“A fresh, entertaining read with snappy dialog and plenty of well-rendered action.” “A cracking fun read!” A new fiancé, an old boyfriend, and a murder that will change everything. Frankie Chandler is finally at peace with her life. She’s engaged to Detective Martin Bowers, her pet psychic business is booming, and she’s overcome the emotional residue of a past relationship that destroyed her self-respect. Just when everything’s going swell, trouble strolls through her front door. Jeffrey Ross, the ex-boyfriend who betrayed her, needs Frankie’s help. To get rid of him, she agrees to retrieve the keys he left with yet another hostile ex-girlfriend, a masseuse. Unfortunately, when Frankie shows up early at Friendly Fingers Spa, Jeff’s latest fling is face down in the new Jacuzzi. Murdered right in front of her Fiji Crested iguana. The reptile refuses to tell what he knows, and when Frankie’s involuntary entanglement in the investigation threatens to ruin Bowers’ chances for promotion, she takes steps. After calling an uneasy truce with Jeff, the two form a crime-solving team that will either solve the mystery or bring an end to everything she’s worked for. Cringeworthy past mistakes have never been so funny!
“A Most Entertaining Read.” “Meeting the family turns into a clustercluck!” A broody hen. A dead body. The ultimate test of a relationship. Pet psychic Frankie Chandler finally (and reluctantly) agrees to meet Detective Martin Bower’s family. All she has to do is impress the pack of sisters who raised him. Not difficult, right? The only thing at stake is her relationship with the man she loves. The weekend at his eldest sibling’s farm surpasses her worst nightmares. His former guardians excel at finding her faults. Even the chickens have it in for her. Then her first moment alone with Bowers on a romantic stroll ends with the discovery of a murdered farmhand. Now the marshal is fixed on Bowers’ sister Dymphna as the chief suspect. On a homestead overrun with animals, there must be a witness. The broody hen? The carrot-obsessed horses? The suspect’s self-involved dog? As she wrangles information from animals both furry and feathered, the case against Dymphna worsens. Should Frankie’s loyalty be to the truth? Or to Bowers’ family? Join Frankie and Bowers on their most personal case yet.
“Murder and jealousy wrapped in charm and wit, the novel is a delightful read!” Mistaken identities, romantic rivals, and a host of misunderstandings. The Harlow Brothers are back at Inglenook resort, and not just because Edward is missing his long-distance love, Claudia Inglenook. The former college linebacker turned ghost writer of the Aunt Civility etiquette books is the guest of honor at a charity fundraiser, where he'll appear as the allegedly agoraphobic Auntie's representative. As Edward's secretary, Nicholas is forced to tag along. His one hope for the weekend is the event will give Edward's declining book sales a boost. For the record, he despises Claudia. At the kickoff costume ball, one of the guests is found impaled with the sword from Edward's Zorro outfit, and as Nicholas scrambles to clear Edward's name, he comes up against suspects and motives he'd rather not reveal. Then he discovers a secret that could mean the end of Aunt Civility. Though Edward stands to lose everything, he and Nicholas push to find the truth, but when the killer targets those the real Aunt Civility loves, solving the mystery becomes a fight for survival.
The Pet Psychic meets The Harlow Brothers in this hysterical mystery romp. When Frankie Chandler and Detective Martin Bowers finally embark on their long-awaited honeymoon at the iconic Hotel del Coronado, their blissful escape is rudely interrupted by an unwelcome guest—a corpse on their cabana patio. This shocking turn of events catches the eye of brothers Edward and Nicholas Harlow, who are hiding out at the hotel to dodge some dangerous criminals with a vendetta against Nicholas. But hiding can be difficult for the popular author of the Aunt Civility etiquette series and his ever-present secretary. Neither pair are strangers to solving mysteries, but cracking this case won’t be a walk in the park. The Some Like It Hot convention is in full swing, filling the hotel with cross-dressing couples, real-life gangsters, and super fans with hidden agendas. Get ready for a whirlwind of mystery, mayhem, and madcap fun!
“Clever humor; fabulous characters.” “The flip side of Spencer Quinn.” A murdered woman, a frightened dog, and a fake pet psychic who is in for the surprise of her life. Frankie Chandler is a charlatan. Though she promotes herself as a pet psychic, her profound revelations come from animal behavior books and her ability to interpret the owner’s body language. Then an appointment with a new client goes horribly wrong and leaves her with images of a woman’s murder. Images that came from her canine client. Images that match the description of a body discovered in the Arizona desert. Being a real pet psychic doesn’t come with a manual. Frankie’s overwhelmed by messages from every passing pooch and cranky cat. If she doesn’t figure out how to control her new ability, she’ll go mad. She’ll also miss additional clues that could help catch the killer, and catch the killer she must because the skeptical detective in charge of the case doesn’t believe she can communicate with the crime’s only witness. But the killer does, and Frankie must convince the frightened dog to reveal the whole story before it's too late...for both of them. The debut novel in the Frankie Chandler Pet Psychic series combines mystery, romance, and the disturbing thoughts of many furry friends in an engaging story that will have you laughing out loud.
“Vick can inject humor into a death scene while simultaneously providing an important clue.” Join the Harlow Brothers for another romp through murderous suspects, romantic possibilities, and the ever-present sibling rivalry. It drives Nicholas Harlow crazy that his brother, Edward, the secret author of the Aunt Civility etiquette books, refuses to attend publicity events, instead opting to give lectures to like-minded societies as the allegedly agoraphobic Auntie's representative. When Nicholas tricks him into a public speaking event, the attendees include Edward’s former college English professor – a smarmy Lothario with his own book to hawk. Then the professor dies in a spectacularly public manner, and his last act is to point an accusatory finger at his former student. When Edward is brought in for questioning in front of the local paper’s star reporter, Nicholas adds damage control to a growing list of responsibilities that includes pegging the appropriate party for murder. But when he develops feelings for one suspects that no respectable sleuth should have, the investigation jumps off the rails. Unfortunately, the killer remains on course, and it’s only a matter of time before the brothers must make hard decisions in order to deliver justice.
Los Angeles, 1923. The land of movie stars and perpetual sunshine has a stylish new force to be reckoned with—Poppy Starfire, Private Investigator. Poppy recently moved out on her own and is eager for a taste of independence and to prove to her retired Uncle Sherman that she is capable of running the Starfire Detective Agency. Her brother Jasper has also joined the agency. Poppy prides herself on being a skilled investigator but so far the cases have been scarce and to say the least uninspiring. But that all changes when Anna Colton walks through the door. Anna’s brother Roger, a famous stuntman for the local movie studio has died in a well publicized accidental fall. Only Anna’s not convinced it was an accident. It’s up to Poppy and Jasper to peel away the layers and uncover the truth. Who killed Roger ‘Rowdy’ James? Transport yourself back to the golden age of Hollywood in book 1 of London Lovett's brand new historical Starfire Cozy Mystery series. Book 2, Murder at the Ostrich Farm coming May 13, 2019
How did it all begin? That depends on where you were and who you ask. In some places it started with the weather—which quickly became unstable and began behaving in impossible ways. In still others it started with the lights in the sky, which shifted and pulsed and could not be explained. Elsewhere it started with the disappearances: one here, a few there, but increasing in occurrence until fully three quarters of the population had vanished. Either way, there is one thing on which everyone agrees—it didn’t take long for the prehistoric flora and fauna to start showing up (often appearing right where someone was standing, in which case the two were fused, spliced, amalgamated). It didn’t take long for the great Time-displacement called the Flashback—which was brief but had aftershocks, like an earthquake—to change the face of the earth. From In the Season of Killing Bolts: “Looks like a mushroom cloud–only, like, horizontal.” I confess I jumped, and that my hand dropped to my weapon—had I carried one. “Donovan. Now how many times have I told you not to cut through the cemetery?” “Ah, Chief, but then I’ve got to go all the way around. And there’s a mean dog on Oberlin; you know that. Besides,” He stepped up next to me and gazed at the cloud. “You don’t really mean to tell me you care about that when there’s, well, that. Am I right?” I peered at the cloud: at its curtains of rain and lightning—like the tendrils of a jellyfish—at its billowing cumulonimbus, which flickered and flashed. “What is that?” I mumbled. “Is that, is that lightning up there, or something?” I guess he must have followed my gaze. “Up there? Near the top? No—no, I don’t think so. More like—more like balloon beacons, or aircraft. Their wing lights, maybe—glowing in the gloom. Those colors, though. They don’t—they don’t look right. Almost like—” “That’s because you’ve never seen them,” I said, and toggled my radio. “No one has. K-94, this is the Chief. Do you copy?” But there was nothing—only static. Only white noise. I listened for the truck’s radio: nothing. Just dead air. Just silence as thunder rumbled and the rain fell and the wind gusted—powerfully. Alarmingly. “K-94, this is the Chief—do you copy?” More static, more noise. I looked at the fast-approaching cloud. “Donovan,” I said. “Yeah, Chief?” “Don’t cut through the cemetery.” And then I hustled for the truck and quickly climbed in—jammed it into gear, activated the light bar. Then I was driving out of the cemetery at a dizzying clip; reaching for my cellphone even as it started ringing and ringing; glancing at the shotgun as it lay—bleakly, funereally, like a coffin—between the seats.
“Snappy prose laced with wry humor, and equally witty dialog.” Meet the Harlow Brothers Everybody loves Aunt Civility's etiquette books. However, only ‘her’ secretary, Nicholas Harlow, has ever met the author. That's because the genteel, grandmotherly Aunt Civility in reality is his short-tempered, former football-playing older brother, Edward. Edward gives lectures as the official representative of the allegedly agoraphobic author, and upon arriving for such an event at the isolated Inglenook Resort, the discovery of a corpse in the room next door sends his ordered world spinning out of control. With Edward in danger of losing his manners (and blowing his cover), Nicholas convinces him to team up to solve the crime, but soon teamwork turns into competition. Nicholas will do whatever it takes to beat his brother, but as the body count rises, so do his chances of becoming the next victim.
Hawai‘i author Chris McKinney’s first entry in a brilliant new sci-fi noir trilogy explores the sordid past of a murdered scientist, deified in death, through the eyes of a man who once committed unspeakable crimes for her. Year 2142: Earth is forty years past a near-collision with the asteroid Sessho-seki. Akira Kimura, the scientist responsible for eliminating the threat, has reached heights of celebrity approaching deification. But now, Akira feels her safety is under threat, so after years without contact, she reaches out to her former head of security, who has since become a police detective. When he arrives at her deep-sea home and finds Akira methodically dismembered, this detective will risk everything—his career, his family, even his own life—and delve back into his shared past with Akira to find her killer. With a rich, cinematic voice and burning cynicism, Midnight, Water City is both a thrilling neo-noir procedural and a stunning exploration of research, class, climate change, the cult of personality, and the dark sacrifices we are willing to make in the name of progress.
