Searching for something to read? Check out some of the new titles releasing the week of May 4 – 10, 2025 with three debut series. I hope a few of these books take you on a reading adventure!

MAY 4
Murder at the Ponte Vecchio by T.A. Williams (Private Investigator Mystery)
Private investigator, Dan Armstrong, lives and works in Florence and knows the world famous Ponte Vecchio well. Usually a magnet for tourists, on this occasion it is the scene of an unexplained death, and Dan finds himself involved in the intriguing case. Format: Print, Digital, Audio

MAY 5
Diving Deep For The Stolen Doxa by Dan Ames (Private Investigator Mystery)
When private investigator Jewel Savage is hired to recover a stolen Doxa watch, she uncovers a dangerous underworld where rare artifacts and stolen treasures are sold to the highest bidder. As she and watch expert Henry Bevel navigate black market auctions, enigmatic informants, and ruthless criminals, they quickly realize this isn’t just about a missing watch. Format: Digital, Print

Whisper of Treasure and Lies by Trish Esden (Traditional Mystery)
Edie Brown despises the bigwig antique and art dealer Felix Graham. She even suspects he had a hand in her mom being set up for the art forgery charge that sent her to prison. However, when Graham is drugged and robbed after purchasing a valuable antique bottle and a box of local historical items, Edie agrees to hunt down the thieves for him. In payment, she wants one thing: everything Graham knows about her mom being set up—who was involved, how they did it…all the information that could lead to her mom’s freedom. Format: Digital, Print

Dead in the Ditch by J.C. Kenney (Cozy Mystery)
Halloween has arrived, and all is well in Elmo Simpson’s life until his beloved cat Oscar wanders off and doesn’t return. While searching for Oscar, Elmo discovers a body in a ditch. A body that turns out to be Elmo’s former arch-nemesis, a man who Elmo believes stole intellectual property from him worth millions. Format: Digital, Print

Murder and Mishaps by Wendy Ledger (Cozy Mystery)
Ella Kelly thought she would never hear from her parents again. They would never approve of her decision to move to the town her mother had abandoned and embrace her family legacy of witchcraft, one that her mother had renounced long ago. But deep in her heart, Ella knew she had made the right choice. Format: Digital, Print

MAY 6
Hounding a Killer by Kallie E. Benjamin (Cozy Mystery)
Finally finished with the renovations on her new house, bestselling children’s book author Pris and her trusty bloodhound, Bailey, are finding more opportunities to join the community, including attending the annual town festival. But their efforts are paw-sed when David Townsend, volatile grandson of the late wealthy resident Edward Townsend, comes to fetch his inheritance. Format: Print, Digital, Audio

#Throwback For Murder by Sarah E. Burr (Cozy Mystery)
With crime in Central Shores, Delaware, finally trending downward, social media influencer Coco Cline considers archiving her amateur sleuthing exploits. But when a blast from her friend Charlotte’s past dies under suspicious circumstances, all thoughts of Coco leaving her crime-solving days behind get deleted. The local police are looking at Charlotte, which means Coco needs to find them another suspect, or even better, the real killer. Format: Print, Digital, Audio

Dying To Read by Lynn Cahoon (Cozy Mystery)
When her week begins, Rarity expects the biggest mystery she’ll need to solve is how a rare first edition of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland ended up in her bookstore bathroom. But after book club member Shirley tells her that her husband George, who has dementia, is the prime suspect in a nursing home murder, Rarity feels as if she’s stepped through the looking glass. Format: Print, Digital, Audio

South of Nowhere by Jeffery Deaver (Thriller)
When a levee collapses in Hinowah, a small town in Northern California, Colter Shaw is brought on by his sister, Dorion, a disaster response specialist, to help locate a family swept away by the raging water, with mere hours to survive. But after a surprise attack along the river obstructs Colter’s urgent search, the siblings are forced to consider a new reality: Is the levee at risk of failing from natural causes, or is someone sabotaging it? Format: Print, Digital, Audio

A Cold Whisper by Casey Dunn (Psychological Thriller)
A raging blizzard isn’t enough to keep fourteen-year-old Rose and seven-year-old Lily in their abusive home for another night. But their escape plan goes wrong when Rose disappears and Lily wakes up in the snow-covered woods, terrified and alone. She never sees her sister again. Format: Print, Digital

Parents Weekend by Alex Finlay (Psychological Thriller)
In the glow of their children’s exciting first year of college at a small private school in Northern California, five families plan on a night of dinner and cocktails for the opening festivities of Parents Weekend. As the parents stay out way past their bedtimes, their kids—five residents of Campisi Hall—never show up at dinner. Format: Print, Digital, Audio

A Senior Citizen’s Guide to Life on the Run Hardcover by Gwen Florio (Traditional Mystery)
When retired septuagenarian Alice settled into her home within the planned community of Timeless Pastures in New Jersey, she expected a quiet life full of book clubs, mellow gatherings and affable friends. What she didn’t expect was her retirement paradise to be disturbed by pigeons! Format: Print, Digital

The Missing Half by Ashley Flowers (Traditional Mystery)
Nicole “Nic” Monroe is in a rut. At twenty-four, she lives alone in a dinky apartment in her hometown of Mishawaka, Indiana, she’s just gotten a DWI, and she works the same dead-end job she’s been working since high school, a job she only has because her boss is a family friend and feels sorry for her. Everyone has felt sorry for her for the last seven years—since the day her older sister, Kasey, vanished without a trace. Format: Print, Digital, Audio

Champagne Toast, Murder Chaser by Joni Folger (Cozy Mystery)
The splashy wedding for Elise Beckett and Sheriff’s Deputy Jackson Landry was the event of the season at River Bend Vineyard in Delphine, Texas, and the first ten days of their honeymoon in Napa Valley wine country was just as lovely. Yet when the happy couple meets up with the rest of the wedding party at Bella Luna Castle Winery and Vineyard in Oregon, the end of their fabulous honeymoon trip takes a disturbing turn when the group tours the winery and discovers a body in a most bizarre setting. Format: Print, Digital

Shot Through the Book by Eva Gates (Cozy Mystery)
The upcoming YA book festival at the Bodie Island Lighthouse Library is bringing in renowned authors from all over the world. When best selling author Todd Harrison unexpectedly visits librarian Lucy McNeil at her Outer Banks beach house after a meeting, she is puzzled by his presence, since they’re virtually strangers. After she steps inside to get him a drink, she’s shocked to discover that he’s been murdered on her deck in the few minutes she left him alone. Format: Print, Digital, Audio

Miles In Time by Lee Matthew Goldberg (Young Adult Mystery) *first book in a new series*
14-year-old Miles Hardy spends most of his time as an amateur Sherlock Holmes and running his detective agency with his good friend and loyal assistant, Kevin. However, in sleepy Frontier, Iowa, it’s been hard to snag a case bigger than finding some old lady’s missing cat—until Miles’ genius older brother, Simon the inventor, winds up dead. Format: Print, Digital

Diamond In The Ruff by Cindy Goyette (Cozy Mystery) *first book in a new series*
Charlie Calderbank always dreamed of being a cop, but a medical issue forces her out of the academy and to rethink her future. When Charlie’s Aunt Jo-Jo suffers injuries in a car accident, she offers to help at her aunt’s pet hotel, Wiggle Butt Manor, in the charming Pacific Northwest island town of Orca Cove. Format: Digital, Print

All June Left Behind by Karen Grose (Psychological Thriller)
Ray had it all—a loving relationship with his wife June, a busy farm, and two beautiful grown children. Until the night June was shot on their fortieth anniversary during a botched robbery at a restaurant. Two years after June’s death, the man convicted of her murder is granted a new trial. Format: Print, Digital

False Gold by Veronica Heley (Traditional Mystery)
Bea Abbot is visiting her old friend Sir Julian at Marston Hall, but her trip starts badly when she arrives to a scene of chaos. It seems that a group of youths armed with metal detectors broke into the derelict amusement park in the grounds of the Hall and fled when disturbed . . . leaving the body of a middle-aged man behind. The police and Sir Julian’s estate manager assume this is a missing security guard, Pete, but Sir Julian has doubts. Is the dead man really Pete, and if not, then where is he and his border collie, Beauty? Format: Print, Digital

No Mercy For The Innocent by Nancy Herriman (Historical Mystery)
The mineral springs in the mountains of California are set in a rugged and remote locale, but that’s the least of Celia’s worries when she joins an acquaintance and her family on a trip there. Her fellow travelers have turned out to be a troubling bunch, and a man who joins them—a potential marriage partner for the woman’s niece—strikes Celia as deviously evasive. But before she can voice her concerns, her acquaintance is found murdered, a victim of the scalding geysers. Format: Print, Digital

The Retirement Plan by Sue Hincenbergs (Humorous Mystery)
After thirty years of friendship, Pam dreams of her perfect retirement with Nancy, Shalisa, Marlene, and their husbands—until their husbands pool their funds for an investment that goes terribly wrong. Suddenly, their golden years are looking as dreary as their marriages. Format: Print, Digital, Audio

Detective Aunty by Uzma Jalaluddin (Cozy Mystery) *first book in a new series*
After her husband’s unexpected death eighteen months ago, Kausar Khan never thought she’d receive another phone call as heartbreaking—until her thirty-something daughter, Sana, phones to say that she’s been arrested for killing the unpopular landlord of her clothing boutique. Determined to help her child, Kausar heads to Toronto for the first time in nearly twenty years. Format: Print, Digital, Audio

The Tenant by Freida McFadden (Psychological Thriller)
Blake Porter is riding high, until he’s not. Fired abruptly from his job as a VP of marketing and unable to make the mortgage payments on the new brownstone that he shares with his fiancee, he’s desperate to make ends meet. Enter Whitney. Beautiful, charming, down-to-earth, and looking for a room to rent. She’s exactly what Blake’s looking for. Or is she? Format: Print, Digital, Audio

Murder in the Grotto by Amy Myers (Traditional Mystery)
Forty-something single mother Cara Shelley is very content running the Happy Huffkin café in the grounds of a quirky stately home. But her daily routine is shaken up by the arrival of a guest at Tanton Towers: the flamboyant Lady Izzy, who has plans for an extremely peculiar celebration . . . and wants Cara to cater for it. Format: Print, Digital, Audio

Death on Wolf Fell by Nick Oldham (Thriller)
Former Metropolitan Police firearms officer Sergeant Jessica Raker is on a mission to bring down a brutal organized crime group operating in the idyllic Ribble Valley. The OCG’s leader, Mags Horsefield, is determined to make one of the members pay for getting caught by the police, using her contacts to make sure he’s released from prison early . . . into her waiting clutches. Format: Print, Digital

Big Bad Wool by Leonie Swann (Cozy Mystery)
With one solved mystery under their wooly belts, the time has come for the sheep of Glennkill to explore Europe. Together with their new shepherdess, Rebecca, they move into their winter quarters in the shadow of a French chateau. But their new home is far from idyllic. A number of sheep from a previous flock have disappeared, and deer are dying unnatural deaths in the forest. The strange goats from the neighboring pasture have a theory: a werewolf. Could that be real, or just a fantasy? Format: Print, Digital, Audio

Closer Than You Know by Debra Webb (Private Investigator Mystery)
Vera Boyett is a master at cracking a case. After tragedy destroyed her career as deputy police chief, she felt lost. Moving back home near her sisters, she put her skills back to use as a crime analyst, and now her star is finally back on the rise. Vera’s work really begins to heat up after the local sheriff, Gray “Bent” Benton, calls to ask her for assistance with a pressing case. Format: Print, Digital, Audio

Death of a Legend by Caleb Wygal (Traditional Mystery)
Clark takes his visiting friend, a huge country music fan, to the Legends Theater to watch her favorite musician perform – Dolly Parton. Except, this Dolly isn’t the real Dolly. She’s an incredible impersonator who travels the country, entertaining legions of fans who believe she’s the next best thing. Format: Print, Digital

MAY 8
Hattie Steals the Show by Patrick Gleeson (Cozy Mystery)
A week later the prime suspect in the murder is on Hattie’s doorstep asking for her help in proving his innocence, and to do that she needs to find a missing musical score. And that may be found in the grand country home of producer Sir Trevor Dougray, where Hattie is stage managing a two-week workshop for his new show. Format: Digital, Audio, Print

Note: in some cases, print releases for digital titles will be forthcoming.