Wednesday’s Mystery eBooks
Slay in Character
by Lynn Cahoon
Rating: 4.5 #ad
Cat and the members of her writers’ retreat have just arrived in Outlaw, Colorado, an “Old West” tourist town complete with inhabitants dressed up as famous figures from history. But this authentic slice of Americana takes a murderous turn when a college student masquerading as a nineteenth-century saloon girl becomes history.
Was she the killer’s intended target? Or did she take a hit meant for someone else? With a colorful cast of suspects to choose from – including some notorious gunslingers and the sleazy town founders—Cat must unhorse the culprit before a real-life ghost story is given a killer twist.
Check out:
(A Cat Latimer Mysteries)
The Nidderdale Murders
by J. R. Ellis
Rating: 4.3 #ad
In a Yorkshire Dales village everyone has a motive for murder—except the killer.
A retired judge is shot dead outside the Dog and Gun inn in the remote Yorkshire village of Niddersgill. There’s a witness who saw everything, and the gunman’s on the run; the case should be open-and-shut for DCI Jim Oldroyd. But the murderer had no motive for wanting Sandy Fraser dead and, what’s more, no trace of him can be found.
As Oldroyd and his team cast the net wider, they discover that Fraser wasn’t without enemies in Niddersgill. As the wealthy owner of a grouse moor, he’d clashed with farmers, debtors, hunt saboteurs and blackmailers. But none of them were at the scene of the murder. And when a local shopkeeper is gunned down in a second senseless attack, it’s clear that these killings are anything but random.
Check out:
(A Yorkshire Murder Mysteries)
Flu
by Gina Kolata
Rating: 4.6 #ad
The fascinating, true story of the world’s deadliest disease.
In 1918, the Great Flu Epidemic felled the young and healthy virtually overnight. An estimated forty million people died as the epidemic raged. Children were left orphaned and families were devastated. As many American soldiers were killed by the 1918 flu as were killed in battle during World War I. And no area of the globe was safe. Eskimos living in remote outposts in the frozen tundra were sickened and killed by the flu in such numbers that entire villages were wiped out.
Scientists have recently rediscovered shards of the flu virus frozen in Alaska and preserved in scraps of tissue in a government warehouse…
The Night Swim
by Megan Goldin
Rating: 4.4 #ad
In The Night Swim, a new thriller from Megan Goldin, author of the “gripping and unforgettable” (Harlan Coben) The Escape Room, a true crime podcast host covering a controversial trial finds herself drawn deep into a small town’s dark past and a brutal crime that took place there years before.
Ever since her true-crime podcast became an overnight sensation and set an innocent man free, Rachel Krall has become a household name—and the last hope for people seeking justice. But she’s used to being recognized for her voice, not her face. Which makes it all the more unsettling when she finds a note on her car windshield, addressed to her, begging for help.
Evidence Not Seen
by Carlene Havel
Rating: 5.0 #ad
Love keeps no record of wrongs.
Jeff Galloway cannot forget how he and his mother were left to cope on their own when his father went to prison. Furthermore, he does not understand why his mother wants to welcome John Galloway home with open arms after almost thirty years. As a new romance begins to blossom with perky social worker Melanie Clark, she encourages Jeff to let go of the past.
Can a crotchety retired detective help Jeff unravel long-kept secrets in his attempt to accept his parents as they are?
The Girl They Took
by Leslie Wolfe
Rating: 4.4 #ad
Where her daughter had played Gretel in front of a cheering audience, only two faint stage lights remained. The theater was deserted and eerily silent; the only sound she could hear was her own heart, pounding in a frenzy against her chest. She rushed outside and stopped sharply at the top of the stairs, stunned, her blood turned to icicles. Darkness had fallen, thick and filled with ocean mist, lampposts like ghosts sprinkling yellow haloes in the sky.
After eight-year-old Paige disappears without a trace, FBI Special Agent Tess Winnett is called to investigate one of the boldest kidnappings the bureau has seen. The girl was taken from a theater filled with witnesses, in the middle of a children’s play. And no one saw anything.
Starting a frenzied search and following leads that seem to suggest a link to the girl’s father, the state district attorney, Tess is stunned to learn of a ransom call that points to an entirely different motive, old as time itself: money.
Check out:
(Tess Winnett Mysteries)
The Last Time We Met
by Trisha Ridinger McKee
Rating: 5.0 #ad
As a member of the richest family in town, Willow understands the importance of reputation. Her stern grandmother has taught her that family secrets are to be buried, and as the most popular girl in school, Willow follows that lesson with a smile covering up the darkness.
But when Walden, the new guy from the wrong side of town comes to her school, Willow finds her image slipping and the secrets of her homelife in danger of being exposed. As a scandal tears the couple apart and throws Willow into a new, unfamiliar life, she must choose between saving Walden’s future or risking it all for love.