contemporary mysteries
Murder My Love
Against the background of an archeological excavation in the Apennine Mountains of Italy, Prof. Michael Donovan and travel writer Kate Foster are puzzled when people seem to be upset by her appearance. When members of the excavation team are murdered, Michael and Kate must solve the crimes before Kate becomes the next victim.
Award-winning author D. E. Johnson called the book "a fast-paced whodunit that keeps the reader guessing until the end . . . Readers will not be able to put this book down!"
Death Goes Dutch
Sarah DeGraaf, a Korean-American adoptee, works for a social services agency in West Michigan, known for its heavy Dutch population. One of her jobs is to reunite adult adoptees with their biological families. The process can go well or badly, but she has never met as much resistance as she does from Josh Adams' family, owners of a large furniture company. Maybe it's the six-million dollar trust fund his biological mother left him. Is that enough to kill for?
Midwest Book Review found it to be a "superbly crafted, wonderfully written murder mystery that treats the reader to a thrilling detective story meticulously backgrounded with detail."
Death by Armoire
Maureen Cooper's ex-husband, Troy, is found dead in his antique store, crushed by a heavy armoire. The coroner rules it an accidental death. But when someone breaks into the store and then into Troy's apartment, Maureen begins to wonder if that really is the case. As she tries to learn what happened to Troy, she uncovers some long-buried secrets about her own family and the small SC town where they've lived for generations. The book won the genre fiction category in the 2018 Writer's Digest competition for self-published books.
BookLife had this to say about it:
Plot: This book contains outstanding pacing, intricate but believable twists and turns, and careful attention to Southern small-town details that make for a robustly plotted not-quite cozy thriller.
Prose/Style: Barely a word is out of place in this comfortable mystery's even-keeled exposition; the dialogue-rich narrative is one of this book’s great strengths, as is the author's ability to balance light and dark moments.
Originality: Small-town settings are ubiquitous in the mystery genre, but Bell's atmospheric blend of a gruesome death and of suppressed family scandals transcends the formulaic.
Character Development: Vivid and distinctive major, minor and peripheral characters alike grace Bell's story, all anchored by narrator Maureen, a memoir ghostwriter by trade whose introverted life is upended by the murder of ex-husband Troy – who even in death remains colorful and complex.
