Category Archives: Mystery

Winter at the White Oaks Lodge

Shore Leave Cafe #4

by Abbie Williams

WinterA gorgeous stranger in an old photograph. A desperate search from another century. And a mystery that Camille Gordon cannot resist.

It has been two years since she discovered that she was going to be a teenage mother. Abandoned by her child’s father, Camille is determined that she and her daughter will make it on their own.

When she discovers an old picture in a trunk from her grandmother’s attic, Camille is at once drawn to the man in the image, standing near his horse in the light of a long-ago sunset. The haunting photo leads her to the Carters, who run the nearby White Oaks Lodge. Each clue brings her closer to her own destiny: a true love so intense that not even time can wither it.

Publisher

Published by: Everheart Books

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About the Author

I am writer Abbie Williams, and I have been addicted to love stories ever since first sneaking my mother's copy of The Flame and the Flower; since then, I've been jotting down stories of my own in notebook after spiral-bound notebook. Well, that is until I got a computer that was equipped with Word, one fine day.

I spend my days with my own true love, our three daughters, and a very busy schedule. I am most happy when I can sneak in a few hours to write and thereby indulge in visiting the characters in my stories.

When I'm not writing, teaching or spending time with my family, you can find me listening to my favorite musical groups of all time: Alison Krauss and Union Station, the Wailin' Jennys, and The Be Good Tanyas. If there's time in the evening, I might watch a few episodes of Hell on Wheels and eat a jar of crunchy peanut butter.

Sincerely, Sad Dad

by Jennifer L Davidson

Sincerely,With a growing compulsion to kill, one mourning father fights the urge to seek revenge on his daughter’s killer by asking Kody Burkoff, a small-town ghostwriter, to help him create a memoir filled with wonderful memories from the years he spent with his daughter before her untimely death the summer after she graduated from high school. Kody, who feels impelled to help every lost soul who enters her life, agrees to help this sad dad knowing that she’ll either come out of the ordeal a celebrated hero or an accomplice to a murder. Can Kody save the lives of the boy deemed a murderer and the father facing a lifetime of regret?

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About the Author

Jennifer L. Davidson is a North Dakota native with a degree in English from North Dakota State University. She enjoys long romantic strolls on the beach, quiet candlelight dinners, and plenty of hours each day to contemplate the meaning of life. However, in reality, she lives in southeastern Minnesota with a husband, three children, two cats, and a dog. Need there be any more reason to write fiction?

Crossing Carol

by Jennifer L Davidson

CrossingWhen Evelyn Scott agrees to satisfy her family’s persistent requests to open up about her past, she does so hesitantly, and with good reason too, since her past is beleaguered by a haunting memory — the night she helped her mother bury a devastating secret of lust and betrayal.

Employing the services of ghostwriter Kody Burkoff, Evelyn attempts to tell all, but falters miserably along the way. While Evelyn battles the unraveling tethers of her childhood, Kody gathers the clues that have slipped from her client’s mouth to investigate her past, which will also aid her in solving a mystery that has plagued their small town for decades.

Kody’s thirst for adventure comes to a staggering halt when Evelyn’s long-time friend, Sheldon, attempts to impede her progress. Sheldon’s actions, however, allow Kody to expose one buried secret and reveal evidence confirming that Evelyn and her mother are not the only ones with something to hide.

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About the Author

Jennifer L. Davidson is a North Dakota native with a degree in English from North Dakota State University. She enjoys long romantic strolls on the beach, quiet candlelight dinners, and plenty of hours each day to contemplate the meaning of life. However, in reality, she lives in southeastern Minnesota with a husband, three children, two cats, and a dog. Need there be any more reason to write fiction?

Missing Maggie

by Jennifer L Davidson

Missing“Before today, I thought of him as a sweet man with a dreadfully sad story – a story that I would’ve been happy to have as my own.”

Unbeknownst to Kody Burkoff, a ghostwriter, and her latest love interest, Kevin, they are hot on the trail to finding out the truth about her client Daniel’s past; a truth that isn’t meant to be uncovered. In the beginning, Daniel’s recount of his past sounds like an extraordinary love story that anyone would envy. Their friendly conversations end, however, after an unpredicted encounter one cold winter afternoon, igniting Daniel’s suspicions that he’s finally been found. A twist of trails and one shocking event sends the trio spiraling, leaving one individual with a heavy heart and one begging for more answers. Entwined with shocking surprises, chance connections, and endearing conversations, Missing Maggie explores love in all of its forms, revenge at its worst, and truth in all its glory.

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About the Author

Jennifer L. Davidson is a North Dakota native with a degree in English from North Dakota State University. She enjoys long romantic strolls on the beach, quiet candlelight dinners, and plenty of hours each day to contemplate the meaning of life. However, in reality, she lives in southeastern Minnesota with a husband, three children, two cats, and a dog. Need there be any more reason to write fiction?

Justice for Julia

by Jennifer L Davidson

JusticeKody Burkoff, a small-town ghostwriter who specializes in the memoirs of everyday people, attempts to help a mourning father wavering between seeking revenge and granting forgiveness by creating a memoir filled with wonderful memories of his daughter, Julia, before her untimely death. Kody feels impelled to help every lost soul who enters her life, including her newly divorced high school sweetheart, and quickly regrets her decision when the beleaguered father confesses that he can’t control his compulsive behavior toward the young man whom he has deemed a murderer. Unable to ignore the inevitable, Kody acts to protect the innocent and preserve the future of Julia’s faltering family.

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About the Author

Jennifer L. Davidson is a North Dakota native with a degree in English from North Dakota State University. She enjoys long romantic strolls on the beach, quiet candlelight dinners, and plenty of hours each day to contemplate the meaning of life. However, in reality, she lives in southeastern Minnesota with a husband, three children, two cats, and a dog. Need there be any more reason to write fiction?

Festival of Crime

by D A Lampi

FestivalThroughout Minnesota, from Austin to International Falls, people flock every year to more festivals--county fairs, arts and craft shows, ice-fishing contests, and music festivals--than you can shake a stick at. Most come for the food and fun, but a few festival-goers have more devious intentions in mind.

In this diverse collection of short stories, members of Twin Cities Sisters in Crime reveal the chilly underside of dog-sled races, gang rivalries at a Cinco de Mayo festivals, errant ice picks at a winter sculpture park, arson at a North Shore boat show, and a host of other ticklish and terrifying situations.

Sometimes humorous and always rich in local color, these mysteries abound in psychopaths and twisted cops, cagey con men and shrewd amateur sleuths. They'll keep you guessing 'til the band stops playing and the final light goes out.

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Published by: Nodin Press

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About the Author

D.A. Lampi lives in southeastern Minnesota with her husband, four children and a sheltie named Scout Finch. She has a Master of Arts degree in Psychology and writes fiction. This is her first novel. Her short story, Fifty Years is soon be published in a horror anthology of horror stories by Aprocryphile Press. She is currently working on a second Grace Rendeau novel.

Shadow Play

by D A Lampi

ShadowPsychiatrist Grace Rendeau struggles to make sense of her husband's untimely death. Left a widow with two children, Grace forges a new life for her family, abandoning her private practice and moving to Minnesota to take on a prestigious position at the Rochester Forensic Center for the Criminally Insane.

In striving to heal her patients, she finds healing, a new strength, and a sense of possibilities. Among the possibilities is a budding romance with Alex Sawyer, a divorced doctor engaged in humanitarian work. Grace accompanies Alex on a medical mission to Indonesia and they return committed to a new life together. But their joy is short lived.

Grace returns home not to her children, but to an empty house and a chilling kidnapper's note. Enemies known and unknown haunt Grace's every waking hour. Grace's story illuminates the hopes and fears of every wife or husband, mother or father, woman or man, caught in life's turmoil and striving to overcome it.

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Published by: North Star Press of St. Cloud, Inc.

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About the Author

D.A. Lampi lives in southeastern Minnesota with her husband, four children and a sheltie named Scout Finch. She has a Master of Arts degree in Psychology and writes fiction. This is her first novel. Her short story, Fifty Years is soon be published in a horror anthology of horror stories by Aprocryphile Press. She is currently working on a second Grace Rendeau novel.

How to Date Dead Guys

The Witches Handbook #1

by Ann M. Noser

HowQuiet college sophomore Emma Roberts remembers her mother’s sage advice: “don’t sleep around, don’t burp in public, and don’t tell anyone you see ghosts”. But when cute Mike Carlson drowns in the campus river under her watch, Emma’s sheltered life shatters.

Blamed for Mike’s death and haunted by nightmares, Emma turns to witchcraft and a mysterious Book of Shadows to bring him back. Under a Blood Moon, she lights candles, draws a pentacle on the campus bridge, and casts a spell. The invoked river rages up against her, but she escapes its fury. As she stumbles back to the dorm, a stranger drags himself from the water and follows her home.

Instead of raising Mike, Emma assists the others she stole back from the dead—a pre-med student who jumped off the bridge, a young father determined to solve his own murder, and a frat boy Emma can’t stand…at first. More comfortable with the dead than the living, Emma delves deeper into the seductive Book of Shadows. Her powers grow, but witchcraft may not be enough to protect her against the vengeful river and the killers that feed it their victims.

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Published by: Curiosity Quills

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My to-do list dictates that I try to cram 48 hours of living into a day instead of the usual 24. I’ve chosen a life filled with animals. I train for marathons with my dog, then go to work as a small animal veterinarian, and finish the day by tripping over my pets as I attempt to convince my two unruly children that YES, it really IS time for bed. But I can’t wait until the house is quiet to write; I have to steal moments throughout the day. Ten minutes here, a half hour there, I live within my imagination.

Like all busy American mothers, I multi-task. I work out plot holes during runs. Instead of meditating, I type madly during yoga stretches. I find inspiration in everyday things: a beautiful smile, a heartbreaking song, or a newspaper article on a political theory. For example, a long drive in the dark listening to an NPR program on the SMILEY FACE MURDERS theory made me ask so many questions that I wrote HOW TO DATE DEAD GUYS to answer them to my satisfaction.

I’d love to have more time to write (and run, read, and sleep), but until I find Hermione Granger’s time turner, I will juggle real life with the half-written stories in my head. Main characters and plot lines intertwine in my cranium, and I need to let my writing weave the tales on paper so I can find out what happens next.

Mortimer: The Leader Within

The Leader Within

by Anthony Wilson

MortimerLess than 24 hours after being inaugurated President of the United States, James Patrick Martin learns a horrifying secret from our nation’s past.

Hidden in the shadows for almost a century, this event could have a drastic impact on the immediate future of the country, and the planet.

Burdened with guiding humanity through history’s most daunting threat, President Martin must face a gauntlet of challenges, both public and personal, that will test both his skill as a leader, and his mettle as a man.

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About the Author

Anthony Wilson traces the initial inspiration for Mortimer back to a high school senior class trip to Washington, D.C. in 1984. As a journalist in the late 1980s, Anthony was encouraged to resist the urge to write a novel. As a parent in the 1990s, he did not have time to write a novel. As a project manager in the early 2000s, he was not sane enough to write a novel. In 2007, Anthony rekindled the original spark and secretly started typing. What began as a study of leadership, morphed into a futuristic/sci-fi/fantasy with a thinly veiled message... you can handle whatever life throws at you as long as you trust in yourself, stay focused, and lean on your friends and loved ones. Anthony has a bachelor's degree in Communications from Missouri Southern State University (Joplin, MO) and a master's degree in Human Resource Development from Pittsburg (KS) State Univer-sity. He lives in Rochester, MN, with his wife, Linda.

Deathblow

by Joan Sween

DeathblowAn artist... and a cop.
A lady banker... and a cop.
A union strike leader... and a cop.

Riverbend has a serial killer who murders and then always returns to the crime scene to kill a cop. Despite strong warnings to be on the alert, uniformed police officers continue to be cut down with a bullet to the back of the head from close range. The Encore Killer has left only two clues--a high-heeled shoe print and a faint hint of perfume. Detectives Lobo Stangler and Wiley Middleton are on a full press search for someone who appears harmless but has the conscience of a killer. The investigation finally kicks into high gear, however, when a group of homeless people play at profiling, with surprising results.

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About the Author

For 11 years Joan has written humor columns for Minnesota’s state-wide antiques newspaper, The Old Times. Her books, Nice Girls Don’t Bite, Deathblow, and Dealer’s Choice can be found on Amazon.com. Some of her 20 plays can be found at Eldridge Plays and Musicals. She is currently seeking a theatre that will produce her latest play, The First Woman, which deals with the defense of Mary Surratt, the first woman executed by the U.S. Government for her participation in the conspiracy to assassinate President Lincoln.