Smile Beach Murder

Smile Beach Murder
Author: Alicia Bessette
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 353
Release: 2022-05-10
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0593336887

From author Alicia Bessette comes an all-new mystery series featuring Callie Padget, a former reporter turned bookshop clerk in the Outer Banks who is pulled into a deadly web of secrets when a mysterious fall at a lighthouse echoes a tragedy from her past. When Callie is laid off from her reporting job, she returns to her hometown of Cattail Island and lands a gig at the local bookstore—the same one where she found comfort after her mother died. In fact, the anniversary of her mother’s infamous death is approaching. Years ago, Teri Padget tumbled from the top of the lighthouse. As islanders are once again gossiping about the tragedy, devastating news strikes: the lighthouse has claimed another victim. Eva Meeks, of Meeks Hardware. The police are calling it suicide, but Callie does not believe Eva jumped any more than she believes her mother did—especially because Callie knows that before her death, Eva had dug up a long-forgotten treasure hunt that could have put a target on Eva’s back. In Callie’s search for answers, she enlists the help of some beloved books and several new friends, including the handsome local martial arts instructor, Toby Dodge. But when another death rocks Cattail Island, Callie must face her fears alone. As she earns enemies in pursuit of the truth, Callie knows she will either uncover the killer or become a victim herself. Mystery Writers of America’s Lilian Jackson Braun Memorial Award nominee

Death By Beach Read

Death By Beach Read
Author: Eva Gates
Publisher: National Geographic Books
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2022-06-07
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1643859102

Librarian Lucy’s new historic house comes with a lot of baggage and family secrets. Can she put them to rest or will a killer bring Lucy’s family to their downfall, in the 9th Lighthouse Library mystery. It’s spring in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, and Lucy and Connor have moved into their new home at last, a historic cottage on the Nags Head Beach. The house needs a lot of renovations, but they worked hard over the winter to get it ready. Lucy is now happily immersed in her work at the Bodie Island Lighthouse Library, planning her wedding, and decorating the house. That is, until a dead body disrupts their peaceful new abode. The first night Lucy’s alone in the house, with the company of Charles the library cat, she hears sounds. Investigating they see footsteps in the dust of the unfinished living room, and the door to the outside is open. Lucy's reminded that the house is said to be haunted: forty years ago the teenage daughter of the owners fled in the night, and never again stepped foot inside her family home. But the sounds have an all-too-human origin and one evening Lucy and Connor find the dead body of a man they don’t even recognize in their kitchen. They soon realize he has a long-time connection to their house. Lucy's forced to find out what happened all those years ago and why it’s threatening her happiness today. Meanwhile, the Classic Novel Reading Club is reading The House of the Seven Gables by Nathanial Hawthorne, a book about another old house full of secrets. Can Lucy find parallels to her own situation in Hawthorne’s fiction before the killer strikes again?

The Palm Beach Murders

The Palm Beach Murders
Author: James Patterson
Publisher: Hachette UK
Total Pages: 354
Release: 2021-03-23
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 153875004X

James Patterson sets this bestselling thriller in Florida’s wealthiest zip code. Palm Beach doesn’t just have billionaires, yachts, and private planes—it also has the best murder plots money can buy. The Palm Beach Murders (previously published as Let's Play Make-Believe): Both survivors of the divorce wars, Christy and Martin don't believe in love at first sight and certainly not on a first date. But from the instant they lock eyes, life becomes a sexy, romantic dream come true. That is, until they start playing a strangely intense game of make-believe—a game that's about to go too far. (with James O. Born) Nooners: Everyone who knows Tim says he's a good guy. But the popular advertising exec has a problem: a lot of the people who know him are getting murdered. And by the time he figures out why, Tim won't feel so good anymore. (with Tim Arnold) Stingrays: When a teenager goes missing on a Caribbean beach, the local police are baffled. It's up to the Stingrays, a world class team that solves the unsolvable, to unearth the truth: a truth that no one will believe. (with Duane Swierczynski)

Bones on the Beach

Bones on the Beach
Author: Peter Davidson
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 226
Release: 2010-06-01
Genre: True Crime
ISBN: 1101188081

The true story of an undercover cop who went under the covers with a wiseguy. She was a married organized crime detective. He was the Mafia wiseguy she was trailing. Their affair would shake the very foundation of Miami's criminal underworld-and end in murder.

Murder on Hollywood Beach

Murder on Hollywood Beach
Author: Carol Finizza
Publisher: Light Messages Publishing
Total Pages: 235
Release: 2022-03-22
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 161153433X

Amanda Beckwith is a classic underachiever who finally hits the jackpot when she marries Santa Barbara wellness guru Geoff Martin. She is fast becoming the envy of her hip, 30-something girlfriends when Geoff dumps her for Bree, his massage therapist. With nothing to show for her short marriage but a couple of minor brushes with the law and a tiny drinking problem, Amanda escapes to Hollywood Beach, 20 miles south of Santa Barbara, to focus on her career as professional organizer and “Messy Girl” blogger for a small local newspaper.When Bree is found murdered on the beach behind Amanda's house, her life spirals into chaos. Detectives single her out as a person of interest. With few people listening to her side of the story, Amanda resorts to her own devices to clear her name. As Amanda edges closer to the truth, her status shifts from person of interest to next victim.

Sunset Beach

Sunset Beach
Author: Mary Kay Andrews
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Total Pages: 433
Release: 2019-05-07
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 125012610X

Pull up a lounge chair and have a cocktail at Sunset Beach – it comes with a twist. Drue Campbell’s life is adrift. Out of a job and down on her luck, life doesn’t seem to be getting any better when her estranged father, Brice Campbell, a flamboyant personal injury attorney, shows up at her mother’s funeral after a twenty-year absence. Worse, he’s remarried – to Drue’s eighth grade frenemy, Wendy, now his office manager. And they’re offering her a job. It seems like the job from hell, but the offer is sweetened by the news of her inheritance – her grandparents’ beach bungalow in the sleepy town of Sunset Beach, a charming but storm-damaged eyesore now surrounded by waterfront McMansions. With no other prospects, Drue begrudgingly joins the firm, spending her days screening out the grifters whose phone calls flood the law office. Working with Wendy is no picnic either. But when a suspicious death at an exclusive beach resort nearby exposes possible corruption at her father’s firm, she goes from unwilling cubicle rat to unwitting investigator, and is drawn into a case that may – or may not – involve her father. With an office romance building, a decades-old missing persons case re-opened, and a cottage in rehab, one thing is for sure at Sunset Beach: there’s a storm on the horizon. Sunset Beach is a compelling ride, full of Mary Kay Andrews' signature wit, heart, and charm.

Blood on the Beach

Blood on the Beach
Author: Sarah N. Harvey
Publisher: Orca Book Publishers
Total Pages: 184
Release: 2017-03-21
Genre: Young Adult Fiction
ISBN: 1459812956

Eight teens are dropped off on a remote west-coast island for a week-long treatment program called INTRO (Into Nature to Renew Ourselves). The story is told by two of them: Alice, whose police-officer mother believes Alice might have a substance-abuse problem, and Caleb, who assaulted his abusive stepfather. They are joined by six other miscreants and three staff: a psychologist, a social worker and an ex-cop. On the first night, one of the girls disappears from her cabin. There is a panicked search of the island, but she is nowhere to be found. The adults seem oddly ineffectual in dealing with the crisis—and then the ex-cop gets sick and dies. The radio has been sabotaged, and there is no way to call for help. When the social worker also becomes ill, the kids decide to take matters into their own hands and track down the killer.

Once Upon a Seaside Murder

Once Upon a Seaside Murder
Author: Maggie Blackburn
Publisher: Crooked Lane Books
Total Pages: 281
Release: 2021-10-12
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1643858335

As the holidays approach, bookstore owner Summer Merriwether learns a dark secret in this second volume of Maggie Blackburn's Beach Reads mystery series. There's no place like home for the holidays, even if home is sleepy, beachside Brigid's Island, NC. During this season for giving, the town wakes up to a welcome throng of shoppers--and Beach Reads is no exception. But bookseller Summer Merriwether's Christmas cheer turns to cringing fear when she uncovers a deadly secret about her late mother--a secret someone will kill to keep. When the local library hosts a cozy mystery panel discussion, Summer learns that one of the authors on the panel based her book on an actual murder that shook Brigid's Island thirty-five years before. Worse, she soon learns that her dearly missed mother, Hildy, took a disturbingly deep interest in the case, going so far as to collect clippings and keep a journal of the dark doings. This doesn't jibe with Summer's memories of her usually cheery mother at all. Tidings get worse when Summer learns of her long-lost biological family's involvement in the crime...and still worse when the life of the book's author is threatened. With the help of Hildy's plucky book club, Summer puts her scholarly smarts to work on protecting the cozy author and solving the decades-old murder. But this ghost from Christmas past may still be deadly in the present, and if she can't find the killer, Summer's future will be brief.

Solving the West Palm Beach Murder of Jeffrey Heagerty

Solving the West Palm Beach Murder of Jeffrey Heagerty
Author: Graham Brunk
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
Total Pages: 134
Release: 2016-11-28
Genre: True Crime
ISBN: 1439667233

The true crime story of a love triangle, drug deals, and the 1984 cold case murder of a gay, South Florida teenager. Jeffrey Heagerty was like most young gay nineteen-year-olds in South Florida in the 1980s, commonly finding himself and his friends at the popular Kevin's Cabaret in West Palm Beach on Saturday nights. On one of those Saturday nights in 1984, Jeff vanished from the club, leaving his friends behind even though he was their ride home. His body was found dumped in a canal the next morning and his car was missing, only to be found a month later, abandoned on the other side of town. Rumors of a love triangle, drug dealings and sexual encounters snarled police efforts at solving the case. The investigation stagnated and the case grew cold until the solution came from two unexpected sources: overlooked details in police photographs of Jeff's car and a mysterious letter from an inmate in the Palm Beach County Jail.