Holiday Thriller

'A lively and interesting read, with a good mystery. Readers will be looking forward to the next Catherine Patterson mystery, especially since dead bodies seem to always appear where she least expects to find them.' It is amazing how Catherine seems to attract dead bodies at her chambres d’hôtes in rural southwest France. Even local Inspector Maupetit seems to think it odd that mystery and murder all focus around this woman and her picturesque little corner of the world. Readers' Favorite - 'Vengeance in the Vendee is GM Haley’s second in the Catherine Patterson Mystery Books. The ...

In 1914, while visiting her friend Madeleine, Lady Elspeth Douglas's life is thrown into chaos when war breaks out and the Germans quickly overrun Belgium, threatening France. Having just agreed to marry Alain, Madeleine's dashing brother, Lady Elspeth watches him leave to join his unit, and then she sets out for England, only to find herself trapped on the French coast.

At age 65 widower David Roche has finally had enough. Sick of the hurtful insults hurled at him by his own elderly mother, and tired of being hit up for endless loans by his younger brother and sister, David leaves his small home town in Maine looking to start a new life. David will soon discover that he isn't the only one who has been stuck with a vile family when he meets Sharon Crane who desperately needs to escape her own control-freak daughter. Their chance meeting results in a tale of love and unexpected danger. ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Donald W. Desaulniers is a retired Canadian attorney ...

Harvey Bennett didn’t sign up for this Christmas adventure. When a small-town holiday festival turns into a deadly game of cat and mouse, Ben and Julie are thrust into a chilling mystery buried beneath the snow-covered streets of Hope, Alaska. At the center of it all is a legendary golden ornament—a piece of local history said to hold the key to a fortune in lost gold. But someone else wants that fortune, and they’ll stop at nothing to claim it. As a ruthless financier and his dangerous crew close in, Ben and Julie follow a trail of cryptic clues carved into tombstones and hidden in ...

Part-time bookstore clerk, part-time author, necromancer in training, and full-time caretaker of a ghoul are titles that Ava Harper never dreamed of applying to herself.

Christmas has come early to the town of Paterson, New Jersey, in the form of a snowstorm that dumps two feet of snow on the ground. Lawyer Andy Carpenter likes snow – white Christmas and all that – but it can cause problems for the walks he takes his dogs on every day. When Andy’s golden retriever, Tara, goes to play in the snow and instead discovers a body, Andy ends up on the phone with the local newspaper editor. The murder victim is Mayor Alex Oliva, who had an infamous relationship with the newspaper.

Stockings are hung by the chimney with care and visions of catnip dance in the air this yuletide season in Paramour Bay. Raven Marigold takes a break from minding the tea shop to enjoy the winter wonderland the council members have magically created in the middle of town square. The holiday festival has everything from a lighted Christmas tree to singing elves. Even good ol' St. Nick has shown up to hear the wish lists of excited children, but the jolliness in his ho-ho-ho disappears when one of his reindeer goes missing! Is this a reindeer-napping or has the precious animal just wandered off?

Newcomers to Tinker's Cove, Ty and Heather Moon have moved into a dilapidated house reputed to be a haven for ghosts. Now strange noises and flickering lights erupt from the house at all hours and neighborly relations are on edge. And when a local boy goes missing near the house, it's up to Lucy Stone to unravel the mystery of the eccentric couple and their increasingly frightful behavior.

It's that time of year again! It's always Christmas in Holiday Haven, but this December is a special one. Carolyn Highcrest is preparing for her parents to visit for the inn's annual celebration . . . and to finally meet her boyfriend, Spencer. But when a mysterious package thief strikes the local postal service, Carol finds herself compelled to help Spencer find the culprit. Someone seems intent on ruining the holiday fun, with presents disappearing left and right and a spate of bad luck, which reminds Carol of the havoc the previous year wreaked by an out-of-control wishing box.

Hellooo! I'm at it again, and only a day after my last run-in with a killer! Hobbs and I are growing closer and closer, but there always seems to be a mystery waiting for us just around the corner, nipping at our heels and thwarting our hot romance. A very nice waiter named Joey Scarpetti, from the Marshmallow Hollow Ski Lodge, is dead, and it happened in my backyard in my pear tree, no less. So what's a girl to do but investigate?

As beautiful as it may be, their friends’ country house is not where Lady Vespasia wishes to spend Christmas with her new husband, Victor Narraway. She’d have preferred a relaxing holiday at home with him - especially as Victor, former head of the London Special Branch, seems to be hiding undercover dealings with the other guests who have gathered at the spacious estate.

Emily and David wanted a fresh start. A final chance to escape the past, rekindle their love, and heal the rift that had grown between them. A secluded luxury island resort, empty but for the two of them and an attentive staff, promised peace and privacy. Paradise. But paradise has rules. And a price. Beneath the glittering waves, something ancient waits, watching. Hungering. And when the last boat leaves, the island reveals its true purpose: each season, the final guests must be offered to appease the creatures that dwell in the deep. A covenant older than memory. One that has kept the ...

Meg’s running Caerphilly’s Helping Hands for the Holidays project, in which neighbors help each other with things they can’t do and can’t afford to have done. Her hopes for a relatively peaceful (if busy) Christmas vanish when someone murders Harvey the Hoarder, whose house the Helping Hands were decluttering. Was there any truth to the rumor that he had something valuable hidden beneath all his junk? Was one of his friends, neighbors, or relatives greedy enough to murder him for the rumored treasure?

To Live or Die in Santorini It was supposed to be a fun Grecian holiday. Beaches. Babes. And booze. To offset the cost of the trip, Joe has an assignment from a local hotelier to fix a profitability issue. But after a short two weeks, Joe has problems with three women. The first woman loves him. The second woman hates him. And the third woman is dead. Of course, the murder is not really his business. The police are on the case, and Joe has his own project to work on. But every time Joe pulls a string from that tangled mess, he finds an even bigger issue, and eventually, the strings lead him...

Stephanie Plum is back in town, along with her sidekick Lula, her Grandma Mazur, and an ever-widening cast of freaks, criminals, deranged felons, and lunatics looking for love. And just when Stephanie thinks her life can't get any more complicated, in walks the mysterious Diesel. A man who seems to show up at the most inconvenient moments.

It's Christmastime, and farmer Lucy Resnick is living the life she's always dreamed of. When she's not selling her jams, soaps, and mistletoe bundles at the Buttercup Christmas Market, she's enjoying cozy evenings by the fire with her knitting group - or her handsome veterinarian boyfriend Tobias Brandt. But less than a week before Christmas, a pall falls over the festive atmosphere when local man Randy Stone turns up with a knife in his back and a sprig of mistletoe in his hair.

Tattooed from her neck to her toes—and sporting a gold tooth as sharp as her wisecracks, Sister Holiday struggles to stay on the righteous path. Never one to make things easy for herself, she’s committed to taking her permanent vows with the Sisters of the Sublime Blood and joining former fire inspector Magnolia Riveaux’s latest venture, Redemption Detective Agency—both in service of satisfying her eternal quest for answers. When Sister Holiday and Riveaux set out to bust a philandering husband, they instead find the body of a priest floating in the swollen Mississippi River.

ON A TRAIN BOUND FOR HOLLAND, TWO STRANGERS WILL MEET Video journalist Guy lands the gig of his dreams: a month-long odyssey across Europe’s electrifying summer music festivals, capturing the raw passion of bands and their die-hard fans. But this dream job morphs into a twisted nightmare when a chance, flirtatious train encounter with enigmatic backpacker Carly spirals into obsession. What starts as a playful spark on a train to Amsterdam ignites into chaos as Carly begins stalking Guy, appearing uninvited at every festival he covers, her charm masking a chilling edge. When she snatches ...

John could give up drinking to the limits of his dangerously anti-social levels; but he's no quitter. Expectations run low for our functioning drunk, acutely aware that sobriety brings with it a certain duty of care and obligation to 'do the right thing,' that drunkenness does not. With the easy conscience of a man swimming in a butt of whisky our hero embarks upon a 'fishy' burglary in order to finance his friend Lady Hester's madcap search for Alexander the Greats' lost treasure. Along with his faithful buddy Tom, the three set off to Rhodes, Greece, deluded and undeterred in their quest ...

In the Italian town of Ostia outside Rome, Falco appears to be enjoying a relaxing holiday. But when Helena arrives carrying a batch of past issues of the Daily Gazette with the intention of catching up on the latest scandal, Falco is forced to admit his real reason for being there. Infamia, the pen name of the gossip columnist for the Daily Gazette, has gone missing, and his fellow scribes have employed Falco to bring him back from his drunken truancy.