Family Mystery Fiction

Mia, the irreverent, hyperanalytical twenty-year-old daughter, has an explanation for everything—which is why she isn’t initially concerned when her father and younger brother Eugene don’t return from a walk in a nearby park. They must have lost their phone. Or stopped for an errand somewhere. But by the time Mia’s brother runs through the front door bloody and alone, it becomes clear that the father in this tight-knit family is missing and the only witness is Eugene, who has the rare genetic condition Angelman syndrome and cannot speak.

Libby Day was seven when her mother and two sisters were murdered in "The Satan Sacrifice of Kinnakee, Kansas". As her family lay dying, little Libby fled their tiny farmhouse into the freezing January snow. She lost some fingers and toes, but she survived, and famously testified that her 15-year-old brother, Ben, was the killer. Twenty-five years later, Ben sits in prison, and troubled Libby lives off the dregs of a trust created by well-wishers who've long forgotten her.

Raven Ledger is running from people who blame her for her brother’s crime. The city is grappling with the murders of twenty-one people at Allegheny High School. The news of the shooting is on every television station. The nation is talking about what happened . . . They’re also talking about the shooter’s twin sister who has disappeared. Raven is being hunted by a gang that lost members in the massacre. Her nemesis, Blanco, the girl Raven saved at school that day, leads the chase. Blanco and the other gang members are out for blood and won’t give up until they get revenge.

To get a break from a stalled career as a Hollywood screenwriter, Rowan retreats to an isolated cabin in the Adirondacks with her fiancé, Seth. There in the wilderness, Rowan finds herself drawn to a local mystery—that of the infamous socialite-turned-feminist-crusader Eddie Callaway, who vanished in the same woods forty years earlier and was never heard from again. A handbook found in the abandoned ruins of the Callaway camp gives Rowan a glimpse into who Eddie was—until a fateful discovery begins to unravel what might have happened to her.

*** Amazon #1 Best Selling Author *** The Wellington family is ready for another sun-kissed summer at their treasured beachside cottage. That is until the family's world is turned upside down following the unexpected death of the father, Benjamin. Things seem to go from bad to worse for his widow, Bethany and three young children when they find out their beloved second home no longer belongs to them. The Seahorse Cottage, located on the beautiful shores of Cape May, had been in the Wellington family for generations. But unknown to Bethany, her late husband had lost the cottage as a result ...

In this coming-of-age story, the Walker cousins face their own individual challenges while growing up in Washington, DC, during the 80s and 90s. In a world where it's easy to feel alone and lost, they lean on each other and vow to stick together. But one day, a tragic event tests the bonds of their unity, as family secrets begin to unravel. Soon they discover that their enemies were never those on the outside but the ones within their midst.

Angie Turner's Idaho restaurant, the County Seat, is the perfect site for a picturesque country wedding, but the party planning skids to a halt when the groom-to-be is implicated in a murder investigation....

Of especially naughty children, it is sometimes said: “They must have been raised by wolves.” The Incorrigible children actually were. Discovered in the forests of Ashton Place, the Incorrigibles are no ordinary children: Alexander keeps his siblings in line with gentle nips; Cassiopeia has a bark that is (usually) worse than her bite; and Beowulf is alarmingly adept at chasing squirrels.

Thanks to the efforts of Miss Penelope Lumley, their plucky governess, Alexander, Beowulf, and Cassiopeia are much more like children than wolf pups now. They are accustomed to wearing clothes. They hardly ever howl at the moon. And for the most part, they resist the urge to chase squirrels up trees.

Perla Wultz lives with her husband, Grant, and their precious daughter, Sophie, in a gated Pasadena community. Affluent, sociable, and accomplished, Perla plays the part of loving wife and mother to perfection. It seems an ideal life, if not for a decades-old crime that has become Perla’s dark and consuming secret obsession. Twenty-three years ago, Leewood Folcrum confessed to murdering two young girls during a birthday party. Though he’s been condemned to a life sentence, his crime is not forgotten.

Tokyo. It's autumn. The maple leaves will soon turn red, orange, and yellow. Tomoyuki Kawayama, a detective for the Tokyo Metropolitan Police, is thinking about taking an annual trip with his wife, Mizuko, to a mountain hot spring when his chief tells him to go to a Kabuki-cho love hotel to investigate the murder of a young woman. The murder will turn his world upside down. Nothing has prepared him for what he will learn when he enters the love hotel room, where the young woman's body rests on the floor. Her death forces him to reflect on his role as a father, his marriage, what it means to...

Wade and Thelma Owens run a halfway house on the small island of Cape Refuge that caters to wayward souls just out of prison. So when Wade and Thelma turn up brutally murdered, the town goes into shock, concerned that one of the Hanover House residents is a murderer who could strike again. Shattered by her parents’ deaths, Morgan Cleary struggles to keep Hanover House running while her husband, Jonathan, has been arrested for the murder. As the killer runs free, a lethal race against time ensues, with far more than the halfway house at stake.

A much needed vacation. An unexpected romance between two strangers. A small town filled with whispering secrets. Inspired by old childhood memories and searching for a new direction in life, Yvonne embarks on a long-awaited vacation to the breathtaking town of Diamond Cove. The local murder mystery theatre was the life of the town—but she soon arrives to discover it in disarray and the whole cove swamped in rumors. As she falls in love with the cozy atmosphere, Yvonne decides to reunite an old passion by opening a jewelry shop next door to the theater. Lance, the owner of the theater, is...

A poignant and suspenseful drama that untangles the complicated ties binding three women - two sisters and their mother - in one Chinese immigrant family and explores what happens when the eldest daughter disappears, and a series of family secrets emerge, from the New York Times best-selling author of Girl in Translation.

Needing to escape her abusive marriage, Hadley flees with her two kids, knowing it might be her only chance. A woman who can’t even kill a spider, Hadley soon finds herself pushed to the limits as she fights to protect her family. Grace, new mother of baby Miles, desperately wants to put her rough past behind her for good, but she finds it impossible when her path crosses with Hadley’s, and her quest for a new start quickly spirals out of control and turns into a terrifying flight for survival.

Jacob Hunt is a teen with Asperger's syndrome. He's hopeless at reading social cues or expressing himself well to others, though he is brilliant in many ways. But he has a special focus on one subject - forensic analysis. A police scanner in his room clues him in to crime scenes, and he's always showing up and telling the cops what to do. And he's usually right. But when Jacob's small hometown is rocked by a terrible murder, law enforcement comes to him. Jacob's behaviors are hallmark Asperger's, but they look a lot like guilt to the local police.

Ethan Dove’s family has moved to a new home in a safe community, and it’s exactly the fresh start they need. Not only is his marriage to Emma hanging by a thread, but his son, Dylan, and twelve-year-old daughter, Rose, deserve to have a happy childhood. After Rose is bullied by the boys across the road, Ethan is relieved when the woman who lives next door steps in. Fiona Smith has come into their lives at just the right moment, and when she offers to look after Rose during the school holidays, Ethan and Emma can’t believe their luck.

In Gold Coast, Long Island, everything from the expensive downtown shops to the manicured beaches, to the pressed uniforms of Jill Newman and her friends, looks perfect. But as Jill found out three years ago, nothing is as it seems. Freshman year Jill's best friend, the brilliant, dazzling Shaila Arnold, was killed by her boyfriend. After that dark night on the beach, Graham confessed, the case was closed, and Jill tried to move on.

An advertising executive receives a postcard from a friend and casually appropriates the image for an advertisement. What he doesn’t realize is that included in the scene is a mutant sheep with a star on its back, and in using this photo he has unwittingly captured the attention of a man who offers a menacing ultimatum: find the sheep or face dire consequences.

316 pages print edition, 98,142 words, Contemporary southern fiction, suspense, drama, romance. Appalachian Culture Heritage From Chapter 1: A cold sweat gathered on Catalena’s skin as she gripped the steering wheel. She didn’t want to move a muscle, was afraid to draw a breath. She was scared out of her mind. Her overwhelming fear of heights had her feeling paralyzed. A sheer rock wall towered on the left side of the vehicle with a cliff of dizzying proportions dropping straight down on the right side. It reminded her of the Road of Death in North Yungas, Bolivia where hundreds of ...