amateur sleuth

In The Beginning, There Was a Murder: An Amateur Female Sleuth Historical Cozy Mystery

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A secret liaison. A baffling murder. Can one woman solve the crime without joining the body count?

Northern England, 1953. Pauline Riddell has grand ambitions for her future at the armament factory. So, when her closest workmate reveals a salacious affair with a married man, Pauline refuses to risk her career by listening to the scandal. But she’s shaken to her core when the police arrive with news of her best friend’s homicide.

Desperate for justice, Pauline’s insistent poking into the investigation only makes her the prime suspect. And now to clear her name, she must unravel a web of deadly clues entangling her in a sinister plot.

Can Pauline catch the killer before they strike again?

In The Beginning, There Was a Murder is a riveting mystery novel. If you like whip-smart heroines, intriguing twists and turns, and nail-biting danger, then you’ll love P.C. James’s sensational story.

Buy In The Beginning, There Was a Murder to crack the case today!

Meet P.C. James

I’ve always loved mysteries, especially those involving Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple. Perhaps because Miss Marple reminded me of my aunts when I was growing up. But Christie never told us much about Miss Marple’s earlier life. When writing my own elderly super-sleuth series, I will trace her career from the start. As you’ll see if you follow the Miss Riddell Cozy Mysteries over the coming years – from this statement, you can deduce I’m not a fast writer.

However, this is my Bio, not Miss Riddell’s, so here goes with all you need to know about me: I’m a retired manager and a budding writer. When I’m not staring at the computer screen in the hope inspiration will strike, you’ll find me running, walking, and taking wildlife photographs around Whitby, Canada. My series begins in northern England because that was my home growing up and that’s also the home of so many great cozy mysteries. Stay with me though because the stories will take us to many different places around the world.

Fashion Victim: Romantic Suspense

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Fashion Victim: Romantic Suspense - ASIN B01BSYJTHQ

Hot isn’t a hot enough word to describe corporate raider Fletcher Wolf, but since he’s suing couturier Cara Fletcher for, oh, a gazillion dollars, she figures she shouldn’t hit on him…at least not too hard.

On top of that, she wonders if he’s responsible for the harassment and vandalism that’s plaguing her, irritants that escalate into crimes when her workshop is trashed to the tune of a hundred thousand dollars. The economic damage enables him to seize her company, bringing him into her life on a daily basis. When her Manhattan loft home is torched and her assistant murdered, Cara realizes that the man she wants is the only man who can keep her safe.

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The Murder of Shakespeare’s Ghost

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Miriam Webster and the Grand Old Lady Detectives [G.O.L.D.] take on their first case when the tenant in Shakespeare’s Cottage swears the Bard of Avon’s ghost is on the prowl.

Miriam’s not a believer in ghosts, but when she and her companions catch a glimpse of a hazy figure that bears Shakespeare’s unmistakable likeness, she’s no longer sure what to think. When the ghostly apparition suddenly disappears, it leaves them mystified.

Their investigation soon takes an even more bizarre twist when the ghost, to borrow a phrase from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, “shuffles off this mortal coil.” A murdered ghost means the G.O.L.D. team have no choice but to involve homicide detective Henry “Hank” Miller who complicates matters, especially for Miriam.

A dead ghost is just one of many surprises for Miriam Webster and her sleuthing pals. Poking into the past, they soon discover the cottage’s previous occupants had a few skeletons in their closets. Do those old bones hold the key to uncovering the motive for a new murder?

As Shakespeare’s Cottage gives up its secrets, can they figure out who murdered Shakespeare’s ghost before there’s another victim?

Grab your copy of this delightful cozy mystery by USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling author, Anna Celeste Burke to find out!

Recipes included.

Free to read on Kindle Unlimited.

Love a Foot Above the Ground (Jessica Huntington Desert Cities Mystery Book 0)

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*****Voted one of the 50 Self-published books worth reading, 2015!*****
We should all have a Bernadette in our lives… Set in California and Mexico in the 1960s this tale evokes a simpler, more innocent time and place. A story of love, loss, and resilience in the face of a haunting mystery.
What readers are saying about Love a Foot Above the Ground
5***** “If you believe in love, please read this book and you will be enlightened by the power of everlasting love….Five stars to this one!”
5***** “This is a stunningly rich saga played out in the culture of Mexico’s Baja California, as a young girl learns the lessons of life, love, jealousy and betrayal. Against the odds, she ultimately finds peace and happiness, but not in any way you might expect from the intricacies of this fine saga.”
5***** “The writing style is fabulously romantic and mysterious and the scenery brilliantly described. By the end of the book I felt as though the people and places involved were actually real.”
5***** “The book was so powerful and a completely fascinating read.”

The Dream Horse Mysteries Boxed Set

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Jump in the saddle for a fun but bumpy ride!

Few will hire competitive rider, Viola Parker, since the famous jumper, Wastrel, crashed to his death with her aboard. Not only that, her attitude just landed her out of work…again. She can barely afford her whipped-cream-in-a-can addiction.

Now, before she’s thirty, she must keep a job for one year and receive a glowing letter of recommendation to get a surprise trust fund set up by her absentee parents. A trust fund that could represent freedom and independence—or might be worth nothing.

Vi accepts a position and moves from Long Island to Missouri thinking that keeping her mouth shut and her head down for one year will be easy.

But when Wastrel begins haunting her dreams and dead bodies start piling up, the question isn’t whether she can earn a reference from her hunky boss, Malcolm, but whether she’ll live long enough to get it.

A Life for a Life: A Mystery Novel

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One mysterious death. One lazy sheriff. Two seekers of the truth.

Della Kincaid escaped to the mountains of N.C. to get away from it all.

Didn’t work.

When she and her dog, Jake, discover a woman dead in the wilderness, Della realizes she can’t escape her past and gets embroiled in the investigation. The sheriff says suicide. Della says murder, and as a former crime reporter in Washington, D.C., she knows how to chase the truth. Without her usual sources, she turns to an interesting cast of characters—friends, forger, former husband, and new neighbor Abit Bradshaw, a boy who’s spent the first 16 years of his life plagued by small-town bullies and family lies. They team up to search for answers to the possible murder—but things don’t turn out the way they planned.

FANS OF To Kill a Mockingbird, Where the Crawdads Sing, and The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell will also enjoy this book.

A Life for a Life is the first book in Lynda McDaniel’s internationally acclaimed Appalachian Mountain Mysteries series. Reviewers have compared her work to To Kill a Mockingbird and her storytelling style to that of Fannie Flagg. If you like page-turning mysteries without over-the-top violence—but packed with suspense and character-driven stories—you’ll love this series.

BUYA LIFE FOR A LIFE TODAY AND DISCOVER ALL THAT HAPPENS WHEN A STRANGER MOVES TO TOWN.

“GREAT !! BOOK  A good mystery that reads like a literary piece.”  —Wooley, Amazon Vine Voice Reviewer

“A LIFE FOR A LIFE IS ONE OF THE MOST SATISFYING BOOKS I’VE READ THIS YEAR. A strong message of forgiveness, redemption and acceptance.”  —Ana  Manwaring, writer, creative writing instructor

“McDANIEL DELIVERS A PAIR OF UNFORGETTABLE CRIME-SOLVING CHARACTERS. She lured me into her story and kept me there.” —Virginia McCullough, award-winning author of Amber Light and Greta’s Grace