A Festival of Forensics

Teachers, Tricks & Time Capsules by Brittany E. Brinegar

Summer is officially coming to an end with the annual Back to School Festival. To kick off the festivities, the class of 1976 is opening their time capsule. Buried among the disco records and roller-skates is a list of predictions for the future. 

When all the predictions turn out true, three best friends vow to find the truth. Is it a hoax or a stroke of luck? Or is a time traveler hiding in Lake Falls, Texas?

Sugar and Spice Sabotage by Mary B. Barbee
Eliza just opened the Me Oh My Pie Shop and summoned the courage to enter her most popular pie in the Stillson County Fair Baking Competition. But suddenly, everything is going wrong! Is it just a mixture of coincidence and bad luck, or is someone trying to sabotage her?

Lost in Lewis & Clark by Patty Joy
It's the 150th anniversary of Missouri State Parks, and Kelly Green is reporting in for her second year as a camp host.

As night falls on a long Saturday of hikes and fun in the sun, two boys are declared missing. Lost among the skunks, bears (no tigers), oh, my, Kelly Green must work hard to tabulate sightings and figure out where their directions went wrong.

Can she and the rangers remedy the predicament before they receive a catastrophic prescription?

Azure and the Case of the Chili Caper by Verena DeLuca
I, Azure Rune, a chili aficionado, will win the chili cookoff this weekend.
My human protector might doubt me, due to the "disgusting anchovies" I add each year.
But she is mistaken. My new secret ingredient is just the game changer I need—if I can find it.
Join me in my search for the perfect chili, and enjoy the recipe for yourself!

Sweet Treats and a Stiff by Rune Stroud
Simon heads to the Halloween Festival with Autumn, and smells a favorite treat. Deep fried twinkies. When he escapes his witch to get one, however, he gets more than he bargained for when he finds a dead body. Will he do the right thing and tell his witch's cousin, the deputy? Or will the draw of that fluffy fried treat be too much to fight?

Gems and Omens by Elle Wren Burke
Sitting at coffee shops with your long-lost aunt is supposed to be nice and calm, right? For psychic sleuth Alara Beatty, it turns out to be anything but when her aunt has a shocking vision of the Gem Show across the street. Gem and mineral enthusiasts don't exactly scream violent and dangerous, but one of them is about to become a murderer. Can Alara and her aunt find the killer before the sun sets on the day and the victim's life?

She Deserved Butter by Kathryn Mykel

In this short story, She Deserved Butter, our amateur sleuths find more than just quilts and berries at the annual blueberry festival.

After traveling to Pye, Maine to see Katherine's giant blueberry quilt, the bake tasting event quickly proves deadly. Katherine and Cole will need to sharpen their skills in order to help an old friend solve this murder mystery. 

Will a new invention save the event or will the judge be hypersensitive to the daily fares.

Shortest Night, Longest Case by Elle Hartford

It's Midsummer Night in the fairy tale town of Belville, but the festival is no dream for amateur sleuth Red and her friends. When the local witch finds a skeleton in his basement, Red gives up a night of listening to ancient stories and celebrating with her friends around a bonfire to help investigate the skeleton's past. What she never suspects is that the skeleton's unfortunate demise and the festival going on outside her town might be more connected than she thinks!