Welcome to the tour for Beach Club Bloodshed. Perfect for fans of summer reads and cozy mystery! Read now on Kindle Unlimited!
Beach Club Bloodshed (Barefoot Sleuth Cozy Mysteries Book 1)
Release Date: August 2025
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Tropical Setting
Slow Burn
Amateur Sleuth
Found Family
Murder
Summer Jenkins day just went from bad to a downright dumpster fire.
First, there’s the dead body covered in stab wounds. Then, she finds out her best friend Lani’s missing and considered a person of interest in the murder.
With Lani MIA, everyone is looking to Summer for answers, including one hot hunk of a detective, Cole Peterson.
Detective Hottie, uh, Peterson, is a complication Summer doesn’t need right now. He senses Summer’s hiding something behind those pretty blue eyes, but when she becomes a victim of a hit and run, all of his protective instincts emerge as Summer gets drawn farther into the web of intrigue.
As the accidents start to pile up, Summer takes matters into her own hands and lands herself in hot water with a Yakuza boss, a Russian oligarch, and Auntie Miriam.
She can’t decide who’s scarier…
With the stunning backdrop of the Big Island’s Kohala Coast and a cast of quirky characters, this story is anything but a typical murder mystery.
Beach Club Bloodshed will keep you on the edge of your seat as Summer and her friends race against time to solve the murder and clear their names.
Cover Artist: Edward Bettison Secret powers Secrets coming to light Self-discovery Forced proximity Assassins Time travel (Soft) enemies to lovers True slow burn Corrupt government Found family Powerless office assistant Olivia Ramirez’s only desire is to stay safe in her pod—sixteen floors above a world where superpowers run amok and neon ads flash over ruined cities. When soldiers surround her building, the last person she expects them to hunt is her—the ex-telekinetic who blew up her future eight years ago when she accidentally triggered a deadly riot and lost her power.
Olivia escapes with a ragtag crew of bounty hunters—including Kaz, the team’s resident hothead and irritable ex-assassin. Their first heated run-in unleashes something new in her: powers she can’t control when Kaz is present. With every new power released against Kaz, one terrifying possibility emerges: she may be someone’s secret weapon sent to terminate him. Olivia’s not some juiced-up assassin, though. She’s an assistant! Right?
The only person who can help Olivia gain control and unravel the mystery behind her powers is the one man who thinks she’s plotting to kill him. Trusting Kaz won’t be easy. Trusting herself again might be even harder.
Detective Elinor Saxby thinks she’s found her perfect rural retreat: a crooked little cottage amid the towering pines of the New Forest. But bad things still happen in beautiful places . . .
On a lonely stretch of shingle, where the Solent laps the forest’s edge, something terrible is about to wash ashore. The bloated body of a young man. Several days dead. A ragged wound gapes in his chest. Because this was no accident. He’s been shot at close range, then dumped.
City cop Elinor’s on the case — and utterly out of her depth. The frosty coastguard tells Elinor the victim is a stranger. From out of town. But Elinor would swear she knows more than she’s saying . . .
Before long, a second body is discovered deep in the forest. Same wound. Same cold-blooded MO. Same killer?
It’s up to Elinor to unravel the truth from the lies, before more victims die. But she’d better watch her back.Because here in the New Forest, secrets run deeper — and darker — than the murky waters of the Solent itself.
Trusting the wrong person might just cost Elinor everything . . .
Linda Mather is the author of the Jo and Macy Mystery series. The 6th book in this series is THE PERFECT HOUSE FOR MURDER, published in August 2023.
Her Jo and Macy Mystery books are Forecast Murder, A Sign for Murder, Murder as Predicted, The Hanged Man and A Future Murder, all published by Joffe Books and available on Amazon. They feature Jo Hughes and her private investigator boss David Macy. Jo is an astrologer, who also works as a PI and whose tenacious inquiries lead her to twisty resolutions.
The Jo and Macy Mysteries series is set in the West Midlands and Cotswolds. A sense of place is really important to Linda. She likes to research the places she writes about by visiting when she can to absorb the atmosphere, weaving the details into the stories.
The idea for her latest book came to her during lockdown during many canal walks. The cottages with their flower-filled window boxes and the idyllic pubs along the canal path are so pretty and perfect that it looks as if nothing bad could ever happen there. Linda saw this as a challenge.
Linda has recently landed a contract for 3 books in a police thriller series and is currently writing the first of these, which is set in the New Forest.
She also has plans for the next Jo & Macy Mystery.
My thoughts: Elinor is still trying to find her feet in this new role, her predecessor casts a long shadow and she feels her team don’t always listen, and neither do her superiors.
When a body washes ashore with a gunshot wound, and the coastguard volunteer claims not to recognise the victim, she’s suspicious. Then when another person is killed in the same manner, but this time on land, she and her team know something strange is going on.
I really like Nancy, the DC, she’s new to the role and still learning but has good instincts and a determination to get to the truth, although this does sometimes lead her to go off on her own and put herself at risk.
Elinor is a good detective, she’s got lots of experience and knowledge, but she doesn’t really understand the place or the people yet. The New Forest is very different from inner city Birmingham, and the people aren’t always keen on incomers.
This case follows the adage that murder is always about money or love, sometimes both. There’s plenty of twists and turns, unreliable witnesses and suspicious goings on. The team will have to separate truth from lies to solve it, and with suspects pointing fingers at each other, work out what really happened.
A really enjoyable second outing for this team of detectives and with more of their personal lives, they feel more rounded and interesting as characters. Very good.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
We’re thrilled to announce the release of cozy mystery, Waimea Whitewash by Christine Wellert!
Waimea Whitewash (Barefoot Sleuth Cozy Mysteries Book 5)
Release Date: August 14, 2026
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Tropical Setting
Slow Burn
Amateur Sleuth
Found Family
Murder
A poisoned drink. A dead developer. And a suspect who swears she’s innocent.
Running a private investigation business isn’t quite as glamorous as Summer imagined. Even after solving a murder that stunned the community, TS Jenkins Investigations is struggling to keep the lights on.
Then Lani’s Aunt Esther is accused of murder.
The victim, a ruthless real estate developer proposing a project that would block access to sacred land, left behind a trail of angry lovers, bitter rivals, and broken promises.
Determined to clear Esther, the team dives deep into the victim’s past, only to find that nearly everyone had a reason to want the developer gone—and someone is willing to do whatever it takes to keep the truth buried.
Introvert and self-described whodunnit enthusiast Viviane has never much believed in living life outside of the pages of a book. But when her interfering mother insists that Viviane needs some friends who aren’t fictional, she decides to head into the beautiful bustling streets of Porto in search of her community.
What better place to start than by reading her favourite mystery in the corner of a little-known café?
But when one, then two, and then outrageously six other people decide to join her silent book club Viviane realises that she is firmly out of her depth. There’s Thomas, a middle-aged man hiding his love for romance novels, Lucinda, a chic sixty-something with a penchant for Christie, and then there’s Tiago, the man of every romance novelist’s dreams.
But when one of these newfound friends disappears from the book club without a word, will the community come together to find their fellow lost soul, and will Viviane find love along the way…?
Rebecca Raisin is an internationally bestselling and RNA awards winning romance writer from Perth, Australia.
Her books are set in stunning locations around the world providing a touch of escapism for her readers and those who like to partake in a spot of armchair travel from the comfort of their own home. Rebecca writes quirky heroines who haven’t figured it all out yet but are perfectly relatable, flaws and all. You’ll find themes such as friendship, love, new beginnings, food, wine and travel. She’s known for writing books for book lovers.
My thoughts: I loved this, I happen to be going to Porto later this year so it was very nice to be taken there by book.
Viviane is lonely but won’t admit it, like many book lovers her friends are mostly found between the covers of her favourites, but as for real life ones – not so much. So when she accidentally founds a book club (or silent reading group) and finds herself genuinely liking her fellow readers, having outings, talking to them – outrageous!
But when Lucinda, one of the members of the group stops attending and Viviane worries something bad might have happened, like her favourite detective she has to investigate, with Tiago as her sidekick.
Will she find real human connection? Fall in love? Will it be sweet and funny and rather charming? Well, you’ll have to read it to learn the answers to the first two, but it’s a big yes to sweet, funny and charming.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
Slow Burn is published this August and available in the usual places.
Rishi Tripathi has failed as an actor. When an important audition doesn’t go as planned, rage consumes him and he punches a mirror. But instead of getting hurt, he slips right through and arrives in the Mumbai of his dreams.
In this inverted city, Rishi is a superstar, a critically acclaimed darling. Success kisses his feet, and producers flock at his doors. But success, too, comes at a cost, and behind the twinkling arc lights of showbiz is chaos and a sinister scheme.
When this dark reality catches up with him, he wants to leave this new Mumbai right away. But is Rishi truly ready to go back to the life he left? Is he ready to go back to being a failure? And will fate stand in the way of his return?
About the Author
Amal Singh is a Sturgeon Award-nominated writer of science fiction and fantasy from Mumbai, India. His short fiction has appeared in venues such as Reactor, Clarkesworld, Asimov’s and Himal Southasian, among others. His debut novel, The Garden of Delights, was on the Locus Recommended Reading List for 2024.
My thoughts: This reminded me a little of Dostoevsky’s The Double, which I read years ago as a student. The concept of the doppelganger exists in many cultures, often as a fear, something that will take you over. The appearance of your double is usually a harbinger of death or disaster.
Here, aspiring actor Rishi Tripathi slips through a mirror, much like an Indian Alice, and finds himself in a different version of Mumbai, one where he’s a huge film star Rrish Kumar, a man adored by millions but with plenty of dark secrets.
As Rishi attempts to make sense of this new world, and the man he is in it, Rrish finds himself in Rishi’s Mumbai, unknown, poor and invisible. At first he struggles but then he embraces the opportunity to reinvent himself.
Rishi, however, soon tires of the new Mumbai and the life he is living, determined to return to his “real” world, he seeks out the mirror maker himself and asks for a way home.
The book is intelligent, well written and thought-provoking, as both versions of Rishi/Rrish come to terms with their new reality, and what they can make of it. But only one of them is unhappy in the end, and when you come face to face with your double, it always ends badly.
*While I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review, all opinions remain my own.
Today sees the release of the cover for Richard Swan’s next book – The Anguished Earth.
It is winter in the Empire of the Wolf, and the town of Eisbrück burns with plague. Whilst physicians struggle to contain the pox, the atmosphere thickens with recrimination and rumour: talk of inauspicious constellations, and a demonic witch filling the streets with bodies and black magick. Amongst the chaos, Sir Konrad Vonvalt must recover a dangerous fugitive-a child murderer who has escaped from Blackmarsh Insane Asylum. But with winter’s bite closing and plague spreading like wildfire, finding the killer may be the least of his problems.
The book will be published October 19th 2026 by Grimdark Magazine.
Welcome to the tour for Dracula in Love by Karen Essex. It’s time for Mina Harker’s story!
Available in all formats
Dracula in Love
Release Date: February 2026
Genre: Gothic Romance
Dracula in Love is a lush, sensual reimagining of Bram Stoker’s classic, told through the eyes of Mina Harker. In Essex’s version, Mina is no passive maiden besieged by darkness, but a woman divided between the life Victorian society demands of her and the dangerous, erotic, supernatural truth awakening inside her.
As Mina is drawn into Dracula’s world, she discovers that desire, memory, and identity are far more complicated than the men around her will admit. The novel transforms the familiar tale of the vampire count into a story of female hunger, forbidden love, and the terrifying cost of self-discovery. At once gothic, romantic, and psychologically intimate, Dracula in Love asks whether the monster is truly the creature in the shadows, or the world that demands women
dampen their own power.
With the dark romance and gothic atmosphere of Anne Rice, the feminist revisionism of The Mists of Avalon, and the erotic, mythic charge of A Discovery of Witches and The Historian, Dracula in Love is perfect for readers who love seductive historical fantasy, dangerous love stories, and classic tales retold from the woman’s point of view.
For fans of Anne Rice, Deborah Harkness, Elizabeth Kostova, Madeline Miller, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, and readers who believe Mina Harker deserved the last word.
Nightcats is a feral feminist vampire novel that explores the unbreakable bonds between women and their cats, and the price we pay for keeping our teeth sharp in a world that wants us defanged. Kristen’s debut adult horror novel will appeal to readers of Leigh Bardugo, Rachel Harrison, V.E. Schwab, and Anne Rice.
Itʼs carnival season in New Orleans, and Ricki James-Diaz and her friends from Bon Vee are dressing up for Mardi Gras. Theyʼve joined the notorious krewe of Chew to support Rickiʼs chef boyfriend, Virgil, who is to be crowned this yearʼs king. Itʼs all fun, throws, and over-the-top outfits until the kreweʼs captain is found strangled with his own medallion.
Step 2 – survive the festivities.
The prime suspect is Rickiʼs friend, the deceasedʼs wife who discovered he was cheating on her. It seems a straightforward case, but Ricki isnʼt so sure. The kreweʼs leader had many enemies including his mistress, his krewe co-founder who he ousted, and his college friend whose girlfriend he stole. One thingʼs clear, Rickiʼs at the center of yet another murder investigation. And if sheʼs not careful, her first Mardi Gras could also be her last . . .
Ellen Byron is an Anthony Award-nominated bestselling author and recipient of multiple Agatha and Lefty awards for her Cajun Country Mysteries, Vintage Cookbook Mysteries, and Catering Hall Mysteries (as Maria DiRico).
She is also an award-winning playwright and non-award-winning writer of TV hits like Wings, Just Shoot Me, and Fairly OddParents. Ellen was the 2023 Left Coast Crime Toastmaster but considers her most impressive achievement working as a cater-waiter for Martha Stewart.
A native New Yorker, Ellen is a graduate of Tulane University and lives in the Los Angeles area with her husband, daughter, and a rotating crew of rescue pups.
My thoughts: This was a really fun read, New Orleans is high on my list of places I’d like to visit one day, and the period of time leading up to Lent when all the carnival activities take place sounds quite something.
Ricki runs a shop attached to a museum, where she sells pre-loved cookbooks, and all sorts of other things. She enjoys what she does and has made some great friends, as well as having a lovely boyfriend with whom she shares two dogs and a kitten.
A relative newcomer to New Orleans, this is the first time she’s been involved with the Mardi Gras excitement and she’s a bit apprehensive. Then the carnival krewe she’s joined is hit by a shocking tragedy – their captain is murdered in the street outside their kick-off gathering.
The cops immediately decide it was his wife – after all the couple were seen arguing earlier that night. But Ricki’s friendly with the wife, Jessica, in question, and doesn’t agree. So she starts her own investigation. But when other things start happening – including someone literally throwing a bag of rocks at her head, it seems the killer might be more dangerous than she thought.
With the help of her friends, Ricki is determined to solve the case and catch a killer, but is something else going on in the carnival krewe and how far is someone willing to go to get what they want?
A really enjoyable, entertaining book with a fun cast of characters and a clever plot with plenty of twists.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
ramblingmads 