Crooked Lane Books

After inheriting her mother's printing and party-planning business, Lacey Langdon moves back to her sleepy hometown of Willow Bluffs, perched on New Jersey's Palisades. When her great aunt, Tessa Langdon Vander Horn, a well-known and beloved soap opera star, sells her nineteenth-century estate and donates ten acres to the development of a community park, Lacey's new venture is put at the helm of the opening ceremony. But the festivities quickly come to an end when the body of town councilman Glenn Hartman is found on the bank of the Hudson River. Partnering with her former classmate, lawyer Derek Conover, they dig deep into the case to find out who is behind the murder. Suspicions abound, but Lacey and Derek hit a snag when one of their prime suspects drops dead at Lacey's next event. With a second body added to the count, tensions rise in Willow Bluffs. Caught in the crossfire when remnants of a family tragedy resurface, Lacey and Derek must act swiftly before another body drops dead. Perfect for readers of Ellie Brannigan and Laurien Berenson, this cozy mystery is a charming small-town read.

Kate and her daughters Maeve and Bliz are back in Shamrock, Massachusetts, and Kate faces a big decision: Should they move back to their Irish-themed hometown for good? As she contemplates the idea, all the businesses in town, including her family''s B&B, the Buckley House, are busy preparing for the annual Great Shamrock Fair in hopes of luring back tourists after a murder during St. Patrick''s Week. But when Kate''s ex, Ian, arrives in town from Ireland to perform with his band in the festival, and his new fiancee, Fallon, is found dead at the fairgrounds, any chance of a fun and peaceful family summer goes up in green smoke. Much as she wants nothing to do with her ex, Kate knows Ian is innocent. Amid the swirl of activity in town, and her sister Colleen''s determination to keep the annual Miss Shamrock contests alive, Kate enlists her devastated eldest daughter, and her father, the former Shamrock police chief, to help her unwind the trail of evidence. With clues - and danger - piling up, can Kate find Fallon''s true killer and save her ex, before the Great Irish Fair and the town''s chances for a summer full of green go bust?

Kate and her daughters Maeve and Bliz are back in Shamrock, Massachusetts, and Kate faces a big decision: Should they move back to their Irish-themed hometown for good? As she contemplates the idea, all the businesses in town, including her family''s B&B, the Buckley House, are busy preparing for the annual Great Shamrock Fair in hopes of luring back tourists after a murder during St. Patrick''s Week. But when Kate''s ex, Ian, arrives in town from Ireland to perform with his band in the festival, and his new fiancee, Fallon, is found dead at the fairgrounds, any chance of a fun and peaceful family summer goes up in green smoke. Much as she wants nothing to do with her ex, Kate knows Ian is innocent. Amid the swirl of activity in town, and her sister Colleen''s determination to keep the annual Miss Shamrock contests alive, Kate enlists her devastated eldest daughter, and her father, the former Shamrock police chief, to help her unwind the trail of evidence. With clues - and danger - piling up, can Kate find Fallon''s true killer and save her ex, before the Great Irish Fair and the town''s chances for a summer full of green go bust?

Do you struggle to make real change because you''re starting too big without building a foundation first - get a new job, lose twenty pounds, learn a new language? Maybe the tools at your disposal seem inadequate, the prospect of change overwhelms you, and you feel stuck. In Happy Habits, happiness expert Tal Ben-Shahar provides accessible and easy-to-implement tools, and an easy-to-follow three step process, that can help you realize your goals, aspirations, and dreams. He starts with simple intervention techniques to reset your mood in as little time as possible - what he calls Happiness Boosters in the form of MVIs - Minimum Viable Interventions, which include: taking three deep breaths; writing down five things for which you are grateful; reading a quote slowly and deliberately; vigorously climbing stairs for 45 seconds. From there, discover how to improve wellbeing - spiritual, physical, intellectual, relational, and emotional - and build a stronger base within yourself for committing to change, increasing your willpower, and finding joy in the journey. The final step in Ben-Shahar''s guide will help you learn how to create the daily rituals that will help you turn goals into habits, and intentions into reality, using the 3 Rs of change: Reminders, Repetitions, and Rituals. With concrete examples, practical, direct advice, and an easy-to-follow action plan, Ben-Shahar shows you that while cultivating lasting change takes motivation, it does not have to be a frustrating experience that is doomed to failure: you''re just starting without the foundation you need for real change.

Kate Hamilton and her husband, Detective Inspector Tom Mallory, have settled into married life in Long Barston. When archaeologists excavating the ruins of a nearby plague village discover the miraculously preserved body of a fourteenth-century woman, Kate and her colleague, Ivor Tweedy, are asked to appraise the grave goods, including a valuable pearl. When tests reveal the woman was pregnant and murdered, the owner of the estate on which the body was found, an amateur historian, asks Kate to identify her and, if possible, her killer. Surprised, Kate agrees to try. Meanwhile, tensions within the archaeological team erupt when the body of the lead archaeologist turns up at the dig site with fake pearls in his mouth and stomach. Then a third body is found in the excavations. Meanwhile, Kate''s husband Tom is tracking the movements of a killer of his own. With the help of 700-year-old documents and the unpublished research of a deceased historian, Kate must piece together the past before the grave count reaches four.

Kate Hamilton and her husband, Detective Inspector Tom Mallory, have settled into married life in Long Barston. When archaeologists excavating the ruins of a nearby plague village discover the miraculously preserved body of a fourteenth-century woman, Kate and her colleague, Ivor Tweedy, are asked to appraise the grave goods, including a valuable pearl. When tests reveal the woman was pregnant and murdered, the owner of the estate on which the body was found, an amateur historian, asks Kate to identify her and, if possible, her killer. Surprised, Kate agrees to try. Meanwhile, tensions within the archaeological team erupt when the body of the lead archaeologist turns up at the dig site with fake pearls in his mouth and stomach. Then a third body is found in the excavations. Meanwhile, Kate''s husband Tom is tracking the movements of a killer of his own. With the help of 700-year-old documents and the unpublished research of a deceased historian, Kate must piece together the past before the grave count reaches four.

For checklist - and ABBA - obsessed Evie, focusing on her career has ensured she never falls back on hard times, but as she nears thirty, she''s determined to finally slow down and start enjoying the benefits of her hard work. With a major promotion - and its financial security - on the horizon, she might have her chance. But when she wakes up as a spirit in her rival coworker Rafael''s apartment and learns her physical body is stuck in a coma, her plans are DOA. As if being a spirit isn''t dire enough, Evie discovers that Rafael, the long-time bane of her existence and sole opponent for the promotion, is the only person who can help her. And while in the past Evie swore she''d rather die than work with him, she didn''t mean it quite so literally. In no position to negotiate, she reluctantly offers him a deal: the promotion in exchange for his help getting Evie''s spirit back into her body. As they seek advice from a cat-loving psychic, consult with Rafael''s abuela, and check items off her longtime ignored bucket list, Evie discovers there''s more to Rafael than his bedroom eyes and hey-there dimple. With only a week until Evie''s body is moved from the hospital to a care facility and out of Rafael''s reach, Evie must choose between trusting the man who betrayed her years ago and figuring things out the way she''s always done it: alone.

Once upon a time, being a ''made man'' meant something. Angelo Cipriani was a member of the inner circle of the Fortuna Crime Family, one of the biggest mafia families in the Ohio Valley. Not that Angelo would ever admit to such an organization even existing, let alone to all of the bodies he dropped for his boss. Angelo even stayed loyal after taking a bullet in the back and winding up in a coma for three months. But times have changed. Four decades have passed and the glory days of mob rule have waned. With FBI crackdowns and new rival gangs seizing territory, Angelo finds himself on the outs with the current administration, essentially ''on the shelf.'' Left with little excitement beyond a crush on the local diner waitress, he does the unthinkable and puts pen to paper, telling his story of coming up, a man of honour in a world that he barely recognizes. But Angelo''s reminiscences are rudely interrupted by a visit from the FBI, and the realisation that the past is far from dead and buried. Faced with old secrets and fresh betrayals, Angelo finds himself unretired: The Last Hitman is ready to get back to work.

Once upon a time, being a ''made man'' meant something. Angelo Cipriani was a member of the inner circle of the Fortuna Crime Family, one of the biggest mafia families in the Ohio Valley. Not that Angelo would ever admit to such an organization even existing, let alone to all of the bodies he dropped for his boss. Angelo even stayed loyal after taking a bullet in the back and winding up in a coma for three months. But times have changed. Four decades have passed and the glory days of mob rule have waned. With FBI crackdowns and new rival gangs seizing territory, Angelo finds himself on the outs with the current administration, essentially ''on the shelf.'' Left with little excitement beyond a crush on the local diner waitress, he does the unthinkable and puts pen to paper, telling his story of coming up, a man of honour in a world that he barely recognizes. But Angelo''s reminiscences are rudely interrupted by a visit from the FBI, and the realisation that the past is far from dead and buried. Faced with old secrets and fresh betrayals, Angelo finds himself unretired: The Last Hitman is ready to get back to work.

For checklist - and ABBA - obsessed Evie, focusing on her career has ensured she never falls back on hard times, but as she nears thirty, she''s determined to finally slow down and start enjoying the benefits of her hard work. With a major promotion - and its financial security - on the horizon, she might have her chance. But when she wakes up as a spirit in her rival coworker Rafael''s apartment and learns her physical body is stuck in a coma, her plans are DOA. As if being a spirit isn''t dire enough, Evie discovers that Rafael, the long-time bane of her existence and sole opponent for the promotion, is the only person who can help her. And while in the past Evie swore she''d rather die than work with him, she didn''t mean it quite so literally. In no position to negotiate, she reluctantly offers him a deal: the promotion in exchange for his help getting Evie''s spirit back into her body. As they seek advice from a cat-loving psychic, consult with Rafael''s abuela, and check items off her longtime ignored bucket list, Evie discovers there''s more to Rafael than his bedroom eyes and hey-there dimple. With only a week until Evie''s body is moved from the hospital to a care facility and out of Rafael''s reach, Evie must choose between trusting the man who betrayed her years ago and figuring things out the way she''s always done it: alone.

The Cole women are cursed. Each generation will birth a daughter, lose their love, and, as surely as the tide beats against the rocky shore, take her own life by giving herself to the sea. For generations, the Cole women have lived as outcasts, maintaining a lighthouse on a small island off the coast of New Hampshire. Ever since their ancestor was accused of witchcraft and cast into the sea hundreds of years prior, the islanders have ostracised the Coles, distrusting their rumoured magic and their control of the lighthouse. Despite their mistreatment, the Cole women are compelled to remain on the island because they know that if a Cole woman does not light the beacon on Juniper Island, anyone who is out at sea will be drowned. Out of guilt and obligation, the Cole women live out their solitary lives on the island, knowing someday their recompense for protecting the people from the sea will be to die in the sea themselves. Told in three interwoven timelines in the late twentieth century, The Curse of the Cole Women unravels the lives of three women who struggle with their relationships with each other as they contend with the reality of their fates - is it truly a curse, or is it generational madness that drives Cole women to the sea? Readers will be swept into this evocative and moving story about challenging misogyny, finding community, and struggling with fate.

The Cole women are cursed. Each generation will birth a daughter, lose their love, and, as surely as the tide beats against the rocky shore, take her own life by giving herself to the sea. For generations, the Cole women have lived as outcasts, maintaining a lighthouse on a small island off the coast of New Hampshire. Ever since their ancestor was accused of witchcraft and cast into the sea hundreds of years prior, the islanders have ostracised the Coles, distrusting their rumoured magic and their control of the lighthouse. Despite their mistreatment, the Cole women are compelled to remain on the island because they know that if a Cole woman does not light the beacon on Juniper Island, anyone who is out at sea will be drowned. Out of guilt and obligation, the Cole women live out their solitary lives on the island, knowing someday their recompense for protecting the people from the sea will be to die in the sea themselves. Told in three interwoven timelines in the late twentieth century, The Curse of the Cole Women unravels the lives of three women who struggle with their relationships with each other as they contend with the reality of their fates-is it truly a curse, or is it generational madness that drives Cole women to the sea? Readers will be swept into this evocative and moving story about challenging misogyny, finding community, and struggling with fate.

In this Southern noir, two detectives forge an unlikely alliance as they strive to bridge the racial divide and catch a killer hell bent on revenge. Set against a historical backdrop of mid-century racial inequality and political turmoil, this thriller is perfect for fans of William Kent Krueger and Greg Iles. 1955, Memphis. Homicide detective Burdett Vance is trying to outrun his past, but working in the homicide division always ends up bringing in new waves of horror. Now an unknown killer is reaping retribution for decades of lynching by targeting the daughters of rich white families in Memphis. When Vance is assigned to the case, he''s also put in charge of a new trainee, Officer Eustace Johnson. Eustace Johnson has been recently ''promoted'' and as one of the few Black men on the force this is the latest publicity stunt of the police department. Forced to work together, Vance and Johnson must catch the rampaging killer in a city roiling with racial injustice and a fight to control the crumbling local politics. Then Emmeline Bryce, Vance''s old flame, becomes the killer''s next target. With Emme''s life on the line, Vance and Johnson must confront their deepest fears and darkest desires before the city ignites into chaos and the blissful vision of a better future disappears forever. Readers of James Lee Burke will delight in this bitingly smart thriller full of intrigue and age-old animosities.

Leeann Wu''s hands have started glowing at the most inconvenient times, and the single mother and midwife doesn''t know why. Could it be perimenopause? A hallucination brought on by a lack of sleep? On top of that concerning development, her daughter is off to university in a few months, her tenuous relationship with her ob-gyn mother is in peril of cracking, and she''s attracted the attention of a younger man who sees far more than she''s comfortable with. Her hands, glowing or not, are already full. But as widespread insomnia plagues the town and life-threatening accidents begin to pile up, Leeann discovers the glow is not an anomaly at all - rather, she''s part of a long line of women who possess a power unlike anything Leeann''s ever known. Yet, even with the cryptic clues left by her great aunt before her untimely death, Leeann has no idea how to use her new skills. With her town in imminent danger, Leeann doesn''t have time to waste. She''ll need to make peace with her magical heritage

1955, Memphis. Homicide detective Burdett Vance is trying to outrun his past, but working in the homicide division always ends up bringing in new waves of horror. Now an unknown killer is reaping retribution for decades of lynching by targeting the daughters of rich white families in Memphis. When Vance is assigned to the case, he''s also put in charge of a new trainee, Officer Eustace Johnson. Eustace Johnson has been recently ''promoted'' and as one of the few Black men on the force this is the latest publicity stunt of the police department. Forced to work together, Vance and Johnson must catch the rampaging killer in a city roiling with racial injustice and a fight to control the crumbling local politics. Then Emmeline Bryce, Vance''s old flame, becomes the killer''s next target. With Emme''s life on the line, Vance and Johnson must confront their deepest fears and darkest desires before the city ignites into chaos and the blissful vision of a better future disappears forever. Readers of James Lee Burke will delight in this bitingly smart thriller full of intrigue and age-old animosities.

Leeann Wu''s hands have started glowing at the most inconvenient times, and the single mother and midwife doesn''t know why. Could it be perimenopause? A hallucination brought on by a lack of sleep? On top of that concerning development, her daughter is off to university in a few months, her tenuous relationship with her ob-gyn mother is in peril of cracking, and she''s attracted the attention of a younger man who sees far more than she''s comfortable with. Her hands, glowing or not, are already full. But as widespread insomnia plagues the town and life-threatening accidents begin to pile up, Leeann discovers the glow is not an anomaly at all - rather, she''s part of a long line of women who possess a power unlike anything Leeann''s ever known. Yet, even with the cryptic clues left by her great aunt before her untimely death, Leeann has no idea how to use her new skills. With her town in imminent danger, Leeann doesn''t have time to waste. She''ll need to make peace with her magical heritage and do whatever it takes to find out if her glow means something more - before it''s too late. Readers who loved Practical Magic will find lots to love in The Glowing Life of Leeann Wu.