Guest Post by Lauren Carr Author of Candidate for Murder.

 

Book Details:

Book Title: Candidate for Murder by Lauren Carr
Series:  A Mac Faraday Mystery (Volume 12)
Category:  Adult fiction (18+), 410 pages
Genre:  Murder Mystery
Publisher:  Acorn Book Services
Release date:  June 16, 2016
Content Rating:  PG-13 (Lauren Carr's books are murder mysteries, so there are murders involved. Occasionally, a murder will happen on stage. There is sexual content, but always behind closed doors. Some mild swearing (a hell or a damn few and far between). No F-bombs!

---

Book Description:

When the candidate is a dog, the election gets deadly.

It’s election time in Spencer, Maryland, and the race for mayor is anything but civil.

When the two major parties offer up a pair of thoroughly unpleasant candidates, Police Chief David O’Callaghan decides to make a statement — by nominating Gnarly, Mac Faraday’s brilliant and mischievous German Shepherd, to run for mayor.

What begins as a hilarious joke quickly turns deadly serious when Gnarly becomes the front-runner overnight. Suddenly, the campaign gets ugly. One of the human candidates ends up murdered, and all signs point to the canine contender.

With the entire town watching and political enemies circling, Mac Faraday and the gang must dive headfirst into a dirty election filled with long-buried secrets, dirty tricks, and at least one very determined killer.

Can they clear Gnarly’s name before the votes are counted — or will this be one election that ends in murder?

A witty, fast-paced Mac Faraday Mystery packed with small-town charm, sharp humor, and a German Shepherd who just might be smarter than the voters.

GUEST POST: 

Spencer Had a Murder Problem Before It Had a Mayoral Problem

By Lauren Carr

Spencer, Maryland, sits on Deep Creek Lake and behaves, in my books, like a resort that failed to read the brochure. People come for the water. They stay for the secrets. By the time I got to Candidate for Murder, the twelfth Mac Faraday mystery, the town had hosted enough suspicious deaths that a quiet election would have felt like false advertising.

So I did not write a quiet election.

The lake is already split. Year-round people like the place they have. Newer people would like it better with more rules and fewer clotheslines. The parties respond by offering two nominees nobody is excited to claim. David, the police chief, is so unimpressed that he registers Mac Faraday’s German shepherd as a candidate. He wants the humans embarrassed. He gets a front-runner with four legs and a military record the opposition is delighted to wave around.

That record is not a garnish. Gnarly was put out of the Army under a story ugly enough to swing a race: that he killed his handler. Mac cares about the election less than he cares about that sentence. I care about it too. A funny campaign sitting on top of an old accusation is the kind of book I actually want to read. One tone, and it is a skit. The other tone, and it is grim for the sake of grim. Together, Spencer sounds like itself.

A reviewer once called this one canine Bonnie and Clyde. I will allow it. There is a campaign, there is a past, and there is at least one person who would rather frame a dog than lose an office. Mac, Archie, David, and the rest of the household are not there to deliver a lesson about politics. They are there because someone in a small town finally went too far, which is the only plot I trust.

You can start at book one. You can start here. The lake does not check your reading list at the town line. Candidate for Murder

 

Buy the Book:   
  Audible ~ Amazon
B&N ~ BookBub
Add to Goodreads

Meet the Author:

Lauren Carr is the author of over thirty acclaimed mystery novels, with more than half a million copies sold worldwide. Her fast-paced series—the Mac Faraday Mysteries, Chris Matheson Cold Case Mysteries, and more—blend twists, suspense, humor, and unforgettable characters (including clever German shepherds!).
 
It's Murder, My Son organically hit #1 in Mystery on Amazon, and her books consistently rank in the Top 20 Police Procedurals in the US and international markets.
 
A popular speaker and publishing consultant, Lauren lives on a mountain in Harpers Ferry, WV, with her husband and three spoiled rotten German shepherds.

connect with the author: website ~ facebook ~ instagram ~ X/twitter ~ pinterest ~ goodreads

Release Blitz of Two Minds One Rhythm by Edward Blackmon, Jr and Barbara Blackmon. (#contests- Win a gift card.)

 

A Story for a Fractured Nation, Healing America’s Divide Through the Redemptive Power of Shared Purpose

 

Nonfiction

Date Published: Coming OCT 6, 2026

Publisher: Elite Online Publishing

 

The day after Donald Trump won the 2024 presidential election, a New York Times reporter called trial attorney Edward Blackmon, Jr. with one question:

What should the rest of America expect?

This book is their answer.

Mississippi gave Edward and Barbara Blackmon—and the generations before them—a vantage the rest of the nation is only now beginning to feel. What Americans are living through today is not a new reality improvised in real time. It is the same ancient machinery that has always been here.

They spent their lives inside a system built to contain them: segregated schools and courthouses, voting maps drawn to dilute Black power, courtrooms that treated justice as a privilege. Locked as a teenager in a Canton jail during the civil-rights struggle, Edward decided then to become a lawyer so the law could serve as a shield rather than a weapon. He served more than four decades in the Mississippi House of Representatives and helped redraw the state’s political maps, more than doubling Black representation. The National Law Journal twice named him one of the nation’s top ten litigators.

Barbara Blackmon broke barriers of her own. She earned her degree from Jackson State University at nineteen, an MBA from the University of Alabama, a law degree from the University of Mississippi, and an LL.M. in taxation from New York University. She became the first Black woman to represent Madison, Yazoo, and Holmes counties in the Mississippi Senate from a majority-white district, later won the Democratic nomination to run for lieutenant governor, and, with her husband, built a statewide law practice in Canton that took the fight from the Capitol floor to the courtroom.

Two Minds, One Rhythm is the story of how two formidable minds learned to move together toward goals that serve humanity—and why we must unite now to heal a fractured nation before it is too late. This book does not stop at diagnosis. It offers a path forward: work, faith, education, and shared purpose. See the other side without surrendering yours. Rebuild trust. Choose courage over fear. The fractures can still be closed—not if we wait until the rest of the world finishes watching us come apart.

 

 

About the Author

 

EDWARD BLACKMON, JR.

Edward Blackmon, Jr. is a nationally recognized trial attorney, former Mississippi State Representative, and longtime advocate for voting rights and equal representation. A graduate of Tougaloo College and The George Washington University Law School, he co-founded Blackmon & Blackmon, PLLC, with his wife and law partner, Barbara, in Canton, Mississippi.

During four decades in the Mississippi House of Representatives, Edward helped lead legislative and judicial redistricting efforts that dramatically increased Black representation in the state legislature and judiciary. He broke at-large elections, drew maps that more than doubled Black representation, and created Mississippi’s first majority-Black judicial subdistricts. He won landmark verdicts—$177 million—and fifty criminal trials without a loss. Twice named one of the Nation's Top Ten Litigators by The National Law Journal, he has received numerous honors for his legal and public service, including the J. William Fulbright Distinguished Public Service Award and the National Black Caucus of State Legislators State Nation Builder Award.

Edward and Barbara married in 1986 and raised four children, two of whom now serve in the Mississippi Legislature.

 

 

BARBARA BLACKMON

Barbara Blackmon is a trailblazing attorney, former Mississippi State Senator, and Managing Partner of Blackmon & Blackmon, PLLC, the law firm she built with her husband, Edward. She holds degrees from Jackson State University, the University of Alabama, the University of Mississippi School of Law, and New York University, where she earned an LL.M. in Taxation.

In 1992, she became the first Black woman elected to represent Madison, Yazoo, and Holmes counties in the Mississippi State Senate—a majority-white district. She broke barriers as the first woman named Vice Chair of the Senate Finance Committee, the first woman and first Black senator to chair an Appropriations subcommittee, and the first woman from the Senate appointed to the Legislative Budget Committee. In 2003, she made history as the first Black Mississippian to win the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor.

An attorney, mentor, philanthropist, and lifelong advocate for education, Barbara has received numerous honors for her public service. Together, she and Edward have contributed more than $1.7 million to Tougaloo College and Jackson State University and supported scholarships for dozens of students.

Blackmon & Blackmon, PLLC

 

Contact Links

Website

Facebook

X

LinkedIn

Purchase Link

Amazon

Book Blitz of A Healing Heart in Twinkle Falls by Freda Ann. (#Contests- Enter to win a $15 Amazon Gift Card- three winners.)

A Healing Heart in Twinkle Falls
Freda Ann
(A Twinkle Falls Novel, #7)
Publication date: October 1st 2026
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Holiday, Romance

Nicole Holburg

After my military career with the Air Force’s Communications Squadron comes to a tragic ending, I head home to Twinkle Falls hoping to put my life back together.

With a failed relationship behind me, I won’t allow another man in my life since the last one nearly ended it.

Nick Rodriguez

I had my future planned out when I graduated from The Culinary Arts Academy in Switzerland. I’ll settle down with my childhood sweetheart in our home state of Hawaii, if she’d have me after years of lost communication.

As fate would have it, the only girl I’ve loved had married someone else.

When my best friend asks me to be his head chef at a prestigious inn in Twinkle Falls, I accept the offer. Building a new life in the small town where I went to high school leaves me feeling fulfilled.

Once my son comes to live with me, I’m soon reminded of what’s missing from this idyllic life… that one person who leaves me feeling complete. The problem is I have yet to meet her in this small town I’ve grown fond of.

Will these two have as much faith as the pastor does when he nudges Nicole to help Nick at the soup kitchen? Can the town busy bodies, who swoon over the man known as Jason Momoa’s doppelgänger, push Nick in the direction of his potential soulmate?

(Though this book is part of an ongoing series you should have no problem following Nicole and Nick’s storyline. If you’ve already read books 5 and 6 of the series, you’re more than likely familiar with this couple.)

Goodreads / Amazon / Barnes & Noble / iBooks / Kobo

—

EXCERPT:

Wincing, I struggle to raise my puffy eyelids while feeling something cold beneath me. Rolling my head to the side I try taking in my surroundings. That’s when I get a glimpse of blood on the concrete under my twisted body.

Ahhh, what— I draw a ragged breath while trying to figure out what’s happening, but that’s when my world turns black.

The next thing I remember is waking up in a white sterile room full of machinery emitting various tones and a window with the blinds half closed. With fuzzy eyes I notice silver rails on each side of the bed I’m lying in. While blinking, glimpses of a nurse taking my vitals comes into view. When finished, she moves to the foot of the bed to type on a computer.

“Where… am I?” I ask attempting to focus on the room. I struggle to fully open my eyes, but only manage to see pieces of my surroundings.

Pain shoots through me as I try lifting my hand to my swollen eyes. Unable to bear the pain rushing through me, my arm drops on top of my right leg as tears sting my eyes.

“Try not to move, Nicole.” A mature and soothing voice approaches me from the foot of my bed. “You’re in the hospital on base. I’m told you were also here a few weeks ago. Can you tell me what happened this time?” The nurse inquires.

My brain feels jumbled, like I’m trying to put together a puzzle without all the pieces, as I attempt to recall what could have put me in here.

Gently I shake my head staring at her while sobbing. “Why—” Unable to put words together I pause.

Breathing deep to calm myself isn’t easy, though I manage to take a few breaths before speaking slowly and softly. “Why can’t I… remember?”

“Oh, honey don’t be so hard on yourself.” She pats my arm. “In your condition you should thank God for being alive. If that knot on your head had been an inch closer to your temple, you wouldn’t be here.

Author Bio:

Freda Ann is fondly known for her sweet/clean, HEA RomComs. Her loyal fans and reviewers have compared several of her books to Hallmark movies. Many have hit #1 in multiple categories after release.

She writes relatable, faith and family based love stories which include kids and adorable dogs. Her writing style appeals to people of all ages. Her books will take you on an emotional journey with likable characters, and dreamy settings you'll wish you could visit.

After retiring from a career in the law enforcement field, Freda feels blessed to be able to write and self-publish her stories for everyone to read. She adores her large family, 5 children and 9 grandchildren, and hosts monthly family gatherings.

To hear about new releases, please follow her on Amazon and also on Goodreads.

Website / Goodreads / Facebook / Instagram

GIVEAWAY!

A Healing Heart in Twinkle Falls Blitz

—

Teaser of Tree Trek by Stephanie Mirocha. (#contests- Win An Gift Card and an Ecopy of the Book.)

A Daughter's Walk Through Grief

Nature, Botany of Trees, Healing Through Nature, Grief Journey

Date Published: 05-23-2025

Publisher: Holy Cow! Press

These intimate portraits of trees are a balm that heals grief.

In this memoir, Stephanie Mirocha weaves a blend of botany, philosophy, personal reflections, and healing through nature from grief after the loss of her father. Trees provide the backdrop of friendly support she clings to as she revives her father's educational Tree Trek. She "speaks for the trees," bringing enthusiasm to the treks she leads. Each chapter focuses on the science of a different tree, connecting the reader with the beauty of nature, and the vitality that comes from listening to the guiding wisdom of one's inner voice.

Excerpt

I’d known all along my dad was volunteering for tree projects in the park, starting with invasive buckthorn shrub removal. My daughter had told me about Grandpa’s tree tags. For 15 years, I might have randomly come across one or two tagged trees on my exercise walks, probably telling my dad how much I liked what he was doing. Beyond that, I didn’t look for more information or even think about it. My work took me away on weekends, and Tree Trek was only one Saturday a year. A favorite photo my mom gave me years earlier I knew perfectly well was a Tree Trek promo taken for the neighborhood newspaper. Yet, never before had I noticed that in it, he’s wearing a pair of binoculars around his neck! In fact, I ended up using that photo for his memorial service, creating a birch bark frame to surround it. How many people are like me, needing big arrows under a spotlight before they take notice? Understandably, we’re distractedly putting energy and effort into making a living. Our focus is directed elsewhere as parents. Sometimes we’re just not paying attention.

When I started paying attention, the whole picture swung into a full and complete view. My perspective shifted. Things no longer lined up within me the way I was accustomed, and as a consequence a new picture presented itself. My heart led me to realize that I very much wanted to pick up my dad’s legacy and continue where he had left off. Like Douglas-fir, you could say I needed to place myself in a new genus, a genus I never imagined existing in previously. I no longer, however, fit in the former one. Being here now feels familiar and safe, like home. It makes me feel connected and alive. There is no going back!

Each one of us evolves as we go through the many ups and downs of life. Even in the midst of grief and loss, opportunities present themselves for listening, paying attention, taking notice and following where your own arising inner wisdom leads. As we unlock from the inside and nurture what we find there, a new purpose can reveal itself allowing us to share latent gifts we each possess within us. We may even emerge significantly changed.

The winter after my dad died, upon getting the go-ahead from the park district to revive Tree Trek, I waited for spring to arrive and the snow to melt. Then, I walked my dad’s original route using his initial map to locate trees while planning for my own, first Tree Trek. I was so excited! The Douglas-fir from my dad’s photo was the first tree I looked for when planning my route. The probability was high that it would prove to be one of his tagged trees. Great anticipation of confirming this filled me as I crested the brick stairway of the park memorial that rests nearby Douglas-fir’s hill. That monument was familiar, but then I stepped beyond into an area of the park where I had never set foot before.

About the Author

Stephanie Mirocha is a visual artist, author, Minnesota master naturalist and science communicator who grew up climbing trees and exploring the city park across from her childhood home. Her creative art expression not only takes form in her passion for writing but also translates into her career as a fine art painter. Besides creating the art for this book, she has illustrated four children’s picture books connecting children to nature. Frog in the House won the 2016 Giverny Award for a science picture book in English, and My Little Book of Bald Eagles won 1st place, Juvenile Nonfiction, in the 2010 Next Gen Indie Book Awards. She and her scientist father shared a poetic heart and a love for nature, each informing and supporting the other throughout their close relationship. Graduating from the University of Minnesota with a BA in Philosophy, Stephanie followed her free spirit and embraced the unconventional life of an artist after moving to Aitkin, a small town in north central Minnesota. This is her first written book. Her art business website is https://stephaniemirocha.com/.

Contact Links

Website

Facebook

Goodreads

Instagram

Purchase Links

Amazon

Bookshop

Book Teaser- This Never Happened by Jessica Clem

Thriller

Date Published: 11-01-2026

Publisher: Rowan Prose Publishing

When former best friends Sam and Rebecca reunite at their college reunion, they decide to repair their fractured relationship and start over.

But then Sam finds out Rebecca is dating Adam, a man she’d had an intense relationship with two years ago. She vows to keep it a secret, lest it sever their newly mended bond.

Sam soon realizes she can’t outrun her and Rebecca’s imperfect past, nor can she ignore her and Adam’s desire for one another.

As Sam struggles between loyalty and lust, she realizes that vengeance can make monsters out of all of us.

Excerpt

Prologue

Sam stared at the blood gleaming on the hardwood floor in front of her. Someone was screaming beside her, but she couldn’t focus on anything other than the blood’s impossibly bright color. It was garnet-colored and aromatic–like a splash of copper-scented wine. Its beauty and grotesqueness transfixed her, and her eyes blinked slowly and heavily as she gazed at it. Concrete-heavy shock packed her muscles and froze her in place.

Her mouth moved, but the words stuck in her throat as she stared at the corpse’s crimson neck. A knife stuck out of it, and blood smeared the black handle. Sam blinked long and slow. Adrenaline began coursing through her once again, and her muscles loosened, but shock held her mind in its sharp claws.

Her eyes finally flicked to the fallen gun on the hardwood floor. Tears gleamed in her eyes. She knew she was the one who had caused this mess. She knew she had severed her relationships and created the target now on her back.

But vengeance was in control of her body now.

Her gaze scanned the blood-spattered murderer in front of her. Sam’s heart thundered as reality slammed through her like buckshot.

This person had killed someone Sam loved.

Sam grabbed the gun and pointed it at the wide-eyed assailant.

Let justice be served.

 

About the Author

 

 Jessica Clem is the author of the thriller, This Never Happened (coming November 2026), and the horror novel In Lieu of Flowers (coming 2027), both from Rowan Prose Publishing.

Her work has appeared in The Stygian Lepus Magazine, Creation Magazine, Dark Harbor Magazine (now Macabre Magazine), Ms Magazine, Literally Stories, on the Creepy Podcast’s Patreon page, and in the horror anthologies Down with the Fallen from Franklin/Kerr Press, D is for Demons from Red Cape Publishing, and After Dark from Rowan Prose Publishing. She is a 2026 Next Step Fund grant recipient, a project made possible by the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council through a grant from the McKnight Foundation.

Contact Links

Website

Facebook

Twitter

Goodreads

Instagram

TikTok

Preorder Today

https://mybook.to/ThisNeverHappened

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Bookshop