Holidays are fun to write about. Each has its own vibe. And we immediately associate iconic symbols with them. Colorful eggs mean it’s Easter and pumpkins take us straight to Halloween. There are special foods that we expect, too, like chocolates on Valentine’s Day and turkey at Thanksgiving.
While families don’t gather for all holidays, when they do, authors love to write about dysfunctional family chaos. It can be very entertaining, provided it’s not our families that are involved.
A GOOD DOG’S GUIDE TO MURDER is set at Thanksgiving and takes the reader into the holiday season. Holly Miller’s Jack Russell terrier and her calico cat have noses for murder. When they show an unusual interest in the most unexpected place, the trunk of a tree, it turns out someone hid a body in it! Holly has to figure out not only who is in the tree, but also who committed murder.
But we’ll start at the beginning of the year. The very beginning when we drink champagne and ring in the new year.
Murder in a Cape Cottage by Maddie Day
Coming September 27th
Mackenzie “Mac” Almeida runs a bike shop and belongs to a book group in Cape Cod, but her mind is on her upcoming New Year’s Eve wedding. She and her fiancé begin to renovate a cottage only to find a skeleton in the wall dressed in a bridal gown! Even worse, the killer lurks in their quaint seaside town, poised to make it a murderous New Year’s Eve.
Death of a Chocoholic by Lee Hollis
Giving up on dating disasters, on Valentine’s Day food columnist Hayley Powell intends to curl up with a box of special chocolates from Bessie Winthrop. But Hayley finds the chocolatier dead! Her chocolate may have been sweet, but it turns out that Bessie had plenty of enemies and it’s up to Hayley to pick through them.
Easter Bonnet Murder by Leslie Meier
Part-time reporter Lucy Stone can’t imagine how a sweet old lady could go missing over an Easter bonnet contest in Tinker’s Cove, Maine. Lucy soon finds back-stabbing has no age limits. She must hop to it and figure out what happened to the missing woman before Lucy becomes another tragedy.
An Eggnog to Die For by Amy Pershing
With Easter behind us, it’s time to move on and head to the beach for the Fourth of July where foodie Samantha Barnes is trying to choose the best blueberry buckle as a dessert after a clambake on Cape Cod. But when she settles on one, the baker, a cookbook author and retired restaurateur, dies in an accidental house fire. Sam isn’t buying that the fire was accidental and needs to find the killer before more fireworks begin.
Claws for Suspicion by Deborah Blake
When autumn winds begin to blow, what could be better than Oktoberfest in the Catskills? Kari Stuart is the new owner of Serenity Sanctuary and has her eyes on a handsome local. Everything is going well until her ex-husband arrives with the horrible news that they aren’t actually divorced, and he owns half of the sanctuary! Just when Kari thinks things couldn’t get worse, she becomes the prime suspect in a murder!
Calypso, Corpses and Cooking by Raquel V. Reyes
Coming October 11th
Cuban-American cooking show star Miriam Quiñones-Smith wakes to find a dead woman in her Miami front yard next to a fake tombstone! When a chef tumbles down a staircase to his death, Miriam doesn’t think it could have been an accident. As more mishaps occur, Miriam’s life is also in jeopardy but she delves into rage, retribution, and murder.
And that brings us back to Thanksgiving on Wagtail Mountain in Virginia where the annual dog and cat gingerbread house competition is under way and Thanksgiving weekend means a full house at the Sugar Maple Inn. Holly has to juggle her inn duties while figuring out who the man in the tree could be. It soon becomes clear that someone is desperate to keep the truth a secret. It’s up to Holly and her furry sleuth pals to find an elusive and conniving killer.
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