Rural Town Mystery

For one brief hour on a sunny Texas morning, amateur baker Rosie Hart glimpses the life she’s always dreamed about - thanks to a surprise inheritance from the late Miss Alice. But her benefactor is barely cold in the ground when Rosie is accused of her murder. As the only stranger in the tight-knit Airlie Falls community, and the only person with an obvious motive, all eyes turn to Rosie. Especially when more bodies begin to pile up and mysterious letters from the grave start circulating faster than Rosie can pull a tray of cherry nut clusters out of the oven.

As if baking holiday cookies, knitting a sweater for her husband, and making her daughter’s angel costume for the church pageant weren’t enough things for Lucy Stone’s busy Christmas schedule, she’s also working nights at the famous mail-order company Country Cousins. But when she discovers Sam Miller, its very wealthy founder, dead in his car from an apparent suicide, the sleuth in her knows something just doesn’t smell right.

In "A Taste of Murder," the third Bunburry book, a local beef farmer is found dead and Betty Thorndike, vegetarian and Bunburry's only Green Party member, is in the frame. Despite what everyone thinks, Betty is absolutely not Alfie McAlister's girlfriend. But Alfie knows what it's like to be wrongly accused, and enlists the help of his fellow amateur detectives, Liz and Marge, to find out who's responsible. There's just one problem about a farm-based investigation - Alfie's scared of cows.

In a small, isolated town on the North Norfolk coast, Fran's life is unravelling. As she fills her days cleaning the caravan park she owns, she is preoccupied by worry — about the behavior of her son, the growing absence of her husband and the strained relationship with her sister. Her one source of solace is slipping out to the beach early in the morning, to watch the birds.

In between spring break and summer is usually a downtime for Corrie and the campground, even with Bike Rally Weekend on the horizon. This April, however, peace and quiet are not an option. A disconcertingly attractive biker arrives, who arouses the suspicions of Corrie's childhood friend and one-time ex, Sheriff Rick Sutton. Then, one of Corrie's favorite guests is shot dead in his own RV, leaving his wheelchair-bound wife in the care of a son whom no one knew existed.

When Lacey's friend is haunted by a nighttime prowler only she can hear, it's up to Lacey to decide if the prowler is imaginary or not - a life-altering decision.

Katie Benard reluctantly returns home to Grady Lake two decades after her older sister Malorie disappeared without a trace, a story that has captivated the nation since the day she was reported missing in 2003. After leaving home years ago, Katie is overjoyed to reunite with her childhood best friend and cousin while working at her family's lakeside resort at the end of tourist season in northern Michigan. Just when life begins to feel normal again, a teenage girl goes missing from the resort. She has vanished without a trace, just like Malorie.

Ten years ago, his wife died in his arms. God saved him for Himself. Now, he wants his first love to catch her killer. Tom Greer left Myerton six months after his wife Joan’s death, determined to leave the painful memories behind. Ten years later, now-Father Tom Greer returns for a four-month assignment as the temporary pastor of Saint Clare's Parish in Myerton. His only desire is to serve God's people quietly, then leave again. But the past won't leave Father Tom alone…

Former Posadas County Sheriff Bill Gastner, now a New Mexico Livestock Inspector, is enjoying a day on Herb Torrances. But Bill soon finds himself ferrying a broken cowpuncher in the back of his SUV, headed out to meet an ambulance.

Glenville is an interesting town full of oddballs and quirky inhabitants. One of them being Christopher Fleming, a world-renowned plastic surgeon. In the midst of celebrating his 50th birthday, multiple gunmen crash the party. Kidnapping the doctor and leaving a trail of bodies behind them. As local police and the town's detective Heather Bishop arrive at the scene, they bear witness to the horrific aftermath of the crime.

Sixteen years ago, the beloved mayor of Glenville vanished without a trace, leaving behind his wife and two young children. He became the talk of the town, and over time the theories behind his disappearance turned into a sort of folklore. Many believed that he was gone for good. But no one expected that his arrival in the present would send a ripple, disturbing the peace throughout the small community.

On the evening of Saturday, January 15, 1977, a local commuter train is delayed at a small village station by a freak blizzard. Young Nurse Jennifer Evans, keen to get back to her family, plans to walk the last couple of miles to her home in a neighboring village. She phones her daughter to confirm that she’s on her way, but she never arrives home. In the ensuing police investigation, no trace of Jennifer Evans is ever found. The only evidence is a photograph taken by a fellow passenger of footprints in the snow in front of Holdergate station.

Zahn can't get the missing girl he found—and the one he can't find—out of his mind. Someone in this mountain valley is collecting children, and Zahn is gradually drawn into the case while still trying to break through to his daughter. Then she disappears too.

When pregnant Alice Warren and her husband Paul settled into their dream home in the woods, all was blissful. But as Alice attempts to adjust to her new life in the countryside, a string of strange happenings occur, from a dead deer by the door to strange sounds in the night. Alice believes that there’s more to these occurrences than they appear, but Paul believes her paranoia is simply an overreaction. Until she vanishes, leaving behind a cryptic letter.

In Autumn of 1912, mounted trooper Augustus Hawkins arrives at his new post in the fading gold town of Colley, NSW. On his first day, he is ambushed by a hidden gunman, his junior officer is killed before his eyes, and he escapes back to town to find the police station burning to the ground. Someone has it in for the mounted troopers. A traumatised veteran of the Boer War, and a stranger to Colley, Hawkins is deeply shaken and ill-equipped to solve the case. But with only green troopers and a drunken, incompetent detective available to hunt down the murderer, he is forced to take the lead.

Trueman Rock is a daring young cowboy and rider. Six years ago he had to leave the cowtown of Wagontongue because of a history of gunfights and run-ins with bad hombres. Since then, he's become a man who only uses his gun when he needs to, on rustlers and crooks. Now, he's returning to his hometown. But things have changed. The town and its people aren't what they used to be. He expects to find some of his enemies there to welcome him, but instead finds they're all dead. In their place is the Preston family.

In Magnolia Grove, the race for mayor is heating up… and someone just turned it deadly. The town is buzzing about three things: the upcoming election, the grand opening of the historic underground tunnel tours, and a shiny new coffee bar opening right across from Parker Hayes's cozy cafe Catch You Latte. The whole town seems excited about the competition. Parker? Not so much. When a promotional event in the tunnels ends with a tragedy, everyone is ready to call it an accident. But as questions pile up, whispers of murder start spreading through town.

New Mexico Undersheriff Bill Gastner is presented with a case that appears to have brought big-time crime, including drug gangs, into Posadas County.

Wesley Crocker is accused of the murder of young Maria Ibarra, who was found near the "camping place" of the drifter. Crocker's account of the previous night leads Undersheriff Bill Gastner to more troubling questions.

Montana, 1968: The small town of Paradise Valley is ripped open when popular rancher and notorious bachelor Tom Butcher is found murdered one morning, beaten to death by a baseball bat. Suspicion among the tight-knit community immediately falls on the outsider, Carl Logan, who recently moved in with his family and his troubled son Roger. What Carl doesn't realize is that there are plenty of people in Paradise Valley who have reason to kill Tom Butcher.