The Deadly Detective Agency by Ann Parker

When Abigail Summers wakes up to find that she is actually dead she suspects that she has been murdered.  With a help of her friend Hayley, who is a psychic medium, Abigail aims to find out who murdered her and why.  

Abigail meets a number of the other local spirits and they work together to find out how they died.  They give their finding to Hayley's husband, who is a local police constable, so that people can be brought to justice.  They are so good at what they are going that they decide to create their own detective agency and advertise to the local dead community.  They are then given other jobs to investigate.  

Village Books by Craig McLay

Village Books in Canada has a number of staff, all of them have their own problems.  They are a bit of an odd bunch.  After many months of being understaffed the manager is finally encouraged to employ a new assistant manager.  Aspiring actress Leah Dashwood joins the team.  The other assistant manager immediately falls in love with her.  

Property developers are trying to buy the store but the elderly owners are not wanting to sell, although their son and daughter would love to get their hands on it and sell it off straight away.  Other members of the team have their own ideas about how they can improve the store and keep it running.  This is not helped when Leah gets an acting job and the owners are both incapacitated and their children try to take over. 

Too Many Cooks by Rosemary Shrager

This is the third book in the Prudence Bulstrode series.  

Prudence has been asked to return to St Marianne's School for Girls to help the girls prepare for their end of year meal which they will be serving to their parents.  Whilst builders are digging out the old hockey pitch to create foundations for a new building they dig up a body.  Prudence immediately knows that this is Mr Scott who used to be her maths teacher.  He was believed to have committed suicide from his boat, so how has his body ended up buried at the school?  

Prudence and Suki start their investigation and for Pru this is a trip down memory lane and a chance to meet up with her old teachers.  

Poison at the Village Show by Catherine Coles

The villagers of Westleham are gossiping that Martha Miller must be to blame for the disappearance of her husband Stan.  He came home from the war but has now disappeared.  He went out to work one day and did not return.  There is talk of him being underneath Martha's potato patch.   

At the Westleham village show glasses of Martha's plum gin are handed around.  Suddenly, after drinking the gin, Alice Warren collapses and is pronounced dead.  

Martha needs to clear her name, find out why Alice died and who killed her.  She is helped by Luke Walker, the new vicar.  

Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter? by Nicci French

On the day of Alec Salter's 50th birthday party, his wife Charlotte does not turn up and she is not seen again.  Their 15 year old daughter Etty is really worried and contacts the police.  All the family are interviewed and have to provide alibis.  A few days later Duncan Ackerley, the father of a neighbouring family, is found dead.  He appears to have committed suicide.  

Now with Alec in his 80s and suffering from dementia, the family are arranging to empty the house and move him into a care home.  Greg and Morgan Ackerley decide they they will create a podcast about Charlotte's disappearance and their father's death to see if they can come up with anything that the police missed.  They plan to talk with many members of the local community.  

When someone who talks on the podcast is murdered the police send in a detective from another force to investigate all three crimes as they could be connected.  

It Always Snows on Mistletoe Square by Ali McNamara

Elle has lost her fiancé, job and home. She sees an advert for the job of a writer to document a family history which is circled in a newspaper left on a bench by an elderly man who stopped to chat.  The successful applicant must love Christmas.  She does not.  There is only an address so she turns up at the house in Mistletoe Square.  When she arrives a very large Christmas tree is being delivered and installed with the assistance of the neighbour.  

The house is owned by an elderly lady, Estelle, who is looked after by Angela, her housekeeper.  Elle is given the job and moves in with them.  

Estelle has a very unconventional way of telling her stories.  She starts with the first of the Christmas tree ornaments and completely brings the story to life by transporting them all back in time.  Each evening a new ornament is selected and a new story about the family revealed. 

The Secret Beach by Veronica Henry

It is 20 years since a terrible storm led to the tragic deaths of the lifeboat men in the small coastal town of Speedwell.  On the boat were Nikki's father and brother in law.  

Nikki now works on the lifeboats herself.  She has just been able to buy and move into one of the coastguard cottages.  This gives her access to the secret beach.  The secret beach is a special place for her as it holds lots of memories.  

A threatening note is posted through Nikki's door.  Someone knows her secret which has been kept hidden for years.  If the truth comes out it could be devastating to her family.  

The Family Cabin by James Caine

As it is almost Mike's 40th birthday, Dawn arranges a surprise weekend away with friends at the family cabin.  Mike seems to have been stressed recently and has been going out on his own and not saying where he is.  

When she arrives at the cabin everything looks as it should, but then she hears a noise coming from the basement.  Dawn goes down to investigate and sees that a lock has been placed on one of the doors.  She opens the lock and finds a young woman in there who has chains around her wrists.  The young woman begs for help.  Then Mike arrives, much earlier than expected.  Should Dawn tell Mike what she has found, or was it him who placed her there? 

Postscript by Cecelia Ahern

This is the sequel to PS I Love you.

Holly's sister Ciara has finally convinced Holly to do a podcast for her in her series of 'How to talk about...' and this one is 'How to talk about death'.  There is a small audience in Ciara's shop.  After the podcast one of the ladies, who also regularly visits Ciara's shop, keeps trying to talk to Holly.  She finally leaves a card for her on which are the words 'The PS, I love You Club'.  

The club is a small group of terminally ill people who want to do something special for those they will leave behind and they want Holly to help them in this task.  This brings back lots of memories for Holly just is she is moving on with her life and is in a new relationship.  Should she help them, or will this cause more hurt for her? 

Irresponsible Adult by Lucy Dillon

After being fired from her job as an estate agent, Robyn is offered a temporary job by her sister Cleo who has a cleaning business.  

Robyn does not do a lot of cleaning in her own home and has to follow very precise instructions by Jim who is her supervisor.  She has to follow the list given to her and do all jobs within a tight timeframe.  She learns a lot of things about herself as she works with Jim.  She also start to clean her own home too.  

Throughout their lives Robyn and Cleo have known that they should not talk to their mum about her family.  Whilst on her new tidying spree, Robyn finds some old boxes which she has not unpacked and they contain items which must belong to her mum.  Finally some old family secrets are revealed. 

New Beginnings at the Cosy Cat Cafe by Julie Haworth

When she returns home from travelling, Tori comes home alone as she has been dumped by her boyfriend Ryan.  Her mother's Cosy Cup Cafe needs a revamp and so she suggests turning it in to a cat cafe as she has seen in Asia.  With the help of the local vet, and a fireman who helped to save her own cat from a tree, Tori makes changes to the lay out of the cafe and takes on 5 rescue cats who are all available for adoption by people who visit.  The project starts well and then Tori is targeted by malicious bad reviews and an unexpected visit from animal welfare. 

Our House by Louise Candlish

Fi and Bram Lawson have separated and are sharing the family home on a birds nest custody arrangement so that their two young sons constantly live in the one home.  The story is told from both Fi and Bram's points of view.  

Fi arrived at the family home unexpectedly one day to find that another couple are moving into her house.  She has not sold the house and it has not been up for sale.  She can't get in touch with Bram, his phone is out of service.  She tells her side of the story via a podcast.  

Bram has been keeping a lot of secrets from Fi.  He has been banned from driving but as he hasn't told Fi he has continued to drive when it is his turn to look after their sons and take them to planned events.  He is involved in a 'road rage' event which leads to a crash that hospitalises a mother and daughter.  Bram is then being blackmailed.  Following the sale of the house and his disappearance, Bram writes out his version of events in a word document.