Indie Crime Fiction of the Month for October 2024
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 September 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, historical mysteries, 1950s mysteries, paranormal mysteries, fantasy mysteries, historical fantasy mysteries, crime thrillers, psychological thrillers, action thrillers, adventure thrillers, police officers, private investigators, amateur sleuths, assassins, blackmail, voodoo, deadly school reunions, crime-busting witches, crime-busting journalists, crime-busting accountants, murder and mayhem in New Orleans, Detroit, Louisiana, Michigan, the Cayman Islands, the Middle East 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:
A dark secret from her past has come back to haunt Barbara Hollis. When Deputy Elwood finds out the truth about her, Barbara flees Cobbsville, returning to the city where all her troubles began.
Going undercover, she tries to catch the one person who can prove her innocence and restore her reputation – but tracking down answers won’t be easy when pursuing a dangerous villain who will stop at nothing.
Dying to fit in.
High school wasn’t a grand time for everyone, but when a group of friends decide to meet up at a B and B ahead of their ten-year reunion, old grudges resurface, and one of them ends up dead. Now the owners, a kindly older couple, are on the hook for the accidental death due to anaphylaxis, but they insist no mistakes were made on their part.
Fortune is asked to look into the situation before the inept local sheriff railroads the couple or simply allows gossip to run them out of business, which will cost them their home. Swamp Team 3 heads to Voodoo Island to find a way to clear the couple and finds a complicated mess of locked doors and old secrets awaiting them. Is Voodoo Island really cursed? Or can Fortune unravel the mystery and lead her team to victory?
Halloween is finally here, which means it’s finally time for Marshmeadow’s festival to celebrate the opening of the all-new downtown. It also means it’s the time when the veil between the worlds of the living and dead is thinnest and most vulnerable.
Tennessee Evans couldn’t be more excited. Her big plans for the town have finally come to fruition, and Marshmeadow is buzzing. Little did she expect a group of rogue souls to take advantage of the same weekend to break out of the afterlife.
With the town flooded with malicious spirits intent on some serious haunting, it looks like her triumph might become a disaster.
Fortunately, her guardian angel is on the job, dispatching friendly ghosts to help round up the escapees.
Unfortunately, there’s something far more malicious than rogue souls prowling Marshmeadow. There’s also a killer haunting the busy streets…
Alex Boyd and Rachel Smith are only a day into their long-awaited vacation in New Orleans to join their good friend and colleague, Simone Ardoin, when she is brutally murdered. Simone’s well-connected parents, long-time residents of New Orleans, are devastated by the tragedy and implore both Alex and Rachel to work with the New Orleans Police Department to find her killer.
The city is infamous for its laissez-faire attitude, as well as its corruption. Nevertheless, Alex must work with the city's cops to break the case. He draws immense support from the special agents in the U.S. State Department's Diplomatic Security Office in New Orleans.
Identifying the killer is one thing but locating him proves more complicated than anticipated. Is the killer just lucky? Or does he have an inside source who is helping him stay one step ahead of the cops?
The more Alex and Rachel delve deeply into the case, the more they discover that New Orleans is a unique city full of its own traditions, family ties, and way of life. But the clock is ticking. They need to capture the killer before he disappears forever.
A holiday celebration. A famous author. A murderer in their midst.
When her publisher chooses Grand Cayman as the venue to launch her new novel, the celebrated author arrives amid the island's colourful Christmas festivities… along with a devious killer.
Nora Sommer is assigned to protective detail and soon discovers the simple babysitting gig is more than she bargained for with someone determined to give the author a deadly taste of her own plots.
Foreword and cameo by Wall Street Journal bestselling author of the Detective Josie Quinn series, Lisa Regan.
Avery Shaw is on the hunt for action and adventure. The last place she thinks she’s going to find it is at a motivational retreat in northern Macomb County. I mean…how strong can someone be if they’re only eating tree bark, right?
When one of the guests turns up dead, however, Avery gets assigned the story. She’s barely interested…until she realizes the camp is designed like a certain village from one of her favorite movies. Huts dispersed through various trees, with a huge platform and an open fireplace? Sounds like heaven…in a suburb far, far away.
Avery might not believe in manifestation, but she can’t stay away from the village, and as she digs deeper into the murder, she finds an interesting set of circumstances. It seems the dead woman was sleeping with a married man. More importantly, it appears several of the women at the retreat were sleeping with the same man.
Avery isn’t a joiner, but she only has one shot at figuring out who killed her victim. She’s going to have to join the retreat, where she will be expected to talk about her feelings—shudder—and eat something that isn’t cooked in grease and served with a side of chili.
It’s the clean life for Avery…and by the end, she might just be wishing for murder over manifestation.
She also just might get her wish.
Luna Thorn was happy being a witch. Being a traveler is another thing entirely. Just when she thinks she’s ready to wrap her head around her new reality, though, things fall apart.
Again.
Absolute chaos descends on Detroit when a federal investigator focuses his attention on Luna…and he seems determined to take her down.
Paranormal problems are one thing. Being considered a suspect in the death of a man masquerading as a police officer is another. Wherever Luna goes, the Feds follow…and it’s seriously cramping her style.
The last thing she needs is another problem. So, of course, the past she can’t remember comes back to haunt her at the exact wrong time.
With her powers going haywire—the past overlapping with the present at regular intervals—Luna is in big trouble. It’s the sort of trouble a jail cell won’t help.
Between mob bosses, gorgons, federal agents, and a past that just won’t quit, Luna is in over her head.
Then the mage and god come to town and make things worse.
Strap in for excitement, because Luna’s world is about to explode. Will she survive to rebuild it yet again?
One e-mail shatters Mark Richter's world. An honest accountant who likes to keep it simple, he's been at the same company for 23 years and prefers things the way they are: steady, with little excitement and even less change. His eight-year-old daughter, small suburban home, and reliable car are all he needs. But after that e-mail, everything is at risk. Somehow framed for a financial discrepancy that could send him to jail, at first he's just bewildered. But when the crime mysteriously disappears as quickly as it emerged, it's clear just how outmatched he really is.
Then he's kidnapped, blindfolded, and given three weeks to steal confidential information. He doesn't know who the perpetrators are, what they need it for, or why they asked him. But he does learn that they know things about him. Personal things. Things they can't possibly know...
When they threaten his daughter's life, it feels like it can't possibly get worse. Enter the FBI. His life is infiltrated by agents demanding that he try to outsmart the savvy criminals or else, the only person he could trust suddenly disappears, and he discovers who the thieves really are. Corruption and deception surrounding him from every angle, it can and does get worse for The Reluctant Reckoner. A lot worse.
The deadline is approaching.
Hannah Skye, a young woman in search of meaning, receives a cryptic letter from her missing and eccentric Aunt Jewelia. Her experience of a recurring powerful pumpkin patch dream unfolds into a spiritual journey to a mysterious island of eternal autumn, Maple Hollow, where she discovers the mystical Skye Manor and her magickal family legacy.
Haunted by shapeshifters bent on trapping people in their nightmares, Hannah, with the help of wise villagers and feline companions (including a talking cat dream guide), must solve the riddle, unlock her powers, and dive into the dream dimension to save her aunt by Halloween night, when the veil between the worlds is thinnest.
Escape into this metaphysical mystery of magick, where spells, music, and dreams converge in a vortex of secret societies and spiritual inheritance. Travel beyond time and space into a world of unexpected portals, ancient traditions, and dreamscapes.
Nicolas Rathe and Philip Eslingen are back, drawn together from opposite sides of the law to investigate a series of murders whose impact stretches deep into Astreiant’s underworld. Eslingen is now a professional knife working for a prominent crimelord while Rathe is an Adjunct Point, sworn to uphold the city’s laws. By rights, they should be wary foes, but instead they find themselves sharing an investigation as well as a bed as their search takes them into the heart of Point of Knives and at its center, the Court of Thirty-two Knives, the hub of Astreiant’s underworld. A single misstep could mean disaster, a single doubt could be the end of all their hopes.
Tina’s best friend is in a bit of trouble.
A drug deal went south, and several people got killed, including Beryl’s boyfriend. Now she is being stalked by his biker gang—and the cops. Tina Clarke wants to help, but her only real skills are very specific—those of a professional, government-trained assassin.
Army Intelligence prefers that the assassin disappear. Someone betrayed Tina’s special ops unit, leaving her the sole survivor, kicked out on a medical discharge. Tina wants to know why. She’ll kill to find out.
Readers who enjoyed the heart-pumping action and suspense of Lee Child's Jack Reacher will love Tina Clarke—she’s less macho, more deadly.
An asset is lost in the Middle East. It's a war zone. The details are sketchy. The terrain is dangerous. Adam Burke is their only hope.
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