Saturday’s Mystery eBooks
Steeped in Malice
by Vicki Delany
Rating: 4.6 #ad
Afternoon tea isn’t just about flavorful brews and delicious treats. It’s also about presentation—fine china teacups (never mugs!), with carefully coordinated saucers and plates. With her fragile stock running low, Lily has an excuse to indulge in one of her favorite hobbies: visiting an antiques fair for replacements.
Among other finds, Lily snaps up a charming Peter Rabbit-themed tea set in a wicker basket, perfect for children’s events. But a few days later, a woman named Kimberly marches into the tearoom, rudely demanding to buy it back—then later returns and removes an envelope hidden in the basket’s lining.
The Surge
by Monica Abbott
Rating: 4.3 #ad
Rayner is a problem solver with a plan. “First… I gotta find the kids. Then… figure out how to fix this. Then… we can die.”
Rayner loves his kids more than anything. Except for the Almighty, of course. He still loves his estranged wife too. Just not his mother-in-law! But “The Surge” is turning humans into A.I. hybrids, and with only twenty-four hours to reverse it, Rayner and his sidekick cousin have no time for run-ins with aliens, attacks from super-soldiers, the threat of a deadly disease, or interference from his mother-in-law.
Baghdad, Iraq 2003: an ancient sarcophagus is airlifted to a deep underground military base where “Operation Ancient Seed” commences using DNA from the mummified remains. More than two decades pass before a planned EMP event is brought to fruition – “The Surge.” The atmospheric, electromagnetic change that follows brings super-soldiers to life, releases aliens from subterranean abodes, and activates the rewriting of human DNA. The plan: rule over a robotic, A.I. population…
Easy Go
by Michael Crichton
Rating: 4.2 #ad
From the creator of Jurassic Park and ER
Egyptologist Harold Barnaby has just made the discovery of the century. While retranslating some old hieroglyphs, he has found clues to the location of a pharaoh’s lost tomb. But this discovery leads him to make the ultimate choice: rather than share his find with the rest of the world, Professor Barnaby is determined to locate the tomb and keep whatever treasure he finds inside for himself.
But to pull off the greatest heist in the archaeological history, Barnaby will need help. Enter Robert Pierce, a transient freelance writer looking for excitement.
The Darkness Beyond
by H. L. Wegley
Rating: 4.7 #ad
Will she surrender her life to the darkness beyond to save her friends?
As Dr. Meiling Chen-Adams, prepares for her Maui honeymoon, a call from President Warrington changes her and Ryan’s lives forever. Meiling’s story has weaved through the media during the previous three months and attracted the president’s attention. He wants Meiling to apply her RNA virus theories to counter the CCP’s bioweapons. But staying ahead of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) requires obtaining the genomes they are using.
Establishing the espionage network she needs places Meiling and her American team in danger deep inside of China. Added to that danger is the Novel Marburg Virus the CCP unleashes on the world.
Little Horrors
by Steven Jenkins
Rating: 4.1 #ad
“How do we know you’re the real Santa?” Young Dexter and Millie are spending Christmas Eve at their grandparents’ farm. Something is stuck up the chimney. Is it Santa Claus? Or something else entirely?
Scarlet is dead, cursed, and trapped behind the mirror, desperately searching for her true love.Courtney was born when the dead started walking, infecting the living, taking over the world. This is her life. This is all she knows.
Max has been granted one wish. One wish to change his worthless life, or change a broken world. Will he make his choice before it’s too late?
The Cranio-Genesis Project
by Terence J. Murphy
Rating: 4.7 #ad
The phenomenal conclusion to the Cranio-Genesis Project trilogy begins with President Schmidt’s plan, finalized in Sicily, kicked into full gear. The Davidson children, Dr. Carter, President Schmidt, and the Allies work to counter the Russian and Iranian advantages once and for all.
All may not be as it seems once the Allies demonstrate the ability to counter the enemies, forcing the two tyrants to change strategies.
However, never underestimate the Allied team’s ability to keep pace and bring them to justice. The ending will not disappoint!
The Nature of Fragile Things
by Susan Meissner
Rating: 4.5 #ad
April 18, 1906: A massive earthquake rocks San Francisco just before daybreak, igniting a devouring inferno. Lives are lost, lives are shattered, but some rise from the ashes forever changed.
Sophie Whalen is a young Irish immigrant so desperate to get out of a New York tenement that she answers a mail-order bride ad and agrees to marry a man she knows nothing about. San Francisco widower Martin Hocking proves to be as aloof as he is mesmerizingly handsome. Sophie quickly develops deep affection for Kat, Martin’s silent five-year-old daughter, but Martin’s odd behavior leaves her with the uneasy feeling that something about her newfound situation isn’t right.
Raised On Freedom
by Gail McGuire
Rating: 4.5 #ad
A childhood full of hijinks and hair-raising escapades. Would her girlish adventures prepare her for a life filled with joys and sorrows?
Growing up in the heyday of Elvis, Marilyn Monroe, and the American Mafia, Gail McGuire’s fascinating reminiscences push the limits of modern views of child-rearing. And as this author enthusiastically recounts the endless delights and bittersweet struggles of her youth, she offers a glimpse into an era that transformed the world forever.
Idaho, the 1960s. Gail McGuire loved being part of the wild bunch. A lightly supervised youngster in the small town of Pocatello, she reveled in every moment of scrambling through neighborhood streets, chasing bold schemes, and roaming the idyllic open spaces. And ignoring her family’s hardships, she happily let her imagination thrive even in the face of looming life-altering turmoil.
Sweet Vengeance
by Fern Michaels
Rating: 4.5 #ad
One of the biggest and most beloved names in publishing, #1 New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Fern Michaels weaves a deeply satisfying and uplifting story of one woman’s journey from heartbreak to triumph—the kind of heartfelt, powerful novel her fans love.
Tessa Jamison couldn’t have imagined anything worse than losing her beloved twin girls and husband—until she was convicted of their murder. For ten years, she has counted off the days in Florida’s Correctional Center for Women, fully expecting to die behind bars. Fighting to prove her innocence holds little appeal now that her family’s gone. But on one extraordinary day, her lawyers announce that Tessa’s conviction has been overturned due to a technicality, and she’s released on bail to await a new trial.