In the rush to subscribe to true-crime podcasts these days, we think it's something new, but what if I told you about The Old Cranberry Ladies Garden Club who has been digging around in old cases for over two hundred years? Today we are looking at this group of nosy, yet terribly smart, old ladies and three mysteries they solve. Our excerpt will be from the first book in the series, The Ghost and the Key, where they go after a murderer from 192 years ago.

With a pitchfork through the man's groin and another through his chest, it is clear that someone had murdered Chester H. Cranberry. It's not something that could have happened accidentally. But that was 192 years ago. As Mildred Cranberry, the current family matriarch, puts it, "We have two women, two keys, two pitchforks, and one dead two-timing man." Who in their right mind would want to dig up that cold case and try to solve it? It's not like the murderer could be prosecuted in 2024, right? But what if a key piece of evidence can be dug up (literally)? And what if a descendant of Chester's illegitimate child can get her hands on it? Mildred will need more than the Old Cranberry Ladies Garden Club members to solve this bizarre case. The spiritual support she needs may not be what she expects when the ghost of Elcira Cranberry, the widow murderess herself, arrives to do what? Tell the truth or protect her reputation?

The Ladies Garden Club of Old Cranberry, Connecticut, has a 200-year history that has remained shrouded in secrecy for so long, it has been lost to history, until now. Elcira Cranberry and freedwoman Deborah Townsend knew the men of the town would have no interest in a garden club, so it was the perfect cover for their secret organization. Now, nearly two centuries later, the current members have no idea what those ladies were up to in the early 1800s, right here in Connecticut. But the secret will soon be out.

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Life

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Quiet Versus Silence

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Books to the Ceiling is a part of Teresa Trent's Blog.

This week we're headed to New Orleans, 1831 to the St. Louis Cemetery #2. It's hot and smelly and we are with the character of Tobias Whitney who works there. Get ready for a creepy cemetery vibe, as Tobias discovers the secrets hidden among the dead.

In bustling, multicultural 1831 New Orleans, Tobias Whitney, the sexton of St. Louis Cemetery No. 2, uncovers a journal sealed inside the tomb of Dominique You—war hero of the Battle of New Orleans, privateer, and half-brother of the notorious pirate Jean Lafitte. Convinced that the journal holds the key to Lafitte’s lost treasure, Tobias turns to his sharp-witted and outspoken wife, Mary Catherine, to translate its cryptic French passages.

Tobias and Mary Catherine discover secrets they could not have imagined—secrets that could change their lives forever. But is it really the truth? As the journal warns, Never trust a pirate!

Lafitte Lives blends meticulous historical research with a page-turning mystery, bringing the legend of Jean Lafitte to life while telling the redemptive story of Tobias's grief and Mary Catherine's quest to help him overcome it.

Book Links: Amazon | Kindle | Barnes & Noble | BookShop.org | Goodreads

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Mysteries

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Cold Prito

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This week we travel back in time to go to a wedding, in 1965. Dot Morgan is getting married to the love of her life. Wedding preparations include cakes, flowers, music and murder. This is my fifth installment in the Swinging Sixties Series, but if you haven't read the first four, don't worry. Crying in the Chapel can be read as a standalone. So, grab your go-go boots and let's get that church.

It's August 1965, and Dot Morgan is finally getting married to the dashing reporter Ben Dalton. Her wedding day, August 14th, promises to be perfect—if only it didn't follow Friday the 13th. What could go wrong? Planning a wedding with the members of the Camden Chapel, Dot thinks she’s overwhelmed, but then it gets worse when a body is found on the church lawn. Dot decides to focus on her wedding to Ben, but when police reveal the victim didn't jump from the belfry he was pushed—she can no longer look away.

Book Links: Amazon | Kindle | Barnes & Noble | BookShop.org | Goodreads

Music Credit

In Bloom

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Do you love Agatha Christie? As a mystery author, I've spent time reading her books and watching the movies made from them. Studying Agatha Christie can only help an author who deals with killers, red herrings, clues and pacing. I met this week's author at Malice Domestic, a mystery conference in Maryland, and even though I had no room in my suitcase, had to pick up a copy of her book, Agatha Christie, She Watched. Since then it has had a prominent place on my bookshelf and I am slowly getting through the movies Teresa Peschel researched. It's like a masterclass on Agatha Christie, and great for a dark and stormy night. Agatha Christie, She Watched is a big, well illustrated book, and worth every inch it will take on your book shelf.

Care to match wits with Hercule Poirot? Share tea and gossip with Miss Marple? Chase spies with Tommy and Tuppence? "Agatha Christie, She Watched" will introduce you to must-see movies (and must-avoid) dogs that prove Agatha's genius depicting the hopeful and dark sides of human nature. These movies will tantalize you, mystify you, and make you laugh at the folly of humanity.

Teresa Peschel watched and reviewed 201 adaptations, from the German silent movie "Adventures, Inc." (1929) to "See How They Run" and "Why Didn't They Ask Evans" (2022). Each film was rated for fidelity to the original material and its overall quality. Each review takes up two pages and comes with six cast photos, list of major actors, and known film locations. Foreign movies with English subtitles from India, France, Russia, and Japan are included. We include eight movies in which the fictional Agatha Christie solves murder mysteries, debates Poirot, battles a space wasp (in Doctor Who), and plots to kill her husband's mistress.

“Agatha Christie, She Watched” is the only comprehensive collection of reviews about Christie adaptations. Use it to find the movies made from the novels you love, fill in your movie collection or host an Agatha Christie festival of your own.

Book Links: Amazon | KindleUnlimited | Barnes & Noble | BookShop.org | Goodreads | BookBub | Peschel Press

Music Credits

Cloud Recesses

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Would you ever climb into that box magician's have and then let them saw you in half? It's just an illusion, right? Or is it? This week we're heading to New Jersey for a little magic on Halloween in Zig Zag Girl. A person could really get sawed in half in one of those boxes, you're thinking. fuggedaboutit already. This week's podcast is all about a haunted magic show.

Synopsis

Zigzag Girl, by Ruth Knafo Setton, is a twisty contemporary mystery with a touch of magic, set in Atlantic City and the eerie New Jersey Pine Barrens. Lucy Moon, a brilliant young magician with a mysterious past, works in the town’s theatre, staging performances of enchantment and conjure. But one night, during the ‘Sawing a Woman in Half’ trick, Lucy discovers her friend’s body in the box, dead. As Lucy digs deeper, she uncovers a trail of murders and suspects. With the help of a fierce group of female magicians and mystics, she must expose the truth before she becomes the final act.

Book Links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | BookShop.org | Goodreads | The Black Spring Press Group

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Open Up

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Books to the Ceiling is part of the Teresa Trent Author Blog

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This week we are headed to the world of art collecting. Matisse, Monet, and a little art forgery that makes you wonder what is authentic and what isn't? Let's find out more in Artist, Lover, Forger, Thief by Sheila Sharpe.

Artist, Lover, Forger, Thief is a riveting, wildly entertaining, complex, and adrenaline-fueled art crime novel that is as intriguing as it is satisfying. Nick McCoy wants out of the art forgery business but not until he exacts revenge on the man who murdered his family years ago. Kate O’Dade, McCoy’s former therapist, comes to him for help after mysteriously receiving a painting of Matisse’s Open Window from an unknown benefactor. This seemingly innocent meeting to determine its authenticity sets off a chain of events that will take McCoy, O’Dade, Cromwell and his new team of investigators from San Diego to England, and from art forgery to murder.

Rarely do you find such complex characters, intricate plot, compelling subject, and cunning psychological jousting woven throughout such a memorable story like Sharpe does in Artist, Lover, Forger, Thief.

Book Links: Amazon | Kindle | Barnes & Noble | BookShop.org | Goodreads | BookBub

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Blank Light

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This week we're heading to Winchester, Virginia to do a little historical research while we hang out with the dead detective, Oliver Tucker. Get ready for helpful spirits, child psychics, and a man in love with an angel. All good stuff in Dying With a Secret by TJ O'Connor.

Oliver “Tuck” Tucker, the dead detective, is back—not just for another case, but from the dead—or vice versa. It all starts when a Federal Agent is killed by a mysterious force in front of dozens of witnesses—including Angel, his historian wife, and Tuck. Among the many suspects is a dark, clandestine Federal agency responsible for advanced research and weaponry, a university doctoral candidate who won’t stay dead, and the leader of a secret southern society bent on rekindling the Civil War. With the aid of a ten-year-old psychic and the spirit of Tuck’s Civil War grandmother—Sally Elizabeth Mosby—Tuck has to stay one step ahead of the Feds who are hellbent on capturing him—alive? But through all this, what’s a two-hundred-year-old lost fortune in gold got to do with dead agents, secret death rays, and rogue policemen?

Genre: Paranormal Mystery, PI Cozy Mystery Published by: Level Best Books Publication Date: December 9, 2025 Number of Pages: 324 ISBN: 979-8898201111 (pbk) Series: The Dead Detective Casefiles, Book 4 Book Links: Amazon | Kindle | Barnes & Noble | BookShop.org | Goodreads | BookBub

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Soft Landing

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Internal Investigation

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This week we're traveling back in time, I mean way back to ancient Crete. A murder mystery set in the Bronze Age? Listen and find out in A Murder of Furies.

When Tinos, the High Priestess's consort, asks Martis to search for his missing daughter, Martis becomes involved in the dangerous politics between Crete and Egypt. A minor Egyptian prince is courting Hele, the High Priestess's daughter, despite her persistent refusals. And despite the lobbying by Hele's brother, Khoranos, who seeks the Cretan throne for himself.

Then the High Priestess is found murdered, savagely stabbed multiple times. Martis discovers plans to kidnap Hele and she has to be spirited away to safety. Egyptian soldiers occupy Knossos and Khoranos installs his ally as the High Priestess.

Can Martis rescue the High Priestess's daughters and identify the murderer before Khoranos, with Egypt's help, takes the throne? Martis must embark on several dangerous quests to succeed.

Series: An Ancient Crete Mystery, Book 3 Book Links: Amazon | Kindle | Goodreads | BookBub

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Halls of Abaddon

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Awakening

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Visit Teresa's blog- Books to the Ceiling