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 April 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, small town mysteries, historical mysteries, Jazz Age mysteries, 1950s mysteries, paranormal mysteries, crime thrillers, psychological thrillers, medical thrillers, action thrillers, technothrillers, romantic suspense, police officers, FBI agents, private investigators, amateur sleuths, assassins, terrorists, kidnappings, wrongful convictions, deadly family reunions, deadly Olympics, vampires, immortals, crime-busting witches, crime-busting socialites, crime-busting housekeepers, murder and mayhem in San Francisco, Louisiana, Michigan, Amsterdam, Iran and much more.
Don’t forget that Indie Crime Fiction of the Month is also crossposted to the Indie Crime Scene, a group blog which features new release spotlights, guest posts, interviews and link round-ups regarding all things crime fiction several times per week.
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:
The Happy Housekeeper’s Guide To Crime by Blythe Baker:
A sudden death at the local hardware store plunges Barbara into another murder investigation. While examining her list of suspects, she makes the acquaintance of a handsome handyman and also realizes she is being spied on by a mysterious woman.
Will the murder investigation and a budding romance leave Barbara blind to the reemergence of a danger from her past?
The Immortal by Joshua T. Calvert:
They called it the Immortality Code…
…and one Swiss firm just cracked it.
Is it real or a fraud?
FBI geneticist Mason Brown and Danish Interpol agent Jonna Nielsen have just 72-hours to find the missing man they call The Immortal. He’s on the run across Europe and his genetic material may be the most valuable commodity in human history.
There’s just one problem.
Someone else wants him, too.
As the time to find him dwindles, Mason and Jonna seem to be one step behind a wealthy man who will stop at nothing. If the tech billionaire finds him first, it could change the economic playing field for the entire world.
Who is the Immortal? And could he be a contemporary witness of Christ as some sources believe?
You’ll love this science thriller because the pacing is perfect and the twists will keep you on the edge of your seat.
Baskets and Beignets by Jana DeLeon:
Worth dyeing for.
Ten years ago, Ryan Comeaux was convicted of killing his girlfriend and was sentenced to life in prison. Now a witness has come forward who claims she was with Ryan the entire night and it’s not possible that he was the killer. But the local police assume she’s mistaken and aren’t interested in reopening what they view as an open-and-shut case.
The witness, Kelsey Spalding, has her own reasons for wanting Ryan’s conviction overturned and hires Swamp Team 3 to prove him innocent. Fortune has solved cold cases before, but never one with so little evidence and so many suspects with not only strong motive but opportunity. Can she solve a decade-old murder, or will the real killer strike again to cover his tracks?
Whispers at the Reunion by Elle and K.S. Grey:
A family reunion is the perfect time for food, alcohol, and gossiping about loved ones.
In this case some rumors can lead to murder…
It’s been weeks since a shocking event sent the Federal Agency into panic.
FBI agent Olivia and Brock are left broken, fighting to overcome the grief.
Amidst the agency’s chaos, they find a welcoming distraction in the form of a family reunion.
It’s at a secluded lake house where Olivia would visit as a child with her family.
The area is quiet, and the town locals are as friendly as they come.
Her cousin Jean is hopeful that the weekend will bring some cheer that the couple desperately needs.
It’s all laughter and joy the first night as the family enjoy dinner and catch up with one another.
But when arguments ensue between family members.
Olivia is soon reminded of why she prefers to avoid family events.
The next morning, renewed with a spirit of optimism, Olivia takes Brock hiking on her favorite trail.
In the forest, she stumbles upon one of her worst nightmares.
Her family member’s dead body.
Double lives, lies, gossip, and secrets that kill.
There are many questions to the mystery but the one question on everyone’s mind is…
Have you heard the rumors?
Silenced in the Falls by Elle Gray
To be young, wild, and carefree.
The true essence of Taft High’s Spring dance.
But there’s a price for the naivety of youth.
A high price that could cost your blood, soul, and your silence.
Sweetwater Falls is a charming town with all sorts of characters.
From chaperoning the school dance with Ryker to putting drunk drivers behind bars.
It seems former FBI Agent Spenser Song has finally gotten the hang of her Sheriff duties.
The next morning, hunters stumble upon the body of the town’s star baseball player.
A bright-eyed senior at Taft High, now bruised, beaten, and left for dead by the culprits.
With the unconscious teen now fighting for his life in the hospital.
Spenser searches the muddied crime scene for clues and interviews those close to the boy.
As the investigative trail hits a dead end, another teen boy is found in a similar manner.
Indicating that a serial predator is on the loose.
Secret, lies, shame, and deceit.
The truth will set you free. Your silence will buy your bondage.
Will you take the guilt to your grave?
Don’t Be Afraid of the Spark by Lily Harper Hart:
What happens when Michigan’s most famous ghost hunter can’t see a ghost but her daughter can? Harper Harlow-Monroe is about to find out. When her daughter Poe starts talking about a new ghostly friend nobody else can see, one who brags about hiding from Harper, Whisper Cove’s favorite paranormal investigator is on the case.
Unfortunately, the new ghost comes along with a fresh body…and nobody can figure out why—or how—a woman who died years before is going after people in the present.
Poe is confused. She likes her new friend and doesn’t want to listen to her mother. There’s just one little problem. The dead woman is holding a grudge against Poe’s grandmother, and she’s ready to add another name to her body count. Now things are getting personal.
Harper has friends and they want to help but this is the sort of war that only Harper can fight.
Poe’s life is on the line, and there’s nothing Harper won’t do to protect her…including sacrificing herself.
Strap in, because it’s about to get wild in Whisper Cove.
The past is threatening to ruin the future, and Harper and company will do whatever it takes to make sure that doesn’t happen. They just have to survive to win the day.
The Vampire and the Case of the Baleful Banshee by Heather G. Harris and Jilleen Dolbeare
I thought I was finally getting the hang of being a paranormal policewoman, but when one of the gemstones powering the barrier around the town is stolen, I’m as terrified as the average Joe. Of course, there’s nothing average about the Joes in this town. It’s chock full of mythical creatures, and some of them think the barrier is a waste of time.
Well, I’ve seen the cryptid monster beyond and I know we’re doomed if the magical palisade ever fails. Calling what would follow a massacre would be a gross understatement. The race is on. I need to find the gemstone before the weakened barrier fails forever and the fiend devours us all. No pressure then.
It’s a simple theft… how hard can it be to solve? Answer: Very hard. Especially when theft turns into murder.
There’s also the little outstanding matter of my date with the vampire leader, Connor, not to mention that my best friend seems to be falling apart at the seams. And if all of that isn’t enough to be cracking on with, I have a visitor due imminently. My mother.
I’d rather face the monster.
When anger’s unleashed…
Assassin Tom Maverick thought he had left his troubled past behind. But a threat against his young son drags Tom back into the life he’d been trying to escape. He is forced to accept a contract, the assassination of a high-ranking Chinese politician hiding deep inside Iran.
As Tom gets closer to his target, he realizes the assignment is not what it seems. Those he trusts have been paid to betray him. And those he loves die. Just when he thinks it can’t get worse, it does…
But if they think they can corner him, they’re wrong.
With his anger unleashed, how will Tom execute the contract, get out of Iran alive, and save his son?
Find out in book two of Tom Maverick’s adrenaline-drenched series.
All Quiet On the Witchy Front by Amanda M. Lee
Christmas is in the past and the new year is shining bright for Bay Winchester…right up until a local inn catches fire and she realizes that something more than snow is afoot in Hemlock Cove.
Bay and her husband Landon Michaels don’t hesitate before charging into the fire—there are children at risk after all—but when the fire seems to have a mind of its own…literally…things take a shift for the worse.
It seems there’s a firebug on the loose in northern Lower Michigan. What does he or she want, though? As Bay starts digging, clues lead her back to a real estate agent she crossed paths with weeks before. He wants the property that burned, but has he somehow come into contact with the sort of magic that can make his dreams come true? Or is it something else entirely?
On top of that, two of the victims who were saved from the fire refuse to wake up. They’re in magically induced comas, and the doctors can’t figure out why. All that’s certain is their lives are in danger, and Bay is the only one who can save them.
Bay isn’t about to let an enemy take her down, but when Aunt Tillie starts acting squirrelly—even more squirrelly than normal—she becomes suspicious of the woman who always seems to have her pulse on everything paranormal.
What is Aunt Tillie hiding?
Fire is raging across Bay’s world and she only has one chance to put it out. Will she manage to rise to the occasion, or is the Winchester world about to burn?
Death by Midnight by A.J. Rivers:
It’s a time for celebration.
Unfortunately in Twilight Cove, the festivity is masking something ominous…
PI Dean Steele has had to solve many strange mysteries throughout his career.
This time he is called to the small seaside town to unmask the truth behind a chilling murder.
Who would kill a man and tie him up to a parade float?
While following clues in this case, Dean stumbles upon an intricate web of secrets.
Skeletons that seemed to have shaped Twilight Cove for many generations.
Across town at the palatial home of Joseph Palmer, a Gatsby-like figure.
The most incredible party in town is being held.
The guest list is long, the house is packed, and the night is filled with food, laughter, music, and drinks.
Everyone is having a wonderful time… except for the host.
What could be tormenting him?
There’s a time for celebration and a time for death.
Sarah Chapman is angry at her husband. She’s also drunk… very drunk as she drives down their street, ready to face him.
When a neighbor hears the commotion and rushes to help, he finds her inside, gun still in her hand, and her husband, Steven, dead in the bed.
Sarah is arrested and taken away but claims to be innocent.
The only one who believes her is FBI profiler, Eva Rae Thomas.
She knows Sarah personally, and as she looks at the evidence in the case, she is convinced that Sarah is telling the truth, even though she was highly intoxicated when the event occurred.
But the detective on the case is determined to have her convicted for the murder.
As more bodies turn up, only Eva Rae Thomas sees the connections and soon starts a race against time to prove Sarah is innocent and to catch the real murderer before it’s too late and her own family is targeted.
Murder at the Olympics by Lee Strauss:
The Race for Gold is Murder
The 1928 Amsterdam Olympics set the stage for Ginger’s latest adventure. Excited yet conflicted, Ginger faces a historic moment: women’s debut in the games amid a British boycott. The plot thickens when an English sprinter is found dead. Was it a protest against the boycott, or is something darker at play?
Ginger and Basil race to assist Dutch police, unraveling a mystery where the stakes are life or death, and the finish line means survival.
What if your social media addiction jeopardized the person you love?
Inspired by the explosive events of our polarized political climate, Burner is an all-too plausible contemporary thriller that examines the social and personal consequences of the lost sense of identity, trust, and truth itself that characterizes our technology-obsessed culture.
Shane Stoller has just been arrested for domestic terrorism, accused of being the mastermind behind the online profile Burner_911—the anonymous leader of a massive populist movement. Chloe Corbin has just been abducted by Burner_911’s followers in a lawless uprising on the streets of San Francisco, targeted as the socialite daughter of a tech billionaire. What nobody knows is that Shane and Chloe are secretly in love despite coming from opposite worlds. Plagued with regret but unable to communicate with his followers from prison, Shane tries desperately to find a way to save Chloe from the forces he has unleashed. From her own captivity, Chloe becomes more sympathetic to Burner_911’s cause—and transitions from victim to conspirator in an effort to free herself and exonerate Shane.
Part tragic love story, part mind-bending psychological thriller, Burner dives headfirst into the modern zeitgeist of politically motivated disinformation, toxic internet subcultures, and our continuing need for belonging, purpose, and love in an age of distorted online personas.