Murder Mystery – Readers Alley

Category: Murder Mystery

Mystery Author Shana Frost

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Are you looking to solve murders? Perfect, Shana loves plotting them.

As an author of whodunits, Shana Frost is in her secret den hatching murders and having a blast with Aileen and the gang. It’s crazy in there…

When not in the den, Shana always has her nose buried between the pages of a fiction novel. After all, the tantalising aroma of a story is far more enticing, especially for a sensitive nose like hers.

Shana’s powerful sense of smell has helped her sniff out fictional murder mysteries and a wide variety of characters.

Occasionally, she finds herself wandering ancient hallways of a castle, or a museum trying to smell the tales these walls effuse.

The traveller Ibn Battuta wasn’t wrong when he wrote, “Travelling – It leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller”

Murder Mystery
When Murder Comes Home
By Shana Frost
~~$.99~~ – FREE

Murder Mystery
Smokes of Death Beer
By Shana Frost
Only $.99

Murder Mystery
When Eyes Don’t Lie
By Shana Frost
Only $4.99

New Releases

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Holiday Romance – Feels Like Christmas by Shannon Stacey
Military Romance – Xtreme Pressure by Em Petrova
Paranormal Fantasy – Darkwells Academy by Terina Adams
Contemporary Romance – The Boyfriend Pact by Emily Robertson
Cozy Mystery – Death by Chance by Abigail Keam
Murder Mystery – A Body at the Altar by Dee MacDonald

Holiday Romance

Military Romance

Paranormal Fantasy – $.99

Cozy Mystery

Murder Mystery

Contemporary Romance – $.99

Mystery – Death on the Danube

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Esther Brookstone Art Detective Series, Book 3

Mystery, Suspense, Thriller, Spy, Romance

Date Published: September 2020

Publisher: Carrick Publishing

Esther Brookstone, ex-MI6 agent in East Berlin in the Cold War and ex-Scotland Yard Inspector in the Art and Antiques Division, is on her honeymoon with Interpol agent Bastiann van Coevorden. Their idyllic cruise down the Danube is interrupted when a reclusive and mysterious passenger is murdered. Why was the victim alone on that riverboat filled with couples, in a stateroom by himself? And who killed him? Esther and Bastiann were often called Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot by wags at the Yard, and this addition to the series might remind readers of Christie’s Death on the Nile and Murder on the Orient Express, but this mystery/thriller is very much a story set in the twenty-first century. So tour the Danube with Esther and Bastiann…and enjoy the ride!

Praise for Death on the Danube:

“Death on the Danube is the third book in the Esther Brookstone Art Detective Series by Steven M. Moore, and it is a wonderful blend of mystery and murder; a story that will be loved by fans of sleuth novels. Esther Brookstone served in East Berlin during the Cold War as an MI6 agent and she has also been a Scotland Yard Inspector. She is on honeymoon with her husband, Bastiann van Coevorden, an Interpol agent. On the Danube, they are alerted to the murder of a mysterious passenger. He occupied the stateroom by himself on a riverboat filled with couples. Who was this man and why would anyone murder him? What follows is an exciting ride to uncover the killer and the motive behind the murder.

I didn’t read the first two books in this series, but Death on the Danube is a thrill ride, a suspenseful story that can be read as a standalone novel. The plot is cleverly written, and it twists as the mystery deepens. It is unpredictable and fun and I was eager to discover who the victim of the murder was, find out why he was murdered, and find out who the killer was. The author doesn’t make it easy for readers, and I enjoyed the twists introduced into the story to sustain the interest of the reader and keep them guessing and turning the pages. Steven M. Moore is a master storyteller who creates characters with depth and thrusts them into complex situations. I loved the way the relationship between Esther and Bastiann is written, the great pacing, and the wonderful writing.”—Gobi Jane, in her Readers’ Favorite 5-star review.

Other Books in the Esther Brookstone Art Detective Series:

Rembrandt’s Angel

Esther Brookstone Art Detective Series, Book 1

Publisher: Penmore Press

A Neo-Nazi conspiracy threatens Europe . . .

Esther Brookstone’s life is at a crossroads. A Scotland Yard inspector who specializes in stolen art, she’s reluctantly considering retirement. A three-time widow, she can’t quite decide whether paramour and colleague Interpol Agent Bastiann van Coevorden should be husband number four. Decisions are put on hold while she and Bastiann set out to thwart a neo-Nazi conspiracy financed in part by artworks stolen during World War II. Among the stolen art is the masterpiece “An Angel with Titus’ Features,” a work Esther obsesses about recovering.

The case sends the intrepid pair on an international hunt spanning several European countries and the Amazon jungle. Evading capture and thwarting death, Esther and Bastiann prove time and again that adrenaline-spiked adventures aren’t just for the young.

Amazon

Son Of Thunder

Esther Brookstone Art Detective Series, Book 2

Publisher: Penmore Press

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Esther Brookstone is at it again, this time obsessing about the life and times of St. John the Divine, all triggered by the discovery of a parchment hidden in the frame of a Botticelli painting that she authenticates. As in Rembrandt’s Angel, she soon gets into trouble, and her paramour, Interpol agent Bastiann van Coevorden, again comes to her aid. A race to find the saint’s tomb results, because Esther has competition. Three centuries of action involving the saint, the Renaissance artist Sandro Botticelli, and Esther and Bastiann, make this sequel a book of mystery, thrills, and suspense that will keep readers guessing.

A deftly crafted and consistently riveting read from beginning to end. Rembrandt’s Angel showcases author Steven Moore’s genuine flair for originality and his impressive mastery of the Mystery/Suspense genre.

—Midwest Book Review

Amazon

About the Author

Steven M. Moore was born in California and has lived in various parts of the US and Colombia, South America. He always wanted to be a storyteller but postponed that dream to work in academia and R&D as a physicist. His travels around Europe, South America, and the US, for work or pleasure, taught him a lot about the human condition and our wonderful human diversity, a learning process that started during his childhood in California’s San Joaquin Valley.

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Mystery – Murder Knows No Boundaries

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JD Pickens Mysteries, Book 3

Mystery, Murder Mystery

Published: December 2019

Publisher: Gatekeeper Press

Sometimes routine wasn’t always routine as Sheriff JD Pickens, and his deputies learned. What was supposed to be a routine 911 call ended up costing Pickens a deputy and turned out to be a double homicide. One that was outside the realm of humanity. Pickens was forced to divide his team and call for help from two retired homicide detectives. Not since a psychopath went on the warpath with a shotgun had there been such bloodshed in the county leaving scars that would last a long time.

Other Books in the JD Pickens Mystery Series:

Descent Into Hell

JD Pickens Mysteries, Book 1

Published: July 2017

With a population of just twelve thousand, Creek City is a sleepy rural town in Central Florida. Folks live there because life is simple and peaceful; but once dead bodies start turning up, Creek City is anything but.

Underprepared and undermanned, the county sheriff’s office scrambles to stop the bloodshed, but the killer is always one step ahead. Sheriff J. D. Pickens, usually a steady hand, loses patience as clue after clue results in a dead end and another corpse turns up. When Pickens gets close to the truth, the killer threatens Pickens’s own family, making this murder investigation personal. Anger, terror, and tenacious police work clash in a surprise ending that will leave readers breathless.

Descent into Hell is a thriller that will make you lock your doors and bar your windows. Big cities may be filled with crime, but it’s easier to get away with murder in rural areas. The silence of the countryside is not always comforting; it can also be a reminder of how alone you are—and how unlikely it is that anyone will hear you scream.

Buy it On Amazon

Murder on Grange Road

JD Pickens Mysteries, Book 2

Published: May 2019

Quail hunting in Central Florida was supposed to be an exciting experience. But lately, for Bo Tatum, the owner of Tatum’s Hunting Resort off Grange Road near Lake Azur, it had been a disaster. Instead of his dogs flushing out birds, they’d been digging up human bodies.

Sheriff JD Pickens and County Medical Examiner, Dr. Marge Davids, were planning a festive holiday season. But their plans were put on hold thanks to Tatum’s discoveries. Undermanned and ill-equipped in a city and county where such things rarely happened, Pickens and Davids will need to muster all the ingenuity they can to solve the mysteries of the bodies, including getting help from an expert in forensic science.

With clues scarce and few leads, Pickens and Davids had to rely on unconventional methods as a last resort. When tempers started to flare during the investigations, Pickens had to use every ounce of patience he could muster to stay calm and in control.

Buy it on Amazon

About the Author

George Encizo is an award-winning author and has written seven novels. Murder Knows No Boundaries is his latest. Encizo is a retired banker and lives in Tallahassee, Florida. When not writing, he enjoys a cup of coffee on the back porch with his wife surveying their gardens.

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Murder Mystery – Coyote Alibi

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A Public Library Association 2019 regional award winner

No-nonsense rookie paralegal Naomi Manymules pauses on a lakeside clifftop to enjoy a moonlit moment and hears someone swimming far below. When something loudly shatters the quiet – firecrackers, maybe? – she heads for home. The next day she learns that a lifelong friend is now a prime murder suspect, because her sleazy, abusive husband has turned up naked and dead in a boat on the lake. When her friend can offer only a coyote as her alibi, the police aren’t inclined to look much further. Undaunted, Naomi and her new boss, Grant Carson, launch an investigation of their own. With wicked humor and a big helping of snark, they navigate through a colorful assortment of petty criminals, surly teenagers, prominent locals, likable polygamists, and a big-city mobster or two. It’s only a matter of time before they become targets themselves.

Reader Reviews

“An enjoyably twisty mystery with appealing characters and a vivid setting” Kirkus Reviews

“The writing here is clever, crisp, and consistent.” Critic’s Report, Book Life

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About the Authors:

J. & D. Burges are an award-winning husband-and-wife writing team. Having lived for many years on the edge of the Navajo Nation, they write with cheerful authority about open spaces, big lakes, and the unique mix of cultures captured in their Sage Landing stories. Coyote Alibi is a Public Library Association 2019 regional winner in fiction.

Their mysteries are now hatched in a cottage in the woods near a lake. It’s a great place to plot light-hearted homicides, capers, scams, and other fictional mischief. When they’re not doing that or working out, they might be dancing a foxtrot or tango. There’s also some knitting and woodworking going on.

Find J. & D. Burges Online:

Historical Mystery – D for Daisy

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D for Daisy
The Blind Sleuth Mysteries Book 1
By Nick Aaron
Publisher: Another Imprint Publishers
ISBN: 978-1973276432
ASIN: B077CM7WJ8
Genre: Murder Mystery, Historical Mystery

Free ebook – April 15-30

During World War II a Lancaster landed at its base in England after bombing Berlin, and a member of the crew was carried off dead. His young wife Daisy soon found out that he had been murdered. But she was only a woman, blonde and pretty, and blind since birth: so who was going to listen to her? In the mayhem of the bombing campaign, who even cared? She would have to find the murderer on her own.

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About the Author:

Hi, I’m Nick Aaron and I’m Dutch.

First, I’m lucky that I happen to be a professional proof-reader. Great care given to a correct text is something book-lovers find very important.

I was born in South Africa, where I went to a British-style boarding school. Later my family and I moved to Lausanne (Switzerland), and I continued my education in French. When I was twelve, I remember that I wrote some poetry, four poems about the seasons, admittedly a rather banal subject, except I’d recently moved from the tropics and the concept of four seasons was completely new to me. Not to mention the French language. Anyway, my teacher was so impressed he asked me to recite one of my poems in front of the whole class. After this first literary triumph, the writing bug never left me.

Recently, after writing in Dutch and French for many years, I’ve gone back to the language of my South African childhood. Obviously the potential for a global readership was something of an incentive, and the idea of a blind sleuth was pretty exciting. Talk about a brainwave! The character of Daisy Hayes came to life in my mind almost wholly formed. The rest is history. Or just read the stories…

Find Nick Online:

Murder Mystery – Standing Our Ground

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Monastery Valley, Book 4

Murder Mystery

Date Published: January 2020

Publisher: Black Rose Writing

A cold-blooded murder. The victim: A fourteen-year-old boy. The shooter waits patiently for the cops and calmly explains his right to kill the boy. “I was defending my property.” Can Deputy Andi Pelton find the evidence to break through the killer’s stand-your-ground defense? Suddenly, Sheriff Ben Stewart almost dies and cannot campaign for re-election. Andi knows she must take his place—her nemesis, Deputy Brad Ordrew, runs unopposed and he’s promised to fire her when he’s sheriff. Can she stand her own ground to stay in Monastery Valley while she tries to solve the murder and defends herself against scurrilous political ads paid for by a mysterious stranger?

Other books in the Monastery Valley Mystery Series:

Climbing the Coliseum

Monastery Valley, Book 1

It’s the rugged Monastery Valley of Montana. High on the cliff called the Coliseum stands a man, deciding whether to live or die. In the valley below, Grace Ellonson, fourteen, will be abandoned by her mother. Where has Grace’s mother gone, and why has she left her daughter behind? A rancher will be seduced into a racist and anti-government conspiracy—who’s leading the conspiracy and what are his plans? Depressed psychologist Ed Northrup and Monastery Valley newcomer deputy sheriff Andi Pelton struggle to unravel these mysteries before they explode in a violent collision. And amid the chaos, Ed, Andi, and Grace must face the most formidable decision of their lives.

Amazon

Nobody’s Safe Here

Monastery Valley, Book 2

When cattle baron Magnus Anderssen collapses mentally, psychologist Ed Northrup struggles to find the cause – a terrible event buried in Magnus’s past leaving him veering between suicide and murder. Meanwhile, Deputies Andi Pelton and Brad Ordrew clash as they investigate Jared Hansen, a boy caught with rifles and a paranoid plan to kill his schoolmates. Their problem? Jared, a great kid, a school leader, has no previous problems. Ordrew’s convinced Jared’s a mass shooter-in-waiting, but Andi’s not. Ed joins their search for whatever caused his radical transformation from great kid to psychotic killer. It’s a race against time: Magnus grows more irrational and homicidal, Jared’s insanity may not be controlled before it’s too late, and Ed’s risky plan to save the boy may destroy his relationship with Andi. Nobody’s Safe Here, a psychological thriller, tells the story of a community of ordinary, decent people facing terrifying mysteries.

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The Bishop Burned the Lady

Monastery Valley, Book 3

A mysterious fire in a remote forest clearing; a woman’s charred bones; unexplained tracks in the rutted road—the only clues Deputy Andi Pelton has to what happened. Then she meets an old man living alone in a forest compound that obviously houses many people. Sex trafficking in the Montana wilderness? As Andi and psychologist Ed Northrup struggle to solve the brutal and fiery murder, Andi faces a fear she didn’t know she had. The horrors they unearth lead them deep into the appalling reality of prison gangs and a cult led by a malign Bishop—and threaten to overwhelm Andi and Ed’s romance and her growing bond with her “step-girlfriend,” Ed’s adopted daughter, Grace. Will that center hold when Andi finds the killer holding a knife against her throat? And if it does and she succeeds, will she be able to face her greater fear?

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About the Author

Bill Percy, an award-winning novelist, draws on his experiences as a psychotherapist to write vivid, engaging tales of people confronting painful and challenging mysteries. His previous novels in the Monastery Valley series, Climbing the Coliseum, Nobody’s Safe Here, and The Bishop Burned the Lady, were finalists or distinguished favorites in multiple book award competitions. Bill lives with his wife, Michele, in Hope, Idaho, above the shore of idyllic Lake Pend Oreille in the shadow of the rugged Cabinet Mountains.

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