Showing results by publisher "Short Story Press" in Mystery

Kingdom Come is the most successful amusement park in the country, and every Halloween, the park turns into a haunted event with hundreds of actors to scare guests silly.

Brigitte had a rough start in life. It all began when her village was bombed when she was just a child. After being sent to the US by a refugee agency, she drifted from one foster home to another for some time. In her pursuit to find the sense of family, she is recruited by the Russian mob, where she meets up with an old friend. The mob offers them everything except freedom. She wants more. She changes her name and makes a new life for herself.

Detective Jeffrey Madison is known for bringing miscreants to justice but lately has found himself tired of the same petty crimes that never seem to end. First Bobby Rae steals from the convenience store and then tries to buy his freedom because he feels that he has done nothing wrong. Then Ms. Clayhorn needs him to rescue her Calico cat and grandson, who managed to end up at the top of the same oak tree, although the older lady seems more concerned with the cat than her sobbing grandson.

Katherine Crenshaw, whose real name was Fenton, was raised by foster parents. Although she knew she was adopted she accepted the fact that her true family would not return for her. As the days went by Katherine lived a tranquil life until one phone call changed everything. When her uncle came to retrieve her at her foster parent’s home, and invited her to Fenton Manor, Katherine found more that she bargained for in the way of a family who resented her presence and old jealousies with evil intent, hidden beneath a veneer of civility.

The Black Sapphire was a concept that Ruth toyed with for a few years. She studied dialect to help enhance one of the main characters, "Mattie." In the story, an unsolved crime shows its ugly face when Detective Adam Reynoir starts investigating. Mattie, the home's housekeeper, and her son, Jarell, decide that they are going to continue staying in the home, even after the dismembering murders have been cleaned up. As the story unfolds, Mattie takes Detective Reynoir on a tour of the home, trying to get him to understand in her way that the murders were no accident.

Allegra, a married woman, abruptly learns her husband is having an affair. Her husband leaves her, and she must continue her caregiver responsibilities to her mother, Anita, as she struggles with her feelings of rejection. Anita eventually dies, leaving Allegra to face her husband and her fears about living a new kind of life alone.