Mysteries
Wednesday’s Mystery eBooks
The Art of the Decoy
by Trish Esden
Rating: 4.5 #ad
Perfect for fans of Jane K. Cleland and Connie Berry, Tricia Esden’s series debut is sure to please.
After her mother is sent to prison for art forgery, Edie Brown returns to Northern Vermont to rebuild her family’s fine art and antiques business. She’s certain she can do it now that her mother is gone. After all, butting heads with her mom over bad business practices was what drove Edie away three years ago, including a screwup that landed Edie on probation for selling stolen property.
The Outsider
by Stephen King
Rating: 4.5 #ad
Evil has many faces…maybe even yours in this #1 New York Times bestseller from master storyteller Stephen King.
An eleven-year-old boy’s violated corpse is discovered in a town park. Eyewitnesses and fingerprints point unmistakably to one of Flint City’s most popular citizens—Terry Maitland, Little League coach, English teacher, husband, and father of two girls. Detective Ralph Anderson, whose son Maitland once coached, orders a quick and very public arrest. Maitland has an alibi, but Anderson and the district attorney soon have DNA evidence to go with the fingerprints and witnesses. Their case seems ironclad.
Within and Without Time
by D. I. Hennessey
Rating: 4.8 #ad
Birch Patterson served his country. Now he’s saving his home.
When Birch returns home from the war, he’s shocked to discover how much Brigand’s Gate has changed. The town he loved so much is gone, and in its place is a den of iniquity.
The Body Falls
by Andrea Carter
Rating: 4.3 #ad
Bridges Down – Roads Impassable – Killer Trapped
April in Florida and Benedicta (Ben) O’Keeffe is enjoying balmy temperatures during the last few days of a six month stint with a U.S. law firm. A week later, she returns to Glendara, Inishowen, where a charity cycle event is taking place. The town is abuzz with excitement, but it starts to rain, causing the cyclists to postpone the start of their event and stay overnight in the town. The rain doesn’t stop—it becomes relentless, torrential.
In the middle of the night, Police Sergeant Tom Molloy is called out to Mamore Gap, where a body, dislodged from a high bank by the heavy rain, has fallen onto a passing vehicle.
Arrietty
by Abby Davies
Rating: 5.0 #ad
Terrified… Arrietty wakes one morning to find her mother gone. Turning to her father for reassurance, she gets the terrifying sense that he – and others – are hiding a crime too dreadful to name.
Trapped… Confined to the house on the cliff, Arrietty worries for the safety of her brother as her father becomes increasingly unstable and unpredictable.
Truth… Arrietty’s hunt for answers plunges her into a nightmarish fight for survival that leads her to the most awful secret of all.
The Promise
by Frank Wheeler
Rating: 5.0 #ad
A classic western novel from Frank Wheeler with non-stop epic adventure and a blend of western romance
Three Devils, Wyoming is dangerous ground for anyone who prefers honesty and integrity to lies and threats. When Remington’s parents are killed in front of him, he learns the hard way.
That… sometimes… evil wins.
Ten years later he’s back in Three Devils. He’s back with a promise. He’s back with a plan. And he’s back with a gun.
The Crucible
by Waldo Rodriguez
Rating: 4.3 #ad
From the ashes of a dying world, a god will rise.
As an out of shape nerd, Gabriel Rivera had more pressing issues than outlandish things like godhood: Evacuating the city, joining the military, and protecting his family. Simple right?
Everything changed when the PAC invaded.
When the grim fate of his world is revealed, Gabriel joins the Reclaimer Project to save his family. A lowly F ranker, he’s weaker than even the worst recruits. Good thing he’s too stubborn for his own good.
Through blood and sweat Gabriel aims to grow stronger and rise above the rest.
Tuesday’s Mystery eBooks
Cajun Kiss of Death
by Ellen Byron
Rating: 4.7 #ad
The next shot from Cupid’s bow may be fatal in USA Today bestselling, Agatha Award-winning author Ellen Byron’s hearty and delightful seventh Cajun Country mystery.
In Pelican, Louisiana, Valentine’s Day has a way of warming the heart, despite the February chill. But the air at Crozat Plantation B&B turns decidedly frigid when celebrity chef Phillippe Chanson checks in. And when the arrogant Phillippe–in town to open his newest Cajun-themed restaurant–perishes in a fiery boat crash, Maggie Crozat’s dear friend JJ lands in very cold water.
The Excursion
by T.O. Paine
Rating: 4.0 #ad
ESCAPE WAS NEVER AN OPTION
Charly Highsmith is a survivor. Abandoned by her parents, she spent her teens looking after her autistic brother on the bitter streets of Denver, Colorado, with nothing but a jacket and a backpack.
But things are better now. Charly and Jacob live in a two-bedroom apartment near a mall, and with the passing of their long-lost father, they’ve inherited a cabin high in the Rocky Mountains. Charly’s eager to go there. Relive the good times she had as a child, running through the forest with Jacob and her cousins.
Sharon Sala Thrillers
by Sharon Sala
Rating: 4.6 #ad
Four romantic thrillers from the New York Times–bestselling author of the Jigsaw Files novels.
The Chosen
Missing
Sweet Baby
The Perfect Lie
The Case of the Vanishing Blonde
by Mark Bowden
Rating: 4.4 #ad
Acclaimed investigative reporter Mark Bowden has ferreted out unbelievable-yet-true stories of wrongdoing, murder and mayhem for decades. His illustrious body of work has won him a lifetime achievement award from the International Thriller Writers organization, and a reputation as “a Woodward that outdoes even Woodward” (Malcom Gladwell, New Yorker).
The Case of the Vanishing Blonde collects six of Bowden’s most riveting stories—accounts spanning four decades of fascinating characters and unsettling tales to illustrate all manner of crimes and the ways technology has progressively altered criminal investigation.
The Quilt Left Behind
by Ann Hazelwood
Rating: 4.7 #ad
When a pricey quilt disappears, Lily Rosenthal tries to sew up the mystery – and her love life – in the Wine Country Quilt series finale.
When Lily Rosenthal helps a friend sell some very expensive quilts, she is determined to keep them safely under lock and key. When one goes missing, not even the Dinner Detectives can figure out the culprit.
Dreams come true in surprising ways – and quilts once left behind become new sources of joy in the fifth and final novel in the Wine Country Quilt series.
The Children on the Hill
by Jennifer McMahon
Rating: 4.2 #ad
1978: At her renowned treatment center in picturesque Vermont, the brilliant psychiatrist, Dr. Helen Hildreth, is acclaimed for her compassionate work with the mentally ill. But when she’s home with her cherished grandchildren, Vi and Eric, she’s just Gran—teaching them how to take care of their pets, preparing them home-cooked meals, providing them with care and attention and love.
Then one day Gran brings home a child to stay with the family. Iris—silent, hollow-eyed, skittish, and feral—does not behave like a normal girl.
A Tale of a Colony
by Jack Michonik
Rating: 4.7 #ad
1960s, Lárida. In the tight-knit Jewish Latin American community of Lárida, everyone knows everyone and nobody’s business is their own. León Edri’s own history as an immigrant has taught him the importance of belonging to a community, and in his well-respected family, their Jewish heritage is above all else.
But among the younger generation of the little colony, heritage and history make way for other more important concerns, like independence. And love.
The colony is very important to León – but how much of what happens in it is he privy to? Even between his very own walls?
You Are Not Alone
by Carrie Vanderbilt
Rating: 4.2 #ad
Understanding And Working Through Postpartum Depression: A Common Condition So Often Misunderstood
Whether you’ve already received a diagnosis, or you’re unsure why you’re just not feeling quite right after the arrival of your new miracle, You Are Not Alone – Understanding And Working Through Postpartum Depression: A Common Condition So Often Misunderstood by Carrie Vanderbilt is for any woman who has struggled with the strange changes and emotions that appear during pregnancy and after delivery.
Women have struggled with postpartum depression in silence for far too long. Though the medical community continues to research and diagnose this condition, new mothers are confronted with myths and rumors that prevent them from getting help.
Monday’s Mystery eBooks
The Tuesday Night Survivors’ Club
by Lynn Cahoon
Rating: 4.4 #ad
Two things got Rarity Cole through her breast cancer treatments: friends and books. Now cancer-free, Rarity is devoting her life to helping others find their way through the maze to healing. She’s opened a bookstore focusing on the power of healing—Eastern medicine, Western medicine, the healing power of food, the power of meditation, and the importance of developing a support community. To that end, she’s also started the Tuesday Night Survivors book club. With its openness to new-age communities, Sedona, Arizona, is the perfect fit for Rarity’s bookstore and the tightly knit group.
Storykeeper
by Daniel A. Smith
Rating: 4.0 #ad
“Smith writes fluidly, and the society he depicts is intriguingly complex.” – Kirkus Reviews
Hernando De Soto and his army of three hundred and fifty conquistadors spent the next year and a half conquering the nations in the fertile flood plains of eastern Arkansas.Three surviving sixteenth-century journals written during the expedition detailed a complex array of twelve different nations. Each had separate beliefs, languages, and interconnected villages with capital towns comparable in size to European cities of the time. Through these densely populated sites, the Spanish carried a host of deadly old-world diseases, a powerful new religion, and war.No other Europeans ventured into this land until French explorers arrived one hundred and thirty years later.
The Good Son
by Jacquelyn Mitchard
Rating: 4.0 #ad
What do you do when the person you love best becomes unrecognizable to you? For Thea Demetriou, the answer is both simple and agonizing: you keep loving him somehow.
Stefan was just seventeen when he went to prison for the drug-fueled murder of his girlfriend, Belinda. Three years later, he’s released to a world that refuses to let him move on. Belinda’s mother, once Thea’s good friend, galvanizes the community to rally against him to protest in her daughter’s memory. The media paints Stefan as a symbol of white privilege and indifferent justice. Neighbors, employers, even some members of Thea’s own family turn away.
Good Man Friday
by Barbara Hambly
Rating: 4.6 #ad
New Orleans, 1838. Living in antebellum New Orleans as a free man of color, Benjamin January has always taken whatever work he could find. But when he suddenly loses his job playing piano at extravagant parties, he finds himself taking on an entirely new – and exceedingly dangerous – enterprise. Sugar planter Henri Viellard has hired Benjamin to travel with him to Washington, DC. Henri’s friend, an elderly English mathematician named Selwyn Singletary, was last seen in Washington before he went missing. With Benjamin’s help, Henri intends to track him down.
Endangered Species
by Nevada Barr
Rating: 4.4 #ad
Tough, likable park ranger Anna Pigeon is back in another high-spirited outdoors adventure/mystery.
Anna has been assigned a three-week posting on Georgia’s isolated Cumberland Island. Despite the breathtaking natural setting, Anna finds time weighing heavily as she works tedious fire pre-suppression duty. Her boring routine is shattered when a sudden plane crash in the inland palmetto thickets calls her and the other members of the fire crew to action.
When Anna and the crew investigate, they discover the plane was sabotaged…
Ripper
by Patricia Cornwell
Rating: 3.9 #ad
From New York Times bestselling author Patricia Cornwell comes Ripper: The Secret Life of Walter Sickert, a comprehensive and intriguing exposé of one of the world’s most chilling cases of serial murder – and the police force that failed to solve it.
Vain and charismatic Walter Sickert made a name for himself as a painter in Victorian London. But the ghoulish nature of his art – as well as extensive evidence – points to another name, one that’s left its bloody mark on the pages of history: Jack the Ripper. Cornwell has collected never-before-seen archival material – including a rare mortuary photo, personal correspondence and a will with a mysterious autopsy clause – and applied cutting-edge forensic science to open an old crime to new scrutiny.
Someone’s Daughter
by Silvia Pettem
Rating: 4.1 #ad
In 1954, two college students were hiking along a creek outside of Boulder, Colorado, when they stumbled upon the body of a murdered young woman. Who was this woman? What had happened to her? The initial investigation turned up nothing, and the girl was buried in a local cemetery with a gravestone that read, “Jane Doe, April 1954, Age About 20 Years.”
Decades later, historian Silvia Pettem formed a partnership with law enforcement and forensic experts and set in motion the events that led to Jane Doe’s exhumation and eventual identification, as well as the identity of her probable killer. The 2023 paperback edition includes an epilogue with updated information on how the mystery finally was solved.
Sunday’s Mystery eBooks
Lethal Lobster
by Hope Callaghan
Rating: 4.6 #ad
Assistant Cruise Director, Millie Sanders’ day is off to a shockingly bad start when her boss “volunteers” her to be his Guinea pig for a stun gun self-defense class in front of her fellow shipmates.
Loyal to a fault, she agrees but almost immediately regrets her decision.Meanwhile, several crewmembers have become violently ill and possibly on the verge of death after eating food prepared from the galley kitchen, operated by her best friend, Annette Delacroix.
Check out:
(Millie’s Cruise Ship Mysteries)
A Serpent’s Tooth
by Craig Johnson
Rating: 4.6 #ad
It’s homecoming for the Durant Dogies when Cord Lynear, a Mormon “lost boy” forced off his compound for rebellious behavior, shows up in Absaroka County. Without much guidance, divine or otherwise, Sheriff Walt Longmire, Victoria Moretti, and Henry Standing Bear search for the boy’s mother and find themselves on a high-plains scavenger hunt that ends at the barbed-wire doorstep of an interstate polygamy group. Run by four-hundred-pound Roy Lynear, Cord’s father, the group is frighteningly well armed and very good at keeping secrets.
Sherlock Holmes and the Vampire Invasion
by Suzette Hollingsworth
Rating: 4.3 #ad
“No blood, no teeth,and now no scullery maid! What else shall go missing? I hope we may all leave this house with our limbs.” – Mycroft Holmes
To kill for the sake of killing–to target those unknown to oneself–is the most demonic act of all. Is it a Satanic cult or a witches’ coven behind the murders? Or is the legend of “Varney the Vampire” true? Are these heinous massacres an act of greed or vengeance? Or both?
Mycroft’s exclusive Diogenes Club is targeted, with its members found drained of all blood, their necks punctured with wolf-like teeth marks. What is Mycroft hiding and why is the Diogenes Club being targeted?
Check out:
(The Great Detective in Love Mysteries)
Deep Focus
by Gloria Repp
Rating: 4.6 #ad
A scheming woman. A man she can’t fathom. A mystery that endangers her career. Is this how God answers Lindsey’s prayers?
Lindsey Dumont, photographer, travels to the rugged coast of Washington’s Olympic Peninsula to finish her photo essay on a rare breed of Makah dogs.But disaster looms for her project, and she decides to fight back. Now she must confront the man who deceived her and unravel a threatening mystery.
Check out:
(The Dumont Chronicles Mysteries)
The Lightkeeper’s Daughters
by Jean E. Pendziwol
Rating: 4.5 #ad
With the haunting atmosphere and emotional power of The Language of Flowers, Orphan Train, and The Light Between Oceans, critically acclaimed children’s author Jean E. Pendziwol’s adult debut is an affecting story of family, identity, and art that involves a decades-old mystery.
Though her mind is still sharp, Elizabeth’s eyes have failed. No longer able to linger over her beloved books or gaze at the paintings that move her spirit, she fills the void with music and memories of her family, especially her beloved twin sister, Emily. When her late father’s journals are discovered after an accident, the past suddenly becomes all too present.
I Heard You Scream
by Emerald O’Brien
Rating: 4.1 #ad
Packed with nerve-shredding tension, I Heard You Scream is impossible to put down. The complex characters, fast-paced plot, and shocking twists will keep you on the edge of your seat. For fans of Riley Sager, Lucy Foley, and Shari Lapena. Five can keep a secret if four are dead.
On a cold fall night in a small Canadian town, four of Chelsea’s friends are found dead, victims of a brutal stabbing—a selfish act of revenge.
The only witness, Chelsea spends the next five years struggling to bury her trauma. The victims’ families call her a hero. Her fiancé calls her the love of his life.
My MacArthur
by Cindy Fazzi
Rating: 4.1 #ad
The year is 1930. The place: Manila. Douglas MacArthur is the most powerful man in the Philippines, a United States colony. He’s fifty years old, divorced, and he falls in love at first sight with a ravishing young Filipino woman. He writes her a love note on the spot. Her name is Isabel Rosario Cooper, an aspiring movie actress. One glance at his note and she thinks of him as my MacArthur.
MacArthur pursues his romantic obsession even though he’s breaking numerous taboos. She reciprocates his affection because he could open doors for her financially struggling family. That MacArthur happens to be handsome compensates for the fact that he’s as old as her father.
When MacArthur is appointed the U.S. Army chief of staff, he becomes the youngest four-star general and one of America’s most powerful men. Out of hubris, he takes Isabel with him to America without marrying her.