The Filbert Steps (The Telegraph Hill Mysteries) Cozy Mystery 1st in Series Setting - California Publisher: Sutro House Press Publication date: August 31, 2026 Print length: 301 pages DigitalISBN-13: 979-8951746016 /ASIN: B0H52YDTRG
A body on the steps. A neighborhood that saw nothing.
Vivian Salvatore came back to Telegraph Hill with a cat, a divorce settlement, and a book she cannot seem to write.
At fifty-two, newly single and trying to rebuild her life, she has settled into the rhythms of San Francisco’s most beautiful staircase: coffee at the corner café, morning walks on the Filbert Steps, old neighbors on three corners, and the comforting illusion that everyone knows everyone.
Then, on a bright October morning, Vivian finds one of the city’s most ambitious developers dead on the third landing.
The police are ready to call it a fall. But Vivian spent twenty-seven years reading teenagers’ faces for a living, and she knows when a story does not fit. A coat buttoned wrong. A cigarette ground out where it should not be. Storefronts quietly sold to a post-office box in Delaware. And a neighborhood full of people who had reason to want one man gone.
As Vivian begins asking questions, she discovers that Telegraph Hill has been keeping secrets for years — about money, loyalty, grief, and who really gets to call a place home.
The Filbert Steps introduces Vivian Salvatore, a sharp-eyed, warm-hearted sleuth who notices everything and forgives almost as much.
Perfect for readers who love older women sleuths, atmospheric San Francisco mysteries, neighborhood secrets, found community, and fair-play cozy mysteries with literary depth.
Lila Blake writes San Francisco neighborhood mysteries about foggy stairways, old houses, found family, and the secrets people keep when a place begins to change. Her Telegraph Hill Mysteries begin with The Filbert Steps, a literary cozy mystery featuring Vivian Salvatore, a fifty-two-year-old former teacher rebuilding her life after divorce. Lila is published by Sutro House Press, an independent fiction imprint based in San Francisco.
After a charged encounter ignites something ancient in her
blood, Sarai Davis becomes entangled in a world of hidden magic where pleasure
and danger are inseparable.
A shocking prophecy shatters her reality: Sarai is a Half
Kasst, descended from an erased bloodline and born to stand against a secret
network of aristocratic vampires.
Now hunted, Sarai must reclaim a legacy meant to be wiped
from history and embrace her power before the forces hunting her finish what
they began millennia ago. But power always demands payment.
Kate adds, “She is right, Sarai. You must feed. If Half
Kassts are anything like vampires, you don’t want to experience what starvation
is like. My father…”
She pauses, looks around the room, then continues.
“My father punishes vampires who don’t follow his rules by
locking them up, and he does not provide them any blood. It’s terrible. They
wither away for years; their screams get weaker in just weeks, and after a few
months, you don’t even hear them anymore.”
Delilah Belvedere is a Kenyan-born, Washington, D.C.–based
author and keynote speaker whose stories weave together mythology, sensuality,
and power. Her writing blends African-inspired mythology with nontraditional
vampires, witches, immersive worldbuilding, and unapologetically sensual
storytelling, exploring themes of identity, legacy, and self-discovery through
bold, unforgettable characters.
Drawn to the spaces where ancestral magic,
forbidden desire, and hidden histories collide, Delilah creates worlds where
passion is transformative, power is inherited, and destiny is written in blood.
Through every story, she champions authenticity, body positivity, curiosity,
and the courage to embrace one’s truest self.
When she’s not writing, Delilah
is exploring new cuisines, hosting backyard BBQs, or binge-watching her next
favorite series.
Will a legal challenge to Tori’s ownership of the Leichter inheritance ruin all her dreams?
Sinister Remnants is the fourth book in author Anita Dickason’s charming, yet suspenseful Tori Winters Mystery series set in Granbury, Texas. In the final run up to the grand opening of the Red Door Inn, rumors questioning the validity of Tori’s ownership of the former Leichter mansion and property begin to circulate and when a Houston attorney approaches David Tucker with cryptic promises that an anonymous client has proof of the claim, Tori begins to wonder if her dream of turning her grandmother’s home into an elegant B&B will ever become a reality.
The plot kicks off at a brisk pace with the stunning accusation occurring in the very first chapter, and the tension builds steadily as each new legal maneuver hits and long-held secrets come to light, bringing with them a new danger. In between, readers learn a little more about the family and the past as the complex case unfolds.
Tori and her friends have been through so much renovating the house and getting the historic old home ready to serve as a weekend B&B and weekday meeting center and café, so the rumor that it all may have been for naught hits pretty hard. These are good, kind people with a lot of energy and enthusiasm for Tori’s dream, and you can’t help but want for them to succeed. Conversely, the author has created some new characters who, after only a brief introduction, you know are trouble. For example, attorney Mark Houghton and Metro News reporter Charlotte Polaski are the very pictures of smarm.
Tori, David, and the rest of the Red Door Inn characters have become a family, and having read the previous books, I almost feel as though they were part of mine, so it was no surprise how quickly and completely I was invested in the outcome of the story. However, while this is the fourth Tori Winters book, the author subtly provides enough highlights from the past that readers new to the series can easily read and enjoy this one as a standalone novel. But the earlier books are great fun and really are must-reads in and of themselves.
I recommend SINISTER REMNANTS to cozy mystery readers, especially those who enjoy Texas-set stories.
I voluntarily reviewed this after receiving an Advance Review Copy from the author through Great Escapes Virtual Book Tours.
A private eye with a badge, a bottle, and a little bit of magic…
Justice, Or Something
Like It
The Jake Bishop Files Book 2
by
Doc Blalock
Genre: Noir Paranormal Sleuth Suspense
In Solomon City, everybody keeps secrets. Secrets are Jake
Bishop’s job.
When a harmless old drunk is caught standing over a corpse,
murder weapon in hand, the case looks open and shut—but he won’t say why he
pulled the trigger. Just that it had to be done.
Bishop knows better. Digging deeper, he uncovers a blackmail
scheme, a shadow war in the Irish underworld, and a threat aimed at the one
person his old friend has left to lose—forcing Bishop to bend the law, and his
own conscience, to see something like justice done.
“Secrets. Everyone has them. Some folks keep them for good and noble reasons, others, not so much. All kinds of secrets. Personal, professional, valuable, harmful or embarrassing. People will go to extremes to keep them safe. Some folks have been willing to die for them. Some will kill to protect them. I’m Jake Bishop, private investigator. Secrets are my job.”
A Damned Dirty Thing
The Jake Bishop
Files Book 1
The explosion should have killed him . . .
Jake Bishop is back on the streets of Solomon City, ten
months after a mob bombing destroyed his office and murdered his partner and
secretary. But Bishop isn’t just any private detective—he’s a “ditch wizard”
able to step through shadow and bend reality to his will.
When the beautiful and mysterious Portia Vance answers his
ad for a new secretary, Bishop thinks his luck might finally be changing.
Together, they begin hunting Vito Morelli, the mob boss who ordered the hit
that nearly ended Bishop’s life.
Their investigation leads them through the city’s darkest
corners—from strip clubs to shadow banking operations, from corrupt cops to
magical wards. But in a world where bullets and spells are equally deadly, and
where everyone has secrets worth killing for, Bishop discovers that the line
between hunter and hunted is thinner than he thought.
Some cases require a gun. Others need magic. This one
demands both.
In the shadows of Solomon City, justice comes with a
price—and revenge wears a beautiful face.
A gritty noir fantasy that proves sometimes the most
dangerous magic is the human heart.
Christopher “Doc” Blalock is a US Navy veteran Corpsman and retired
counselor. He is a prolific fine artist, illustrator, musician, sculptor and
writer, cursed with the itch to create. He draws inspiration from sources
ranging from JRR Tolkien to Tom Clancy. He additionally draws from his love of
classic black-and-white noir films, infusing their moody aesthetic and
storytelling into his writing. A helpless coffee addict, he lives in the
Atlanta suburbs with his childhood sweetheart and a dog of dubious moral
character.
What if the Civil War never truly ended, and no one noticed who is now
winning?
A standalone thriller. New readers can start right here.
When Professor Jack Sullivan is asked to decode a cipher from the war's final
days, he expects a historical curiosity. Instead, he uncovers a threat
Jefferson Davis died protecting, a secret never meant to resurface.
Jack, his fiancée Emma Wilson, and former SEAL Steve Johnson are pulled
into a hunt more dangerous than any battlefield. From Washington's archives to
the back alleys of New Orleans, from the coast of Mexico to the shadowed
ridges of Arkansas, every trail leads deeper into the world of the Knights of
the Golden Circle, a brotherhood long believed defunct.
But the Knights didn't disappear. They became patient.
For 160 years they studied what force could never win. They embedded
themselves in the institutions Americans trust, and waited for the moment when
they wouldn't need to seize power. They would be invited to take it.
Now their heirs have risen. A cartel is running weapons north while a
cyberattack probes the power grid, and a senator climbs toward power on the
fear both create. Jack begins to realize he was never hunting the treasure. He
was being led to it.
Joined by Homeland cyber analyst Priya Patel and hunted by enemies he cannot
see, Jack has four days to break a design older than anyone imagined before
the trap closes around everyone he loves.
Some secrets don't stay buried. They grow roots.
Great for fans of Steve Berry and Clive Cussler.
Praise for Echoes of Fortune: Knights of the Golden Circle
"The high-stakes, of-the-moment, infiltrated-America suspense simply does not let up."
~ BookLife by Publishers Weekly
"One part Jack Reacher, one part Indiana Jones... an impressively entertaining
action thriller."
~ Kirkus Reviews ("GET IT")
"Leng lets history press against the present, sometimes like a warning and
sometimes like a buried fuse."~ Literary Titan
David R Leng is the award-winning author of the Echoes of Fortune historical
conspiracy thriller series, winner of three PenCraft Awards, including
Thriller of the Year and back-to-back Best Thriller honors, two Literary Titan
Gold Awards, and a Kirkus Reviews "GET IT" selection.
A lifelong resident of Southwestern Pennsylvania, David grew up in the shadow
of the same battlefields his characters explore. He spent summers near the
Shades of Death wilderness in western Maryland and has kayaked the
Youghiogheny River, where a chance encounter with a stranger carrying a metal
detector and asking about Braddock's gold planted the seed for the series.
His debut novel, The Search for Braddock's Lost Gold, follows historian Jack
Sullivan into the unsolved mystery of General Braddock's vanished army payroll
from the 1755 Battle of the Monongahela. The series has since expanded to the
sunken Confederate secrets of Shadows Over Cozumel and the shadowed world of the Knights of
the Golden Circle.
When he is not unraveling centuries-old conspiracies, David can be found scuba
diving, boating, or in his woodshop. He lives in Pennsylvania with his wife
and family.
Dr. Nikki Finlay's WOW! WOMEN ON WRITING TOUR OF The Economy Always Gets Better: Navigating Turbulent Times with Confidence
Economic Policy
Publisher: Amplify Publishing
Publication Date: August 18, 2026
Page count: 240 pages
SYNOPSIS:
For those of us who forgot what we learned years ago or never had the opportunity to take an economics class, terms like recession, depression, tariffs, inflation, and gross domestic product can make our heads spin.
If that sounds like you, you’re in the right place.
In The Economy Always Gets Better, award-winning economist Dr. Nikki Finlay explains the economy in its simplest terms, making it easier to understand and giving readers the tools to approach even the most distressing economic information with confidence.
Dr. Finlay combines her knowledge and years of academic experience in this practical and accessible guide for anyone wishing to better their understanding of the economy. Using personal stories, useful metaphors, visual representations, and statistical data, she makes economics accessible to everyone.
Whether you’re worried about the current economic troubles or trying to figure it all out for the first time, The Economy Always Gets Better will leave you better informed and better prepared to thrive.
Dr. Nikki Finlay is an economics educator and author of The Economy Always Gets Better: Navigating Turbulent Times with Confidence. She helps adults who feel intimidated by economics understand how it actually works in their everyday lives—without the jargon.
With over two decades of teaching experience at institutions including Clayton State, Georgia State, and Gwinnett Technical College, Dr. Finlay has worked with students of all backgrounds and experience levels. Her approach is simple, practical, and rooted in real-life examples that make complex economic concepts easier to understand.
Through her writing, Dr. Finlay translates topics like inflation, employment, and economic cycles into clear, relatable insights that help readers build confidence—not just knowledge—about the world around them.
She lives just outside Atlanta, Georgia with her husband of over 40 years and enjoys reading, cooking, and spending time with her children and grandson.
August 17 @ The Muffin - Join us at WOW! Women on Writing's blog, The Muffin, as we celebrate the launch of Dr. Nikki Finlay's book, The Economy Always Gets Better. Read an interview with the author and enter to win a copy of her book.
August 18 @ Writer Advice - Stop by Lynn's blog for a guest post by Dr. Nikki Finlay with tips on marketing for mobility-impaired audiences.
August 19 @ One Writer's Journey - Stop by Sue's blog for her review of The Economy Always Gets Better.
An Evolutionary Anthropologist, respected lecturer, martial artist, husband,
and father, Kyle journeys to Northern Norway in search of the breathtaking
Aurora Borealis and the ancient petroglyphs of Alta. But beneath the dancing
northern lights, something impossible happens. A violent geomagnetic
phenomenon tears Kyle from the modern world and hurls him across the corridors
of time.
What begins as scientific fascination quickly becomes a desperate fight for
survival.
Thrown into the Stone Age among primitive hunters, Kyle unknowingly leaves
behind clues that will survive for thousands of years. He battles Viking
warriors, walks beside Silk Road caravans, witnesses the rise of empires, and
survives civilizations most people only read about in history books. Along the
way, he encounters moments that forever alter him—including an
unforgettable friendship with a young boy who will one day become Genghis Khan
and a journey east with Marco Polo toward the legendary court of Kublai Khan.
But every jump through time comes at a cost.
As Kyle struggles to survive brutal landscapes, ancient warfare, and the
terrifying instability of the auroral corridor itself, the man he once was
slowly begins to disappear beneath scars, grief, and centuries of memory.
Meanwhile, back in present-day Pennsylvania, his wife Samantha refuses to give
up hope. Alongside archaeologists and scientists searching for answers, she
uncovers ancient carvings, unexplained historical anomalies, and evidence
suggesting Kyle may still be alive somewhere… in another time.
AURORA RIFT: A Man Out of Time is an epic blend of historical adventure,
science, survival, and emotional human drama. Spanning thousands of years of
civilization from Stone Age Norway to the Persian Empire of Xerxes, from
Viking seas to the vast Mongol world the novel asks a haunting question:
If time itself opened before you… Would you ever truly find your way
home again?
Thomas LeBrun began his martial arts training in the early 1970s, inspired by
Bruce Lee and Joe Frazier. He formally studied Judo, Tae Kwon Do, and Okinawan
Kenpo, later expanding into Yoshitsune Ju-Jitsu under Sensei Michael
DePasquale Sr. and Jr., as well as Aikido, Arnis, pressure-point applications,
and boxing. His dedication earned him rank in multiple disciplines.
LeBrun’s path led him to the Close Protection field, where his martial
arts knowledge evolved into specialized training in defensive arts,
non-traditional weapons, and personal security. He has protected high-profile
clients such as Bill Gates, Elton John, and Whitney Houston, working in more
than 45 countries. In 2009, he created LeBrun’s American Combatives, a
modern system bridging traditional martial arts with real-world application,
later authenticated by Grand Master Ron Van Clief and Shidoshi Glen Perry.
A recognized authority in defensive arts, LeBrun earned his 10th dan in
Hogoshin-Do in 2022 and has been honored with multiple awards, including
Security Expert of the Year (2021) and induction into the Ultimate Warrior
Class (2022). He is also a multi-award-winning, #1 international best-selling
author of Hiding in Plain Sight and the Cameron Stone series and was named
Best Action & Thriller Author in Alabama, United States of 2025.
When Nichola Rodale stumbles upon information suggesting her father—a
renowned scientist and brilliant puzzle maker—may not have died during
The Great Drought, she embarks on a perilous journey across the desolate
American Southwest to discover the truth.
Kelly Lydick’s writing has appeared in Natural Awakenings, Co Yoga +
Life, True Blue Spirit, American Art Collector, Western Art Collector, and
many others. She has been featured on NPR’s The Writers’ Block and
the Word podcast, and on iHeart radio. She is the author of the experimental
Mastering the Dream, a contributing author to the anthology Dreams That Change
Our Lives, and the author of Dream Incubation for Greater Self-Awareness: A
Handbook. Everything That’s Left Behind is her first novel.
Lila Blake writes San Francisco neighborhood mysteries about foggy stairways, old houses, found family, and the secrets people keep when a place begins to change. Her Telegraph Hill Mysteries begin with The Filbert Steps, a literary cozy mystery featuring Vivian Salvatore, a fifty-two-year-old former teacher rebuilding her life after divorce. Lila is published by Sutro House Press, an independent fiction imprint based in San Francisco.
