Showing results for "Fire" in Amateur Sleuths

May 1912. After the previous year’s deadly heatwave, it’s been an uneventful spring in Littleton Cotterell. Though for Lady Hardcastle and her fiercely loyal lady’s maid Flo, at least there are the provincial delights of the village’s inaugural art exhibition—and bicycle race—to look forward to. But at the exhibition opening, there’s a panicked shout of ‘Fire!’ In the confusion, the main attraction—an extremely expensive book—is stolen from under everyone’s nose, as is a valuable painting lent by Sir Hector Farley-Stroud.

Captain Thomas Forsyth’s second tour of Afghanistan is cut brutally short when he’s badly wounded by a roadside bomb. Tom’s world is torn apart by the injury – the Army is his life. The thought of never rejoining his regiment is a terrifying prospect and one that he is not willing to entertain. Tom returns to Lambourn, to his childhood home, where his mother is a racehorse trainer and the ‘First Lady’ of racing.

Liz Parker dreams of being a gumshoe, like her hardboiled heroes Philip Marlowe and Mike Hammer. But instead, she's stuck as secretary at the Ace Agency, a small-time investigation bureau above a curry house in the backstreets of Birmingham. Her lecherous boss, Mr Antrobus, is too tied up with typist Gloria to pay much attention to the cases that come in - so Liz decides to solve them herself.

Kit Jernigan despairs of ever fitting in with her new tight-knit K9 unit - they've been through too much to welcome a stranger. So when a killer strikes, it's a fight to convince her fellow officers to trust her long enough to catch the woman she knows is responsible. She can't do it on her own. What she needs most is a partner: local fire spotter Wesley March.

Nick Anthony has retreated to the North Carolina mountains to mourn the untimely death of his wife. Once a popular professor, Nick just wants to be left alone with his grief. But when his estranged brother and sister-in-law die in a house fire, a stunned Nick learns he has a niece, Annalise, who is missing. At the scene of the crime, the men who set the fire have realized Annalise, and the information they are looking for, got away. Feverish and exhausted, she stumbles onto her uncle's porch.

Gilley's whirlwind romance with creative director Stuart Jacobs began in Paris, where Stuart was sourcing fabric for the world-renowned Texas Rose Festival, which he is heading up for the first time. The festival is nothing short of spectacular, bringing in half a million people (and their wallets) to see the artistic displays, and exquisite gowns and jewels worn by the Rose Queen and her court. Stuart and his crew seem to have it all under control. But the night Cat arrives in Texas, someone is shot in cold blood, and a member of Stuart's staff is named the prime suspect!

It’s early spring 1948 and Lane arrives in New Denver to find that her friend, Peter Barisoff, is not at home. Instead, in a nearby meadow, she encounters Tom, an Indigenous man in search of his ancestral lands. Lane is intrigued. Unfortunately, once Peter returns home, the day takes a gloomy turn when the trio uncovers human remains next to Peter’s garden, and Lane must tell her husband, Inspector Darling, that she’s inadvertently stumbled into his professional domain—again.

I find the murdered woman crumpled under a tree. Blood stains her back and her hands are bound. If I touch her, my psychic abilities will show me what happened to her. But I've lived through murders before, and the visions leave scars. Fighting my fear, I touch her—and only see four names—Addlynn Jeanette Claire Margaret.

When the entire collection of the Fireman's Museum ironically goes up in flames, Nell Pratt discovers one of the charred pictures isn't the one that was originally exhibited. But getting to the bottom of the mystery is bound to get Nell burned....

As Whispering Pines’ busiest tourist season ever draws to a close, Reeva Long, Ruby McLaughlin, and the other villagers are ready for things to quiet down. Instead, a break-in and a small fire set near Hearth & Cauldron puts everyone on edge. The only clue, a melted candle stub, gives the amateur sleuths little to work with. Soon other fires flare up, threatening the entire village, so Deputy Jayne O’Shea takes charge of the investigation. Can Jayne, with Reeva’s and Ruby’s help, catch the firestarter before someone gets hurt or worse?

When a gangland murder shocks the town of Hunter, Montana, the citizens want justice and they want it fast. The prime suspect got out of prison way too easily; reporter Sherman Iron needs to know why. But he breaks the law in his quest for answers, and Iron stumbles on the dead body of a corrupt judge with a million in cash in a briefcase in front of him. Then the cops show up. Framed for a murder he didn’t commit, Sherman Iron must clear his name and find the killer who ordered the shooting.

Bill Walton is still driving Dave Pasch crazy. In book two of the Bill Walton Mysteries, the seven-foot Deadhead won't let his broadcasting partner enjoy himself, even in Maui. He drags him out of the world's greatest luau and right into a deadly mystery, while an erupting volcano threatens the lives of everybody on the island. Walton and Pasch have three days to solve the murder of one of Walton's oldest friends while calling the greatest basketball tournament under the sun, the Maui Invitational.

After a fire destroys her home, Abby Bennett emerges from the hospital horribly scarred. Her husband has abandoned her, and her two little boys are gone. Determined to reclaim her life and get her boys back, Abby returns to her hometown in Iowa. With the help of a reclusive neighbor, Jack, she begins renovating her sister's rental property. But the old cottage has a tragic pasta grisly unsolved murder.

After surviving a horrific trauma in Nigeria, international aid worker Amanda Doucette returns to Canada to rebuild her life and her shaken ideals. There, the once-passionate, adventurous woman needs all her strength and ingenuity when a friend and fellow survivor goes missing along with his son. A trained first-aid and crisis responder, Doucette - always accompanied by her beloved dog Kaylee - joins forces with RCMP officer Chris Tymko to discover the truth about the disappearance.

Francis Bacon walks the streets of World War II London, employed as a warden for the ARP to keep watch for activities that might tip off the Axis powers. Before the war, Bacon had travelled to Berlin and Paris, picking up snatches of culture from a succession of middle-aged men charmed by his young face. Known for his flamboyant personal life and expensive taste, Bacon has returned home to live with his former nanny in a cramped bohemian apartment. But one night, death intrudes on his after-hours paradise.

The award-winning, laugh-out-loud adventures of antiques dealers Brandy Borne and her drama-queen mom Vivian have made Trash 'n' Treasures "one of the funniest cozy series going" (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine). In the latest installment, after flames consume a historic mansion full of priceless treasures, along with its occupant, the question arises: who charred the corpse? Brandy and Vivian are on the case in their 14th Trash 'n' Treasures Mystery!

As a junior reporter ostracized by her coworkers and community in North Dakota, RaeLynn Demming has something to prove. A decades-old arson that killed over 100 people on the island of La Paradisio might be her career-saving story, but she needs cooperation from Rose Trudeau, Hollywood socialite and survivor of the legendary Grande Hotel fire. Rose understands loss. For 30 years, she’s refused to discuss the Grande tragedy and still mourns her closest friend who perished in the blaze. Hungry for justice, Rose wants the arsonist and murderer caught.