Mysteries
Tuesday’s Mystery eBooks
Death of a Clam Digger
by Lee Hollis
Rating: 4.5 #ad
Hayley Powell, a small-town food-and-wine columnist turned sleuth finds herself caught between a deadly rivalry between seafood clans!
Food and cocktails columnist Hayley Powell usually reserves judgement for local cuisine, not the people who serve it. But staying neutral isn’t so easy when caught between the biggest seafood rivals in town—her BFF Mona Barnes and the successful Leighton clan. Adding to a bitter decades-old surf-turf war between family businesses, a modern Romeo and Juliet story unfolds as Mona’s son gets engaged to the daughter of her sworn enemy . . .
IRON
by Madisyn Carlin
Rating: 4.7 #ad
Enforcing justice comes with a price.
Detective Redwyn “Red” Deathan will stop at nothing to uncover those behind the ruthless kidnappings of multiple children. But things are not as they seem, and Red’s efforts are thwarted at every turn. With each discovery the danger grows, putting Red and the lives of those she cares about at risk. Can she reveal the mastermind’s identity before she herself becomes a target?
The Delphi Technique
by JC Ryan
Rating: 4.5 #ad
A delusional genius bent on restoring an empire must be stopped.
Rex, Catia, and Digger are on Rhodes Island, Greece, when an assassin kills two people right in front of their eyes.
They jump into action to help. The assassin flees, but Rex and Digger give chase, and when they catch up with her, she commits suicide.
Back at their hotel, while busy reporting the incident to John Brandt, three masked men storm into their room with guns blazing.
The Heart of a Hussar
by Griffin Brady
Rating: 4.3 #ad
He’s determined to protect his country. But can he defend himself against the ultimate betrayal?
Muscovy, 1610. Jacek Dąbrowski yearns to be recognized for his valor. Hoping his recent promotion to lieutenant will help secure the lands he desires, the twenty-two-year-old Polish cavalry officer earns instead the enmity of his captain. And his out-of-character rescue of two innocents from slaughter sets in motion a chain of grave consequences.
Discovering the young woman and her brother are not Russian enemies and have no kin, Dąbrowski escorts them back to the castle in his homeland. But as the rivalry with his superior grows and the blossoming beauty sparks a fire in his heart, the brave horseman may find his dreams of glory lying in tatters.
Darcy
by Alice McVeigh
Rating: 4.3 #ad
Starred Editor’s Pick (“outstanding”) on PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
GOLD MEDAL: PENCRAFT’S “Best Books” (summer 2023)
GOLD MEDAL: Global Book Awards (historical fiction, 2023)
Longlisted for the CIBA Chatelaine International Book Awards (finalists to be announced in Dec.)
Take a deep dive into Darcy.
McVeigh puts the spotlight on Darcy in this imaginative re-telling of Austen’s classic tale. In a timeless story of love amid the clash of social classes, Darcy is faced with a terrible choice: to stay in London to force Wickham’s hand – or to go to Rome, to salvage his family’s reputation.
The Awakening
by Amanda Stevens
Rating: 4.6 #ad
To help a child’s ghost solve the mystery of her death, a cemetery restorer must face her own personal demons in this romantic urban fantasy.
My name is Amelia Gray, and I’m a cemetery restorer who lives with the dead. An anonymous donor has hired me to restore Woodbine Cemetery, a place where the rich and powerful bury their secrets. Forty years ago, a child disappeared without a trace and now her ghost has awakened, demanding that I uncover the truth about her death. Only I know that she was murdered. Only I can bring her killer to justice. But the clues that I follow – a haunting melody and an unnamed baby’s grave – lead me to a series of disturbing suspects.
The Witch of Delray
by Karen Dybis
Rating: 4.2 #ad
An immigrant woman and her son are accused of murder and witchcraft in this powerful true crime story of corruption in 1930s Detroit.
In 1931, the tensions of the Great Depression took hold of Detroit at every level—even spilling over into the investigation of a mysterious murder at the Delray boardinghouse. Amid accusations of witchcraft, Hungarian immigrant Rose Veres and her son Bill were convicted of the brutal killing and suspected in a dozen more. Their cries of innocence went unheeded—until one lawyer, determined to seek justice, took on the case.
The Secret
by Lee Child, Andrew Child
Rating: 5.0 #ad
Brand New release from Lee Child
The gripping new Jack Reacher thriller from the #1 New York Times bestselling authors Lee Child and Andrew Child
A string of mysterious deaths. A long-classified mission. A young MP with nothing to lose.
In 1992. All across the United States respectable, upstanding citizens are showing up dead. These deaths could be accidents, and they don’t appear to be connected—until a fatal fall from a high-floor window attracts some unexpected attention.
Monday’s Mystery eBooks
Murder at Church Lodge
by Greg Mosse
Rating: 4.2 #ad
A gripping British cosy crime mystery with a mysterious death and a village full of secrets…
MAISIE COOPER IS NO DETECTIVE, THANK YOU VERY MUCH.
BUT SHE MIGHT JUST SOLVE A MURDER…
Maisie left the picture-perfect village of Framlington years ago. But when her brother asks for her help out of the blue she soon finds herself back among the windy lanes and open green fields. But it’s not the family reunion she hoped for – upon arrival she learns that she’s too late. Stephen is dead. And not just dead – murdered.
The Little Old Lady Who Struck Lucky Again!
by Catharina Ingelman-Sundberg
Rating: 4.3 #ad
In the sequel to internationally-bestselling Swedish author Catharina Ingelman-Sundberg’s The Little Old Lady Who Broke All The Rules, the League of Pensioners are up to their old tricks, this time swindling the biggest Vegas casinos, outsmarting a gang of young robbers, and evading the Swedish police in the name of elderly pensioners everywhere—perfect for fans of A Man Called Ove and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.
What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas…unless you’re in the League of Pensioners!
Death of a Lesser God
by Vaseem Khan
Rating: 4.4 #ad
In the fourth rip-roaring thriller in the award-winning Malabar House series, Persis and Archie travel to the old colonial capital of Calcutta, where they collide head-on with the prejudices and bloody politics of an era engulfed in flame.
Can a white man receive justice in post-colonial India? Bombay, 1950
James Whitby, sentenced to death for the murder of prominent lawyer and former Quit India activist Fareed Mazumdar, is less than two weeks from a date with the gallows. In a last-ditch attempt to save his son, Whitby’s father forces a new investigation into the killing.
The Skystone Chronicles
by Blake and Raven Penn
Rating: 4.4 #ad
Asher of Steel Rim might be a halfway-decent thief, but he’s not exactly the realm’s most popular guy.
As an outcast among outcasts, some hate him for his scale-tipped, pointed ears. Others wish him dead because he’s a magi in a land where those born with etherarchy are outlawed.
In the wild, desert wastelands of Drakfell, Asher finally finds the opportunity he’s been waiting for: A chance to avenge his mother’s death by taking down the legendary leader of the Mage Hunters herself.
Check out:
(Dragon Guard)
Tibetan Secrets
by Craig A. Hart
Rating: 4.3 #ad
Back when humanity was young, many dangerous secrets lay undiscovered.
Later, these secrets were written down by an old Himalayan scribe, anointed for this very purpose. His work became known as The Origin Scroll.
From the award-winning, bestselling author of the Shelby Alexander series comes the epic Maxwell Barnes Adventure Thrillers.
When Maxwell Barnes, treasure hunter extraordinaire, and his best friend Axel Morales were contracted by an American university to track down the legendary Origin Scroll, they looked forward to some nice, quiet treasure hunting. After all, what’s in the mountains of Tibet other than wind and snow?
Lacey’s Star
by Kay DiBianca
Rating: 5.0 #ad
Get in, sit down, buckle up, and hang on!
Private pilot Cassie Deakin lands in the middle of an unwanted adventure when she discovers her beloved Uncle Charlie has been attacked and seriously injured by thieves. But Cassie has a problem. She doesn’t know who she can trust. Still, she’s determined to solve the mystery behind the assault on her uncle, so she reluctantly agrees to team up with Deputy Frank White, a man she definitely does not trust, to find the culprits.
Armed with only a single, cry/ptic clue to the death of young Lacey Alderson, Cassie makes a crucial discovery that lands her in the crosshairs of a murderer.
City of Girls
by Elizabeth Gilbert
Rating: 4.4 #ad
From the # 1 New York Times bestselling author of Eat Pray Love and The Signature of All Things, a delicious novel of glamour, sex, and adventure, about a young woman discovering that you don’t have to be a good girl to be a good person.
Beloved author Elizabeth Gilbert returns to fiction with a unique love story set in the New York City theater world during the 1940s. Told from the perspective of an older woman as she looks back on her youth with both pleasure and regret (but mostly pleasure), City of Girls explores themes of female sexuality and promiscuity, as well as the idiosyncrasies of true love.
In 1940, nineteen-year-old Vivian Morris has just been kicked out of Vassar College, owing to her lackluster freshman-year performance. Her affluent parents send her to Manhattan to live with her Aunt Peg, who owns a flamboyant, crumbling midtown theater called the Lily Playhouse.
Sunday’s Mystery eBooks
The Spy Coast
by Tess Gerritsen
Rating: 4.6 #ad
Former spy Maggie Bird came to the seaside village of Purity, Maine, eager to put the past behind her after a mission went tragically wrong. These days, she’s living quietly on her chicken farm, still wary of blowback from the events that forced her early retirement.
But when a body turns up in Maggie’s driveway, she knows it’s a message from former foes who haven’t forgotten her. Maggie turns to her local circle of old friends—all retirees from the CIA—to help uncover the truth about who is trying to kill her, and why. This “Martini Club” of former spies may be retired, but they still have a few useful skills that they’re eager to use again, if only to spice up their rather sedate new lives.
Death in the Devil’s Acre
by Anne Perry
Rating: 4.4 #ad
The sleuthing couple pursues a serial killer through Victorian London in an exciting entry in the “unfailingly rewarding” New York Times–bestselling series (The New York Times).
A serial killer is loose in the slums of Devil’s Acre. The murders are brutal, but it is the killer’s grisly signature that shocks even Inspector Thomas Pitt, no stranger to death and violent crime. The victims are stabbed and sexually mutilated. When Pitt recognizes one of the victims as a blackmailing footman from a case on Callander Square, his investigation takes him from the brothels to the high reaches of Victorian society and into a world where upper-class women descend to depravity to relieve their boredom. Despite Pitt’s warnings, his wife, Charlotte, pursues her own investigation.
Someone Is Watching
by Amanda Stevens
Rating: 4.5 #ad
How can she remember the night. She desperately wants to forget?
Radio host Ellie Brannon fears the return of the monster who abducted her and two of her friends from the Ruins…and left her for dead. Fifteen years later, Special Agent Sam Reece reopens the cold case when new evidence comes to light about one of the victims. Ellie must trust Sam completely to have any chance of discovering the truth – especially since the gaps in her memory left them with few leads. But is someone luring Ellie into a terrifying return to the scene of the crime?
Cop Town
by Karin Slaughter
Rating: 4.2 #ad
Karin Slaughter, author of the bestselling Will Trent novels, is widely acclaimed as “one of the best crime novelists in America” (The Washington Post). Now she delivers her first stand-alone novel: an epic story of a city in the midst of seismic upheaval, a serial killer targeting cops, and a divided police force tasked with bringing a madman to justice.
Atlanta, 1974: As a brutal murder and a furious manhunt rock the city’s police department, Kate Murphy wonders if her first day on the job will also be her last. She’s determined to defy her privileged background by making her own way—wearing a badge and carrying a gun. But for a beautiful young woman, life will be anything but easy in the macho world of the Atlanta PD, where even the female cops have little mercy for rookies. It’s also the worst day possible to start given that a beloved cop has been gunned down, his brothers in blue are out for blood, and the city is on the edge of war.
The Road Out of Hell
by Anthony Flacco, Jerry Clark
Rating: 4.5 #ad
The New York Times–bestselling author’s “haunting, compassionate, and terrifyingly true” story of a man breaking free from his notorious past (Gregg Olson, New York Times–bestselling author of Starvation Heights).
From 1926 to 1928, Gordon Stewart Northcott committed at least twenty murders on a chicken ranch outside of Los Angeles. He held his nephew, Sanford Clark, captive there from the age of thirteen to fifteen. Sanford would be Northcott’s sole surviving victim. Forced by Northcott to take part in the murders, he carried tremendous guilt all his life. Yet despite his youth and the trauma he endured, Sanford helped gain justice for the dead and their families by testifying at the trial that led to Northcott’s execution.
The Galaxy, and the Ground Within
by Becky Chambers
Rating: 4.6 #ad
National Bestseller!
Return to the sprawling, Hugo Award-winning universe of the Galactic Commons to explore another corner of the cosmos – one often mentioned, but not yet explored—in this absorbing entry in the Wayfarers series, which blends heart-warming characters and imaginative adventure.
With no water, no air, and no native life, the planet Gora is unremarkable. The only thing it has going for it is a chance proximity to more popular worlds, making it a decent stopover for ships traveling between the wormholes that keep the Galactic Commons connected. If deep space is a highway, Gora is just your average truck stop.
Death Goes to School
by J. Carol Nemeth
Rating: 4.7 #ad
One teacher’s missing. Another’s found dead.
Jenny Mitchell and her fellow teachers used to enjoy hiking the trails at Deep Creek, but now they’re terrified to go back. Jenny’s best friend since childhood vanished without a trace, and Jenny’s life changed forever. Not even her faith comforts her now.
Ranger Flint Stockman’s niece, Cassie, is in Jenny Mitchell’s first grade class. Not only does Flint find himself in the middle of a murder investigation, but he soon finds himself falling for Cassie’s teacher. That wasn’t in his plans, but neither are the bodies the rangers discover as the investigation continues. With one teacher missing and one dead, could Jenny be next?
Saturday’s Mystery eBooks
Bark M For Murder
by Multiple Authors
Rating: 4.1 #ad
Bestselling and award-winning mystery writers set the hounds on the killers’ trail—in an incomparable quartet of crime stories with a canine edge.
New York Times–bestselling author J.A. Jance provides a spellbinding saga of a scam-busting septuagenarian and her two golden retrievers. Anthony Award-winner and Agatha and Edgar Award finalist Virginia Lanier’s thrilling tale features bloodhounds and bloody murder. Edgar and Anthony nominee Chassie West’s suspenseful stunner is about a life-saving German shepherd and a ghastly forgotten crime. And Lee Charles Kelley, author of the series starring criminologist-turned-dog trainer Jack Field, offers an edge-of-your-seat yarn that pits an ex-cop kennel owner and a yappy toy poodle against a craven killer.
The First Two Companions, The Assembly of Thirteen
by Omayra Vélez
Rating: 4.4 #ad
My name is June Dunbar, and I am a photojournalist for SBN. I live in Livermore, California, and everyone knows they work with radiation in the labs around here. I was minding my own business at home when a shining box appeared on my kitchen table one night. Obviously, I thought it was radioactive. Mind you; this happened in the middle of the night.
Anyway, I thought everything was contaminated and needed to remove the thing out of my house. So, I grabbed the damn box, and POW. I was blinded, but when I got my sight back, I was on another planet with two moons and blue trees with leaves the size of chairs. To top my shitimetter off, I got sucked inside the blue tree. You heard it right. The tree pulled me in, or my dog pushed me. I can’t remember.
The Soulmate
by Iain Maitland
Rating: 4.1 #ad
Sharon’s found a new friend. And she’s not sharing her with anyone.
Sharon Meyer is terribly lonely. She spends her days walking by the sea, watching afternoon television and reading. She hates how small her life has become.
Then, a chance meeting with the cool and sophisticated Pippa, and Sharon knows she will be alone no more. Because she feels it in her bones – she and Pippa are destined to be best friends. Maybe even soulmates. And it seems she’s right. Soon she and Pippa are having coffee, meeting for lunch in town, and there is even talk of weekends away and holidays. It’s wonderful.
OCELLICON: Future Visions
by A.G. Russo
Rating: 4.4 #ad
Winner of the Bronze Medal from the Global Book Awards.
OCELLICON is a military science fiction story with elements of legal/detective/mystery/feminist/noir sci-fi. Earth barely survived nuclear battles until the militaries of the world took over from authoritarians. But rebellion was agitating from within. Prosecutor Major Annalisa Farrell, Military Academy honors graduate, war hero, wounded warrior, and child abuse survivor fought to champion justice. An unexpected adversary turned out to be Judge Bennett McCrae, the “Judge Prince.” In his courtroom, the Military, and the general population, he was as popular as Annalisa was hated. Before appearing before Judge McCrae, Annalisa Farrell fought in numerous conflicts, was special ops, and had missions in space where she worked side by side with aliens.
Word of Honor
by Terri Blackstock
Rating: 4.4 #ad
What will it cost to keep a promise? Of the four people at the Newpointe post office when the bomb went off, three were killed instantly. The fourth, a five-year-old boy, lies comatose in the hospital and might not survive. Who would do such a thing? The answer comes in the form of a gunman crashing through the door of the hotel room where Jill Clark is staying. With a rifle barrel pointed at her temple, the young attorney suddenly finds herself the hostage of a desperate man whose actions hardly fit his claim that he’s innocent of the bombing. Only later, when the suspect is behind bars, does Jill wonder whether he’s as guilty as he appears. Prompted by a terrifying attempt on her life, Jill and old flame Dan Nichols dig deeper into the case.
The Spawn of Lilith
by Dana Fredsti
Rating: 4.2 #ad
Working in Hollywood is a living Hell in this “fast, fun, and unrelenting” urban fantasy series about a stuntwoman who slays paranormal creatures (Seanan McGuire, author of the October Daye novels).
Out of the spotlight, in the darker corners of the studio backlots, Hollywood hides a remarkable secret. Actor or actress, set designer, electrician, best boy, or grip—in la-la land, it pays not to be human. Vampires, succubae, trolls, elementals, goblins—studios hire anyone and anything that can take direction, be discreet, and not eat the extras. (The less you know about your agent, the better.)
The Ideal Man
by Julie Garwood
Rating: 4.6 #ad
A woman’s life and love are compromised in this pulse-pounding thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling author Julie Garwood.
Dr. Ellie Sullivan has witnessed the shooting of an FBI agent in pursuit of a ruthless modern-day Bonnie and Clyde. The only person to see the shooter’s face, Ellie is suddenly thrust into the center of a criminal investigation spearheaded by the no-nonsense, by-the-book, and tantalizingly handsome agent Max Daniels.
When the couple is captured, she’ll be called to testify. But the Landrys have been caught before, and each time the witnesses are scared into silence—or they disappear.
The Hollow Tree
by James Brogden
Rating: 4.2 #ad
From an exciting name in British horror and the author of Hekla’s Children comes a dark, haunting tale of our world and the next
After her hand is amputated following a tragic accident, Rachel Cooper suffers vivid nightmares of a woman imprisoned in the trunk of a hollow tree, screaming for help. When she begins to experience phantom sensations of leaves and earth with her missing limb, Rachel is terrified she is going mad . . . but then another hand takes hers, and the trapped woman is pulled into our world.
