"AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
'The deft prose is enlivened by action sequences, as well, which are sure to draw readers into the central mystery.'—Kirkus Reviews
Fans of The Hunger Games, The Grace Year, and The Maze Runner will devour The Verdant Cage―a chilling dystopian thriller about what it takes to rebel when you discover your entire world is a lie.
For as long as seventeen-year-old apothecary Rose Allgood can remember, the towering stone Wall surrounding Noah's Valley has protected her people. No one leaves. No one fights. And no one questions why.
But their paradise has been hiding its thorns. When Rose's mother becomes the Valley's first murder victim and her twin brother is swiftly condemned, she alone is searching for the real killer. Determined to find the truth, she follows a trail of hidden messages, forbidden knowledge, and whispers of a past no one dares to remember.
The deeper she digs, the more certain Rose becomes that her mother's death was no accident. That the Wall isn't just keeping something out.
It's keeping something in."
"Two murder investigations, decades apart, threaten to expose a cold case agent’s darkest secrets in a pulse-pounding thriller by the Edgar Award–nominated author of The Taken Ones.
The bodies of three teenage girls are found in central Minnesota—each with her mouth fixed in a ghoulish grin, smiling at a deadly joke no one can hear. But authorities eventually close and forget the curious case, dubbed the Laughing Dead.
Decades later, cold case agent Evangeline “Van” Reed is called to the scene of a crime where the victim wears that same horror-movie smile. But this time someone seems to be sending a message: Van’s police ID has turned up at the scene, making her the prime suspect. It’s not that outlandish, considering her secrets—ones she’s never even told her partner, forensic scientist Harry Steinbeck.
As she feels others closing in, Van reopens the mystery of the Laughing Dead, hoping to find a connection to clear her name. But the search only gets darker. Because the more Van digs backward in time, the closer she comes to a terrible truth: Everything she has spent her life trying to hide is returning to haunt her."
"Two disappearances and a murder. The mystery couldn’t be more personal in a witty and twisty rom-com caper from Amazon Charts bestselling and Edgar Award–nominated author Jess Lourey.
After a year in Battle Lake, Minnesota, aspiring PI Mira James would kill not to stumble over another dead body. Given her latest discovery, though, it isn’t looking good.
An ominous note hidden in an old book not only mentions Battle Lake’s former librarian, who vanished into thin air, but also Mira’s own father, who died thirteen years ago. The word “HELP” scrawled at the top is even more unnerving. But who’s in danger? And why?
As if the note isn’t mystery enough, a girl’s sudden disappearance adds another case to Mira’s plate. To solve them both, Mira—and all of Battle Lake—must navigate deadly threats and a few surprises she never saw coming.
Revised edition: This edition of April Fools includes editorial revisions."
"Everybody’s got to have a hobby. But some pastimes hide murder in a delightfully crafty rom-com mystery by Amazon Charts bestselling and Edgar Award–nominated author Jess Lourey.
A charitable senior finds her calling making creepily authentic life-size dolls. Call it recreation. But when Mira finds a dead body encased under that painted porcelain, it’s more like murder.
It gets even stranger when Mira’s investigation lands her just where the Battle Lake police chief wants her: in jail. Luckily, Team Mira is on the case. They’re a fierce, if unlikely, force to be reckoned with: one flashy lady mayor and Mira’s scrappy nonagenarian best friend.
They plan to bust Mira out and clear her name. Bad news, though: a bizarrely motivated killer is still on the loose and can’t wait to see Mira all dolled up—to death.
Revised edition: This edition of March of Crimes includes editorial revisions."
"All aboard. It’s murder on the Valentine Train in a heart-racing mystery from Amazon Charts bestselling and Edgar Award–nominated author Jess Lourey.
Mira James is heading to Oregon by rail with two of her best friends to attend a PI conference. Even better, she’ll see Johnny, the love of her life, who’s in Portland for an internship. It’ll be scenic, swift, and safe. Until it isn’t.
When a winter storm brings the train to a dead stop in the Rockies, Mira discovers that a woman in the next cabin has been murdered, and her husband and child have vanished. Rumors of an escaped convict do nothing to ease the passengers’ frazzled nerves. To Mira, every one of them is a suspect.
Trapped in a snowbound train with only two people she can trust, Mira has to solve a baffling disappearance and track down a killer—if she isn’t derailed herself. Permanently.
Revised edition: This edition of February Fever includes editorial revisions."
"The discovery of a frozen stiff reveals old buried secrets in a witty and invigorating mystery from Amazon Charts bestselling and Edgar Award–nominated author Jess Lourey.
It may be six below zero, but an ice-skating jaunt gets even more chilling for private investigator in training Mira James. She’s just locked eyes with a frozen corpse floating under a sheet of ice.
The man, a curious transient who’s been researching local history, also rescued Mira and her best friend from a mugging the night before. His death is no accident, but it is a mystery. To solve it, Mira follows a trail leading to the alleged haunting of a historic museum and a centuries-old tragedy that has yet to claim its final victim.
With a killer on the loose amid a freakish winter thaw, Mira is on thin ice. If she doesn’t watch her back, she could be the next one to go under.
Revised edition: This edition of January Thaw includes editorial revisions."
"Going home for the holidays can be murder in a bracing mystery by Amazon Charts bestselling and Edgar Award–nominated author Jess Lourey.
After more than a decade away, Mira James isn’t keen on returning to her Minnesota hometown for the holidays. Her childhood memories aren’t particularly jolly. Even less festive is the news of a serial killer on the loose.
With only ten shopping days till Christmas, the Candy Cane Killer has been very busy slashing through the snow. Eager to earn her official PI stripes, Mira is anxious to track him down. But when the latest victim is a woman from her high school graduating class, the investigation hits a little too close to home.
Even worse? Mira has good reason to fear that she’s next. To stop a killer in his tracks, she may have to start digging into the ghosts of her own Christmas past.
Revised edition: This edition of December Dread includes editorial revisions."
"Hunting season exposes deadly secrets in a briskly chilling rom-com mystery from Amazon Charts bestselling and Edgar Award–nominated author Jess Lourey.
It’s cold enough to freeze a shadow when Battle Lake local Tom Kicker braves the killer temps to bag a deer—only to get shot to death by his best buddy, Clive, in a hunting accident. Tragic, yes. Accident? Mira James, just a few weeks into working toward her PI license, isn’t so convinced.
Neither is Tom’s daughter, who urges Mira to investigate. Why would a forty-year friendship come to a dead end on a frost-scorched landscape? Then Mira uncovers a decades-old scandal that suggests the town’s good old boys were up to some very bad business. Secret by buried secret, Mira is getting closer to solving the mystery.
In the meantime, she has sweet and sexy Johnny Leeson to keep her warm. Unfortunately, hunting season isn’t over in Battle Lake, and Mira is next in the crosshairs.
Revised edition: This edition of November Hunt includes editorial revisions."
"By-the-book forensic scientist Harry Steinbeck and rogue BCA agent Van Reed must catch a cold-case killer who’s returned to abduct a small town’s children one by one in this heart-stopping novel from the Edgar Award–nominated author of Unspeakable Things.
In 1998 an Alku, Minnesota, family of five was brutally murdered in their sleep. The event shook the insulated community but, without any solid leads, was relegated to the cold case files, where it moldered for twenty-five years. Until today.
Agent Harry Steinbeck hoped never to return to the northland, a place that holds terrible memories of his sister’s abduction. But when a recent homicide is connected to Alku’s unsolved mass murder, he and cold case agent Evangeline Reed have no choice but to investigate.
The case grows impossibly darker as, one by one, the children of Alku begin disappearing. And Harry and Van can’t shake the sensation that someone is watching every move they make.
As an elusive killer’s trail leads to a truth more sinister than either imagined, Harry knows there’s only one way to crack this case: he must finally face the secrets of his own past—even if doing so will cost him everything."
"What’s October without a festive mood, a chill in the air, and a dead body? There’s big trouble brewing in little Battle Lake in this Lefty-nominated mystery from Amazon Charts bestselling author Jess Lourey.
Cue the accordions: Battle Lake, Minnesota, is kicking off October Fest with polka, sausage, and cold suds. The big inaugural event? A debate between two congressional hopefuls. One, stultifyingly sincere. The other, a foot-in-mouth tippler.
Reporter Mira James is roped into covering their fighting words…and then a murder, when a relentless pit bull of a blogger is found dead at a motor lodge filled to capacity with fellow pundits, campaign entourages, and tourists—all of whom have just become suspects.
Mired to her neck in deadly mudslinging, it’s up to Mira to sort through a pile of the candidates’ dirty laundry and expose a killer who’s giving her the pre-Halloween jitters, all while managing mixed messages from local hottie Johnny Leeson. Who knew the political season could be so scary?
Revised edition: This edition of October Fest includes editorial revisions."
"A festive fairground becomes an unexpected backdrop for a grade A murder in a deliciously funny mystery by Edgar Award–nominated author Jess Lourey.
The Minnesota State Fair wows again with 4-H exhibits, rides, a Neil Diamond concert, and deep-fried everything on a stick. Covering it is a breezy assignment as fluffy as cotton candy for reporter Mira James, until the main attraction becomes murder.
Ashley Pederson, crowned Milkfed Mary, Queen of the Dairy, is getting her all-American likeness carved in a block of unsalted butter when she drops dead, her face as red as a stoplight. Cause: malicious poisoning. Despite Ashley’s creamy good looks, her reputation was pretty rancid. Still, who’d want to take out the soon-to-be college freshman and Battle Lake resident? Mira’s made a vow to the dairy darling’s grieving mother to find out.
Amid queenly competitors, rumors of sordid love affairs and embezzlement scandals, small-town secrets, and big business cover-ups, can Mira find the murderer on the Midway? You bet your corn dog she can.
Revised edition: This edition of September Mourn includes editorial revisions."
"There’s nothing like a harvest party, a book ban, and a shocking murder to keep a plucky librarian distracted in this funny and suspenseful mystery by Edgar Award–nominated author Jess Lourey.
Mira James has had it up to here with Battle Lake, Minnesota. After her latest romantic prospects go bust, she’s ready to move back to the Twin Cities and get a lapful of cats. Funny how murder can stall the best-laid plans.
Days before the August Moon Festival, high school cheerleader Lucy Lebowski, Mira’s library assistant and an all-around sweetheart, is murdered. Mira’s investigation begins with the (not so) blessed flock of the New Millennium Bible Camp, its creepy pastor, his secretly wayward daughter, and the congregation of glassy-eyed Stepford wives. They all certainly have it in for Mira and her damnable books. But Lucy, too?
If there’s one thing Mira’s learned, it’s that Battle Lake is full of secrets and grudges that somehow always end with a bang. Before she ditches this town for good, Mira is hell-bent on finding justice for Lucy—heaven help her.
Revised edition: This edition of August Moon includes editorial revisions."
Join our community for the latest bookish news, reading recommendations, exclusive opening extracts, author events and competitions. It\'s all free. And enter a monthly draw to win a £50 Gift Card. See past winners here
