Anna Denning Mysteries
Here are the books in the Anna Denning series, in the recommended reading order.
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The Witch Tree
Genealogist Anna Denning is horrified when she discovers the body of her newest client, Susan Muncy. Her shock quickly turns to panic when Tom Muncy, Susan’s husband, returns home and finds Anna standing over his dead wife.
Anna insists she was hired to research Susan’s family tree by the Muncys’ daughter, a girl who works at a wiccan-themed store in downtown Elk Park, Colorado. But Muncy vehemently denies having a daughter. Further, he accuses Anna of conspiring to destroy his political ambitions—a bizarre accusation under the circumstances. He warns her that if she and the store’s owner don’t back off, he’ll ruin them both.
Anna’s hopes for a quiet Christmas are shattered when Muncy begins a campaign of intimidation against her and even joins forces with the store’s owner—the very person he accused Anna of conspiring with. To clear her name and uncover the truth behind Susan’s murder, Anna must act quickly. Who pulled her into this nightmare and why?
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Sparrow House
When the owner of a mansion in the Colorado mountains hires Anna Denning to research his family tree, it’s Anna’s dream come true. A library brimming with old documents, an undiscovered family history—what more could a genealogist want?
Excited by the possibilities and fueled by a new love in her life, Anna is undeterred by rumors that a ghost haunts the mansion. And she’s intrigued when the mansion’s owner presents her with an additional request: He wants her to prove his home is haunted.
Events take a deadly turn when a gardener is found dead on the mansion’s grounds. At first his death appears to be a drug overdose, but the mansion’s housekeeper swears the man didn’t take drugs. And as Anna begins to uncover records that suggest the ghost rumors are more than idle talk, strange things start to happen. Unexplained sounds in the night, moving paintings, missing objects. The mansion itself seems to be coming alive.
Sensing that sinister forces are at work—forces that threaten everyone in the mansion—Anna must solve the mystery of Sparrow House before it’s too late.
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The Sacrifice
When the groundskeeper of the Morgan-Sadler House finds a figure propped against a beehive, a pumpkin in place of its head, he assumes it’s a Halloween prank. But the cruel display conceals the body of Russell Thurman, a founding member of the Elk Valley Historical Society.
Anna Denning soon discovers that Thurman was secretly researching the family trees of two other society members and intended to hire her to complete his work. So when a friend of the victim pleads with Anna to finish what Thurman started, Anna reluctantly agrees. Her decision leads her into a disturbing world of lies, concealed identities, and the occult.
With stubborn resolve, and facing major changes in her personal life, Anna uses all the tools in her genealogy toolbox to get to the bottom of things. Why was Thurman engaged in his secret research? Was he killed for what he found out?
When the killer strikes again, Anna knows she’s in a race against the clock. Can she uncover the truth before it’s too late?
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The Club
Summoned by her father to Elk Park, Melinda Maxwell hopes to finally learn why he cut off all contact with his family and became the monster she believes him to be. But four days into her stay at his house, he remains silent about his history. And when Melinda questions him about his membership in the January Club, her father reacts with fury.
Desperate to bring his hidden past to light, Melinda hires Anna Denning to locate her long-lost grandparents in hopes they can help. Already immersed in trying to locate the family of a murdered man for the police, Anna accepts the new challenge.
When Anna uncovers clues that suggest Melinda’s father and the murdered man are connected, she agrees to accompany Melinda to the January Club’s annual meeting. At first inclined to dismiss the club’s members as eccentric kooks, Anna changes her mind when one of them is killed during the meeting while staring up at a portrait of the club’s founder, the mysterious January Man.
Anna’s horror grows when Melinda catches sight of the portrait and insists she knows the man. It seems he visited her the night before—in her nightmare.
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Bitter Roots
Anna Denning and her fiancé are determined to spend a restful weekend at a mountain hotel. Sleeping late, reading books by a roaring fire. All they have to do is ignore the raging snowstorm outside and the hotel’s strange guests and surly staff inside.
But when one of those guests, a newspaper reporter, tells Anna the police are investigating two of the other guests—and that she’s been sent to spy on them—Anna’s hopes for a quiet getaway begin to fade. They’re dashed altogether when one of the guests is murdered and Anna realizes she’s sharing her weekend with a cold-hearted killer.
In order to survive, Anna must uncover the truth about her fellow guests. Who are these people? And what has brought them together, to an isolated hotel in the middle of a Colorado snowstorm?
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