Cathy Akers-Jordan

Alex Erickson: Death by Red Velvet Latte

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Bookstore Café #16

Bookstore café owner Krissy Hancock has her hands full. In addition to running her shop (Death by Coffee in Pine Hills, Ohio), she’s preparing for her wedding, and she and her best friend/co-owner Vicki are getting ready to open a second store in California. She’s also dealing with out-of-town guests and trying to find a baker to make her wedding cake.

Krissy and her fiancé Police Officer Paul Dalton have decided on a red velvet wedding cake (and red velvet lattes, as the title suggests), but they have not decided on a baker. They interview two competing local bakers who provide samples and resumes. The next morning when Krissy goes to the bakery to inform the winner, she finds both men dead, apparently after an epic fight that ended in mutual destruction. To make matters worse, just as Krissy picks up a rolling pin spattered with red velvet cake, an assistant baker walks in and assumes Krissy is the murderer. read more

Daryl Wood Gerber: A Classic Case of Murder

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Literary Dining Mystery #3

It’s Christmas time in Bramblewood, NC and personal chef and caterer Allie Catt is getting ready for a special literary dinner party with a Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol theme. What makes the event so special? An actual first-edition of Dickens’ famous novella will be on display.

The setting is the Amber Lantern, an inn owned by Noeline Merriweather (mom of Allie’s best friend Tegan); there’s a snowstorm; most of the major characters are staying at the inn… it’s a classic Mousetrap setup, just as the title indicates! There’s also list of characters at the beginning of the book. The only Golden Age element missing is a map of the Inn and Bramblewood. read more

Leslie Meier: Countdown to Christmas Murder

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Lucy Stone  #32             

It’s been years since I’ve read a Lucy Stone mystery but I couldn’t resist this holiday tale and I loved it so much I could hardly put it down! Lucy and her husband are now empty-nesters and as Christmas approaches, Lucy just hopes all her children come home for the holiday.

Tinker’s Cove, Maine, is gearing up for the holidays with a Merrie Olde Christmas festival that keeps Lucy busy rehearsing her Mrs. Cratchit role when she’s not working as a reporter and features writer for the Courier, now in print and online, covering all the related holiday events. Among Lucy’s assignments is interviewing Merrie Old Christmas volunteers. She starts with bank manager Bert Cosgrove, an all-around nice guy who is very enthusiastic about playing Marley’s ghost in the Christmas Carol vignettes and being a judge for the plum pudding contest – but after his interview is published he’s attacked online when someone posts nasty photos and comments about him. (I learned that attacking someone’s reputation online like this is called doxing. I had no idea there was a term for it!) And he’s not the first; at least two other people Lucy knows have been doxed. read more

Cleo Coyle: The Ghost and the Dead Librarian

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Haunted Bookshop Detective #1

This series appears new but is actually is a continuation of Coyle’s nine-book Haunted Bookshop Mystery series, published by Berkeley under the pseudonym Alice Kimberly. I’m so glad Kensington has picked up this series!

Young widow Penelope Thornton-McClure and her Aunt Sadie own Buy the Books, a mystery bookshop in Quindicott, RI. (Isn’t that the best bookstore name ever?!) Unbeknownst to everyone except Pen and her cat Bookmark, the shop is haunted by the ghost of 1940s PI Jack Shepard. Jack died in the shop so he’s stuck there for eternity but he gladly helps Pen solve suspicious deaths in their town. Pen’s only rule: don’t haunt the customers. read more

Alyssa Maxwell: Murder at Rosecliff

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Gilded Newport #14

It’s August 1903 and Tessie Oelrichs is hosting a White Ball at Rosecliff, her Newport, RI mansion. A stunning all-white theme, excellent music and food, and the cream of New York society give reporter Ethan Merriman plenty to write about. Things take a turn for the worse when a stranger named Solomon Wheeler appears, defying the all-white dress code and making a scene by claiming to be Tessie’s first husband – with alleged proof. Tessie insists that he’s lying and it’s not too surprising that his dead body is discovered in the garden fountain before the night is over. What is surprising is that reporter Ethan Merriman is found apparently holding Wheeler under the water. read more

Lucy Connelly: Death at a Scottish Halloween

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Scottish Isle Mysteries #5

All Hallow’s Eve celebrations are underway in tiny Sea Isle, Scotland. American Dr. Emilia McRoy, a new resident who is the town’s only doctor and coroner, is busy working at the local haunted house. It’s good, safe fun until she and her assistant, Abigail, realize that one of the fake bodies in the haunted house is an actual dead body – and a murder victim.

Dr. Em’s boyfriend, Constable Ewan Campbell, is investigating the murder and tries to keep her out of it, but Em’s compassion for the victim’s family compels her to assist in the case. And it’s a complicated case involving multiple victims, mistaken identities, and possible theft. The killer seems to be looking for something, but what? Is there a connection between the two victims or just a mistaken identity, and is there a connection to a mysterious puzzle box from a local estate sale? read more

Donna Andrews: Probable Caws

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Meg Lanslow #39

After 27 years, 40 books, and unprecedented number of punny bird titles, the Meg Langslow series remains fresh and entertaining as ever. #40 (Jay to the World) will be released in time for Christmas and #39 (Probable Caws) is available now. In Probable Caws Meg and her family are helping retired heavy metal drummer Ragnar Ragnarsen cope with temporarily housing fifty horses from Hoof and Hearth rescue on his estate.

Why move the horses? Able Abernathy, who owns the farm where Hoof and Hearth is based, has just lost his father who apparently died intestate. That means Able does not technically own the farm and his co-inheritor brother George’s only interest in the farm is selling it for a profit. Did George to try harm the horses so his brother would move them off the farm, making it easier to sell? Is there a missing will that might prevent the sale of the farm? And when there’s a murder at Ragnar’s farm, is it related to the horses, the dispute over the farm, or something else? read more

Rhys Bowen: The Castle in the Glen

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Rhys Bowen knocks it out of the park again with this year’s standalone novel The Castle in the Glen. Set in 1960s London and early-1900s Isle of Skye, the parallel plot follows the adventure of young Australian author Emma Callander. Having published her first book, she is undecided about her future. Should she stay in rainy London to write her next book or give in to homesickness and return to sunny Australia? Her publisher solves her dilemma by introducing her to well-known mystery writer Iris Blackburn. Blackburn, dealing with age-related memory issues, wants to write one last book in her popular series but needs help finishing it and decides Emma should be her co-author/ghostwriter. read more

Cate Conte: Purranormal Activity

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Cat Cafe #10

Maddie James has added a new service to JJ’s House of Purrs cat café on Daybreak Island, MA: a mobile cat café for parties. When client Olivia McAllister sets up a meeting to plan a dual birthday party for her daughter and granddaughter, Maddie soon learns that Olivia was her mother’s best friend when they were teenagers – and that Olivia mysteriously disappeared decades ago.

When Maddie and her mom arrive at Olivia’s house to discuss party plans, they find the door ajar and no sign of Olivia. Fearing the worst, they enter the house and find a cat who leads them to Olivia’s dead body. Who could want the grandmother dead? Is her death related to her mysterious disappearance as a teen? What about the rumors that the city wants her historical home for a museum? Could her family disagree with her secret plans to turn their ancestral home into a B&B? Is the cat the ghost cat of Daybreak Island and does it really herald life-changing events? read more

Traci Hall: Murder at a Scottish Halloween

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Scottish Shire #8

It’s Halloween in Nairn, a small seaside village in northern Scotland, and when teenage Brody Shaw accepts a dare to video the Wraith of Rait Ruins at a local castle, things go seriously wrong. Brody flees the ghost in terror, drops his phone, and returns to face his friends in shame. Worse, when he and mum Paislee return to look for his phone later that night, they find the dead body of a local teen dressed as the wraith. Was her death an accident or was it related to a theft at Cawdor Castle the same night? And who is leaving fliers promoting Scottish independence at crime scenes in the area? read more