Tag Archives: Jolie Tunnell

Deadlines & Detectives: This Month’s Mystery Line-Up

September 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 September 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!

Murder at the Palace

By: Jolie Tunnell

In the heart of Old San Francisco, Mrs. Karine Kelly’s new career as the confectioner at the opulent Palace Hotel takes a deadly turn when the reverend from her small Minnesota town—a man she believes murdered her aunt—unexpectedly arrives with familiar and hated companions, eats one of her signature desserts and drops dead from poisoning. Suddenly, she’s ringing in the New Year as a murder suspect.

Detective Fisher’s team is stretched thin after a freak snowfall hits New Year’s Day. Then he receives a midnight summons to the Palace where a man has been brazenly murdered. Once again Mrs. Kelly is the prime suspect, yet she holds the key to who the murdered man was and who might have wanted him dead. His young wife who yearns to perform on stage? His estranged son, set to inherit the congregation? Two of his most devoted followers?

As the web of suspicion grows, Mrs. Kelly finds herself at its center, her future hanging in the balance, with only a sparkling earring for a clue, and a tenuous truce with Detective Fisher. And then the murderer strikes again.

Whiskers and Ciphers

By: DeAnna Drake

A corpse in the town’s fountain spells trouble for Rebecca Cuthbert, who, along with her talking cat, Aneksi, must uncover the killer and dangerous truths behind the cursed artifacts plaguing Citrus Grove.

The normally quiet community is buzzing with excitement as the local university prepares to host an academic conference on Egyptian antiquities that’s attracting scholars, collectors—and a few hidden agendas. Did a newcomer carry out this crime, or is the culprit closer to home?

With Detective Nick Devon at her side and her knack for connecting the dots, Rebecca finds herself once again in the thick of the investigation. With help from her resourceful grandfather and her clever feline friend, she is determined to unlock the secrets of a mysterious antique journal. But each new clue reveals a longer list of suspects, deeper suspicions, old enemies, and more threats.

Solving this puzzle may come at a deadly cost. Can she crack the case before the murderer strikes again?

The End of Her

By: Melinda Di Lorenzo

What risks will she take to stop a killer before the final countdown hits zero?

Welcome to Immersion, the anonymous app where murder is entertainment, and the viewers have their popcorn and keyboards ready.

But it’s not a game to Bev Parent. The intended victim, Erin Smith, is more than just a name to the former detective. She’s a symbol for everything Bev has failed at: her job, her marriage, her motherhood, her life. And maybe her hope for redemption.

That is, if any of it is real.

Quickly, unwillingly, Bev is thrust back into the dark world she thought she’d escaped, racing against the clock and her own fractured memories. Every post and every comment could be a clue. Or a trap. While Bev works to sort through them, works to catch up, she must also hold her past at bay.

The Witch Wears Prada

By: Lisa Siefert

Welcome to a SPOOKtacular Halloween in Clover Creek!

Ava’s long-lost missing cousin, Sakara Decker, is finally back—but is she?

After a post-breakup love potion goes completely wrong, Sakara wakes up with total and complete amnesia. Not only has she forgotten that she’s a witch, she also forgot that she has a talking cat. And the super ability to read minds of anyone she touches, including a would-be assassin.

Stopping a murder before it happens should be easy with the help of her cousin Ava and the local police, but it’s Halloween, and no one and nothing is as it seems.

This is a fun paranormal cozy mystery told from Sakara’s POV and includes a talking cat!

The Bystander

By: John David

It wasn’t just another live shot …

TV reporter Pete Lemaster anticipates nothing more riveting than filming a short lifestyle segment for an upcoming college football rivalry when he arrives at the Jacksonville Waterfront pregame tailgate party. Then chaos erupts as a bystander stops an active shooter with an act of stunning bravery. And Pete suddenly holds a golden career opportunity in his hands—an exclusive video that goes viral.

With the citizen hero’s star rising among the Second Amendment folk, Pete, too, enjoys the perks of fame. But something about that now-famous moment feels off, so he uses his journalism skills to poke around. Suddenly, he’s not sure what he captured is the truth.

And now opportunistic political and media figures are threatening Pete’s life if he doesn’t back off. Can he blow the whistle on a coverup, out the real villain, and stay alive?

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.

Plundering History for a Good Mystery With Jolie Tunnell

June 9, 2025 · Posted by Tule Publishing

When your family tree is full of Vikings, a tendency to accumulate treasure is only natural. I like to pillage and plunder in the neighborhood bookstores, and when it comes to hunting down stories, you’d be right to call me ruthless in the chase.

But, as the guardian of my family folklore and related memorabilia, I find my writing inspiration in the whispered stories of my ancestors. Eavesdropping on my parents or grandparents or aunts as they gossiped about a distant relative over coffee was enough to tantalize me with the scandals, rumors, and mysterious doings of skeletons hiding in the family closet.

Of course I brought one to life and gave her a story all her own.

Shadows in Chinatown introduces Norse protagonist Karine Kelly in the first book of my new historical mystery series set in 1882 San Francisco. Mrs. Kelly enters San Francisco as a thirty- year-old mail-order bride, with hard-working ethics and her blue eyes scanning the western horizon.

While she is nobody’s fool, she has a dream.

Mrs. Kelly wants to leave her Minnesota dairy farm life behind and become a lady in the big city. But her charming husband-to-be isn’t quite the golden ticket she’d been led to believe.

Or is he?

When Patrick Kelly is murdered on their wedding night, he leaves behind a trail of lies that leads Mrs. Kelly deeper into the teeming and tangled layers of city corruption, vice, and injustice. Writing diverse neighborhoods authentically was one of many challenges involved in this series. The drive for accuracy, from menus and maps to politics and prejudices, fueled my love for all things mysterious and historical with hours of deep-diving research.

1882 San Francisco is a fascinating period that deserves more attention in fiction. Landing
between the Gold Rush era and the great quake of 1906, my series preserves a time that is all but extinct. The earthquake and subsequent fires destroyed not only records and buildings, but changed the very landscape of the city, as debris from the wreckage was shoved directly into the water. Though most of San Francisco’s hills remain, you cannot walk the coastline today with 1880s accuracy.

Shadows in Chinatown coincides with Congress passing the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882,
which dramatically impacted (and originated in) San Francisco and provides rich tension for the plot. Considering today’s political climate, the issues presented in this series will resonate strongly with readers.

In a literary world filled with contemporary whodunits, I invite you to explore a vanished San Francisco through the eyes of a determined newcomer who discovers that not all that glitters is gold.

If you enjoy historical mysteries with compelling characters and authentic period details, Mrs. Kelly’s mysteries in 1880s San Francisco should land at the top of your TBR treasure horde. After all, the past holds just as many secrets as the present—and solving them is twice as satisfying.

About the Author

Award-winning author Jolie Tunnell brings the past to life in suspenseful historical mysteries, bringing the flavor of the turn-of-the-century Wild West to the isolated mountains of Idyllwild and the writhing underbelly of San Francisco.

Her books gallop to the last page.

A Southern California native, she loves on her sprawling family, forces her freeloading tomcat to cuddle, and can drink her weight in Yorkshire Gold tea. Sign up for her extraordinary newsletter and settle in for a visit at JolieTunnell.com.

June’s Mysteries are Sure to Keep You up Until All Hours of the Night!

June 2, 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 June 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!

The Bordeaux Case by HL Marsay

Corkscrews, grand crus and cracking crimes.

Emma came to Bordeaux in search of the perfect claret, but instead found a cunning killer…

Emma King is half English, half French but one hundred percent disorganised. As the new head wine buyer for her family’s business, she has a keen palate, generous heart and a fiercely loyal nature. Nervous about her promotion, she’s relieved to be spending her first week of wine tasting events at the historic Château Montfleur, the home of old family friends Henri and Céleste. Joining her on her tour of the beautiful vineyards of Bordeaux are some other familiar faces: Paddy, a fellow wine buyer, Kiara, a travel blogger, Vanessa, the wine critic from hell, and the handsome, but arrogant Nico Lambert, Emma’s college crush.

On the first morning, Henri and Celeste’s new wealthy neighbour, Lucas, is found murdered and her hosts’ son, Oscar is the prime suspect. Convinced her childhood friend is no killer, Emma doggedly investigates, enlisting the reluctant help of her companions. As clues reveal more connections to Château Montfleur, Emma must tread a thin line between a dismissive chief inspector and a desperate killer.

Shadows in Chinatown by Jolie Tunnell

Karine Kelly’s dream of a fresh start as a mail-order bride in booming 1882 San Francisco becomes a nightmare when her charming Irish husband is murdered on their wedding night. Waking to destitute widowhood and fiercely angry in-laws, she discovers a series of shocking secrets that her husband left behind.

Why did he tell no one about their wedding? Why was a Chinese assailant hunting him and now stalking her? Why do residents in the city shadows seem to know more about her husband than she does? And why does the irritating Detective Max Fisher keep turning up like a bad penny?

Faced with appalling apathy and growing suspicion from the police, Karine’s determined to follow the trail of lies to find justice in a lawless city.

Warily working around each other as the killer strikes again, Karine and Detective Fisher uncover a sinister web of corruption, bigotry, and betrayals that circles ever closer to the jade pendant she wears over her heart—all that’s left of her husband’s pledge—and a ticking bomb that threatens to destroy Chinatown.

Still Life and Death by Tracy Gardner

A murder at the flower shop. An uncle suspected by the cops. Savanna and her sisters are on the case to make sure no one is framed.

Savanna Shepherd is delighted when her uncles Max and Freddie move to Carson and Uncle Max takes a job at Libby’s Blooms, where Savanna teaches a still life painting class. But while opening one morning, Uncle Max finds a dead body in the rooftop greenhouse…and even worse, it looks like an inside job.

It’s an uncomfortable spotlight for the family already trying to dodge a potential scandal brewing: Savanna’s boyfriend’s daughter is in her art class, setting off wagging tongues. Savanna and her sisters have no choice except to dig in to find the real murderer.

With their connections to the community and Savanna’s keen eye for details, they uncover longstanding resentments and a few subtle horticultural clues. But as Savanna’s investigation leads her into thorny situations, the killer may be arranging to prune yet another life: hers.

An artful cozy mystery perfect for fans of Krista Davis and Joanne Fluke.

The Intel by Kimberley Troutte

Rebel agent Heather Slade leads a dangerous and unsanctioned mission….

When Heather obtains partial intel about a prisoner of war camp from a journalist who dies before revealing the camp’s location, she’s desperate to know more. Her missing family might be held there. Using a voice-altering device to sound like billionare donor Martin Slade, she calls President Blockwell, demanding information about the secret camp. It’s a risky move that backfires when Blockwell’s guards lock Martin in an asylum to torture him for information that could compromise Heather.

Heather’s determined to rescue the billionaire, but HQ orders her to stand down. Their plan is to send a kill team after Martin to protect Heather’s secrets, ending her spy career and the chance to find her missing daughter. Disobeying HQ’s orders, she organizes an off-book mission with agents Miguel Robles, Worm, and Raven to infiltrate the hospital and extract Martin.

If HQ learns she’s inside, they could trigger her kill device, ending more than her career. Heather must stay one step ahead of HQ, but she’s committed to saving Martin and herself…if she survives the insane asylum.

The Other Boy by Heidi Field

When the worst comes calling…

Scott and Blair Bagby are a happy, successful English couple living in the suburbs with their teenage son and Great Dane. Life seems good, until one beautiful spring morning when a detective inspector knocks on their door asking if their son is home, unleashing an unspeakable horror that blows apart the life they thought they had.

Police have discovered bodies buried deep in the Peasedale forest and the inspector suspects one is Jamie, the final victim of a brutal and prolific serial killer. But Jamie’s death is unlike all the others, starting with his emergency phone call that leads to a macabre burial ground near a dilapidated hunting shack and creates shocking suspicions.

With bone deep grief threatening to destroy their marriage and their sanity, Scott and Blair set out to investigate Jamie’s death, a journey that not only upends their perceptions of who they are, but torturously reveals they may not have known Jamie at all…