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The 79th Annual Edgar® Award 2025 nominees have been announced! Winners will be drawn on 1 May 2025. The Edgar Awards celebrate the best in mystery fiction and nonfiction published in 2024.
In this post we’ll break down a few of the fiction categories to see what’s on offer. Check out the Mystery Writers of America website for further categories such as ‘true crime’, ‘short story’ and ‘biographical’.
How many on this list have you read? We’re always looking for new mystery thrillers to read, so what better place to find them than on a nominee list!
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Happy Reading, Friends!
In an opulent mansion at the borders of the Empire, an Imperial officer lies dead – killed when a tree spontaneously erupted from his body. Called in to solve the crime is Ana Dolabra, an investigator whose reputation for brilliance is matched only by her eccentricity. At her side is her new assistant, Dinios Kol, an engraver, magically altered to possess a perfect memory. Soon, the mystery leads to a scheme that threatens the safety of the Empire itself. For Ana, all this makes for a deliciously thorny puzzle – at last, something to truly hold her attention. And Din? He’ll just have to hold on for the ride. This is Book One in the ‘Shadow of the Leviathan’ series.
Washington Territory, 1888. With contacts on the docks and in the railroad and a buyer’s market funnelling product their way, ex-detective Alma Rosales and her opium-smuggling crew are making a fortune. When two local men end up dead, all signs point to the opium trade. A botched effort to disappear the bodies draws the attention of lawmen, and although Alma scrambles to keep them away from her operation, she’s distracted by the surprise appearance of Bess Spencer—an ex-Pinkerton agent and Alma’s first love—after years of silence. Then a handsome young stranger, Ben Velásquez, rolls into town and falls into an affair with one of Alma’s crewmen. When Ben starts asking questions about opium, Alma begins to suspect she has welcomed a spy into her inner circle, and she’s forced to consider how far she’ll go to protect her trade. This is Book 2 in the ‘Best Bad Things’ series.
Nobody ever found out what happened to Laika Martenwood, the girl who vanished without a trace on her way to school one morning. But for her sister Willa, life shattered into tiny pieces that day, and she has never been able to put them back together again. Willa sees Laika everywhere: on buses, at parties, in busy streets. It’s been 25 years, and the only thing that has kept her going is her belief that her sister is alive, somewhere. But when a dinner party conversation about childhood memories spirals out of control, a shattering revelation from one of the guests forces Willa to rethink everything she thought she knew about her past. And, out of the debris of that explosive evening, the truth of what really happened begins to emerge. Piece by piece.
Fifteen-year-old mbar has never known any parent other than her father, Victor Mondrag, nor any life other than his. On any given Friday night, mbar longs to be at the arcade or a rock concert, but she’s more likely to be patching up Victor’s latest bullet hole in a dingy motel or creating a new set of fake identities for the both of them. When a tattooed mercenary kills Victor’s best friend and vows that Victor is next, father and daughter set off on a joyride across Argentina in search of bloody retribution. But mbar’s growing pains hurt worse than her beloved sawed-off shotgun’s kickback as she begins to question the structure of her world. How much is her father not telling her? Could her life ever be different? And will she survive long enough to find out?
Some said the family deserved it. That they never even thanked the searchers who stayed out for five nights in the freezing forest trying to help find their missing son. Some said there was a reason it took the family so long to call for help. That they knew what happened to the boy. Now, fifteen years later, the Van Laars’ teenage daughter has gone missing in the same wilderness as her brother. Some say the two disappearances aren’t connected. Some say they are.
Lucy Chase can’t remember anything about the night her best friend was murdered. Lucky her, you’re probably thinking. Who would want that to be their last memory of someone they love? But for Lucy, it’s become an issue. Because everyone thinks she did it. But that was five years ago, and Lucy has put it all behind her. Or at least, she thought she had, until an interfering yet not bad-looking podcaster offers her the opportunity to join his investigation into the night she forgot. On the one hand, if she’s a murderer, it’s probably better to know – right? On the other, if she didn’t do it, she’ll be putting herself back in the sights of the person who did. And either way, if you’ve already killed once, what’s to stop you from doing it again?
A stone’s throw away from a glamorous engagement party, the police are pulling a body out of the river Thames. The drowning appears to be a tragic accident – until Detective Caius Beauchamp gets an unexpected tip. The victim, it seems, had enemies in high places. Did being on the wrong side of them get her killed? Meanwhile, the beautiful milliner Calliope Foster, immaculate in buttermilk linen, is toasting her dearest friend Harriet Simpson-Bamber in a Richmond garden. They have a wedding to organise. But a dead body will unravel even the best-laid plans. This is Book 2 in the ‘Inspector Beauchamp’ series.
Noland Twice, a star athlete turned private investigator, can find anyone, no matter how far they run or how well they hide. He works the Orlando-Tampa corridor, a bizarre land where theme parks and tourists coexist with drug deals and crooked businessmen. When a shady local executive, Valkenburg, goes missing, Noland is the only man for the job. Within hours of taking the case, Noland realises nothing about this case is going to be easy, and he recruits his friend Kiril to help him with the dirty work when he finds a dead body. But the corpse isn’t the missing man–it’s the body of one of the partners of his construction firm. There’s only one clue as to Valkenburg’s whereabouts: a set of strange numbers hastily scrawled on the dead man’s arm. When Noland discovers that the numbers are a set of GPS coordinates, he follows the trail to a construction site. At the exact location inscribed on the body, there’s a box buried in the dirt. Inside, he finds a handwritten journal–and a woman’s severed head.
When the body of a barista is found in the once-pristine Alaskan snow, Anchorage homicide detective DeHavilland Beans is gutted to recognise the young woman, Jolene. He’d bought coffee from her every morning and knew her as a bright college student working her way through school. Devastated by the murder and by the life cut short, Beans vows to find the killer. Since scavengers damaged the body, obtaining any usable evidence is impossible, even with the assistance of wildlife expert Raisa Ingalls, Beans’s ex. When the body of another woman is found, a serial killer is suspected and the FBI joins the hunt. After a third body turns up, Beans is desperate to find the killer—especially when another woman goes missing. With the murderer moving so quickly, Beans and his team are determined to stop the spree and catch the killer before it’s too late.
Memory is Copeland-Stark’s business. Yet after months of reconsolidation treatments at their sleek new flagship facility, Hope Nakano still has no idea what happened to her lost year, or the life she was just beginning to build with her one great love. Each procedure surfaces fragmented clues which erode Hope’s trust in her own memories, especially the ones of Luke. As inconsistencies mount, her search for answers reveals a much larger secret Copeland-Stark is determined to protect. But everyone has secrets, including Hope.
1940: Weeks after the evacuation of Dunkirk, Germany is poised to invade a near-defenseless Britain. To safeguard the Crown Jewels from the Nazis, Winston Churchill devises a daring gamble to have them shipped overseas. The priceless artifacts will be secretly removed from the Tower of London and driven north to Scotland by two operatives posing as a young married couple, to be taken from there to Canada. Caitrin Colline—a Welsh coalminer’s daughter and an ardent socialist—will play the wife of Lord Marlton, Hector Neville-Percy. A less likely couple is at first difficult to imagine. Yet Caitrin’s bold, streetwise confidence and sharp wits complement Hector’s social ease and connections, essential to a second part of their mission: uncovering Nazi sympathisers within the highest ranks of Britain’s aristocracy. Battling enemies within and without, Caitrin wonders if anyone in their circle can be trusted—even her partner. And when unexpected events catapult her into a life-or-death chase across the continent, the morale of a nation and the fate of Europe itself in the balance. This is Book One in the ‘Secret Churchill Files’.
After a long career as one of DC’s most powerful litigators, Rob Jacobson is faced with the case of a lifetime: the former President of the United States–his childhood best friend–has been accused of murdering his mistress. Rob knows he’s the only one who can prove his friend’s innocence, but he is soon overwhelmed as he attempts to devise a strategy to defend an authoritative man with a taste for infidelity, serious anger issues, and unconventional sexual appetites. As the high-profile case unfurls, the troubled, intertwining pasts of the two men complicate Rob’s efforts and soon, doubts begin to grow in his head. Could his oldest friend truly be capable of murder or is something even darker at play?
After a decade of exile precipitated by the tragic death of his mother, Will Seems returns home from Richmond to rural Southern Virginia, taking a job as deputy sheriff in a landscape given way to crime and defeat. Impoverished and abandoned, this remote land of tobacco plantations, razed forests, and boarded-up homes seems stuck in the past in a state that is trying to forget its complex history and move on. Will’s efforts to go about his life are wrecked when a mysterious, brutal homicide claims the life of an old friend, Tom Janders, forcing Will to face the true impetus for his return: not to honour his mother’s memory, but to pay a debt to a Black friend who, in an act of selfless courage years ago, protected Will and suffered permanent disfigurement for it. Meanwhile, a man Will knows to be innocent is arrested for Tom’s murder, and despite Will’s pleas, his boss seems all too content to wrap up the case and move on. Will must weigh his personal guilt against his public duty when the local Black community hires Bennico Watts, an unpredictable private detective from Richmond, to help him find the real killer. It would seem an ideal pairing–she has experience, along with plenty of sand, and Will is privy to the details of the case–but it doesn’t take long for either to realise they much prefer to operate alone.
When Stella met Adam, she thought she had finally found a nice, normal guy — a welcome change from her previous boyfriend and her precarious jetsetter lifestyle with him. But her secure world comes crashing down when Adam goes missing after an explosion in the city square. Unable to reach him, she panics. As the French police investigate, it’s revealed that Adam was on their radar as a dealer of rare and stolen antiquities with a long roster of criminal clients. Reeling from this news, Stella is determined not to leave Paris until she has the full story. Was Adam a random victim or the target of the explosion? And why is someone following her through the streets of Paris?
When Anna Hartley’s husband, Henry, calls her with a terrible, guilty confession, she can’t believe what she hears. It has to be a bad joke—the mild, predictable artist she married would never hurt a fly, let alone commit murder. But her confusion turns to horror when police find his body washed up on the banks of the Rio Grande. Desperate for answers to the millions of questions his untimely death has raised, Anna checks in to The Sycamores, the run-down motel turned apartment Henry rented as an art studio. As she absorbs every bit of gossip the eclectic mix of residents are willing to share about her husband and each other, she begins to piece together a picture of a very different man than the one she married, and the life he led behind her back. The more she learns, and the less sense things seem to make, she finds herself wondering: Did she ever really know Henry at all? But Henry’s secrets aren’t the only ones; as Anna’s search for clues expands, Cass, the mysterious, jaded motel manager, seems more and more determined to keep Anna in the dark. And when threatening letters start appearing at her door, Anna has to decide what’s more important—the truth, or her own safety.
Patrick Bird, police academy burnout turned PI, works divorce cases, using his camera to catch the unfaithful and the lonely looking for love in rented rooms. But his easy routine is shattered by a new case involving a missing girl. Sixteen-year-old Abbie Linklater hasn’t been home for two days. Her stepmother believes Abbie’s getting an abortion. Her twin brother thinks she’s studying at the library. Her best friend couldn’t care less. Her father has no idea; he just wants her home without involving the police. Before the sun sets on the first day of his investigation, as Bird roams the streets of Toronto looking for the runaway, he’s caught a drifter prowling in the Linklaters’ backyard, stumbled into a creepy church with a belligerent minister, sparred with the client, been hit by a car, and discovered some loose ends in a bank robbery gone wrong a decade earlier. This is Book One in the ‘Patrick Bird Mystery’ series.
Trainee meadow witch Anwen is having a bad day – which gets much worse when a dead giant falls from the sky and destroys her village. But when she examines the body she discovers something interesting. This giant was murdered, which means a killer is on the loose! Tasked with sending a message to the giant kingdom via beanstalk, Anwen and her nemesis, trainee sorceress Cerys, accidentally find themselves whipped up into the sky and deposited in the giants’ royal palace – where the king is missing. Using their perfect spy-size and witchy skills, the girls must track down his killer. But how can you investigate a murder mystery when you risk being stepped on by your suspects?
Becca Soloway’s perfect summer goes up in smoke when her mom flees a looming divorce by dragging Becca to a Montana resort. To make matters worse, her mom’s hasty booking lands them not at a spa, but an aging dude ranch called Far Away. Becca is miserable until she meets the wrangler’s son, Jon, who shows her what might be the first clue to a century-old mystery: the lost treasure of a Robin Hood–like outlaw known as Pearlhandle Pete. As they slowly uncover the true history of Pete, venture into the mountains, search haunted ghost towns, and are threatened by a treasure-hunter-social-media-star, Becca discovers that treasure is in the eye of the beholder and the important things in life are always worth fighting for.
Colin has spent all summer solving mysteries with his friend Nevaeh. But they’ve only ever dealt with other people’s mysteries–ones that are safe for Colin to think about. He’s still stuck on the mystery surrounding his own father, who his mother refuses to talk about and he can’t remember meeting. Then one morning Colin finds a shoebox on his porch with a note on top: “Your father wanted you to have this.” Inside the box is a key. This new clue makes Colin even more determined to find out the truth about his dad and why his parents split up when he was a baby. Colin and Nevaeh begin investigating Colin’s father in a quest that takes them from eerie storage units to lock-lined bridges to, strangely, secrets in Nevaeh‘s family. But the closer they get to connecting the clues, the more trouble awaits them. A serious accident leaves Nevaeh’s family reeling–and Nevaeh racked with guilt. And digging into Colin’s father’s past may lead Colin and his mom into even more danger. Can Colin and Nevaeh solve the mystery before it’s too late? This is Book 3 in the ‘Mysteries of Trash and Treasure’ series.
Twelve-year-old Evie Mei Huang never did like helping in her mom’s tailor shop. She hated helping to mend fraying clothes, how the measuring tape got all twisted up, and how pushy her mother’s clients were. Most of all, she hates that her mother is dead and isn’t here to help anymore. But when the universe sends a life preserver, Evie knows to grab it. So yes, it’s weird when a talking monkey shows up and tells her that her plainspoken, hardworking tailor mother was actually the head of a Guild of magical weavers who can change the fate of a person with only a spool of thread. Very weird. But he also comes bearing news that her mother is trapped in Diyu, the Chinese underworld, and that only Evie can get her back. No pressure. The important thing is that Evie’s mom isn’t dead. And if she’s got this one shot to bring her back and save her family, she’s got to take it. This is Book One in the ‘Weavers of Legacy and Fate’ series.
In dreams, Wren can see her again: her eyes, her hair, her smile. She can even hear her laugh. Her mother, one of hundreds of Native Americans considered missing or murdered in Oklahoma. Sometimes it seems like Wren and her grandmother are the only people still looking. Even more frustrating, Wren’s overprotective father won’t talk about it. Wren refuses to give up, though. And an opportunity to find lost pets seems like a real way to hone her detective skills. But everything changes when one of the missing pets is found badly hurt. Soon, there are others. With help from an unlikely friend, Wren vows to unmask whoever is behind the animal abuse. If she can do this, maybe she can do the same for her mother’s case. She’ll just have to keep it secret from her father who will certainly put an end to all her sleuthing if he finds out.
Since moving to the Blackfeet Reservation with her parents, Mara Racette has felt like an outsider, taunted by her tight-knit classmates for growing up far away. So, when a local girl includes Mara in a traditional Blackfeet Giveaway to honour her missing sister, Mara thinks she’ll finally make some friends. Instead, a girl from the Giveaway, Samantha White Tail, is found murdered. Because the members of the Giveaway group were the last to see Samantha alive, each becomes a person of interest in the investigation:
New-girl Mara, who hated Samantha for being particularly cruel. Grief-stricken Loren Arnoux, who was Samantha’s best friend until her sister’s disappearance drove a wedge between them. Class-clown Brody Clark, whose unreciprocated crush on Samantha is an open secret.
And tough-guy Eli First Kill, who has his own complicated history with Samantha. Despite deep mistrust, the four must now take matters into their own hands and clear their names. Even though one of them may be the murderer.
The students of LA’s elite Warner Prep can’t wait for their Senior Excursion—five days of Instagrammable adventure in one of the world’s most exclusive locations. This is not your average field trip. Which is why eight students can’t believe their bad luck when they end up on a digital detox in an isolated Colorado ski chalet. Their epic trip is panning out to be an epic bore . . . until their classmates start dropping in a series of disturbing deaths. The message is clear: this trip is no accident. And when a blizzard strikes, secrets are revealed, betrayals are exposed, and survival is at stake in a race to the bitter end.
1506, Joseon. The people suffer under the cruel reign of the tyrant King Yeonsan, powerless to stop him from commandeering their land for his recreational use, banning and burning books, and kidnapping and horrifically abusing women and girls as his personal playthings. Seventeen-year-old Iseul has lived a sheltered, privileged life despite the kingdom’s turmoil. When her older sister, Suyeon, becomes the king’s latest prey, Iseul leaves the relative safety of her village, traveling through forbidden territory to reach the capital in hopes of stealing her sister back. But she soon discovers the king’s power is absolute, and to challenge his rule is to court certain death. Prince Daehyun has lived his whole life in the terrifying shadow of his despicable half-brother, the king. Forced to watch King Yeonsan flaunt his predation through executions and rampant abuse of the common folk, Daehyun aches to find a way to dethrone his half-brother once and for all. When staging a coup, failure is fatal, and he’ll need help to pull it off-but there’s no way to know who he can trust. When Iseul’s and Daehyun’s fates collide, their contempt for each other is transcended only by their mutual hate for the king. Armed with Iseul’s family connections and Daehyun’s royal access, they reluctantly join forces to launch the riskiest gamble the kingdom has ever seen.
The fire wasn’t Marlowe Wexler’s fault. Dates should be hot, but not hot enough to warrant literal firefighters. Akilah, the girl Marlowe has been in love with for years, will never go out with her again. No one dates an accidental arsonist. With her house-sitting career up in flames, it seems the universe owes Marlowe a new summer job, and that’s how she ends up at Morning House, a mansion built on an island in the 1920s and abandoned shortly thereafter. It’s easy enough, giving tours. Low risk of fire. High chance of getting bored talking about stained glass and nut cutlets and Prohibition. Oh, and the deaths. Did anyone mention the deaths? Maybe this job isn’t such a gift after all. Morning House has a horrific secret that’s been buried for decades, and now the person who brought her here is missing. All it takes is one clue to set off a catastrophic chain of events. One small detail, just like a spark, could burn it all down—if someone doesn’t bury Marlowe first.
A year ago, Katie and her cousin Aster survived a night that left their world and easy friendship fractured. Desperate to heal and leave the past behind them, they tackle four days of hiking in the Utah backcountry. But the desert they’ve loved for years has tricks up its sleeve. An illness, an injury, and a freak storm leave them short on confidence and supplies. When they come across a young couple with extra supplies on the trail, they’re grateful and relieved—at first. Riley exudes friendliness, but everything about her boyfriend Finn spells trouble. That night, after some chilling admissions about Finn from Riley, Katie and Aster wake to hear the couple fighting. Helpless and trapped in the darkness, they witness Riley’s desperate race into the night, with Finn chasing after. In the morning, they find the couple’s camp, but Riley and Finn? Vanished. Katie is sure Riley is in trouble. And with help a two-day hike away, they know they are the only ones who can save her before something terrible happens. The clock is ticking and their supplies are dwindling, but Katie and Aster know they have to find Riley before Finn—or the desert—gets to her first.
London: 1968. Liz Houghton is languishing as an obituary writer at a London newspaper when a young girl’s disappearance captivates the city. If Liz can break the story, it’s her way into the newsroom. She already has a scoop: her best friend, Marisa, is a police officer assigned to the case. Liz follows Marisa to Dorset, where they make another disturbing discovery. Over two decades earlier, three girls disappeared while evacuating from London. One was found murdered in the woods near a train line. The other two were never seen again. As Liz digs deeper, she finds herself drawn to the village of Tydeham, which was requisitioned by the military during the war and left in ruins. After all these years, what could possibly link the missing girls to this abandoned village? And why does a place Liz has never seen before seem so strangely familiar?
The chill of a San Francisco summer can be deadly. No one knows this better than Capri Sanzio, who makes her living giving serial killer tours of the city. Capri has been interested in the topic since she was a kid, when she discovered she’s the granddaughter of serial killer William ‘Overkill Bill’ Sanzio. She’s always believed in his innocence, though she’s never taken the leap to fully dive into the case. But now an Overkill Bill copycat has struck in San Francisco. And Capri’s former mother-in-law, Sylvia, just cut off Capri’s daughter’s tuition payments. Needing cash, Capri wonders if this is the time to exonerate her grandfather. The case is back in the news and the police will be looking to understand the past to catch a present-day killer. Capri could finally uncover the truth about Overkill Bill—documenting the process with a podcast and a book—and hopefully earn some money. Before Capri can get very far, the cops discover the copycat’s latest victim: Sylvia. Capri soon finds herself at the heart of the police’s investigation for an entirely different reason. She and her daughter are prime suspects. This is Book One in the ‘Serial Killer Guide to San Francisco’ series.
Theo has one dream—to become a bestselling author. Determined to make her mark in the literary world, she heads to the US on a whim to stay with her brother Gus and focus on her writing. But her plans take an unexpected turn when she befriends a famous author, Dan Murdoch, at a local bar—and then he turns up dead. Suddenly, Theo finds herself as the prime suspect. As Theo grapples with the shocking turn of events, she realises that Dan may not have been the person he seemed to be, and there is something sinister going on in the world of publishing. Desperate to clear her name and uncover the truth, Theo sets out on a quest to find out who killed Dan and why. As she digs deeper, Theo uncovers a web of deceit, conspiracy, and hidden motives, with clues leading her to a shadowy organisation with far-reaching power. With her own life in danger, Theo must unravel the mystery before she becomes the next victim.
Agnes Corey, a junior editor at a small independent publisher, has been hired by enigmatic author Veronica St. Clair to transcribe the sequel to her 1993 hit phenomenon, The Secret of Wyldcliffe Heights. St. Clair has been a recluse since the publication of the Jane Eyre-esque book, which coincided with a terrible fire that blinded and scarred her. Arriving in the Hudson Valley at St. Clair’s crumbling estate, which was once a psychiatric hospital for “wayward women,” Agnes is eager to ensure St. Clair’s devoted fans will get the sequel they’ve been anticipating for the past thirty years. As St. Clair dictates, Agnes realises there are clues in the story that reveal the true—and terrifying—events three decades ago that inspired the original novel. The line between fact and fiction becomes increasingly blurred, and Agnes discovers terrible secrets about an unresolved murder from long ago, which have startling connections to her own life. As St. Clair’s twisting tale infiltrates Agnes’s psyche, Agnes begins to question her own sanity—and safety. In order to save herself, Agnes must uncover what really happened to St. Clair, and in doing so, set free the stories of all the women victimised by Wyldcliffe Heights.
Maple Bishop is ready to put WWII and the grief of losing her husband, Bill, behind her. But when she discovers that Bill left her penniless, Maple realizes she could lose her Vermont home next and sets out to make money the only way she knows how: by selling her intricately crafted dollhouses. Business is off to a good start—until Maple discovers her first customer dead, his body hanging precariously in his own barn. Something about the supposed suicide rubs Maple the wrong way, but local authorities brush off her concerns. Determined to help them see “what’s big in what’s small,” Maple turns to what she knows best, painstakingly recreating the gruesome scene in miniature: death in a nutshell. With the help of a rookie officer named Kenny, Maple uses her macabre miniature to dig into the dark undercurrents of her sleepy town, where everyone seems to have a secret—and a grudge. But when her nosy neighbour goes missing and she herself becomes a suspect, it’ll be up to Maple to find the devil in the details—and put him behind bars.
Victorian Scotland is becoming less strange to modern-day homicide detective Mallory Atkinson. Though inhabiting someone else’s body will always be unsettling, even if her employers know that she’s not actually housemaid Catriona Mitchell, ever since the night both of them were attacked in the same dark alley 150 years apart. Mallory likes her job as assistant to undertaker/medical examiner Dr. Duncan Gray, and is developing true friends—and feelings—in this century. So, understanding the Victorian fascination with death, Mallory isn’t that surprised when she and her friends are invited to a mummy unwrapping at the home of Sir Alastair Christie. When their host is missing when it comes time to unwrap the mummy, Gray and Mallory are asked to step in. And upon closer inspection, it’s not a mummy they’ve unwrapped, but a much more modern body. This is Book 3 in the ‘Rip Through Time’ series.
Seven reality show contestants arrive in the Welsh mountains to compete for a life-changing prize, not realising what they’re truly signing up for. Each stranger has a secret – and the show will force them to expose one another live on air. It’s not long before things take an even darker turn, and Detective Ffion Morgan is summoned to untangle the truth behind the scenes. And when a murderer strikes, every one of Ffion’s suspects has an alibi . . . and a secret worth killing for. This is Book 2 in the ‘DC Morgan’ series.
Jilly Truitt has always put her job as a criminal defense lawyer first, but becoming a new mother has changed her priorities. For the first time in her career, she’s taking some long-overdue time away from her firm and the day-to-day grind of cases, enjoying the quiet delights of motherhood. Then the daughter of celebrity pop star Trist Jones goes missing and his ex-wife, Katie, is charged with kidnapping. Everyone from the police to the media believe Katie is guilty—her reputation was ripped to shreds in the tabloids during their divorce and subsequent custody battle. Call it mother’s intuition, but Jilly has her doubts. Katie’s whole life was about being a mother, and she and Trist were very public about their problems conceiving, shining a spotlight on their use of a surrogate. After everything she went through to have a child, Katie claims that she would never do anything to hurt her daughter, and she begs Jilly to take her case. Jilly agrees, but Katie’s prospects don’t look good. Police have found a witness who says he saw Katie with Tess the afternoon she disappeared, and they are close to giving up the search. The best chance Jilly has of clearing Katie’s name is to find the missing girl. But as the weeks go by, the police begin to suspect that Tess might be dead. With the threat of a murder charge hanging over Katie’s head, Jilly must find the real kidnapper and save Tess before it’s too late. This is Book 3 in the ‘Jilly Truit’ series.
Kara Johnson always knew she’d die young and violently. It didn’t matter who delivered the final blow, she would deserve it–her years spent running drugs and spreading violence would guarantee it. But death doesn’t always go as planned. When her girlfriend sacrifices herself to save Kara’s life, Kara is left grieving and adrift. She doesn’t know why she’s alive until the DEA shows up and offers her a choice: go to prison or turn informant to lure out the last of the drug trafficking ring that murdered her girlfriend. Max Summerlin is the kind of cop who needs answers–he’s been shot twice in the last year while looking for them. Despite his family’s objections and his struggle with chronic pain, he accepts an invitation from the DEA task force eagerly. That is, until he realises he’ll be babysitting reformed drug trafficker Kara Johnson as she goes undercover.
Is there such a thing as a good sociopath? Newly minted private investigator Annalisa Vega is skeptical, but her first client, Mara Delaney, insists that some sociopaths are beneficial to society. Mara has even written a book titled The Good Sociopath centred around Chicago neurosurgeon Craig Canning. Dr. Canning has saved hundreds of lives so it shouldn’t matter that he doesn’t actually care about his patients, should it? But Mara has a more urgent problem, she is now concerned that Canning might not be such a good sociopath after all. A young woman in Canning’s apartment building mysteriously plunged to her death from a balcony, and Mara fears Canning could be responsible. She needs to uncover the truth about Canning before the book comes out, so Annalisa has little time to search for answers. Annalisa quickly discovers that more than one person wanted the young woman dead. Canning insists he didn’t do it. His charming, unflappable demeanour suggests that either he’s telling the truth or Mara is right and he’s cold-hearted to the core. But the cops believe the girl’s death was an accident. The more Annalisa probes, the more she becomes convinced it’s a fiendishly clever murder, one only a brilliant psychopath could pull off. She draws deeper into a battle of wits with Canning, so determined to prove his guilt that she forgets Mara’s most important warning—that sociopaths only care about winning at all costs. When Annalisa finally peels back the layers of deceit to reveal the horrifying truth of the girl’s death, she may be too late to save herself. This is Book 4 in the ‘Detective Annalisa Vega’ series.
1945. In London, it feels as if the peace is harder than the war. Years of devastating Luftwaffe bombing has obliterated stretches of the city and left others abandoned. Against this backdrop, psychologist-investigator Maisie Dobbs is drawn into the plight of a group of adolescent orphans, along with a gravely ill demobbed soldier who are squatting in a Belgravia mansion. Maisie’s attempt to help brings to light a decades-old mystery concerning her first husband, James Compton, who was killed while flying an experimental fighter aircraft. The deeply personal investigation leads her to a ghostly figure who is grappling with the weight of his own conscience and the outcome of the part he played during the war. This is Book 18 in the ‘Maisie Dobbs’ series.
The small, rundown village of Great Diddling is full of stories–author Berit Gardner can feel it. The way the villagers avoid outsiders, the furtive stares and whispers in the presence of newcomers… Berit can sense the edge of a story waiting to be unraveled, and she’s just the person to do it. In fact, with a book deadline looming over her and no manuscript (not even the idea for a manuscript, truth be told), Berit doesn’t just want this story. She needs it. Then, while attending a village tea party, Berit becomes part of the action herself. An explosion in the library of the village’s grand manor kills a local man, and the resulting investigation and influx of outsiders sends the quiet, rundown community into chaos. The residents of Great Diddling, each one more eccentric and interesting than any character Berit could have invented, rewrite their own narrative and transform the death of one of their own from a tragedy into a new beginning. Taking advantage of Great Diddling’s new notoriety, the villagers band together to start a book and murder festival designed to bring desperately-needed tourists to their town. What they couldn’t have predicted is how the new story they’ve begun to tell will change all their lives forever.
Richard is a middle-aged Englishman who runs a B&B in the Vallée de Follet. Nothing ever happens to Richard, and really that’s the way he likes it. Until scandal erupts in the nearby town of Saint-Sauver when its famous restaurant is downgraded from three ‘Michelin’ stars to two. The restaurant is shamed, the town is in shock and the leading goat’s cheese supplier drowns himself in one of his own pasteurisation tanks. Or does he? Valérie d’Orçay, who staying at the B&B while house-hunting in the area, isn’t convinced that it’s a suicide. Despite his misgivings, Richard is drawn into Valérie’s investigation, and finds himself becoming a major player. This is Book 2 in the ‘Follet Valley Mystery’ series.
Madeline Brimley left small-town Georgia many years ago to go to college and pursue her dreams on the stage. Her dramatic escapades are many, but success has eluded her, leaving her at loose ends. But then she gets word that not only has her beloved, eccentric Aunt Rose passed, but she’s left Madeline her equally eccentric bookstore housed in an old Victorian mansion in the small college town of Enigma. But when she arrives in her beat-up Fiat to claim The Old Juniper Bookstore–and restart her life–Madeline is faced with unexpected challenges. The gazebo in the backyard is set ablaze, and a late-night caller threatens to burn the whole store down if she doesn’t leave immediately. But Madeline Brimley, not one to be intimidated, ignores the threats and soldiers on. Until there’s another fire and a murder in the store itself. Now, with a cloud of suspicion falling over her, it’s up to Madeline to untangle the skein of secrets and find the killer before she herself is the next victim. This is Book One in the ‘Old Juniper Bookstore Mystery’ series.
When thirty-three-year-old Hannah Solace returns to her hometown to renovate and reopen the inn she co-owns with her sister Reggie, her mission is to give the old Victorian hotel an entirely new life. She’s even planting pollinator gardens around the inn-native flowers and fruit trees to lure honeybees and houseguests alike. Hannah’s fresh start is stymied by Reggie’s continual interference, unreliable contractors, a check-the-couch-for-coins budget, and townspeople Hannah left behind fifteen years ago. Her main source of camaraderie is Ezra Grayson, an eighty-year-old recluse who lives nearby. After an unsettling conversation with a disgruntled Ezra, Hannah is horrified to discover him dead on her property later that day. Ezra had always had plenty of people to complain about, especially locals trying to force him out of his property for its prime real estate. As buzz around town grows after his death, Hannah finds herself on the short list of suspects. Hannah starts digging and quickly discovers that secrets lurk beneath the charming surface of the town she once again calls home. This is Book One in the ‘Hummingbird Hollow B&B Mystery’ series.
For nearly a century, people have ventured to the idyllic seaside town of Maple Bay in search of a legendary lost pirate treasure, but locals know there’s more than just gold buried in the sand. As the paths of three strangers converge in Maple Bay, the truth is about to be blown wide open. But not before the bodies start to pile up. Peter Barnett is rapidly approaching 40 with little to show for it when a mysterious letter invites him to Maple Bay and the mansion his estranged family has called home for generations. Seventeen-year-old Dandy Feltzen is isolated and adrift following the death of her beloved grandfather, until his final request and a tantalizing clue sets her on a mission to solve the mystery he spent his entire life chasing. Cass Jones has given up on her dream of being a successful author when an unexpected opportunity lands in her lap: a housesitting gig in remote Maple Bay, where she stumbles on the perfect subject matter for her breakout book–and the handsome sailor who might be just the person to help her research it.
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