Tag Archives: Death Watch

Secrets, Suspicion, and Second Chances with Carol Light

July 9, 2025 · Posted by Tule Publishing

Death Watch, the second book in my Southern Secrets Mysteries series, is about second chances. Jana Nance (I pronounce her name JAN-ah), is forty-eight, a widow, and an empty nester. Her two grown daughters are living independently although they’re still emotionally dependent on their mom. They often call to vent about their relationships but seldom take her advice.

When Jana is passed over for a promotion at the Indiana Department of Tourism, she begins to think of making a change in her life. Her beloved grandmother, Nana Sue, who had provided a home for her in Crossroads, Arkansas, when she was in high school, has been moved into a nursing home due to her advancing Alzheimer’s disease. So, when the newly created job of tourism director opens in Crossroads, Jana applies and is selected for what promises to be her dream job.

A second chance is just that—an opportunity at which you may or may not succeed. Jana’s new job description probably should have had an asterisk with a footnote explaining that her new boss would be the mayor, Deeann Donahue, the girl in high school she most disliked. Succeeding in her job may depend on how well she can work with her boss, but Jana isn’t sure she wants a second chance to build a positive relationship with Deeann. Fortunately, her best friend, Charlie, now lives next door to Nana’s house. However, tragedy strikes when Jana and her new tourism committee discover the body of Charlie’s son, Eli, at the site of the city’s new proposed park. Eli is found with a cache of fentanyl-laced drugs, and allegations that he may have been selling them soon threaten the friendship between the two women.

There’s no second chance for police chief Tim Birch when he arrives too late to save a young officer who’s suffered a fatal exposure to fentanyl at a traffic stop. Tim is first on the scene, but resuscitation efforts fail. The dead officer is the niece of Tim’s sergeant, who hasn’t embraced his promotion to chief. Eli’s death in the park further leads to suspicion that there may be other officers on his force working against him. Tim will need help from a variety of sources, including Jana, to stop the spread of dangerous drugs and catch a killer who won’t stop with one victim.

For those who read Deadly Inheritance, my first Southern Secrets mystery, Death Watch is your second chance to spend time with the Crossroads characters you met in that story. Jack Huddleston, the word-nerd publisher of the Gazette newspaper is back, although he faces challenges of his own after recent near-death experiences. Merritt Quinn, Cal Kinney, and Curt Macmillan also return. And that new doctor in town, Clay Bailey? I don’t want to spoil a surprise, but there’s even a second chance at love for Jana in this story.

I hope you’ll enjoy Death Watch. Don’t expect all the loose ends to be tied up. There’s more to come in March 2026 when Tule releases my next Southern Secrets mystery, Fatal Silence, your third chance to visit Crossroads, Arkansas.

All the best,
Carol

About the Author

 

Carol Light is an avid reader and writer of mysteries. She loves creating amateur sleuths and complicating their normal lives with a crime that they must use their talents and wits to solve. She’s traveled worldwide and lived in Australia for eight years, teaching high school English and learning to speak “Strine.” Florida is now her home. If she’s not at the beach or writing, you can find her tackling quilting in much the same way that she figures out her mysteries—piece by piece, clue by clue. You can also follow me on BlueSky.

Thrills, Chills & Cozy Kills: What’s New This July

July 3, 2025 · Posted by Tule Publishing

GIVEAWAY: Because who doesn’t love FREE books?

We will pick ONE winner to receive a digital book of their choice from the July mystery releases.

Comment down below saying which book you’re looking most forward to reading! Giveaway is open INTERNATIONALLY. The winner will be randomly selected and announced at the end of the month.

Good luck and happy reading!

Death Watch

by Carol Light

A dangerous killer is hunting for more than deer in this southern forest…

New police chief Tim Birch is too late on the scene to save his youngest officer from fentanyl exposure at a routine traffic stop, and the grief cuts deep into his department. Someone is trafficking dangerous pills in Crossroads, Arkansas.

Jana Nance has returned home to steer the town’s tourism and be close to her dying grandmother. But when she and her committee visit lakefront property designated to become a park, they discover the body of her godson, Eli Carson, fatally shot in a deer stand. Jana is convinced it’s murder and not suicide.

She might be on to something. Fentanyl pills were found with Eli’s body, but was he a victim or the dealer? Unfortunately, not everyone on Tim’s team wants him to uncover that answer.

It’s Jana’s job to bring change to Crossroads, and she’s determined to succeed—even though her plans threaten a lucrative illegal activity. Unless Eli’s killer is caught, Jana’s death watch may be her own.

Bonbons and Burglars

by Lisa Siefert

A high-profile wedding, a bakery disaster, and a frozen corpse—Ava Decker’s latest mystery is anything but sweet.

Pastry chef and small-town sleuth Ava Decker is thrilled to cater the most glamorous wedding of the season. But when the bride’s big day turns into a catastrophe—with a flooded venue, ruined desserts, and a dead body in Ava’s walk-in freezer—the celebration grinds to a chilling halt.

With her missing assistant as the prime suspect and a pair of mischievous kittens leading her to unexpected clues, Ava is up to her elbows in trouble. Add in her mother’s relentless matchmaking schemes and a charming yet infuriating billionaire, and Ava’s got more on her plate than just cupcakes.

Can Ava sift through the secrets and solve the case before the real killer serves up another deadly surprise?

Bonbons & Burglars is the fourth book in the delightful Frosted Misfortunes culinary cozy mystery series. If you love amateur sleuths, quirky small-town scandals, whisker-twitching feline sidekicks, and twist-filled whodunits, you’ll adore Lisa Siefert’s latest page-turning mystery!

Perfect for fans of Joanne Fluke, Ellie Alexander, and Mia Malone.

Death at the Wharf

by Jolie Tunnell

Determined to carve out a respectable life for herself in the raw and unforgiving world of 1882 San Francisco, widowed Mrs. Kelly bakes for the Palace Hotel and rents an apartment with Miss Smith, who manages a fancy glove shop. But a fateful trip to fisherman’s wharf with her friend and the discovery of a dead woman tangled in a net with a bible, once again throws her into the cooly critical Detective Max Fisher’s path.

Although Mrs. Kelly has no intention of pursuing the case, Miss Smith’s employer is brutally slain and a hidden stash of gold coins surfaces in the glove shop. Detective Fisher’s suspicious gaze turns toward Miss Smith when clues—from the vicious Barbary Coast to a chilling orphanage to treacherous whaling ships—tie her to both murders.

Desperate to exonerate her friend, though Detective Fisher doesn’t trust her, Mrs. Kelly faces danger as she unravels the truth and reveals that Miss Smith’s role in the murders may be more complicated than previously imagined. The more Mrs. Kelly uncovers, the closer she comes to being trapped in the killer’s net of greed, betrayal, and revenge.

Blood in the Cradle

by Cobie LaJeanne

It’s a case every detective dreads—the one that forces them to confront their traumatic past.

When decorated detective Chloe Van Belle receives a call about a severed limb in a fountain, she dreads returning to Encounters, a renowned angel-worshipping church tied to her dark childhood wounds. She’s further shocked to learn six-year-old Lillian vanished from the congregation without being reported.

Chloe’s half-sister Rosie, a devout believer engaged to the reverend’s son, remains unwavering that everything unfolds according to divine will, refusing to see the evil in front of her.

An eerie search leads to Lillian’s body tucked in a cradle with a vintage watch, linking the crime to a similar murder twenty years ago. The gruesome scene triggers Chloe’s morbid fascination with death, making her visual-gustatory synesthesia, which gives murder a literal sweet taste, harder to hide. With Chloe’s nightmares and half-memories resurfacing, she engages in a macabre game of cat and mouse with the killer.

As casualties grow and evidence points to the highest levels of the church leadership, Chloe must protect Rosie and her team—but is it from a monster or herself?

A must-read for fans of Alex Marwood’s The Poison Garden and Tana French’s In the Woods!

Death at Rock Bottom

by Kris Bock

She can touch an object and sense the emotions of the people who’ve held it before… 

After solving the mystery of her predecessor’s death, geologist Petra Cloch wants to focus on her new job as the rocks and minerals curator at a quirky, small-town New Mexico museum. But her friend and colleague Liberty is suspicious of the “accidental” death of Frank Underwood, a retired petroleum engineer and rockhound who unexpectedly died while hiking. Frank acted odd and secretive in his last weeks—mumbling about an incredible find in the desert and aliens. Was he showing the first signs of dementia, or were more sinister forces at work?

Petra agrees to help excavate the truth, and soon, instead of meeting for book club, she and her friends become amateur investigators. Petra uses her gift and her brains to sort through the contradictory stories and confusing clues as she and her friends dig for answers.

Did Frank’s heirs decide to hasten their inheritance? Or did his rock shop business partner decide to go solo? Petra joins the local geological club to discover whether someone there acquired a taste for murder, because they’ll need rock solid evidence to catch a killer.

Southern Secrets & Deadly Inheritance: A Mystery Born from Family and the South

March 19, 2025 · Posted by Tule Publishing

Deadly Inheritance is the first book in my new Southern Secrets mystery series. There were several sources of inspiration for this series, but mainly I wanted to write about a small town in Southern Arkansas similar to the one where my mother’s family has lived for generations. We visited every year, usually around Easter. As a child of city suburbs, I loved being able to walk “downtown” or hang out with my cousins or granddaddy on the porch swing.

I’d be willing to bet that most of you haven’t read a story that takes place in Arkansas. Many
Americans don’t know where “the natural state” is located (east of Oklahoma and Texas, north of Louisiana, west of Mississippi, and south of Missouri) or how to pronounce it (AR-ken-saw). You may have heard of the Ozark Mountains, or a little ole company called Walmart that’s headquartered in Bentonville, or former President Bill Clinton, a native son. It’s a state with geographic diversity and friendly people, many of whom I’m probably related to, at least in the southern part of the state.

The fictitious town of Crossroads, the setting of Deadly Inheritance, isn’t far from the Louisiana border. This part of the state is famous for the pine forests that spawned many sawmills in the early twentieth century and later a thriving paper products industry. Like many Americans, Merritt Quinn knows next to nothing about Arkansas, but when her Aunt Mary dies, she must travel to Crossroads to learn who had been responsible for her birth mother’s death nearly thirty years ago. Mary’s will is specific: Merritt must go there and uncover the truth in order to claim her inheritance, which includes a property several parties are anxious to buy.

Merritt is a fish out of water in Crossroads, and I enjoyed writing about her new experiences in the South. Mary, she was told as a child, was an honorary aunt, a generous woman interested in her life who rarely visited. Before she died, she told Merritt who her birth mother was but not much else. “See Ernie—he knows,” she said. But, when Merritt appears for her appointment in Ernie Crowell’s law office in Crossroads, she encounters two men from feuding families oddly scheduled for appointments at the same time. They soon discover the attorney’s body. He’s been murdered, and police chief Tim Birch is quickly on the scene, questioning all three of them.

Tim Birch grew up in Crossroads, but he hasn’t been chief for long and has a lot to prove. Ernie was a beloved member of the community and a mentor to him. With Ernie’s assistant away and neither of the two men knowing what their appointments were about, all Tim can figure out is that they shared an interest in the land Merritt is due to inherit. As Merritt researches both her aunt’s and mother’s pasts in Crossroads with the help of new friends, Tim tracks a killer intent on keeping his secrets buried at any cost.

I love stories about family secrets, unsolved mysteries, and ordinary people caught up in life-changing situations. I hope you’ll enjoy Deadly Inheritance and will come back for more southern secrets when the second book in the series, Death Watch, is released by Tule in July.

Here’s a preview of the cover:

All the best,

Carol

About the author

Carol Light is an avid reader and writer of mysteries. She loves creating amateur sleuths and complicating their normal lives with a crime that they must use their talents and wits to solve. She’s traveled worldwide and lived in Australia for eight years, teaching high school English and learning to speak “Strine.” Florida is now her home. If she’s not at the beach or writing, you can find her tackling quilting in much the same way that she figures out her mysteries—piece by piece, clue by clue. You can also follow me on BlueSky.