Mysteries

Isaiah Quintabe is no longer IQ, the genius of East Long Beach; instead, he’s a man on the road and on the run, hiding in a small Northern California town when his room is broken into by a desperate young man on the trail of the state’s most prolific serial killer.

His old partner, Juanell Dodson, must go straight or lose his wife and child. His devil’s bargain? An internship at an LA advertising agency, where it turns out the rules of the street have simply been dressed in business casual, but where the aging company’s fortunes may well rest on their ability to attract a younger demographic.

Rise of Terry Victor Complete Series
by Michael Anderle
Rating: 5.0 #ad

It’s one stranded ex-lawman against a world full of homicidal psychopaths.

Psychopaths who might, or might not, be human. Can retired lawman Terry Victor enjoy his retirement on Earth or will he be drawn into Earth’s problems and be revealed as an alien amongst humans?

Get the complete series today to start his adventures! Finally, what happens when a string of deaths points to something even he fears? Will Terry Victor survive? If he survives, will the authorities realize there is an alien living among them?

Sixty-One Seconds
by Jeffery Deaver
Rating: 4.4 #ad

KINDLEAUDIBLE

The hunter has captured her prey, and a sociopathic crime boss faces justice at last. But it’s not the end of the story. On a crowded street, gunfire and death are waiting to explode.

A festive street fair is underway in the shadow of the courthouse where a judge has just signed an extradition order. Paul Offenbach is escorted outside in handcuffs to a police cruiser – with another trick up his sleeve no one expects. In a matter of seconds, the killer is free, a hostage is taken from his family and Special Agent Constant Marlowe has lost her bid for justice. But is this the final chapter? As the lives of the guilty, the innocent and the vengeful converge, the winner remains uncertain.

Fleshmarket Alley
by Ian Rankin
Rating: 4.4 #ad

An illegal immigrant is found murdered in an Edinburgh housing scheme. Rebus is drawn into the case, but has other problems: his old police station has closed for business, and his masters would rather he retire than stick around. But as Rebus investigates, he must deal with the sleazy Edinburgh underworld, and maybe even fall in love.

Check out:
(Inspector Rebus Mysteries)

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 Apocalypse Strain
by Jason Parent
Rating: 3.9 #ad

A multi-national research team, led by a medical genomics expert suffering from MS, study an ancient pandoravirus at a remote Siberian research facility. Called “Molli” by the research team, the organic substance reveals some unique but troublesome characteristics, qualities that, in the wrong hands, could lead to human extinction.

The researchers soon learn that even in the right hands, Molli is a force too dangerous to escape their compound. But the virus has a mind of its own, and it wants out.

Saturday’s Mystery eBooks

February 25, 2023

Mango, Mambo, and Murder
by Raquel V. Reyes
Rating: 4.0 #ad

Cuban-American cooking show star Miriam Quiñones-Smith becomes a seasoned sleuth in Raquel V. Reyes’s Caribbean Kitchen Mystery debut, a savory treat for fans of Joanne Fluke and Jenn McKinlay.

Food anthropologist Miriam Quiñones-Smith’s move from New York to Coral Shores, Miami, puts her academic career on hold to stay at home with her young son. Adding to her funk is an opinionated mother-in-law and a husband rekindling a friendship with his ex. Gracias to her best friend, Alma, she gets a short-term job as a Caribbean cooking expert on a Spanish-language morning TV show. But when the newly minted star attends a Women’s Club luncheon, a socialite sitting at her table suddenly falls face-first into the chicken salad, never to nibble again.

The Children
by Lorhainne Eckhart
Rating: 4.6 #ad

She picked up the wrong file, and now everything is falling apart.

From New York Times & USA Today bestselling author Lorhainne Eckhart comes a new Billy Jo McCabe mystery set on a small island in the Pacific Northwest. When social worker Billy Jo McCabe accidentally picks up the wrong file, she discovers a shocking, twisted mystery plotted by a high-ranking social worker in the DCFS.

When Billy Jo McCabe accidentally picks up the wrong file, before she realizes her mistake, she discovers a secret no one was supposed to find.

Check out:
(Billy Jo McCabe Mysteries)

The Protector
by Gloria Repp
Rating: 4.8 #ad

A heart divided . . . An enemy unseen . . . A riddle of trust.

Lindsey Dumont, photographer, must defend her home in the Pine Barrens while she struggles to revive her career and salvage a long-distance romance. What is God doing? And who can she trust?

Check out:
(The Dumont Chronicles)

When Good Trails Go Bad
by Stephen W. Littlewood
Rating: 4.9 #ad

Are you ready for an extreme outdoor adventure?

In this book, Stephen W. Littlewood provides a reliable guide on safe trail running and hiking. You will learn how to prepare for and respond to emergencies to be one step ahead of unforeseen circumstances during your outdoor adventures.

Are you really prepared to save your life, right now, if you were lost or injured on a trail? This book provides you guidance on why things go wrong, who will rescue you, and what to do before and during an emergency to survive and be rescued in the wilderness.

Gypsy Magic
by J.R. Rain, H.P. Mallory
Rating: 4.5 #ad

KINDLEAUDIBLE

Paranormal Women’s Fiction from #1 Amazon bestseller, J.R. Rain, and New York Times bestseller, H.P. Mallory!

Welcome to Haven Hollow, a town of monsters… After dating a string of losers and banishing a poltergeist, I packed up my Los Angeles life and my eleven-year-old son, and moved… to a town in Oregon with a population of 680. Well, 682 now.

Culture shock anyone? Ahem, never mind that… New starts can happen anywhere, right?

The Restless Dead
by Simon Beckett
Rating: 4.5 #ad

Top forensics expert Dr. David Hunter is facing an uncertain future. His career hangs in the balance and his personal life has taken a turn for the worse. Then, he takes a call from Detective Inspector Lundy from the Essex force. Just up the coast from Mersea Island, a badly decomposed body has been found. The local police would welcome David’s help with the recovery and identification – and they would especially like it if the body was identified as Leo Villiers.

Leo Villiers is the adult son of a prominent regional family who went missing weeks ago, and the investigators are under pressure to close the case. Villiers was allegedly having an affair with a married woman, Emma Derby, who is also missing…

Savoring the World
by Michael Meyer
Rating: 4.1 #ad

Not your typical travelogue. Instead, this book is organized by the nature of the experience the author had while traveling.

I am an avid world traveler. I have lived in a variety of international locations, and I have both studied abroad and taught abroad. I have backpacked, camped out, stayed at youth hostels, and now, in my senior years, I have stayed in topnotch hotels and resorts. I have flown standby, and I have flown first class. I have hitchhiked, and I have taken public transportation, slow trains, fast trains, boats, and ships. I cherish my memories. They are solid, like granite, and they remind me of what I have been through and of how they have made me into a better person…

Sparring Partners
by John Grisham
Rating: 4.0 #ad

“Homecoming” takes us back to Ford County, the fictional setting of many of John Grisham’s unforgettable stories. Jake Brigance is back, but he’s not in the courtroom. He’s called upon to help an old friend, Mack Stafford, a former lawyer in Clanton, who three years earlier became a local legend when he stole money from his clients, divorced his wife, filed for bankruptcy, and left his family in the middle of the night, never to be heard from again—until now. Now Mack is back, and he’s leaning on his old pals, Jake and Harry Rex, to help him return. His homecoming does not go as planned.

Friday’s Mystery eBooks

February 24, 2023

A Poisonous Page
by Kitt Crowe
Rating: 4.3 #ad

It’s summer festival time in Confection, Oregon, and that means a barrage of tourists making cash registers ring at Sweet Fiction Bookshop. But what should be bookseller Lexi’s most lucrative time of year turns disturbing when a member of the chamber of commerce suddenly dies of a heart attack. Not entirely unexpected—considering her family history—but it’s a different story when another chamber member dies just one week later…also, presumably, of natural causes.

Something about this doesn’t read right to Lexi. And it gets more unfathomable when her friend Dash—who dated both women – stands accused of murder!

Red Storm: Complete Series
by James Rosone, Miranda Watson
Rating: 5.0 #ad

Deep in Siberia, a plan was hatched…

…to restore Communism to its rightful place. Will Eastern Europe fold as they expect?

A sleeping giant is awake, but it’s not the one the world expects. The first spark hits a powder keg on the Black Sea, but this is only the beginning. Soon, dominos fall across Asia, and China will factor into a different type of war.

When bullets turn to bytes… will the allies be ready?

The Dark Door
by Lisa Unger
Rating: 4.2 #ad

Pip Duke’s life has descended into chaos following the death of her father, a bestselling horror writer. She now hears voices all the time, saying troubling things like: Your father’s friends and family are after his money, or you shouldinherit everything. The voices also say she killed her dad, and the police are after her.

To silence these disturbing thoughts, Pip checks herself into an inpatient therapy center. However, the place is far from calming. She can’t trust the staff, and the voices in her head continue to say terrible things. There are those who want you released—only so they can continue to profit off your father’s name. A different voice says some wish to claim her inheritance by getting her declared insane…

The Wife List
by J.A. Schneider
Rating: 4.4 #ad

Has a group of men conspired to murder each other’s wives – figuring their perfect alibis will save them? That is what Beth Kemp starts to suspect, but is she losing her mind? Her husband says he fears so…

I’ll give this marriage one more try, Beth Kemp thinks. She is a successful crime writer in New York City, who regrets that tension has crept into her relationship with her husband, Brad. He too is a writer who, after early success, finds his career fading.

Brad urges that a move to the country would make them happy again – and safe, especially Beth, to avoid the city’s stress that triggers her severe asthma attacks. Beth wavers, until her close friend is murdered and the friend’s husband has a perfect alibi. She finally accepts that the city with its surging crime has become too hard for her…

The Heretic’s Apprentice
by Ellis Peters
Rating: 4.7 #ad

In the summer of 1143, William of Lythwood arrives at the Benedictine Abbey of St. Peter and St. Paul, but it is not a joyous occasion—he’s come back from his pilgrimage in a coffin. William’s body is accompanied by his young attendant Elave, whose mission is to secure a burial place for his master on the abbey grounds, despite William’s having once been reprimanded for heretical views.

An already difficult task is complicated when Elave drunkenly expresses his own heretical opinions, and capital charges are filed…

Death in the Off-Season
by Francine Mathews
Rating: 4.3 #ad

When Rusty Mason, scion of one of Nantucket’s oldest and wealthiest families, is found dead in a flooded cranberry bog one foggy fall night, thirty-two-year-old detective Merry Folger is faced with her first murder case. Merry is the daughter of the local police chief and granddaughter of his predecessor; her father is a strict boss and Merry feels pressure to go the extra mile to prove her promotion to detective isn’t just nepotism.

But the Mason murder is a demanding first test. Merry’s investigation brings to light all the tensions that plague the tiny community of Nantucket: the decades-old grudges, the skyrocketing real estate that only wealthy weekenders can afford, the resentments of the old Nantucket families who are barely keeping their homes and heritage fishing businesses alive. But Merry knows the island and its politics in a way only a local can.

The Brave New World Collection
by Aldous Huxley
Rating: 4.7 #ad

Aldous Huxley’s dystopian classic about a perfectly engineered society, and his book of essays reflecting on it almost three decades later, in one volume.

Brave New World: Half a millennium from now, no matter what class of human you are bred to be—from the intellectual Alphas to the Epsilons who provide manual labor—you are a part of the efficient, well-oiled whole, nourished, secure, and blissfully serene thanks to the freely distributed drug soma.

Brave New World Revisited: Nearly thirty years after the publication of his groundbreaking novel, Huxley composed this collection of essays comparing the “future” of 1958 with his vision of it from the early 1930s.

Thursday’s Mystery eBooks

February 23, 2023

Cat Got Your Diamonds
by Julie Chase
Rating: 4.4 #ad

Grandeur and opulence are everything in the famed New Orleans Garden District where pets are family and no bling is too big. Opening Furry Godmother, pet boutique and organic treat bakery, is Lacy Marie Crocker’s dream come true—until the glitter gun used to make her Shih Tzu tutus becomes a murder weapon. And Lacy becomes public enemy #1.

Now Detective Jack Oliver is hounding Lacy, and her Furry Godmother investor wants out before his name is tarnished by association. To make matters worse, a string of jewel heists with suspicious ties to the murder case has New Orleans residents on edge…

Not, Not Guilty
by Terry Toler
Rating: 4.8 #ad

A killer is set free. Homicide Detective, Cliff Ford is blamed. The killer wins sixteen million dollars in a wrongful conviction lawsuit against the city of Chicago.

There are two more murders. Homicide Detective Cliff Ford thinks he knows who killed the victims. He’s wrong. The reader knows who did it all along. What follows is a breathtaking ride of twists and turns that best-selling and award-winning author, Terry Toler, is known for.

Will Cliff’s wife Julia set him straight or is he headed for another career disaster?

Check out:
(The Cliff Hangers Mysteries)

Killer, Come Back To Me
by Ray Bradbury
Rating: 4.6 #ad

Celebrating Ray Bradbury’s centennial, a deluxe illustrated commemorative collection of his finest crime stories — tales as strange and wonderful as his signature fantasy.

Time travelers…dark carnivals…living automata…and detectives? Honoring the 100th birthday of Ray Bradbury, renowned author of Fahrenheit 451, this new, definitive collection of the master’s less well-known crime fiction, published in a high-grade premium collectible edition, features classic stories and rare gems, a number of which became episodes of ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS and THE RAY BRADBURY THEATER, including the tale Bradbury called “one of the best stories in any field that I have ever written.”

A Storm Is Coming
by James Leonard
Rating: 5.0 #ad

Their first mistake was leaving Storm for dead. Their second was threatening Lena. They won’t get the chance to make a third.

Storm Montgomery survived the war only to be shot in a field back home. When he comes to, his boss is dead, and Lena is in jail.
They say she killed her father, but Storm knows the truth, and he won’t let her hang for a crime she didn’t commit.

But when he tries to help, no one wants to listen. Now he and Lena are on the run, and they’ve only got one chance to set things right.

The Will and the Deed
by Ellis Peters
Rating: 4.4 #ad

A shocking revelation in a diva’s will leads to murder in this chilling whodunit from the Edgar Award–winning author of the Chronicles of Brother Cadfael.

It’s not surprising that adored British opera star, Antonia Byrne, would want her death to be as dramatic as the roles she performed on the world’s great stages. Even so, the existence of a new will surprises everyone – especially the six loved ones gathered at her deathbed in Vienna.

When the mourners’ private plane is brought down by a blizzard, trapping them together in the Swiss Alps, they decide to unseal Antonia’s final testament rather than wait till they’re back home in England…

The Bullet That Missed
by Richard Osman
Rating: 4.7 #ad

It is an ordinary Thursday, and things should finally be returning to normal. Except trouble is never far away where the Thursday Murder Club are concerned. A decade-old cold case – their favorite kind–leads them to a local news legend and a murder with no body and no answers.

Then a new foe pays Elizabeth a visit. Her mission? Kill or be killed. Suddenly the cold case has become red hot.

The Oracle of Delphi
by Elizabeth Rose
Rating: 4.5 #ad

Two missions, two hearts. Each is trying to save someone, but Perseus can only choose to help one. Where will his heart lead him?

The Demigod: Perseus, son of Zeus is on a mission to save his mortal mother’s life. He needs to behead the gorgon, Medusa, and deliver her head to the evil king of Seriphus or his mother will die. When he seeks the advice of the Oracle of Delphi, he ends up being tricked.

The Princess: Princess Andromeda was once thought to be the successor of the Oracle of Delphi. Now, she sits on the oracle’s throne over the pit of knowledge trying to get an answer for herself. She is to be sacrificed to the sea serpent in order to save her village.

Chased
by Anastasia Wilde
Rating: 4.8 #ad