Southern Fiction Mystery

Bopped on the head from a falling plastic Santa, local undertaker Emma Lee Raines is told she's suffering from "funeral trauma." It's trauma all right, because the not-so-dearly departed keep talking to her. Take Ruthie Sue Payne - innkeeper, gossip queen, and arch-nemesis of Emma Lee's granny - she's adamant that she didn't just fall down those stairs. She was pushed. Ruthie has no idea who wanted her pushing up daisies, but she can't cross over until the matter is laid to eternal rest. Emma Lee's high-school crush, Sheriff Jack Henry Ross, isn't ready to rule out foul play.

Welcome to Jewell, North Carolina, a small strip of land on the Crystal Coast with no stop signs or traffic lights, but it's got a whole lot of magic. Ruby Mae Jewell helps run the family business of selling antiques and refurbished goods. But with old objects, you never know when one of them possesses more than just dust and cobwebs. When Rue hits up a flea market, she gets more than she bargained for. Finding a potentially dangerous magical object, she has to get it off the market and out of mortal hands.

There isn't much crime in Lilyvale, Arkansas, but local authorities have their hands full with Ms. Sherry Mae Stanton Cutler and her housemates - a crafty group of retirees who've dubbed themselves the Silver Six. But when Sherry Mae's niece, Nixy, arrives to keep them in line, Lilyvale also plays host to a killer.

Sam and Valerie Owens, owners of the Banty Hen Antique Shop, find themselves entangled in a murder investigation after being the last ones to see the victim alive. Valerie’s new venture, the Sweet Tea Quilting Bee is comprised of an eclectic mix of women and their weekly meetings help keep Valerie’s mind off the murder, but it’s hard to keep concealed from the ladies that the victim was killed over, of all things, an antique quilt! The murder suspect has been described as tall and thin, a vague description, but Police Chief Jess Hamilton and his new detective, a self-described Columbo...

Anne George’s novels offer a delightful mix of gentle comedy and compelling mystery. Murder Runs in the Family finds two feisty 60-something sisters doing a little amateur sleuthing into the death of a visiting genealogist. Mary Alice has spared no expense for her daughter’s wedding. Two days after the glittering affair, Mary Alice and Patricia Anne are spending a fascinating lunch listening to the groom’s cousin explain the ’dog-eat-dog" world of professional genealogy.

Mae West, a far cry from the Hollywood actress, has been thrown for a loop. Her plush lifestyle in the big city of New York comes to a screeching halt after the FBI raids her mansion and arrests her husband, Paul West, for a Ponzi scheme that rips people out of millions of dollars. Mae finds herself homeless, friendless, and penniless. All hope isn't lost... the only thing Mae got to keep that the government didn't seize is a tourist camp ground, Happy Trails, in Normal, Kentucky.

Anthony Award-winning author Charlaine Harris has earned a devoted fan base with her USA Today and New York Times best-selling Sookie Stackhouse mystery series. All Together Dead features more dark but frequently hilarious adventures of buxom, blonde, beautiful, and telepathic cocktail waitress Sookie, who prefers the company of vampires to that of the living.

In 1919, Delano, Georgia, appoints its first chief of police. Honest and hardworking, the new chief is puzzled when young men start to disappear. But his investigation is ended by the fatal blast from a shotgun. Delano's second chief-of-police is no hero, yet he is also disturbed by what he sees in the missing-persons bulletins. In 1969, when Delano's third chief takes over, the unsolved disappearances still haunt the police files.

Agatha O’Malley has become a recluse in the home that should be holding warm and wonderful memories. Up until her husband’s death, she led a happy and social life as the wife of a wealthy physician in the small town of Park Place, South Carolina. But now that he’s dead, she’s not only grieving for him, she’s furious with him over the mysterious disappearance of the stocks, bonds and money he told her he’d put aside for their retirement. What is she to do when there’s barely enough money in their joint checking account to survive, and how will she pay property taxes and keep up...

Welcome to Lemon Bliss, Louisiana, where an abandoned lemon tea factory is the most happening place in town and witches secretly rule the roost. Violet Broussard gets called back to the hometown she left in the dust when a dead body is found in the abandoned factory bequeathed to her by her grandmother. Violet has plans, and they most definitely don't involve staying in Lemon Bliss any longer than necessary. The town is mostly famous for its lemon tea infused with enough alcohol to make one experience bliss, hence the town's name. Yet, once she's there, things get a tad wacky.

In Murder Gets a Life, middle-aged sisters Mary Alice and Patricia Ann are sleuthing their way through a mystery that is hotter than Alabama in August. Mary Alice’s son has married Sunshine, a petite blond who is cute as a button. Her family, however, lives in a junk-filled trailer compound dotted with rusty engines and pit bulls. When Mary Alice and Patricia Ann pay a call on the family, the sisters hardly have time to meet Sunshine’s spirit-channeling grandmother before they stumble over a large corpse on her floor. The local sheriff just can’t seem to get moving in the summer heat.

In this entry from Anthony Award winner Charlaine Harris' New York Times best-selling series, the gorgeous and feisty telepath hits the road to find her missing boyfriend, who may have run off with his former lover - a notorious vamp.

One hot, sticky summer in Bledsoe, Georgia, twelve-year-old Kay Whitaker stumbles across a stilt house in a neighboring marsh and upon Andy Webber, a boy about her age. He and his father have recently moved back to Georgia from California, and rumors of the suspicious drowning death of Andy’s mother years earlier have chased them there and back. Kay is fascinated and enamored with Andy, and she doesn’t listen when her father tells her to stay away from the Webbers.

Christmas, Criminals, & Campers: When romance author Nadine White is found dead in the Normal Library, librarian Abby Fawn is Detective Hank Sharp's number-one suspect. Motorhomes, Maps, & Murder: Mae West, owner of Happy Trails Campground, just might find out that tapping into her namesake might come in handy when coming face to face with a serial killer. Canyons, Caravans, & Cadavers: When the principal of Normal High School asks Mae West to teach a semester on small-town economics, Mae is thrilled and happy to teach the young people.

Ruby Mae Jewell's talents to pick the best bargains for her family's business are hotter than the hinges on the gates of Hades! But when one of her friends gets stabbed at his own wedding reception, her abilities to solve the mystery go completely cold. There are a lot more questions than answers, and with more than the groom's life in the balance, Rue might need a lot of help to stitch things back together. Will Ruby Mae's five-alarm fire powers help her find the culprit who hurt her friends or will they disappear in a puff of smoke?

With Charleston's council poised to take over Honeysuckle Hollow, the town and all of its people must band together to prove they don't need to be absorbed into the big city magical district. What better way to show off the small supernatural Southern town than to host a barbecue contest and some classic broom racing?

The Southern sisters have just returned from a trip to Europe, but they barely have time to get over jet lag before they are involved in another mystery. An anguished cousin has lost his wife to a snake-handling preacher, and when the sisters travel to a remote mountain settlement to find her, they discover a corpse instead. An award-winning novelist and poet, Anne George has entertained millions of fans with her Agatha Award-winning mysteries.

As Pepper's wedding day quickly approaches, the entire town is excited to celebrate the big event. But when one witch is overlooked as a wedding guest, she takes her anger out on the town—cursing them. Now, people's nightmares are coming to life—literally. The consequences are potentially devastating. Now, it's up to Pepper and the gang to squash the curse and stop their dreams from becoming reality. Can she do it? Or will Magnolia Cove succumb to the curse?

Pepper Dunn’s life couldn’t be more perfect. In a few short weeks she’s set to marry the man of her dreams, Axel Reign. All she has to do is tick a few more boxes and the wedding will be on. When her cousin Cordelia introduces Pepper to a wishing stone that can alter reality, Pepper doesn’t think much of it. But when she and her cousins each make a wish out of frustration, they are thrown quite literally into a very different Magnolia Cove. In this Magnolia Cove, Pepper’s life is completely different. Everything she knows to be true is false, and her world is upside down.

An escape - that's exactly what Birdie Devaine needs when witches around the world publicly announce their existence. Instead of performing for the sold-out crowd at her world-famous magic show in Vegas, Birdie runs away from the dazzling lights to her hometown in Mississippi. She thinks she has it all planned out - keeping busy with renovating an old beautiful house and eventually fading away from the spotlight. But the house has its secrets, including the haunted cemetery that Birdie is now responsible for. It doesn't help when her nosy neighbor catches on to Birdie's big secret....