'Animal lovers will delight' Ann Granger 'A real treat . . . I loved it. Cats, dogs, murder and a credible and relatable heroine' Barbara Nadel When Clarice Beech finds her friend Peter Ramsey dead in his kitchen, she believes he's succumbed to a fatal heart attack. Peter, who lived in one of the five cottages on Magpie Row in the Lincolnshire Wolds, was a keen supporter of stray cats - which made him very unpopular with the neighbours. And after Chris Morris, an alcoholic neighbour, disrupts Peter's funeral, insisting Peter was murdered - and he knows who the murderer is - Clarice discovers there's no shortage of possible suspects among the Magpie Row inhabitants. Who, behind Magpie Row's idyllic façade, might have had murder in mind? And, after his outburst at Peter's funeral, where is Chris? And is Clarice, with her mission to tend to Peter's strays, as well as uncover the truth about her friend's death, putting herself in danger's way?
'Animal lovers will delight' Ann Granger on The Cat and the Corpse in the Old Barn 'A real treat . . . I loved it. Cats, dogs, murder and a credible and relatable heroine' Barbara Nadel on The Cat and the Corpse in the Old Barn Driving home from a ceramics evening class, Clarice Beech reflects on the absence of one of her students, Colin Compton-Smythe. Later, Emily, Colin's daughter, telephones to say her father has died during routine surgery. Distraught, Emily opens up to Clarice about his wretched childhood and the day five-year-old Colin returned home to discover Avril, his mother, gone. Colin never believed she would have left without him and had been trying to find out more about Avril's disappearance all those years ago. Clarice readily agrees to accompany Emily to Colin's funeral. On arriving at the stunning Victorian Gothic manor house, with Bellatrix, the majestic stone Siamese cat reposing at its entrance, Clarice soon becomes drawn into the fractious world of the Compton-Smythe family: Colin's argumentative father Ralph and his equally combative partner Tessa, their daughter, Dawn, being stalked by an ex-lover and, most unsettling of all, Ernestine, Ralph's emotionally unpredictable sister. And then there's Johnson, Ralph's menacing manservant. Clarice discovers the nearer she gets to the truth, the greater she is in danger as somebody is intent that the mystery of the missing wife should never be resolved.
Food blogging is turning Hope Early into a household name. But the dead body down the block makes her a #1 suspect . . . It seems everyone loves Hope’s blog these days, and she’s busier than ever volunteering to help other women create their own paths to success. So she’s shocked when a neighbor petitions to run Hope right out of her small Connecticut town! Set in her ways, apparently Birdie Donovan doesn’t like the chaos Hope’s sleuthing creates, the police activity and crime scenes, and it’s happening way too often lately. Eager to make amends, Hope bakes Birdie a batch of her best muffins. The delicious treats might have smoothed things over—until Hope discovers Birdie dead in her gazebo the very next day . . . Now instead of worrying about holding on to her beloved home, Hope is trying to stay out of jail. Because suddenly she’s the lead suspect in the case. Not even her boyfriend, Police Chief Ethan Cahill, is promising he can clear her name, much less discuss the investigation with her. It’s up to Hope to get to bake new ground on the case before the lifestyle brand she’s created—and her whole life—crumbles . . . Includes Recipes from Hope’s Kitchen! Praise for THE UNINVITED CORPSE “Fans of Krista Davis’s Domestic Diva mysteries will appreciate another detective who specializes in cooking and lifestyle suggestions.” —Library Journal
font size="+1">'Animal lovers will delight' Ann Granger 'A real treat . . . I loved it. Cats, dogs, murder and a credible and relatable heroine' Barbara Nadel Summer in the Lincolnshire Wolds and Clarice is rung by her friend Louise, asking whether she can look after Susie, her son's lively Boxer, as 41-year-old Guy has gone missing from the family home. His mother thinks he has been suffering from depression but more worryingly, in his professional life, he had been working on a high-profile case, defending a known criminal. His home life was beset with problems too, which is why his mother has asked Clarice to look after the dog; Charlotte, Guy's wife, just can't cope with her as well as their three daughters. Getting drawn into the puzzle of Guy's disappearance, Clarice wonders how Susie received a nasty cut to her back leg, and who is the mysterious Charles? Guy apparently did not trust him enough to let him into his home, and he had not been seen since he was driven away in Charles car. Guy's friends all say that he was a good, honest man, but as Clarice looks further into the murky criminal world he inhabits, she questions if Guy has been pulled in out of his depth. And - why does Susie keep returning to the private woods, where she had spent so much time with her beloved master....
'Animal lovers will delight' Ann Granger 'A real treat . . . I loved it. Cats, dogs, murder and a credible and relatable heroine' Barbara Nadel 'This debut promises to build up into a popular series' Daily Mail Clarice Beech has two passions in life: animal rescue and Detective Inspector Rick Beech. She is devoted to the first but she and Rick have been separated for the past six months - life without him is hard. Clarice shares her other love, for contemporary ceramics, with the charming Lady Vita Fayrepoynt. When Vita's adopted three-legged ginger cat Walter disappears from Weatherby Hall Clarice is called in to find him. Walter, snug in an old barn, is quite well. But his discovery ends with Clarice in hospital, and Rose Miller, late of the Old Vicarage in the morgue. There is nothing natural about Rose's death... Putting their differences aside, Clarice and Rick are drawn together to try to understand the murder that has shaken the rural Lincolnshire community. As she explores Rose's past Clarice is pulled into a shady world of blackmail, scams and violence. And as the secrets of Weatherby Hall and the Fayrepoynt family threaten to spill out Clarice finds friendships tested, and her own life at risk. A debut mystery set in the Lincolnshire Wolds, featuring an amateur detective who mixes sleuthing with her other great love: animal rescue. The perfect classic crime mystery for fans of Ann Granger, M. C. Beaton and Caroline Graham's Midsomer Murders.
A fallen New York lawyer unlocks a world of intrigue and murder in a mysterious steakhouse in this crime noir thriller by the author of Afterburn. Bill Wyeth is a rising real estate attorney living the lofty heights of success. Then a tragic accident claims everything he has: his family, his fortune, his Park Avenue apartment, his career. But this is Manhattan, and Bill has so much further to fall. His downward spiral lands him at the table of Allison Sparks, the dangerously alluring manager of a Midtown steakhouse. She needs a personal favor of him—to engineer a midnight trade-off in a shady multi-million-dollar real estate deal. For a man with nothing left to lose, the setup is too intriguing to refuse, and like Allison, too forbidden to resist. But her favor draws him deep into a web of sex, deception, and murder—and to a secret place at the back of the restaurant, the Havana Room, where a man might find both evil and redemption . . . A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice, Colin Harrison’s The Havana Room is an intense and intoxicating thriller from a modern master of the New York noir.
'Your next must-read' LUCY FOLEY 'Absolutely brilliant plotting' ANN CLEEVES The darkest truths should never surface . . . DI Matt Lockyer has been side-lined to working cold cases, following a bad decision he made in a recent investigation. Lockyer isn't too bothered though, as it gives him the chance to look into his own brother's senseless killing which still remains unsolved. On a quiet afternoon Lockyer receives a phone call from prisoner Hedy Lambert - a woman he put inside for murder fourteen years ago. She informs him that the man she was originally accused of killing has turned up alive and well. She begs him to reopen her case. All those years ago, Lockyer had been the one to pin down Hedy's motive, but deep down he'd never wanted to believe she was guilty. The thought that he might have sent an innocent woman to prison disturbs him, so Lockyer agrees to investigate. But has it become too personal and is he being manipulated? Perhaps there are some cases that should just stay buried. ******************************* *Praise for Stay Buried* 'Gloriously atmospheric' ELLY GRIFFITHS 'The twists were terrific' GYTHA LODGE 'A well-written deftly plotted whodunnit' GUARDIAN 'Remarkably assured' LITERARY REVIEW 'Accomplished, twisty' WOMAN AND HOME *Readers are loving Stay Buried* 'Held my interest right to the very last plot twist - and what a twist!' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'I can't wait for the next instalment' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'Loved this book, was gripped from the start and couldn't put it down' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'Great plot and fabulous characters' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
When fifteen-year-old Jessica Jackson's crush on her pastor's son leads to rape, she finds herself pregnant and alone, rejected by both family and church as an unrepentant sinner. And when fellow-church member, Simon Cassell's homosexual relationship with his high school friend is discovered, he is beaten by his father and ostracized. Meanwhile, middle-aged Dwight Cook is struggling with the economic failure of his business, the town hardware store, with estrangement from his wife and oldest son, and with uncontrollable lust for a female employee half his age. The outcasts' struggles with underserved guilt intensify when a lynching brings the FBI to the rural North Carolina town and both church and family members are implicated, and when a tormented loved one commits suicide. The Grace of Guilt follows the destruction of three families and their quests for redemption, and examines the old prejudice of the new South.
Michigan's Upper Peninsula is blessed with a treasure trove of storytellers, poets, and historians, all seeking to capture a sense of Yooper Life from settler's days to the far-flung future. Since 2017, the U.P. Reader offers a rich collection of their voices that embraces the U.P.'s natural beauty and way of life, along with a few surprises. The forty-five short works in this fourth annual volume take readers on U.P. road and boat trips from the Keweenaw to the Soo. Every page is rich with descriptions of the characters and culture that make the Upper Peninsula worth living in and writing about. U.P. writers span genres from humor to history and from science fiction to poetry. This issue also includes imaginative fiction from the Dandelion Cottage Short Story Award winners, honoring the amazing young writers enrolled in all of the U.P.'s schools. Featuring the words of Karen Dionne, Donna Winters, Tyler R. Tichelaar, Brandy Thomas, Jon Taylor, T. Kilgore Splake, Joni Scott, Donna Searight Simons, Terry Sanders, Ninie G. Syarikin, Becky Ross Michael, Cyndi Perkins, Charli Mills, Tricia Carr, Raymond Luczak, David Lehto, Tamara Lauder, Chris Kent, Sharon Kennedy, Jan Stafford Kellis, Rich Hill, Elizabeth Fust, Deborah K. Frontiera, Ann Dallman, Mikel B. Classen, T. Marie Bertineau, Larry Buege, Craig Brockman, Megan Sutherland, May Amelia Shapton, Cora Mueller, and Fenwood Tolonen. "U.P. Reader offers a wonderful mix of storytelling, poetry, and Yooper culture. Here's to many future volumes!" --Sonny Longtine, author of Murder in Michigan's Upper Peninsula "As readers embark upon this storied landscape, they learn that the people of Michigan's Upper Peninsula offer a unique voice, a tribute to a timeless place too long silent." --Sue Harrison, international bestselling author of Mother Earth Father Sky "I was amazed by the variety of voices in this volume. U.P. Reader offers a little of everything, from short stories to nature poetry, fantasy to reality, Yooper lore to humor. I look forward to the next issue." --Jackie Stark, editor, Marquette Monthly The U.P. Reader is sponsored by the Upper Peninsula Publishers and Authors Association (UPPAA) a non-profit 501(c)3 corporation. A portion of proceeds from each copy sold will be donated to the UPPAA for its educational programming. Learn more at www.UPReader.org
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