Showing results for "Bad Books" in Amateur Sleuth

Prudence Davies is one of Ellison Jones's least favorite people on earth. She's vindictive. She's mean. And the two share a twisted history. Or, they did. When Prudence is murdered after a very public spat, Ellison finds herself a murder suspect. Worse, the investigating officer has it in for Ellison's homicide detective husband.

Halloween has arrived in Olmeda, and someone's celebrating by leaving bloody pentagrams all over the city. As the resident official witch, it's my job to figure out what the pentagrams mean and if they're more of a threat than a prank. Extra points if I find out who did it before they ruin the best holiday of the year, one I plan on spending with Ian. But finding the culprit is harder than expected—nobody saw anything and there's no shortage of suspicious paranormals. In the words of my new personal motto: everyone is a suspect.

Bad magic and good witches don't mix, but I make it work. Spellbooks are a witch's best friend, especially when they're passed down from your beloved dead Grandma. So, when an anonymous caller is interested in buying mine, my answer is nope, not ever, go away. Problem is, they won't take no for an answer. With suspicious newcomers in town and the increasing odds someone thinks my spellbook is full of dark magic, I find myself with no shortage of motives or suspects. Good thing I'm dating Ian, the world's sexiest paranormal problems expert.

Before everything fell apart, Ruby Foster had been enjoying a completely normal day. Then again, normal was relative in Tempest, Texas. As a supernatural safe haven where paranormal beings lived together in the open, normal meant expecting the unexpected. But she didn't think anyone could have imagined a rogue, lunch-hour robbery at the local diner. Attacking a room full of supernaturals should have been a death sentence but somehow the thieves managed to incapacitate them all and steal more than just the money in the till.

I'm a witch. Not a powerful witch, mind, but as Grandma liked to say, it's all in the kindness, not the power. Grandma is gone now, but her dream of having a witch shop lives with me. So, when the opportunity to run my own shop presents itself, I move across the country to take it, no questions asked.

Stylish brunches are all the rage this autumn in Old Town Alexandria, and everyone's posting their parties on social media. But while Domestic Diva Sophie Winston juggles her event-filled calendar, she's approached by local designer Mitzi Lawson—who is afraid someone is following her. The very next day Mitzi loses her best friend and business partner, Denise. The two were renovating a generations-old house where Denise died unexpectedly, and Mitzi fears that it wasn't a medical condition to blame, but murder.

When 28-year-old Agnes Blythe, the contented bifocals-wearing half of an academic power couple, is jilted by her professor boyfriend for the town Pilates instructor, her future is suddenly less than certain. So when her glamorous, eccentric Great Aunt Effie arrives in town and offers a job helping to salvage the condemned Stagecoach Inn, what does Agnes have to lose? But work at the inn has barely begun when the unlikely duo find the body of manipulative Kathleen Todd, with whom Agnes and Effie both have recently had words. Words strong enough to land them at the top of the suspect list.

Jeanie’s getting married, and – despite her completely impossible four sisters – her best friends Clio and Amber are determined to give her a bachelorette weekend to remember. They’re in matching pink T-shirts and the drinks are flowing... But the night turns out to be unforgettable for all the wrong reasons when a girl turns up dead on the dancefloor. And – even though she’s a stranger – she is wearing one of Jeanie’s hen T-shirts.

When the Overton clan—one husband, three almost-sister-wives, and their eleven children—arrive in Mallard Bay, summer on the Eastern Shore heats up. The Overtons and their television show are ready for prime time until the family patriarch disappears. Lightning Strike Films wants their leading man in front of the cameras in two weeks, and Heath Overton’s wives want him home yesterday. Everyone’s upset, even before the murders start.

When single mum Clio’s ex Gary turns up dead on the doorstep of her caravan – the one she’s been forced to live in ever since he stole every penny she had – there’s only one suspect. Her. What’s more, she doesn’t remember much about the night he was killed – not just because of the forgetfulness that’s been plaguing her along with the hot flushes – but because she definitely had one too many cocktails with her two best friends Amber and Jeanie. Clio does remember them talking about how much they all hated him though.

After decades making progressive documentary films, Maggie MacGowen did not expect to fall in love with a Los Angeles cop. But Mike Trent, whom she met while investigating her sister’s shooting, is no LAPD stereotype. Tall, with salt-and-pepper hair and a craggy Bogart face, he inspires her to uproot herself and her daughter from San Francisco and move down to L.A. It takes only a week for their new life to collapse.

It’s leaf-peeping season in Naneda, New York, and Agnes Blythe has settled into helping her eccentric Great Aunt Effie restore the Stagecoach Inn. It seems nothing can shatter the golden idyll—or the ka-ching of cash registers—until a mechanic at Hatch Automotive is found bludgeoned to death with a wrench. Sweeping into action, Agnes and Aunt Effie are on the scene, when a tourist-laden motor coach breaks down outside of town. The Stagecoach Inn isn’t exactly ready for guests, but Agnes and Effie agree to take in a group of seniors while they wait for repairs.

When Saffron plans an event that lands her at the mansion of an eccentric millionaire with a rock band that marches to the beat of its own drum, she doesn't expect to get stranded at the mansion with the band. She also doesn't plan to find a dead body in a locked room. A raging fire has cut off the mansion from the rest of the island, including all her helpers, so she's going to have to play this investigation by ear.

A new book in the nationally bestselling series that has wowed critics and readers alike. David Loogan returns! Loogan is living in Ann Arbor with Detective Elizabeth Waishkey and her daughter, Sarah. He's settled into a quiet routine as editor of the mystery magazine Gray Streets-until one day...

Nothing bad ever happens in the small seaside town of Castle Bay - until the body of missing tourist Bethany Haliwell is found in the bush, buried in a shallow grave. News crews and journalists from all over the country descend as old secrets are dragged up and gossip is taken as gospel. Among them is Miller Hatcher, a reporter battling her own demons, who arrives intent on gaining a promotion by covering the grisly murder. Following an anonymous tip, Miller begins to unravel the mystery. When another woman goes missing, she finds herself getting closer to the truth. But at what cost?

A former fashion photographer encounters murder and corruption in New Orleans. It's too hot to sleep. It's too hot to be up. This is New Orleans in the summer. And as dawn breaks on a sweltering July morning, André Derain awakens to a scream from his courtyard as a man is stabbed just below his window. Acting on impulse, Derain leaps out the window in the buff and chases the attacker down the alleyway, but the man with the knife gets away. By the time Derain returns to the courtyard, the victim has died.

After spending the night in the village with Frankie's cousin Kaia, Nina comes home to find one of her ex-boyfriends dead in her bed. When Nina enlists Frankie's help to find the real killer, they run into a dead end. And since the sheriff and Frankie's relationship is on ice, he remains tight-lipped about the crime. Leaving Frankie and Nina no choice but to rely on the help of Frankie's wacky roommate and a pair of polar bears to track down the murderer. But the killer went to a lot of trouble to frame Nina and the guilty party isn't going down without a fight.

When aspiring entrepreneur Kelsie takes her cupcakes to the Watermelon Festival, she finds herself right in the middle of a shocking murder. Elizabeth Bryan, the town's biggest socialite, has been found dead between the pig races and the pie eating contest—and her new friend Nell is the prime suspect. With no time to lose, Kelsie hires the dead woman's assistant in order to clear her friend's name and get back to business. Then one of their beloved kittens goes missing, and Kelsie suspects it must be connected to the investigation.

Kelsie's idyllic farm is falling apart. The need for a serious injection of cash leads her to invite the higher ups from a multi-level marketing company to her place for their annual retreat. Unfortunately, the company founder is allergic to the kittens. To make peace, Kelsie moves them to the barn, but on her way back, she trips over the body of the company hype man. His murder sets off a chain of shocking revelations, and a family's dark secrets are uncovered in the deadliest way possible. As suspects abound, Kelsie reprises the role of amateur detective to protect her friends and felines.