Indie Crime Fiction of the Month for April 2021
Welcome to the latest edition of “Indie Crime Fiction of the Month”.
So what is “Indie Crime Fiction of the Month”? It’s a round-up of crime fiction by indie authors newly published this month, though some March books I missed the last time around snuck in as well. The books are arranged in alphabetical order by author. So far, most links only go to Amazon.com, though I may add other retailers for future editions.
Our new releases cover the broad spectrum of crime fiction. We have cozy mysteries, culinary mysteries, historical mysteries, Jazz Age mysteries, 1950s mysteries, paranormal mysteries, hardboiled mysteries, steampunk mysteries, science fiction mysteries, humorous crime fiction, crime thrillers, adventure thrillers, environmental thrillers, legal thrillers, sea adventures, police officers, amateur sleuths, private investigators, FBI agents, lawyers, gangsters, serial killers, organised crime, missing girls, wrongful accusations, bioterrorism, crime-busting witches, crime-busting socialites, crime-busting maids, crime-busting seamstresses, cyborg detectives, murderous carnivals, deadly divorces, murder and mayhem in London, Venice, Minnesota, California, Louisiana, the Florida Keys, Hawaii and much more.
As always, I know the authors at least vaguely, but I haven’t read all of the books, so Caveat emptor.
And now on to the books without further ado:
Sherlyn Coyle is left for dead by her murderous ex-fiance, known around the world as "The Ripper". Using her brilliant crime-solving skills to become a detective, she plans to bring him to justice. But the year is 1892 in a male-dominated world and the odds are pitted against her.
Fang, a lab-created vampire assassin, has just broken out of her cell and she's looking for the man who put her there. But the ghost of her dead sister turns her in a different direction, one that requires her to seek help in the form of a brilliant detective.
Together they learn an ancient book, The Curse of Shadows, has been stolen by an evil genius; Moreci, the same man who helped create Fang. Can Coyle and Fang trust each other enough to find and stop Moreci from killing tens of thousands?
Set in an alternative steampunk history, Coyle and Fang: Curse of Shadows is the first installment of a series. Each book is packed with rich characters, intrigue and so much action, you won't want to put the book down.
Anna Fairweather stands on the brink of discovering the answers to questions that have haunted her since childhood. Still, danger looms over her...
When Anna, Jerome, and Mrs. Montford journey from London to Venice in search of a missing person, a train conductor turns up dead. Can Anna capture the murderer before they reach their destination?
A Christmas eve party with friends ends in an unexpected death, leaving it up to Lily and Iris Dickinson to catch a murderer. But when details of a horrible event from the past come to light, will both sisters be too distracted to see the final answer that has been right in front of them all along?
A thought-provoking thriller about a very real threat to the essence of life: water. You’ll be forced to consider how you’d react if you were cornered and trapped in a terrifying, life-threatening situation. Jake Bendel and a cunning team of experts create a five-plant desalination system – all powered by environmentally friendly molten salt reactors – providing clean, healthy drinking water to millions of thirsty Californians. But the dark side of humanity sees this as a chance for revenge against the United States. A genius weaponizes the system, threatening to kill more Americans than all of World War II.
The clock is ticking. Can Jake and the FBI stop the terrorists before more innocent people are murdered in the name of the Jihad? WATERBORNE will grab you by the throat and pull you into a vicious struggle that will define the fate of the world for generations to come.
August 1925
London England
Severine DuNoir has escaped the gangsters in America and journeyed with her friends across the sea. Everything is different. Most importantly no one cares who her family is or what they’ve done.
That is, until, a body turns up and the members of Severine’s makeshift family are among the suspects. Now it’s time to discover who killed this person, why, and how they’re going to prove it.
“I’M BETTER OFF KILLING HER,” HE SAID…
Those offhand words come back to haunt him when his wife’s found stabbed in her lover’s parking garage. It seemed like a harmless enough remark at the time – the joking reaction of a wealthy man to the cost of divorce.
But now he’s the obvious suspect.
And his lawyer, Marc Kadella, has to tell him the other bad news. His wife was running quite the side business as a dominatrix.
The husband thought she was just a lady who lunched, who’d never had a job other than the one she had when he met her – Minnesota Vikings cheerleader – but it seems she and her friends were still a hard-working squad.
The group of eight ex-cheerleaders had moved their gymnastics indoors, building a lucrative prostitution business, and his wife had developed her own specialty—along with a stash of secrets belonging to some of the most influential and powerful men in the state.
The case is a prosecutor’s dream—the defendant’s phone records show he went to a party, then traveled to the scene of the murder, and back to the party. So obviously open-and-shut the police haven’t even bothered to look at other suspects.
That leaves Marc an opening for the daring defense known in the trade as SODDI: Some Other Dude Did It.
Death is a roller coaster.
The traveling carnival has made its stop in Sinful and everyone is ready for thrilling rides, challenging games, and most importantly, funnel cake. But when a man is murdered in the funhouse and Emmaline LeBlanc is knocked unconscious so the killer can escape, the good times are over. Carter is beside himself wanting to hunt down the man responsible for putting his mother in the hospital, but he can’t investigate when he’s related to one of the victims.
Palmer Reed was well known as a boy by most everyone in Sinful for being a sneak, a liar, and sometimes a thief. As an adult, he continued his reign of underachieving and mostly making people angry wherever he went. Now he’s a state police detective and is assigned to the case, but Fortune knows that to get Carter the answers he needs, Swamp Team 3 has to take on the investigation. As they dig deep into the confusion and lies that surround the murder, they uncover a secret that could devastate Carter and Emmaline, but Fortune is determined to discover the truth…whatever that may be.
Assistant District Attorney Lettie Portman charges a U.S. Senator with the murder of his wife. The wife was found dead sitting in her Mercedes with a garden house from the exhaust into her window. Suicide? Maybe, except the detectives learn the wife's fingerprints are nowhere on the hose. She appears to reach from the grave and point an accusing finger at her husband. And there's another twist: the Senator's Million Dollar Lawyer is involved in a deadly conspiracy against Lettie.
Lettie is hard at work on the case when she finds Detective Tony Reedy won't give up on her. She's been injured before when she lost her childhood. But she wants to love again and she asks him to wait. He reaches out but will he be able to touch her?
Dev Haskell receives a phone call from an old friend. It’s feared Dev’s old high school flame, Maddie McGuire, has fallen through the ice along the Mississippi River and can’t be found. Dev hasn’t seen her since she married ne’er do well, Colton Ferral. After attending the memorial service and reconnecting with her sisters, he comes away with more questions than answers.
Local crime lord, Tubby Gustafson, has some questions for Dev, too. Amazingly, Colton Ferral’s name comes up. Of course, what better time to offer a spare bedroom on Airbnb, not to mention a surprise guest who arrives on the scene.
Sit back and enjoy another delightful Dev Haskell tale.
A wonderful read to remind you that, actually, your life is pretty good!
As always, Morton, Dev’s Golden Retriever, provides a dose of sanity.
There’s a dark shadow hanging over the French Quarter, and Ofelia Archer is constantly looking over her shoulder because of it, waiting for the enemy to strike. While searching for one enemy, however, she finds another.
On what was supposed to be a relaxing day on the riverwalk, a knife-wielding man tries to take out a street performer and chaos ensues. Ofelia manages to disarm the assailant, but when he’s being loaded into a police cruiser he explodes – literally – releasing a wave of magic that knocks down everybody in Jackson Square.
Upon waking up, Ofelia is convinced it was some sort of surgical attack. When some of the people present at the event start tracking her down with murder on their minds, she becomes more convinced than ever that she was right.
Tourists, police officers, and locals are becoming possessed. The one thing they all seem to have in common is a need to track down Ofelia … and end her.
Zacharias Sully vowed to protect Ofelia no matter what. The odds this time feel longer than ever.
Ofelia and Sully are a team. Working together, they must find a hidden enemy while another stalks their every move. It’s going to take both of them together to come out safely on the other side.
What’s waiting for them there might be even more terrifying.
Strippers, Drugs, and Headless Corpses…
All in a day’s work for Bubbles Marlowe, HoloCity’s only cyborg detective.
What do an anti-tech cult, a deadly new street drug, and the corrupt Chief of Police have in common?
It’s a question Bubbles can’t afford to ask. Last time she got curious it cost her job, a limb, and almost her life.
She vows to stay out of police business. But with a newly minted cybernetic enhancement, a semi-legal P.I. licence, and a knack for asking the wrong kind of questions…
Vows are made to be broken.
But as the body count stacks up, Bubbles realizes she’s made a terrible mistake.
Can she figure out who is behind the murders before she loses her head?
If you love glitter, grit, and hard-boiled badassery, you’ll love this new take on the classic detective novel because it's got non-stop action, lots of laughs, and a sassy robotic pig.
Peter Lynch is a monster. A sociopathic attorney hiding in plain sight behind billboards and a successful career. With the highest connections, he terrorizes the city and buries the evidence, and there’s no way to stop him. Until one discharged Green Beret decides to try...
A novel of crime and suspense, from best-selling author Alan Lee.
Stormy Morgan thought coming home to Shadow Hills would break her. Instead, she’s found strength, and only part of it is because she’s discovered that she’s a witch. Now, with her great-grandmother coming to town, she’s finally in line for some answers. Now she just has to solve a pesky little murder before she’s free to cast and curse.
Following their first date, a quiet outing for pizza and romance, Stormy and her boyfriend Hunter Ryan discover that the owner Giovanni Rossi was gunned down in his parking lot sometime during the overnight hours. To make matters worse, Stormy believes she dreamed of the murder before finding out about it, which throws everybody for a loop.
Even though Hunter would prefer Stormy focus on her great-grandmother, he’s resigned to the fact that she can’t turn away from the investigation. Together, they start digging … and discover some disturbing clues involving various community members.
Stormy’s magic is evolving, almost on a daily basis, and it’s only outpaced by her curiosity. Once faced with a mystery, she can’t look away, and those who love her most will be dragged along for the ride.
Strap in, because as Stormy learns more about what she can do – with a little help from the Winchesters from Hemlock Cove – she’ll become a force to be reckoned with. She just has to survive long enough to reach her full potential … and that’s easier said than done.
It’s almost Easter. Time for bunnies, bonnets, and bonbons. Not bedlam. Unless you’re Lora Weaver, that is.
With the scent of spring in the air and the promise of a long weekend looming, Lora is looking forward to a few days relaxing with her beau Adam, taking long walks and short naps snuggled together in the warm glow of Easter chocolate wrappers.
Until Lora spots a bouquet of Easter lilies at the home of bff Camille Caron’s aunt and soon finds herself donning a bunny suit and slinging more than Easter eggs.
Whiskers deep in a mêlée of sparring seniors, Lora must keep herself from falling into a rabbit hole she can’t escape. All while grappling with the clamorous Caron clan, mama-to-be Tina, and Lora’s enigma of a boss, Laurent, who may be hiding more secrets than a Kinder egg.
The Easter Egg Ennui is a holiday novella from the Lora Weaver series.
The past never stays buried.
Sixteen years ago, Sergeant Lei Texeira met Harriet Vierra and Malia, the infant she adopted, in a deadly encounter in Mexico. Now a detective with the Maui Police Department, Harry works with Lei, and Malia, a teen sleuth, is determined to find her lost friend Camille.
But Camille is only one of many missing girls.
Young women are vanishing across the islands without a trace. Lei and Harry search for answers with the FBI, as Malia secretly conducts her own dangerous investigation: but for the girls taken by traffickers, time is running out.
When a small homemade boat drifts under the Seven Mile Bridge, Jesse McDermitt doesn’t hesitate to jump in and pull the boat ashore on Pigeon Key with an injured boy aboard.
The boy provides more questions than answers. He’s believed to be a Cuban refugee, yet when he regains consciousness, he speaks perfect English, but can’t even remember his name.
Clues point to the boy coming from Fort Myers, Jesse’s hometown. After going to war with drug smugglers there, Jesse has no desire to go back. But something is pulling at his wife’s heart strings.
With only a week before he has to leave for bigger, broader horizons, will Jesse be able to solve the mystery of the “lost boy” in time. Will the clues he finds along the way lead him deeper into the world of gang warfare than he wants to go?
Things are about to get hot in the Florida Keys, and it’s not just the spring weather.
Murder's a wild ride!
Rosa Reed takes a much needed break from her thriving private investigative work by joining her cousin Clarence and Aunt Louisa for a weekend getaway at the Black Stallion Dude Ranch near Santa Bonita, California. It's the beginning of 1957 and Rosa is ready for a fresh start. Newly single, all she needs is time on the trails, and cuddles from her tabby cat, Diego.
The peace and quiet of ranch life is soon disrupted when a horse returns from a trail ride without its rider. When foul play is determined, Rosa finds herself thrust once again into a murder investigation alongside the handsome detective Miguel Belmonte.
Suspicion falls on many of the guests—the failed investment banker, the laundromat owner, the heiress, and to Rosa's dismay, her own cousin Clarence.
Can Rosa prove her cousin's innocence before the cows come home?
In the fortune telling business there are a lot of pretenders, but Sunshine Meadows is the real deal—and her predictions can be lethally accurate…
Leaving the Big Apple for the quaint town of Divinity, New York, Sunny is determined to make it on her own as a psychic. With an ancient Victorian house as her place of business, Sunny uses various psychic methods to aid the town’s residents. But when she uses tea leaves to give a reading for a frazzled librarian, what she finds at the bottom of the cup is anything but helpful. Sunny informs the police of her deadly vision, but her warning is too late. And with hard-nosed, ruggedly handsome Detective Mitch Stone denying her abilities and naming her prime suspect, the situation is dire. Now Sunny has to use her visions to clear her name, before the killer can put an end to the psychic’s.
Bayou Whispers, the latest thriller from horror writer R.B. Wood, is the story of no-nonsense New Orleans native, Jeannine LaRue, the sole survivor of her family after the devastation brought on by Hurricane Katrina. In the aftermath of the storm, she believed she'd been saved, but soon found herself held hostage and sexually exploited, rescued months later by sheriff’s deputy Curtis Jones.
Twelve years after Katrina, Jeannine is a new attorney who returns to New Orleans to save her old friend Curtis Jones—now a local thief and trafficker of stolen goods—after he is arrested for the murder of Jeannine’s captors, whose bodies have recently been found. But Jeannine discovers more than she bargained for when she uncovers a family history of dark voodoo magic and an unholy alliance with an ancient evil Haitian god.
Proudly represented by Crystal Lake Publishing—Tales from the Darkest Depths.
How could a few bubbles have gone so wrong?
It’s a CO2 cook-off! Chef Kirschoff and Vic’s friends from the Alaskan cruise are back for a carbonation contest, with Erin and Vic acting as two of the judges. It’s fizzy, it’s fun, what could possibly go wrong?
Apparently, someone did not get the memo. At first, when Beryl Batcombe is found dead in the restaurant’s cold room, everyone assumes it was a terrible accident. But as Erin and Vic are drawn into the mystery, it becomes obvious that this was not an innocent mistake.
***** I love this series! This time Erin and Vic are reunited with friends they made on a recent Alaskan cruise. When Chef Kirschoff asks them to judge a culinary contest, they have no idea it will turn deadly. Many secrets will be unearthed before the killer is found. The plot is as twisty as a country road and the characters are well-developed and believable.
Like baking mysteries? Cats, dogs, and other pets? Award-winning and USA Today Bestselling Author P.D. Workman brings readers back to small town Bald Eagle Falls for another culinary cozy mystery to be solved by gluten-free baker Erin Price and her friends.
Have your gluten-free cake and eat it too. Sink your teeth into this sweet treat now!
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