Mysteries
Monday’s Mystery eBooks
Baking Up Trouble
by Gretchen Allen
Rating: 4.7 #ad
Family ties… Can put you in a real bind.
One thing that retiree and amateur sleuth, Loretta Barksdale loves almost as much as whipping up culinary delights with her group, the Clubhouse Cooks, is eating. So, when the group decides to do a bake sale in their peaceful Breezy Lake, FL, community, she’s all about it.
Things go awry, however, when the brother of one of her friends shows up, looking raggedy and acting oddly. He seems convinced that he’s being pursued, and winds up getting side-eyed by many community members, but Loretta believes that something else might be prompting his strange behavior.
The Carriage House
by Carla Neggers
Rating: 4.4 #ad
Fun and a little hard work. That’s all Tess Haviland has in mind when Ike Grantham pays her for her graphic design work with the run-down nineteenth-century carriage house on Boston’s North Shore.
Then Ike disappears, and Tess finds herself with much more than a simple weekend project to get her out of the city. It’s not just the rumors that the carriage house is haunted—it’s the neighbors: six-year-old Dolly Thorne, her reclusive babysitter, Harley Beckett . . . and especially Dolly’s father, Andrew Thorne, who has his own ideas about why Tess has turned up next door.
The Near-Death Experience of Justin Parks
by R.A. Williams
Rating: 4.4 #ad
Every year, thousands of people cheat death and come back to life. Many people have near-death experiences that offer a glimpse of Heaven. But none of these can compare to the remarkable near-death experience of Justin Parks.
The past three years haven’t been easy for Justin, causing him to lose faith in a loving, personal God. His fiancée gets killed by a drunk driver a week before their wedding. A year later, after enrolling in the police academy in a misguided effort to avenge his fiancée’s death, he mistakes a Black church pastor for an armed robber, shoots him in the chest, and nearly kills him. In the following months, he struggles with the backlash from the public outrage caused by negative media attention. And just when his life has seemingly returned to normal, a blow to the head sends him to a watery death, only for him to be revived by paramedics a few minutes later.
Mortal Dilemma
by H. Terrell Griffin
Rating: 4.4 #ad
Matt Royal meets the meanest man he has ever faced
Jock Algren arrives on Longboat Key in a state of depression and hopelessness. His most recent mission for his secretive U.S. government intelligence agency has been disastrous, and his friends Matt Royal and J.D. Duncan aren’t sure they’ll be able to pull him out of his despair—then the bad guys show up and danger erupts on all fronts.
W. E. B. Griffin The Devil’s Weapons
by Peter Kirsanow
Rating: 4.1 #ad
April 1940. By terms of the Soviet Nazi Nonaggression pact, the two dictatorships divided the helpless nation of Poland. Now, the Russians are rounding up enemies of the state in their occupation zone, but one essential target slips away. Dr. Sebastian Kapsky had spent years working with Walter Riedel and Werner von Braun in the early days of rocket science, but as a man with a conscience he refused to continue when he saw the perversion of their work by the Nazis. That makes him the most knowledgeable person about German superweapons outside of Germany.
The Stories of Ray Bradbury
by Ray Bradbury
Rating: 4.7 #ad
An extensive collection of imaginative short stories by a National Medal of the Arts–winning author of science fiction, fantasy, horror, and suspense.
Fly to Mars and explore the mysteries of the red planet. Journey through time to futures ruled by cold computers and hear the deafening roar of dinosaurs in the past. Sing the body electric and look into the mechanical eyes of androids that want to replace human life as we know it. Visit idyllic landscapes and nostalgic towns that hide sinister secrets. Available in one massive collection for the first time digitally, experience the wondrous mind of Ray Bradbury through one hundred of his all-time greatest tales. These are the stories that ask “What if?,” the stories that make the mind turn, and those that are, in the true spirit of Ray Bradbury, best read under the safety of a blanket.
Across Great Divides
by Monique Roy
Rating: 4.1 #ad
Across Great Divides is a timeless, World War II story of the upheavals of war, the power of family, and the resiliency of human spirit. When Hitler comes to power in 1933, one Jewish family refuses to be destroyed and defies the Nazis only to come up against another struggle—confronting Apartheid in South Africa.
Sixteen-year-old Eva and her twin sister, Inge, witness their lives in Berlin change before their eyes. Their best friend, Trudy, betrays them when she becomes a member of the Hitler Youth. A valuable family heirloom, a beautiful emerald and diamond pendant necklace, is confiscated by the Nazis as they harass Jewish families and businesses.
Their younger brother, Max, a member of the underground resistance, sees even greater danger ahead.
Their father, Oskar, refuses to leave his beloved Germany and believes Hitler will eventually fail.
Farewell Gift
by Zvika Zilbermintz
Rating: 4.4 #ad
Can letting go of a piece of yourself make you whole again?
When Zvika loses his teenage daughter in a tragic accident, it feels as though the only life he’s ever known is slipping through his fingers. Grieving and devastated, he takes off for India on a spiritual quest to heal his heart.
Guided by the Teacher, a spiritual guru, Zvika digs deep to find himself again in the wake of tragedy, all the while trying to hold his fragile, grieving family together.
Sunday’s Mystery eBooks
The Salvation Project
by Joe Rothstein
Rating: 4.6 #ad
Finalist for Political Thriller of The Year!–Pacific Reviews
U.S. President Isabel Aragon Tennyson (“Tenny,” as the world knows her) is running for reelection, unaware that her opponent is a Manchurian-like candidate created by a shadowy group that calls itself the Salvation Project, bent on taking control of the United States. The election will determine not just who will be president, but likely the future of humanity.
Project Hail Mary
by Andy Weir
Rating: 4.7 #ad
“If you loved The Martian, you’ll go crazy for Weir’s latest.” – The Washington Post
Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission – and if he fails, humanity and the earth itself will perish.
Except that right now, he doesn’t know that. He can’t even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it.
All he knows is that he’s been asleep for a very, very long time. And he’s just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company.
A Conjuring of Ravens
by Azalea Ellis
Rating: 4.5 #ad
In a world where magic is a science, Siobhan is a genius. But even geniuses need schooling.
When Siobhan stumbled into the theft of a priceless magical book, she thought her dreams of becoming the world’s most powerful sorcerer were destroyed. But then a mysterious spell changed her life forever…
Siobhan is now wearing the body of a strange man and has a new identity – Sebastien. With a new chance for a new start, she allies herself with a local gang – secretly a revolutionary party funding itself through crime. Now, she is bound by vow to repay them in magic and favors.
Dreaming Spies
by Laurie R. King
Rating: 4.5 #ad
Laurie R. King’s novels of suspense featuring Mary Russell and her husband, Sherlock Holmes, are critically acclaimed and beloved by readers for the author’s adept interplay of history and adventure. Now the intrepid duo is finally trying to take a little time for themselves—only to be swept up in a baffling case that will lead them from the idyllic panoramas of Japan to the depths of Oxford’s most revered institution.
After a lengthy case that had the couple traipsing all over India, Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes are on their way to California to deal with some family business that Russell has been neglecting for far too long. Along the way, they plan to break up the long voyage with a sojourn in southern Japan…
The Missing Piece
by John Lescroart
Rating: 4.4 #ad
The beloved New York Times bestselling Dismas Hardy series returns with a “perfect piece of entertainment from a master storyteller” (Steve Berry, New York Times bestselling author) about a relentlessly twisty murder mystery.
No one mourned when San Francisco DA Wes Farrell put Paul Riley in prison eleven years ago for the rape and murder of his girlfriend. And no one is particularly happy to see him again when he’s released after The Exoneration Initiative uncovered evidence that pinned the crime on someone else. In fact, Riley soon turns up murdered, surrounded by the loot from his latest scam. But if Riley was innocent all along, who wanted him dead?
The Alien Chronicles Collection
by Multiple Authors
Rating: 4.1 #ad
Intelligent life on other planets: it’s the brass ring of space exploration. Do extra-terrestrial species exist? Will we ever make contact? Perhaps, have we made contact already?
In the latest addition to the Future Chronicles series of sci-fi anthologies, the answer to all of these questions is a resounding yes. From first contact to last stand, these original short stories range from quiet tales of personal connection to adrenaline-infused inter-species space conflicts. Each tale promises to present you with a different look at what intelligent alien life might be like — and how we Earthlings might respond to it.
The Fearless Moral Inventory of Elsie Finch
by Lynn Byk
Rating: 4.1 #ad
There’s a filigree setting for every family secret. What Elsie covets is the truth. Consequences come with being an heir of the Finch family estate, consequences no one bargained for.
This story is the story of one woman learning to grieve.
Finalist in The SOMERSET Book Awards recognizes emerging talent and outstanding works in the genre of Literary and Contemporary Fiction. The Somerset Book Awards is a genre division of the Chanticleer International Book Awards (The CIBAs). This story delivers.
Richard and Gail Finch designed their estate to carry ramifications for misplaced loyalties, but there are results neither one contemplated. When the third generation aims for a cache of treasure, someone is expendable…
Saturday’s Mystery eBooks
Imitation In Death
by J. D. Robb
Rating: 4.7 #ad
Summer, 2059. A man wearing a cape and a top hat approaches a prostitute on a dark, New York City street. Minutes later, the woman is dead. Left at the scene is a letter addressed to Lieutenant Eve Dallas, inviting her to play his game and unveil his identity. He signs it, “Jack.”
Now Dallas is in pursuit of a murderer who knows as much about the history of serial killers like Jack the Ripper and the Boston Strangler as she does…
Dead in the Water
by Ann Granger
Rating: 4.3 #ad
In a sleepy Cotswold village, heavy rains reveal the body of a barmaid and troubling mystery for a local police inspector.
As Christmas approaches in the sleepy English village of Weston Saint Ambrose, the rains bring the wettest winter on record and the farmer’s fields are submerged. The water uncovers all manner of things, however, including a dead body, dredged up from its watery grave.
Reclusive writer Neil Stewart is shocked to find the victim snagged on the jetty at his house, and even more surprised when he recognizes her. And he’s not the only one.
Peace Talks
by Jim Butcher
Rating: 4.7 #ad
HARRY DRESDEN IS BACK AND READY FOR ACTION, in the new entry in the #1 New York Times bestselling Dresden Files.
When the Supernatural nations of the world meet up to negotiate an end to ongoing hostilities, Harry Dresden, Chicago’s only professional wizard, joins the White Council’s security team to make sure the talks stay civil. But can he succeed, when dark political manipulations threaten the very existence of Chicago—and all he holds dear?
The Yawning Gap
by C.V. Vobh
Rating: 4.4 #ad
“Absolutely stellar. Vobh’s prose is a wonder.” –Tellest
Invisible boundaries have isolated Cor’s village for centuries. He discovers a way out.
What he finds outside is a blighted and violent world in decline. Similar boundaries have fragmented the earth, while draining it of life – and he is tasked with fixing it, together with several fellow wanderers.
They soon gain the power to cross those boundaries and venture into the unknown lands beyond them. What will they find waiting there … ?
Chrysalis
by Lincoln Child
Rating: 4.3 #ad
Like millions of people around the world, Jeremy Logan (famed enigmalogist, or investigator of unexplained things) has grown to rely on his incredible new tech device. Made by Chrysalis, the global multibillion dollar tech company, the small optical device connects people in a stunning new way, tapping into virtual reality for the first time on a wide scale.
And yet, when Logan is summoned by Chrysalis to investigate a disturbing anomaly in the massive new product rollout, Logan is shocked to see the true scope of the massive company. He also quickly realizes that something in Chrysalis’s technology is very wrong, and could be potentially devastating.
Murder in the Place of Anubis
by Lynda S. Robinson
Rating: 4.4 #ad
The body of a much-hated scribe has been found in the sacred place of embalming, and the resulting outrage could threaten the reign of Tutankhamun. So the boy king tasks his investigator, Lord Meren, to look into the crime. The quest will take Meren into the worlds of nobles, slaves, and schemers in the royal court—all while he fights to keep the teenaged pharaoh safe from those who would take advantage of this crisis . . .
“It’s always a pleasure to negotiate the treacherous corridors of power with Lord Meren.” – The New York Times Book Review
The Mine
by Antti Tuomainen
Rating: 4.1 #ad
An investigative reporter sets out to uncover the truth about a mining company in Northern Finland, whose activities have caused an environmental disaster. Timely, atmospheric and chilling Nordic Noir from one of Finland’s finest writers…
A hitman. A journalist. A shattered family. A mine spewing toxic secrets that threaten to poison them all…
In the dead of winter, investigative reporter Janne Vuori sets out to uncover the truth about a mining company, whose illegal activities have created an environmental disaster in a small town in Northern Finland.
Friday’s Mystery eBooks
Flowers and Foul Play
by Amanda Flower
Rating: 4.4 #ad
Reeling from the loss of her fiancé and flower shop, Fiona Knox is surprised to find her new-found inheritance comes with magic, mystery, and murder.
Florist Fiona Knox’s life isn’t smelling so sweet these days. Her fiancé left her for their cake decorator. Then, her flower shop wilted after a chain florist opened next door. So when her godfather, Ian MacCallister, leaves her a cottage in Scotland, Fiona jumps on the next plane to Edinburgh. Ian, after all, is the one who taught her to love flowers. But when Ian’s elderly caretaker Hamish MacGregor shows her to the cottage upon her arrival, she finds the once resplendent grounds of Duncreigan in a dreadful shambles—with a dead body in the garden.
Junkyard Dogs
by Craig Johnson
Rating: 4.6 #ad
Junkyard Dogs, the sixth installment in the New York Times bestselling Longmire Mystery Series, the basis for LONGMIRE, the hit Netflix original drama series, takes us to Durant, Wyoming. It’s a volatile new economy in Durant when the owners of a multimillion-dollar development of ranchettes want to get rid of the adjacent Stewart junkyard. Meeting the notorious Stewart clan is an adventure unto itself, and when conflict erupts—and someone ends up dead—Sheriff Walt Longmire, his lifelong friend Henry Standing Bear, and deputies Santiago Saizarbitoria and Victoria Moretti find themselves in a small town that feels more and more like a high-plains pressure cooker.
Broken Rhodes
by Kimber Silver
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.
In a race against time, Lincoln’s prime objective is to discover the killer’s identity before Miss Rhodes becomes the next victim…
THE GARDENER IN THE GRAVEYARD
by LIS HOWELL
Rating: 5.0 #ad
Suzy Spencer is branching out — she’s working with local retiree gardeners on a podcast about rewilding the graveyard garden in Norbridge. But a body is found in a wheelie bin and chaos begins . . .
Queen bee of the gardening gang, Lorna Duxford, discovers the dead woman. She’s been bludgeoned to death.
It turns out the victim wasn’t local – nobody knew her. So why did Lorna whisper ‘Deirdre’ when she saw her? Then the wife of another gardener dies in a car crash. But the police quickly discover that this was no accident.
Sentenced to War
by J.N. Chaney, Jonathan P. Brazee
Rating: 4.4 #ad
2021 Dragon Award Nominee for Best Military Science Fiction
Sit in prison or join the military. The choice is yours.
Convicted of a minor traffic violation, Rev Pelletier is conscripted into the Perseus Union Marine Corps… for up to a thirty-year term of service. Anxious to get back to his civilian life and job, he opts for a shorter term as a Marine Raider, taking the fight to the enemy.
But with extremely high mortality rates, can he and his friends survive until their term of service is over?
The Perfect Escape
by Daniel Hurst
Rating: 4.0 #ad
I just wanted a place where we could get away from it all. But coming here was one of the worst mistakes of my life…
After the year Aidan and I have had, we needed some respite. My husband is overworked, whilst I’m anxious about the past, so renting a night at this converted barn house in the countryside seems like the perfect place for the pair of us to relax and unwind. It might be situated at the bottom of a large garden, but it’s private enough that we don’t have to mingle with the homeowners who live nearby. Or at least that’s what I thought…
Dark Force Rising
by Timothy Zahn
Rating: 4.7 #ad
In this essential Star Wars Legends novel, the sequel to Heir to the Empire, Grand Admiral Thrawn’s sinister plan threatens to spell doom for the fledgling New Republic and its most iconic heroes.
The dying Empire’s most cunning and ruthless warlord, Grand Admiral Thrawn, has taken command of the remnants of the Imperial Fleet and launched a massive campaign aimed at the New Republic’s destruction. Meanwhile, Han Solo and Lando Calrissian race against time to find proof of treason inside the highest Republic Council—only to discover instead a ghostly fleet of warships that could bring doom to their friends and victory to their enemies.