American Mysteries

Kelly Klarkson, owner of Klarkson's Confections and Sugar Creek's resident amateur sleuth, has her sights set on winning the annual town bake-off. But her dreams of blue ribbons and sugar-coated glory go up in smoke when a suspicious fire erupts at the fairgrounds, destroying her booth and leaving behind a trail of unanswered questions. To make matters worse, her prize-winning apple pie – crafted from her grandmother’s secret recipe – has vanished. Determined to uncover the truth, Kelly, armed with her whisks, her wits, and her trusty feline sidekick, Bubbles, dives into a world of ...

Most of us come into this world with an inborn need for religion, a higher power to believe in. However, when fear and misunderstanding are the driving forces behind that desire, the result is rarely a good thing. Eight years ago, Laura Bradford mysteriously disappeared off campus, causing quite a disturbance in the lives of Kenny Elliot and Gerald Reynolds, a journalism student with a fascination with Mesoamerican artifacts. When Gerald calls unexpectedly to tell Elliot he’s recently seen Laura then sets up a meeting only to be a no-show, Elliot tracks him down to get some answers. ...

Before he was considered a CIA superagent, before he was thought of as a terrorists worst nightmare, and before he was both loathed and admired by the politicians on Capitol Hill, Mitch Rapp was a gifted college athlete without a care in the world...and then tragedy struck.

It was the night before his wedding, 15 years ago, when the nightmare began for Jay Crawford - locked up for a crime he never committed. Now he's escaped prison and wants nothing more than to clear his name and protect his family. To get justice,he'll need the help of the three best friends who have always had his back - Wil, Kyle, and Allan. But a man on the run requires absolute trust...and Jay may just be setting himself up for the ultimate betrayal.

Dr. Sandra Tanner is an award-winning author. What is the significance of a dislocated shoulder, an upcoming family reunion, and cellophane wrappers? They all interweave to solve a four-year-old murder. But how? When private investigator Kadence McKnight learns of her family’s strong adverse reactions to the upcoming quinquennial family reunion, she realizes she has a problem on her hands. She knows the backlash is because the murderer of Satrine Campbell has not been captured. Satrine’s body was found four years ago, a few feet beyond the back fence of the McKnight family cemetery, ...

On September 5th, 1934, a young beachcomber made a gruesome discovery on the shores of Cleveland’s Lake Erie: the lower half of a female torso, neatly severed at the waist. The victim, dubbed “The Lady of the Lake,” was only the first of a butcher’s dozen. Over the next four years, twelve more bodies would be scattered across the city. The bodies were dismembered with surgical precision and drained of blood. Some were beheaded while still alive.

News of the murder sparks fear in the small community of Cherry Creek, and that fear only grows when the arsonist leaves a calling card belonging to a killer everyone believed was long dead. The Dragonfly mysteriously disappeared from the local asylum decades ago, stepping out of existence and into legend. The story draws the attention of Noelle McKenzie, a local author, and she digs into details from the past while Captain Derek Dempsey searches for evidence in the present.

Kate Ardleigh is everything the Victorian English gentlewoman is not - outspoken, free-thinking, American...and a writer of the frowned upon penny dreadfuls. Soon after her arrival in Essex, England, a body is unearthed in a nearby archeological dig - and Kate has the chance to not only research her latest story but to begin her first case with amateur detective Sir Charles Sheridan.

A phone call in 1975 changes Moon Mathias’s life forever, as a voice on the line tells him his dead brother’s baby daughter—a child Moon never knew existed—is waiting for him in Southeast Asia. A task he believes beyond his meager talents is pulling Moon to Vietnam. In a chilling world of mystery and silence, disguise and deception, he’ll risk everything for the sake of one little girl—and discover a Moon Mathias who’s a better man than he ever thought he could be.

It’s the summer of 1964 and three innocent men are brutally murdered for trying to help Black Mississippians secure the right to vote. Against this backdrop, twenty-one year old Violet Richards finds herself in more trouble than she’s ever been in her life. Suffering a brutal attack of her own, she kills the man responsible. But with the color of Violet’s skin, there is no way she can escape Jim Crow justice in Jackson, Mississippi. Before anyone can find the body or finger her as the killer, she decides to run. With the help of her white beau, Violet escapes.

On Christmas Eve, 1951 in New Orleans, fifteen-year-old Johnnie Wise is sold into prostitution by her domineering mother, and her dreams of being an Evangelist or nightclub singer like Billie Holiday vanish like the notes of an old song. In her new life, surrounded by powerful men with even more powerful secrets, Johnnie finds that she can use romance with the men that pay to sleep with her to her advantage, and the teenage girl finds herself thrown into a world of wealth, bribery, and cold-blooded gangsters. But, the underbelly of New Orleans in the fifties isn’t without its dangers.

Melody is a 29-year old postal worker who lives a pretty routine life. The most action Mel usually got was the frequent arguments with Gary, her ex-boyfriend. Melody's routine life is interrupted when unexpected events enter her peaceful existence. Mel is pushed to her wits end as she attempts to make sense out of the events that take place over the course of the night. The events leaves Mel wondering what is real and what is part of her imagination! This story will likely make the reader feel the same way!

Momma drama takes over the Duncan clan, as there is still uncertainty about who has fathered the Duncan sisters' new babies. Meanwhile, Orlando Duncan, the family's new CEO and a man with his own baby momma problems, has just developed a new product that may make the millionaire Duncans into billionaires. Orlando only has one obstacle in front of him, and it's not law enforcement or one of his family's many rivals. It's his mother, because she's making the family take sides. Can a civil war within the Duncan family be averted before it tears them apart?

A teacher is dead, a boy is missing, and a councilwoman has put a lot of pressure on Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn and Officer Jim Chee to find her grandson. Sitting on a rooftop watching sacred clowns perform their antics in a Pueblo ceremony, Chee spots the boy. Then, suddenly, the crowd is in commotion. One of the clowns has been savagely murdered. Without a single clue, Chee and Leaphorn must follow a serpentine trail through the Indian clans and nations, seeking the thread that links two brutal murders, a missing teenager, a band of lobbyists trying to put a toxic dump site on Pueblo land, and an invaluable memento given to the tribes.

The only two men Rain ever loved was taken. Her husband was taken by a side-chick, and her only begotten son was taken by a stray bullet; Rain was sure she would never love again. Suddenly, Face, a man with the reputation of a ruthless kingpin enters her boutique with evidence that the wrong man is in custody for her son’s murder. Rain refuses to consort with the likes of Face, but then an indifferent Chicago P.D. rejects the evidence, so Rain has no one else to turn to but Face. From 2023 AAMBC Male Author Of The Year Nominee comes a romantic street odyssey with magnetic characters in ...

Sergeant Jim Chee’s vacation to beautiful Antelope Canyon and Lake Powell has a deeper purpose. He’s on a quest to unravel a sacred mystery his mentor, the Legendary Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn, stumbled across decades earlier. Chee’s journey takes a deadly turn when, after a prayerful visit to the sacred Rainbow Bridge, he spots a body floating in the lake. The dead man, a Navajo with a passion for the canyon’s ancient rock art, lived a life filled with many secrets. Discovering why he died and who was responsible involves Chee in an investigation that puts his own life at risk.

A beautiful but deadly serial killer is on the loose, dishing out gruesome and lethal punishment to men who reject her … When Rose arrives in Florida to meet her new love, she is stood up at the airport, but chalks it up to a misunderstanding. She soon learns there is more to her boyfriend’s disappearance than him going on a wild drinking bender. After a frustrating and ultimately fruitless search, Rose realizes he is being held against his will. Rose must risk everything to unravel the woman’s deadly plot before she once again loses the man she loves to a killer. Blood & Bone is the ...

In 1991, acting on a tip from a local fisherman, two scuba divers discovered a sunken German U-boat, complete with its crew of 60 men, not too far off the New Jersey coast. The divers, realizing the momentousness of their discovery, began probing the mystery. Over the next six years, they became expert and well-traveled researchers, taught themselves German, hunted for clues in Germany, and constructed theories corrective of the history books, all in an effort to identify this sunken U-boat and its crew.

Queen Amira has suffered her husband's neglect and disdain since she came to be his wife. His attitude only softening the slightest bit with the birth of the two princes and heirs. With that, she has retained some of her power and love at court. But, she is still lonely and dreams of a true love of her own. Though she dare not dream it will ever come. King Deron loves women. His wife that was sent for him was barren for years. He thought he made a mistake in marrying her. He even took her lady as his mistress and had a child with her. A child that he flaunted under the queen's nose as he ...

A haunting past. A town with secrets. A debt that refuses to die. When John Miller retreats to an isolated coastal town to escape the ghosts of his past, he never expects those ghosts to follow. Twenty years after a tragic accident, strange whispers fill his home, unsettling symbols appear, and shadows move where no one stands. As John digs deeper into the town’s dark history, he uncovers a chilling connection between his own guilt and an ancient curse that has haunted the cliffs for generations. But someone—or something—is determined to keep the past buried. And the more John learns,...