Werecougar Lily Mason has sworn off investigating crimes in Moonrise, Missouri. Now that she’s a college student with two jobs and officially the girlfriend of animal activist Parker Knowles, she’s too busy for drama and danger. Besides, the last case nearly cost her everything, including her life. At least until her friend, the elderly Opal Dixon, breaks a hip and must recuperate in a nursing home. Opal has been spending all her time complaining about her annoying roommate, her idiot doctor, and the laundry service that keeps losing her clothes. So, Lily is less than convinced when Opal insists a nurse’s suicide is really foul play. Still, to ease her friend’s fears, Lily agrees to look into the situation. With her loyal dog Smooshie at her side while she delves into the case, Lily soon learns that it’s not all Bingo and low-sodium diets at Moonrise Manor. And when Opal’s suspicions make her the next target, Lily realizes she’s running out of time to save her friend…and stop a desperate killer.
"Clever, frisky, and fun! Pit Perfect Murder is a spirited paranormal mystery jam-packed with witty characters and rollicking twists." --Ann Charles, USA Today Bestselling Author of the Deadwood Mystery Series When cougar-shifter Lily Mason moves to Moonrise, Missouri, she wishes for only three things from the town and its human population. . . to find a job, to find a place to live, and to live as a human, not a therianthrope. Lily gets more than she bargains for when a rescue pit bull named Smooshie rescues her from an oncoming car, and it’s love at first sight. Thanks to Smooshie, Lily’s first two wishes are granted by Parker Knowles, the owner of the Pit Bull Rescue center, who offers her a job at the shelter and the room over his garage for rent. Lily’s new life as an integrator is threatened when Smooshie finds Katherine Kapersky, the local church choir leader and head of the town council, dead in the field behind the rescue center. Unfortunately, there are more suspects than mourners for the elderly town leader. Can Lily keep her less-than-human status under wraps? Or will the killer, who has pulled off a nearly Pit Perfect murder, expose her to keep Lily and her dog from digging up the truth? Fall in love with Lily Mason, the shifter who only wants to live as a human, and her pit bull Smooshie, a rescue dog who in the end may be the one doing the rescuing! Keywords: cozy mystery books, animal mysteries, dog mysteries, dog rescue, pit bulls, shifters, werewolf mysteries, small town, sweet romance, clean read, cozy mysteries, murder mystery books, small-town secrets, witches and familiars, magical mysteries, paranormal cozies, fantasy book series, shifter books, paranormal mysteries, bestseller, thriller, suspense, small town mystery, humor, drama, female sleuth, amateur sleuth, peculiar mysteries, series, dog lover mystery Fans of Amanda M. Lee, Tegan Maher, Barbara Anino, Annabel Chase, Samantha Silver, Kathi Daley, Kelty Kells, Nic Saint, Sara Bourgeois, J.A. Whiting, Danielle Garrett, Patricia Fry, Nola Robertson, Addison Moore, Amy Boyles, CeeCee James, Leighann Dobbs, Samantha Silver, J.L. Collins, Corrine Winters, Elle Adams, Mara Webb, Leanne Leeds, Clementine Moore, Chris Behrsin, Erin Johnson, Nyx Halliwell, S.W. Hubbard, Constance Barkerwill, Kate P. Adams, enjoy this series!
(Corrected File) Lily Mason and her adorable pittie Smooshie both have a nose for murder, but this is one cougar-shifter who would give her left paw to never find another dead body. All she wants is to enjoy a simple life in her new town, her fixer-upper house, while working a job she loves. Besides, the mystery of whether Parker Knowles, her boss at the rescue shelter, will or won't finally ask her out gives Lily plenty to keep her guessing. But when an abandoned pit bull puppy leads Lily and Smooshie to the corpse of a local Lothario, she is once again drawn into the seedier side of small town living. Even though she's warned off the case by the local sheriff, Lily is determined to find the killer. It doesn't help matters that more nasty notes are showing up around town, making Lily wonder if the two things are connected. Lily and Smooshie need to crack the case of the dead Don Juan, while navigating what it means to live in an all human town, before the secrets of the people she cares for are exposed. The Barkside of the Moon Mysteries from USA Today bestselling paranormal cozy mystery author Renee George, are exciting tales of mystery and suspense that will have you on the edge of your seat. Clean reads full of humor, small town charm, and plots that will keep you guessing who the killer is until the very end.
When scholar Terry Williams arrives in Iverness, Scotland, to complete her research on a woman burned at the stake for "congress with the Devil" in the seventeenth century, she finds the city in an uproar over the very recent murder of a young "Wiccan" woman. By the author of The Poison Tree. Reprint.
A serial killer stalks the streets of London in this “top-notch debut thriller”—the first Jack Caffery novel from the acclaimed author of Gone (Kirkus Reviews). In his first case as lead investigator with London’s murder squad, Det. Inspector Jack Caffery is called on to investigate the murder of a young woman whose body has been discovered near the Millennium Dome in Greenwich, southeast London. Mutilated beyond recognition, the victim is soon joined by four others discovered in the same area—all female and all ritualistically murdered. And when the postmortem examination reveals a gruesome signature connecting the victims, Caffery realizes exactly what he’s dealing with—a dangerous serial killer. A finalist for the Edgar Award, Birdman explores the darkest reaches of the human mind and introduces a fascinating detective to the world of British crime fiction. “Treading the grisly path blazed by Thomas Harris in 1981 with Red Dragon, promising newcomer Hayder crafts a blood-curdlingly creepy debut thriller.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review “A deftly plotted assault on the nerves . . . Birdman preys on the reader’s expectations expertly, and Hayder handles her story’s complicated time scheme with enviable assurance. Graphic, disturbing, splendidly readable.” —Kirkus Reviews
Sometimes you can’t go home, and that would’ve been just fine by me. I’m Hazel Kinsey, a special agent for the FBI, and I’m also a witch. Seventeen years earlier, I packed up my belongings and my squirrel familiar Tizzy, and I left my paranormal hometown of Paradise Falls for good. Or so I thought. When my best friend from high school, Lily Mason, calls and asks me to investigate her brother’s murder, I can’t say no. She was there for me during the worst time of my life, and it’s my turn to return the favor, no matter the personal cost. Going home is harder than I imagined. My grumpy, hot high school crush, a bear shifter named Ford Baylor, has become a grumpy, hot police officer who’s not happy to see me. Unfortunately, I can’t stop thinking about him. All these years away, I imagined him married to his bear shifter sweetheart and living the white-picket-fence dream. But Ford is single, and he looks ready to strangle me. Apparently, I’m his mate. Who knew? On top of that, there’s a sinister force at work in Paradise Falls, and I have to solve the mysterious murders happening around town if I want to prevent my best friend from becoming the next victim.
Wollie Shelley, the plucky amateur sleuth Kirkus Reviews called “funny, brave, smart, and altogether the fetchingest crime heroine since the early Stephanie Plum,” returns to face suspect lovers and unlovable suspects in this hilarious sequel to Dating Dead Men. Wollie Shelley is a greeting card artist struggling to keep afloat financially and to pursue—despite a series of recent disasters—the search for the love of her life. She reluctantly agrees to be a contestant on the reality television show Biological Clock. The show’s premise: Six eligible singles date each other, and the audience votes on which couple would make the best parents. Alas, Wollie isn’t having much luck finding a man she’d like to date “off the air,” much less father her child. As her own biological clock ticks away, Wollie gets caught up in a much more pressing demand on her time. Her friend Annika has vanished into thin air, and Wollie is convinced that she’s in grave danger. When Wollie reports the disappearance to the Los Angeles Police Department, however, the detective assigned to the case seems more interested in dating Wollie than in finding her friend. So Wollie springs into action—and lands right in the middle of an FBI investigation into an international drug cartel. She soon finds herself being stalked by an assortment of threatening characters, including her fellow television contestants, who will stop at nothing to beat the clock. With Dating Is Murder, Kozak delivers another sparkling treasure, a laugh-out-loud-funny, literate mystery for readers of Janet Evanovich and Sue Grafton and for Kozak’s own growing legion of fans.
Sometimes, the truth can be a real killer… When Lily Mason and her human boyfriend Parker Knowles help a friend rescue two abused pitties, they’re determined to find out who abandoned the dogs in a deserted house. But the decrepit home has other secrets, too, such as the dead body in the basement. For once, Lily hasn’t stumbled upon a corpse, but Parker’s buddy has—and he’s arrested for murder. With the help of their friends, human and non-human alike, Lily and Parker are determined to find out what really happened. Even if it means putting their own lives in danger.
A new selection for the NEA’s Big Read program A compact selection of Poe’s greatest stories and poems, chosen by the National Endowment for the Arts for their Big Read program. This selection of eleven stories and seven poems contains such famously chilling masterpieces of the storyteller’s art as “The Tell-tale Heart,” “The Fall of the House of Usher,” “The Cask of Amontillado,” and “The Pit and the Pendulum,” and such unforgettable poems as “The Raven,” “The Bells,” and “Annabel Lee.” Poe is widely credited with pioneering the detective story, represented here by “The Purloined Letter,” “The Mystery of Marie Roget,” and “The Murders in the Rue Morgue.” Also included is his essay “The Philosophy of Composition,” in which he lays out his theory of how good writers write, describing how he constructed “The Raven” as an example.
