In small towns and big cities alike, secrets abound …
Whether in my cozy mysteries and historical short stories, written as Leslie Budewitz, or my suspense novels, by Alicia Beckman, I write to explore women’s lives, using crime to dive into the mysteries that unsettle us and the truths that lie beneath them. I love taking readers to memorable places, introducing you to their intriguing inhabitants, and digging into the hearts and minds of my story people. And if I can make you think, laugh, and rumble your tummy all at the same time—well, then, we’ve got the perfect author–reader friendship!
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ALL GOD’S SPARROWS AND OTHER STORIES: A Stagecoach Mary Fields Collection
ISBN-13: 978-1960511744
Beyond the Page
September 17, 2024
In trade paper and ebook!
Finalist, 2025 High Plains International Book Awards
Available now at:
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Books-A-Million
Bookshop.org
And your local booksellers!
Born into slavery in Tennessee, the remarkable “Stagecoach Mary” Fields was a larger-than-life figure who cherished her independence, yet formed a deep bond with the Ursuline Sisters, traveling to their Montana mission in 1885 and spending the last thirty years of her life living there or in nearby Cascade. Mary is believed to have been the first Black woman in the country to drive a U.S. Postal Star Route, the source of her nickname.
In All God’s Sparrows and Other Stories, Agatha Award-winning author Leslie Budewitz brings together three short stories, each originally published in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, imagining the life of Stagecoach Mary in her first year in Montana, and a novella exploring her later life, including:
All God’s Sparrows, winner of the 2018 Agatha Award for Best Short Story; Miss Starr’s Goodbye, a nominee for the Short Mystery Fiction Society’s Derringer Award; Coming Clean, a finalist for the Western Writers of America’s 2021 Spur Award for Best Short Story; and A Bitter Wind, a brand-new novella in which Mary helps a young woman newly arrived in the valley solve the mystery of her fiancé’s death and his homesteading neighbors’ bitterness toward him.
Includes an abbreviated bibliography and historical notes from the author.
LAVENDER LIES BLEEDING
A Spice Shop Mystery, #9
ISBN-13: 978-1645060864
Seventh Street Books
July 15, 2025
In trade paper, ebook, and audio!
Available now at:
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Books-A-Million
Bookshop.org
And your local booksellers!
At Seattle Spice Shop, owner Pepper Reece has whipped up the perfect blend of food, friends, and flavor. But the sweet smell of success can be hazardous . . .
Spring is in full bloom in Pike Place Market, where Pepper is celebrating lavender’s culinary uses and planning a festival she hopes will become an annual event. When her friend Lavender Liz offers to share tips for promoting the much-loved—and occasionally maligned—herb, Pepper makes a trek to the charming town of Salmon Falls. But someone has badly damaged Liz’s greenhouse, throwing a wrench in the feisty grower’s plans for expansion. Suspicions quickly focus on an employee who’s taken to the hills.
Pepper digs in, untangling the tensions between Liz and a local restaurateur with eyes on a picturesque but neglected farm, a jealous ex-boyfriend determined to profit from Liz’s success, and a local growers’ cooperative. She’s also hot on the scent of a trail of her own, sniffing out the history of her sweet dog, Arf.
As Pepper’s questions threaten to unearth secrets others desperately want to keep buried, danger creeps closer to her and those she loves. Can Pepper root out the killer, before someone nips her in the bud?
Includes delicious recipes!
BLIND FAITH
ISBN-13: 978-1639101788
Crooked Lane Books
October 11, 2022
In hardcover, ebook, and audio!
Available now at:
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
Books-A-Million
Bookshop.org
Indie Bound
And your local booksellers!
Long-buried secrets come back with a vengeance in a cold case gone red-hot in Agatha Award-winning author Alicia Beckman’s second novel, perfect for fans of Laura Lippman and Greer Hendricks.
For decades, the unsolved murder of Father Michael Leary has haunted Billings, Montana, the community he served. Who summoned the priest late one autumn night, then left his body in a sandstone gully for the ravens and other wild scavengers?
And it’s haunted no one more than Lindsay Keller, who admired and confided in him as a teenager. Compelled by his example to work for justice, she became a prosecutor. But after a devastating case left her shattered, she fled the rough-and-tumble for the safety of a desk, handling real estate deals and historic preservation projects. Good work, but not what she’d dreamed of.