Halloween Mysteries

With just a few days left before Halloween, everyone at Howard Academy is anticipating the guaranteed sugar high they'll experience from gorging on Harriet Bloom's famous marshmallow puffs. The private school's annual costume party revolves around the headmaster's assistant and her seemingly supernatural batches of gooey goodies. So, it's a shock when Harriet's elderly neighbor is suddenly found dead with the beloved dessert in his hand. In a snap,...

Maggie Crozat, proprietor of a historic Cajun Country B&B, prefers to let the good times roll. But hard times rock her hostelry when a new cell phone app makes it easy for locals to rent their spare rooms to tourists. With October--and Halloween--approaching, she conjures up a witch-crafty marketing scheme to draw visitors to Pelican, Louisiana. Five local plantation B&Bs host "Pelican's Spooky Past" packages, featuring regional crafts, unique menus,...

Suzette Cripps has been occupying a spare bedroom at Val's granddad's house while she takes classes in this Maryland Eastern Shore town-but she's always seemed a little secretive and fearful, and any talk about her past is a closed book. After winning the costume contest at the Halloween-themed bookstore party, Suzette is mowed down by a hit-and-run driver-and Val and her grandfather start to wonder whether it was really an accident or if someone...

"Mary McGill and her cocker spaniel Millie get the fright of their lives on Halloween when they hear gunshots coming from the bank and the robber, dressed in a clown costume, points his gun at them before fleeing the scene. Mary is horrified when she discovers Police Chief Dan Dunham has been shot in the shoulder and a woman has been killed. Why would the clown shoot an ordinary citizen? Mary soon learns that the victim is Victoria Witherspoon, a...

In the town of Excelsior, Minnesota, it's Halloween, and Betsy Devonshire, owner of the Crewel World needlework shop and part-time sleuth, is haunted by murder as she investigates the mysterious death of Wicca practitioner and microbrewery owner Leona Cunningham.

"The roots of the Moonlight Magnolia Detective Agency reach back to the 1980s in the little town of McGill, Georgia - where Stella Reid and her seven grandkids enjoy some spooky Halloween fun and stumble into murder...It doesn't take cash, just some good old-fashioned creativity, to turn a pillowcase into a ghost costume or a trashcan into a suit of armor. So even if she has to stick to a budget, Stella Reid always makes holidays like Halloween memorable...

Tricks and treats keep the Halloween spirit alive in coastal Maine. But this year the haunted house theme is getting carried a little too far...Haunted House Murder by Leslie Meier: Newcomers to Tinker's Cove, Ty and Heather Moon have moved into a dilapidated house reputed to be a haven for ghosts. Now strange noises and flickering lights erupt from the house at all hours and neighborly relations are on edge. And when a local boy goes missing near...