Book picks similar to
An Heir to Murder (Valentine and Featherstone, #1) by Charles Heathcote
mystery
5-stars
british-literature
cozy-mystery
Death of a Lady
R.A. Bentley - 2016
Set in the 1920s, it’s the first of a series of traditional murder mysteries featuring the amiable Detective Inspector Miles Felix of Scotland Yard and his shrewd but prickly assistant, Sergeant ‘Teddy’ Rattigan. It’s the spring of 1926. Following a macabre discovery, the Inspector investigates a fading aristocratic family where everyone seems to have a secret, even the servants.
Sunshine Hunter
Maddie Cochere - 2012
Often, she is simply in the wrong place at the wrong time, and things go downhill quickly. All of the books cross genres of chick lit, mystery, romance, humor, and action, bringing you a fast-paced, easy-breezy read.Working in a weight-loss center by day and a racquetball club by night, Susan Hunter enjoys her life, the sport, and her friends. ... Sunshine Hunter opens with Susan finding out her new boyfriend of three months is married. To escape the drama, she accepts an offer from her best friend to tag along for a week in Florida. Here the mystery begins, and Susan believes she and her friend are being stalked. She also learns of a murder back home in Ohio and soon finds out she's wanted for questioning. The story takes an adventurous turn when she ends up in the Gulf of Mexico. ... Humorous, sometimes ominous, Sunshine Hunter is quirky and fun! Approx. 52,000 words.
A View to Die For
Richard Houston - 2012
The sleuth is not a detective, private eye, or lawyer. He's an ordinary guy with an extraordinary dog.Jacob Martin is trying to make the best of a divorce and mid-life crisis when he gets a call at two o’clock Sunday morning from his mother. His sister has been arrested for the murder of her fourth husband, and his father is near death. Thus begins an adventure that takes Jake and his golden retriever from their Colorado retreat to a backwater town in the Missouri Ozarks where they search for cold-blooded killers, a cache of gold coins buried by Jesse James, and the love of a beautiful nurse.
Dead Before The Wedding
Ruby Blaylock - 2015
Professional photographer and part-time bakery employee Carly Keene loves everything about her small hometown, except for the fact that there's a murderer on the loose. When one of Carly's photography clients is murdered just days before his wedding, it's up to Carly to prove that the most likely suspect isn't the culprit at all. With the help of her sassy best friend, Shell, and her clever cop cousin, Carly is determined to get to the truth, no matter what. Can Carly prove that the police are after the wrong woman? And are her feelings for the dead guy's twin brother more than just friendship and a shared love of their dogs? Find out in this first book of the Carly Keene Cozy Mystery series! Meet the colorful residents of Parker's Mill in the first-ever Carly Keene cozy mystery. ***Includes two mouthwatering recipe straight out of the Sweets & Eats Bakery!****
Unleashed
Emily Kimelman - 2011
This left him unconscious on the floor of my home. Amazingly, this bullet did not kill him. Ten years ago I adopted Blue as a present to myself after I broke up with my boyfriend one hot, early summer night with the windows open and the neighborhood listening. The next morning I went straight to the pound in Bushwick, Brooklyn. Articles on buying your first dog tell you never to buy a dog on impulse. They want you to be prepared for this new member of your family, to understand the responsibilities and challenges of owning a dog. Going to the pound because you need something in your life that's worth holding onto is rarely, if ever, mentioned. I asked the man at the pound to show me the biggest dogs they had. He showed me some seven-week-old Rottweiler-German shepherd puppies that he said would grow to be quite large. Then he showed me a six-month-old shepherd that would get pretty big. Then he showed me Blue, the largest dog they had. The man called him a Collie mix and he was stuffed into the biggest cage they had, but he didn't fit. He was as tall as a Great Dane but much skinnier, with the snout of a collie, the markings of a Siberian husky, the ears and tail of a shepherd and the body of a wolf, with one blue eye and one brown. Crouched in a sitting position, unable to lie down, unable to sit all the way up, he looked at me from between the bars, and I fell in love. "He's still underweight," the man in the blue scrubs told me as we looked at Blue. "I'll tell you, lady, he's pretty but he's skittish. He sheds, and I mean sheds. I don't think you want this dog." But I knew I wanted him. I knew I had to have him. He was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. Blue cost me $108. I brought him home, and we lived together for years. He was, for most of our relationship, my only companion. But when I first met Blue, a lifetime ago now, I had family and friends. I worked at a crappy coffeehouse. I was young and lost; I was normal. Back then, at the beginning of this story, before I'd ever seen a corpse, before Blue saved my life, before I felt what it was like to kill someone in cold blood, I was still Joy Humbolt.I'd never even heard the name Sydney Rye.P.S. The dog does not die.**Beware: If you can’t handle a few f-bombs, you can’t handle this series.**
Massage & Murder
Jenn Cowan - 2018
A professional. A healer. Not a killer. When a client ends up dead on my massage table, I become the number one suspect. I have Means. Motive. Opportunity. But I didn't kill her. The clock is ticking, someone is stalking me, I have to find out who before I end up in jail or worse...dead.
Gifted Magick: The Children of Dark Root: Book Two
April Aasheim - 2019
This famed rose is sought by all who know of it, saturated with Other-Worldly magick. An offering from one side of the Veil to the other, a symbol of beauty and love. --From the Grimoire of Juliana Benbridge *** It's Winter Solstice Days in Dark Root, and strange happenings abound. The Hellhounds that arrived with Samhain may still be lurking in the woods, people are forgetting things--as if under a spell, and June Bug has taken adolescent rebellion to an all new level. The only common thread appears to be Erin, the pretty, new waitress at Dip Stix. Determined to solve the riddle, Maggie once again turns to the Deciphering Stone and Juliana's scrolls. What she uncovers is a story with ancient roots, and modern relevance. In fact, what Maggie discovers might just be the most important discovery of her life. Magick. Mystery. Mysticism. Maggie.
Ghostly Murder
Lotta Smith - 2016
As the resident consulting detective for the busy Washington D.C. Police Department and the FBI, Archangel took the confusing or unsolvable situations and spun a Sherlock hue over them, finding answers amongst the clues and closing cases even the most skilled law enforcement agents found confounding. Working as both his assistant and sounding board, Kelly has an intimate knowledge of the inner workings of Archangel’s deduction, and of his fabulous closet. Not only is he a detective savant, he is also a towering specimen of a man with an appetite for women’s high fashion that could put a runway model to shame – a fact that leaves his less-fashionable assistant flummoxed, and slightly jealous.This one’s a case for the record books—a high-profile victim murdered in a sealed tennis court that was locked from the inside. This kind of strange is right up Archangel’s alley, and Kelly is certain his eccentricities will only bring him closer to the killer… but that means she will have to get close, too. Unlike her employer, she doesn’t run so well in heels…It’s a classic ‘who-done-it’ with a not so classic answer.*Please Note: This book was previously released as Ghost in the Net. It has since been professionally edited and polished.
Spirit Matters
Patrice Greenwood - 2017
While trying to support her grieving Goth office manager, Ellen ponders the mysterious flashes of light she saw in another part of Santa Fe, wondering if they are related to Captain Dusenberry, the tearoom's resident ghost. She asks for help from the local spirit-tour guide, Willow Lane, who takes curiosity about the captain's unsolved murder to a new level, where Ellen finds herself exploring the very meaning of spirit. Will a séance in the tearoom finally provide the answers to her questions? (This is a novella, a short companion story to the Wisteria Tearoom Mysteries series. It is recommended that you read A Masquerade of Muertos before reading this story.)
One, Two ... He Is Coming For You
Willow Rose - 2011
She is trying to escape her ex-husband and starting a new life for her and her daughter, when the small sleepy town experiences a murder. One of the kingdom's wealthiest men is brutally murdered in his summer residence in Karrebaeksminde. While Rebekka Franck and her punk photographer Sune try to cover the story for the local newspaper another murder happens on a high society rich man. Now Rebekka Franck realizes that the drowsy little kingdom of Denmark has gotten its first serial killer and soon a series of dark secrets - long buried but not forgotten – will see the day of light.
The Missing Gun (Hawker of the Yard Book 1)
W.H. Oxley - 2014
Hitler has just conquered Poland, but life in London continues much as it did in peacetime, albeit a little more restricted since the introduction of petrol rationing. No bombs have been dropped on the city as yet, but the population go about their daily business under the constant threat of German air raids, and a blackout remains in force at night. For Scotland Yard and the criminal fraternity, however, it is business as usual. When a pawnbroker’s assistant is wounded by a gunman wearing a gasmask, it appears to be a straightforward case of a bungled armed robbery, but as Hawker proceeds with his investigation, the more facts he uncovers the more confusing the affair becomes. A red-headed soldier, a missing gun, a dead cat, an empty violin case and a damaged violin are only a few of the threads that have to be unravelled before he can wrap up the case – with a little help from Sherlock Holmes.
Glad One: Crazy is a Relative Term
Margaret Lashley - 2017
Two gin and tonics. Three derelict beach-bum friends. Will Val’s fourth stab at starting over add up to a big fat zero?St. Pete Beach attracts weirdos like mosquitoes to a bug zapper. But when thrice-divorced native Val Fremden feels the tug to fly back to her old stomping grounds, she finds everyone and everything she knew squashed under the heels of change. Reluctantly cast into the weirdo world of down-and-outer beach bums, Val’s got nothing to go on but her own dry sense of humor and the life coach advice of a beer-guzzling old lady she meets at the beach. When an old hoarder passes away and leaves an uncertain heir to the throne, Val and her pals stir up a hornet’s nest trying to uncover the truth. Who’ll get stung and who’ll be named queen to the throne? It’s anybody's guess.If you like wacky, deeply flawed characters and laugh-out-loud situations, you’ll love Glad One! It’s the first book in Margaret Lashley’s hilarious Val Fremden Mystery Series.
Murder By Design: ...a young girl dreams of topping haute couture!
Mary Jane Forbes - 2011
Lack of money is a high hurdle. Living with her grandfather, and working as a casino barmaid, she saves her tips to take classes in Seattle. With her eye to one day having her own clothing label, the redhead, keeps her eye on the prize, leaving men smitten with her beauty in her wake—a preacher, an American Indian law student, and a NY fashion designer. It isn’t until a newspaper reporter appears on her door step that she pauses to take a second look. But reporter Skip Hunter has no time for women. He is driven to become a N.Y. Times best-selling mystery writer using his reporting of crime on the streets of Seattle as fodder. Will the New York designer who borrows Gillianne’s sketches end her dream? Will a heist of a billion dollars worth of gold bullion give the reporter his big break? Will the intersection of their lives drive the pair into each other’s arms? Or, will their life plans, force them apart?
Off the Record: An Avery Rich Mystery (Avery Rich Mysteries Book 1)
Sara B. Gauldin - 2016
But she is soon forced to keep her investigation "off the record" and gets paired with an unusual consultant. The world of crime and conspiracy takes on a dangerous edge as she finds herself dealing with kidnapped bankers, high stakes cover ups, and criminals who are determined to keep her quiet. To save herself from the unthinkable, she must sort out the conspiracy from the crime and find out who she can trust to finish the case before they can derail her investigation, permanently!
Cats and Catnapping
Julia Koty - 2021
She moves out of her psychic sister’s house and is on the road to her new life. Her trip to Pennsylvania starts simply, even if her cat, Arnold, can’t stop backseat driving. She refuses to accept that she can hear his kitty voice, until the radio refuses to work. Then, at a rest stop she witnesses a catnapping of the sweet kitty that Arnold has a crush on. Mira promises to chase the catnapper across the northeast and find the cat’s owner all before she must meet her realtor at her new house. Antics ensue.