Mysteries
Saturday’s Mystery eBooks
The Mystery of the Blue Train
by Agatha Christie
Rating: 4.5 #ad
Robbery and brutal murder aboard a luxury transport ensnares the ever-attentive Hercule Poirot in The Mystery of the Blue Train, from Queen of Mystery Agatha Christie
When the luxurious Blue Train arrives at Nice, a guard attempts to wake serene Ruth Kettering from her slumbers. But she will never wake again – for a heavy blow has killed her, disfiguring her features almost beyond recognition. What is more, her precious rubies are missing.
Murder in Highgate
by Irina Shapiro
Rating: 4.6 #ad
When a young man is found hanging inside the Ashford family tomb, Redmond and Haze assume the man had run afoul of the noble family and paid for it with his life. Once they identify the remains, they discover not only the victim’s shocking secrets but that the young man had an unexpected connection to Jason.
With few leads and no obvious motive for the murder, will Redmond and Haze solve the case before the killer claims another life?
When the Stars Go Dark
by Paula McLain
Rating: 4.2 #ad
“This mystery will keep you guessing, and stay with you long after you finish. Dive in.” – Daily Skimm
Anna Hart is a seasoned missing persons detective in San Francisco with far too much knowledge of the darkest side of human nature. When tragedy strikes her personal life, Anna, desperate and numb, flees to the Northern California village of Mendocino to grieve. She lived there as a child with her beloved foster parents, and now she believes it might be the only place left for her. Yet the day she arrives, she learns that a local teenage girl has gone missing.
McNally’s Caper
by Lawrence Sanders
Rating: 4.3 #ad
Archy McNally, the parttime investigator and fulltime bon vivant,takes on the curious case of a thief with exquisite taste within the eccentric Forsythe family. Griswold Forsythe II wants to know which greedy, conniving relative is making off with the family treasures, including an original Picasso and an irreplaceable Edgar Allan Poe first edition. Suspects abound, including the sexy Forsythe women who all seem to find McNally irresistible. But things take a nasty turn when Griswold is murdered. Who wanted to off the family patriarch – and why?
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.
The Stranger in the Woods
by Michael Finkel
Rating: 4.4 #ad
In 1986, a shy and intelligent twenty-year-old named Christopher Knight left his home in Massachusetts, drove to Maine, and disappeared into the forest. He would not have a conversation with another human being until nearly three decades later, when he was arrested for stealing food. Living in a tent even through brutal winters, he had survived by his wits and courage, developing ingenious ways to store edibles and water, and to avoid freezing to death. He broke into nearby cottages for food, clothing, reading material, and other provisions, taking only what he needed but terrifying a community never able to solve the mysterious burglaries.
The Skeleton Key
by Erin Kelly
Rating: 4.2 #ad
Summer, 2021. Nell has come home at her family’s insistence to celebrate an anniversary. Fifty years ago, her father wrote The Golden Bones. Part picture book, part treasure hunt, Sir Frank Churcher created a fairy story about Elinore, a murdered woman whose skeleton was scattered all over England. Clues and puzzles in the pages of The Golden Bones led readers to seven sites where jewels were buried: one by one, the tiny golden bones were dug up until only Elinore’s pelvis remained hidden.
The book was a sensation. A community of treasure hunters called the Bonehunters formed, in frenzied competition, obsessed to a dangerous, murderous degree. The book made Frank a rich man. Stalked by fans who could not tell fantasy from reality, his daughter, Nell, became a recluse.
Swimming in Cotton
by Lawrence Deron Thomas
Rating: 5.0 #ad
Which is stronger, the pain of the past or the resolve for the future?
Life is stacked against Seth, but that just makes Seth more determined. Seth and his parents are free from slavery but not from the dire consequences that stolen cotton will bring if it is discovered by their former slaveowner.
While wrestling with the trials and tribulations of growing up in the South, Seth devises numerous plans to get his people to the Promised Land to reach the future his parents and the other former slaves deserve. Stepping in to rescue a young girl in peril, during one of these schemes, Seth is plunged into an impossible situation…
Friday’s Mystery eBooks
Kickbacks, Kayaks, and Kidnapping
by Tonya Kappes
Rating: 4.6 #ad
Welcome to Normal, Kentucky where NOTHING is normal.
Deep in the heart of the Daniel Boone National Forest, Mae West has spent the last few years bringing the rundown Happy Trails Campground and the small southern and cozy town of Normal, Kentucky back to a thriving economic community.
Mae’s efforts haven’t gone unnoticed. Not only is Happy Trails Campground in the running to be named Campground Hospitality of the Daniel Boone National Park, but she landed the coveted Paddle Fest kayak competition that secures the winner a spot on the Olympic team.
Death in the Clouds
by Agatha Christie
Rating: 4.5 #ad
From seat No. 9, Hercule Poirot was ideally placed to observe his fellow air passengers on the short flight from Paris to London. Over to his right sat a pretty young woman, clearly infatuated with the man opposite; ahead, in seat No. 13, sat a countess with a poorly concealed cocaine habit; across the gangway in seat No. 8, a writer of detective fiction was being troubled by an aggressive wasp.
Yes, Poirot is almost ideally placed to take it all in, except what he did not yet realize was that behind him, in seat No. 2, sat the slumped, lifeless body of a woman. Murdered, and likely by someone in Poirot’s immediate proximity.
The Perfect Spy
by Amy Martinsen
Rating: 4.5 #ad
She’s got the best undercover crew. But will a sinister secret undo them?
Kate Ross has lost way too much in the last six months. With her mother’s death from breast cancer, an agent she handled killed on the job, and her career in jeopardy, the beleaguered CIA officer’s faith in God seems like another casualty. So she’s relieved to be offered a shot at redemption by managing an innovative team of “mom spies”… until they saddle her with a more experienced man as a babysitter.
Battling self-doubt and a loss of confidence in her espionage skills, Kate directs a smoothly successful first mission for the unit. But just as she opens up to her kind and encouraging supervisor, she suspects he’s withholding key information when the subject of their next assignment is his ex-wife. And the only solution to her predicament may be prayers she has no expectation will be answered.
Lethal Game
by John Gilstrap
Rating: 4.5 #ad
The exhilarating new thriller from the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author takes readers on an action-packed thrill ride from the wilds of Montana to the streets of Mexico, as a sniper attack turns wilderness hunters into the hunted and Grave’s enemies stalk him with a vengeance…
Hostage rescue expert Jonathan Grave and his fellow special-ops veteran, Boxers, are hunting in Montana when shots ring out, and they realize they’ve become the prey for assassins. In the crosshairs of unseen shooters, cut off from all communication, with the wind at a blood-freezing chill, the nightmare is just beginning. Because Jonathan and Boxers aren’t the only ones under fire.
All That Bedevils Us
by Thomas Watson
Rating: 4.7 #ad
If not for the intervention of the insectoid beings called the T’lack, the Faceless War would have ended with the extinction of Humanity and its Sibling Species. That intervention came at a great cost for the T’lack. No one knows or understands Humanity’s debt to the T’lack better than Jan Costa, who paid his own terrible price at the end of that war.
Now the T’lack are themselves in grave danger, facing a devastating civil war between rival factions and threatened by a mysterious race of beings on the far side of T’lack space.
20th Century Ghosts
by Joe Hill
Rating: 4.4 #ad
Imogene is young, beautiful . . . and dead, waiting in the Rosebud Theater one afternoon in 1945. . . .
Francis was human once, but now he’s an eight-foot-tall locust, and everyone in Calliphora will tremble when they hear him sing. . . .
John is locked in a basement stained with the blood of half a dozen murdered children, and an antique telephone, long since disconnected, rings at night with calls from the dead. . . .
Nolan knows but can never tell what really happened in the summer of ’77, when his idiot savant younger brother built a vast cardboard fort with secret doors leading into other worlds. . . .
The past isn’t dead. It isn’t even past. . . .
Betrayed
by Sharon Sala
Rating: 4.6 #ad
At the age of sixteen, Logan Conway witnessed the ultimate horror, and all she could do was run away. Ten years later, Logan has returned to the Louisiana bayou to face her fears and find her brother’s murderer. But the cold-blooded killer has no intention of being found after all this time.
Alone and out of her depth, Logan knows she’s putting herself at risk by digging up the past. She can’t help being thankful when her friend Wade Garrett arrives to aid in her search. But as they get closer to unmasking the killer, Logan and Wade risk becoming two more forgotten bodies . . .
In the Charm
by Lorhainne Eckhart
Rating: 4.6 #ad
Join a brand new generation of Friessens in New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Lorhainne Eckhart’s Friessen Family series. In the latest volume, Chris is used to having whatever he wants—but this time, the irresistible could come at a high price.
When stubbornly independent Chris Friessen decides to pack up and travel the country on the back of his Harley, he doesn’t expect that his decision to see the “real USA” will cost him in ways he can’t imagine. He soon finds himself face down on some backroad, cuffed by small-town cops. To make matters worse, he’s told to keep moving, but when he meets the incredibly sexy daughter of the sheriff, Chris can’t resist doing exactly the opposite—even after realizing that the sheriff’s deputy is head over heels in love with her.
FROM THE PAINTED TOMB
by Brenda Hill
Rating: 4.7 #ad
2021 Readers’ Favorite Silver Medal Award
Literary Titan’s Golden Book Award
BEWARE OF THE FULL MOON – Born an exalted Egyptian prince, 3rd son of Thutmose III, Prince Rahmor stood in favor with his father–until he commits the one unpardonable sin – he falls in love with a copper-haired slave who’s destined to become queen. His love for this woman not only endangers his life
LOVE, OR HORROR? When newspaper reporter Krista Hawthorne transfers to a small town in the Appalachian Mountains, she expects a quiet place in which to recover from a devastating heartbreak. Instead, she’s plunged into a nightmare of terror that tests every belief she’s ever held dear.
Thursday’s Mystery eBooks
A Harvest Murder
by Frances Evesham
Rating: 4.4 #ad
One unexplained disappearance is strange, but two are sinister.
In Lower Hembrow, an idyllic village nestled beneath Ham Hill in Somerset, the villagers are preparing to enjoy the autumn traditions of the rural English countryside until Joe Trevillion, a curmudgeonly local farmer and the father of six children, vanishes.
When Adam Hennessy, the ex-detective proprietor of The Plough, the village’s popular Inn, investigates, he finds ominous undercurrents beneath apparently harmless rumour and gossip.
Cruel Winter of the Mountain Man
by William W. Johnstone, J.A. Johnstone
Rating: 4.6 #ad
The latest action-packed installment in the national bestselling Western authors William W. Johnstone and J.A. Johnstone’s long-running Mountain Man historical series.
A cold day in hell descends upon Texas when mountain man sharpshooter Smoke Jensen pins on a tin star to tackle a wild bunch of bloodthirsty outlaws in this gun-blazing novel from national bestselling authors William W. Johnstone and J.A. Johnstone. Johnstone Country. A Glorious Land.
Jonas Madigan is dying. He spent his life taming towns and upholding justice across the west with no regrets. Along the way, Madigan took the measure of good men like Smoke Jensen, who has traveled to Salt Lick, Texas to pay his respects to the lawman. But when bandits gun down the small town’s current marshal – and Smoke sends the killers to Boot Hill – Madigan asks his friend to wear the badge and keep the peace until a permanent replacement is sworn in.
The Sixth Kingdom
by pdmac
Rating: 4.7 #ad
The Sixth Kingdom is the center of the known world. It is the repository of the all knowledge and secrets, and the heart of arcane wizardry. It is the College, the arbiter and enforcer of world peace. It’s also the place to learn magic, perfect deadly warrior skills, or bond with dragons.
Comprised of four Castes, the College accepts only the best and brightest of those who can afford to send their children to the hallowed halls of destiny where they are groomed to assume their future roles in each of the five kingdoms.
The Good Killer
by Harry Dolan
Rating: 4.4 #ad
An act of heroism forces a husband and wife out of hiding and into a cross-country chase for their lives in this action-packed crime thriller.
Sean Tennant and his wife, Molly, are living safely, quietly, and cautiously in Houston. But that all changes after Sean heads to a local shopping mall, and a gunman begins shooting everyone in sight. A former soldier, Sean ends the slaughter with two well-placed shots—becoming a hero with his face plastered across the news.
But Sean’s newfound notoriety exposes him to the wrath of two men he thought he had left safely in his past. One of them blames Sean for his brother’s death.
The Iron Tiger
by Jack Higgins
Rating: 4.2 #ad
Jack Drummond has always flown by his own radar. After getting drummed out of the British Navy, he’s made a rough-and-tumble living flying wherever the money takes him. But after one last weapons drop to Tibetan guerillas fighting the Communist Chinese, he’s ready to hang up his wings.
Unfortunately, a short stop in the tiny Himalayan country of Balpur ends with his plane in flames and Drummond out of luck—until he’s approached with a very strange offer. He must help deliver a sick child over land to the Indian border. It’s not his typical job, but it’s all he’s got. Accompanied by a nurse and an elderly priest, he sets out to make one last delivery.
Hothouse
by Brian W. Aldiss
Rating: 3.9 #ad
A Hugo Award–winning classic about a far-future Earth dominated by gargantuan plants and the few humans who remain
Millions of years beyond our time, our Earth has long since stopped spinning—and giant flora have taken over the sunlit half of the motionless world. Here humans are among the very few animal species that still exist, struggling to survive against enormous odds, but they have become small and weak, and their numbers have dwindled to almost nothing. When the aging leader of Gren’s tribe decrees it is time for the old ones to go “Up,” the younger are left to make their own way below.
Vendetta
by Jesse Storm
Rating: 4.6 #ad
Myles Parker is just an ordinary builder in his town of Willow Creek. His life is mundane, simple and far from special. The only thing that made it special is his wife, Betty.
However, all of that is about to change.
On a fateful Sunday, a notorious gang called The Bronze Boys rob the local church during a service, killing several people. One of the victims turns out to be Betty.
Myles wants justice. But above all, he is waging a personal vendetta against The Bronze Boys.
Wednesday’s Mystery eBooks
Death, Dice & Southern Spice
by Sigrid Vansandt
Rating: 4.3 #ad
A DELIGHTFUL COZY MYSTERY FULL OF QUAINT VILLAGES, QUIRKY CHARACTERS, AND MADCAP ADVENTURES BY A BESTSELLING AUTHOR.
Helen Ryes and Martha Littleword, two Americans living in England, become fast friends and amateur sleuths when a murder lands them in hot water. Killers unfortunately rarely stop at just one murder and the tome-filled libraries, ivy-covered manor homes, and lush countryside of England can be decidedly deadly!
When Martha’s Aunt Tilda runs afoul of a Cuban mafioso, the wig-loving queen of the poker tournament circuit goes on the run with her partner in crime, Jackie ‘Boy’ Divine. Terrified they will end up as divalicious shark bait, Tilda calls in Helen and Martha to find a priceless family heirloom, a sapphire and ruby necklace, she hopes will pay off her gambling debt.
The Complete Benbow Smith Mysteries
by Patricia Wentworth
Rating: 4.1 #ad
Cloak-and-dagger intrigue featuring an eccentric agent for Britain’s Foreign Office from the author of the “timelessly charming” Miss Silver mysteries (Charlotte MacLeod).
Named after three naval admirals, the enigmatic gentleman spy Benbow Collingwood Horatio Smith detests the sea and loves to indulge his beloved parrot, Ananias, all while protecting the fate of the Western world.
Fool Errant,
Danger Calling,
Walk with Care,
Down Under
To Wake the Giant
by Jeff Shaara
Rating: 4.7 #ad
In 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt watches uneasily as the world heads rapidly down a dangerous path. The Japanese have waged an aggressive campaign against China, and they now begin to expand their ambitions to other parts of Asia. As their expansion efforts grow bolder, their enemies know that Japan’s ultimate goal is total conquest over the region, especially when the Japanese align themselves with Hitler’s Germany and Mussolini’s Italy, who wage their own war of conquest across Europe.
Meanwhile, the British stand nearly alone against Hitler, and there is pressure in Washington to transfer America’s powerful fleet of warships from Hawaii to the Atlantic to join the fight against German U-boats that are devastating shipping. But despite deep concerns about weakening the Pacific fleet, no one believes that the main base at Pearl Harbor is under any real threat.
Our Own Devices
by B.D. Lutz
Rating: 4.7 #ad
How much control have we ceded to our devices? Do they influence us? Do they manipulate us to accept the absurd as truth and convince us that dystopia is actually utopia? The stories in our own devices explore those very questions.
I Am Machine: Your status in life rests in the circuitry of a computer unlike any before. Her name is May-Scene, and she is your AI guide to a better life. All you have to do to reach May-Scene level is accept the Social Credit System and let it control every aspect of your life…
Threshold: Our devices stream the world into our homes twenty-four hours a day. Endless news cycles have become the norm. The media mastered the use of fear to capture our attention and employs it with merciless efficiency…
Challenge: When Iris finally wins a Challenge-bid, she’s convinced internet fame will follow. She simply needs to live to enjoy it.
The Leper of Saint Giles
by Ellis Peters
Rating: 4.6 #ad
In this mystery in the award-winning series featuring a twelfth-century Benedictine monk, Brother Cadfael must travel to the heart of a leper colony to root out the secret behind a savage murder.
Setting out for the Saint Giles leper colony outside Shrewsbury, Brother Cadfael has more pressing matters on his mind than the grand wedding coming to his abbey. But as fate would have it, Cadfael arrives at Saint Giles just as the nuptial party passes the colony’s gates…
The Book of Isle: The Complete Series
by Nancy Springer
Rating: 4.2 #ad
Now in one volume, the entire epic series set in an ancient island sanctuary of gods and magic—from “the finest fantasy writer of this or any decade” (Marion Zimmer Bradley).
Anne McCaffrey has praised Nancy Springer as “someone special in the fantasy field.” Andre Norton agrees that “Ms. Springer’s work is outstanding.” Now the multiple award-winning author’s classic five-part epic fantasy is presented in a single volume. In the grand tradition of J. R. R. Tolkien, the Book of Isle saga draws on Arthurian and Celtic legend to create a wholly original, imaginary world brimming with adventure, romance, evil, mythic quests, and vividly described locales.
Don’t Stop Me: Vic
by Lorhainne Eckhart
Rating: 4.1 #ad
The only woman he has ever loved has sworn to hate him forever.
The first book in the McCabe Brothers, a spinoff of the big family romance series The Friessens from New York Times & USA Today bestselling Author Lorhainne Eckhart.
Fifteen years ago, Vic McCabe was headed down a one-way road to destruction with the love of his life. But then the unthinkable happened, a mistake that changed their lives forever.
Successful billionaire contractor Vic McCabe is a man every woman wants, but he gives his heart to no one. However, one day a reporter shows up, asking questions about a past he’s buried, a mistake he made fifteen years ago that could destroy his future and that of the woman he’s tried to forget.
Finding Your True Self
by Dr. Paul Serwinek
Rating: 5.0 #ad
Are you leading the life that you envision for yourself?
Finding Your True Self is an inspiring book that will motivate you to find your identity and uncover your inner being. Paul Serwinek guides you through the path of self discovery and adopting a healthier mindset on how to manage all the aspects of life. Discover new and practical perspectives from a respectable expert. This book will encourage you to reflect and rediscover the missing pieces of your life.
Come to know the true you and find a path to the flourishing life you envision for yourself. You will develop a step-by-step process to uncover the person you were intended to be.