Prologue GRACE NOTES Journal Entry #441 DO YOU REMEMBER THE MOMENT YOU REALIZED YOU WERE GOING TO DIE? I was five years old, lying in my princess bed with its canopy and pink dust ruffles. My mother had sent me there after I put her expensive brassiere on Louie, our beagle. I might’ve gotten away…
Seattle native Glen Erik Hamilton’s debut novel, Past Crimes (2015), introduced readers to protagonist Van Shaw—a reformed thief and military veteran. In addition to launching a venerable series, that book garnered critical acclaim and won the Anthony, Macavity, and Strand Magazine Critics Awards while also being nominated for the Edgar, Barry, and Nero Awards; four…
A Time to Swill by bestselling author Sherry Harris is the second book in her new Chloe Jackson, Sea Glass Saloon Mystery series, where an abandoned ship with a skeleton aboard reopens a decade-old missing persons case that bartender sleuth Chloe must suss out before more violence befalls her idyllic Florida town of Emerald Cove.…
A lawyer surprises our heroine, septuagenarian Mikki Lincoln, with news that an old family friend has recently passed away, bequeathing to her a farming property a short distance away from her own Lenape Hollow, New York home. Literally old: Tessa Swarthout was a friend of Mikki’s mom, and passed away at the ripe old age…
A Good Day for Chardonnay by New York Times bestselling author Darynda Jones is the second novel in her laugh-out-loud Sunshine Vicram mystery series set in Del Sol, New Mexico. The follow-up to the sensational A Bad Day for Sunshine resolves many of the intriguing plot points first seeded in its predecessor even as it…
I continue to admire Julie Anne Lindsey’s utter mastery of the craft of storytelling here with this third installment of her Cider Shop mystery series. Absorbing and believable, these mysteries depict an imperfect but relatable heroine who loves her West Virginia home of Blossom Valley so much that she’ll do almost anything to protect it…
Chapter 1 “I promised fifty times already,” I said, looking down over the whole green world. “As soon as we get on the highway, I’ll tell you the longest, weirdest story.” “With a mad doggy who rips off a kid’s face, okay, Saski? A naughty kid. A bad kid like a bad guy.” The…
The Other Passenger by Louise Candlish is an unputdownable, twisting thriller that explores privilege, societal pressures, and crime when a commuter becomes a suspect in his friend’s mysterious disappearance. Underneath the skin of this propulsive thriller involving the sudden disappearance of a charismatic young man is a thoughtful, socially conscious examination of contemporary mores and…
For Your Own Good by USA Today bestselling author Samantha Downing is a sneaky thriller set at a prestigious private school, complete with interfering parents, overeager students, and one teacher who just wants to teach them all a lesson. Samantha Downing turns her keen eye for murder and mayhem—ribboned through with the social commentary that makes…
Jackson, Wyoming is a town. Jackson Hole, Wyoming is a valley. I didn’t know that—I thought it was all “Jackson Hole”. That’s the problem with a place becoming famous, it pushes reality aside. The town of Jackson has, somehow, become an afterthought within the town of Jackson. This townie/outsider dynamic is the space Nickolas Butler…
