The Mystery of the Blue Dolphins (A Dog Detective Series Book 1)


Sandra Baublitz - 2014
    Clarissa's amateur sleuth uncle has died, evidently from a heart attack. But was the death truly an accident? An anonymous note hints that her uncle was murdered, and now Clarissa and Paw are determined to sniff out the truth. Soon the duo find themselves nose deep in their uncle's final baffling case: the theft of the fabulous Blue Dolphin diamonds. Clarissa's determination to find her uncle's killer leads her deep into a world of glittering gems and deadly secrets, where each new discovery threatens to bring her to the notice of a ruthless murderer who will stop at nothing to cover his tracks. Can Clarissa and her detective dog Paw crack the case, or will they become the killer's next victims? This is a 5200 word short story/mini mystery. Read time is approx. 30 minutes.

Murder Mystery Book Club


Danielle Collins - 2021
    One of her favorite things to do is read murder mystery novels. She even has a murder mystery book club. When a dead body is found near the bed and breakfast, Eva has a real murder mystery on her hands. Can she help solve the mystery, even if it implicates one of her esteemed guests and ruffles the feathers of the local police department, or will her book smarts be the end of her?

Red Picket Fences


Daphne McLean - 2019
    As a stay-at-home mom, the only danger she comes across is in the true-crime novels she devours at night.But when a house fire results in the death of her two neighbors, Jennifer discovers that things are not always what they seem.By poking her nose in where it doesn’t belong, she puts herself up against a local police chief eager to close the case, a husband desperate to keep her safe, and a killer who wants her out of the way.This cozy mystery begs the question, “How well do you know your neighbors?”Get your copy today!Book One: Red Picket FencesBook Two: Body in the BegoniasBook Three: Death at a Dinner PartyBook Four: Death on Rugosa Bay

Murder in the House of Beads: A Mystery in Paradise (House of Beads Cozy Mystery Series Book 1)


Mary Jane Forbes - 2009
    Manny Salinas. The captain recognizes Julie, and he is tasked with breaking the news to her husband, Russell, that his wife is dead.While the police are not sure what happened, they are immediately suspicious of Julie’s husband, who is a well-known architect. And they also want to interview Catherine Hainsworth, a friend of Julie’s who performed CPR on her right before she died. Might she have information important to the case?Soon, the police learn that the couple did not have such a happy marriage. But their efforts to solve the case are complicated when two bodies turn up in the Halifax River. Now, there is an added sense of urgency to find answers as Capt. Salinas and his team wonder how, or if, the three deaths are connected. If they don’t find answers soon, others could die in MURDER IN THE HOUSE OF BEADS.

The Demise


Diane Moody - 2014
    But when the town's most prominent citizen is found dead at the base of its water tower, news of Peter Lanham's apparent suicide roars through town like a massive tsunami.Peter, the handsome, beloved CEO of Lanham's Fine Foods, had taken a small, family-owned grocery store founded in 1927, and grew it into a successful national chain. With most of Braxton's residents employed by Lanham's corporate headquarters, word of Peter's demise left them searching for answers. What could possibly have made him take a swan dive off that tower?Julie Parker is convinced he didn't. As receptionist at Lanham's executive office suite, she's determined to find out what really happened to her boss. An aspiring actor who also stars as "The Lanham Girl" in the company's TV commercials, Julie prides herself on her perceptive observations and people-skills. Who better to find out what happened to Peter up on that water tower?Matt Bryson, on assignment as a rookie Special Agent for the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, isn't about to let the attractive receptionist intrude on his first case. She may be a hometown insider, but he's perfectly capable of solving the case without "Miss Marple" screwing up his investigation.A perfect setting, a cast of oddball characters, and just enough drama to raise lots of suspicion. The stage is set.

Walking Into Murder


Joan Dahr Lambert - 2010
    All she wanted was a few days of peace to recover from a humiliating (if not entirely unwelcome) divorce and a chance to test her new independence. That she certainly does; peace is another matter.WALKING INTO MURDER is a light-hearted mystery with a delightful setting, an intriguing plot and distinctive characters headed by Laura Morland, a wonderfully appealing new amateur detective. It is part traditional English mystery, part middle-aged female sleuth of independent spirit who solves mysteries that confound the experts, part primer on the the battle between the sexes since Laura is an expert on gender, part rousing adventure. Laura is hardly Miss Marple - she is younger, more active, attractive, even romantically inclined, but the settings and characters are very British indeed. It's a wonderful read: spine-tingling escapes and confrontations on deserted moors contrast with peaceful interludes in England's quaintest villages and most verdant countryside - and with some near-comic scenes of Laura's inept but ultimately successful efforts to track down the villains even as she eludes their clutches. Mask-making, amateur theatrics, underground tunnels and an escape from a boarded-up cottage are all part of the action. The adventure begins when Laura is invited to teach a seminar on gender issues in London. First she decides to embark on a solo walking trip on the Cotswold Way. The walk soon takes stormy turns. A man plummets out of the thick mist, hauls her into an embrace and begs her to masquerade as his wife. Escorted at gunpoint by an aristocratic Englishman to an ancient manor house, she is confronted by a roomful of eccentrics, any of whom could be the killer of the body she finds in a bedroom - a body that perversely keeps changing its identity. In fact, everyone in in this bizarre household seems to have multiple identities and multiple motivations, making it exceedingly difficult to determine who is telling the truth and even harder to ascertain who is on Laura's side.Curiosity is Laura's dominant trait and she delves into the mystery with possibly unwise abandon. She is determined to unmask the murderer - and to get the best of her alternately charming and irritating would-be husband, to whom she is undeniably attracted. She soon discovers that her fund of scholarly knowledge about male/female relationships is of little help in dealing with a man who refuses to answer her questions, appears to be having a steamy affair with the titled Lady of the house, and who increasingly seems the most likely candidate for murderer. Complicating matters further is his fraught relationship with Laura's able assistant in crime-detection, a fiery, free-spirited runaway who lives in the woods.As Laura probes deeper, the efforts of the villains to silence her become more frantic and her strategies to evade them more ingenious. With total disregard for the escalating danger, she vows to outwit them all. And she does. In a final dramatic - and totally unexpected - scene, she zeroes in on the killer, or it might be more accurate to say the murderer zeroes in on her.Joan Dahr Lambert is the author of CIRCLES OF STONE, a prehistoric novel told through the eyes of three women who became leaders of their tribes, and published by Simon & Schuster in 1997 & 1999. Lambert has written two other prehistoric novels, a novel about wolves for children and a novella, as well as the first two books in the Laura Morland series. The second, BABES IN THE BATHS, will be out soon. Like may published authors, she has decided to try self-publishing.

Lady Rample Steps Out


Shéa MacLeod - 2017
     Lady Rample finds herself at odds after the death of her husband until her best friend drags her to a hot new jazz club in the heart of London. As if being wooed by two handsome men isn’t enough, Lady R finds herself embroiled in the murder of one of the club’s owners. Bored with her aristocratic life and irked that the police have arrested the wrong suspect, Lady R decides to turn lady detective. With her eccentric Aunt Butty in tow, Lady R scours London for clues. If she’s lucky she’ll find the killer before the killer finds her. From the author of the Viola Roberts Cozy Mysteries comes the first book in the Lady Rample Mysteries set in jazz-era London.

Crossed by Death


A.C.F. Bookens - 2021
    When salvage expert and historian Paisley Sutton crawls into an abandoned store with a house attached, she certainly isn’t expecting to find a body on site. But soon, her discovery sends Paisley on an expedition through history that links this murder to the one that led the previous owners to abandon the building in the first place. And someone doesn’t want her to salvage this story from the wreckage. Can Paisley preserve herself and her young son while also uncovering the stories that matter most?

Death by Chocolate


Sally Berneathy - 2011
    Suddenly Lindsay finds herself battling poisoned chocolate, a dead man who doesn't seem very dead and a psycho stalker. Her best friend and co-worker, Paula, dyes her blond hair brown, hides from everybody and insists on always having an emergency exit from any room. Secrets from Paula's past have come back to put lives in jeopardy. Determined to help Paula and to save her own life, Lindsay enlists the reluctant aid of another neighbor, Fred, an OCD computer nerd. In spite of his mundane existence, Fred possesses tidbits of knowledge about such things as hidden microphones, guns and the inside of maximum security prisons. Lindsay needs more than a chocolate fix to survive all this chaos. Lindsay Powell's only secret is the recipe for her chocolate chip cookies, but she is surrounded by neighbors with deadly secrets. Suddenly Lindsay finds herself battling poisoned chocolate, a dead man who doesn't seem very dead and a psycho stalker. Lindsay needs more than a chocolate fix to survive all this chaos.

The Third Girl


Nell Goddin - 2015
    She’s looking for peace, beautiful gardens, and pastry—a slower, safer life than the one she’d been living outside of Boston. But you know what they say about the best intentions… Molly has barely gotten over jet-lag before she hears about a local student’s disappearance. In between getting her old ramshackle house in order and reveling in French food, Molly ends up embroiled in the case, along with the gendarmes of Castillac. And unlike the Nancy Drews she loved as a child, this mystery stirs up emotions she thought had been put to rest..and terrifies the residents of her beloved village.

Murder in the Manor


Fiona Grace - 2019
    She needs to quit her job, leave her horrendous boss and New York City, and walk away from the fast life. Making good on her childhood promise to herself, she decides to walk away from it all, and to relive a beloved childhood vacation in the quaint English seaside town of Wilfordshire.Wilfordshire is exactly as Lacey remembers it, with its ageless architecture, cobblestone streets, and with nature at its doorstep. Lacey doesn’t want to go back home—and spontaneously, she decides to stay, and to give her childhood dream a try: she will open her own antique shop.Lacey finally feels that her life is taking a step in the right direction—until her new star customer turns up dead.As the newcomer in town, all eyes are on Lacey, and it’s up to her to clear her own name.With a business to run, a next-door neighbor turned nemesis, a flirty baker across the street, and a crime to solve – is this new life all that Lacey thought it would be?

Stilettos & Scoundrels


Laina C. Turner - 2020
     Freelance journalists fight for their assignments, and Presley thinks she’s won the battle when she’s hired to interview pompous womanizer Senator Daniels. But when the senator turns up dead a day later, Presley climbs right to the top of the senator’s security team’s suspect list. A security team run by her high school ex-boyfriend. Can she prove her innocence and not fall for the one guy she swore she’d never look in the eye again, or will she wind up with a lifetime gig in prison?

Brownies & Betrayal


Heather Justesen - 2012
    That was before she found the body of a woman with whom she had traded heated words the previous night, left her fingerprints on the murder weapon, and came under attack for trying to clear her name. When her cheating ex-fiance shows up, intent on convincing her to come back to work for him, Tess—armed with an extra batch of éclairs—decides to take control and solve the mystery herself, with the help of friends and frenemies alike. But will that be enough to save her when she gets too close and the killer decides it’s safer to get her out of the way?

Sex, Murder & Killer Cupcakes


Allison Janda - 2014
    Most days, she can’t even control her hair. But when the star of Marian’s racy, underground magazine turns up dead and the police are convinced she’s the guilty party, it’s up to Marian to find out who really did it before it’s too late. While danger isn’t exactly her middle name, there’s plenty to go around, especially when Marian begins to suspect that her long-time man crush is behind it all. Amazon top 100 Best Seller Amazon #2 Women Sleuth Best Seller Amazon #2 Mystery Best Seller

Fowl Play


P. Bodi - 2016
    All of her customers and their pets are like family. It had been a typical day at Pet Palace. Leah was going to meet some friends for dinner where she suddenly finds out one her customers had been found dead at home. Was it from natural causes or could it have been murder?