Showing results by publisher "Tantor Media" in Amateur Sleuths

Spinster and secret novelist Clarissa Knightley and her gruff American engineer, Captain Huntley, along with their friend and cousin, the Honorable Jack de Sackville and Lady Elspeth, are to wed at last! In anticipation of the double wedding, friends and family are gathering at moldering Wycliffe Manor—until a dying stranger is discovered on the neglected grounds. Despite the tragedy, aristocratic wedding guests and their retinues, foreign and domestic, continue to arrive, not all by invitation.

Olivia Kendrick has déjà vu. The star of Nightmare's popular Wild West Stunt Show is found dead after a heated argument, and it looks like an animal attack. Olivia knows better, though. The scene is eerily similar to the first murder she ever investigated in Nightmare. There's a young new stunt rider eager to take over the starring role, but he's not the only one with a motive for murder. As clues mount about money problems, old grudges, and unbridled ambition, the suspect list only gets longer.

The Pennyfoot hides many secrets, and its downstairs staff keeps a tight lip, even when the Edwardian aristocrats are spotted dallying with damsels in the boudoirs or gambling in the card rooms hidden below the floorboards. Should now and then one of the hotel guests fall prey to a dastardly murderer, however, it is up to Cecily Sinclair to restore order before Scotland Yard steps in and shuts down her infamous seaside hotel.

New Mexico, 1935. Painter Georgia O'Keeffe is at her friend Mabel Dodge Luhan's home, Los Gallos, a house inhabited by a colorful range of artists, authors, and society figures, to attend the memorial service of the renowned writer D.H. Lawrence. Georgia has been commissioned to design the stained-glass windows for the small memorial chapel in Lawrence's honor. But when she checks to see how the light comes through the glass, another much more horrible sight awaits her: beloved Navajo potter Flora Namingha is dead, her face smashed in with a stone . . .

After all these years, Maya and Sandra have mixed feelings about seeing their high school classmates, but in one sense the evening promises to be something of a red carpet event. A shy wallflower in school, Alyssa Turner has blossomed into an Oscar-nominated actress—and she's coming to the reunion. To their surprise, before the event, Alyssa contacts Maya and Sandra. She's going to be playing a private eye and would like to hear about their experiences. When they meet, she confides she was bullied in school by cheerleader Tawny Bryce and her mean girls clique.

Wycliffe Manor has been neglected for decades. Its new heirs are determined to create a welcoming home. Yet soon after the latest family moves in, bones are uncovered in the orchard . . . and odd strangers arrive. When her curate father returns his family to Gravesyde for the marriages of the manor's heirs, gawky spinster Patience Upton has high expectations—until her father is murdered. Shock at learning her father had a mysterious past leads to alarm that the killer may have been after his notebook, which she now possesses.

Mae West has spent the last few years bringing the rundown Happy Trails Campground and the small town of Normal, Kentucky, back to a thriving economic community. Mae's efforts haven't gone unnoticed. Not only is Happy Trails Campground in the running to be named Campground Hospitality of the Daniel Boone National Park, but she landed the coveted Paddle Fest kayak competition that secures the winner a spot on the Olympic team. When champion and Olympian kayaker Bryce Anderson turns over in his kayak dead, there's more than paddling going on, and his death has been ruled a homicide.

Charlene and her handsome spectral friend, Dr. Jack Strathmore, are thrilled that their Salem, Massachusetts, B&B is overflowing with mermaids in advance of the town's newest attraction—a mermaid parade! Retired Hollywood actress Trinity Powers has even agreed to appear on the lead float to commemorate her breakout role as the eponymous mermaid in the blockbuster cult classic, Sirena. The parade also features Trinity's rival, an up-and-coming ingenue, who stars in the film's recent (and somewhat controversial) reboot.

It's a not-so-merry Christmas in Normal, Kentucky! When bossy Gingerbread Gala chairwoman Harper Stewart is found strangled with holiday garland, campground owner Mae West and the Laundry Club Ladies swap cocoa for clues. From feuding bakers to a fake fundraiser—and even Mae's mother-in-law landing on the suspect list—Happy Trails Campground becomes ground zero for one festive whodunit.

True crime writer Dougal Lachlan swore he'd never set foot in Twisted Cedars again. Not even for his sister's upcoming wedding. But an email promising the story of a lifetime pulls him back to his hometown against his better judgement. Thirty years ago, five librarians were murdered across quiet coastal towns in Oregon, leaving a trail of unsolved mysteries. All signs point to a serial killer. As Dougal plunges into the investigation, he enlists the help of local librarian Charlotte Hammond.

This Christmas season, genealogist Ellie McLellan is put in charge of organizing the Percyville holiday festivities. Together with her dwindling senior genealogist group, she endeavors to plan an exceptional event for the town. But when a family feud is unexpectedly thrust upon her, she must find a Percyville treasure before the last generation renews the feud or destroys the the town's Christmas tradition. Will the elders of the community have the clues Ellie needs to solve this mystery?

Newlyweds Lucy Lawrence and Phineas Stone arrive at the glittering shores of Lake Como, Italy, not to enjoy a romantic honeymoon but to answer a frantic plea for help. Phin's brother-in-law—the charismatic Count Luca Carmosino—has vanished without a trace from his Belle Époque villa, and the couple find themselves thrust into a world of stolen diamonds and smuggling rings.

When Olivia Kendrick and her friends stumble on a dead body at a state park, it's clear supernatural forces were to blame. At the same time, shady people are showing up in Nightmare, and every one of them had a reason to kill. As rumors swirl about something powerful hidden in Nightmare, another murder victim puts the staff of Nightmare Sanctuary Haunted House on high alert. Is there a serial killer on the loose, or are there two killers to catch?

When a killer tornado rips through a Dallas flea market, a kind stranger helps Jenna Cooper protect her baby boy. But in the aftermath, Jenna can't find her son or the woman who'd been holding him. Upon discovering the tragedy, reporter and single mom Kate Page, battling for her career and trying to hold her life together, vows to determine what happened to tiny Caleb Cooper.

There's more to celebrate this Halloween when Bailey's college friend Raven prepares to walk down the aisle in spooky seasonal style. As a bridesmaid, Bailey is overwhelmed helping with wedding preparations while the annual holiday festival scares up business for her bookstore. She also finds herself playing peacekeeper between fellow bridesmaids Colby and Ivy, whose arguments add even more conflict to the already simmering tensions within the wedding party between the groom's traditional family and the bride's bohemian parents.

Rarity is excited about expanding the romance section of her store—but not nearly as excited as her best friend Sam is about reuniting with her brother after many years. Marcus makes the trek from California to Arizona, is welcomed with a party, and hints that he may stick around now that remote work is an option. But is it just a coincidence that not long after his arrival, a body is found near a local swimming hole? Especially considering that the dead woman had recently gone on a date with him—and even worse, that Marcus has a startling secret in his past?

For all its merriment, Christmas can also bring melancholy-and in Magic Springs, Idaho, Mia finds that the season has brought her an unhappy ghost who's pulling poltergeist-style pranks to get her attention. When she demands an explanation, the ghost just sends a message: Ask Mary Alice-that is, Mia's beloved Grans, who's been training her to develop her witchy talents. If anyone can figure this out, it's Grans . . . even if she still hasn't managed to free Mia's cat from a previous spell that she cast.

Summer has come to Busman's Harbor, Maine, and tourists are lining up for a taste of authentic New England seafood, courtesy of the Snowden Family Clambake Company. But there's something sinister on the boil this season. A killer has crashed a wedding party, adding mystery to the menu at the worst possible moment....

Summer is around the corner and Sarah is making sure the store is stocked and ready for tourist season. But while the weather's heating up, Sarah gets involved in a case that is decidedly cold, when a man who was linked to a drowning death years ago is found dead himself, on the same stretch of beach. Some of Sarah's friends from the store knew the victim—and the young woman who drowned—very well and are concerned they could be dragged into the case.

Amanda Flower presents Book 2.5 in the Amish Candy Shop Mystery series.