Showing titles in Amateur Sleuths

As much as master roaster Clare Cosi adores coffee, the landmark shop she manages won't survive if she doesn't sell enough of it. So when the Village Blend's customer traffic grinds to a halt, she turns to her staff for creative ideas, and the Writer's Block Lounge is born. Madame, the eccentric octogenarian owner of the shop, is upset by this news. Years ago, a group of accomplished writers used the shop's second-floor lounge to inspire each other, but the group disbanded when something dark occurred. Though that history is shrouded in mystery, Clare presses forward . . .

Frances and George arrive in Deauville by the sea to enjoy a long-awaited honeymoon. It’s also an opportunity for George to inspect a villa inherited by his ward and arrange for its sale. To the Hazeltons’ surprise, they find it inhabited by wealthy revelers playing an illegal game of Hazard—forbidden fun, hosted by Albert Roth, a charismatic professional gambler who has a lease and no desire to vacate.

Historic Inishmore Castle is opening its doors for the first time, hosting a charming weekend of whiskey tasting and soda bread baking. Sisters Mercy and Lizzie McCarthy are badly in need of a break, but their relaxing trip takes a decidedly unrestful turn when Mercy finds fellow guest Father Brennen slumped over the desk in the library… Did he have one glass too many or did someone want him dead?

Editor Susan Ryeland has left her Greek island, her hotel, and her Greek boyfriend Andreas in search of a new life back in England. Freelancing for Causton Books, she’s working on the manuscript of a novel, Pund’s Last Case, by a young author named Eliot Crace, a continuation of the popular Alan Conway series. Susan is surprised to learn that Eliot is the grandson of legendary children’s author Marian Crace, who died some fifteen years ago—murdered, Elliot insists, by poison.

October 1912. The inhabitants of Littleton Cotterell emerge from their homes after a week of torrential storms to the gruesome news that one of Sid Hyde’s prized sheep has been mauled to death. As rumours abound of a vicious beast stalking the Gloucestershire countryside in search of prey, Lady Hardcastle and her fearless lady’s maid, Florence Armstrong, set out to find what is surely a rational explanation. Then Hyde himself is brutally killed in a similar attack, and the villagers go from curious to terrified.

Carole Seddon, a very respectable retired woman living in the English seaside village of Fethering, doesn’t care for the theatre. But her neighbor Jude counts the job of actress among her many and varied past careers. So when Jude attends the closing night of a new play based on a classic TV sitcom, Carole is interested—but only because she suspects the leading man, Drake Purslow, is one of her scandalous friend’s ex-lovers. The night turns out to be more dramatic than either Carole or Jude could have ever predicted.

Frances and George are enjoying some well-deserved leisure time in Paris when an old acquaintance from London, Alicia Stoke-Whitney, seeks Frances’s help to investigate a personal matter. Alicia’s daughter is being courted by Carlson Deaver, a wealthy American shadowed by a very suspicious tragedy. Less than a year ago, Carlson’s wife, a former actress, was murdered, her body discovered in one of the more dubious quartiers in Paris. Though authorities guess it was a robbery gone wrong, no one was ever brought to justice.

It’s been a quiet year for the Thursday Murder Club. Joyce is busy with table plans and first dances. Elizabeth is grieving. Ron is dealing with family troubles, and Ibrahim is still providing therapy to his favorite criminal. But when Elizabeth meets a wedding guest who’s in trouble, kidnap and death are hot on their heels. A villain wants access to an uncrackable code and will stop at nothing to get it. Plunged back into action once more, can the gang solve the puzzle and a murder in time?

Molly Gray’s life is about to change in ways she could never have imagined. As the esteemed Head Maid and Special Events Manager of the Regency Grand Hotel, two good things are just around the corner—a taping of the hit antiquities TV show Hidden Treasures and, even more exciting, her wedding to Juan Manuel. When Molly brings in some old trinkets to be appraised on the show, one item is revealed to be a rare and coveted artifact worth millions. Molly becomes a rags-to-riches sensation, and a media frenzy swirls as she prepares to sell her priceless treasure.

It's the end of a long day at the Dogs Need Nice Homes charity shop. Fiona, Daisy, and Partial Sue, the three retired ladies who volunteer there, are ready to lock up for the night. The ladies watch aghast as a clapped-out ice-cream van lurches up to their door—with Daisy's daughter Bella behind the wheel! Newly divorced Bella has only just gotten rid of her rotten husband. Now, she's bought herself a van—and a whole world of trouble.

Robbie is just weeks away from giving birth. While her husband Abe scrambles to get the house ready for their baby's arrival, Robbie makes last minute arrangements to keep her shop and restaurant, Pans 'N Pancakes, up and running when she's on maternity leave. And it seems Robbie and Abe aren't the only ones grappling with anxiety—a stranger is causing a stir in town and Robbie's Aunt Adele appears unusually preoccupied at the baby shower . . .

Madame Tussauds, London’s extravagant wax museum, reopens in 1928 to much fanfare. The horrific fire of ’25, which had destroyed the wax figurines of famous and sometimes infamous characters, was news of the past. Ginger Reed and her good friend Haley Higgins are intrigued and eager to visit the museum which promises new and exciting exhibits. Of particular interest is the one on Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Hailed by some as effective literary horror and by others as unnecessarily frightening, the exhibition about the book attracts all kinds.

Kristen Perrin is back with the second novel in her Castle Knoll series. Annie Adams is caught in a new web of murder that spans decades, returning us to the idyllic English village that holds layers of secrets.

August 1816. England is in the grip of what will become known as the Year Without a Summer. Facing the twin crises of a harvest-destroying volcanic winter and the economic disruption caused by the end of the Napoleonic Wars, the British monarchy finds itself haunted by the looming threat of bloody riots not seen since the earliest days of the French Revolution. Amidst the turmoil, a dead man is found hanging upside down by one leg in an abandoned chapel, his hands tied behind his back. The pose eerily echoes the image depicted on a tarot card known as Le Pendu, the Hanged Man.

In a peaceful retirement village, four unlikely friends meet weekly in the Jigsaw Room to discuss unsolved crimes; together, they call themselves the Thursday Murder Club. When a local developer is found dead with a mysterious photograph left next to the body, the Thursday Murder Club suddenly find themselves in the middle of their first live case.

As autumn leaves fall and the smell of campfire drifts through the air, Mae West is ready to cozy up to the Daniel Boone Festival, the highlight of Normal, Kentucky. But when a fire at the Frontier Village turns into a blazing whodunit, Mae's relaxing plans go up in smoke. Dr. Everett Hamilton, a celebrated historian, is found toastier than a s'more at the annual festival. Worse yet, the flames were no accident—Dr. Hamilton was as dead as a doornail before the fire even started.

The first three books in the Irish Village Mystery series are included in this edition: Murder in an Irish Village, Murder at an Irish Wedding, and Murder in an Irish Churchyard.

Stylish brunches are all the rage this autumn in Old Town Alexandria, and everyone's posting their parties on social media. But while Domestic Diva Sophie Winston juggles her event-filled calendar, she's approached by local designer Mitzi Lawson—who is afraid someone is following her. The very next day Mitzi loses her best friend and business partner, Denise. The two were renovating a generations-old house where Denise died unexpectedly, and Mitzi fears that it wasn't a medical condition to blame, but murder.

Lucy Stone is thrilled about her youngest daughter Zoe's engagement to Chad, a rising minor league baseball player with dreamy eyes and plenty of Southern charm. Yet there’s no denying the whirlwind romance has turned Lucy’s life upside down in more ways than one—especially when she learns about Chad’s complicated background and close ties to Tinker’s Cove. The secrets and rumors are enough to send her investigative reporting instincts into overdrive . . .

College student Joe Talbert has the modest goal of completing a writing assignment for an English class. His task is to interview a stranger and write a brief biography of the person. With deadlines looming, Joe heads to a nearby nursing home to find a willing subject. There he meets Carl Iverson, and soon nothing in Joe's life is ever the same. Carl is a dying Vietnam veteran-and a convicted murderer. With only a few months to live, he has been medically paroled to a nursing home after spending thirty years in prison for the crimes of rape and murder.