On April 12, Mystery Thriller Week begins!
I am thrilled to share with you books which fall into the Mystery Thriller Passport category – novels set in fascinating locations around the globe.
Authors Ritter Ames, Daniella Bernett, Tomasz Chrusciel, Lucia N. Davis, Dora Ilieva, L. Lee Kane, Patricia Loofbourrow, and Gavin Mills have kindly provided a description of their setting and story. I’ve also included information about my travel fiction thrillers. Click on the book cover to link to Amazon, where you can read an excerpt and learn more about the author. You can find the complete list of authors participating in this event here.
These mysteries and thrillers will transport you to Papua, the Netherlands, Thailand, Nepal, Italy, the English Riviera, Northern Cascades, California’s Central Valley, Bulgaria, and South Africa from the comfort of your armchair.
If you love to read books strong in setting, here is your chance to discover a new author and and travel the world by book!
Be sure to sign up as a reviewer or Super Fan on the MysteryThrillerWeek website to be kept up-to-date of all the fun games, prizes and giveaways taking place during the event.
We look forward to seeing you there!
But first, let’s take a closer look at some of the exciting reads in this category…
Rituals of the Dead: An Artifact Mystery by Jennifer S. Alderson
Adventures of Zelda Richardson, Book 3
Art, religion, and anthropology collide in Alderson’s latest art mystery thriller, Rituals of the Dead, Book three of the Adventures of Zelda Richardson series!
Art history student Zelda Richardson is working at the Tropenmuseum in Amsterdam on an exhibition of bis poles from the Asmat region of Papua – the same area where a famous American anthropologist disappeared in 1962. When his journal is found inside one of the bis poles, Zelda is tasked with finding out more about the man’s last days and his connection to these ritual objects.
Zelda is pulled into a world of shady anthropologists, headhunters, missionaries, art collectors, and smugglers – where the only certainty is that sins of the past are never fully erased.
Join Zelda as she grapples with the anthropologist’s mysterious disappearance fifty years earlier, and a present-day murderer who will do anything to prevent her from discovering the truth.
Fatal Forgeries by Ritter Ames
A Bodies of Art Mystery, Book 4
When art recovery expert Laurel Beacham’s personal and professional worlds collide, she learns no good theft goes unpunished. Incomplete intel and a missing source compel her to make a huge mistake, and she’s left with a divided team. Every retrieved masterpiece has a price—and the cost of forgeries can be deadly. This time Laurel could lose not only her best lead, but also her most trusted ally.
The stakes have never been higher, forcing her and her partner, Jack, to go on the run, crisscrossing Europe to evade the criminals. Except instead of two masterminds working against them, they realize there might be three. With no time to lose, Laurel and her team must pool their resources and work to set aside their differences before they become the next fatalities.
From Beyond the Grave by Daniella Bernett
An Emmeline Kirby/Gregory Longdon Mystery
Buried secrets can kill…
The seaside resort of Torquay, along the English Riviera in Devon, is the perfect place for a restful holiday. That’s what journalist Emmeline Kirby desperately needs after her harrowing escapes from spies and others with nefarious intentions back in London. She also needs distance to sort out her conflicted feelings for jewel thief Gregory Longdon, who once stole her heart. But who should turn up out of the blue? The ever-charming, devastatingly handsome Gregory. That’s when secrets from his past—and murder—shatter the serenity of this picturesque haven.
The Vestals Consipracy by Tomasz Chrusciel
Prequel to The Nina Monte Mystery Thriller Series
Nina Monte, a renowned professor of ancient religions, receives a cryptic message. Her former mentor and a prominent Italian archaeologist, Filippo Oliveri, needs her to come to Rome—he believes only Nina is capable of understanding the true significance of his new discovery.
But when she finally reaches the excavation site, Oliveri is gone. Instead, Nina comes across a series of clues that somehow connect an ancient prophecy, a mystical ritual, and a masterpiece of Michelangelo himself. But soon the magnitude of the discovery lures those who will stop at nothing to solve the mystery and, once and for all, silence everyone who stands in their way.
The Charm of Lost Chances by Lucia N. Davis
Dunnhill Series, Book 2
In Dunnhill, a quiet mountain village in the Northern Cascades, unresolved secrets from the past have a way of making themselves heard. In this sequel to The Baby on the Back Porch, Sara Eriksson returns to Dunnhill hoping for a second chance—not only at a scenic getaway, but with David, the landlord of the cabin, whom Sara had only just started getting to know.
Sara’s cabin in the woods is just as beautiful as she left it—but so is David’s new client, Taylor. Just as Sara is starting to come to terms with the fact that David may not share her feelings, her dreams return, setting a series of events into motion and leading Sara down a winding path to a new mystery that only she can unravel.
As Sara struggles to keep her wits—and her sanity—about her, she must decide which chances she’ll take, and which she’ll allow to be lost to time.
White Clay by Dora Ilieva
Across the Ocean, Book 3
Two people are dead in a horrific car crash. The third is fighting for his life. Kossara, a young archaeologist, who considers the victims her only family, discovers a life-shattering secret which sends her back to the country she hails from. The search into her family history becomes a race against time, as she finds out that her late father had been involved in much more than archaeological digs. In the blinding blizzard the secret is hidden…
Death on the Vine by L. Lee Kane
Just before high school graduation, Daisy Murphy returns home from a football game and finds her mother standing over her abusive boyfriend’s body—holding a bloody hammer. In the aftermath, Daisy flees her home and eventually establishes a new life as an expert winemaker in the Central Valley of California. But as hard as she tries to get away from her past, the effects of that horrible night travel with her.
Detective Jake Frisco has unearthed a murder at the vineyard where Daisy is employed as the winery’s expert winemaker. It doesn’t take long to discover that Daisy is haunted by her past and carries a heavy burden. It seems that possible involvement in an unsolved murder is part of her life’s baggage. Does this put Daisy at the top of the suspect’s list? Can he put aside his growing feelings for her and follow the leads in the case, even if they take him straight to her as the murderer?
Can Daisy finally face her past and trust that the truth she offers the Detective will be enough to save her? Will she find the courage to ask for a future beyond the sorrow of her youth—a future filled with love and self-worth?
The Jacq of Spades by Patricia Loofbourrow
Part 1 of the Red Dog Conspiracy
Kidnapping. Murder. Betrayal.
Can you ever truly hide from your past?
In a far future US, the once-beautiful domed neo-Victorian city of Bridges is now split between four crime families in an uneasy cease-fire. Its steam-driven infrastructure failing, a new faction is on the rise: the Red Dogs.
22 year old Jacqueline Spadros was kidnapped from her mother’s brothel and sold to the Spadros syndicate ten years ago. The murder of her best friend Air that night as he tried to save her from them haunts her nightmares. Now unwillingly married to one of the city’s biggest drug lords, she finds moments of freedom in a small-time private eye business, which she hides in fear of her sadistic father-in-law.
Air’s little brother disappears off his back porch and the Red Dogs are framed for it. With the help of a gentleman investigator hired by the Red Dogs to learn the truth, Jacqui pushes her abilities to their limits in hope of rescuing the child before the kidnapper disposes of him.
Dark, gritty, multi-layered Victorian-inspired detective neo-noir that keeps the reader guessing to the very end.
Dup Up In Arms by Gavin Mills
Dup Series, Book 1
Chrighton Cade is a psycho-sadistic arms dealer with a lot at stake.
Ahmed Salib comes from money, craves for power and has no limits.
Nelson Lawd is a man with a murky past, that many believe is dead.
ACCORDING TO THE WORLD, THEY HAVE NEVER MET
But Arnold ‘Dup’ Dupreez, off-beat video producer and his hot as hell wife have all three of them in the background together, in a sexy holiday video taken at the coast four years earlier.
And for Cade, Salib and Lawd, that can never be.
They know Dup has the video, they know who he is, and they are coming – and Dup and his family stand square in the firing line.
Set against the birth of the new South Africa, and the dirty dealings of the South African arms deal, for Dup, keeping those he loves alive will be a lot easier said than done.
Down and Out in Kathmandu: A Backpacker Mystery by Jennifer S. Alderson
Adventures of Zelda Richardson, Book 1
Zelda wants to teach children English and “find herself” in Kathmandu. Ian wants to get stoned and trek the Himalayas. Tommy wants to get rich by smuggling diamonds.
How their stories collide will leave you on the edge of your seat!
Travel from the dusty, tout-filled streets and holy sites of Nepal to the sultry metropolises and picture-perfect beaches of Thailand, as Zelda and Ian try to outsmart the smugglers and escape Asia alive.
This fast-paced, thrilling travel mystery is sure to captivate readers thirsty for some armchair adventure.
Thanks for stopping by. We look forward to chatting with you during Mystery Thriller Week!
