Showing results by publisher "Blackstone Publishing" in Amateur Sleuths

It isn’t the first time real estate agent Helen Morrisey has found someone naked in bed while showing a house. But this one is different. One glance at the bluish cast around his lips and the vacant, staring eyes, and Helen knows developer Al Capelli is never going to sign another sales agreement. His death is big news for a small Chesapeake water town where a family empire is built around secrets and their brash money style is resented by locals. Within days, his lover, her old friend, begs Helen to find the killer before she’s arrested for murder.

It’s been 12 years since Sandi Parkman went missing after being dropped off at home by her schoolmate, Nick Larson, now the Sheriff of Freeport, Michigan. When a construction crew unearths Sandi’s bones - along with Nick’s letterman jacket and one of his hairs - Nick becomes suspect number one in the murder.

Rampton Farm, Northumberland, has always been a gloomy, godforsaken place. Now it’s earmarked for demolition—to make way for just another tawdry amusement park. It will be progress, and nothing can stand in the way—except perhaps Arnold Landon, the Planning Officer who must glean the lie of the land.

Called in to investigate the body of a young mother found floating in a small Michigan lake, Freeport coroner Dr. Emily Hartford quickly determines that Samantha Browdey was murdered. Among the many questions circling this horrifying event is one that yanks hard on Emily’s heartstrings: Where is Samantha’s infant daughter? Working alongside police detective Isode Aditson, Emily becomes ferociously determined to find the missing baby, Brooklyn. At the same time, Emily’s longtime boyfriend Nick Larsen has reappeared—after being missing, presumed dead, for over a year. But Nick has changed.

Forty-something Maggie Sharpe is returning to her quaint childhood town of Dogwood Mountain, Missouri, nestled in the beautiful Ozark Mountains, Maggie recently inherited Dogwood Bakery, along with a cute little cottage, from her aunt Marjorie. With a son in the Navy, deployed six months at a time, and an ex in Kansas, Maggie decided that it was time for a change, but she soon learns that life back home is not all sprinkles and jelly-filled donuts.

After years of learning how to manage her bipolar disorder, Emily Firestone finally has it under control. Even better, her life is coming together: she's got a great job, her own place, and a boyfriend, Paolo, who adores her. So when Paolo suggests a weekend sailing trip, Emily agrees - wine, water, and the man she loves? What could be better? But when Emily wakes the morning after they set sail, the boat is still adrift ... and Paolo is gone.

Grandeur and opulence are everything in the famed New Orleans Garden District where pets are family and no bling is too big. Opening Furry Godmother, pet boutique and organic treat bakery, is Lacy Marie Crocker's dream come true - until the glitter gun used to make her Shih Tzu tutus becomes a murder weapon - and Lacy becomes public enemy number one. Now detective Jack Oliver is hounding Lacy, and her Furry Godmother investor wants out before his name is tarnished by association.

Dr. Emily Hartford is called on to investigate the mysterious death of Ethan Quon, a young, rising star cellist found dead in a snowbank after a high school dance. After exhausting every corner and turning up empty-handed, Emily discovers an unsuspecting witness: Jace, a non-verbal autistic man, whom she believes has the key to solving the case.

When Thomas Cardwell, an upstanding man-of-business, is murdered, Roscoe enlists the aid of the best investigators in London—namely Barnaby and Penelope Adair and Inspector Stokes of Scotland Yard—to solve the puzzle of why anyone would want to kill a man as honest as Cardwell. Dispatched by Roscoe, London’s gambling king, to learn what “nefarious activity” an upstanding man-of-business has stumbled upon, Jordan Draper—Roscoe’s own man-of-business—arrives at Thomas Cardwell’s office to discover Cardwell very recently murdered.

Holy Terrors dream team—actress Diana Hunt and her partner in crime (solving) young bishop Alistair Kincaid—are getting married! The plan is to hold a small ceremony with just some family and friends at a charming and secluded hotel in Cornwall. But in true Holy Terrors fashion, the Pale Rider hotel carries the legend of a killer ghost rider and his skeleton horse, which sets the perfect tone for a cheerful occasion!

Philippa Watson, a good-natured yet troubled 17-year-old, has just moved to Washington, DC. She’s lonely until she meets Judy Peabody, a brilliant and tempestuous classmate. The girls become unlikely friends and fashion themselves as intellectuals, drawing the notice of Christine Martins, their dazzling English teacher, who enthralls them with her passion for literature and her love of noirish detective fiction. When Philippa returns a novel Miss Martins has lent her, she interrupts a man grappling with her in the shadows.

Her name is Renee Blackbear, but what most people call the 19-year-old Ojibwe woman is Cash. She lived all her life in Fargo, sister city to Minnesota’s Moorhead, just downriver from the Cities. She has one friend, the Sheriff Wheaton. He pulled her from her mother’s wrecked car when she was three. Since then, Cash navigated through foster homes and at 13 was working farms, driving trucks.

Talented actress Diana and young bishop Alistair, her partner in crime-solving and supernatural sleuthing, face the terrifying curse of the Scottish Play in this witty, creeptastic paranormal mystery from New York Times bestselling British fantasy author Simon R. Green.

Hazel Davis is drifting: newly unemployed, living in a city she hates, and significantly less successful than her infamous younger sister, Evie. Evie grew up online, having gone viral at age five in a daddy-daughter dance video. Now she’s a megapopular lifestyle influencer. But to Hazel, @evelyn is just Evie, her beloved little sister—and a kid who has been exploited for her entire childhood. So when Evie disappears—in the middle of a live stream, during a brand-sponsored trip to Los Angeles—Hazel knows something is terribly wrong.

The sisters of Gwenafwy Abbey have cherished their contemplative life - days spent in prayer, reflection, tending the convent's vegetable gardens and making their award-winning organic cheese, Heavenly Gouda. Life seems perfect, except for Sister Agatha, a die-hard mystery fan who despairs of ever finding any real life inspiration for her own novel. That is, until the abbey's sexton is found dead under an avalanche of gouda. Despite the reservations of the local constable, Sister Agatha is convinced it's murder and the game is afoot.

Amateur sleuth and proud owner of Dogwood Donuts Maggie Sharpe was gearing up for the holidays and having just another normal day in charming southern Missouri, when an unfortunate accident occurred in front of her shop in the wee hours of the morning. When a bus full of elderly potential witnesses on their way to a Christmas event puts out a distress call, Maggie feels obligated to find some answers. She discovers that what she thought was an accident was actually a murder, which makes things anything but jolly in Dogwood Mountain.

A twister, a kidnapping, and a murder - oh my! Scumble River may never be the same. For school psychologist Skye Denison, there's certainly no place like home. When a violent tornado devastates her small hometown of Scumble River, she can't see how the community will ever recover - especially since town councilman Zeke Lyons appears to have perished in the twister. But things get even worse for Skye when her police chief husband, Wally, disappears in the midst of investigating Zeke's death, and evidence arises pointing to foul play.

October, 1900. University College, London. When the spread-eagled body of one of her students is discovered in her rented room shortly after attending one of her lectures, Dr. Margaret Murray is disinclined to accept the official verdict of suicide and is determined to find out how and why the girl really died.

Arnold Landon can’t help but feel drawn to Oldham Manor, an atmospheric medieval house in the middle of nowhere. When he is invited to catalogue the library there, he jumps at the chance. The place is a maze of musty old papers and books. And that’s not all. Late one night, he stumbles on a secret passage, twisting deep under the ground. Where will it take him? And why was it walled up? When a stranger turns up dead in a ditch, Landon begins to realize that someone is watching his every move. And they have a plan to ensure the past stays buried for good.

The idyllic town of Baxter, Michigan, seemed like the perfect place for Dr. Katie LeClair to settle down after years toiling in medical school - until the murder of a patient shattered the peace she had found. Now on the mend and balancing the responsibilities of a new house and the joys of a new romance, Katie is finally ready to start enjoying life. But danger arrives just as the town is gearing up for its annual Halloween festival-and once again, this doctor-turned-sleuth will have to unmask a killer in their midst. Trouble comes in threes this Halloween.