The Josiah Reynolds Mysteries Box Set (Books 13-18)

Book excerpt: DEATH BY DECEIT Josiah Reynolds and a friend discover a dead body. Why does this always happen to Josiah? The dead man was a reporter. Police believe his death is due to a botched robbery, but Josiah begins snooping. Detective Drake tells Josiah to back off, so Josiah’s forensic psychiatrist boyfriend hires her to help him investigate. Now Josiah has access to all case reports and they support her theory, but no one listens. Josiah decides to find evidence proving her theory. She begins a dangerous game of seeking truth in the Bluegrass— world of wealth, privilege, and now murder! DEATH BY MAGIC At a fundraiser for retired Thoroughbred horses Josiah meets Rudy Lee. He says a fortune teller predicted he will murder Josiah. then be killed himself. Josiah tells Rudy the fortune is nonsense but can’t shake the notion the fortune teller may be right. Then someone does try to kill her! Josiah searches for the truth in the “dark and bloody” ground of Kentucky where secrets are held tight to one’s heart DEATH BY SHOCK Josiah. Shaneika, and her sweet cousin Heather, are on an archaeology dig at Ft. Boonesborough where Daniel Boone led pioneers to the frontier and meet the Dane twins, society women who rub them the wrong way. Heather is entranced by the sisters until she catches one of them plotting to murder her identical twin. But which twin is planning a murder? Heather can’t tell them apart. She asks Josiah for help Josiah can’t prevent a murder but soon discovers Heather is not so sweet and may have a motive for lying about the Dane sisters. Josiah does some digging and learns others on the excavation also have motives for murder. Josiah seeks truth in a land that hides its secrets well. Kentucky is not called the “dark and bloody ground” for nothing. DEATH BY CHANCE Halloween is right around the corner when Lady Elsmere throws a Civil War ball. Josiah enters the party’s corn maze to find her dog, Baby, and discovers Baby standing over a fallen scarecrow. But is it a real scarecrow? Josiah doesn’t have time to find out. Someone dressed as the Grim Reaper bolts from the shadows, swinging a scythe at her. Our heroine picks up her skirts and flees crying, “Murder in the corn maze!” DEATH BY POISON Josiah Reynolds hitches her American Paint Horse to a pony cart when horse whisperer Velvet Maddox hurries over. Pointing a crooked finger at Josiah she announces that Josiah can’t participate in the Shawnee Trace Horse Parade. “I see death standing next to your horse. Beware.” Miss Velvet is never wrong about such things but Josiah plunges ahead. Surely this time Velvet is mistaken. No one can see death. The parade proceeds but spectators surge ahead and surround the horses, spooking them. Josiah’s horse rears up and the pony cart runs over something. Josiah stops her horse and peers beneath her cart. A leg protrudes from underneath the cart. Josiah realizes Miss Velvet was correct. Death was hovering near her horse. DEATH BY GREED Josiah works in her bee yard when a commotion comes from a horse pasture. She rushes toward the uproar and discovers an enraged Texas Longhorn bull. The beast is snorting and pawing the turf, and threatening a prized Thoroughbred. Calming the bull is no small task and in the end, Josiah has a busted fence and a barn door ripped off its hinges. Josiah confronts the bull’s owner only to discover him dead, lying in a pool of his own blood. Police assume the bull is responsible for the man’s death. Josiah has her doubts. She’s convinced foul play is involved and works to save the Longhorn from being “put down.” Will she solve the murder and save the Longhorn?