We all look forward to First Tuesday with so many wonderful new cozies comes out. 

But we tend to forget, like I did yesterday, about the last Tuesday of every month. 

Did you know these great titles came out yesterday?

“If you like dogs, you’ll love Laurien Berenson’s Melanie Travis mysteries!” —Joanne Fluke, New York Times bestselling author

Melanie Travis has her hands full with her two young sons, a part-time job, and a half dozen Poodles to her name. But even with the busy holiday season approaching, she still has time to sniff out a Christmastime killer…

There’s nothing lovelier than Christmas in Connecticut, but Melanie can scarcely find a moment to enjoy the festivities. With her youngest son approaching toddlerhood, she’s decided to return to her old job at Howard Academy, a posh private school attended by the children of Greenwich’s well-heeled gentry. Balancing work, motherhood, and the hectic dog show circuit takes some fancy footwork, especially when the headmaster taps her to be the chairman of the school’s Christmas Bazaar.

The Christmas Bazaar is Howard Academy’s biggest and most important fundraiser, so Melanie feels the pressure to make it a huge success. She even enlists her longsuffering sister-in-law Bertie to help with the Santa Claus and Pets Photo Booth. But everything goes awry when a prize show dog goes missing and Santa turns up dead. The dog’s owner is one of the school’s most perfectly pedigreed alums, and she enlists Melanie to help find the purloined pooch. But just as Melanie starts pawing at the truth, she digs up a sleighful of sinister secrets that leaves everyone feeling less than merry…

MY REVIEW

Santa is dead! Well, a Santa is, and A BARK BEFORE CHRISTMAS is where it happened. Author Laurien Berenson kills off Santa and it’s up to Meanie Travis, protagonist of the fun series, to find out why and the real who, (because we all know author LB didn’t really kill him.)

It’s not easy I’m sure to keep series eighteen titles long fresh. But Laurien Berenson, being a wonderful writer, manages to do just that. And I have no doubt it will just continue to get better and better.

A BARK BEFORE MIDNIGHT was well plotted and moved at a good pace. Lots of questions raised, and I didn’t have all the answers until the reveal, which was exciting, if a bit more intense than in most cozies (at least to me).

Dog lovers will be in heaven with not only this title, but the entire series. But I guess the word Canine in the series title already gave you the idea. ;-)

I really enjoyed this book and I’m now going to have to go back and play catch up. But I’m always willing to find a series that’s new to me. If this is one you already follow, you’re going to be happy I’m sure. If you don’t follow this series, pick up a copy and give it a try!

E-Book Exclusive

Includes a Yummy Recipe!

“Fun characters, a quaint setting.” —RT Book Reviews

Ho-Ho-Ho-Homicide

This Christmas, event planner Jenn Christensen has come back to the winter wonderland of Mackinac Island, Michigan, to race for charity in the Santa Fun Run, rekindle her love for CSI tech Shane Carpenter, and indulge in her BFF Allie McMurphy’s fabulous fudge. But there’s one event she didn’t plan—chasing down a killer. After finding a deceased Santa in a snowbank, she’s shocked to discover the police suspect her of murder. It’s up to Jenn,  Allie, and a helpful  golden retriever named Marley to catch the killer and find out who’s at the top of the naughty list.

Haley Randolph’s 25th birthday is just around the corner, and the full-time fashionista knows it might be time to edge into being an “adult.” All she has to do is ace the upcoming performance review for her hot L.A. event-planning gig, and she can finally quit her credit card-paying job at Holt’s Department Store. She just has to make sure absolutely nothing goes wrong with the big party she’s planning for a Hollywood retirement home...

It really should be a fun bash—Hollywood Haven is home to a spunky group of retired actors, screenwriters, musicians, dancers, and other entertainers who have been in the biz for their whole lives. But when Haley finds Derrick Ellery, the home’s assistant director, sprawled on his bloody office floor, she sees her hope of keeping her job—not to mention the dream of owning a Sassy, the season’s hottest handbag—vanishing before her eyes.

Quietly finding the killer is Haley’s only hope…but it turns out the list of suspects is longer than her last credit card statement. It seems Derrick made a lot of enemies and had somehow become wealthy far beyond what was possible with his salary—but how?

To make matters worse, Haley’s kind-of-ex-boyfriend Ty is now a suspect in a different murder, and she just knows he couldn’t have done it. Solving two murders while planning the perfect party—and always keeping her sights on a Sassy—won’t be easy…especially now that there’s more than one killer ready to select Haley’s final outfit!

From peacekeeper to beekeeper…
 
After an injury forced her to leave the police department, Abigail Mackenzie started a second career as a farmer. Raising chickens, harvesting honey from her bee colony, and growing heirloom vegetables on her farmette in the beautiful Bay Area town of Las Flores, Abby has embraced all the benefits of a peaceful life.
 
But when she attempts to deliver her trademark honey to local pastry chef Jean-Louis Bonheur and finds him dead in his shop, her old investigative instincts kick in. After the coroner rules the death a suicide, the chef’s handsome French-Canadian brother insists on hiring Abby to find out who really killed Jean-Louis. 
 
With the patience of a farmer and the industriousness of a bee, Abby sorts through a swarm of suspects, including the chef’s landlord, his protégé, an eccentric homeless woman, loan sharks, and a brawny biker. But as she closes in on the truth, she’ll need more than her beekeeper suit to protect her from a killer’s sting…
 
Includes farming tips and delicious recipes!

Someone old, someone cruel

Debutante dropout Andrea Kendricks is beyond done with big hair, big gowns, and big egos—so being dragged to a high-society Texas wedding by her socialite mama, Cissy, gives her a bad case of déjà vu. As does running into her old prep-school bully, Olivia La Belle, the wedding planner, who's graduated to berating people for a living on her reality TV show. But for all the times Andy wished her dead, nobody deserves Olivia's fate: lying in a pool of blood, a cake knife in her throat—but did the angry baker do it?

Millicent Draper, the grandmotherly owner of Millie's Cakes, swears she's innocent, and Andy believes her. Unfortunately, the cops don't. Though Andy's fiancé, lawyer Brian Malone, is handling Millie's case, she's determined to spring Millie herself. But where to start? "La Belle from Hell" had enemies galore. Good thing Andy has a BFF who's a reporter— and a blue-blood mother who likes to pull strings.

Trick or treat—and murder—are on the menu in this first in a new culinary mystery series

Life couldn't be sweeter for Tres Amigas Café chef Rita Lafitte, decorating sugar skulls and taste-testing rich, buttery pan de muerto in anticipation of Santa Fe's Day of the Dead bread-baking contest. That is, until her friendly landlord, Victor, is found dead next door.

Although the police deem Victor's death a suicide, Rita knows something is amiss. To uncover the truth, she teams up with her octogenarian boss, Flori, the town's most celebrated snoop. The duo begins to sift through long-buried secrets and to take full measure of duplicitous neighbors, but the clock is ticking and their list of suspects is growing ever longer. Just as the clues get hotter than a New Mexican chili, one of their main suspects winds up dead. Rita fears that the killer is dishing out seconds—and her order might be up.

Hayden Mundy Moore is an expert on everything chocolate, helping clients develop new products and revamp recipes until they're irresistible. But sometimes, a dash of murder finds its way into the mix...

“A fresh and original new series! Savannah Webb is as clever at piecing together clues as she is at piecing stained glass. Well-crafted with smart and intriguing clues, Pane and Suffering will keep you guessing to the end!”--Krista Davis, New York Times bestselling author 

To solve her father's murder and save the family-owned glass shop, Savannah Webb must shatter a killer's carefully constructed façade. . .

After Savannah's father dies unexpectedly of a heart attack, she drops everything to return home to St. Petersburg, Florida, to settle his affairs--including the fate of the beloved, family-owned glass shop. Savannah intends to hand over ownership to her father's trusted assistant and fellow glass expert, Hugh Trevor, but soon discovers the master craftsman also dead of an apparent heart attack. 

As if the coincidence of the two deaths wasn't suspicious enough, Savannah discovers a note her father left for her in his shop, warning her that she is in danger. With the local police unconvinced, it's up to Savannah to piece together the encoded clues left behind by her father. And when her father's apprentice is accused of the murders, Savannah is more desperate than ever to crack the case before the killer seizes a window of opportunity to cut her out of the picture. . .

“Cheryl Hollon clearly knows her glass craft, but better still, she also knows how to craft a good mystery.”—Sheila Connolly, New York Times bestselling author 

 

“A kaleidoscope of perfection, with a feisty heroine, exquisite plot and master storytelling.”—Liz Mugavero, author of the Pawsitively Organic Mysteries

Did you order or buy any of these great titles yesterday? I'd love to hear about it!

Is there a title here that you're going to add to your TBR? Which one are you looking forward to reading?

As always, please leave a comment and 

let me know what you think!

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