Friday’s Mystery eBooks
The Anodyne Necklace
by Martha Grimes
Kindle $1.99 Rating: 4.4 #ad
A spinster whose passion was bird-watching, a dotty peer who pinched pennies, and a baffling murder made the tiny village of Littlebourne a most extraordinary place. And a severed finger made a ghastly clue in the killing that led local constables from a corpse to a boggy footpath to a beautiful lady’s mansion.
But Richard Jury refused, preferring to take the less traveled route to a slightly disreputable pub, the Anodyne Necklace.
Broken Rhodes
by Kimber Silver
Kindle $4.99 Rating: 4.7 #ad
Kinsley Rhodes blows into Harlow, Kansas like a tornado, twisting Sheriff Lincoln James’ life into knots. Her grandfather has been murdered and she wants answers.
As if the town’s first homicide in twenty years wasn’t enough, the beleaguered sheriff now has to deal with Henry Rhodes’ bobcat of a granddaughter, plunging his life deeper into chaos. As a dark storm threatens, long-held secrets are exposed, placing Kinsley directly in harm’s way.
The Pot Thief Who Studied the Woman at Otowi Crossing
by J. Michael Orenduff
Kindle $1.99 Rating: 4.6 #ad
Hubert Schuze is an adjunct professor at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, and he has a fairly lucrative side gig digging up ancient relics and selling them. He also seems to have a talent for finding killers. When Hubie discovers a body outside his pottery shop, it appears the victim was stabbed in the back with something resembling a screwdriver. But the story gets a lot more mysterious when a video turns up showing the man collapsing with no one else nearby. Furthermore, a slip of paper is found in his pocket, with Hubie’s name and address on it, suggesting there may be a connection between the two men—though Hubie has no idea what it could be.
Moving Target
by J. A. Jance
Kindle $2.99 Rating: 4.4 #ad
In this “engrossing” (Publishers Weekly) suspense novel from New York Times–bestselling author J.A. Jance, journalist-turned-investigator Ali Reynolds unearths a cold case that puts her in danger from a deadly arsonist.
Lance Tucker, an incarcerated juvenile offender and talented hacker in his own right, is set on fire one night and severely burned while hanging Christmas decorations in a lockup rec room. B. Simpson, Ali Reynolds’s fiancé and the man who helped put Lance in jail, feels obliged to get to the bottom of what happened. With Ali off in England to help Leland Brooks at a reunion with his long-estranged family, B. turns to someone else to help out—Ali’s good friend and Taser-carrying nun, Sister Anselm.
Wednesday the Rabbi Got Wet
by Harry Kemelman
Kindle $1.99 Rating: 4.3 #ad
A pharmaceutical mishap draws the rabbi into a murder investigation in this New York Times bestseller: “An endearing character . . . a devious plot” (San Diego Union-Tribune).
New Age thinking has come to Barnard’s Crossing, Massachusetts. The recently elected president of Rabbi David Small’s synagogue is intent on using temple money to build a meditation retreat. The congregation is practicing yoga, buying crystals, and reciting chants. When a troubled young man returns to the town after spending time in a controversial Hasidic cult, the rabbi expects him to be another New Ager. But things take a grisly turn away from new-fangled mantras of peace and love when something terribly old fashioned happens: murder.
Exile
by Richard North Patterson
Kindle $1.99 Rating: 4.5 #ad
David Wolfe’s life is approaching an exhilarating peak: he’s a successful San Francisco lawyer, he’s about to get married, and he’s being primed for a run for Congress. But when the phone rings and he hears the voice of Hana Arif—the Palestinian woman with whom he had a secret affair in law school—he begins a completely unexpected journey. The next day, the prime minister of Israel is assassinated by a suicide bomber while visiting San Francisco; soon, Hana herself is accused of being the mastermind behind the murder. Now David faces an agonizing choice: Will he, a Jew, represent Hana—who may well be guilty—or will he turn away the one woman he can never forget?
Nine Perfect Strangers
by Liane Moriarty
Kindle $2.99 Rating: 4.0 #ad
Nine people gather at a remote health resort. Some are here to lose weight, some are here to get a reboot on life, some are here for reasons they can’t even admit to themselves. Amidst all of the luxury and pampering, the mindfulness and meditation, they know these ten days might involve some real work. But none of them could imagine just how challenging the next ten days are going to be.
Frances Welty, the formerly best-selling romantic novelist, arrives at Tranquillum House nursing a bad back, a broken heart, and an exquisitely painful paper cut. She’s immediately intrigued by her fellow guests. Most of them don’t look to be in need of a health resort at all…