South American Mystery

The award-winning and critically-acclaimed master of horror returns with a pair of chilling tales - both never-before-published in print or audio - that examine the violence and depravity of the human condition. Bringing together his acclaimed novella The Sea Dreams It Is the Sky and an all-new short novel My Heart Struck Sorrow, John Hornor Jacobs turns his fertile imagination to the evil that breeds within the human soul.

Welcome to the Breezy Spoon Diner, where murder is always on the menu! It's city fair season in the quirky little town of East Spoon Creek City, and Dani O'Shea is getting ready to serve fair-goers the Breezy Spoon Diner's delicious formula of great food, great conversation and down-home hospitality. But when a reformed criminal comes back to town and runs for mayor, only to end up dead in a crate of onions, Dani has to add “find the murderer” to her list of preparations! With a close friend arrested for the crime, Dani must unravel the dead man's sordid past to uncover the true killer,...

When Pegasus Quincy, sheriff’s deputy, steps into the leaky rowboat to investigate a murder at a mysterious artists’ colony, her troubles have just begun. A new detective blames Peg when she gets snake bit. A friend gets caught in a drug raid and asks Peg’s assistance. Her new roomie monopolizes the kitchen, until Peg’s coonhound Reckless eats too many French macarons. And then there is the cat lady who accuses Peg of stealing a valuable painting. Surely Peg wouldn’t do that, would she? Join Pegasus Quincy as she delves into the nefarious underworld of art auctions, mid-century ...

Welcome to the Breezy Spoon Diner, where Santa's serving up murder for Christmas! Christmas is just around the corner and Santa Claus is coming to the quirky little town of East Spoon Creek City! Dani O'Shea is serving up great food, great conversation and down-home hospitality at the Breezy Spoon Diner to hungry townsfolk, but a department store Santa Claus getting murdered outside her door was not what she wanted for Christmas! When a vengeful killer murders the wrong man by mistake, Dani must race to unmask the murderer and protect the true target before anyone else dies! Her landlord, ...

Haunted by sins of the past while grappling with the challenges of the present, the citizens of Tennyson County, Georgia, must come to grips with the reality that not all secrets stay buried forever. Allison Edwards, a part-time journalism student, arrives in South Georgia after receiving a mysterious grant to write a human interest story. Soon, like layers of an onion, she peels back story after surprising story, many of which were never meant to see the light of day. Like the crippling southern heat, lies and deception smolder. Allison will soon learn that when the old South and modern ...

A sequel to the award-winning CHRISTMAS AT GREY SAGE. Maude and Silas, owners of Grey Sage, are busy making their guests’ experiences memorable ones. But a series of unsettling events has disturbed the serenity at the inn. Nestled in the aspen and pine-covered Sangre de Cristo Mountains near Santa Fe, Grey Sage is the ideal place for artists and writers. It’s late September, and Lily’s group of art students from Chicago has come for a retreat. Drake Dodson, a screenwriter, is there to write, and Dr. Boots Boone, a professor on sabbatical doing research in Native American culture and ...

In a suburban LA neighborhood, neighbors keep wary distance and at times collide, propelled by desire, fury, and mischief. Precocious Korean-American sisters Mira and Rosemary find their world rocked by a suicide; a charismatic and creepy drama teacher grooms his students; an aging gay horror novelist fights loneliness; and a white mother and her adopted Vietnamese daughter deal with lifelong anger issues.

Titus Crown is the first Black sheriff in the history of Charon County, Virginia. In recent decades, Charon has had only two murders. After years of working as an FBI agent, no one knows better than Titus that while his hometown might seem like a land of moonshine, cornbread, and honeysuckle, secrets always fester under the surface. But a year after Titus's election, a school teacher is killed by a former student. The student is then fatally shot by Titus's deputies. As Titus investigates the shootings, he unearths terrible crimes, and a serial killer who has been hiding in plain sight.

Deep beneath the Great Smoky Mountains National Park lies a hidden world, formed hundreds of years ago by a group of people forced underground by a deadly plague. Living as if it were still the 19th century, they have no access to modern conveniences such as electricity or running water. The Elite, a group of powerful individuals tasked with protecting the society of the Below from threats in the Above, rule over this secluded community. When Edith, a mental health counselor, begins to question the intentions of their governing body after witnessing the elimination of a defiant colleague, ...

A wedding and a murder...Star football player and NFL hopeful, Michael “Bumper” Hackett is getting married. Word’s going around that it’s a shotgun wedding, and there just might be some truth to it, seeing that the bride-to-be is showing a baby bump. But before the ceremony can even get started, the poor groom collapses from what appears to be an asthma attack. Unfortunately, things aren’t always what they seem. Romaine knew it was a bad idea to have a wedding at the funeral home, but newly elected justice of the peace and sole proprietor of the Ball Funeral Home & Crematorium, ...

Pegasus Quincy, a rookie deputy on temporary assignment in a sleepy mountain town, expects a quiet summer citing jaywalkers and writing traffic tickets. Fate intervenes when a dead body turns up in an old copper mining pit. The man is a three-time loser disowned by even his own mother. Peg’s sheriff boss declares the death an accident and tells her to “move on”. She wants to agree, but then her office is ransacked and her assistant kidnapped...Will they find the killer before he strikes again?

Thirteen bitter sweets. Thirteen bitter suspects. One unhappy ending. World-famous Chandler's Chocolates has unveiled a new storybook-inspired chocolate collection, Once Upon a Truffle. It's up to Anna Clementine, the company's event coordinator, to promote the product by hosting a fairytale-themed beauty pageant. To set the scene, contestants are invited to an abandoned castle deep in the Smoky Mountains. After all, every little girl dreams of being a princess in a palace- unless that castle turns out to be haunted. Anna soon finds herself in a cursed castle, surrounded by spoiled ...

Jake Scarne has retired. But he has mixed feelings about it. He suspects that there is more to life than golf outings and sojourns down the Jersey Shore. Little does he know that some of his old skills will come in handy when the Staten Island Ferry he is on is hijacked! The hijackers claim they are terrorists. But their real motives are more venal. Scarne avails himself of possibly the most unusual ally he's ever had. But there is death and tragedy in this twisty tale that reminds some critics of two classic movies: DIE HARD and THE TAKING OF PELHAM ONE-TWO-THREE. “IF YOU LIKE HARD-...

Fear. Anguish. Heartbreak. Selfless love. Ultimate sacrifice. All in less than a minute. Sometimes that’s all there is. Adam Manning arrives at the crime scene and quickly sees that not everything is as it seems. Neither is he. If you enjoy clean mystery romance and inspirational women’s fiction filled with love, hope, family, new and old friendships, and a mystery to keep you guessing, Stay With Me is the series collection for you. This is Book Five of the eight-part Stay With Me mystery romance novella series. Book 5 of 8.

A sudden disappearance, an island escape, the boy from her past, a raging blizzard of secrets and fear, another woman’s betrayal & the quiet suffering of a broken heart. She’d known the boy he was and it had never been a secret that she loved him with all her heart...then walked away...her dreams and hopes lost. Years later her life depends on the man he’s become. Dark secrets and twisted truths...hidden clues and unexpected danger...a lost island of dreams and mystery...faded hope. There was only time to grab her purse and the small keepsake box she couldn’t leave behind. She had ...

How far would you go to protect a loved one? Would you tamper with evidence? Commit arson? Allow a prime suspect to remain at large? Pegasus Quincy and her former partner, Shepherd Malone, have some difficult choices ahead when Shep’s daughter is caught with a murder weapon in her hand. It doesn’t help when the detective on the case has problems of his own. When he applies to the sheriff’s department, he conveniently forgets to mention that he was terminated from his previous position under a cloud of fraud.

In the shadow of the Andes, one man’s adventure ignites a powder keg of espionage, revolution, and survival. When a young British mountaineer’s letters hint at a dangerous secret hidden in the Peruvian Andes, a routine investigation quickly escalates into a desperate race against time. Jack Warne, seeking adventure in the remote Chasco valley, finds himself caught between a group of radical activists and the watchful eyes of Peruvian authorities. Unbeknownst to him, his every move is being tracked by forces on both sides of the law, each with their own agenda in the volatile climate of ...

Iggy Guerra is out of prison, but his homecoming is anything but smooth. His beloved mother is gone, his grief-stricken father Armando is deep in debt, and they are about to lose the butcher shop that has been in their family for generations. Iggy must earn his father’s lost trust in order to save La Carnicería Guerra from the threats imposed by a new rival business, a vigilante activist, and big-game hunter Orin, who has dragged Armando into his dangerous money-making schemes deep in the Everglades, where more than secrets are buried.

That brash decision lands Pegasus Quincy in the midst of a hostile murder situation. She alienates her new partner and almost gets him killed. She ignores regulations and jeopardizes an ongoing investigation. Just when she thinks things couldn’t get worse - they do! She encounters the Nettle family: an insanely jealous wife, a banished son, and a sister whose little girl has been traumatized by an explosion at the illicit family whiskey still.

In cosmopolitan Johannesburg, three high-flying couples form the core of the elite Khula Society: part investment group, part social club, with meetings where the champagne flows, the dresses are designer and the one-upmanship is off the scale. Noma, Moshidi, Lerato and their husbands are living the dream—or so it appears from the outside. In reality, the cut and thrust of ‘keeping up with the Khulas’ is taking its toll on all three couples.