Recommendations based on "Marriage, Malice & Murder"

Silent Night, Deadly NightWith Christmas just over a week away, ’tis the season for grinning sales elves on TV, maddeningly jolly Muzak, and a guilty Nut Goodie addiction. But for Mira James and other Battle Lake-area women, the holidays are marred by something far worse―a serial killer leaving candy canes as his calling card. His target? Thirty-something brunettes who look just like Mira. When a woman from her high school graduating class becomes his latest victim, Mira plows through a case of online dating turned deadly with Mrs. Berns at her side. Will she earn her detective stripes . . . or end up deader than the Ghost of Christmas Past?Praise:"Lourey pulls out all the stops in this eighth case."―Library Journal"Lourey creates a splendid mix of humor and suspense."―Booklist"Lourey, who keeps her secrets well, delivers a breathtaking finale."―Publishers Weekly

Wedding bells are ringing in the latest page-turning Library Lover's Mystery from the New York Times bestselling author of Word to the Wise.Love is in the air in Briar Creek as library director Lindsey Norris and boat captain Mike (Sully) Sullivan are finally tying the knot. The entire town is excited for the happy day, and Lindsey and Sully's plan for a small wedding evaporates as more and more people insist upon attending the event of the year.When Lindsey and her crafternoon pals head out to Bell Island to see if it can accommodate the ever-expanding guest list, they are horrified to discover a body washed up on the rocky shore. Even worse, Lindsey recognizes the man as the justice of the peace who was supposed to officiate her wedding ceremony. When it becomes clear he was murdered, Lindsey can't help but wonder if it had to do with the wedding. Now she has to book it to solve the mystery before it ends her happily ever after before it's even begun....

It's no-holds-barred murder, in the latest page-turning Library Lover's Mystery from the New York Times bestselling author of Hitting the Books. Lindsey Norris is finally getting married to the man of her dreams--but it's not all roses for Briar Creek's beloved library director, as gardening enthusiast and town newcomer Aaron Grady gives the term "book lover" a whole new meaning. Inappropriate looks and unwelcome late-night visits to Lindsey's house have everyone from the crafternooners to Lindsey's fianc , Sully, on edge. When Grady's dead body is found staged outside the library and all the clues point to Sully, Lindsey knows it's up to her to dig through the hidden chapters of Grady's previous life to find the real culprit and clear Sully's name. But becoming a thorn in the killer's side is not without its consequences, and the closer Lindsey gets to the truth, the more determined the murderer is to make her just a footnote.

CRIME & MYSTERY FICTION. GRAPHIC NOVEL. Miss Marple's first case is adapted into the first Miss Marple comic book in this long-awaited adaptation of one of Agatha Christie's most famous novels. Nothing ever happens in the peaceful village of St Mary Mead. So it seems almost incredible when Colonel Protheroe is discovered shot through the head in the vicarage study. Unfortunately for the murderer, there is someone in the village who knows everything, sees everything and hears everything - and she intends to work out who killed the Colonel. Her name is Miss Marple!

The new Blackbird Sisters mystery from the bestselling author of A Crazy Little Thing Called Death. Down-to-earth debutante Nora Blackbird is having a meltdown-and it isn't because of Philadelphia's heat wave, or an overdose at the city's Chocolate Festival. A noted Philly philanthropist has taken a swan dive from an office balcony-and Nora's friend Lexie stands accused of the murder. Then Nora's scheming parents reappear, sending all three Blackbird sisters into a panic. Now Nora must uncover the scandalous hijinks her parents are plotting-before she winds up taking all the heat and strangling her father with his own ascot.

 The Blackbird sisters are back--and as witty and wonderful as ever! For richer, for poorer...                                                               Nora Blackbird, the Bucks County ex-debutante with a haute couture wardrobe, a hot job as a glamorous society columnist and a stone cold bank account, might finally have her own life just right, but everyone around her is going down in flames. Her sister Libby seems destined to be the lead character in a tabloid sex scandal.  Her sister Emma is expecting a mysterious love child.  Her best friend, Lexie Paine, is serving time in the slammer.  And now her mobbed-up boyfriend, Mick Abruzzo--who might actually be her husband--is conducting clandestine capers from Blackbird Farm while under house arrest. What's a good girl to do?  Find a killer, that's what!  Word arrives that the sisters' great aunt, Madeleine Blackbird, has died in a volcanic eruption on an Indonesian island and left her fabulous country estate, worth millions, to the three of them.  But when the Blackbird sisters show up to claim their windfall, they find the house in a state of disheartening decay and all of Madeleine's to-die-for treasures gone. Worse, the mansion has been hiding a grisly secret: the body of a woman who died there many years ago.  All the evidence points to a high society murder... Nora's special bond with flamboyant Aunt Madeleine compels her to seek out the truth.  With her aunt's amorous stepson dogging her footsteps, her unscrupulous lawyer acting like a skunk, and her devoted housekeeper not to be found, Nora's investigation is going nowhere.  Good thing Mick's close by to offer Nora distractions both dark and delightful.  And, as ever, her irrepressible sisters provide some unexpected... and highly unorthodox... assistance when she most needs it.

November in Battle Lake, Minnesota, is cold enough to freeze the balls off a pool table. lt's also deer hunting season. When Tom Kicker is killed in a hunting accident, Mira James is hired to investigate--a job that brings her closer to a P.I. license. Braving subzero temps and shrieking blizzards, Mira uncovers a decades-old scandal that has never quite died, unlike the cold stiffs who are piling up in the town morgue. As she pieces together the clues, Mira discovers that Battle Lake's good-old boys have been up to some bad business. But with threats and enemies around every icy corner, she may not live long enough to expose the truth. Praise: "It's not easy to make people laugh while they're on the edge of their seats, but Lourey pulls it off, while her vivid descriptions of a brutal Minnesota winter will make readers shiver in the seventh book in her very clever Murder-of-the-Month series."--Booklist, (starred review) "A good story told well, with solid writing."--Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine "Lourey's seventh cozy featuring PI wannabe Mira James successfully combines humor, an intriguing mystery, and quirky smalltown characters."--Publishers Weekly "Lourey has successfully created an independent, relatable heroine in Mira James. Mira's wit and fearlessness enable her to overcome the many challenges she faces as she tries to unravel the murder."--Crimespree Magazine "Lourey has a knack for wholesome sexual innuendo, and she gets plenty of mileage out of Minnesota. This light novel keeps the reader engaged, like one of those sweet chewy Nut Goodies that Mira is addicted to."--Hallie Ephron, The Boston Globe "Clever, quirky and completely original! This taut and compelling mystery--with a twist on every page-is edgy, entertaining, and irresistible."--Hank Phillippi Ryan, Anthony, Agatha and Macavity Award-winning author "In November Hunt Jess Lourey skillfully navigates her way along the razor's edge of the traditional mystery. With a masterful mix of mayhem and mirth, she shows us there's more to small town Minnesota than frozen lakes and fish fries. A fun read all the way through."--Reed Farrel Coleman, three-time Shamus Award-winning author of Hurt Machine

Book 5 in the award-winning historical Chloe Ellefson Mystery series Curator and occasional sleuth Chloe Ellefson is off to Minneapolis to help her friend Ariel with a monumental task. Ariel must write a proposal for a controversial and expensive restoration project: convert an abandoned flour mill, currently used as shelter by homeless people, into a museum. When a dead body is found stuffed into a grain chute, Chloe's attention turns from milling to murder. Back in Milwaukee, Chloe's love interest Roelke has been slammed with the news that a fellow officer was shot and killed while on duty. Sifting through clues from both past and present, Chloe and Roelke discover dangerous secrets that put their lives--and their trust in each other--at risk. Praise: "Ernst keeps getting better with each entry in this fascinating series."--Library Journal "Everybody has secrets in this action-filled cozy."--Publishers Weekly "All in all, a very enjoyable reading experience."--Mystery Scene "A page-turner with a clever surprise ending."--G.M. Malliet, Agatha Award-winning author of The St. Just and Max Tudor Mystery Series "[A] haunting tale of two murders...This is more than a mystery. It is a plush journey into cultural time and place."--Jill Florence Lackey, PhD, author of Milwaukee's Old South Side and American Ethnic Practices in the Twenty-First Century

Sarah and Frank Malloy must catch a scheming  killer in this latest gripping installment in the USA Today bestselling Gaslight Mysteries .Former policeman Frank Malloy is frustrated when a woman requests his private detective services to implicate her wealthy husband in adultery, the only legal grounds for divorce in New York state. Although Mrs. Bing seems genuinely distressed about her marriage and desperate to end it, she refuses to tell Frank the reason she absolutely must divorce her husband and admits she has no legal grounds. Frank explains he won't manufacture evidence for her and sends her on her way.   The following week, Frank and Sarah happen to be attending the first ever auto show in Madison Square Garden when they meet the woman's husband, Alfred Bing, who has invested in a company that produces one of the electric motorcars on display. A few days later, the newspapers report that millionaire Alvin Bing has been found dead, pinned beneath one of the wheels of his very own motorcar. But who was driving it? The obvious suspect is Mrs. Bing, but Frank and Sarah find that nothing is as it seems in their puzzling, dangerous search for truth.

I've been able to add amateur sleuthing and accidental corpse finding to my CV. I'm not sure it's a good look. Juno Browne, self-proclaimed Domestic Goddess who can turn her hand to cleaning, dog walking or home help jobs, is feeling overworked and underpaid. However, she is not the only one with problems, very serious problems. Among her friends, Elizabeth is being blackmailed, and Ricky's errant nephew is on the run from criminals in London. In an attempt to get to the bottom of these disturbing developments, Juno finds herself drawn from an isolated manor house on Dartmoor to London's glamorous but shady theatreland. Can she avoid being fatally entangled in threads of deception and murder?