Books to the Ceiling

A Sheriff Bet Rivers Mystery
A female sheriff races against time to solve a murder at a carnival that puts her whole town at risk. Thrilling, romantic, and full of suspense!
Sheriff Bet Rivers' inspection of the carnival grounds should have been routine. Murder is certainly the last thing on anyone's mind. Then comes the sound of a gunshot. And a dead body with no signs of trauma, no witnesses and no obvious motive for the killing.
But solving the unexplained death is only part of the challenge. Bet is still grappling with her on-off relationship with town owner Rob Collier, while dealing with her feelings about her late father, the beloved town sheriff she had to replace.
As Bet launches her homicide investigation, she soon discovers the carnival is a place of whispers, rumours, resentments and lie after lie. And as the stakes build, it quickly becomes clear that protecting a deadly secret is something that someone is willing to kill to keep.
Fans of Julia Keller and Sheena Kamal will love this riveting suspense.
Book Links:
Kindle | Barnes & Noble | BookShop.org | Goodreads | BookBub | Severn House
Music Credits:Replicahttps://uppbeat.io/t/all-ambient/replicasLicense code: 1WO5E2LQZCZKZUUW
The Final Girlhttps://uppbeat.io/t/weary-pines/the-final-girlLicense code: FRFHBJTJU0EX99S5
 
 
 
 

A CARIBBEAN ISLAND MYSTERY
This week we're cooking up a mystery with The Bush Tea Murder. Naomi Sinclair finds herself in a pressure-filled meeting where she has to prove her investigative journalism will solve the murder of Ursula Merchant.
Culinary journalist Naomi Sinclair is cooking up a maelstrom of trouble upon her return to the blue waters of her native Saint Thomas.
Food journalist Naomi Sinclair doesn’t expect a side of murder with her passion fruit juice. But when her return to Saint Thomas heralds a series of troubling cases, ranging from petty theft to cold-blooded murder, that threaten her tight-knit community, that is exactly the kind of unsavory treat she must sink her teeth into.
Luckily for her neighbors, Naomi is as adept at solving puzzles as rolling johnnycake dough—a good thing, since her island community, though small, keeps serving up plenty of trouble. With the help of her friends and her crush, Mateo, Naomi must navigate the tumultuous turquoise waters of life in the Caribbean, all as her beloved father battles an illness that keeps tugging her back to her island amid her rising career stateside.
Rich with mouthwatering recipes, lush landscapes, and a hefty dose of fun under the sun, The Bush Tea Murder has all the ingredients to make up the perfect beach read.
Music Credits
Mysterieshttps://uppbeat.io/t/all-ambient/mysteriesLicense code: TG9FGM5I526Y0OS3Bassa Island Game Loophttps://uppbeat.io/t/kevin-macleod/bassa-island-game-loopLicense code: OUQXWIRRNQKIGLFS
 
Follow, Like and Review! Help other mystery readers find out about Books to the Ceiling!
 
Book Links: Amazon | Kindle | Barnes & Noble | BookShop.org | Goodreads | BookBub | Penguin Random House

This week we're back in Berry Springs with our favorite bar owner, Sally Witherspoon. We are guests at the town's Thanksgiving Dinner Celebration, and Sally is working the bar. Have another piece of pumpkin pie, but be careful, some of the guests are not surviving the yearly feast in the gritty cozy mystery, Death for Sale.
A Sally Witherspoon Mystery
 
It’s holiday time in Berry Springs, where many come together to enjoy good food, drink, and the company of friends. Unfortunately, death is among the mix as people get mysteriously ill at the town’s Thanksgiving dinner. Deaths follow, and Sally must race to discover the truth before more people die off.
Coupled with worry for her aging parents, she is overwhelmed with the pressure and emotions, but she’ll push through to solve the crimes and restore peace to the town.
Book Links: Amazon | Kindle | Barnes & Noble | BookShop.org | Goodreads
Music Credits
Happiness
https://uppbeat.io/t/brock-hewitt-stories-in-sound/happinessLicense code: V9TWYCE9B7B0IQAJ

This week we're headed to Italy to a world of priests, Vivaldi, priceless art, cryptic messages and danger. Find out more in The Vivaldi Caper by Gary McAvoy.
VATICAN SECRET ARCHIVE THRILLER SERIES
 
During the election of a new Pope in the mid-18th century, famed violinist Antonio Vivaldi learns of a ring of art forgers who are replacing the Vatican’s priceless treasures with expertly-painted fakes. Desperate, the composer hides a message in a special melody, hoping someone, someday, will take down the culprits . . .
Nearly three hundred years later, the confession of a dying Mafia Don alerts a Venetian priest to a wealth of forged paintings in the Vatican Museum, and the key to their identities lies hidden in a puzzling piece of music. Father Michael Dominic, prefect of the Secret Archives, investigates, and is mystified when he finds a cipher in an old composition from Vivaldi. Desperate to stop this centuries-long conspiracy, he calls on fellow sleuth Hana Sinclair and Dr. Livia Gallo, a music cryptologist, to help him crack the code and learn the truth.
But the Camorra, a centuries-old Italian Mafia clan, won’t stand by while some interfering priest ruins their most lucrative operation. Along with a French commando and two valiant Swiss Guards, Dominic explores the dark canals and grand palazzos of Venice to uncover the evidence he needs to stop the sinister plot. Can he unearth it in time, or will the Church’s most valuable artworks fall prey to this massive conspiracy?
Series: Vatican Secret Archive Thrillers, Book 1 | Learn More: Amazon | Goodreads Book Links: Amazon | Kindle | Barnes & Noble | BookShop.org | Goodreads | BookBub | Audible
 
Music Credits
L'attente'
https://uppbeat.io/t/domique-charpentier/lattente
License code: CR3FMAUFGHVYCJJT
A Willow's Story
https://uppbeat.io/t/sonder-house/a-willows-story-soetkin-milbouw
License code: VLP3D3ELLMQHT0YI
 
 

This week we ponder on the idea that maybe a person's backstory could be all wrong. Maybe a rescue was really a crime? Who knows? But lets find out in Have You Seen Him by Kimberly Lee.
 
Synopsis
What if everything you believed about yourself was totally wrong?
For David Byrdsong, life is a series of daily obligations. An attorney, he lacks both ambition and the ability to commit to a long-term relationship with his girlfriend, Gayle. Abandoned by his family at an airport when he was eleven, he learned to blunt his feelings, despite his subsequent adoption by a loving couple.
Until one day, when David discovers his own face in a missing child ad. Suddenly driven to uncover the truth about his past, he is forced to tap into his inner strength as he encounters corporate conspiracies, murdered bystanders, and distressing suspicions about the only family he’s ever really trusted. David enlists Gayle’s help—and the help of an unlikely stranger with secrets of his own—as he attempts to find his true family, whoever they are.
Have You Seen Him is a story of lost identity, dangerous secrets, and a deeply personal pursuit of the truth.
 
Book Links: Amazon | Kindle | Barnes & Noble | BookShop.org | Goodreads | BookBub | Powells
 
 

This week we are traveling back in time to the 1880's to Brooklyn Heights. Leona and her husband Gil are trying to create income after being stolen from, but what adventures await on their journey. Find out in The Last Fatal Hour.
Synopsis:
For Leona Gladney, former woman soldier of the Union Army, life goes on despite the echoes of the battlefield in her heart. Now a suffragist and budding socialite in Brooklyn Heights, she yearns for a literary life and family. But her husband’s business partner embezzles their money and disappears.   The society matrons of Brooklyn Heights turn a gimlet eye on Leona after the suspicious death of a wealthy friend. Leona will do anything to find justice for her friend and clear her own name, but she finds only secrets, seances and murder.
 
Book Links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | BookShop.org | Goodreads
Music Credits:
Libertas
https://upbeat.io/t/christopher-galavan/libertas
License Code: 50GSWJFLN6XKTX5H
Point Blank
https://upbeat.io/t/arend/point-blank
License Code: IXCYTMWFBPKBSYT2
Hindsight
https://upbeat.io/t/christopher-galavan/hindsight
License Code: YQPNJACTYOIYSV8G
 
Visit Teresa's blog at https://teresatrent.blog
 
 
 

 
A Babs Norman Hollywood Mystery
 
Against the backdrop of WWII, no one expected to find a murdered stagehand on a Warner Brothers sound stage. With so much at stake, Jack L. Warner hires Babs Norman and Guy Brandt, the two young private eyes who recently resolved his high-profile Maltese Falcon/Blackbird Killer Case. Social justice crusader Leon Lewis suspects local Nazi sympathizers are responsible. Lewis assigns a German stuntman, a veteran of the decadent subculture of Weimar Berlin nightlife and one of his newest operatives, to join forces with the private detectives.
According to Warner, the show must go on, but everything from bomb scares to the Japanese internment, to unruly parrots, forbidden love, and family crises conspires against solving the crime. “As Time Goes By,” actors Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, and the rest of the Casablanca ensemble join the professional private eyes to round up the unusual suspects and capture the killer.
Love 1940s classic movies? Treat yourself to the award-winning Hounds of the Hollywood Baskervilles (Book 1) and Bye, Bye Blackbird (Book 2) of Elizabeth Crowens’ Babs Norman’s Golden Age of Hollywood mystery series by Level Best Books.
Book Links: Amazon | Kindle | Barnes & Noble | BookShop.org | Goodreads | BookBub
Music Credits
Happy Swingy Chef
https://uppbeat.io/t/giulio-fazio/happy-swingy-chef
License code: 0GXPZEL35M7PEV3L
The Usual Suspects
https://uppbeat.io/t/theo-gerard/the-usual-suspects
License code: JCGDDNZJ1LK1BCFZ
Anxiety
https://uppbeat.io/t/dada/anxiety
License code: QMYKEEZCD1EGSIYM
 
Books to the Ceiling is a part of Teresa Trent's Author Blog at https://teresatrent.blog

This week we are joining Jessica Fletcher out in Hollywood to compete in a game show and she brings along the town doctor, the sheriff and his wife. This is a fun one, and a Murder She Wrote you won't want to miss!
The newest delightful entry in the USA Today bestselling Murder, She Wrote series, featuring mystery novelist Jessica Fletcher.
Jessica Fletcher and friends Seth Hazlitt and Maureen and Mort Metzger team up for pub trivia and crush the competition, then are stunned to learn that the prize is a chance to appear in a five-day trivia tournament filming in LA.
No one expects life-or-death stakes! But on day one of the tournament, a crew member is murdered. Who would benefit from derailing the show? Jessica has to come up with the ultimate answer.
In a metafictional twist, the investigation takes Jessica and the gang to the filming locations of their favorite mystery shows, where they discuss how Columbo, Monk, or Jim Rockford might go about solving the case.
Purchase Links
Amazon - B&N - Kobo - Bookshop.org - Penguin Random House
 
Music Credits
Spring March
https://uppbeat.io/t/jacob-taylor-armerding/spring-march
License code: EPMPNFNTOW0LRFDV
Achaidh-Cheide
https://uppbeat.io/t/kevin-macleod/achaidh-cheide
License code: KO3SCYXQTBENIAWN
 
Visit Teresa's blog: Books to the Ceiling to find an archive of all the podcasts and to check out the giveaway page for your chance at ebooks and gift cards.

In the rush to subscribe to true-crime podcasts these days, we think it's something new, but what if I told you about The Old Cranberry Ladies Garden Club who has been digging around in old cases for over two hundred years? Today we are looking at this group of nosy, yet terribly smart, old ladies and three mysteries they solve. Our excerpt will be from the first book in the series, The Ghost and the Key, where they go after a murderer from 192 years ago.
THE GHOST AND THE KEY
With a pitchfork through the man's groin and another through his chest, it is clear that someone had murdered Chester H. Cranberry. It's not something that could have happened accidentally. But that was 192 years ago. As Mildred Cranberry, the current family matriarch, puts it, "We have two women, two keys, two pitchforks, and one dead two-timing man." Who in their right mind would want to dig up that cold case and try to solve it? It's not like the murderer could be prosecuted in 2024, right? But what if a key piece of evidence can be dug up (literally)? And what if a descendant of Chester's illegitimate child can get her hands on it? Mildred will need more than the Old Cranberry Ladies Garden Club members to solve this bizarre case. The spiritual support she needs may not be what she expects when the ghost of Elcira Cranberry, the widow murderess herself, arrives to do what? Tell the truth or protect her reputation?
The Ladies Garden Club of Old Cranberry, Connecticut, has a 200-year history that has remained shrouded in secrecy for so long, it has been lost to history, until now. Elcira Cranberry and freedwoman Deborah Townsend knew the men of the town would have no interest in a garden club, so it was the perfect cover for their secret organization. Now, nearly two centuries later, the current members have no idea what those ladies were up to in the early 1800s, right here in Connecticut. But the secret will soon be out.
Links: Amazon | Kindle | Barnes & Noble | BookShop.org | Goodreads | BookBub
 
Music Credits:
Life
https://uppbeat.io/t/christopher-galovan/life
License code: 7HRZUO7SKSKFG1JX
Quiet Versus Silence
https://uppbeat.io/t/daniel-diaz/quiet-versus-silent
License code: 1XXZQET8VSWB0BOP
 
Books to the Ceiling is a part of Teresa Trent's Blog.

This week we're headed to New Orleans, 1831 to the St. Louis Cemetery #2. It's hot and smelly and we are with the character of Tobias Whitney who works there. Get ready for a creepy cemetery vibe, as Tobias discovers the secrets hidden among the dead.
Secrets can’t stay buried forever—but maybe some should.
In bustling, multicultural 1831 New Orleans, Tobias Whitney, the sexton of St. Louis Cemetery No. 2, uncovers a journal sealed inside the tomb of Dominique You—war hero of the Battle of New Orleans, privateer, and half-brother of the notorious pirate Jean Lafitte. Convinced that the journal holds the key to Lafitte’s lost treasure, Tobias turns to his sharp-witted and outspoken wife, Mary Catherine, to translate its cryptic French passages.
Tobias and Mary Catherine discover secrets they could not have imagined—secrets that could change their lives forever. But is it really the truth? As the journal warns, Never trust a pirate!
Lafitte Lives blends meticulous historical research with a page-turning mystery, bringing the legend of Jean Lafitte to life while telling the redemptive story of Tobias's grief and Mary Catherine's quest to help him overcome it.
Book Links: Amazon | Kindle | Barnes & Noble | BookShop.org | Goodreads
 
Music Credits:
Mysteries
https://uppbeat.io/t/all-ambient/mysteries
License code: OATMAP4J25TCDQRP
Cold Prito
https://uppbeat.io/t/struktura/coldprito
License code: PWDKNYVXNPN4FZ9H