Amateur Detective

A cryptic clue. A missing professor. A town with more secrets than streetlamps. When small-town reporter Julia Wright receives an anonymous email about a decades-old scandal and the sudden disappearance of beloved but eccentric Professor Bing, she trades headlines for hidden clues. Known for her love of puzzles and her stubborn streak, Julia’s hardly the type to back down—even when the trail leads to her own family’s locked-away past. With her mischievous dog Cooper sniffing out trouble and a brooding detective who’d rather she stay out of it, Julia plunges into a world of cryptic ...

Murder in the dunes: A new mystery series where dark secrets lurk beneath the surface, with a dash of humor to keep things afloat. A gruesome murder is committed in a meadow behind the dyke. However, the victim is not human but a sheep belonging to the recently deceased farmer Dietrichsen. It has been badly mauled. Enna and Pavel are deeply unsettled, knowing that someone capable of such cruelty towards an animal might not hesitate to turn their brutality on humans. Then, the long-awaited toxicology report on Dietrichsen arrives, revealing a shocking truth: the farmer had poison in his ...

She’s lost a friend. He’s lost his sight. Can this unlikely duo solve an untouchable murder? College student Alexandra Neve never backs down from a challenge. So when her BFF Irina dies of an apparent suicide, she channels her grief into cracking the case police refuse to touch. After discovering a mysterious list of Russian names in her friend’s room, Neve’s attempts to retrace Irina’s steps nabs her an unexpected crime-solving partner. With the help of her blind history professor Ashford Egan, Neve connects the suspicious death to a recent London murder. But as the Russian mafia...

Cinque Terre, a quant Italian harbour town, normally boasts of the aromas of garlic, basil, tomato sauce and crisp sea air, not the smell of murder. The pastel buildings and cobblestone streets are lined with Italian trattorias including my famous La Nonna’s Nonna, named after my grandmother. But when Pepperoni, my clue sniffing beagle, leads me to the dead body of the notorious food critic, Alistair, the normally bustling restaurant halts to a stand still. Marco, the charming wine bar owner, offers his help digging through the endless suspects and rumors. As investigations into the many ...

A stolen secret, a strangled judge, and a flowering feud. When Lena Larsen agrees to host the New Oslo Tulip Festival at her grandmother's Victorian home, she expects prickly personalities and competitive gardeners. What she doesn't expect is murder. As tulip enthusiasts and judges gather to showcase their prized blooms, tensions quickly rise to the surface. Head judge Eleanor Summers seems to delight in antagonizing everyone with veiled threats about "revelations" she plans to share. But before she can expose anyone's secrets, Eleanor is found dead among the prize tulip beds. With a house ...

When Tiffany, Nanna, Rosie and Stone head to Memphis to investigate the world of Barbeques and Blues, they don’t expect to stumble on a double-homicide. But when two judges drop dead at a Barbeque and Blues Festival, the gang must work quickly to uncover the truth… before the killer strikes again. Who could’ve hated both judges so much – or did the judges poison each other? Was one an accident and the other a murder? Or was the real target someone else all along...? Praise for A.R. Winters: "The perfect balance of being lighthearted, but still a serious page-turning mystery." - ...

Veteran reporter Jack McEvoy has taken down killers before, but when a woman he had a one-night stand with is murdered in a particularly brutal way, McEvoy realizes he might be facing a criminal mind unlike any he's ever encountered. Jack investigates—against the warnings of the police and his own editor—and makes a shocking discovery that connects the crime to other mysterious deaths across the country. Undetected by law enforcement, a vicious killer has been hunting women, using genetic data to select and stalk his targets.

When haute couture meets cold-blooded murder... Lena Montgomery's quiet home has been transformed into fashion central as she hosts an exclusive runway show featuring some of the industry's biggest names. With her quick-witted grandmother and loyal friend Charlie by her side, she's prepared for the usual drama that comes with corralling high-maintenance designers and models. But when renowned fashion designer Maggie St. Clair is found strangled with her own signature scarf moments before the show, Lena's event transforms from a celebration of style to a gathering of suspects. Between bitter...

Charlie may be a proud new grandfather, but he and Diesel still have work to do at Athena College and the small Mississippi town's public library. He's too busy to deal with true-crime writer Jack Pemberton, who wants Charlie as the subject of his latest book - and who won't take no for an answer. A more appealing proposition for Charlie is spending time helping a kind, elderly man navigate the library's genealogical database. But he's shocked when he learns that the visitor's search is focused on a member of his own family: his late aunt's husband.

As if planning a double wedding in a couple months isn’t stressful enough, now the wedding planner is dead and my sister's the prime suspect. Cozy Maple Lake glistens in the winter wonderland of trees lit with garland sparkling against the frozen water. Wedding planning is in full motion with poinsettias in place, cake ordered and guests invited. But when Lila’s sister, Sarah, discovers the wedding planner poisoned only weeks before the big day, plans take an abrupt stop. Sarah and Mrs. Potts, the baker, become the prime suspects. Molly, Lila, and their fiancé's, Jake and Max jump into...

Undercover mobster Joey "The Weasel" Frizzone needs to lay low before he testifies against a notorious mob boss, so the feds hide him in a place no one would ever think to look-sleepy Whispering Bay, Florida. But someone in the FBI must have a big mouth because soon there are enough hitmen in town to make it look like a Sopranos reunion. Local baker and amateur sleuth Lucy McGuffin just wants her quaint little beach town back-minus the mobsters. As the body count begins to rise, Lucy is forced to team up with handsome, but know-it-all cop Travis Fontaine.

They say chocolate is irresistible... this time it's deadly. When Savannah Stanton arrives in Spring Grove to help her cousin Holly run the family bakery, she's looking for a fresh start, not a fresh crime scene. But after a prominent charity board member drops dead at a gala event—right after eating one of Holly's cupcakes—both the bakery's reputation and Holly's freedom are at risk. As suspicions swirl around Sweet Springs Bakery, Savannah finds herself drawn into a web of small-town secrets, suspicious financial dealings, and long-buried scandals. With help from the handsome but ...

As the 19th century draws to a close, reporter Emma Cross is sent by the Newport Observer to cover an elite house party at Rough Point, a "cottage" owned by her distant cousin Frederick Vanderbilt that has been rented as an artist retreat. To her surprise, the illustrious guests include her estranged Bohemian parents - recently returned from Europe - as well as a variety of notable artists, including author Edith Wharton.

Holly Miller doesn't believe in spirits, but the Sugar Maple Inn is filled with guests who do. The TV series in development, Apparition Apprehenders, has descended on Wagtail's annual Halloween festivities to investigate supernatural local legends, and Holly has her hands full showing the ghost hunters a scary-fun time. But the frights turn real when Holly's Jack Russell, Trixie, and kitten, Twinkletoes, find a young woman drowned in the Wagtail Springs Hotel's bathhouse.

A missing pet. A gang of criminal pit bulls. Two cat detectives are ready to solve a mystery… Yoshi and Gatsby are two felines known as the Petectives. When they agree to help a pretty young cat find her missing brother, a routine pet investigation goes sour faster than a bowl of milk. To solve the mystery, the cat detectives must face down a gang of vicious criminal pit bulls and the neighborhood dog police. While Gatsby's up to his whiskers in danger and romance, Yoshi puts together the pieces of a puzzle that could rock their community. With enemies at every turn, can Yoshi and Gatsby ...

A Cupcakes-and-Crime Caper “I didn’t kill her, I swear!” Fresh off a shift of slinging cards, blackjack dealer and private investigator Tiffany Black takes a frenzied call from Mary Bilford, the services manager at ritzy Spa Renauld. Mary needs someone to prove she didn’t kill spa client Gina Welling—which means it’s time for Tiffany and Ian to go undercover and infiltrate the spa. “Winters will have you giggling into your book!” Who stood to benefit from Gina’s death? Was it ex-husband Harry, who was coincidentally visiting the spa while his ex-wife was there; nurse ...

It is an ordinary Thursday, and things should finally be returning to normal. Except trouble is never far away where the Thursday Murder Club are concerned. A local news legend is on the hunt for a sensational headline, and soon the gang are hot on the trail of two murders, ten years apart. To make matters worse, a new nemesis pays Elizabeth a visit, presenting her with a deadly mission: kill or be killed.

Dr. Theo Cray has a legendary mathematical knack for catching serial killers. Until his exposure to a mind-altering pathogen knocks him off his game. It has upended an investigation, destroyed his reputation, and left him to question his own sanity. One person still trusts him to finish the job. His former professor Amanda Paulson is helping point Cray down a logical path to his prey: a nomadic health-care worker whose murder spree stretches back decades and whose victims number in the hundreds.

Tempest Michaels has a zombie problem. Crazy people craving human flesh have been appearing without warning in hoards in towns across Kent. He is just as mystified as everyone else, but when the elderly husband of the recent viral internet sensation known as Zombie Granny asks him to prove she is no such thing, he has to take the case. Then outside his office, people start screaming...

When an American tourist is murdered with a scone in Gemma Rose's quaint English tearoom, she suddenly finds herself apron-deep in a mystery involving long-buried secrets from Oxford's past. Armed with her insider knowledge of the university and with the help of four nosy old ladies from her local Cotswolds village (not to mention a cheeky little tabby cat named Muesli), Gemma sets out to solve the mystery - all while dealing with her matchmaking mother and the return of her old college love, Devlin O'Connor, now a dashing CID detective.