Promise McNeal Mysteries Series by Morgan James

Atlanta psychologist, Promise McNeal, is second-guessing her decision to leave her beloved city for a new life as a country store owner in the North Carolina Mountains. Not only does she find herself awash in unpaid bills, she's also shocked to discover that the store's previous owners' profits came from selling homegrown pot with the cornflakes. As Promise considers her options, a restless soul reaches out to her in a dream of a hanged woman... moreAtlanta psychologist, Promise McNeal, is second-guessing her decision to leave her beloved city for a new life as a country store owner in the North Carolina Mountains. Not only does she find herself awash in unpaid bills, she's also shocked to discover that the store's previous owners' profits came from selling homegrown pot with the cornflakes. As Promise considers her options, a restless soul reaches out to her in a dream of a hanged woman. And an offer of a temporary, yet lucrative, consulting job sends her back to Atlanta into the middle of a mystery. At each turn, Promise is pulled further and further into the unsolved murder of Atlanta socialite, Stella Tournay, and into the Tournay family's tangled legacy of violence, secrecy, and unexplained wealth. With assistance from her slightly-Goth, twenty-something friend, Susan, Promise soon finds answers in an out of print book on Carolingian art treasures, and in the memories of a retired jazz musician who knew the Tournays in Nazi-occupied Paris. She stands within a hand's grasp of unraveling the past when another murder in the Tournay house pushes her out into the darkness with only her intuition as armor, and clues from the dead as weapons. "With one foot in the Appalachians and the other in Atlanta, Morgan James' Promise McNeal combines simple values of mountain living with the adrenaline rush of urban crime. Wrapping everything in a ghost story, Quiet The Dead will keep you guessing to the final, surprising revelation." Mark de Castrique, Author of Sam Blackman Mysteries & Barry Clayton Mysteries less

In the second Promise McNeal mystery, Quiet Killing, Atlanta transplant to the Western North Carolina Mountains, fifty-something Promise, her fiddle-playing lover Daniel, and his slightly-Goth daughter, Susan, are back for more mayhem. After her great grandfather, January McNeal, haunts her dreams, Promise delves into family history from the early 1900s. When she learns January was accused of grave robbery, she wonders if perhaps the past is best left alone. Then evil comes knocking... moreIn the second Promise McNeal mystery, Quiet Killing, Atlanta transplant to the Western North Carolina Mountains, fifty-something Promise, her fiddle-playing lover Daniel, and his slightly-Goth daughter, Susan, are back for more mayhem. After her great grandfather, January McNeal, haunts her dreams, Promise delves into family history from the early 1900s. When she learns January was accused of grave robbery, she wonders if perhaps the past is best left alone. Then evil comes knocking. Someone burns her barn, and the contractor she hires to rebuild is murdered, almost at her backdoor. A second and third fire leads Promise to a mysterious, abandoned little girl. But why would the child start fires? Who killed the contractor? And what does a book about the legendary moonshine outlaw, Lewis Redmond, have to do with the contractor’s murder, and her great grandfather? Before Promise connects the clues, the child disappears into a late March snow and Promise, Daniel, and Susan, race against freezing temperatures to rescue her, and uncover a secret worthy of murder.Readers praised the first Promise McNeal mystery, Quiet The Dead, as "a real gem," and "everything a Southern mystery should be." less