Mysteries
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.
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(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?
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(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.
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(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.
Saturday’s Mystery eBooks
Night Ferry to Death
by Patricia Moyes
Rating: 4.5 #ad
Scotland Yard’s Henry Tibbett and his beloved Emmy have been traveling and are now headed back to England, where Henry is on the ferry out of Harwich. It’s a trip Emmy’s been looking forward to—but her excitement flags when it becomes clear that the cabins are all spoken for, and she and Henry will have to bed down in the “sleeping lounge” with a motley collection of their fellow travelers. By morning, one traveler has lost both his life and his fortune in Dutch diamonds. That’s bad enough, but a few days later, when Emmy’s unpacking at home, she makes a discovery that puts both Tibbetts in real danger.
Four Months in Cuba
by Luana Ehrlich
Rating: 4.8 #ad
Titus thought it would be a simple rescue mission. He was wrong.
CIA operative, Titus Ray, arrives in Cuba on a mission to rescue a fellow operative from the hands of the Los Zetas drug cartel. Sounds simple enough.
Except it wasn’t simple . . . An unconventional operative arrives to complicate the rescue.
Except it wasn’t a rescue . . . An unexpected situation turns the mission into an escape.
Except it wasn’t a mission . . . An unexpected discovery reveals a hidden assignment.
It wasn’t a simple rescue mission. It was much more . . . More about his survival. More about his faith. More about himself.
The Misery House
by David Kummer
Rating: 4.2 #ad
Sometimes the quietest little towns are haunted by the darkest secrets. A psychological thriller and a family you’ll never forget.
New Haven: This rural town has never seen a string of tragedies like this. A local store burns to the ground with two bodies inside. A newlywed couple goes missing, and all signs point to the abandoned house. With no answers, the townsfolk grow more and more worried.
The Woods family has lived here forever. But when their friends and their own children are put in danger, the threat hits home. This close-knit family must risk everything to find answers, but time is running out.
New Haven has secrets. And a haunted house like you’ve never seen before.
Siege of Darkness
by R.A. Salvatore
Rating: 4.7 #ad
The conflict between the drow of the Underdark and the dwarves of Mithral Hall comes to a head—and Drizzt Do’Urden and Bruenor find themselves on the frontlines.
While Mithral Hall teems with whispers of the war to come, chaos erupts both above and below ground. On the surface of Faerûn, the first signs of the Time of Troubles make themselves known, forcing deities to assume their mortal forms. Beneath them in the Underdark, all but one drow house has lost their magical powers, and Lolth has handed the reins of leadership over to the demon Errtu.
Oyster Bay Boogie
by Eric Wilder
Rating: 4.7 #ad
Visit Oyster Island and Leave Ordinary Behind
Escape to the Majestic Hotel & Casino, the Prohibition-era resort nestled on an island off the coast of Louisiana in the Gulf of Mexico. It’s an island of mystery where bats and ghosts live in the old lighthouse, and a Cajun werewolf prowls under the moonlit sky. Join Jack Wiesinski and Grogan ‘Chief’ la Tortue on their thrilling hunt for a mysterious treasure that includes gold doubloons and unopened cases of decades-old bootleg Dominican Rum.
The adventure doesn’t end there. They embark on a perilous journey with the arrival of the stunning Odette Mouton, a talented dancer. As the island’s secrets unfold, they discover the werewolf isn’t the only otherworldly presence lurking in the shadows.
The Perfect Spy
by Amy Martinsen
Rating: 4.6 #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…
The Girl Who Survived
by Lisa Jackson
Rating: 4.3 #ad
In this deviously volatile, deliciously creepy thriller from the #1 New York Times bestseller, the lone survivor of a brutal family massacre must uncover the awful truth about the fateful night that left her forever marked…
Has she already had her last chance to be the final girl?
All her life, she’s been the girl who survived. Orphaned at age seven after a horrific killing spree at her family’s Oregon cabin, Kara McIntyre is still searching for some kind of normal. But now, twenty years later, the past has come thundering back. Her brother, Jonas, who was convicted of the murders has unexpectedly been released from prison.
The Last Time We Met
by Trisha Ridinger McKee
Rating: 4.3 #ad
As a member of the richest family in town, Willow understands the importance of reputation. Her stern grandmother has taught her that family secrets are to be buried, and as the most popular girl in school, Willow follows that lesson with a smile covering up the darkness.
But when Walden, the new guy from the wrong side of town comes to her school, Willow finds her image slipping and the secrets of her homelife in danger of being exposed. As a scandal tears the couple apart and throws Willow into a new, unfamiliar life, she must choose between saving Walden’s future or risking it all for love.
Friday’s Mystery eBooks
The Body in the Lighthouse
by Katherine Hall Page
Rating: 4.2 #ad
Something was very wrong on Sanpere this summer . . .
To escape the misery of a sweltering August in Aleford, Massachusetts, caterer and minister’s wife Faith Fairchild and her family head for their cottage on Maine’s peaceful Sanpere Island in Penobscot Bay. But things have changed since their last visit. An aggressive developer is moving forward on plans that will destroy the unique ambience of the island, infuriating residents. Tensions are running dangerously high, and soon murder rears its hideous head. Faith discovers a corpse while exploring the grounds of Sanpere’s historic lighthouse.
Winter’s Black Christmas
by Mary Stone
Rating: 4.4 #ad
Jingle all the way…to murder. When FBI Special Agent Winter Black enters a luxurious Montana cabin two days before Christmas, she’s excited because all the people she loves will be joining her soon. Her joy is dashed when an unexpected blizzard hits the area, leaving her stranded and without any means of communication.
And she’s not alone. Instead of her friends and family arriving, a momma cat shows up at the cabin’s door, begging for help. Braving the snow, Winter finds more than just the feline’s litter.
She finds a dead body.
When I Know Your Name
by G.M. Lawrence
Rating: 4.6 #ad
They planned the perfect kidnap. Except for one thing – they chose Elena.
Elena Dumont appears to have it all: a charmed life, a handsome boyfriend and wealthy, successful parents. But when she is kidnapped, she is forced to confront the problems that lurk beneath her perfect facade.
Although she is terrified, Elena digs deep and shows resilience and courage. One of her captors notices her bravery and they develop an unlikely bond.
Elena is faced with a choice: should she trust this man who is supposed to be her enemy?
ASBO
by Iain Rob Wright
Rating: 4.3 #ad
Andrew Goodman has never been a victim. Until now. A local gang of youths has targeted him with their sadistic games, and there’s no escape.
With his wife and daughter in danger, Andrew must face the youths outside his door, because if he doesn’t fight back, they’ll ruin his life forever.
#1 Amazon Thriller inspired by real events. Visceral and Compelling, for lovers of Eden Lake and the Girl Next Door. A disturbing thrill-ride with hundreds of 5 star reviews and a plot that is a little too close to home.
The Oracle of Maracoor
by Gregory Maguire
Rating: 4.4 #ad
The Oracle of Maracoor, the second in the trilogy called Another Day, continues the story of Elphaba’s green-skinned granddaughter, Rain. That strange land, Maracoor – across the ocean from Oz – is beset by an invading army. In the mayhem, Rain and Cossy, a child felon, break out of prison. Helped by a few flying monkeys, they struggle to escape the city before it falls under siege. Their arresting officer, Lucikles, also retreats with his family to a highland redoubt. But safety eludes them all. Chaos thunders upon them in the form of warriors, refugees, and brigands. The very fabric of reality loosens, liberating creatures of myth and legend—huge blue wolves, harpies, and giants made of the very landscape.
Six Seconds
by Rick Mofina
Rating: 4.4 #ad
Three strangers scattered across the world become entangled in a terrorist plot of global proportions in “this well-crafted and timely thriller” (Publishers Weekly, starred review).
An aid worker who lost her husband and child in a brutal attack saves the life of an American contractor in Iraq. Believing he can help her avenge her family’s deaths, she follows him back home to the United States . . .
Meanwhile, a California soccer mom arrives to pick up her son from school, only to discover that her husband has taken their child and vanished without a trace . . .
Cold Mountain
by Charles Frazier
Rating: 4.4 #ad
In 1997, Charles Frazier’s debut novel Cold Mountain made publishing history when it sailed to the top of The New York Times best-seller list for sixty-one weeks, won numerous literary awards, including the National Book Award, and went on to sell over three million copies. Now, the beloved American epic returns, reissued by Grove Press to coincide with the publication of Frazier’s eagerly-anticipated second novel, Thirteen Moons. Sorely wounded and fatally disillusioned in the fighting at Petersburg, a Confederate soldier named Inman decides to walk back to his home in the Blue Ridge mountains to Ada, the woman he loves.