Collection: Mystery, Thrillers, & Crime

Love endures, and when it's the subject of an art exhibit, it can be a truly beautiful thing. When Anne Marie White Eagle achieves her dream of opening an art gallery in Gresham, she knows she needs a knockout exhibit to bring people out in droves. She crafts a show featuring Osgood and Muriel Reimer, known for their familial backgrounds in the beef jerky and cherry industries but even better known for a beautiful marriage lasting more than 56 years.

Anne Marie's sweet dream dissolves into a nightmare when the elderly lovebirds are found dead after opening night, with indications their love might not have been so eternal.

Zachary Gagewood, eager to help his dear friend salvage what's left of her ambitious gambit into the arts, looks into the deaths and discovers that there are others with plenty of reasons to off Shawano County's most enduring couple-a granddaughter who feels oppressed and her nonconformist boyfriend, a store owner harboring a lifelong secret, or even an absent member of the Reimer family. Can Zachary figure out who would want to end the most beautiful love affair ever?

Gresham's annual Applefest is its biggest event of the year, and it brings out the best-and worst-in the residents of this tiny Wisconsin village. This year's festival is expected to be the biggest yet, and that means the apple pie contest will determine the reputations of numerous bakers, housewives and others. Before the contest is over, however, one of the judges will be dead and cold.

When one of Gresham's most prominent-and reviled-citizens suddenly dies while judging the apple pies, all signs indicate someone tried to poison her. That theory is quickly thrown into doubt when the medical examiner can find no trace of poison. When it seems like the investigators have given up on finding the truth, local bookstore operator Zachary Gagewood must find out who the killer is before someone else falls prey to an apple pie!

The residents of Caroline, nicknamed the Peaceful Valley, has eagerly anticipated the arrival of hometown superstar Astrid Stone. She is on a national tour with fellow singer Ruth Phillips, who escaped from a fundamentalist polygamist compound, and is trying to raise money to help other young women and men to escape from cults and supremacy groups. The community hopes the concert will be the start of a new spring tradition.

Those hopes are dashed when Astrid disappears before the concert starts, and a burned body is found inside her obliterated car. Ruth is afraid for her own life when the murder looks like members of her former cult carried out the dark deed, and superstitious townsfolk fear Ruth's former ties to fundamentalists may have sparked the resurrection of the Posse Comitatus, a dark chapter in Shawano County's history that took root in a nearby village.

When two more people are found dead, it becomes clear to Zachary Gagewood that someone is trying to sow seeds of fear and hatred in Caroline. To find the killer, though, Zachary will need to figure out if the deed was carried out by one person or a sinister organization.

The Lonesome Pine Ballroom was once a grand fixture in the village of Gresham, but the jewel of the community has since decayed, prompting its resurrection and renovation. To accomplish that, one hundred thousand dollars needs to be raised. Although a controversial notion, local bookstore owner Zachary Gagewood thought of bringing into the normally strait-laced community a pack of drag queens to entertain, amuse and pick up a few coins for the renovations.

It seemed like a good idea in the beginning-until one of the most outspoken critics in the community is found dead, the heel of a stiletto embedded in his forehead.

With the future of the Lonesome Pine in jeopardy, Zachary knows he must find out who the killer is, knowing full well that anyone capable of killing once could strike again, and in the process, assassinate any hope of restoring Gresham's pride and joy. The question is, to which dress-wearing man does the shoe fit?

It's fair time for Shawano County, and that means the Fairest of the Fair, Victoria Pennington, is hitting the streets to hype up the longest-running county event. It also means the mild-mannered Fletcher Burgess is preparing the fair's tastiest treat-creampuffs. Tensions are high at this year's fair because Fletcher's daughter, Janet, believes she was robbed of the Fairest honor due to the Pennington family's enormous donation to restore aging fair buildings.

The friction hits fever pitch when the Fairest eats a creampuff for a television commercial promoting the fair and dies immediately after taking a bite of the beloved confection. Fletcher, who personally served the puff, is believed to have killed Victoria to avenge the injustice his daughter suffered.

While officials are trying to quell local fears about safety at the county fair, Zachary Gagewood tries to clear Fletcher's name and find out who really wanted to send the Fairest of the Fair to her maker. The question is whether Zachary can sort through the fluff and identify the murderer before someone else falls prey to a killer confection.

It's the most wonderful time of the year in Gresham, where the newly restored Lonesome Pine Ballroom is finally ready to host its first event, the Gingerbread Ball. The event, put on by the Gresham Ladies Society, is a chance for adults to leave the children with babysitters and spend the evening in formal wear and celebrating the reason for the season-the Christmas Campaign for Coats, which makes sure all the children in Shawano County are warm for the winter.

Things turn icy when Lena Andrews, the village's Christmas princess, is found dead following the ball in her bed. Sleeping next to her is Joshua Callahan, a detective with the sheriff's department and nemesis to Zachary Gagewood, the local bookstore owner and resident sleuth.

Zachary decides to put past slights aside in order to find the real killer. The prospects of Joshua's innocence grow dim when a second woman he'd been intimate with, a former beauty queen, also turns up dead. With the help of an old friend, can Zachary be Joshua's personal Santa Claus and give him the greatest gift of all-his freedom?

Coming out of the coronavirus pandemic, Zachary Gagewood remains in a funk after the passing of his beloved dog, Toby. With the help of his husband and friends, he figures out how to function as a member of society again, even as he must spar with the new village board chairman, who seems determined to keep The Literary Barn closed indefinitely.

Zachary also finds himself entangled in the mysterious deaths of twins Tabitha and Henrietta Goldsberry, who operate a chicken farm and cat sanctuary on the outskirts of Gresham. After their UTV blows up on a quiet country road, there are plenty of suspects as family members and others have their eyes on Goldsberry Acres, which many believe that the twins never should have inherited.

Solving murders is what Zachary does best, and it could be what he needs to bust himself out of his depression. However, the vultures are circling, and some of them probably would have no problem biting a pound of flesh from Zachary. There's also the matter of the orphaned animals, which Zachary plans to protect at all costs. Can he shake the bad apples out of the Goldsberry family tree without getting his tail singed?

A killer is loose in a small town in Oklahoma, and Sam, the Second-Hand-Man, wants him. Sam is an ancient immortal creature who feeds off the misery he creates. At first, the choice seems obvious; a kid with a stolen gun has decided to make the community pay for the suicide of his father. Sam wants to help his young protege succeed but is soon disappointed. Unfortunately for Sam, he is not the only one in town who doesn't belong. A man had returned after losing his life in a tornado. This man, along with the help of an emotionally scarred police chief, must stop Sam before he can find and recruit a mysterious hidden killer. The future of the world will depend on it.

Hunting Death follows avid reader Charlotte Coleman as she arrives in Ireland for a much-needed investigative vacation. With no family to speak of, she has lived a life of relative solitude and has always loved the escape books provided, particularly vampire romance novels. There was just something alluring to her about stories where a woman's pure virtue and beauty can compel a beast to reconnect with his humanity and change for the better. Of course, Charlotte understands that these stories are fictional, but the myths of vampires had to come from somewhere and she had never quite abandoned the idea that vampires may have once existed. When she learns of a castle in Ireland that is shrouded in vampire myths, she decides to cash in all that vacation time she hasn't been using to travel to Ireland and investigate the castle.
Ireland is a beautiful and welcoming place, but as Charlotte soon discovers, there are more secrets here than she realized. Despite ominous warnings from the Innkeeper, she decides to find her way across the foggy moor to the castle. Charlotte just wants to get on with her adventure, but she gets more than she bargained for when she starts to poke around.

Skeletons from their past are threatening their present...is it best to leave them buried?

In the middle of the Long Island Sound stands the lighthouse at Execution Rocks. What happened there is the stuff of myths and legends. It is said that every so often residents can see the image of an abandoned ship, sails billowing, silently gliding past the lighthouse. A ghost ship some say.

Setting out to uncover the truth, Luce Porter teams up with the annoyingly attractive Detective who seems to conveniently pop into her life when least expected. Is it destiny? It's a question they both face when they discover they share a childhood vision, along with disturbing family secrets. Tales of slavery and horror. Tales of abolitionists and saviors. Tales of patriots and traitors.

As romance blossoms, the two grapple with the blurred lines of American History while they challenge the demons from their own past.

How much of the Luckland legend is legend, and how much is truth?

On opening night, the curtain fails to rise when a body is discovered in the theatre. Pippa is again caught up in the Luckland Ladies' shenanigans, but this time it's Devon she needs to rescue. Treasure maps and the ladies' secrets might be the key to Devon's freedom.

After a daring mission, the hunt for a killer begins, and when the final two missing shoeboxes are unearthed, along with letters, a diary, and family heirlooms, the ladies, guardians of Luckland, have one more confession to make...

Love is never so rocky as when a dead body turns up...

Getting dragged into the Luckland Ladies' schemes has become the norm for Pippa, and with Matilda's sixtieth birthday around the corner, Pippa, her mother, and her mother's rabble-rousing friends set out to find Matilda's long-lost love. Instead, they find a corpse.

With Matilda's lounge lizard on the run, and Pippa's house filled with ghosts, the ladies seek answers in a séance. Luckland's legendary gold might be behind the hauntings, but someone with one of the six missing shoeboxes is wreaking havoc with Matilda's happiness, and Pippa and Devon must find out why.

Ancient legends and secrets threaten the Grand Dames of Luckland

Pippa loves her simple life in her cozy town of Luckland, but after her sister holds a yard sale, Pippa's life begins to unravel, starting with six missing shoeboxes, the arrival of two very odd visitors, blackmail, and revealed secrets-including a Vegas bag of millions. If that isn't enough, Devon-Pippa's not-so-friendly friend from childhood-returns home.

The ladies take a culinary road trip, but it's the chef who's sliced and diced.

When Aunt Hilda turns up for Thanksgiving dinner, the Luckland Ladies set out on a culinary road trip to find a recipe thieving chef. Dragged along for the ride, Pippa suspects murder when the chef turns up dead. And Hilda is the prime suspect. Proving Hilda's innocence isn't so easy when the chef's wife has photos that prove Hilda's guilt.

A bevy of spirits and messages from the past offer clues that might clear Hilda's name. In Pippa and Devon's search for the real killer, four of the six missing shoeboxes turn up, but the ladies remain steadfast in their refusal to reveal their secrets, which Pippa is beginning to suspect may be linked to Luckland's legendary gold.

"Fans of domestic suspense will adore Kimberly Belle." --Mary Kubica, New York Times bestselling author of The Good Girl

From the internationally bestselling author of The Marriage Lie, a riveting story of deceit and dark truths.

Humanitarian aid worker Gia Andrews chases disasters around the globe for a living. It's the perfect lifestyle to keep her far away from her own dark past.

Sixteen years ago, Gia's father was imprisoned for brutally killing her stepmother. Now that he's back home and dying of cancer, Gia must care for him and reluctantly resumes the role of daughter to the town's most infamous murderer. Gia's old wounds are ripped open as protesters show up on the lawn and death threats are hurled at her, turning her own personal tragedy, once again, into front-page news.

As the past unravels before her, Gia finds herself torn between the stories that family, friends, and even her long-departed stepmother have believed to be real all these years. But in the end, the truth--and all the lies that came before--may have deadlier consequences than she could have ever anticipated....

Originally published in 2014.

Don't miss bestselling author Kimberly Belle's next deeply addictive thriller, The Personal Assistant--where she explores the dark side of the digital world when a mommy-blogger's assistant goes missing!

Look for these other pulse-pounding thrillers by Kimberly Belle:

• The Marriage Lie
• Stranger in the Lake
• My Darling Husband
• Three Days Missing
• Dear Wife
• The Ones We Trust