz is barely making ends meet at the New York State Department of Unemployment Insurance Fraud. A former cop who was forced to retire early after shooting a young man of color during a convenience store holdup, Jobz has since resigned himself to wasting away his days in a four-by-four cubicle inside an office space that's more boring than watching the paint dry. ˃˃˃ But when his overbearing boss calls him in on a job that the Albany Police Department is heading up, Jobz has a chance to get out of the office for a while. But what he doesn't realize is that he's about to come face to face with a serial killer who embalms his victims alive. What he is also about to face down, is his own worst nightmare come true when that serial killer turns out not to be a stranger. ˃˃˃ The Embalmer culminates with an explosive climax and promises to keep readers glued to their chairs for hours. The novel combines wry humor with some serious hard-boiled action, adventure, and romance. For fans of Michael Connelly, Robert B. Parker, Charlie Huston, Jim Crumley, Lee Child, Brett Battles, and more. ˃˃˃ Gritty, fast-paced, lyrical and haunting. - Harlan Coben, New York Times bestselling author of Six Years. Tough, stylish, heartbreaking. -Don Winslow, New York Times bestselling author of Savages. Scroll up and grab a copy of The Embalmer today.