A torrential spring snowstorm leaves Maggy and her friendly (and not so friendly) neighboring tenants stuck in the strip mall where her coffeehouse, Uncommon Grounds, leases space in Brookhills, Wisconsin.Shut up in her coffeehouse with little light and no heat, Maggy looks for help from her neighbors in the plaza...but while crossing the snow-filled parking lot, Maggy nearly trips over the mall's landlord, Way Benson, who has a hatchet in his back and looks very, very dead.Since Way's plan was to evict all the tenants and sell the space to a superstore chain, the list of enemies and suspects is hardly meager. Figuring out who had the means to do it...that was going to be the tricky part.But when Way's ex-wife is also killed, the clear and obvious motive goes out the window. Then when there's another death, Maggy is scrambling to pick up the pace and solve the murder...before she's next...
Vintage Readers are a perfect introduction to some of the great modern writers: The celebrated bestselling author of The House on Mango Street “knows both that the heart can be broken and that it can rise and soar like a bird. Whatever story she chooses to tell, we should be listening for a long time to come" (The Washington Post Book World). A winner of the PEN/Nabokov Award for Achievement in International Literature and the prestigious MacArthur Fellowship, Sandra Cisneros evokes working-class Latino experience with an irresistible mix of realism and lyrical exuberance. Vintage Cisneros features an excerpt from her bestselling novel The House on Mango Street, which has become a favorite in school classrooms across the country. Also included are a chapter from her novel, Caramelo; a generous selection of poems from My Wicked Wicked Ways and Loose Woman; and seven stories from her award-winning collection Woman Hollering Creek.
GRIMM TALES is a collection of stories by some of the top names in online crime fiction, all based on classic fairy tales. As novelist Ken Bruen writes in his introduction, "Ever imagined what would have come down the dark pike if The Brothers Grimm were more Brothers Coen and wrote mystery?" The collection is edited by John Kenyon, editor of Grift magazine, and contains 17 stories by Patricia Abbott, Absolutely*Kate, Jack Bates, Eric Beetner, Nigel Bird, Loren Eaton, Kaye George, Blu Gilliand, Seana Graham, Eirik Gumeny, R.L. Kelstrom, John Kenyon, BV Lawson, Evan Lewis, B. Nagel, Sean Patrick Reardon and Sandra Seamans.
The state of Wisconsin has never been known for its mild winters and this particular season is no exception. But that’s all good news for Maggy Thorsen and Uncommon Grounds, her newly renovated Brookhills coffeehouse. Now that Maggy and her real estate maven pal, Sarah Kingston, have finally completed the relocation of Uncommon Grounds to the town’s historical train station, they’ve concocted just the perfect drink special to warm up the residents of Brookhills – Triple Shot, a heady coffee drink with massive doses of sugar and caffeine – during this especially cold season.And all is going well for Maggy (okay, maybe she’s a little over-caffeinated, but what do you expect?) when Ward Chitown, a has-been TV personality, rolls into town in search of a long-hidden Mafia stash. And Chitown knows the stash is here because his father led the FBI bust some thirty years ago, in which three agents lost their lives...But now, it’s the real estate agents in Brookhills that should be looking over their shoulders. Two of Sarah’s fellow brokers were shot and left to die at the properties they were showing...and the whole town is feeling nervous, staying home with their windows drawn...When the stench of death starts to pervade Uncommon Grounds, Maggy and Sarah are forced to put all other business aside and find the killer before Sarah becomes the recipient of the murderer’s third shot...
Maggy Thorsen, cynic extraordinaire, has a few things to feel optimistic about lately. After her original coffeehouse, Uncommon Grounds, was destroyed in a freak May blizzard, Maggy and her best friend, Sarah Kingston, have found the perfect spot to relocate – right next to the new commuter train in Milwaukee.After successfully securing the spot, Maggy and Sarah plan to piggyback the city’s celebrations for the train and re-open Uncommon Grounds on the same day. In fact, Maggy’s feeling so positive, she even digs deep in her budget and hires a giant inflatable coffee cup to attract more notice to her grand reopening.All seems to be running right according to plan...until Maggy’s event manager is found dead – and now Maggy must find the killer before the killer finds her!!
Heaven's Fire" may be what Pasquale Firenze, patriarch of the family-owned Firenze Fireworks, calls his painting of the night sky with light, color and sound, but television producer Wendy "Jake" Jacobus has more practical considerations than her featured showman's artistry. Or so she believes, until Pasquale is killed—live on-camera—by an explosion, and Jake is hurled into a tangled web triggered by her job, her legacy as a cancer survivor, and her growing attraction to Simon Aamot, the federal agent assigned to the investigation. Aamot has problems as well, but when the two are forced together by the tragedy, the man unable to let go of his past and the woman afraid to trust her future must race to prevent another catastrophic explosion--this one at the county's Fourth of July celebration.“Equal parts thriller, romance and family saga . . . a compelling and deeply human read.” --Joan Johnston, New York Times bestselling author of Texas Bride“Rooted in the dangerously exotic world of a multi-generational fireworks company . . . spell-binding.”--Jeremiah Healy, award-winning author of The Only Good Lawyer and Spiral“A fast-paced mystery that explodes off the page.”--Ali Brandon, national bestselling author of Double Booked for Death"What moves Balzo high above other writers who try to cover the same territory is a sharp and often amusing skill that convinces us that this is real life, and that it matters.”--Chicago Tribune
Here's a tip: if your ex-husband's mistress-cum-missus asks for your help in proving that he cheated on her while he was married to you, just say no.And you most certainly should not invite this new missus, Mrs. Rachel Thorsen, in for a cup of coffee. But big-hearted Maggy can't seem to help her own hospitality.Unfortunately, most unfortunately, this mistress-cum-missus disappears shortly after her coffeehouse confab with Maggy and is later found murdered...making Maggy's ex, Ted, the chief suspect.Now it's up to Maggy to discover the truth...even if it upsets her on-again, off-again relationship with the handsome Sheriff Jake Pavlik...Despite the tempting satisfaction of seeing her ex go down, Maggy knows Ted is innocent. Cheater? Most definitely. Murderer? Most definitely not. So Maggy reluctantly agrees to help him. Rachel's wealthy family, however, disagrees and spares no expense in trying to put Ted behind bars.
Exactly how hot is the competition at the annual coffee trade industry conference in Milwaukee? Scaldingly hot.What's not hot? Finding Marvin LaRoche, owner of the HotWired coffeehouse chain store stone-cold dead under a banquet table in the middle of the convention.And everybody knows that Maggy was no great fan of Mr. LaRoche, nor of his overly competitive business practices - so it's up to Maggy's own amateur sleuthing skills to get herself out of the hotseat!Mrs. LaRoche, newly widowed, certainly seems a bit too cheery. But then there's the angry activist who denounced LaRoche's practice of exploiting Third World coffee growers.As the conference coordinator and the number one suspect, Maggy is on a countdown to find the murderer, save her coffeehouse and maybe, just maybe heat up her love life...Thank goodness for caffeine!!
Main Street Mysteries #1The debut title in a new series by the author of the Maggy Thorsen Mysteries... Though a magnet to tourists looking for some Southern comfort, the small lake town of Sutherton - tucked so picturesquely into the mountains of North Carolina – has had its fair share inexplicable hazards. But when Daisy Griggs siphoned three pints of blood from poor Mrs. Bradenham at the resort’s annual blood drive – well, that seemed to take the cake. And so, police reporter AnnaLise Griggs comes home to Sutherton to look after her volunteer phlebotomist mother, Daisy (of the accidental bloodletting). But the "accidents" only seem to escalate upon the reporter's arrival in the High Country, leading AnnaLise to question whether Daisy is truly the cause of the trouble, as everyone else seems to believe, or its target...
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