Series-ously Good New Mysteries - April 2015

It's finally spring! But here in Nova Scotia that could still mean snow, so make sure you have a few of the new series titles to tide you through.


Dark Chocolate Demise by Jenn McKinlay is book number seven following Sugar and Iced in the Cupcake Bakery mysteries. Scottsdale, Arizona, may not be the liveliest place on earth, but it's never been as dead as this. Hundreds of fans have gathered together for the first annual Old Town Zombie Walk, and Mel, Angie, and the Fairy Tale Cupcake crew are donning their best undead attire to sell some horror-themed desserts to the hungry hordes. But the fun turns to fright when Mel finds a real dead body in a prop casket outside of the bakery's truck—and the corpse looks alarmingly like a zombie of their own. Knowing that Joe, Angie's brother and Mel's former flame, has been working on a dangerous mob case, Mel worries that the murder is a hit gone wrong and that someone near and dear was the real target. To keep any of her friends from winding up six feet under, Mel will do whatever it takes to find a killer—no matter how scary things get.

The twentieth title in the Aunt Dimity mystery series, Aunt Dimity and the Summer King by Nancy Atherton is being published this month. It follows Aunt Dimity and the Wishing Well. There's trouble in Finch. Four recently sold cottages are standing empty, and the locals fear that a developer plans to turn their cosy village into an enclave of overpriced weekend homes. But for once Lori Shepherd can't help. Her infant daughter, her father-in-law's upcoming wedding, and the crushing prospect of her fortieth birthday have left her feeling overwhelmed. Until, that is, she has a chance encounter with an eccentric inventor named Arthur Hargreaves. In the presence of Arthur, dubbed the Summer King by his equally eccentric family, Lori forgets her troubles - and Finch's. But when Lori discovers detailed maps of Finch in the Summer King's library, she wonders if he could be too good to be true. Is Arthur secretly plotting Finch's demise? With Aunt Dimity's otherworldly help Lori mounts a crusade to save her beloved village from the Summer King's scorching greed.

Book number ten in the Southern Sewing Circle mystery series, Wedding Duress by Elizabeth Lynn Casey follows Taken In. Tori is ecstatic to become Mrs. Milo Wentworth in a few days, but she has a lot to do before she sashays down the aisle. Favors need to be sewn, vows need to be written—and a mystifying murder needs to be solved. When Beatrice, a fellow member of the Sweet Briar Ladies Society Sewing Circle, learns that her former nanny took a fatal fall in her new employers' home, she suspects the death was not an accident. Now Tori's spending her last days as a single woman untangling rumors and stitching together motives to find a killer. But can she nab a murderer and make it to the church on time?


Oh Say Can you Fudge by Nancy Coco is the third book in the Candy-Coated mystery series - following To Fudge or not to Fudge. It's not Fourth of July on Mackinac Island without fireworks and fudge. The Historic McMurphy Hotel and Fudge Shop is supplying the treats--and Allie has hired Rodney Rivers, the biggest name in aerial displays, to create an unforgettable spectacle. Unfortunately, Allie finds him dead, covered with screaming chicken fireworks, just before the entire warehouse of pyrotechnics goes up in smoke. Is it arson or is it murder? Allie and her bichonpoo, Mal, must sift through the suspects until the killer is caught and the island can enjoy a star-spangled celebration.


Slated for Death by Elizabeth J. Duncan is the sixth offering in the Penny Brannigan Mystery series. It follows Never Laugh as a Hearse Goes By. When the body of well-liked and respectable Glenda Roberts is discovered at the bottom of a former slate mine, now a busy tourist attraction, pandemonium erupts in the North Wales town of Llanelen. Penny Brannigan finds herself drawn into the investigation when jars of her house-brand hand cream are found among counterfeit inventory Glenda and her sister were selling. Police are convinced that the mine operator whose asthmatic son suffered an almost-fatal attack due to the merchandise is responsible for Glenda's death. But Penny's not so sure. A visit to Glenda's mother only deepens her conviction that a hidden family secret is the real reason for the murder.

Dawn Eastman is releasing the third title in the Family Fortune Mystery series, A Fright to the Death, following Be Careful What you Witch For. After their flight to Mexico is cancelled, Clyde and her detective boyfriend, Mac, end up snowed in with their families at a supposedly haunted hotel. Clyde's tarot card reading mother, Rose, is making dire predictions for the weekend, and self-proclaimed pet psychic Aunt Vi is enchanted by the legend of the hotel's ghost—until the power goes out and a body turns up. With a hotel full of stranded suspects, Clyde will have to draw on all her skills—both the police ones she'd rather forget and the psychic ones she'd rather ignore—to solve the bone-chilling mystery before someone else gets iced.