Showing titles in Amateur Sleuths

College English professor Alison Bergeron thought that dating a cute NYPD detective like Bobby Crawford would be exciting and involve a lot of riding around in cruisers and putting away sleazy crooks, but he has yet to invite her on any stakeouts.... Then when a friend asks her to help him find his nephew, she goes to Bobby for advice only to find out that he already knows about the case. He pulled the boy out of the Hudson River a few days earlier. The boy’s employer calls it an accident, but Alison and Bobby aren’t convinced.

Lucy Swift, witch and knitting shop owner, thought her biggest challenge at a marketing course in Oxford would be untangling the enigma of consumer behavior, not a murder mystery. But amid the hallowed halls, someone is weaving a deceptive web that leaves Lucy second-guessing her senses. It's all fun and games until a corpse appears in her dormitory, silent and still—definitely not an illusion.

Sixty-year-old self-proclaimed tea expert Vera Wong enjoys nothing more than sipping a good cup of Wulong and doing some healthy ‘detective’ work on the internet (AKA checking up on her son to see if he’s dating anybody yet). But when Vera wakes up one morning to find a dead man in the middle of her tea shop, it’s going to take more than a strong Longjing to fix things. Knowing she’ll do a better job than the police possibly could—because nobody sniffs out a wrongdoing quite like a suspicious Chinese mother with time on her hands.

Ile de Groix , France. This tiny isle off the coast of Brittany is the scene of a murder left shrouded in mystery and grief. Adam Killian's study has been left intact since his death - the perfect state for Enzo Macleod's forensic investigation. Killian's daughter-in-law is still hoping, the first suspect is still hiding and the treacherous island itself still has a revelation for Enzo.

Cleo’s holiday with her family to the seaside resort town of Brighton is everything she hoped it would be…until she receives a blackmail note. The blackmailer demands Cleo help her or a story revealing Cleo’s investigating will appear in the newspaper. With her uncle warning her to keep her detecting activities private, Cleo agrees to meet the blackmailer when they return to London. But when the woman is seen getting on the train but not off, Cleo grows concerned.

Claire Wright likes to play other people. A struggling British actress, in New York without a green card, Claire needs work. She takes the only part she's offered: as a decoy for a firm of divorce lawyers, hired to entrap straying husbands, catching them on tape with their seductive propositions. The rules? Never hit on them directly. Make it clear you're available, but they have to proposition you, not the other way around. The firm is after evidence, not entrapment.

The weekend was supposed to be an enjoyable time with her family at the neo-Gothic manor of Lord and Lady Kershaw, but when the gamekeeper is murdered, Cleo can’t rest until the killer is caught. As a witness herself, she’s frustrated with the incompetence of the local police who lay the blame on a man who conveniently disappeared. When she realizes their ineptitude is a result of Lord Kershaw’s influence, she focuses her investigation on the earl and his family, against the wishes of her uncle.

With work on the reconstruction of her beloved home almost complete, Jessica Fletcher is in high holiday spirits, spearheading the annual Christmas parade and preparing for her nephew Grady and his family to come to town. The only thing dampening the holiday cheer is the discovery of two sets of bones on Jessica’s property: one set ancient, the other only about a year old.

It’s Christmas in Berrywick, the busiest time of year for dashing taxi driver Lewis. But when he’s killed in a road accident, the entire village is shaken. Julia Bird, recently appointed to the Road Safety Committee, visits the site so that no other villager suffers the same fate. But when she spies a pendant left in the bushes, she feels certain Lewis’s death was no accident…

Past midnight, Chyna Shepard, twenty-six, gazes out a moonlit window, unable to sleep on her first night in the Napa Valley home of her best friend’s family. Instinct proves reliable. A murderous sociopath, Edgler Foreman Vess, has entered the house, intent on killing everyone inside. A self-proclaimed “homicidal adventurer,” Vess lives only to satisfy all appetites as they arise, to immerse himself in sensation, to live without fear, remorse, or limits, to live with intensity. Chyna is trapped in his deadly orbit.

Lane Holland's crime-solving career ended the day he went to prison. Yet one unsolved case continues to haunt him: the disappearance of Matilda Carver two decades ago. Against the odds, Lane finds a lead - a mysterious farm community where Matilda lived briefly, led by the enigmatic Samuel Karpathy. The farm attracts lost souls. People looking for answers. People hiding from their pasts. People who have nowhere else to go. But some of those who go to the farm seem to vanish without a trace.

Corinna Chapman likes the quiet life: good food, good company, and her daily work as a baker. She doesn't really want mystery and intrigue in her life. Unfortunately for her, she doesn't have much choice. Corinna's apartment building seems to be a magnet for mystery and mayhem and, with her new lover, Daniel, a private investigator, Corinna seems destined to be involved in solving these mysteries.

Temple House near Bath is built upon an old Roman Temple, the house bequeathed many centuries before to a secret order of old aristocracy. The 'Saints' are not true saints, they are remnants; the last of their line, they have wealth, but no heirs.

Lauren can't wait to see her daughter again, to pick her up from university at the end of her first term. But when she arrives at her hall and knocks at room 309, a stranger opens the door. For a few minutes, Lauren assumes she must have the wrong room, or the wrong floor. Maybe even the wrong building. But she soon discovers the truth: Evie's not there. She hasn't been there for weeks. So where is she?

Despite the rumors, I'm definitely not a witch, my VHS tapes are not cursed, and renting one absolutely will not hurt anyone. Unless they forget to return it on time—late fees are killer. Kidding! As a werewolf, I can smell everyone's emotions. Guilt stinks like rotten fish, happiness is citrusy, and buttery popcorn...well, that's just my snack. But it's all too overwhelming. To make matters worse, a visitor ends up dead in front of my video rental shop and rumors spread fast. Gossiping ghosts and busybody vampires claim my movies magically murdered him.

All great crime writers have their favourite creations. Similarly, every great sleuth has his, or her, own preferred method of deduction. Take the charming Parker Pyne, who relies upon an intuitive knowledge of human nature to solve the 'Problem at Pollensa Bay'. Or Mr Satterthwaite, who seeks inspiration through his collaboration with the enigmatic Mr Quin in 'The Harlequin Tea Set' mystery. Then, of course, there's Poirot, whose measured analysis of motive and opportunity is tested to the full in 'Yellow Iris', when he receives an anonymous call about a matter of life and death.

Who knew a seven-foot nutcracker could be a murder weapon? Finding the body of the toy store owner Betty King is the latest in a list of reasons Michael Bellemare feels far from jolly this holiday season. Having secured jobs for two local teens at the store, obligation leads Michael to help uncover the killer and clear both their names. Unfortunately, the mounting evidence seems to point to one of the teens. Partnering with detective Janis Jets, Michael listens in as Janis interviews residents and learns more about the hold Betty King had over Lily Rock. Possible mob ties. A runaway dog.

Lose yourself in the gripping first novel in a new series of Golden Age murder mysteries set amid the lives of the glamorous Mitford sisters. It's 1919, and Louisa Cannon dreams of escaping her life of poverty in London, and most of all her oppressive and dangerous uncle. Louisa's salvation is a position within the Mitford household at Asthall Manor, in the Oxfordshire countryside.

Anissa Laurent is a ghost—a master of deception, a woman who has slipped through the cracks of the underworld. Untraceable. Untouchable. Unclaimed. Until me. I made it my life’s mission to find her, drag her back where she belongs, and punish her for her betrayal. I traced every false identity until I found her, but I took my time. I studied the way she breathes, the way she moves, what she loves, and what she hates. She thought she could run. She thought she could hide. She thought she could get away with betraying my family. But I’m not a man who lets go of what’s mine.

The Federal Bureau of Magic Cozy Mystery books are full-length humorous paranormal cozy mysteries. This collection includes Great Balls of Fury, Fury Godmother, and No Guts, No Fury.