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Introducing… the Mystery Falls Cozy Mystery Series

by Kristen James

Mystery Falls… where the small town charm comes with a twist of murder…

Nestled in the foothills of the Pacific Northwest, Mystery Falls boosts the most Bigfoot sightings in the world. They celebrate with a Bigfoot festival in August, but they really shine in the fall time. Every year, Mystery Falls is the home to the weeklong Spooky Fest which leads up to Halloween.

Ava Fairchild came to Mystery Falls looking for a fresh start and her own place to open a bar. She didn’t expect to find intrigue and constant mystery.

Drew Davenport visited over the years because his parents retired here. Now he’s a full time resident and bookstore owner.

I’ve had a great time exploring this small town and getting to know these characters! Ava and Drew are intriguing, and there’s a cast of quirky townsfolk plus their friends. I’m so excited to share their stories with you! The first two books are out now with another planned for Christmas.

The covers have a story too; my son Caleb illustrated the historic Bank Building for the first cover, the building where Drew and Ava have their businesses. I drew the second cover with a fun Halloween theme. Both show the spooky atmosphere in this not-so-sleepy town.

A BAR, A BOOKSTORE, AND A BODY

She came to open a bar. Instead, she opened a murder investigation.


All Ava Fairchild wants is a fresh start. A small town in the Pacific Northwest, a chance to open her dream bar, and maybe—just maybe—leave her ruined reputation in New York behind. Mystery Falls seems perfect… until she finds a body in the stream by her bar.

Local Drew Davenport is opening a bookstore next to Ava’s bar while grieving the loss of his mother—but now everything is tangled up with Ava and this murder mystery. If an unidentified body wasn’t enough… Their landlord is missing, their building hides secrets of its own, and the clues show that everyone in town is a potential suspect in the murder.

With the sheriff eyeing her as an outsider, Ava has no choice but to follow the clues herself. But the closer she and Drew get to the truth, the more dangerous the town’s secrets become.

In Mystery Falls, even the friendliest neighbors might kill to protect what’s theirs.

MURDER IN BOOKSY BAR

Spooky Fest was supposed to be all tricks and treats—until a real murder crashed the party.

It’s mid-October in Mystery Falls, and Spooky Fest is in full swing—a week of costumes, carnival booths, and just the right amount of small-town chaos.

Drew’s bookstore is packed with cozy Halloween displays, while Ava’s bar glows with cobwebs, candles, and “ghoul-tails” for the grand opening. Across the street, local author Janet Harper draws crowds with her new true-crime book Murder at Midnight… in Mystery Falls, retelling the century-old legend of killer Jonathon Miller.

But when Janet’s festival séance takes a chilling turn and a traveler is found stabbed to death in the Booksy Bar bathroom, the laughter dies fast. The victim’s wife swears the ghost of Jonathon Miller did it. Janet insists she “opened a door.” The ever suspicious Sheriff Tandy thinks Ava and Drew are cursed magnets for murder.

To clear their names, Ava and Drew must untangle a web of gossip, superstition, and staged hauntings before the town’s Halloween spirit turns to panic.

Because in Mystery Falls, ghosts don’t kill people… but neighbors just might.

Download on Amazon today!

The Killer Between Us

by Kristen James

Visit the brutal coast of the Pacific Northwest and dive into this shocking psychological thriller in Kristen’s newest standalone release, THE KILLER BETWEEN US, a Domestic Psychological Thriller set on the Oregon Coast

Colette can’t tell who to trust, who’s playing her, and who’s hunting her…

I’ve been so careful… Somehow my past found me just as I’m sucked into the mystery of a missing woman. Are they related? Is the killer really back? Or am I losing it?

Colette Baker has spent her life trying to stay invisible and outrun her past. Her mother abandoned her as a baby. At twelve, a tragedy in foster care forced her to start over with a new name. She’s learned not to need anyone. No one else has ever needed her…until now.

On a cold, foggy Saturday morning, Colette waits for a client. Instead she’s handed a mysterious envelope and meets a crying toddler who grabs onto her. Apparently she looks like his lost mother. But where is Brandon’s mother? Why does his father, Ray, grab onto Colette like some kind of lifeline and ask for her help?

Even as an outsider, Colette can tell something isn’t right about the absence of Ray’s wife. What if he’s involved? And though it seems impossible, could this be related to the envelope she received the same day she met them?

Too many strange things happen, connecting Ray’s situation with Colette’s haunted past. Could his wife’s disappearance actually be related? She escaped from a killer’s clutch once before… twice would be tempting fate.

Colette doesn’t want to lose everything and start over again. But, what if she’s putting Ray and his son in danger? Even while hiding her own past, she has doubts about Ray. As more and more dots connect, she questions everything.

What if it’s all a ruse to push her over the edge? Or catch her in a killer’s snare?

Order THE KILLER BETWEEN US to find out!

Handsome guy, wrong situation. Colette can’t tell who to trust, who’s playing her, and who’s hunting her…

You can hide from your past but you can never truly outrun it.

Available now in Kindle KU and Print

The Perfect Husband – new thriller release

by Kristen James

Most summers I’m busy outside in my garden, taking care of bees or chickens, or getting out to paddleboard or hike. Summer is also event season for my food truck. So, I’m excited to have some bookish things going on this year.

I have an audiobook for The Killer Between Us in production right now, and it’s been fun to listen to my story as the narrator brings it to life. I’m working with Mary Ann Aude for the narration and she’s doing such an amazing job! I was driving through Newport the other day, where the story is set, and listening to the chapters. The audiobook should be out later this summer. We plan to work together on my Ridge City Series and other books, and I can’t wait to share those.

I’m working on my next release in the Ridge City Series, More Than Justice (Book 4) which will release next month. I also published a separate Trilogy with the first three books – you can view that here.

Between all that, I had a fun project – a domestic thriller called The Perfect Husband. It’s a fast read with lots of suspense. Like The Killer Between Us, it has some romantic tension – in a way you could say both books have a little romance but there’s a big helping of doubt and suspicion thrown in. That’s what I love about domestic thrillers!

The Perfect Husband

She wakes from a coma to a life that doesn’t feel right and a husband she doesn’t recognize. Is he lying to her? What’s really going on?

Megan wakes in the hospital after a horrible car accident six weeks prior. At least, this is what she’s told. Eli is by all appearances the perfect husband, but everything feels wrong. Why does the doctor speak to Eli alone, and why does the hospital wing seem deserted?

Eli presents evidence of their marriage and life together, and tells her how they’re building a house by the river. Yet her few emerging memories show a very different life. Everyone she meets seems to be in on it, unless she’s suffering from paranoia due to her brain injury. She can’t trust herself or anyone else. When they return “home” to their house-in-progress, Megan plays a double agent, working with “Eli” to rebuild her life while trying to uncover the truth. Why would he do this? Does she know something she shouldn’t?

Ellison is the key to her past and future, even if she can’t trust him. He has an explanation for everything until new answers lead to an even more twisted story. Part of her wants to relax into this dream life he’s built, but can she live a lie? Can she love a man with hidden motives? What will she have to do to uncover the truth and learn her true identity?

Get your copy here!

Summer is just begun so I look forward to sharing these projects and possibly starting more – and getting in some reading time!

Does anyone read blogs anymore lol?

by Kristen James

I logged into my site today and glanced at the list of blog posts to discover… it’s been two years since I added one! A decade ago when I started my site, it was actually a blog. I guess that was before vlogs and Youtube got big, and people had channels and all the other fancy stuff we publish now. I’ve stuck to the written form but it’s crazy to see the changes over the last ten years.

Times have changed, and publishing, and even my direction in writing. I planned to write that I moved more toward thrillers, but then I realized that my mystery thriller series starts with a novel I wrote a decade ago. So maybe I was writing a lot of mystery and suspense in my romance back then!

I’m currently writing Book #4 in the Ridge City Mystery Thriller series and I just published a standalone psychological thriller called The Killer Between Us. I publish the new books under my new pen name, so it’s probably time to start making more changes around the website. So, happy 2024! As always, fun times ahead.

Sarah’s Song on Preorder now!

by Kristen James
Click for Kindle Preorder

“To see the world in a grain of sand, and to see heaven in a wild flower, hold infinity in the palm of your hands, and eternity in an hour.”

William Blake

This line (from the book’s dedication) echos throughout the story. I came across it because my daughter’s boyfriend sent it to me. We lost him last year in a car accident, after I had been working on this novel for a while. There were so many parallels that for a bit it was hard to get back to work on the story. In the end, this novel helped me work through things.

This was an emotional project for me but I’m so glad I wrote it – I got to experience music in a new way and explore Sarah and Melody’s friendship. Sarah started out like me: not musically inclined (even though I’m creative in so many other ways). I’ve always wished I was able to sing or play music, so in a way I got to through Sarah in this story.

Order on Amazon Order on Barnes and Noble Order on Apple iBooks

Sarah can suddenly, magically make music. Michael thinks she stole Lauren’s last song.

Sarah Austin never had a musical bone to her body…until suddenly she does. A car accident reveals her boyfriend’s darker side and turns her life upside down. She moves in with her best friend Melody and finds herself turning to music, playing the guitar and writing songs like a pro. Melody’s entire life is about music so she’s ecstatic but also confused, and maybe a bit jealous…although this might be what she needs to launch her own career.

Half a world away, Michael Singer, lead guitarist and singer of Mystic Mist, is mourning the loss of a band member when he sees a video of someone singing Lauren’s last song. How did this American girl steal it? With his band falling apart around him, he decides to take matters into his own hands.

Sarah wants to know where her musical ability came from—and if she has any right to use this talent she didn’t earn. Sarah and Michael both want answers for very different reasons. Neither is prepared for how they’ll feel about each other.

A little zing of attraction hit me, irritating me. I was not getting the hots for a rock star, accent or not. He surly had plenty of fan girls out there, all over the world. I had to keep my face blank because Michael looked up at me.

“So how does it work? Do you know chords and progressions and how to read music?”

I shook my head as he talked. “I can just start playing. Well, I knew how to tune a guitar. And when I play, it’s like I understand more.”

“Come here.” He scooted back and patted the cushion between his legs. Oh, no no no. “I want to show you a few things.”
His words rolled off his tongue, sounding fun and flirty like most of the things he said in that Irish voice.

“Why?”

“Just humor me.” His eyes lit up, his lips doing that lopsided smile. Did it work on everyone?