Halloween Hoedowns Can Be Deadly

Spooky decorations. Murderous intentions. It’s not a party until someone ends up dead.
Bluebonnet Hills, Texas. Sho Tanaka can’t shake the feeling he's the odd man out. And being best buddies with a fading celebrity always seems to drop him in the midst of homegrown trouble. But when the suspended ICU nurse helps out at the local October festivities, he doesn’t expect to stumble over the librarian’s lifeless body.

Levi Blue is relishing his most demanding role to date. Faking it until he makes it as the interim mayor, the ex-TV tween detective is right on the job to hunt down a vicious murderer hiding among the boisterous crowds. But his script runs off the rails when the apparently deceased woman wanders back into the event… alive.

As Sho’s medical expertise is side-eyed by unamused partygoers, he dives deep to try to comprehend the bookish curator’s previous lack of pulse. And when a shocking turn disrupts the festive night, a gung-ho Levi partners with his reluctant sidekick and taps into his on-screen sleuthing skills to catch a creepy killer.

Can this not-so-dynamic duo solve another prickly puzzle in time for All Hallows’ Eve?

Halloween Hoedowns Can Be Deadly is a hilarious standalone short story in The Bucket List cozy mystery series. If you like colorful heroes, lighthearted humor, and twisty endings, then you’ll love Ryan Rivers’s small-town shenanigans.

Buy Halloween Hoedowns Can Be Deadly for a fatal fête today!
Bonus Content! Prequel Novella Included!
He came to stay out of trouble. But when a new friendship pulls him deep into danger, can he make it out alive?
Sho Tanaka is running from his problems. Placed on extended leave after a traumatizing incident led to his prescription drug addiction, the once-successful ICU nurse flees to his estranged sister in Texas. But when the tiny town’s Arbor Day Festival ends with him getting accidentally punched in the face, he makes an unexpected friend in the man who comes to his aid.

Former tween TV detective Levi Blue plans to never be forgotten. Fearing his father’s fate of an early death, he returns home to check in on his fan museum’s progress when a fight between the mayor and police chief takes out an innocent bystander. Turning on the fading celebrity charm, he ropes the new guy into his mission of hunting down his missing construction manager.

Still feeling like a fish out of water, Sho reluctantly helps his benefactor question the mayor, who claims to be afraid for her life. And Levi’s “experience” tells him they’ve stumbled onto a crazy conspiracy full of corruption, fraud… and sudden threats to their lives.

Can these newfound partners-in-crime-solving puzzle out the truth before they’re the next to vanish?

Arbor Day Can Be Deadly is a lighthearted novella in The Bucket List cozy mystery series. If you like complex characters, laugh-out-loud moments, and clean whodunits, then you’ll love Ryan Rivers’s comical investigation.