Genre: Cozy Mystery

Life is sweet for high school senior and ice cream slinger Genevieve Winterland. Her father owns Sweet Dreams Ice Cream Parlour, the cutest confectionery shop in their little town of Pinewood, Arizona. Genevieve loves her job, but when her father hires a broody newcomer with a dark past to provide extra security on her closing shifts, Genevieve bristles. Is this part of her father’s plan to send her away to college, when all she wants is to stay in Pinewood and run the family business?

Meanwhile, everyone’s favorite new teacher at Pinewood High, Miss Love, is receiving death threats, and then she goes missing. Genevieve suspects the crabby substitute, Ms. Pierce, who seems murderous about being passed over for the position. Or is the culprit Mr. Garcia, the longtime instructor who Miss Love replaced after he was fired for assaulting a student? Just when Genevieve thinks she knows the answer, she stumbles across the dead body of another missing faculty member.

Can Genevieve find the killer terrorizing the teachers in her beloved hometown—before someone else gets iced?

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About the Author

Elizabeth Maria Naranjo is the author of The Fourth Wall, The House on Linden Way, and What Was Never There. Her stories and essays have been widely published and nominated for the Pushcart Prize, Best American Essays, and Best of the Net, and her short story, “Windows,” was selected for Best Microfiction 2023. She lives in Tempe, Arizona, with her husband and two children.

Connect:

https://www.elizabethmarianaranjo.com

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8124819.Elizabeth_Maria_Naranjo

https://twitter.com/emarianaranjo

Categories: horror, gothic suspense, haunted house, ghost story, magical realism, thriller

The book is a ghost story with elements of horror and Gothic suspense.

This is a perfect October read - and here's a bit more about The House on Linden Way:

While passing through her hometown a decade after she left, Amber Blake impulsively revisits her old house on Linden Way. She only means to stay a moment, to show her three-year-old daughter Bee the place where she grew up. But when the kindly new owners invite them inside, Amber cannot resist.

Soon Bee is missing, the owners have disappeared, and Amber finds herself in a houseful of ghosts. Time takes on new meaning as she loses herself in living memories and a past that does not wish to be forgotten.

As Amber fights the powerful lure of a childhood she’d long left behind, her tenuous hold on the real world slips further from her grasp. Is it merely nostalgia she’s battling, or something far more menacing? Who haunts the house on Linden Way, and where are they hiding her child?

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About the Author

Elizabeth Maria Naranjo is the award-winning author of The Fourth Wall (WiDo Publishing, 2014). Her short fiction and creative nonfiction have been published in Brevity Magazine, Superstition Review, Fractured Lit, The Portland Review, Hunger Mountain, Hospital Drive, Reservoir Road, Literary Mama, Motherwell, and a few other places. Her stories have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, Best American Essay, and Best of the Net. All links to Elizabeth's work can be found on her website at elizabethmarianaranjo.com.