Showing results by author "Carolyn Aspenson" in All Categories

USA Today bestselling author Carolyn Ridder Aspenson delivers a fast-paced mystery series filled with action and intrigue, perfect for fans of Kendra Elliot, Robert Dugoni, and Lisa Regan.

My name is Abby Odell, and I’m a witch. Some call me a newbie because I didn’t know I was one until my mother died and her spell that bound my powers died along with her.

Witches don’t always follow the rules, and when they don’t, bad things happen. Like Cassandra Bloom’s death, for starters. Holiday Hills residents, magical and humans, were afraid of Cassandra. She was the bad witch in every fairytale, the one with the ugly wart and long, stringy gray hair. But she didn’t just look scary. She was scary. Sure, everyone in town might feel secretly relieved Cassandra’s no longer with us, but they’re missing the bigger picture. Cassandra didn’t die of old age. She was murdered.

I have a perfect life. I recently rented the most adorable little apartment on top of my favorite bookstore coffee shop on Main Street in Holiday Hills, the charmingest of charming small southern towns. I spend my days ghostwriting a cozy mystery series for a well-known author, and maybe just a minute or two crushing on the town’s police chief. But of course, I’d never let that cat out of the bag.

My name is Abby Odell, and I’m leading a double life. Don’t get me wrong. I love it! But being a witch in a predominantly human world is challenging sometimes. My hometown, Holiday Hills, isn’t your typical small town. It’s a magical town, but not to the humans. At least not until recently. Something’s happening, and it’s not good. Magic is no longer hidden, and people are starting to witness events that don’t seem humanly possible.

I wear many hats. I'm a friend. A sort-of girlfriend. A ghostwriter, and...oh yeah, a witch. My editor always tells me to “write what you know.” Unfortunately, that’s what’s happening...literally. When the main character in my latest novel - a witch herself - takes a new job with the Magical Bureau of Investigators, she stumbles upon a threat so big, it could destroy everything she holds dear. Fiction, right? Nope. For reasons beyond my witchy sixth sense, everything I write is now happening to me in real life!

New to town and a little rough around the edges, Detective Rachel Ryder finds herself on the receiving end of a suspicious person’s call in Hamby, Georgia. When the call turns out to be a dead body, the medical examiner is quick to rule the death a suicide. But was it something more sinister? Everyone in the small department believes the case is closed - except for Rachel.

Detective Rachel Ryder and her partner, Rob Bishop, are first on the scene. But, while the detectives have solved many tough cases in the past, they’ve never seen anything like this one. Because the dead woman lying at the surgeon’s side isn’t actually his wife - it’s her twin sister. With the same face, the same DNA, and the same ambitions in life, the two women are nearly impossible to distinguish - and every clue comes with a sinister mirror image. Rachel and Rob must untangle the web of dark family secrets, double lives, and deadly betrayals.

When the fire department discovers a body near the scene of a suspicious blaze, Detective Rachel Ryder and her partner Rob Bishop are called to investigate. A set of numbers has been deliberately left near the body, and an autopsy reveals that the victim was killed before the fire. This death was no accident. When the investigation turns up few clues and no previous references to the killer’s calling card, Rachel and Rob turn to the media for help, eliciting contact from an unexpected source. It seems a killer from the past is back in the game...and the body count is growing.

Bessie Frone, the beloved owner of the Enchanted Bookstore and Café, is in BIG trouble. Her family wand, made of pure gold and passed down for generations, has been stolen. Of course, Bessie is heartbroken, and now she’s ready to sell the shop and the building unless the wand is found. I can’t let her sell the Enchanted. It’s the heart of Holiday Hills, the place where gossip is always the daily special, and Bessie’s coffee is to die for! Well, not literally, thank Goddess!

Welcome to Holiday Hills, a magical small town full of quirky and sometimes strange magical beings, talking cats, coffee, and books! Things aren’t always what they seem here in town. Here, our secrets are as dangerous as a cursed love potion! I'm a paranormal cozy mystery author, and what’s happening? Even I couldn’t make this up!

Welcome to Holiday Hills, a quaint, small town filled with quirky residents and magical mayhem. And for me? Just toss a pinch of a love triangle as twisted as a unicorn's horn! I'm a witch and a paranormal cozy mystery writer with a serious case of heartache. You see, my ex-boyfriend, Gabe, has been kidnapped by a mountain man who's out for blood. And things are about to get even more complicated! Both my life, and my feelings.

Every time the Bramblett County, Georgia, body count rises, so does realtor Lily Sprayberry’s popularity. And these days, she’s very popular. When a member of her decluttering and staging class winds up dead, Lily takes it personally and sets out to find the killer. Saddled with guilt, she struggles to accept that the killer just might be someone from her past. The problem is figuring out who before the killer catches on.

When Bramblett County, Georgia’s number one realtor, Lily Sprayberry, finds her cantankerous older client dead on the kitchen floor, she lands herself smack-dab in the middle of a long-running property battle and a 100-year-old rumor. Lily made a promise to sell Myrtle’s land whether her client’s alive or not. But whoever wants that money doesn’t want the property to sell and will do whatever’s necessary to stop her.

The past comes back to haunt a small town when one murder leads to the discovery of another. When a troubled young woman, Jenn Berman, goes missing at the summer fair in Hamby, her uncaring family fails to notice. That is, until a loose dog returns home with a bloodied hand. Investigators are led to a developing subdivision where they find the unthinkable: Jenn's body in a shallow grave.

A drug overdose case hits close to home when a body is linked to the family of Rachel's friend. But the seemingly simple investigation leads her down a rabbit hole from her past - a past she fears has finally come back to haunt her. As bodies begin to accumulate, Detective Ryder knows in her gut that vengeance is upon her. Yet time and again, the evidence just doesn't add up. Increasingly isolated, Rachel begins to question her own sanity. Is she succumbing to fear? Or has Rachel's past finally caught up with her?

Standing over the body of a teenage boy on the lawn of a wealthy family, Rachel has no idea that three more will shortly follow. However, as the young bodies pile up, Rachel is called on to go undercover. Deputized as a Drug Enforcement agent and tasked to work hand-in-hand with the Hamby PD, she becomes a counselor at the local high school. When what seems like a basic sting operation ends in a shootout, Rachel must dig through layers of secrets and betrayal to protect not only the youth in her new community, but the lives of those she loves.

Divorced mother Chantilly Adair didn’t take the job as the head of the Castleberry Georgia Historical Society because she thought it would be easy, in fact, she felt the exact opposite, and that suited her just fine. Desperate to get away from Birmingham and her ex-husband, she took her pre-teen son and high-tailed it straight to her childhood home in Castleberry, Georgia, and the echoes of her recently deceased parents.

Widow Missy Kingston takes on the job of a lifetime, and it’s not the one at her town’s animal shelter. It’s Halloween season, and the local animal shelter’s pooch adoption manager, Missy Kingston, is excited to show off the available dogs at her town’s Halloween festival! But when she discovers the festival’s organizer dead in a pile of pumpkins, Missy’s convinced there’s more to the story than meets the eye. When Missy sets out to investigate the murder on her own, what she discovers could solve the case, but only if the killer doesn’t get to her first.

I’d sell more homes if the dead bodies didn’t get in the way. I made a promise, multiple times, actually, to my husband, the Bramblett County Sheriff. I promised I wouldn’t put my life at risk doing his job. But... When I find my potential client’s son standing over her dead body, all bets are off. I just can’t let it go, no matter how hard I try. Truth be told, I’d put myself up against a murderer any day if it kept me from taking sides between Henrietta and Bonnie, besties currently on the outs.