Small town secrets and holiday crime in a heartwarming bookstore whodunit. Kingfisher Falls looks like a postcard for the perfect holiday with its charming main street and festive decorations. Charlotte Dean has found her sanctuary working in the town’s beloved bookshop, surrounded by stories and new friends who’ve welcomed her into their community. But the festive cheer is shattered when the town’s Christmas trees begin to vanish in a series of thefts, leaving a trail of broken glass and broken hearts in their wake. 🎄

This isn’t just a prank by bored teenagers—it’s a targeted attack on the soul of the town, systematically destroying the symbols of community celebration that Kingfisher Falls holds dear. Charlotte finds herself in the middle of a mystery that threatens to ruin the season for everyone, especially a struggling local family who can’t afford to replace what’s been stolen and destroyed. With the clock ticking down to the community Christmas Eve street party that means everything to this small town, Charlotte has to save her new friends from a Grinch with a dangerous agenda before Christmas is cancelled. 🔍

Phillipa Nefri Clark launches the Charlotte Dean series with cozy mystery combining bookstore charm, small-town community, and holiday crime. Charlotte’s outsider-turned-insider status gives her unique perspective on town dynamics while her bookshop position makes her a natural information hub where secrets get accidentally revealed. This is heartwarming whodunit territory where solving crime means protecting community traditions and the people who make small towns feel like home. 📚

What makes this essential: A cozy bookstore mystery launching Charlotte Dean series where her sanctuary in Kingfisher Falls’ beloved bookshop is shattered when Christmas trees vanish in targeted attacks, forcing Charlotte to uncover the dangerous Grinch agenda threatening a struggling family and the community Christmas Eve street party before the season is ruined for everyone.

A secret society, an ancient manuscript, one woman to save the world. Professional treasure hunter Eden Black is no stranger to action—after all, the artifacts she spends her life returning to their rightful owners aren’t always easy to access, and her work frequently involves dodging security systems, navigating dangerous terrain, and occasionally outrunning people who’d rather the artifacts stay hidden. When Eden’s father dies in a plane crash, her life’s turned upside down by grief and the logistics of settling his estate. 🗺️

Grief turns to fear when she learns that it wasn’t an accident—her father’s death was murder, part of a pattern. Everyone involved in an archaeological dig twenty years ago has met with similar untimely ends over the past few months. Everyone that is, but Eden who was ten at the time and present at the dig site with her father. When her father’s house is raided and burned to the ground before she can secure his research, Eden’s forced into action to survive. To learn the truth about her father’s death and save herself from sharing his fate, Eden must uncover the manuscript that dig unearthed two decades ago and expose its secrets once and for all. 📜

But this time the world is watching as Eden’s investigation goes public, and not everyone is on her side—some want the manuscript’s secrets revealed, others want them buried permanently, and Eden’s caught between powerful forces willing to kill to control information from an ancient text that apparently threatens modern power structures. Luke Richardson launches the Eden Black series with archaeological thriller combining treasure hunting, secret societies, and conspiracy spanning two decades. ⚡

What makes this essential: An archaeological thriller launching Eden Black series where professional treasure hunter Eden discovers her father’s plane crash was murder, part of a pattern killing everyone from a twenty-year-old dig—forcing her to uncover the ancient manuscript and expose its secrets before she’s next, while the world watches and powerful forces on all sides want to control information that threatens everything.

I’m Father Tom Greer, a Catholic Priest in a small-town parish who never expected this. When I came to Myerton to take over as pastor of Saint Clare’s Catholic Church, I never expected to run into a woman I loved in college twenty years ago, never expected that woman to be the police detective who solved my first wife’s murder and saved my life in the process, and never expected to fall in love with her all over again after two decades apart. Most of all, I never, ever expected to receive permission from the Holy Father to marry her—a dispensation so rare it’s almost unheard of in modern Church history. ⛪

But that’s what happened to me, and after a wonderful wedding and a honeymoon cruise with my new wife Mercy, we’re looking forward to another week together, just the two of us enjoying newlywed bliss before returning to our respective demanding careers. But instead, we have to go back home to Myerton immediately because my deacon’s been murdered, and I have a hurting flock to tend to who need their pastor during this tragedy. 💔

J. R. Mathis and Susan Mathis launch the Mercy and Justice series with traditional detective mystery featuring the most unusual detective duo imaginable: a Catholic priest married to the police detective who once saved his life. The premise—a priest receiving papal dispensation to marry—is unusual enough to be intriguing while grounded in Catholic canon law’s provision for rare exceptions. Tom’s pastoral responsibilities and Mercy’s investigative skills create natural partnership as they navigate murder investigation while building their new marriage. 🔍

What makes this essential: A traditional detective mystery launching Mercy and Justice where Catholic priest Father Tom Greer—who received rare papal dispensation to marry police detective Mercy after she solved his first wife’s murder—cuts his honeymoon cruise short when his deacon is murdered, forcing the unusual newlywed detective duo to investigate while tending his hurting Myerton parish.

Coco Pinchard has just turned forty and is feeling fabulous about entering this new decade. Her long-held dream to be a writer has been realized with the publication of her debut novel, her son Rosencrantz is attending a prestigious London drama school pursuing his theatrical ambitions, and her musician husband Daniel seems more in love with her than ever after twenty years of marriage. Coco feels poised to enter an exciting new chapter in life where everything she’s worked for is finally coming together. 🎉

When the New Year dawns after a hideous Christmas spent with her awful in-laws who never miss an opportunity to criticize, Coco catches Daniel in bed with a younger woman, her novel flops spectacularly with terrible reviews and dismal sales, and Rosencrantz goes spectacularly off the rails at drama school in ways that threaten his future. As her once-happy life unravels with devastating speed, and any chance of an exciting new chapter recedes into the distance replaced by humiliation and heartbreak, Coco’s new iPhone becomes her confessional. 📱

Through emails to loyal friends Christopher, a neurotic middle-aged socialite who understands relationship drama, and Marika, a slightly alcoholic schoolteacher who provides blunt honesty, Coco begins to document her seemingly endless (and often hilarious) run of bad luck. Robert Bryndza delivers romantic comedy told entirely through emails, allowing Coco’s voice to shine through her correspondence as she navigates divorce, career disappointment, and parenting crisis with humor that masks genuine pain. 💔

What makes this essential: A romantic comedy told through emails where Coco Pinchard turns forty feeling fabulous—published novelist, son at drama school, loving husband—until New Year brings catastrophic unraveling when she catches Daniel with a younger woman, her novel flops, and son Rosencrantz derails, forcing her to document endless bad luck through iPhone emails to neurotic Christopher and alcoholic Marika.

After a tumultuous divorce from Daniel that provided material for an entire book’s worth of email confessions, Coco Pinchard has found love with her gorgeous new boyfriend Adam. Her career as an author is finally a success with actual sales and positive reviews, and she has fabulous friends in Christopher, a neurotic middle-aged socialite, and Marika, a slightly alcoholic dog walker who keeps Coco grounded. Coco is even learning to cope with her awful ex mother-in-law Ethel, who despite the divorce still thinks it’s okay to criticize Coco’s every decision and show up uninvited. 💕

When Coco and Adam decide they’re ready to take the next big step and move in together, everything seems perfect—until hours before move-in day, Adam ends their relationship without explanation and vanishes into thin air. Coco feels shocked and betrayed by the sudden abandonment, but there’s something very strange about the circumstances of his disappearance that don’t add up. The way he left, the timing, the lack of warning—none of it makes sense for the man she thought she knew. 😱

When Coco sets out to discover what has really happened to Adam, refusing to accept his disappearance at face value, she uncovers a shocking secret Adam has been hiding from her since they met—a secret that changes both their lives forever. Robert Bryndza continues the Coco Pinchard series with romantic comedy examining how well we really know the people we love, and whether some secrets are too big to forgive even when the reasons behind them become clear. 🔍

What makes this essential: The second Coco Pinchard romantic comedy where after tumultuous divorce, Coco finds love with gorgeous Adam and career success, planning to move in together—until hours before, Adam ends their relationship without explanation and vanishes, forcing Coco to uncover the shocking secret he’s been hiding that changes both their lives forever.

I wish I could escape my past. But when it catches up to me, I don’t get to make the wishes—I have to grant them. Becoming a widow on my fortieth birthday was not what I had planned for this milestone, but grief has an inconvenient way of ignoring your schedule. Even worse, it’s forced me and my teenage daughter back to Whispering Willows and the life of magic I left behind when I fled years ago, hoping to build a normal existence far from the supernatural chaos I grew up with. 🔮

I tell myself it’ll be a short trip to sell my mother’s shop of wishes and get out before anyone realizes we’re back. Until I kind of, sort of accidentally bind myself to the shop through a careless moment of nostalgia and magical residue. With bills piling up fast and no way to break the binding, I gotta do something I swore I never would: open shop and start granting wishes just until I can figure out how to undo this pesky binding spell that’s tethered me to Whispering Willows. 💫

It doesn’t help that the handsome mayor keeps tempting me with those kissable lips every time I try to focus on escape plans. Or that I have to hide from my daughter that magic is real, which becomes increasingly difficult when wishes go sideways and magical mishaps threaten to expose everything. I wish I could leave my past behind, but in this line of work, I’ve learned one very important rule: be careful what you wish for. Tee Harlowe launches Wishing For a Magical Midlife with humorous fantasy about reluctant witches, binding spells, and the impossibility of outrunning your destiny when it’s literally tied to real estate. ✨

What makes this essential: A humorous midlife fantasy launching Wishing For a Magical Midlife where becoming a widow on her fortieth birthday forces her and her teenage daughter back to Whispering Willows, accidentally binding herself to her mother’s wish-granting shop—forcing her to grant wishes while hiding magic from her daughter and resisting the handsome mayor’s kissable lips.

Five lifelong friends gather at a picturesque farmhouse nestled amidst the lavender fields of Provence to celebrate a birthday, but beneath the sun-drenched skies, their dream escape will end in murder. Steph spent months planning her perfect birthday celebration—five days in an idyllic setting with her best friends, long lazy lunches, crisp white wine by the pool, and a climb up beautiful Mont Ventoux. They’ve been there for each other through good times and bad, and this was the break everyone needed to reconnect and celebrate their enduring friendship. 🌸

After their first night partying, they begin their hike up Mont Ventoux. But as the lavender-scented air turns acrid from local wildfires, fierce winds whip up smoke and tensions in the group that have been simmering beneath polite surfaces. They become separated in the chaos of smoke and confusion. Hours later, when the smoke clears and the group reassembles, one of the friends lies dead on the mountainside under circumstances that don’t quite add up to accident. 🔥

As shadows lengthen across the limestone farmhouse, Steph’s birthday transforms into a nightmare of police questions and suspicious glances. Now there are only four friends left, and the way they avoid each other’s eyes suggests one unspeakable truth—the killer might be sitting around this kitchen table. Simon McCleave delivers international mystery examining how well we really know even our closest friends, and what secrets people will kill to protect when five days in paradise becomes a locked-room mystery with nowhere to run. 🍷

What makes this essential: An international mystery where five lifelong friends gather at a Provence farmhouse for Steph’s perfect birthday celebration, but their hike up Mont Ventoux amid wildfires ends with one friend dead—transforming the dream escape into police interrogation as shadows lengthen and the remaining four realize the killer is sitting around the kitchen table.

Tom and Jackie Hawks loved their life in retirement, sailing on their yacht the Well Deserved along the California coast, living the dream they’d worked decades to achieve. But when the birth of a new grandson called them back to Arizona, they reluctantly put their beloved boat up for sale. Skylar Deleon and his pregnant wife Jennifer showed up as prospective buyers with their baby in a stroller, appearing to be exactly the kind of young family the Hawkses hoped would love the yacht as much as they had. Soon after that meeting, however, the older couple disappeared—and the Deleons promptly tried to access the Hawkses’s bank accounts. ⛵

As police investigated what initially seemed like a missing persons case, they found not only a third homicide victim with ties to Skylar, but an unusual motive that made this case particularly disturbing: Skylar had wanted gender reassignment surgery for years and needed money. By killing the Hawkses and plundering their assets, the Deleons planned to clear their $100,000 in debts and still have money for the already-scheduled surgery. The calculated nature of using their baby as a prop to appear trustworthy, the methodical planning required to execute the murders, and the cold-blooded efficiency of the crimes shocked investigators. 💰

Now, in this updated edition with extensive new material, New York Times bestselling author Caitlin Rother presents new developments in the case that add additional layers of complexity. Skylar, who was sentenced to death row for the three murders, transitioned via hormones while living in the San Quentin psych unit. Recently, she legally changed her name and gender, apparently a strategic step to obtain taxpayer-subsidized gender confirmation surgery and transfer to a women’s prison. Combined with Governor Gavin Newsom’s moratorium on executions, this only adds insult to injury for the victims’ families who want Skylar to receive the ultimate punishment for crimes that destroyed multiple families. ⚖️

What makes this essential: An updated true crime biography where retired couple Tom and Jackie Hawks selling their yacht the Well Deserved disappeared after meeting prospective buyers Skylar and Jennifer Deleon, revealing murders motivated by Skylar’s need for $100,000 gender reassignment surgery—with new material covering Skylar’s death row transition, legal gender change, and victims’ families’ frustration with California’s execution moratorium.

When DeeDee’s inaugural catering event becomes a crime scene, her budding business is thrust into jeopardy before it even properly launches. The Seattle art world is rocked after Lisa, a prominent gallery owner known for her exclusive client list and sharp business practices, is found dead during the evening’s festivities that were supposed to showcase DeeDee’s culinary talents to influential potential clients. With whispers of suspicion tainting her reputation—because the caterer is always a convenient suspect when someone dies at a party—DeeDee has more than her livelihood at stake. 🍽️

She’s racing against time to clear her name before the gossip mill destroys her business permanently and she loses everything she’s invested in this career change. Teaming up with Jake, a savvy private investigator she’s grown close to and who believes in her innocence, and her loyal husky Balto who provides both emotional support and occasionally useful investigative assistance, DeeDee dives into a world of Seattle art scene intrigue and danger she never anticipated when she decided to leave her corporate job for culinary entrepreneurship. 🐕

Dianne Harman launches the Northwest series with cozy culinary mystery where the protagonist’s first catering gig becoming a murder scene creates both professional crisis and amateur detective opportunity. The Seattle art world setting provides wealthy suspects with secrets worth killing for, while DeeDee’s outsider status as the caterer gives her access to spaces and conversations the police might miss. This is cozy mystery combining food, dogs, romance, and murder investigation in Pacific Northwest settings. 🔍

What makes this essential: A cozy culinary mystery launching the Northwest series where DeeDee’s inaugural catering event becomes a crime scene when prominent Seattle gallery owner Lisa is found dead, forcing her to team with private investigator Jake and loyal husky Balto to clear her name before whispers of suspicion destroy her budding business permanently.

In the year 1838, a young adventurer surrounded by his native troops and mounted on an elephant raised the American flag on the summit of the Hindu Kush in the mountainous wilds of Afghanistan, declaring himself Prince of Ghor, Lord of the Hazarahs, spiritual and military heir to Alexander the Great. This wasn’t colonial conquest backed by a government or military expedition—this was one man’s audacious claim to royalty in one of the world’s most inhospitable regions, and somehow he made it stick, at least temporarily. 🐘

The true story of Josiah Harlan, a Pennsylvania Quaker and the first American ever to enter Afghanistan, has never been fully told before, yet the life and writings of this extraordinary man echo down the centuries with relevance that’s only grown more apparent. Ben Macintyre resurrects the story of this unlikely adventurer who left his comfortable Quaker upbringing to become a mercenary, a spy, a prince, and a legend in Central Asia during the period known as the Great Game when Britain and Russia competed for control of Afghanistan. 🏔️

Harlan’s journey from Philadelphia to the peaks of the Hindu Kush involved reinventing himself multiple times, mastering local languages and customs, commanding armies, navigating treacherous political alliances, and surviving in a region where foreigners were rarely welcomed and even more rarely survived. His story predates modern American involvement in Afghanistan by over 150 years but offers disturbing parallels about Western ambitions in a region that has historically resisted outside control. Macintyre delivers expedition history that reads like adventure fiction but carries weight of contemporary relevance. 🇺🇸

What makes this essential: Ben Macintyre’s expedition history of Josiah Harlan, a Pennsylvania Quaker who became the first American in Afghanistan in 1838, raising the American flag on the Hindu Kush while declaring himself Prince of Ghor and heir to Alexander the Great—an extraordinary untold story of reinvention, mercenary warfare, and Great Game intrigue echoing with contemporary relevance.