Detective Comics

When a stormy Heritage Festival ends in murder at a restored train depot, café owner Poppy James must untangle art, ego, and a very deadly history along the Whistlestop Line. Poppy comes to Easton Springs to pour coffee, cheer on the grand reopening of the old rail station, and maybe enjoy a quiet weekend with historian boyfriend Theo, bestie Nadine, and her trouble-sniffing beagle, Midsip. Instead, a locked parlor, a dead councilman, and a missing masterpiece turn the Heritage Festival into a crime scene. With the town’s future riding on the unveiling of the moody painting Station at ...

A Bunny Slope Body—and a Beagle. All Poppy James wants is an easy ski lesson, a mug of cocoa, and a weekend where her biggest problem is boots designed by villains. Then her beagle, Midsip, drags her to a snowbank on the bunny slope… and the ‘accident’ staged there feels wrong in her bones. With history-buff Theo decoding resort maps like old rail timetables and best friend Nadine charm interrogating staff between trivia rounds, Poppy follows a trail of ‘maintenance holds,’ vanishing receipts, and a corridor the resort swears doesn’t exist. The polished general manager, ...

She was a beautiful woman, slender and toned—the kind of woman who had a closet dedicated just for her shoes. But she was in Benjamin Kalico’s office, and she was unmistakably dead. Deemed a person of interest and barred from investigating the unidentified woman’s murder, Kalico is gratified when Austin’s historic Parrot Hotel hires him to stop a jewel thief who is victimizing its guests. However, confronting pilfering guests, chasing escaped parakeets, and monitoring numerous special events leave him little time to narrow his suspect list. “The poor boy needs our help,” ...

A binge-worthy box set of The Poppy James Cozy Mystery Series. Perfect for readers who like their murders clean and their coffee strong. Caffeine and a Corpse Book-loving café owner Poppy James just wanted to perfect her latte art—until a body turns up and her café becomes ground zero for gossip and danger. With her beagle, Midsip, and a pair of meddling best friends, Poppy follows a trail of small-town secrets to unmask a killer hiding in plain sight. Cozy charm meets quick wit in this series opener. Nightblooms and a Burial When a midnight garden reveals more than moonlit roses, Poppy...

In this exciting prequel to the critically acclaimed Dane Curse, a pair of black capes are found dead on the floor of Wentorf Hall, mere inches away from the world’s largest diamond. Of course the cops think the pair killed each other over the heist. After all, everyone knows that the Vandenberg Coconut is a one size fits all motivation for murder. Everyone, that is, except for Dane Curse. But when the former villain turned PI takes the case he’ll discover that the truth has more sides than a diamond has facets. And in order to get to it Dane will follow a trail that leads through an ...

From the New York Times bestselling author and creator of the hit MrBallen Podcast and YouTube channel, a vividly illustrated graphic novel, adapted for audio, featuring nine spine-chilling stories—based on real events—of the horror that lurks within the unknown In MrBallen Presents: Where...

Pantomime season has arrived in the brand new hilarious cozy murder mystery from Fiona Leitch. 'Murder and mayhem are rarely this enjoyable. Another fantastic entry in this brilliant series that solidifies Leitch as one of the very best and funniest writers around’ Jonathan Whitelaw ‘A...

Philanthropist, Millicent Smythe-Durban retreated to the tower rooms of her West Austin mansion after a family tragedy. Tired of her self-imposed exile, she calls old friend, Emelia Winterjoy, with a heartfelt request: serve as her intermediary with detective Benjamin Kalico to solve a long, cold case, clear the Durban name, and free her from her self-imposed exile. Max Sheraton hires the Kalico Detective Agency to recover a stolen family heirloom, a Scottish chest or kist and its more valuable contents: a camera that may have belonged to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and one of the Cottingley ...

A dazzling movie premiere, a glittering after party replete with dancing, Texas hill country wines and appetizer: it was a perfect evening for Kalico and friends—except for the discovery of a body. The victim is a person no one seems to have liked, including Emelia Winterjoy’s neighbor, Nancy MacLeod. When Nancy is implicated in the murder, the search to find the killer begins. The problem: too many suspects. The investigation expands throughout the wine country, leading the detective and friends ever deeper into danger.

Secrets Of The Stone Circle: Will The Truth Behind The Old Mill Be Revealed Before Its Too Late? Are you ready to step into a world where the line between reality and the supernatural is perilously thin? "Secrets Of The Stone Circle" invites you on a thrilling journey where every shadow hides a secret, and every whisper could be your last. When three friends—Alex, Jamie and Mia—discover an old mill in the middle of an ancient forest, they are unwittingly stepping into a realm of darkness and mystery. What begins as a curious quest soon turns into a desperate race against time as they ...

THE MANOR HOUSE MURDER MYSTERY AS YOU'VE NEVER SEEN IT 'What's better than a good crime novel? I'll tell you - a spoof crime novel, by the absurdly funny and clever Fergus Craig' MIRANDA HART 'We all need more laughs like this' AISLING BEA Detective Roger LeCarre. Scourge of crime. Guardian of...

He was a white, suburban bachelor. A total square. Lived with his mother. Worked for an insurance company. She was a black, tough, streetwise cop. Then somebody stole a quarter million dollars worth of rare comic books. And then people started getting murdered. Lindsey and Plum were like oil and water, but they had to work together, like it or not!

From the creator of the bestselling series The Last Kids on Earth, this hilarious middle grade adventure follows a young boy thrust into the world of selling hot dogs in space! Over the course of one very strange night, Cosmoe went from being an adventure-seeking, thirteen-year-old Earthling...

A hidden garden. A whispered warning. And one too-curious café owner digging into secrets that were meant to stay buried. When Poppy James, owner of Willowbrook’s beloved café Perk & Page, discovers a cryptic note in her tip jar and a forgotten seed packet labeled “Moonshade,” she chalks it up to a prank—until local florist Ivy Barrett collapses under suspicious circumstances. With her beagle sidekick Midsip sniffing out clues and her glitter-loving best friend Nadine at her side, Poppy finds herself drawn into a mystery woven through the town’s gardens, gossip, and ghostly ...

THE ABSURD CRIME FICTION PARODY BY FICTIONAL AUTHOR 'MARTIN FISHBACK' - AS SEEN ON BBC TWO 'What's better than a good crime novel? I'll tell you - a spoof crime novel, by the absurdly funny and clever Fergus Craig' MIRANDA HART 'We all need more laughs like this' AISLING BEA Exeter: a city in...

Three homicidal maniacs. Two radioactive shoes. One body in a suitcase. When Dr David Cairney, a politics lecturer, goes missing on the way home from his retirement party, his wife asks ex-boxer and journalist Robbie Gould for help. Gould wants nothing to do with it. But he needs the money...

Read free with Kindle Unlimited. A quiet town, a ghostly whistle, and one café owner with a nose for trouble… When a midnight train whistle echoes through Willowbrook’s sleepy streets, Poppy James—book-loving café owner and accidental sleuth—knows it’s more than a trick of the wind. Her suspicions are confirmed when Henry Caldwell, a retired railway inspector with a reputation for secrets, is found dead by the abandoned tracks, a chalk mark scrawled beside him and a crumpled scrap of paper in his hand. Armed with her trusty beagle Midsip, glitter-obsessed best friend Nadine, and...

Fed Up: A Kalico Detective Agency Mystery. Working with the FBI on a missing child case promises to be good for Benjamin Kalico’s career but hard on his personal life. However, he vows to follow clues wherever they may take him. When his investigation leads to murder, he begins to suspect that the Feds may not be on the up and up. Why is he being followed? Why is his house under surveillance? Still, reuniting a family takes precedence as he moves farther into danger. Although he misses the assistance of Miss Winterjoy and friends, he is relieved that they are safe. After their adventure ...

In Willowbrook, even the sweetest pies can hide the sharpest secrets. When the Willowbrook Pie Festival ends in chaos, café owner Poppy James finds herself holding more than flour-dusted plates. A letter from beloved baker Etta May reveals shocking news: the bakery deed is missing, and a secret recipe may hold the map to its whereabouts. With her loyal beagle Midsip sniffing out clues and her gossip-loving best friend Nadine stirring trouble faster than batter in a bowl, Poppy dives headfirst into a puzzle baked with secrets. Historian Theo Mercer lends a steady hand—and perhaps a spark ...

There’s trouble at St. Catherine’s Catholic Academy for Girls: a nun’s figure is burned in effigy on All Saint’s Day, the new Head of School is receiving threatening notes, and pranks are disrupting the scholastic calm of the prestigious, Austin private school. Much of the activity could be dismissed as teenage high jinks; however, the school’s treasured statue of St. Catherine of Siena is being held hostage. “Heaven save me from teenage girls,” moans detective, Benjamin Kalico when he joins forces with Emelia Winterjoy to stop the mischief and find the statue. Although ...