Mayhem and Ghost Stories, by Patricia Crandall, published by The Troy Book Makers is available at Independent Bookstores and on Amazon.com. “Mystery stories are meant to thrill and entice you the reader while engaging your thought process to see if you can figure out who has committed the evil deed. I invite you to such a challenge, one I’m sure is worthy of your ability and interest, to solve the crimes before the end of the various stories. Murder, Mayhem and Ghost Stories is a series of short and very short stories about murder, mayhem and ghostly happenings that I have successfully writt ..read more

FRINGE BENEFITS is about a bad cop--but it is also the first time we meet reader's favorite, Gordon Butler. Some of the other officers we've met in the first two books make appearances too.  Review on Amazon: The main story in this book is about Cal Slyvester, an officer on the Rocky Bluff Police Department. He is attracted to a fellow officer's wife and begins plotting the demise of his own wife in order to collect the insurance. But this book is so much more. We see what is happening in the lives of the other police officers and also in the lives of some of the Rocky Bluff citizens ..read more

I enjoy offering a free book and then watching how many download it. I used about three sites that advertise free books (they service is not free to the author), and I know the downloads went way up on the day that I'd selected for FUSSY LIBRARIAN to advertise--but they really jumped ahead on my birthday--have no knowledge why. One good thing that happens when a lot of books are downloaded is the number goes down for how the book is categorized--in this case it was cozies and female detectives On the last day the download total was 2,601--a goodly number. And, two of the next book in the s ..read more

This is a BIG brithday--I've managed to be on this earth for 90 years.  To celebrate, I'm offering the first in the Tempe Crabtree mystery series on Kindle, free. This is the last day. When this book first came out it had a totally different cover, ine that didn't match the covers on the rest of the series.  Larry Collins did a great job creating this one that does have the same Indian feel as the other covers. My hope, of course, is you will read and like DEADLY TRAIL and want to continue with the series. To get your free book go here: https://www.amazon.com/Deadly-Trail-Te ..read more

This first book in the Tempe Crabtree mystery series is the beginning of Tempe's and Nick Two John's unique friendship. Though Tempe is from the Bear Creek tribe, she didn't grow up on the reservation and doesn't know much about her heritage. Throughout the series Nick teaches her about her culture and much of the mysticism connected with it. The story begins with the clash of the Indians against the loggers in the Sierra, and Tempe must arrest Nick Two John. When the owner of the Inn is murdered, Nick is the main suspect. Tempe begins her own investigation of the murder which puts her i ..read more

 Tempe is the resident deputy of the mountain community of Bear Creek.  She's Native American and a part of the Bear Creek Indian tribe. She has the components of three amazing women I met when I first came to Springville. The first was a fascinating Indian woman who grew up on the reservation. I wrote personality pieces for the local newspaper and interviewed our female resident deputy. She revealed a lot about what her job consisted of and how she was treated by the male deputies. The third woman was the only female officer at the time on the Porterville Police Department who I d ..read more

When I first moved to Springville and learned we were near an Indian reservation (The Tule River Indian Reservation) of course I was intrigued. I was hired by the local newspaper to write personality pieces, and on of my first articles was about the resident sheriff's deputy who happened to be a woman. She was not treated well by the male deputies. While doing a book appearance I met an Indian woman who happened to grow up on the reservation. We had a great visit. Then I went on a grave-yard shift ride-along with the only woman on the Porterville Police Department. She happened to be a ..read more

And for my birthday gift to all of you, this book is free on Kindle starting today and ending at the end of August 24th. My good friend, editor, and publisher, Lorna Collins and I share August 24th as our birthday. Together we decided it would be fun to celebrate this way. Thie is the frist book in the series--though it's listed as # 0, making it difficult for some to realize it should be #1. The publisher who took on the first four books wasn't interested in Deadly Trail--and published the 2nd through fifth in mass-market paperback.  But it confused Amazon when I found another publis ..read more

 This is the story about deliving and receiving bad news. And a warning--BAD TIDINGS is bloodier than most of my mysteries. The main character and his wife were based on friends of ours--with major changes of course. I love these two. The crimes were inspired by true happenings. One scene, where the detective visits his wife long after visiting hours and no one stops came from one time my husband and I visited a friend of his long after visting hours and we acted like we belonged there. Not a soul questioned us. Like all my books, the ideas come from everywhere. And of course Roc ..read more

The beginnings of this first book came from all the hours my police officer son-in-law, Mike,  visited me when he got off his nightly shift. Frankly, I didn't know a whole lot about writing or publishing back then even though I'd written two historical family sagas. I read a lot of mysteries and I knew the tales Mike related could be turned into a compelling mystery.  During that time period we lived in a beach community--and of course, I wanted to set this book in a similar one, though I moved it up the coast a bit and gave it a different look.  One of the local cops had ..read more