The Covered Bridge Murders

The Skinny-Dipping Grandmas Bare All When their Pinup Calendar Shoot Goes Terribly Wrong Working on a television taping to promote the Parke County Covered Bridge Festival, the ladies decide to use their access to the Roseville Bridge to cross #39 off Charlotte's bucket list: Be a Sexy Calendar Girl. But the photo shoot is interrupted by gunshots and Francine's cousin William stumbling down the riverbank followed by a man with a gun. William sustains life-threatening injuries, but is it attempted homicide? Francine and Charlotte go into detective mode to uncover the secret William knew about the shooter. Their success, however, depends on surviving two arson events, a séance, a shortage of Mary Ruth's wildly popular corn fritter donuts, memory-challenged nursing home residents, and a killer who refuses to go up in flames. Praise: "Perona crafts another clever adventure...with a magical ending, and the feisty and smart seniors are an engaging lot and will appeal to Agatha Raisin fans."—Booklist "Cozy fans will enjoy spending time with Francine and friends."—Publishers Weekly "A wonderful cozy...This is one group that no matter what your age, you will want to join up with and have a whole lot of fun."—Suspense Magazine "The second in this series spices up Perona's usual recipe with a little fantasy."—Kirkus Reviews "Plenty of fun...After reading Murder Under the Covered Bridge, you'll have a new appreciation for these seniors who have plenty of rev left under the hood."—Mystery Scene "If you miss getting new episodes of Murder, She Wrote every week, you should definitely check out the Bucket List mystery series. Thank goodness Perona has given these senior sleuths long bucket lists, so we can hope for many more adventures with them."—Donna Andrews, author of The Meg Langslow series "Perona kept on building the case for the final result, and did it professionally and with great pacing as well as timing."—Reviewing the Evidence

First published in 1981, Murder at the Broad River Bridge recounts the stunning details of the murder of Lieutenant Colonel Lemuel Penn by the Ku Klux Klan on a back-country Georgia road in 1964, nine days after the passage of the Civil Rights Act. Longtime Atlanta Constitution reporter Bill Shipp gives us, with shattering power, the true story of how a good, innocent, "uninvolved" man was killed during the Civil Rights turbulence of the mid-1960s. Penn was a decorated veteran of World War II, a United States Army Reserve officer, and an African American, killed by racist, white vigilantes as he was driving home to Washington, D.C. from Fort Benning, Georgia. Shipp recounts the details of the blind and lawless force that took Penn’s life and the sorry mask of protective patriotism it hid behind. To read Murder at Broad River Bridge is to know with deep shock that it could be dated today, tonight, tomorrow. It is a vastly moving documentary drama.

Beautiful and conceited Alicia Matcham leads us through an intriguing web of deceit in search of a killer who is, bizarrely, welcomed by her family. This exciting, gripping crime novel is full of suspense and delivers a thrilling final twist.Saturday 10 June 1933, and one of Charles's Whitten's bridge players collapses at the table, apparently from natural causes. Charles's youngest daughter Patty is convinced it's murder and pleads with her sister Alicia - a party girl with connections - to help discover the truth. Their brother William is a penniless drunkard, their mother ingenuous, Patty naive, their father Charles all bluff and bluster and then there is John the seductive butler. It feels as though Alicia is in one of the new Agatha Christie murders: there were four people in the card room, surely one must be the murderer?

This autobiography was inspired by a mother's wish. Something in the life of her child she felt was necessary to be documented. To fulfill that wish it was written. It is a story about one person's life. A life that we all share in our own way. One filled with surprises, challenges, fears, disappointment, sadness, loss, victory, joy, peace and happiness. All those things of life that steer our emotions in one direction or another. It is a story of goals. Goals that we all have. Whatever they may be, that make us human beings. The path I stood on that led to my goals was strune with practical doubts. " Who are you kidding", crossed my mind often. Then I moved forward one arduous step at a time. I have always followed the belief that winning and losing will take care of itself. Success, however, is there for us all.

History is full of unsolved murders, most of which have no apparent motive or too many of them.

For the first time, the full story of a crime that has haunted New England since 1873. The cold-blooded ax murder of two innocent Norwegian women at their island home off the coast of New Hampshire has gripped the region since 1873, beguiling tourists, inspiring artists, and fueling conspiracy theorists. The killer, a handsome Prussian fisherman down on his luck, was quickly captured, convicted in a widely publicized trial, and hanged in an unforgettable gallows spectacle. But he never confessed and, while in prison, gained a circle of admirers whose blind faith in his innocence still casts a shadow of doubt. A fictionalized bestselling novel and a Hollywood film have further clouded the truth. Finally a definitive "whydunnit" account of the Smuttynose Island ax murders has arrived. Popular historian J. Dennis Robinson fleshes out the facts surrounding this tragic robbery gone wrong in a captivating true crime page-turner. Robinson delves into the backstory at the rocky Isles of Shoals as an isolated centuries-old fishing village was being destroyed by a modern luxury hotel. He explores the neighboring island of Appledore where Victorian poet Celia Thaxter entertained the elite artists and writers of Boston. It was Thaxter's powerful essay about the murders in the Atlantic Monthly that shocked the American public. Robinson goes beyond the headlines of the burgeoning yellow press to explore the deeper lessons about American crime, justice, economics, and hero worship. Ten years before the Lizzie Borden ax murder trial and the fictional Sherlock Holmes, Americans met a sociopath named Louis Wagner—and many came to love him.