Headed for a Hearse

Headed for a Hearse

Author: Jonathan Latimer

Publisher: Open Road Media

Published: 2014-08-26

Total Pages: 199

ISBN-13: 1453206000

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Just days from meeting the reaper, a convicted murderer hires Chicago’s most hard-boiled PI to save his neck—before the executioner can claim it Robert Westland’s death is just around the corner when he finally decides to fight the murder rap that’s sending him to the electric chair. Fingered for his wife’s grisly demise, Westland is in a bind, and his last hope is Bill Crane, a booze-soaked detective who’s as ruthless with a quip as he is when trawling the streets for Chicago’s most brutal criminal element. Crane’s got just a few days to suss out the real killer—someone clever enough to off Westland’s wife and lock her in a room whose only key belongs to Westland himself. Fueled by an abundance of liquor and a habit of bad manners, Crane sets his sights on a cast of oddball characters among whom hides a murderer. But in 1930s Chicago, everyone’s got a secret, and the pressure is on for Crane to separate the dangerous from the truly homicidal before it’s too late.


Chapter & Hearse

Chapter & Hearse

Author: Lorna Barrett

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2010-08-03

Total Pages: 266

ISBN-13: 1101189061

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Mystery bookstore owner Tricia Miles has been spending more time solving whodunits than reading them. Now a nearby gas explosion has injured Tricia's sister's boyfriend, Bob Kelly, the head of the Chamber of Commerce, and killed the owner of the town's history bookstore. Tricia's never been a fan of Bob, but when she reads that he's being tight-lipped about the "accident", it's time to take action.


Never Laugh as a Hearse Goes By

Never Laugh as a Hearse Goes By

Author: Elizabeth J. Duncan

Publisher: Minotaur Books

Published: 2013-10-29

Total Pages: 305

ISBN-13: 1250020492

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A Bloody Words Light Mystery 2014 Finalist Spa owner and habitual amateur sleuth Penny Brannigan finds herself at a clerical conference at Gladstone's Library in North Wales. Also attending as a guest speaker is her boyfriend, DCI Gareth Davies, there to give a talk on theft prevention. But behind the ornate red sandstone facade of this most respectable of Victorian buildings, Penny encounters deception, blackmail, and murder. When the bishop's secretary dies of a suspicious case of food poisoning, Davies leads the investigation. At Penny's suggestion, Florence Semble, a friend from Penny's adopted hometown, is invited to the Library to decode the secretary's shorthand notebook in the search for clues. As the conference continues, another body is found in the beautiful Library itself, and Penny must once again search for a killer. Elizabeth J. Duncan's Never Laugh as a Hearse Goes By is a fine entry in a series celebrated for its small-town charm, Welsh flavor, and lovable characters.


The Lady in the Morgue

The Lady in the Morgue

Author: Jonathan Latimer

Publisher: Open Road Media

Published: 2014-04-29

Total Pages: 216

ISBN-13: 1480486132

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A vanished corpse leads a hard-drinking PI on a madcap chase More than forty corpses fill the cold Chicago basement, but no crime has been committed here. After all, there are supposed to be bodies in the city morgue. Tonight, one is attracting particular attention: a beautiful young woman whose apparent suicide captured the imagination of every newspaper editor in town. Learning how and why she died is too great a task for any cub reporter. Only Detective Bill Crane is up to the job. A few minutes after Crane wakes from a nap in the morgue, the mysterious woman’s body has disappeared. With the howls of the mental patients as a soundtrack, Crane leads the police on a wild search through the hospital and across Chicago, stopping for a nap or a cocktail whenever the situation demands. It may be a matter of life and death, but that is no reason to rush.


Chopin's Funeral

Chopin's Funeral

Author: Benita Eisler

Publisher: Vintage

Published: 2007-12-18

Total Pages: 242

ISBN-13: 0307425258

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Frédéric Chopin’s reputation as one of the Great Romantics endures, but as Benita Eisler reveals in her elegant and elegiac biography, the man was more complicated than his iconic image. A classicist, conservative, and dandy who relished his conquest of Parisian society, the Polish émigré was for a while blessed with genius, acclaim, and the love of Europe’s most infamous woman writer, George Sand. But by the age of 39, the man whose brilliant compositions had thrilled audiences in the most fashionable salons lay dying of consumption, penniless and abandoned by his lover. In the fall of 1849, his lavish funeral was attended by thousands—but not by George Sand. In this intimate portrait of an embattled man, Eisler tells the story of a turbulent love affair, of pain and loss redeemed by art, and of worlds—both private and public—convulsed by momentous change.


A Grave Issue

A Grave Issue

Author: Lillian Bell

Publisher: Crooked Lane Books

Published: 2018-02-13

Total Pages: 224

ISBN-13: 1683314913

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Fans of Carolyn Hart and Juliet Blackwell will be charmed by this cozy mystery series debut featuring “quirky characters, a clever plot . . . and enough clues and red herrings to keep the pages turning” (Dawn Eastman, author of the Family Fortune mysteries) Disgraced journalist Desiree Turner gets more than she bargained for when she takes over her family’s funeral home—and winds up at the center of a murder investigation After an on-air gaffe goes viral and jeopardizes her career, journalist Desiree Turner retreats home to Verbena, California for some peace and quiet. She begins working one of the quietest jobs around: presiding over funerals for her great-grandfather’s funeral parlor. But the action seems to follow her as a fistfight breaks out between neighbors Rosemarie Brewer and Lola Hansen at one of the first funerals she’s in charge of running. It exposes a nasty dispute and Rosemarie’s husband, Alan, is found murdered shortly after. Lola’s husband, Kyle, is immediately arrested. Desiree, whose own father’s death was devastating, has always viewed Kyle as a second father. Determined to clear his name, Desiree jumps headfirst into the investigation and quickly discovers that Alan had several unsavory habits at his job and in his personal life, including putting assets into his mistress’s account to hide them from Rosemarie. People murder for money and love all the time, and there’s no telling who he offended just enough to push them over the edge. Desiree is looking in all the right places, but she better catch the killer fast before they come for her next.


My Darkest Prayer

My Darkest Prayer

Author: S. A. Cosby

Publisher: Flatiron Books

Published: 2022-12-06

Total Pages: 245

ISBN-13: 1250867649

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Award-winning, New York Times bestselling author S. A. Cosby’s debut novel My Darkest Prayer is republished in a new edition, with a new introduction from the author. “S.A. Cosby’s reissued debut thriller proves he was a master from the start...Cosby has in three books emerged as one of the genre’s best living practitioners...its reissue is a brilliant idea.” —Los Angeles Times “I handle the bodies.” Whether it's working at his cousin's funeral home or tossing around the local riffraff at his favorite bar, Nathan Waymaker is a man who knows how to handle the bodies. A former marine and sheriff's deputy, Nathan has built a reputation in his small Southern town as a man who can help when all other avenues have been exhausted. When a beloved local minister is found dead, his parishioners ask Nathan to make sure the death isn’t swept under the rug. What starts out as an easy payday soon descends into a maze of mayhem filled with wannabe gangsters, vicious crime lords, porn stars, crooked police officers, and a particularly treacherous preacher and his mysterious wife. Nathan must use all his varied skills and some of his wit to navigate the murky waters of small town corruption even as dark secrets of his own threaten to come to the surface. “[A] colorful tale of small-town corruption...[Cosby's] powerful storytelling skills shine through.” —Washington Post


Hearse and Buggy

Hearse and Buggy

Author: Laura Bradford

Publisher:

Published: 2012

Total Pages: 379

ISBN-13: 9781322804828

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Claire Weatherly has fled a high-stress lifestyle for a slower pace in Amish country. She planned a short visit to Heavenly, Pennsylvania, but wound up opening an Amish specialty shop and settling in. She's slowly making friends among the locals, including Esther, a young Amish woman who works in the shop. So when the store's former owner is murdered, and the man Esther is sweet on becomes a suspect, Claire can't help but get involved.


Mortuary Confidential

Mortuary Confidential

Author: Kenneth McKenzie

Publisher: Kensington Books

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13: 0806531797

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From rookie mistakes and runaway corpses to screaming dead men and unusual requests, a collection of stories by funeral directors.