A quick word before I jump into my Easter blog to let you know that the set of Zachary Goldman Mysteries 1-4 is on sale for $4.99. Get it while it lasts!
I haven’t written any books that are specifically about Easter, so I decided to broaden the theme of my post this week to include bunnies (or chicks or other cute spring babies), which lets me share Allergen-Free Assignation, book #3 of the Auntie Clem’s Bakery series with you. Let me introduce you to Marshmallow, a white and toasted-brown bunny who makes his first appearance in this book.
Allergen-Free Assignation
Erin Price, gluten-free baker turned sleuth, is happy to be dabbling in a murder that this time is too old and too cold for her to be considered a suspect.
As Erin begins to unearth the buried secrets of Bald Eagle Falls, she is forced to confront her own family’s dark history, a history which she knows little about. But there are others in the small town who are interested in the Price family; people who are determined to end her investigation at any cost.
Can Erin figure out who is behind the threats before more than her family secrets end up dead and buried?
And more Easter reads!
I couldn’t just leave you with one book, so I hunted high and low for some more Easter treats to fill up your basket.
Chicoy is Trickery
It’s springtime in Spicetown and Mayor Cora Mae Bingham discovers there may be trouble blooming along with the rhododendrons!
With construction in full throttle in the new subdivisions and the income tax filing deadline looming over her head, Mayor Cora Mae Bingham is revamping the Annual Easter Eggs-Travaganza and trying to figure out who is in the Easter bunny suit this year, when a dead body has to be added to her To-Do list.
Easter Buried Eggs
The smell of burnt cake is not a good omen for Annie when she arrives at the Black Cat Cafe. But little does she know that her Aunt Leona’s cooking disaster is only the first of many problems she’ll be served in a big basket of cracked Easter eggs.
Annie quickly learns that being in charge at the Black Cat Café isn’t all chocolate-covered strawberries and carrot cakes. In addition to the variety of tasty pastries she needs to make for Easter, she stumbles on a body and what appears to be a robbery.
With money disappearing from bank accounts, snooping seniors appearing out of the blue, and clues turning up in the most unlikely places, Annie’s problems sizzle more than Leona’s hot cross buns.
Determined to help her new friends, Annie and her therapy dog land in the middle of a murder investigation. Clues pile higher than a basket of Easter eggs, all pointing to one of the seniors. Annie searches for something to keep her friend from landing in a jail cell but instead, Annie ends up right in the killer’s crosshairs.
Easter Escapade
In the first ever crossover episode, Zak and Zoe join forces with Hawaiian visitors Luke and Lani, to find out who killed a historian visiting Ashton Falls in order to find a treasure map left by his grandfather a hundred years earlier.
Meanwhile, Ellie and Levi move in with Zak and Zoe while the boathouse is being renovated and Alex helps Ellie prepare the nursery for baby Eli who is due to be born any day. Throw in some humor and Easter fun and you have a Zak and Zoe crossover mystery.
Lord James Harrington and the Easter Mystery
Meet Lord James Harrington and his delightful wife, Beth; residents of the tiny village of Cavendish, deep in the heart of West Sussex in England. They adore hosting seasonal events, running their country hotel, keeping the local folklore alive and listening to the latest murder mystery on the wireless. But mysteries don’t always remain on the airwaves…
It’s Easter and the Cavendish residents are discussing the traditional festivities along with the proposed Easter egg hunt on the Harrington estate. But when the vicar’s dog digs up a bone, things take a turn for the worse. Retracing the dog’s walk, James uncovers a skeleton buried in the woods. Studying the remains, he identifies a number of expensive items. With the likelihood that the victim could be someone well-to-do, James is concerned that he may know the victim and puts his sleuthing hat on.
Easter Sunday
A father’s love and family anguish. Hank Green’s young son, Bobby, is lost in a cave beneath a water-drenched swamp of the Chesapeake Bay. The wilderness is known for Native American mystery as well as an unsolved World War Two secret. Even worse, a powerful Easter Sunday storm with its flood surge is barreling down. Hank rushes to join the team of experienced local firemen and friends who will try to find and rescue his son before the boy drowns.
Yet he feels once again his own numbing personal terror. He is overcome by a lifelong claustrophobic fear of entering closed spaces like caves. It’s a phobia he inherited from his immigrant father, a displaced person from the 1945 European war, and his own Vietnam experience. He knows if the others lose hope and fail, he will go on alone and risk his life to save his child. He must find a way to conquer his weakness but time is running out.
East Egg Hunt
During an Easter egg hunt, Roland “Beanie” Bean and his two-year-old son Evan are searching for eggs when they find a woman sprawled in the dirt beneath a hibiscus bush.
Little Evan thinks the lady is just sleeping, but Beanie knows better.
The nasty gash on the woman’s forehead might not have killed her, but the stab wounds in her chest appear to be fatal.
As an investigative reporter at the Palmchat Gazette, Beanie is the perfect person to cover the story, considering that he found the victim.
The Chocolate Bunny Brouhaha
The approach of Easter means a rush of business at TenHuis Chocolade, and Lee and her Aunt Nettie need all the help they can get to make their famous chocolate bunnies. Unfortunately, new hire Bunny Birdsong is a clutzy basketcase dropping everything she picks up. But to Lee’s surprise, she’s a whiz with computers and fixing the store’s website so they decide to keep her.
However, Bunny receives a few visitors they could do without: her soon to be ex-husband Beau, his wealthy aunt Abigail, and his new girlfriend and her brother all descend on the shop one day and have a bitter argument.
Lee hopes they can find a peaceful way to settle their dispute and not bring any more trouble to TenHuis. But when Abigail’s body is discovered in the vacant store next door, it’s clear to Lee there’s a bad egg in her midst. Now she’s on the hunt to find out who it is…
The Coconut Bunny Butt Caper
Rancher Zachary “Buck” Williams asks Phyllis Newsom to help him throw a big Easter shindig with games and food and an egg hunt, inviting everybody from the whole county to join in the fun.
It’s a beautiful spring day in Weatherford, Texas, as kids are running and playing and parents are chatting and sampling wonderful home-cooked foods. It’s all fun and games . . . until someone plays a dangerous game of hide and seek with the prize egg, leaving Phyllis to find the culprit.
The Easter Egg Murder
Harrie McKinsey and her best friend and business partner Ginger Vaughn discover that some secrets are best left buried when retired Senator Philip Lawrence hires their editing firm to assist him with a book about the famous unsolved 1950 murder of a cocktail waitress that led to the end of illegal casinos in New Mexico. When the Albuquerque newspaper announces that Senator Lawrence is writing the book, one person with a connection to the case is murdered and another narrowly escapes death. Despite the best efforts of Ginger’s husband and an FBI agent Harrie finds infuriatingly attractive, the energetic pair cannot resist trying to discover who is so anxious to destroy the book, the senator and his big secret.
Easter Hair Hunt
When hairstylist Marla Vail attends an Easter egg hunt at historic Tremayne Manor, she’s only there to fix hair for a client, Bonnie “Blinky” Morris. But when she’s asked to comb the grounds for leftover goodies, Marla discovers more than just a few dyed eggs. The dead body in the bunny costume is definitely not having a good hare day. And Blinky seems to have disappeared down a rabbit hole.
When trying to solve a murder, everyone needs a friend who’s all ears. For Marla, that’s her husband, homicide detective Dalton Vail. They make an eggcellent team. Dalton isn’t the kind to leap to conclusions, but with his wife seven months pregnant, and knowing Marla finds crime-solving to be irresistible, he worries about her running off on another hare-raising adventure.
Killer Easter Pie
When a jewelry shop in the Old Market is robbed, and an expensive jeweled egg is stolen, it seems someone might be out to ruin Easter.
For pie shop owner Bertha Hannah, however, she has very little time to think about crime as she is preparing for the annual city Easter Egg Hunt at the community gardens. Businesses and churches from all over the city are contributing to the event, and Bert has a new pie recipe planned for the day.
Festivities are brought to a screeching halt, however, when a body is found in the bushes. Is this new death connected to the egg robbery? When the finger of accusation seems to be pointed in the direction of a friend, Bert knows it is up to her to solve this mystery before the Easter Bunny hops away with all the clues.
Toxic Toffee
Bailey King’s in New York wrapping up a six-week shoot on her first cable TV show, Bailey’s Amish Sweets, when she gets a call from her Ohio town’s resident busybody. With Easter around the corner, Bailey’s been recruited to create a giant toffee bunny for the weeklong springtime festival that will also feature live white rabbits. But back home in Harvest, death becomes the main attraction when Stephen Raber keels over from an apparent heart attack—with Bailey and Raber’s pet bunny as witnesses.
Except it wasn’t Raber’s heart that suddenly gave out—a lethal dose of lily of the valley was mixed into a tasty piece of toffee. Who’d want to poison a jovial rabbit farmer who reminded Bailey of an Amish Santa Claus? To solve the murder, she and her sheriff deputy boyfriend Aiden must uncover a twenty-year-old secret. She’ll need to pull a rabbit out of a hat to keep a healthy distance from toxic people, including one venomous killer . . .
The Life of Our Lord
This one is not a mystery, obviously, but it is in keeping with the Christian Easter tradition.
Written by Charles Dickens for his Children
The last published book of Charles Dickens, read to his children for Christmas every year, has been divided into twenty-four readings for you to read from December 1 to 24. Experience the master storyteller’s magic all over again this Easter season.
This Workman Family Classic edition contains:
• Background/Introduction
• Biography
• Footnotes
• a scriptural passage and discussion question after each day’s reading
• Extension activities
Thank you for the wonderful collection of novels you’ve suggested. I am especially interested in The Workman Family Classic edition of “The Life of Our Lord.” It would make a wonderful gift to clergy and Sunday School teachers but to use it in that manner as I know they don’t use ereaders I would need a paperback copy. Is there any possibility that one is available? Thank you.
You bet. And I can put a special dedication page in the front of the paperbacks as well. Drop me a line and we can work something out for you!