Shadow Notes by Laurel Peterson (cool books to read txt) 📗

Fresh out of grad school, Cressa lands her dream job as conductor of a fledgling ensemble in Minnesota that aspires to grow into a major orchestra. Leaving her psychic friend Neek, boyfriend Daryl, and DePaul University behind, she quickly starts to wonder what she’s gotten herself into.

Cressa’s new friendship with the first chair violinist of the ensemble, Maddy Streete, gives her an opportunity to sing in a dysfunctional church choir, and also leads to an organist gig in the church across the street. While playing the organ helps supplement her meager conducting salary, it places her in empty churches more often than she’d like, forcing her to deal with homeless vagrants, drug paraphernalia—and corpses.

As she tries to make sense out of everything, Cressa digs deeper into the lives of her fellow musicians and newfound friends to uncover swirling currents of hatred, old wounds, bitter resentments—and unexpected information about the suspicious deaths of her own musician parents so many years ago.

Can Cressa sort out the clues before she becomes the next victim?

“Kaye George plays a twisting score in Requiem in Red, conducting us through intrigue and murder in two church musical communities to a surprising and suspenseful climax. You’ll love this new Cressa Carraway mystery.” — Edith Maxwell, Agatha-nominated author, Quaker Midwife Mysteries and Local Foods Mysteries

“A standing ovation for Requiem in Red! Conductor Cressa Carraway’s musical journey continues with a move to Minnesota, intrigue, and murder. Kaye George hits all the right notes as she deftly pits Cressa’s experience as the new kid on a very dysfunctional block against a mostly new cast of characters. Everyone is viewed with equal suspicion in a plot where nothing is exactly as it appears to be on the surface.” — Judy Penz Sheluk, author, The Hanged Man’s Noose

“Kaye George weaves music and murder into a gripping combination. Intimately familiar with the world of classical and ecclesiastical music, her loving look at the way churches work and familiarity with the landscape makes readers feel like they are looking over Cressa’s shoulder the whole time.” — KB Inglee, author, The Case Book of Emily Lawrence

Preview the first four chapters for free at

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The Revolving Year

Imogen Hearne series, Book 1

by Vanessa Furse Jackson

Print ISBN: 978-1-935460-60-2

eBook ISBN: 978-1-935460-61-7

Devonshire, England—1999. It just might be the end of the world for 35-year-old Imogen Hearne. First, she learns that her beloved older sister has breast cancer, followed by the news that the lease on the small cottage that has been her home for the past ten years will be cancelled in January 2000. The only bright spot on the horizon seems to be an extended visit from her niece Celia, who has recently dropped out from university.

But Celia’s visit may turn out to be the cruelest blow of all. For in the midst of Millennium fever, Immy falls unexpectedly—and mutually—in love with Celia’s fiancé. As the year 2000 looms ever closer, Immy will soon be forced to make a life-altering decision. Should she accept this once-in-a-lifetime gift of love, or deny it for the sake of holding together the small, fragile family she treasures?

“Engrossing exposé of the twists and turns of family dynamics, all in the name of love. Ms. Jackson draws the relationships between her characters in such fine detail that the reader is charmed and appalled by turns on the affect that each one has on the life of the others.” — Adele Abbot, author, Postponing Armageddon and Of Machines & Magics

“A fascinating character study of unintended consequences set lose in a disparate family circle.” — Sean Mulcahy, author, Slip Sliding Away

Preview the first four chapters for free at

www.barkingrainpress.org