Once Upon A Seaside Murder

As the holidays approach, bookstore owner Summer Merriwether learns a dark secret in this second volume of Maggie Blackburn's Beach Reads mystery series. There's no place like home for the holidays, even if home is sleepy, beachside Brigid's Island, NC. During this season for giving, the town wakes up to a welcome throng of shoppers--and Beach Reads is no exception. But bookseller Summer Merriwether's Christmas cheer turns to cringing fear when she uncovers a deadly secret about her late mother--a secret someone will kill to keep. When the local library hosts a cozy mystery panel discussion, Summer learns that one of the authors on the panel based her book on an actual murder that shook Brigid's Island thirty-five years before. Worse, she soon learns that her dearly missed mother, Hildy, took a disturbingly deep interest in the case, going so far as to collect clippings and keep a journal of the dark doings. This doesn't jibe with Summer's memories of her usually cheery mother at all. Tidings get worse when Summer learns of her long-lost biological family's involvement in the crime...and still worse when the life of the book's author is threatened. With the help of Hildy's plucky book club, Summer puts her scholarly smarts to work on protecting the cozy author and solving the decades-old murder. But this ghost from Christmas past may still be deadly in the present, and if she can't find the killer, Summer's future will be brief.

A Shakespearean scholar inherits a beachside bookshop—and a murder mystery—in this delightful new cozy series for fans of Kate Carlisle and Ellery Adams Summer Merriweather’s career as a Shakespeare professor hangs by a bookbinder’s thread. Academic life at her Virginia university is a viper’s pit, so Summer spends her summer in England, researching a scholarly paper that, with any luck, will finally get her published, impress the Dean, and save her job. But her English idyll ends when her mother, Hildy, shuffles off her mortal coil from an apparent heart attack. Returning to Brigid’s Island, North Carolina, for the funeral, Summer is impatient to settle the estate, sell Beach Reads—her mom’s embarrassingly romance-themed bookstore—and go home. But as she drops by Beach Reads, Summer finds threatening notes addressed to Hildy: “Sell the bookstore or die.” Clearly, something is rotten on Brigid’s Island. What method is behind the madness? Was Hildy murdered? The police insist there’s not enough evidence to launch a murder investigation. Instead, Summer and her Aunt Agatha screw their courage to the sticking place and start sleuthing, with the help of Hildy’s beloved book club. But there are more suspects on Brigid’s Island than are dreamt of in the Bard’s darkest philosophizing. And if Summer can’t find the villain, the town will be littered with a Shakespearean tragedy’s worth of corpses—including her own.

Holly Boldt has a secret.Well, technically, she has lots of them. After a scandal uproots her entire life, she is forced to relocate to a halfway house for displaced paranormals. It's her last shot for a fresh start. But keeping secrets isn't easy in a town that goes through gossip faster than tissue paper, even for a powerful witch.When a grisly murder rocks the small town of Beechwood Harbor, Holly finds herself unwillingly entangled in the investigation. With everyone watching, Holly must solve the case before she's forced to abandon her new-found home. But with a paranormal investigator tailing her every move, a civil war brewing between her vampire and shifter roommates, and her ghostly landlord on the edge of a breakdown, she can barely think in complete sentences. How is she supposed to track down a murderer?Holly has to make it work, or risk losing everything ... again.***Murder's a Witch is the first book in the Beechwood Harbor Magic Mysteries series. A series of spunky paranormal cozy mysteries that are perfect for fans of Amanda M. Lee, Kristen Painter, and Angie Fox.Come join the fun in Beechwood Harbor, the little town where witches, shifters, ghosts, and vamps all live, work, play-and mostly-get along!

1920's lighthearted cozy mysteryAn invitation from a hotel owner to stay at his new seaside hotel provides Evie, Countess of Woodridge, with the perfect opportunity to fulfill her maid's dream of vacationing by the seaside.However, the prospect of spending an entire week strolling along the pier makes Evie realize she is no longer cut out for a life of leisure. Clearly, she is missing the exhilaration she experienced during the last few murder cases she had become involved in. When a young woman dies right outside their hotel, Evie finds the perfect opportunity to distract herself. The local police think it is suicide. Evie has other ideas...Assisted by her bodyguard, Tom Winchester, and her maid, Caro, Evie works her way from one clue to the next until she is able to prove there is a case worth looking into.Squeaky clean lighthearted cozy mystery set in the 1920s

A thrilling mini Murder Most Unladylike mystery, specially written and published for World Book Day 2020. Daisy Wells and Hazel Wong are best friends, schoolgirls - and detectives. And wherever they go, mysteries will find them... While on a seaside holiday with their friends George and Alexander, the Detective Society discover the body of famous swimmer Antonia Braithwaite - nicknamed The Pearl - on the beach. Everyone presumes that she drowned accidentally - but how could such a famous swimmer have struggled to swim? Even more mysteriously, three guests at the girls' hotel all wanted Antonia dead... Can the Detective Society solve this mystery? Or will they sink under the pressure? Praise for the Murder Most Unladylike mysteries: 'This is that rare thing: a series that gets better with every book' Telegraph 'Thrilling' Guardian 'A total delight' Metro

A small-town reporter hunts a big-city killer in a novel by a New York Times-bestselling author who provides “a truly American version of the English cozy” (Tulsa World). When her part-time reporting gig gives Lucy the opportunity to attend a Boston newspaper conference, she looks forward to a vacation from domestic bliss. But upon leaving Tinker’s Cove, Maine, she quickly discovers that alone time can be kind of…lonely. And in between libel workshops and panel discussions, Lucy takes a guilt trip. She feels terrible that she won’t be home to help her husband celebrate Father’s Day. But when Luther Read—head of a nearly bankrupt newspaper dynasty—suddenly drops dead, Lucy has other things to think about. She’s not buying the theory that Luther died of an asthma attack. The man just had too many enemies. Always the intrepid snoop, Lucy vows to investigate. But she can’t help wondering if her name will end up on a byline—or in an obit… “Reading a new Leslie Meier mystery is like catching up with a dear old friend.”—Kate Carlisle, New York Times bestselling author of the Bibliophile Mysteries “Leslie Meier writes with sparkle and warmth.”—Chicago Sun-Times “I like Lucy Stone a lot, and so will readers.”—Carolyn Hart, New York Times-bestselling author of the Bailey Ruth Mysteries

“A journey into the dark corners of friendship.” —Mindy McGinnis, author of The Female of the Species Riverdale meets Karen M. McManus’s Two Can Keep a Secret in this “twisty, sumptuous dark fairy tale of a mystery” (Kara Thomas, author of The Cheerleaders) about estranged friends who reunite when someone commits the murder they’d planned—but didn’t go through with—and leaves one of their own to take the fall. Poppy, Lily, and Belladonna would do anything to protect their best friend, Raven. So when they discovered he was suffering abuse at the hands of his stepmother, they came up with a lethal plan: petals of poppy, belladonna, and lily in her evening tea so she’d never be able to hurt Raven again. But someone got cold feet, the plot faded to a secret of the past, and the group fell apart. Three years later, on the eve of Raven’s seventeenth birthday, his stepmother turns up dead. But it’s only belladonna found in her tea, and it’s only Belladonna who’s carted off to jail. Desperate for help, Belle reaches out to her estranged friends to prove her innocence. They answer the call, but no one is prepared for what comes next. Now, everyone has something to lose and something equally dangerous to hide. And when the tangled web of secrets and betrayal is finally unwound, what lies at its heart will change the group forever.

"Curl up by the fire (and lock all the doors) for this Christmas cracker of a book." —C.S. Green, author of Sleep Tight Twelve clues. Twelve keys. Twelve days of Christmas. But how many will die before Twelfth Night? Agatha Christie meets Clue in this delightful, tense manor house murder mystery. The annual Christmas Game is afoot at Endgame House, the Armitages' grand family home. This year's prize is to die for—deeds to the house itself—but Lily Armitage has no intention of returning. She hasn't been back to Endgame since her mother died, twenty-one years ago, and she has no intention of claiming the house that haunts her dreams. Until, that is, she receives a letter from her aunt promising that the game's riddles will give her the keys not only to Endgame, but to its darkest secrets, including the identity of her mother's murderer. Now, Lily must compete with her estranged cousins for the twelve days of Christmas. The snow is thick, the phone lines are down, and no one is getting in or out. Lily will have to keep her wits about her, because not everyone is playing fair, and there's no telling how many will die before the winner is declared. Including additional scavenger hunts for the reader, this clever murder mystery is the perfect gift for fans of classic mysteries, festive Christmas books, and armchair detective work.