Halloween Mysteries

It’s the week of Halloween and there’s a chill in the air and an eerie, ominous feeling. Are you in the mood for a good book to read on damp, foggy nights? If the answer is “yes,” lock your doors, pull down the shades and curl up with one (or more) of the following Halloween mystery novels. I've included the link to order at the end of each post.

 by Marja McGraw

In The Bogey Man, Sandi Webster, a young female P.I., spends a lot of time doing boring, tedious work. A surveillance isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. However, during the early morning hours while she’s watching an unfaithful husband, her cover is blown and the man comes after her.  Before she can say boo, Humphrey Bogart comes to her rescue. Really? He’s been gone for over fifty years.

Sandi continues to have Bogey sightings but no one will believe her until a well-known model and actress is murdered at a Halloween party – and the Bogey Man walks out of the restroom, walking the walk and talking the talk.

Sandi is hired to solve the murder by an unlikely suspect, and in the meantime the Bogey Man dogs her steps in the hopes that he can learn from her and help solve the case.
http://tinyurl.com/9w49u4d 

 by Kaye George

Imogene Duckworthy is twenty-two and has a job (PI assistant) and a new car (used). She loves her mother, but it's time she was on her own. The problem is her daughter Nancy Drew Duckworthy’s pet potbelly. Not a lot of rentals in Wymee Falls will permit a pig, even one as cute and charming as Marshmallow. Jersey Shorr of Shorr Realty manages to find something but there are rumors that the house is haunted. 

Immy tells herself she doesn’t believe in ghosts. She signs the contract and plans to move in before Halloween. What she doesn’t plan on is the very real, very dead body in the bathtub. And the fact that the most logical murder suspect is her Uncle Dewey, fresh out of prison. Immy can’t allow her long-lost relative to be railroaded for a crime he (possibly) didn’t commit, can she? 
http://tinyurl.com/96syxqv 

 by Jan Dunlap

Amidst the annual scarecrow display at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, Bob White finds the dead body of Sonny Delite, a birding colleague well-known in the state for his conservation advocacy. Dismissed by the police as a suspect in the case, Bob turns his attention to unmasking the former celebrity wrestler who has joined the Savage High School faculty, but quickly regroups when the murder investigation comes home to roost at the high school. 

Determined to discover the identity of Sonny’s killer, Bob’s chase takes him to the proposed site of a wind farm, into the crosshairs of a World War II ordnance expert who shoots vegetables from his bazooka, to Alberta Marsh and its trove of rare birds, and into the girls’ locker room to round up some egg-laying students. 
http://tinyurl.com/8mwtan9

 by Cindy Sample

Newly divorced Laurel McKay joins the LOVE CLUB, a dating agency advertised as the safe alternative to on-line dating. It turns out that dating Laurel isn’t too safe for her dates, both of whom are found dead. 

When the hunky homicide detective stops by her house on Halloween, he has to decide if the sassy soccer mom dressed in a clown costume is trying to trick him. Or is there a treat in store?
http://tinyurl.com/9ppt832

 by Krista Davis

Domestic diva Sophie Winston is getting into the holiday spirit, and
her decorations for a community haunted house are so good, it’s scary. Not to be outdone, rival domestic diva Natasha is throwing a
spooktacular Halloween party at her house. But when Sophie arrives, she discovers one of Natasha’s guests dead in a hair-raising Halloween display and a pale, fanged party-goer fleeing the scene.

The cause of death is not immediately apparent, but the victim does
have two puncture wounds on his neck. While Sophie’s boyfriend,
homicide detective Wolf, investigates, rumors start flying faster than witches on broomsticks. Could the killer be a real vampire — the same one rumored to have lived in Sophie’s haunted house back when it was a boardinghouse? Good thing a domestic diva never runs out of garlic…
http://tinyurl.com/9d7dw7k

by Nancy Lynn Jarvis

Halloween is the biggest party night of the year in Santa Cruz. Street performers, bands, food booths, and entertainment of all sorts fill Pacific Avenue. Costumed revelers come out to celebrate, but tonight Death is among, them ready to claim his first victim.

Santa Cruz husbands are being murdered. The local news media is buzzing because a dark-clad figure witnesses describe as Death has been seen lurking nearby each time a murder is committed.

When new widows start hiring real estate broker Regan McHenry to sell their houses, she discovers all the murdered men have something in common: their wives belong to a walking group called The Widow's Walk League. No wonder Regan is worried when the group's leader starts paying special attention to her husband, Tom.  
http://tinyurl.com/8jajela 

 

by Dorothy Bodoin

When Jennet witnesses the murder of an animal rights activist during an anti-fur demonstration and meets controversial Caroline Meilland, she is drawn into a dangerous mystery. Hoping to find a place for herself in the animal rights movement, she attends a meeting of Caroline's organization, M.A.R.A. Although Jennet is aware of recent violence directed toward female activists, she wants very much to help animals. 

On the night of the Harvest Ball, Jennet finds a body on the fox trail beside a bloodstained toy fox. Jennet's involvement in the murder is now definite and deadly.
http://tinyurl.com/8cdxt7w

by Patricia Gligor

It’s a few days before Halloween and there’s a serial killer attacking women in their homes in Ann Kern’s neighborhood.

Everyone is behaving strangely, even those closest to Ann. When a psychic warns her that she is in danger, Ann dismisses the warning but, when she receives a series of ominous biblical quotes, she grows nervous and suspicious of everyone, including her own husband.

As the bizarre and frightening events unfold, Ann discovers a handmade tombstone marked with her name, pushing her close to the edge. Will she be the Westwood Strangler’s next victim?

http://tinyurl.com/clyjaz8

Happy reading and Happy Halloween!