Holly Hernandez and the Death of Disco
Young Adult Cozy Mystery
Grade Level: 10 – 12
1st in Series
Publisher: Pinata Books (May 31, 2020)
Paperback: 248 pages

Synopsis

Holly Hernandez, voted “Miss Bright of ’79” and valedictorian at her previous school, is excited to start fresh at Flatbush Technical High School, one of the most competitive public schools in New York City. She’ll be one of thousands; anonymous. But her dreams of a normal school life disappear when her mother, a homicide detective, has to investigate the murder of Mr. Friedman, the social studies teacher.

One of her classmates, Xander Herrera, quickly becomes the primary suspect. The tall, awkward boy is socially inept, but Holly doesn’t think he’s a murderer. She is intent on exonerating him—but he wants nothing to do with her. To Xander, Holly is the overly enthusiastic student who always sits in the front row and answers all the teachers’ questions—correctly. He hates perky people!

Eventually cleared of the crime, Xander is determined to find the killer before Holly. As they race to solve the case, their separate investigations lead to a slew of suspects, including another teacher seen arguing with Friedman and a mysterious person named Steve who met with him several times before his death. Could it have been a disgruntled student? Ultimately, a trophy for a disco-dancing contest leads the intrepid young detectives to the Mission Venus nightclub and a murderer intent on killing again!

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About the Author

Richie Narvaez is author of the award-winning collection Roachkiller and Other Stories and the gentrification thriller Hipster Death Rattle. His latest novel is the historical YA mystery Holly Hernandez and the Death of Disco.

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Trending Topic #Murder (Trending Topic Mystery Series)
Cozy Mystery
1st in Series
Publisher: Camel Press (September 8, 2020)
Paperback: 218 pages

Synopsis

Meet 28-year-old celebrity blogger Coco Cline, who has started her own social media consulting company in her hometown of Central Shores, Delaware. Her new clients, Peter and Olivia Chen, are ten days away from the grand opening of their specialty consignment shop when Coco finds their store clerk Stacy dead behind the register.

Worried that a cloud of suspicion will ruin their chances of a successful business launch, the Chens ask Coco to work alongside the inexperienced, small-town police force to speed up the investigation. Using her celebrity status and social media savviness, Coco realizes Stacy’s seemingly ordinary life was all an act. Following a trail of cryptic online posts and muddied gossip, Coco and her friends discover Stacy’s questionable relationships just might be the reason for her untimely demise.

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About the Author

Sarah E. Burr grew up in the small town of Appleton, Maine, and now lives outside New York City. Since she was seven, Sarah has wanted to be Nancy Drew, but she wasn’t stumbling across any mysteries in corporate America. Deciding it was time to follow her dreams, Sarah left her career in healthcare information technology three years ago and started writing mysteries of her own. The Trending Topic Mysteries is her first traditionally published series. Sarah also writes the Court of Mystery series.

Sarah attended Elmira College and graduated with degrees in Political Science and Philosophy & Religious Studies. She loves to weave these themes into her writing. When she’s not spinning up new stories, Ms. Burr is off seeing Broadway musicals, reading up a storm, video gaming, and enjoying walks around the city.

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Jokers Wild (Mah Jongg Mystery Series)
Cozy Mystery
6th in Series
Publisher: Bowker (July 5, 2020)
Paperback: 232 pages

Synopsis

“The show must go on.” That applies even to playwright Marianne Putnam, when the director of her one-act play, “Jokers Wild,” fails to show for curtains up on opening night at the community theater in Serendipity Springs, Florida. When the director’s wife begs Marianne to accompany her to their home to check on him, they find the man floating in his pool. Dead.

Though not known for his pleasant disposition—her relationship with him had been tense since nearly ramming into his car in a parking lot, but after all, he was the director—who would have wanted to murder him? Surely no one in the production crew, cast or the staff of the community center where the play was to be staged. Maybe it was the wife, who Marianne had overheard arguing with him. Or perhaps someone from his theater connections back in the Big Apple.

Since she was there when the body was discovered, Marianne is considered a suspect. That doesn’t mean she can’t help her three Mah Jongg friends—Syd, Micki and Kat—assist the sheriff with the investigation. But who’s there to help her when her path crosses the murderer’s.

About the Author

Barbara Barrett started reading mysteries when she was pregnant with her first child to keep her mind off things like her changing body and food cravings. When she’d devoured as many Agatha Christies as she could find, she branched out to English village cozies and Ellery Queen.

Later, to avoid a midlife crisis, she began writing fiction at night when she wasn’t at her day job in human resources for Iowa State Government. After releasing eleven full-length romance novels and two novellas, she returned to the cozy mystery genre, using one of her retirement pastimes, the game of mah jongg, as her inspiration. Not only has it been a great social outlet, it has also helped keep her mind active when not writing.

Jokers Wild, the sixth book in her “Mah Jongg Mystery” series, features four friends who play mah jongg together and share otherwise in each other’s lives. None of the four is based on an actual person. Each is an amalgamation of several mah jongg friends with a lot of Barbara’s imagination thrown in for good measure. The four will continue to appear in future books in the series.

Barbara is a member of Sisters in Crime, Sinc-Iowa, Romance Writers of America and the SpacecoasT chapter of Romance Writers of America.

She is married to the man she met her senior year of college. They have two grown children and eight grandchildren.

Now retired, she is a resident of Florida, although she spends her summers in Iowa, her home state. She earned her B.A. degree in History from the University of Iowa and her Master’s Degree in History from Drake University.

When not in front of her laptop creating her next story, she plays mah jongg, travels and enjoys lunches with friends.

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Synopsis

Writer’s Republic

About the Author

Andrew Thomas Elder is a regular guy who had to relearn life as a double amputee at the age of 19, with His help and being very grateful for every day. He hopes to inspire readers with topics that he has and is learning about life and a bit more.

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Synopsis

What do you do when your mother feels that you don’t trust her?

If you’re Samira Joshi, and your mother is an elite spy who works for RAW, the first thing you do is … hide the knives.

After that, you go straight to the therapist that she has chosen.

For, when your mother knows seventeen different ways to kill a man, you don’t argue with her. Much.

Unless she’s trying to destroy your dreams.

Then, you fight dirty. Like a spy.

Samira is sweet, sassy, and almost seventeen. She dreams of becoming a badass spy like her parents.

And, why not?

That’s exactly what her parents have trained her to be.

So, why is her mother suddenly acting like a typical Indian mom and pushing her to be a doctor?

Samira can swear on her stack of covert operative manuals that it has something to with her mother’s last mission.

Her therapist disagrees. She feels the key to the mystery lies in Samira’s childhood.

Between her mother’s drama, a trouble-making grandmother, and a confused therapist, Samira’s life is spinning out of control.

What’s a good spy to do when her dreams are in danger?

Meet Samira Joshi

Samira is smart, sassy, and seventeen – with a difference.

While other teenagers dream of the latest trending hunk, Samira dreams of spies.

She wants to lead missions, run agents in the field, evade exploding napalm. In short, she wants to be a spy!

And why not? Spying runs in the Joshi genes.

If you look closely, her family tree is littered with all sort of spies.

Her great grandmother was the nosiest person in Ratnagiri – the village repository of gossip … er … information.

Her grandmother was the toast of the Hindu Colony Bhajan Mandal for her Miss Marple-like skills. She could solve any problem, whether it

was a missing servant, an errant husband, or a stolen diamond bangle.

And, her parents are elite intelligence agents for RAW … also known as … spies!

They trained Samira to be a spy. So, why did they suddenly change their mind? Why are they pushing her to be a doctor instead of a spy?

They’re up to something, and Samira wants to know what that is.

Like her father says, curiosity is her besetting sin.

But her mother doesn’t think so.

According to her, Sam’s main problem is the fact that trouble follows her like a drone to its homing beacon.

What does a good spy do when her dreams are in danger?

She fights dirty. Like a spy!

About the Author

Apeksha Rao is a multi-genre author from Bangalore.

She is the author of Along Came A Spyder, which is the story of a seventeen year old girl who wants to be a spy.

Apeksha has written many short stories based on the same series, The Spyders, which are available on this blog.
She is a voracious reader and a foodie.

Apeksha’s current works in progress: A middle-grade book, a chick-lit featuring a detective, and a horror novel (the writing of which is giving her sleepless nights).

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THE REPUBLIC OF JACK

by

Jeffrey Kerr

Political Satire / Texas Humor / Texas Fiction

Publisher: Independently published

Date of Publication: April 7, 2020

Number of Pages: 253

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Jack Cowherd will do anything to win the Texas governorship, even flirt with twenty-first-century secessionists in the Texas Patriot Party. Victory is achieved, but only at the cost of Texas being tossed out of the United States. The Republic of Texas lives again! And Jack is president.

Friend and political advisor Tasha Longoria has long warned Jack of the dangers of his demagoguery. Now when he tries to halt the madness, the worst comes to pass: he is impeached, arrested, and charged with treason, the penalty for which is death.

Jack has but one chance to save his beloved Texas, not to mention his life. But success depends upon help from the one person least likely to give it . . . Tasha.

Praise

“Jeff Kerr’s Republic of Jack is a ribald, raucous farce of Texas politics that often exposes the self-serving cynicism boiling beneath the surface of public debate.”  —Texas political reporter R.G. Ratcliffe 

“Jeffrey Kerr’s ideal Texas politician—a man truly for these bitter times—bites off more than any enabler could ever chew in this romp of a new novel, The Republic of Jack! It’s time for readers to discover this writer’s range, intelligence, humor, and, ultimately, compassion. Or maybe you should just go and see his movie or read his catalog of nonfiction titles! In any case, it’s Jeff Kerr’s time.”  —David Marion Wilkinson, author of Not Between Brothers and co-author of One Ranger

1. One of the joys of being an author has for me been the opportunity to speak to so many groups about my books.

2. I was so excited to be a featured panelist for Seat of Empire at the Texas Book Festival that I didn’t even notice my name was misspelled.

3. Texas Inauguration Day 2011 was also Meet the Author Day at the Texas Capitol.

4. Here I’m receiving the Somerfield G. Roberts Award from the Sons of the Republic of Texas, which named Seat of Empire the year’s best book about the Republic of Texas.

5. A friend’s invitation to join him in a screenwriting class led to the two of us filming our own feature film, Writer’s Block, due for release later this year. Write what you know, eh?

6. “How much is your book?”  “Twenty dollars. If I sign it, fifteen.”

7. I’ve spoken to as few as three people and as many as five hundred. This is at Austin’s BookPeople.

Jeffrey Stuart Kerr

Jeffrey Kerr is the author of three nonfiction books on Texas history, a historical novel, and, most recently, The Republic of Jack, a satirical novel that imagines Texas as an independent country in the twenty-first century. His history of Austin’s founding, Seat of Empire: The Embattled Birth of Austin, Texas, was named one of sixty essential books about Texas by Michael Barnes of the Austin American-Statesman. Kerr also co-wrote and co-produced the documentary film, The Last of the Moonlight Towers, and a feature film, the psychological thriller Writer’s Block. He lives in Austin, Texas, with his wife and two dogs.

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July 7-17, 2020

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Synopsis

It begins with numbness on her left leg. Then it spreads. Even though an MRI finds a “mass” on her brainstem, it takes two more years for Meredith O’Brien to learn what is causing that numbness. Months after her 65-year-old mother dies from a fast-moving cancer, weeks after her father is hospitalized and she experiences an unexpected job change, she learns she has multiple sclerosis.Suddenly, Meredith, a married mother of three teens, has to figure out how to move forward into a life she no longer recognizes. Reimagining her life as a writer and an educator, as a mother and a spouse, she has to adjust to the restrictions MS imposes on her. It is a life, altered.

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Read a book feature in the Boston Globe

Excerpt

This excerpt from Uncomfortably Numb takes place a month after Meredith O’Brien was hospitalized after a massive multiple sclerosis attack and officially diagnosed with the incurable disease of the central nervous system. She and her husband Scott were heading to a Boston Red Sox game on a hot and humid evening.

From Uncomfortably Numb (Wyatt-MacKenzie Publishing, 2020) by Meredith O’Brien:

Walking down Boylston Street on this September evening, in this new period of my life, I’m not thinking about the majestic view of Fenway Park’s grass because the muscles in my usually sturdy legs feel as though they’ve been infused with jelly. I am sweating even though we’re not walking that fast. Tiny white spots are beginning to crowd my peripheral vision, like my own private showing of shooting stars that linger and flicker, nothing upon which I can make a wish. If I had been a cartoon character, my head would have floated upward, tethered by a thin, sinuous cord of damaged nerves. I would look down on myself from above and watch as my gait becomes almost comically unsteady, like I am awkwardly sloshing forward through knee-high water. But Boylston Street is not flooded. That ridiculously-named MS hug starts to squeeze my abdomen and my breathing becomes labored. I stop walking, bend at the waist, and brace my arms against my knees. Scott — who doesn’t understand what’s happening, because I haven’t told him that my body feels as though it’s being rapidly short-circuited — offers to buy me a bottle of water from one of the street vendors who are positioned around the route to the ballpark, sitting atop beat-up coolers piled high with ice. Some noisy pedi-cabs, clanging their tinkling bells, pass by.

“You want to get one?” Scott asks, pointing to a pedi-cab. He’s not very good at masking his concern. Given the events of the past several weeks, his concern is not that surprising. “If you don’t feel well, we can get one.”

He’s in problem-solving mode, hero-mode. And I’m having none of it. Hopping into a pedi-cab feels like an admission of failure, like a modified version of the ambulance ride to take me to Fenway because I can’t get there of my own volition like I always have before. I stubbornly refuse to give in to my body’s warning signs, even though reason is telling me I should take a break, that missing the beginning of the game isn’t a big deal, that getting a ride isn’t a sign of weakness.

I am not being reasonable. I come from obstinate stock. I shake off Scott’s offer as I remain hunched over and quiet. We are nearly equidistant from the Prudential Center parking garage and Fenway Park, stuck in between my former life and my new one. My reluctance to move forward into uncertainty is rooting me in place, paralyzing me.

About the Author

A journalism faculty member at Northeastern University, where she also serves as a writing coach, this is her fourth book. Her third, Mr. Clark’s Big Band, won an Independent Book Publisher Award and was a finalist for a ForeWord INDIES award.

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Don’t Make a Sound (Sawyer Brooks)
Psychological Thriller
1st in Series
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer (June 1, 2020)
Paperback: 287 pages

Synopsis

Her own past could be a reporter’s biggest story in this twisting thriller about murder and family secrets by the New York Times bestselling author T.R. Ragan.

 

Plagued by traumatic childhood memories, crime reporter Sawyer Brooks still struggles to gain control of her rage, her paranoia, and her life. Now, after finally getting promoted at work, she is forced to return home and face her past.

 

River Rock is where she’d been abandoned by her two older sisters to suffer alone, and in silence, the unspeakable abuses of her family. It’s also where Sawyer’s best friend disappeared and two teenage girls were murdered. Three cold cases dead and buried with the rest of the town’s secrets.

 

When another girl is slain in a familiar grisly fashion, Sawyer is determined to put an end to the crimes. Pulled back into the horrors of her family history, Sawyer must reconcile with her estranged sisters, who both have shattering memories of their own. As Sawyer’s investigation leads to River Rock’s darkest corners, what will prove more dangerous—what she knows of the past or what she has yet to discover?

 Amazon  – B&N

About the Author

New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA TODAY bestselling author T.R. Ragan has sold more than three million books since her debut novel appeared in 2011. She is the author of the Faith McMann trilogy (Furious, Outrage, and Wrath); the Lizzy Gardner series (Abducted, Dead Weight, A Dark Mind, Obsessed, Almost Dead, and Evil Never Dies) ; and the Jessie Cole novels (Her Last Day, Deadly Recall, Deranged, and Buried Deep). In addition to thrillers, she writes medieval time-travel tales, contemporary romance, and romantic suspense as Theresa Ragan. An avid traveler, her wanderings have led her to China, Thailand, and Nepal. Theresa and her husband, Joe, have four children and live in Sacramento, California.

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Synopsis

Susan Johansen is efficient, ambitious and cool-headed in a crisis, which is exactly why her boss, Charles Dunlap, needs her. As the successful owner of one of the richest old money industrialist conglomerates in the world, he is under pressure of a different kind when his daughter Alicia becomes involved with internet entrepreneur Miles Middleton.

With an ego as big as his bank balance, Miles has a reputation for a string of affairs and Charles doesn’t want his daughter anywhere near him. And so he enlists Susan, as a Trojan Horse, burying her deep within Miles’ business interests in the hope that she can sabotage his relationship with Alicia.

It isn’t long before the plan seems to be working and Miles is missing lunches, dinners and other dates with Alicia in favour of making money and sealing deals. But it’s when he takes Susan away on a business trip and tries to seduce her that she sees him for what he really is. But now that she is close to her goal, Susan suddenly has a crisis of confidence? Is she really still working for Charles or is she now pursuing her own agenda with Miles?

As he continues to get under her skin with his continuous attempts at seduction, Susan finds that she is more conflicted than ever. And the closer she gets to completing the assignment, the greater the chances are that Miles will discover her secret.

Synopsis

Alexandra “Lex” Granger is a private security consultant who has to go undercover to protect billionaire businessman Michael Thornton, pretending to be an escort. Michael does not think he needs a bodyguard, despite the death threats he has received from protesters against his takeover of a Danish company, but he does need protection against the predatory wife of the Danish ambassador. Lex knows that this assignment is dangerous, made more so because her client does not even know that he is being protected.

She doesn’t know that he thinks she is a con-artist a gold-digger who takes rich men for everything that she can get. As sparks fly, and the attraction between the two go stronger, they face a deadly danger from an unknown assailant. Lex and Mike embark on a turbulent affair in the beautiful city of Copenhagen, with Mike realising that there is much more to the sexy seductress, her bewildering vulnerability evoking unfettered passion and feelings that he has never experienced before. Lex realises that she has committed the ultimate folly, that of falling in love with a man who despises her. Will she overcome the dangers to Michael to her breaking heart?