New Release — Deadly as the Driven Snow (A Calendar Clan Mystery Book 2) by Agnes Alexander

When a mortally wounded man turns up on the back porch of newlyweds June and Jason Striker, they know the honeymoon is definitely over. As Sheriff of Edison County, Jason can’t let a killer snowstorm stop him from trying to find the perpetrator of this crime—and June, a novice private investigator, is determined to help.

But the mystery deepens when other murdered victims are tossed out around the small North Carolina town, and a man tries to break in to the Striker household. What do these dead men have in common—or is some kind of message being sent? 

It all becomes dangerously personal when June and Jason’s home is attacked, and they must go into hiding to survive. Can they beat the clock to discover the killer’s motive before he strikes again? Or will their marriage end quickly, as DEADLY AS THE DRIVEN SNOW…

EXCERPT

     I turned from the window and let my mind come back to the present on this icy February day. I also let out a sigh of relief because the subject of Honduras had been dropped, at least for the time being. I busied myself putting the dirty breakfast dishes in the dishwasher. As I bent over to fill the slot on the door with liquid soap, Dingo came sauntering into the room. He stretched and twisted around my leg. I closed the dishwasher, then reached down and rubbed his long gray hair. He purred, and I knew he was asking for something to eat. The shower turned off, so I started the dishwasher and turned to the cat.

     “Come on, boy,” I said and headed for the laundry room which is connected to the mud room where our back door is located. Though we mostly come into the house from the side which leads into the garage, when Jason has muddy boots he comes in the back door, so he can deposit them there. This door leads to a glassed-in porch with another door and four steps down to the yard. I crossed this small room to get to the laundry room where I keep food for Dingo and Buzzy, Jason’s cat. After our marriage, we tried for a few weeks to make Buzzy an indoor cat, but he would have nothing to do with it. Jason ended up building him a fleece-lined house and we put a cat door in the garage, so he could come and go as he pleased. I’ve noticed that he’s staying in the garage more and more since the weather has turned cold.

     Dingo jumped in front of me and slid his body through his cat door into the laundry room. I had to wait until he wiggled his fat behind through the opening before I could open the big door and go inside. “I’ll get you fed then I’ll go feed Buzz,” I said. Though I know he ignores me, I talk to him anyway.

     Just as I took the can of food from the cabinet beside the washer, I heard a loud knock on the door leading outside. I left the laundry room door open and went to glance out the glass panels on the top half of the outside door. The blinds were closed, and I couldn’t see anything. I set the cat food down and moved to open the blinds, wondering who could be at our door so early on such a bad day.

I screamed and jumped back in horror as I looked at a man’s bloody face plastered against the glass. I think the man was trying to tell me something, but I wasn’t about to open the door.

      

New Release — Blue Ridge Murder (A Calendar Clan Mystery Book 1) by Agnes Alexander

Wounded in a drug buy gone wrong, June March, a fledgling private detective, is forced to go home to her parents’ farm to recover. Her close-knit family is rocked when her ne’er-do-well brother-in-law, Roger, is murdered, after his part in a bank robbery. In the small community of Edison, North Carolina, nestled in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, secrets are hard to keep—even one as dangerous as murder. When June’s sister, April, is accused of killing her husband, June will do whatever she must to prove her sister’s innocence.

County Sheriff Jason Striker, an old school mate of June’s, is dead serious about bringing the murderer to justice. But how can he find the killer and keep June safe when she insists on being part of the investigation? Nothing has changed since high school—June is still as determined as ever, and she still has a firm hold on Jason’s heart.

June tries to hold old feelings at bay, but somehow, the boy from yesterday has become the man of her dreams—and she’s not about to let him go. With the killer still on the loose, Jason knows that June’s expertise will be invaluable in helping him solve the case—and she’s not about to back away from doing just that. Identifying the killer can mean the death of them both, as a small-town’s secrets protect one of its own…one who committed this BLUE RIDGE MURDER…

EXCERPT

     The well-built man in a sheriff’s uniform looked more like he was dressed for dancing at a bridal shower than he did as an official of the state and my former classmate. Though I did think he filled out the uniform well, I’d always thought he was just pretending in his job. Maybe it was because while we were in school, he’d always looked more like a big, tall, baby-faced ten- year-old than he did a rough, tough football player—and now, sheriff.

     “I hear you folks have a little problem.” He stepped to the middle of the room and glanced at my broken leg. He didn’t mention it, but he did arch his left eyebrow.

     “Yes,” May said. “You should go pick up Roger. He was one of the bank robbers today.”

     “What makes you think he robbed the bank, May?” His voice was more surprised than questioning.

     “Because he told me he did,” April chimed in.

     “She had to escape with the children. He threatened them,” May explained.

     “Let’s go talk on the porch so the children won’t hear,” April suggested.

     Jason glanced at the kids and nodded. April, May and I followed him to the porch. Mom stayed with the children. I took my place in the rocking chair again and everyone found seats, including Jason.

     “Now,” he said. “Let’s start at the beginning, April. Tell me what happened.”

     

New Release -- The Case of the Vanishing Chef (A P.I. Berger Mystery Book 2) by Harol Marshall #FemaleSleuth #MysteryNovel

When Cinda Mae Bradbury, former stripper turned restaurateur, asks Hollywood P.I. Polly Berger to find her missing chef, Polly ends up tracking down a murderer instead. Is a “killer” mole poblano recipe enough to murder someone for? Cinda Mae believes someone kidnapped her chef, Henry, but L.A. Detective Johnny Birdwhistle thinks Henry could be on the run after murdering his competitor.

Polly’s caught in the middle—trying to stay alive long enough to solve the case one way or the other. Throw a gun-wielding brother-in-law in search of Polly’s twin sister in the mix, and another murder is imminent!

When Polly’s sister is kidnapped, Polly understands that family is more important than she ever realized before—and she’ll do anything to protect Franny. But to save her sister, she’s got to solve THE CASE OF THE VANISHING CHEF!

EXCERPT

     When my part-time secretary Bernardo 'Bunny' Contreras, ambled into my private office in Hollywood and closed the door behind him it meant one thing. It used to mean two things, but based on the current state of our relationship a new client must have walked in our front door—a prosperous client, I hoped, because the balance sheet of my firm, Berger Investigations, Inc., read Red with a capital R.

     My name is Pauline Isabel Berger, which makes me a P.I. by name, as well as by trade, and I’ve been in business going on three years. My offices are located in 'Tinsel Town,' seven blocks from the intersection of Hollywood and Vine, which puts us on the wrong side of the tracks, but the right side of the law.  

     In addition to working for me, Bunny is also my karate instructor and swing dance partner. On weekends he earns his chops as a standup comic, which is why he only works for me part-time. At the age of twenty-six he's twelve years my junior. Well, twelve years I admit to.

     I looked up to see Bunny leaning against the frame of my office door grinning his lop-sided grin. "You'll never guess who's here." My heart sank.

     "Do I wanna know?" I hadn’t meant to sound so grouchy, but Mondays are not my favorite day.

      "Y'all might," he drawled.

     I interpreted his drawl to mean the visitor waiting in the outer office was our previous client, one Cinda Mae Bradbury, former stripper turned restaurateur.

     "Okay, fill me in. Bun. How long's it been anyway?"

     "Coupla weeks. Enough time for her to finish shutting down The CatWalk and open La Gringa's, and I quote, ‘the best Mexican food west of east L.A.' She's been open for two weeks but you've kept me so busy running errands for the shyster frats, I haven't had time to give it a try. Wanna go there for lunch?"

     "Depends on whether I have an appetite after we meet. Show her in." I took a deep breath preparing to face my client whose murdered husband almost led to my own death, though not by her.