Jess Lourey
Hi, folks! While I write across genres, there's one universal connecting all my books: secrets. I grew up in a house choking with them, and I remain fascinated by the thoughts and actions we hide from the world.My beginnings as an author were pretty grim, something I speak about in my TEDx Talk (https://youtu.be/a5vSLh3oPXI). I've come a long way since that first book, and I'm proud to call myself an Amazon Charts bestselling, Edgar-nominated, ITW Thriller and Anthony Award-winning author of nonfiction, children's books, YA adventure, magical realism, and crime fiction. I also love to teach creative writing in international workshops.I live in Minneapolis with a rotating batch of foster kittens (and occasional foster puppies, but man those goobers are a lot of work). You can find out more at jessicalourey.com. Thanks for checking out my books! If you're wondering which to read next, check out my Jess Lourey Book Recommendation Machine: https://forms.gle/SfFSEPt9HZcpLibi6
Unspeakable Things
Jess Lourey
Cassie McDowell’s life in 1980s Minnesota seems perfectly wholesome. She lives on a farm, loves school, and has a crush on the nicest boy in class. Yes, there are her parents’ strange parties and their parade of deviant guests, but she’s grown accustomed to them.
All that changes when someone comes hunting in Lilydale.
One by one, local boys go missing. One by one, they return changed—violent, moody, and withdrawn. What happened to them becomes the stuff of shocking rumors. The accusations of who’s responsible grow just as wild, and dangerous town secrets start to surface. Then Cassie’s own sister undergoes the dark change. If she is to survive, Cassie must find her way in an adult world where every sin is justified, and only the truth is unforgivable.
Inspired by a terrifying true story from the author’s hometown, a heart-pounding novel of suspense about a small Minnesota community where nothing is as quiet—or as safe—as it seems.
May Day (Mira James RomCom Mystery, #1)
Jess Lourey
Minneapolitan Mira James has been taking it easy since college graduation--too easy. Due to a dead-end job and a cheating boyfriend, the Twin Cities have lost their charm, and Mira decides to begin a new life in rural Battle Lake. Right away she is offered jobs as an assistant librarian and part-time reporter, and falls into an unexpected romance with a guy who seems to be the perfect man until he turns up dead between the reference stacks her tenth day on the job. Anxious to learn more about the man who had briefly stolen her heart, Mira delves into the hidden mysteries of Battle Lake, including a old land deed with ancient Ojibwe secrets, an obscure octogenarian crowd with freaky social lives, and a handful of thirtysomething high school buddies who hold bitter, decades-old grudges. Mira soon discovers that unknown dangers are concealed under the polite exterior of this quirky small town, and revenge is a tator-tot hotdish best served cold.A hip, humorous, and gripping account of small-town murder, this novel is the first in a series of cozies featuring Mira James, an urban woman with rural Minnesota roots.
Bloodline
Jess Lourey
An ITW Thriller Award and Anthony Award winner. Perfect town. Perfect homes. Perfect families. It’s enough to drive some women mad… In a tale inspired by real events, pregnant journalist Joan Harken is cautiously excited to follow her fiancé back to his Minnesota hometown. After spending a childhood on the move and chasing the screams and swirls of news-rich city life, she’s eager to settle down. Lilydale’s motto, “Come Home Forever,” couldn’t be more inviting. And yet, something is off in the picture-perfect village. The friendliness borders on intrusive. Joan can’t shake the feeling that every move she makes is being tracked. An archaic organization still seems to hold the town in thrall. So does the sinister secret of a little boy who vanished decades ago. And unless Joan is imagining things, a frighteningly familiar figure from her past is on watch in the shadows. Her fiancé tells her she’s being paranoid. He might be right. Then again, she might have moved to the deadliest small town on earth.
The Quarry Girls
Jess Lourey
Minnesota, 1977. For the teens of one close-knit community, summer means late-night swimming parties at the quarry, the county fair, and venturing into the tunnels beneath the city. But for two best friends, it’s not all fun and games.
Heather and Brenda have a secret. Something they saw in the dark. Something they can’t forget. They’ve decided to never tell a soul. But their vow is tested when their friend disappears—the second girl to vanish in a week. And yet the authorities are reluctant to investigate.
Heather is terrified that the missing girls are connected to what she and Brenda stumbled upon that night. Desperately searching for answers on her own, she learns that no one in her community is who they seem to be. Not the police, not the boys she met at the quarry, not even her parents. But she can’t stop digging because she knows those girls are in danger.
She also knows she’s next.
The Taken Ones (Steinbeck and Reed, #1)
Jess Lourey
Two girls vanished. A woman buried alive. Between two crimes—decades of secrets yet to be unearthed.
Summer 1980: With no fear of a local superstition, three girls go into a Minnesota wood. Only one comes out. Dead silent. Memory gone. No trace of her friends. The mystery of the Taken Ones captures the nation.
Summer 2022: Cold case detective Van Reed and forensic scientist Harry Steinbeck are assigned a disturbing homicide—a woman buried alive, clutching a heart charm necklace belonging to one of the vanished girls. Van follows her gut. Harry trusts in facts. Their common ground is the need to catch a killer before he kills again. They have something else in common: each has ties to the original case in ways they’re reluctant to share.
As Van and Harry connect the crimes of the past and the present, Van struggles with memories of her own nightmarish childhood—and the fear that uncovering the truth of the Taken Ones will lead her down a path from which she, too, may never return.
Catch Her in a Lie (Steinbeck and Reed, #0,5)
Jess Lourey
Two agents on the trail of a serial killer. A mother and daughter on the trip of a lifetime. Fates converge in paradise in a chilling short story by an Amazon Charts bestselling author.
Cold case expert Evangeline Reed and forensics legend Harry Steinbeck are on their way from Minneapolis to Costa Rica. They’ve been ordered to keep close watch on a protective mother and her daughter, both of whom have troubling connections to a Minnesota serial killer. Are they on holiday? In hiding? Or on the run? It’s time for Van and Harry to close in on the truth. And there’s more at risk than anyone can imagine.
Catch Her in a Lie by Jess Lourey is part of Getaway, a collection of six stories about dream escapes that take unimaginable, even sinister, turns. Each piece can be read or listened to in a single sitting.
A Whisper of Poison
Jess Lourey
John Wick meets The Giver in this post-apocalyptic teen survival young adult novel from bestselling author Jess Lourey.
June Bug (Murder by Month Mystery, #2)
Jess Lourey
Revised This edition of June Bug includes editorial revisions.
February Fever (Murder by Month Romcom Mystery #10)
Jess Lourey
Revised This edition of February Fever includes editorial revisions.
All aboard. It's murder on the Valentine Train in a heart-racing mystery from Amazon Charts bestselling and Edgar Award-nominated author Jess Lourey.
Mira James is heading to Oregon by rail with two of her best friends to attend a PI conference. Even better, she'll see Johnny, the love of her life, who's in Portland for an internship. It'll be scenic, swift, and safe. Until it isn't.
When a winter storm brings the train to a dead stop in the Rockies, Mira discovers that a woman in the next cabin has been murdered, and her husband and child have vanished. Rumors of an escaped convict do nothing to ease the passengers' frazzled nerves. To Mira, every one of them is a suspect.
Trapped in a snowbound train with only two people she can trust, Mira has to solve a baffling disappearance and track down a killer—if she isn't derailed herself. Permanently.
September Mourn (Murder by Month Mystery, #5)
Jess Lourey
A festive fairground becomes an unexpected backdrop for a grade-A murder in a deliciously funny mystery by Edgar Award-nominated author Jess Lourey.
The Minnesota State Fair wows again with 4-H exhibits, rides, a Neil Diamond concert, and deep-fried everything on a stick. Covering it is a breezy assignment as fluffy as cotton candy for reporter Mira James, until the main attraction becomes murder.
Ashley Pederson, crowned Milkfed Mary, Queen of the Dairy, is getting her all-American likeness carved in a block of unsalted butter when she drops dead, her face as red as a stoplight. Cause: malicious poisoning. Despite Ashley's creamy good looks, her reputation was pretty rancid. Still, who'd want to take out the soon-to-be college freshman and Battle Lake resident? Mira's made a vow to the dairy darling's grieving mother to find out.
Amid queenly competitors, rumors of sordid love affairs and embezzlement scandals, small-town secrets, and big business cover-ups, can Mira find the murderer on the Midway? You bet your corn dog she can.
Revised This edition of September Mourn includes editorial revisions.
The Reaping (Steinbeck and Reed, #2)
Jess Lourey
By-the-book forensic scientist Harry Steinbeck and rogue BCA agent Van Reed must catch a cold-case killer who’s returned to abduct a small town’s children one by one in this heart-stopping novel from the Edgar Award–nominated author of Unspeakable Things.
In 1998 an Alku, Minnesota, family of five was brutally murdered in their sleep. The event shook the insulated community but, without any solid leads, was relegated to the cold case files, where it moldered for twenty-five years. Until today.
Agent Harry Steinbeck hoped never to return to the northland, a place that holds terrible memories of his sister’s abduction. But when a recent homicide is connected to Alku’s unsolved mass murder, he and cold case agent Evangeline Reed have no choice but to investigate.
The case grows impossibly darker as, one by one, the children of Alku begin disappearing. And Harry and Van can’t shake the sensation that someone is watching every move they make.
As an elusive killer’s trail leads to a truth more sinister than either imagined, Harry knows there’s only one way to crack this he must finally face the secrets of his own past—even if doing so will cost him everything.
April Fools (Murder by Month Mystery, #12)
Jess Lourey
Two disappearances and a murder. The mystery couldn't be more personal in a witty and twisty rom-com caper from Amazon Charts bestselling and Edgar Award-nominated author Jess Lourey.
After a year in Battle Lake, Minnesota, aspiring PI Mira James would kill not to stumble over another dead body. Given her latest discovery, though, it isn't looking good.
An ominous note hidden in an old book not only mentions Battle Lake's former librarian, who vanished into thin air, but also Mira's own father, who died thirteen years ago. The word "HELP" scrawled at the top is even more unnerving. But who's in danger? And why?
As if the note isn't mystery enough, a girl's sudden disappearance adds another case to Mira's plate. To solve them both, Mira—and all of Battle Lake—must navigate deadly threats and a few surprises she never saw coming.
Revised This edition of April Fools includes editorial revisions.
March of Crimes (Murder by Month Mystery, #11)
Jess Lourey
Everybody's got to have a hobby. But some pastimes hide murder in a delightfully crafty rom-com mystery by Amazon Charts bestselling and Edgar Award-nominated author Jess Lourey.
A charitable senior finds her calling making creepily authentic life-size dolls. Call it recreation. But when Mira finds a dead body encased under that painted porcelain, it's more like murder.
It gets even stranger when Mira's investigation lands her just where the Battle Lake police chief wants her: in jail. Luckily, Team Mira is on the case. They're a fierce, if unlikely, force to be reckoned with: one flashy lady mayor and Mira's scrappy nonagenarian best friend.
They plan to bust Mira out and clear her name. Bad news, though: a bizarrely motivated killer is still on the loose and can't wait to see Mira all dolled up—to death.
Revised edition: This edition of March of Crimes includes editorial revisions.
December Dread (Murder by Month Mystery, #8)
Jess Lourey
'Tis the season for grinning sales-elves on TV and maddeningly jolly muzak. But for Mira James and other Battle Lake-area women, the holidays are marred by something far worse—a serial killer leaving candy canes as his calling card. His target? Thirty-something brunettes who look just like Mira. When a woman from her high school graduating class becomes the latest victim, Mira plows through a case of online dating turned deadly.
Revised: This edition of December Dread includes editorial revisions.
November Hunt (Murder by Month Mystery, #7)
Jess Lourey
Revised This edition of November Hunt includes editorial revisions.
October Fest (Murder by Month Mystery, #6)
Jess Lourey
What's October without a festive mood, a chill in the air, and a dead body? There's big trouble brewing in little Battle Lake in this Lefty-nominated mystery from Amazon Charts bestselling author Jess Lourey.
Cue the accordions: Battle Lake, Minnesota, is kicking off October Fest with polka, sausage, and cold suds. The big inaugural event? A debate between two congressional hopefuls. One, stultifyingly sincere. The other, a foot-in-mouth tippler.
Reporter Mira James is roped into covering their fighting words...and then a murder, when a relentless pit bull of a blogger is found dead at a motor lodge filled to capacity with fellow pundits, campaign entourages, and tourists—all of whom have just become suspects.
Mired to her neck in deadly mudslinging, it's up to Mira to sort through a pile of the candidates' dirty laundry and expose a killer who's giving her the pre-Halloween jitters, all while managing mixed messages from local hottie Johnny Leeson. Who knew the political season could be so scary?
Revised edition: This edition of October Fest includes editorial revisions.
Litani
Jess Lourey
The Amazon Charts bestselling author of Unspeakable Things and Bloodline explores the darkness at the heart of the rural Midwest in a novel inspired by a chilling true crime.
In the summer of ’84, fourteen-year-old Frankie Jubilee is shuttled off to Litani, Minnesota, to live with her estranged mother, a county prosecutor she barely knows. From the start, Frankie senses something uneasy going on in the small town. The locals whisper about The Game, and her mother warns her to stay out of the woods and away from adults.
When a bullying gang of girls invites Frankie to The Game, she accepts, determined to find out what’s really going on in Litani. She’s not the only one becoming paranoid. Hysteria burns through the community. Dark secrets emerge. And Frankie fears that, even in the bright light of day, she might be living among monsters.
January Thaw (Murder by Month Mystery, #9)
Jess Lourey
The discovery of a frozen stiff reveals old buried secrets in a witty and invigorating mystery from Amazon Charts bestselling and Edgar Award-nominated author Jess Lourey.
It may be six below zero, but an ice-skating jaunt gets even more chilling for private investigator in training Mira James. She's just locked eyes with a frozen corpse floating under a sheet of ice.
The man, a curious transient who's been researching local history, also rescued Mira and her best friend from a mugging the night before. His death is no accident, but it is a mystery. To solve it, Mira follows a trail leading to the alleged haunting of a historic museum and a centuries-old tragedy that has yet to claim its final victim.
With a killer on the loose amid a freakish winter thaw, Mira is on thin ice. If she doesn't watch her back, she could be the next one to go under.
Revised edition: This edition of January Thaw includes editorial revisions.
Knee High by the Fourth of July (Murder by Month Mystery, #3)
Jess Lourey
Independence Day comes with fireworks, a budding romance, and hometown murder in this sharp and witty mystery by Edgar Award–nominated author Jess Lourey.
When Fourth of July weekend coincides with Wenonga Days—the annual celebration of a locally famous Ojibwe leader—the town of Battle Lake double-dips on the tourist trade. This year the hullabaloo hasn’t even started and there’s already a story for reporter Mira James.
The Chief Wenonga statue has disappeared, leaving behind drops of human blood and a big question for How and why would anyone steal a twenty-three-foot monument? Things go from curious to worse when a local man is kidnapped. And from worse to downright gruesome when a corpse is found in the lakeside cabin of a horticultural hottie Mira’s been crushing on from afar.
Mira has no choice but to trail a statue thief, find a missing person, and clear an earthy dreamboat’s name from a murder charge. Not to mention risk her own life to unmask a cold-blooded killer.
Revised This edition of Knee High by the Fourth of July includes editorial revisions.
Salem's Cipher
Jess Lourey
A brilliant code breaker shatters a centuries-old conspiracy and unravels her own family secrets in an addictive and heart-pounding thriller by Edgar Award–nominated author Jess Lourey.
Salem Wiley is a genius cryptanalyst. She’s also a loner who prefers a safe and familiar path. Until her mother disappears in the wake of a brutal murder, leaving behind a cryptic warning of threats to come. Forced out of her safe zone, Salem embarks with her best friend, Bel, on a dangerous quest that reaches back centuries into America’s hidden history.
Drawn into a labyrinth of messages encrypted by Emily Dickinson and hidden in the legendary Beale Cipher, Salem discovers her mother’s double life—and the truth. An ancient and ruthless society is hell-bent on ruling the world, and only a select group of hunted women stands in its way.
Now Salem must follow a cross-country trail of clues in a desperate bid to unravel the conspiracy, which threatens not only the present but the very course of history.
Revised This edition of Salem's Cipher includes editorial revisions.
October Fest: Humor and Hijinks (A Murder by Month Romcom Mystery)
Jess Lourey
Beer and polka music reign supreme at Octoberfest, Battle Lake's premier fall festival. To kick off the celebrations, the town hosts a public debate between the two congressional candidates: straight-laced Arnold Swydecker, and slippery incumbent, Sarah Glokkmann. As a reporter for the Battle Lake Recall, Mira James is roped into writing up the word war. But the festive mood sours when a well-known Glokkmann-bashing blogger is found dead . . . and the congresswoman herself meets a gruesome fate.
To keep the heat off her best friend's fiance--an ex-con reporter--Mira wades through the candidates' dirty laundry, their unsavory secrets, and some murderous mudslinging to expose the killer.
December Dread: Humor and Hijinks (A Murder by Month Romcom Mystery)
Jess Lourey
'Tis the season for grinning sales-elves on TV and maddeningly jolly muzak. But for Mira James and other Battle Lake-area women, the holidays are marred by something far worse—a serial killer leaving candy canes as his calling card. His target? Thirty-something brunettes who look just like Mira. When a woman from her high school graduating class becomes the latest victim, Mira plows through a case of online dating turned deadly.
November Hunt: Humor and Hijinks (A Murder by Month Romcom Mystery)
Jess Lourey
November in Battle Lake, Minnesota, is cold enough to freeze the balls off a pool table. lt's also deer hunting season. When Tom Kicker is killed in a hunting accident, Mira James is hired to investigate--a job that brings her closer to a P.I. license. Braving subzero temps and shrieking blizzards, Mira uncovers a decades-old scandal that has never quite died, unlike the cold stiffs who are piling up in the town morgue. As she pieces together the clues, Mira discovers that Battle Lake's good-old boys have been up to some bad business. But with threats and enemies around every icy corner, she may not live long enough to expose the truth.
September Fair (Murder-by-Month Mystery #5)
Jess Lourey
The Minnesota State Fair - the beloved home of 4H exhibits, Midway rides, and everything on a stick. The festival fun is riding high until the recently crowned Milkfed Mary, Queen of the Dairy, a Battle Lake native, is brutally murdered while her regal likeness is carved in butter.
Can Mira James, covering the fair for the Battle Lake Recall, expose a deadly State Fair secret and win a blue ribbon for caging a killer? You bet your last deep-fried Nut Goodie!
August Moon: Hot and Hilarious (A Murder by Month Romcom Mystery)
Jess Lourey
Maybe it's time for me to leave this crazy town, hightail it back to Minneapolis, and become a cat-collecting, fist-shaking, asexual English professor...
Furious after being stood up by local hottie Johnny Leeson, Mira decides to abandon Battle Lake, Minnesota, where the women are churchgoers, the men like to hunt, and the body count is above average. But when a cheerleader bites the dust, Mira loiters long enough to snoop.
Mira is highly suspicious of the New Millennium Bible Camp, a disturbing place with a Stepford Wives meets Hee Haw vibe. Before ditching Battle Lake, Mira is hell-bent on confronting her own demons and catching a killer.
Knee High by the Fourth of July: Hot and Hilarious (A Murder by Month Romcom Mystery)
Jess Lourey
Independence Day comes with fireworks, a budding romance, and hometown murder in this sharp and witty mystery by Edgar Award–nominated author Jess Lourey.
When Fourth of July weekend coincides with Wenonga Days—the annual celebration of a locally famous Ojibwe leader—the town of Battle Lake double-dips on the tourist trade. This year the hullabaloo hasn’t even started and there’s already a story for reporter Mira James.
The Chief Wenonga statue has disappeared, leaving behind drops of human blood and a big question for How and why would anyone steal a twenty-three-foot monument? Things go from curious to worse when a local man is kidnapped. And from worse to downright gruesome when a corpse is found in the lakeside cabin of a horticultural hottie Mira’s been crushing on from afar.
Mira has no choice but to trail a statue thief, find a missing person, and clear an earthy dreamboat’s name from a murder charge. Not to mention risk her own life to unmask a cold-blooded killer.
Revised This edition of Knee High by the Fourth of July includes editorial revisions.
May Day: Hot and Hilarious (A Murder by Month Romcom Mystery)
Jess Lourey
Minneapolitan Mira James has been taking it easy since college graduation - too easy. Due to a dead-end job and a cheating boyfriend, the Twin Cities have lost their charm, and Mira decides to begin a new life in rural Battle Lake. Right away she is offered jobs as an assistant librarian and part-time reporter, and falls into an unexpected romance with a guy who seems to be the perfect man - until he turns up dead between the reference stacks her tenth day on the job. Anxious to learn more about the man who had briefly stolen her heart, Mira delves into the hidden mysteries of Battle Lake, including a old land deed with ancient Ojibwe secrets, an obscure octogenarian crowd with freaky social lives, and a handful of thirtysomething high school buddies who hold bitter, decades-old grudges. Mira soon discovers that unknown dangers are concealed under the polite exterior of this quirky small town, and revenge is a tator-tot hotdish best served cold. A hip, humorous, and gripping account of small-town murder, this novel is the first in a series of cozies featuring Mira James, an urban woman with rural Minnesota roots.
August Moon (Murder by Month Mystery, #4)
Jess Lourey
Maybe it's time for me to leave this crazy town, hightail it back to Minneapolis, and become a cat-collecting, fist-shaking, asexual English professor...
Furious after being stood up by local hottie Johnny Leeson, Mira decides to abandon Battle Lake, Minnesota, where the women are churchgoers, the men like to hunt, and the body count is above average. But when a cheerleader bites the dust, Mira loiters long enough to snoop.
Mira is highly suspicious of the New Millennium Bible Camp, a disturbing place with a Stepford Wives meets Hee Haw vibe. Before ditching Battle Lake, Mira is hell-bent on confronting her own demons and catching a killer.
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