Small Town Crime

Back in Pickax, Jim Qwilleran expects to resume a quiet life, but the people and animals of Pickax have other ideas. A noisy cardinal wakes him every morning, nosy neighbors drop by uninvited, and the Siamese cats—Koko and Yum Yum—misbehave, even sneezing on guests. As if they weren't bad enough, Qwill's long-time companion, Polly Duncan, acts as though she is in love—with another man. Worst of all, Qwill finds a body in his apple orchard. When his friend, Dennis Hough, becomes the chief suspect, Qwill embarks on a crusade to clear Hough's name and win back Polly's heart.

When Reina Baudoin goes missing from a university, her parents make their way to Alabama to find out what has happened to their beloved daughter. Reina’s mother relies on her faith for strength, while her dad, OSCAR, has other ideas. When the people responsible for Reina’s disappearance begin turning up dead, one by one, Oscar questions his disbelief in his family's legends. The police don’t believe in coincidences, but they can’t tie Oscar to the murders. Unwilling to shrug it off as the streets taking care of its own, Detectives Cooper and Sharp are determined to solve the crimes....

Thanksgiving usually kicks off the Christmas season with plenty of turkey and football. But in Coyote Wells, Gemma’s dinner for twenty is hijacked when a dead body turns up in Christmas Creek. Chief of Police Lando Bonner soon arrives on the scene and realizes it’s one of the town’s most prominent citizens. When the body count keeps going up, he discovers the killer has a penchant for shotguns. Anyone could be next, including those closest to him Is the motive money or a personal grudge? There are enough suspects to fill out Santa’s naughty list two times over. The main target had a...

When the exuberant president of Ng'ombwana proposes to dispense with the usual security arrangements on an official visit to London, his old schoolmate, Chief Superintendent Alleyn, is called in to persuade him otherwise. Consequently, on the night of the embassy's reception, the house and grounds are stiff with police.

She thinks it’s a marriage of convenience, but I’ve been planning it for a decade. Wrong place, wrong time—or so Francesca thought. She doesn’t know that I’m the one that poisoned her husband. She doesn’t realize that I’m the one that hired the men to attack her. She just thinks it’s a coincidence that I was there to save her. Then half a dozen threatening notes show up at her front door. Someone knows her deepest darkest secret and they’re going to go to the cops. But if she puts aside her pride and marries me, I can protect her. Francesca thinks it’s the only solution....

Jodi Weathers was stunned when the mayor of Sandy Shoals offered her the job of police chief. She had grown up along the coast of Georgia and it would mean returning to an area she loved, but her first inclination was to refuse. She didn’t feel qualified even when the mayor described her duties as writing reports and shaking hands. “The Sheriff’s Department will take care of the real police work,” he assured her. “You’ll be handling public relations.” At the time the mayor had no warning of the approaching hurricane, and he couldn’t have foreseen finding a dead woman on the ...

Enjoy this exciting 2 book series by mystery thriller author Michelle Files. Madison's bedroom was eerily quiet when the kidnapper lifted her from her crib. The moon filtered through the curtain, illuminating the baby's face in a cold, blue light. The next morning, Madison's parents awoke to an empty crib and police officers knocking at the door. Her disappearance sent shockwaves throughout the town. Determined to find out what happened that night in her bedroom, Madison began digging deeper and uncovered a web of secrets and deception that threatened both her safety and sanity. With each ...

A short read cozy mystery with a twist... In Sweetheart Valley, Valentine’s Day is overshadowed by secrets and heartbreak. When Amanda Love, owner of the beloved Sweet Stuff bakery, collapses and dies at the annual Valentine’s Day Ball, chaos ensues. The police scramble to unravel the baffling crime scene, but it’s Detective Benjamin Hart who takes the lead. Meet the suspects: Oliver Roseville: The mysterious newcomer with a vintage bookstore on Valentine Lane. Candy Monet: The wealthy socialite known for her lavish Valentine’s Day parties. Jed Whitman: The retired police chief who ...

Adam Alba has spent years drifting from town to town, outrunning a past marked by trauma, an intuition he doesn’t fully understand, and a lingering sense that someone is always watching. When he gets off the bus in a small, quiet town, all he wants is a hot shower and a good night’s sleep. But when a man collapses at his feet, gasping his final breath, what first appears to be an accident quickly reveals itself as something far more calculated. Within hours, Adam finds himself the prime suspect in a murder investigation that has rocked the seemingly idyllic town of Ur. In a close-knit ...

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 ...

His drinking is getting worse by the day, his emotional wounds after a deployment to Afghanistan are as raw as ever, his marriage and career are over, and the only job he can hold down is with the local sheriff’s department. And that’s only because the sheriff is his mother—and she’s overwhelmed with small town Shaky Lake’s dwindling budget and the fallout from the opioid epidemic.

Tucker Snow is as tough as they come, hardened by decades working as an undercover narcotics agent for the Texas Department of Public Safety. Through special dispensation from the governor, he and his brother Harley cut a wide swath through the criminal element of Northeast Texas. But tragedy comes calling after taking a dream job as a special ranger with the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association, when Tucker's wife and toddler are killed in a horrific traffic accident caused by a drug-addled felon.

Inspector Martin Prieboy has a lot on his plate: a drug-pushing rodeo clown, a group of cataclysmically inept Satanists, an old-school Germanic witchdoctor and some pesky pot-smoking teens. When two high-profile cases land on his desk, Martin soon finds himself entangled in an ancient mystery that Fester’s leading citizens want to keep buried. When his diligence costs him his job, the superhero-obsessed inspector trades his badge for a mask. His costumed investigation leads him deeper into Fester’s seamy – and hilarious – underside. Soon, a chance discovery in the woods unleashes a ...

A gripping coming-of-age small town murder mystery in the backwoods-noir tradition of Stephen King's The Body (Stand by Me) and Daniel Woodrell's Winter's Bone. Knew your daddy, the sheriff whispered. Took the animal down myself. You look just like him, you know. Like a stray dog after a good beating. Nothing more dangerous. . . Ten year old Delbert and his mother return to the small factory town of Shady Creek tucked in the rugged foothills of western North Carolina where Delbert meets his father for the first time after his father is released from prison. With dark secrets festering ...

A girl dies one late, rainy night a few feet from the back door of her home. The girl, Abeba, was born in Ethiopia. Her adoptive parents, Delvin and Betsy Harvey—conservative, white fundamentalist Christians—are charged with her murder.

To solve a high-profile abduction, one former police officer must confront a dark past. A child's abduction reveals a frightening pattern within a small town where nothing is as it seems. Katy Dowry's world shatters when her son, Denny, is abducted from his school. Amidst heavy snowfall and rising tensions, Katy uncovers a web of secrets involving the disappearance of the child.

When construction workers uncover preserved human remains at Kingfisher Station—a luxury resort development in rural Australia—Detective Maya Thorne is called back to the hometown she fled as a teenager. The discovery is eerily similar to a case she solved months earlier, but this time it's personal: the development borders her childhood home, which she abandoned. The victim is identified as Elaine Mercer, an environmental consultant who disappeared eight years ago while investigating water rights during the region's worst drought in decades. Maya quickly discovers that Elaine had ...

On the surface, Bria's Mediterranean life radiates beauty—the kind her late husband, Carlo, dreamed about when he concocted the romantic idea to start a bed and breakfast on the breathtaking Amalfi Coast. With the grand opening of Bella Bella approaching six months after Carlo's tragic death, Bria and her eight-year-old son Marco brace for a bittersweet new beginning by the sea . . . Before celebratory vino flows on opening day, a stranger appears in an otherwise pristine guest room, lifeless and covered in blood. Bria can't understand why murder would check into Bella Bella.

A short story introduces listeners to Brian Panowich's brutal, mesmerizing North Georgia landscape, in preparation for Like Lions. Enter the world of Brian Panowich, where Gareth Burroughs runs McFalls County, in North Georgia, and all the criminal enterprises therein. Two of his three sons, Halford and Buckley, are aiming to follow in his footsteps. The third, Clayton, has turned his back on the family and became a lawman, a sheriff in town.

Enjoy this exciting 2 book series by mystery thriller author Michelle Files. Abbey is in trouble...and her greatest enemy has a plan. A teenage girl. Secrets that never stay that way for long. Abbey embarks on a journey that's both terrifying and rewarding—one that will test her abilities and emotional resources beyond anything she ever imagined. Running away from home and getting a job on a championship horse farm, Abbey meets the handsome, and married, Adam Tyler. That's when things go from bad to worse. When people around her start dying, she is forced to defend herself from ...