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Lorna Barrett

    This Agatha-nominated author is celebrated for a writing talent that has consistently placed her on The New York Times Bestseller list. Her engaging prose invites readers into compelling mystery series, alongside a rich collection of short stories and novellas. She masterfully crafts intricate plots and memorable characters, ensuring a captivating reading experience from start to finish. Her distinctive voice and storytelling ability make her a standout in contemporary fiction.

    Book Clubbed
    Sentenced to Death
    A Fatal Chapter
    A Just Clause
    Not the Killing Type
    Something Old, Something New
    • 2024

      When a famous children's author is murdered at the library, Tricia Miles has to find the killer before it's too late in the latest entry to Lorna Barrett's New York Times bestselling Booktown series. Tricia Miles is ready to close the book on all her amateur sluething—she's tired of finding dead bodies and being accused of murder. But even the best laid plans often go awry. Stoneham is all abuzz when Lauren Barker, a famous children's book author, arrives for an event at the local library. Lauren is a Stoneham native, and her new book strikes some members of the town as controversial. But when Lauren is found strangled to death after an altercation at the event, the plot twist throws Tricia right back into the middle of things. Who could possibly have wanted Lauren dead? Was it Dan Reed, who had to be thrown out of the signing for spouting conspiracy theories and causing a disturbance? Stella Kraft, Lauren’s high school teacher, who thought of the author as a protégé—something Lauren violently disputed? Or the mystery man who spoke to Lauren just before she was found dead? With the suspect count climbing higher and more information about Lauren's past coming to light, will Tricia be able to give this story a happily ever after?

      A Controversial Cover
    • 2023

      The murder of a local contractor may be the final nail in the coffin for Tricia Miles in the latest entry to Lorna Barrett's New York Times bestselling Booktown series. It's a busy summer in Booktown. Contractor Jim Stark is in great demand: he’s overseeing a number of projects, including Angelica Miles's newly constructed building on Main Street, finishing up the new brew pub, and gutting a stone mansion off Main Street that Angelica bought to be the world headquarters for Nigela Ricita Asssociates. It’ll house office space where her marketing staff and the rest of the NR Associates clerical personnel will work. Tricia Miles and Angelica arrive at the mansion before their workday to see how the construction is going. They find the place unlocked and Stark’s right-hand man, Sanjay Arya, dead—bludgeoned to death. The loss of the contractor’s top man threatens all the projects in the works, which would effectively ruin the expensive marketing plan that the Chamber of Commerce has been working. Is Jim a suspect? (He’d be stupid to kill the person he depends on to keep the projects going.) But Stark also thinks his wife, who was very chummy with Sanjay, might have been cheating on him with the second-in-command, making him a likely suspect. Once again Tricia finds herself in the middle of a murder investigation, but can she find the killer before he or she has the chance to bring the hammer down?

      A Questionable Character
    • 2022

      When Life Gives You More Lemons

      • 354 pages
      • 13 hours of reading

      A week in West Cork is Diane's idea of hell. But when she meets Oliver Butler, a devilishly handsome hotelier, she soon changes her tune. Sarah is worried about leaving her baby daughter to go for a week away with the girls. A call from home confirms that her instincts were correct. Laurie's perfect life is missing one thing. A baby. Can an old man with a strange gift in a tumbledown cottage be the key to getting what she so badly wants? Suze's new life which she worked so hard to curate starts to unravel. A fling with a Hollywood actor and a cringeworthy attempt to win her ex-husband back rock her to her core. Will she get the happy ending she deserves? When life continues to throw them curveballs, the four friends realise that they need each other more than ever.

      When Life Gives You More Lemons
    • 2022

      "Bookstore owner Tricia Miles tries to open a new chapter in life, but murder mars the pages in the latest entry to Lorna Barrett's New York Times bestselling Booktown series. Tricia Miles and her sister, Angelica, are the co-presidents of the Stoneham Chamber of Commerce. Things are changing in the booktown, and some merchants would say not for the better. They grumble that too many non-book-related stores are moving into the village, taking up the most visible storefronts on Main Street, diluting the "Booktown" moniker. Of course, the members with other businesses, like the latest, The Bee's Knees, are fine with other businesses moving in. No matter what side of the argument they're on, all the business owners agree on one thing: Tricia and Angelica are to blame. Still, it's a pretty typical day in the life of a small-town Chamber of Commerce until one of the disgruntled bookstore owners is killed-Eli Meier from The Inner Light Bookstore, the most vocal of the Chamber complainers. He sold religious and other spiritual books, but also stocked books on wild conspiracy theories and sold incense, crystals, etc. Eli had never been a member of the Chamber until Angelica recently convinced him to join. He hit on her and she, having good taste, turned him down. He hounded (but not stalked) her, and some might think that was a motive for murder. Stoneham's new police chief is an old friend of Tricia's, but that doesn't mean he's going to go easy on her sister. One might even say that he's going to throw the book at her"-- Provided by publisher

      Clause Of Death
    • 2021

      Something Old, Something New

      • 374 pages
      • 14 hours of reading

      Set in present day Dublin, this is the story of two women’s lifelong friendship and a betrayal that threatens to tear their lives apart.Trish is left picking up the pieces following a terrible tragedy. Life has been cruel and now it lands another blow. Luckily, she has her best friend Karen by her side to help her through. Then a chance encounter on the French Riviera leads Trish to think that maybe la vie est belle after all.Karen has it all. Sophisticated and successful, she is head of a Maternity & Fertility Clinic in Dublin’s city centre. Now, a new man who ticks all the boxes looks like he might be ‘The One’.Olivia is the perfect daughter with a steady boyfriend and a steadier job. But she wants answers. Haunted by the fact that her life has been a matter of chance, she is on a mission to unearth the truth.But, for each of them, the truth has the potential to blow their lives apart.

      Something Old, Something New
    • 2021

      A murder leads to a string of shocking revelations for bookstore owner Tricia Miles in the latest entry to Lorna Barrett's New York Times bestselling Booktown series. Tricia Miles has just received a second marriage proposal within fifteen minutes. The first was from her friend with benefits, Marshall Chambers, and the second from her ex-lover, police chief Grant Baker. Tricia's got some serious thinking to do. She's still weighing her options when she hears the sound of an engine roaring down Main Street. It's a big white pickup truck that aims for and hits Marshall as he's walking back to his apartment. Tragically, he's killed, leaving Tricia feeling bereft and guilty. She retreats to her sister, Angelica's, apartment to wait for Baker to update her on what happened. While there, Tricia takes Angelica's dog out for a comfort call behind the building, and the same white pickup roars up the alley and just misses hitting Tricia. Still shaken by that news, Tricia returns to Haven't Got a Clue and is met by federal marshal Kirby, who tells her that Marshall had been in the Federal Witness Protection Program. Everything Marshall told Tricia was a lie—in particular, that he was a widower. Was his death an act of revenge? Tricia's on the hunt for a killer, and it seems like she might be next on the list.

      A Deadly Deletion
    • 2020

      Handbook For Homicide

      • 320 pages
      • 12 hours of reading
      3.8(1651)Add rating

      Tricia Miles must swim against the tide to catch a killer when Haven't Got A Clue's assistant manager is accused of murder in the latest entry to Lorna Barrett's New York Times bestselling Booktown series.Haven't Got A Clue bookshop owner Tricia Miles's relationship is on the rocks. After a not-so-fun vacation with her on-again-off-again lover, Marshall Cambridge, Tricia's hoping for smooth sailing back in Stoneham. Unfortunately Booktown greets her not with blue skies but with another body.When Tricia's assistant manager, Pixie, finds homeless vet Susan Morris's body behind Haven't Got A Clue, Pixie's checkered past makes her the prime suspect. Tricia sets out to clear Pixie's name armed with only an anchor insignia earring found at the scene of the crime.As Tricia digs deeper she discovers Susan was involved in a scandal right before retiring from the Navy—but since nobody in the village knows Susan, even Tricia's one lead is in danger of drying up. With family drama brewing in the background and all of Stoneham convinced her manager is a murderer, Tricia knows she has to get to the bottom of the case soon before Pixie's life is sunk.

      Handbook For Homicide
    • 2019

      A Killer Edition

      • 304 pages
      • 11 hours of reading
      3.8(76)Add rating

      Murder's in the mix for mystery bookstore owner and amateur sleuth Tricia Miles, in the latest entry to Lorna Barrett's New York Times bestselling Booktown series. With her assistant, Pixie, picking up more responsibility around the shop, Tricia Miles suddenly has a lot more time on her hands. Tricia decides to join the local animal-rescue board and enter the Great Stoneham Bake-Off, but neither pans out as smoothly as she'd hoped. Balancing a bake-off that's heating up with a frosty reception from the board, Tricia stops by Joyce Whitman's romance bookstore looking for a book to get her fired up. She stumbles on something hot, but it's an argument between Joyce and her neighbor Vera Olson instead of a steamy read. When Vera turns up dead in Joyce's garden hours later, Tricia has to wonder--could Joyce be the killer? Or is the culprit still lurking in town? One thing is for sure, someone in Stoneham is stirring up something more sinister than sweet. Tricia is determined to win the cutthroat cooking contest, but first she will have to make sure no one else is in danger of getting burned....

      A Killer Edition
    • 2018

      Poisoned Pages

      • 320 pages
      • 12 hours of reading
      3.8(111)Add rating

      Mystery bookstore owner Tricia Miles learns that nothing kills a good party like a murder in the latest entry in the New York Times bestselling Booktown Mysteries. Tricia Miles, mystery bookstore owner and amateur sleuth, throws a housewarming cocktail party in her new apartment and has cooked all the food by herself—quite a feat for someone who previously couldn't boil water. Then one of her guests is poisoned and dies. Tricia's left to wonder if her cooking is to blame or if there's something much more sinister at play. Either way, Tricia's once again in hot water with her ex-lover, Chief Baker. Meanwhile the charming town of Stoneham is being disrupted by a vandalism crime wave. It's the hot topic in the race for Chamber of Commerce president which sees Tricia pitted against two bitter rivals. With all that's going on can she find the killer before she's the next item on the menu?

      Poisoned Pages
    • 2017

      A Just Clause

      • 304 pages
      • 11 hours of reading
      4.0(109)Add rating

      A shocking visitor from their past disrupts the newfound normalcy in Booktown for Tricia and Angelica. As they navigate the complexities of this unexpected reunion, the cozy mystery unfolds, revealing secrets and challenges that threaten their lives. The story promises intrigue and a blend of personal and community dynamics, characteristic of the beloved bestselling series.

      A Just Clause