Mysteries
Friday’s Mystery eBooks
Witches and Fairies and Tacos… Oh My
by Carol Kilgore
Rating: 4.6 #ad
Charli Quinn and her sister Brielle own House Witches Cleaning and promise to clean like magic. They may not be your everyday, run-of-the-mill witches, but they are… something.
When Charli finds the husband of one of their clients dead, the wind warns her to beware the man with eyes of green. As the sisters search for the ominous man, they find themselves in danger and rely on their real magic to outsmart the killer.
Along the way, Charli and Brielle have help from a group of fairies, and even a talking cow. And Charli falls head over broomstick for a tall, sexy deputy with dreamy blue eyes who saves her from being hijacked by a water sprite.
Cracked to Death
by Cheryl Hollon
Rating: 4.5 #ad
When Detective Maddy Reynolds escapes street violence by leaving her job to live in the Adirondacks, she builds a house on Berry Lake, across from The Glades. Avery Jordan, its founder, operates a sex-trafficking operation out of the sprawling retreat. He and his minions are on a collision course with the renowned detective when they try to discover her true purpose for moving to the remote location.
Monster
by Steve Jackson
Rating: 4.3 #ad
On a snowy winter evening in 1982, twenty-one-year-old Mary Brown accepted a ride from a handsome stranger in the resort town of Breckenridge, Colorado. The trip ended with her brutally beaten and raped. Mary survived, but her predator’s violence had only just begun.
After ten years in prison, Tom Luther was released a far more vicious criminal. Soon, from the Rockies to West Virginia, like Ted Bundy, Luther enticed a chain of women into his murderous trap. In this gripping new edition of a true crime masterpiece, acclaimed author Steve Jackson recounts the intriguing pursuit and long awaited conviction of a charismatic, monstrous psychopath–one who remains a suspect in three other crimes, and has never given up hope of escape.
Forgotten Valor
by Richard Thomas Lane
Rating: 4.4 #ad
A green lieutenant. A ruthless enemy. A heart-rending choice that will haunt him the rest of his life. If he lives.
Korea 1950. Jonas Stuyvesant’s silver spoon upbringing has not prepared him for the horrors of war. When Communist North Korea launches a surprise invasion of the South, Jonas finds himself leading his platoon against a well-trained, battle-hardened army. Soviet-made tanks break through the American lines. These are not the pitchfork-wielding peasants he expected. What should have been an easy victory turns into a devastating rout. Jonas and his men begin their retreat down the Peninsula, fighting a rear-guard action.
The Charlotte and Thomas Pitt Novels Volume Three
by Anne Perry
Rating: 4.7 #ad
Enjoy the “exemplary Victorian company” of this London sleuthing couple with books seven through ten in the long-running New York Times–bestselling series (The New York Times).
“Few mystery writers this side of Arthur Conan Doyle can evoke Victorian London with such relish for detail and mood” (San Francisco Chronicle). Now, in a single volume, readers can enjoy more of Anne Perry’s “unfailingly rewarding” series (The New York Times Book Review).
Morte
by Robert Repino
Rating: 4.2 #ad
After the “war with no name” a cat assassin searches for his lost love in Repino’s strange, moving sci-fi epic that channels both Homeward Bound and A Canticle for Leibowitz.
The “war with no name” has begun, with human extinction as its goal. The instigator of this war is the Colony, a race of intelligent ants who, for thousands of years, have been silently building an army that would forever eradicate the destructive, oppressive humans. Under the Colony’s watchful eye, this utopia will be free of the humans’ penchant for violence, exploitation and religious superstition. As a final step in the war effort, the Colony uses its strange technology to transform the surface animals into high-functioning two-legged beings who rise up to kill their masters.
Always
by Jude Deveraux
Rating: 4.6 #ad
Darci has never given up searching for her kidnapped husband. But her quest has taken her deeper into the world of psychic phenomena than she ever dreamed—or dared to go.
When the FBI enlists her help in locating the missing father of undercover agent Jack Rose, Darci signs on for the covert operation, not knowing that her attraction to handsome, sexy Jack is about to lead her into deadly territory—and into an era long past. For Jack has a protector, a mysterious nineteenth-century lady who pulls them into a time and place where Darci is stripped of her abilities. Can she find the key that links to the modern-day crimes she’s set out to solve? And will a showdown with a wicked force from the past hold her hostage…for all eternity?
Check out:
(Forever Trilogy)
Thursday’s Mystery eBooks
A Fatal Booking
by Victoria Gilbert
Rating: 4.3 #ad
Booklover Charlotte is delighted to welcome an eclectic group of guests to Chapters Bed and Breakfast for a book club retreat focused on fairy tales and classic children’s literature. But when one of the guests is poisoned at a Mad Hatter tea party, Charlotte realizes she’s fallen down a rather unpleasant rabbit hole
The victim – an opinionated busybody whose jewelry store sold original designs, along with some possibly “hot” merchandise – had plenty of enemies, spurring Charlotte and Ellen to offer their well-honed investigative skills to assist the local police.
Check out:
(A Booklover’s B&B Mysteries)
When You See Me
by Lisa Gardner
Rating: 4.7 #ad
FBI Special Agent Kimberly Quincy and Sergeant Detective D D Warren have built a task force to follow the digital bread crumbs left behind by deceased serial kidnapper Jacob Ness. When a disturbing piece of evidence is discovered in the hills of Georgia, they bring Flora Dane and true-crime savant Keith Edgar to a small town where something seems to be deeply wrong. What at first looks like a Gothic eeriness soon hardens into something much more sinister . . . and they discover that for all the evil Jacob committed while alive, his worst secret is still to be revealed.
Check out:
(D.D. Warren Mysteries)
Academy of Magical Creatures Collection
by Multiple Authors
Rating: 4.3 #ad
Sophia is destined to be the savior of an ancient tribe, but controlling her Fire magic at a school where dragons fly and mystery is around every corner is more complicated than she thought. At Orenda Academy, power is absolute, and students are thrown into a dangerous competition to survive. The Elders who run the tribe are ruthless, and they see Sophia as the ultimate threat.
Liam is the outcast son of a Water chief who’s lost everything. He’s been given a chance to restore his honor… if he helps the Elders take Sophia down. Unfortunately, she’s the one person he’s chosen to protect.
Check out:
(Hidden Legends Omnibus Collections)
The Big Book of UFO Facts, Figures & Truth
by Stephen J. Spignesi
Rating: 4.4 #ad
Here is a mothership full of entertaining, informative tales that shed a revealing light on the UFO phenomenon—from inexplicable cattle mutilations and modern astronauts who have seen UFOs to close encounters of the third and fourth kind!
The Big Book of UFO Facts, Figures & Truth is at once a valuable reference and an engrossing guide for all those fascinated with unexplained phenomenon. Turning to any page at random, readers are sure to find new facts and information, as well as dozens of rare, irrefutable photos.
The Butcher’s Boy
by Thomas Perry
Rating: 4.4 #ad
Murder has always been easy for the Butcher’s Boy—it’s what he was raised to do. But when he kills the senior senator from Colorado and arrives in Las Vegas to pick up his fee, he learns that he has become a liability to his shadowy employers. His actions attract the attention of police specialists who watch the world of organized crime, but though everyone knows that something big is going on, only Elizabeth Waring, a bright young analyst in the Justice Department, works her way closer to the truth, and to the frightening man behind it.
Check out:
(Hidden Legends Omnibus Collections)
Son of Soron
by Robyn Wideman
Rating: 4.4 #ad
When tragedy strikes a young boy is forced to become a warrior.
To escape a perilous royal life, Soron and Velaina disappear to the small village of Elderwood, a magicless kingdom, to raise their son in secret.
But when their child Nathan begins to show special powers, they realize they are no longer safe. Soon they’ll have to reveal their secrets to Nathan. However, before they can tell Nathan the truth, a cruel and arrogant Duke attacks and kills most of the people in their small village, including Nathan’s parents. Nathan finds himself lost and alone with his heart set on revenge. With the help of his Uncle Verin, he continues the training his father started.
Check out:
(Stoneblood Saga)
Ghostly Manor
by Marie Wilkens
Rating: 4.5 #ad
After losing their five-month-old child to SIDS, Damien and Sophia struggle to keep their marriage from falling apart. But when Damien’s estranged grandfather suddenly passes, naming Damien heir to the private estate, Damien sees it as an opportunity for the couple to escape the empty crib at home. Upon their arrival to Loray Island, Damien uncovers horrifying family secrets his late grandfather had wanted to remain buried. Suddenly, the island Damien believed was the answer to his prayers quickly transforms into the subject of his nightmares.
Wednesday’s Mystery eBooks
Blotto, Twinks and the Maharajah’s Jewel
by Simon Brett
Rating: 4.3 #ad
‘A new Simon Brett is an event for mystery fans’ P. D. James. ‘Murder most enjoyable’ Colin Dexter. Anyone for cricket – and a spot of burglary?
An idle conversation on the merits of the glorious game with an old Etonian chum is just the excuse Blotto needs to put himself forward for a cricket tour to foreign climes… and so begins the next adventure for our intrepid duo, where the action takes them to India where, as everyone knows, the finest cricket players hail from – as well as the world’s most skilled jewel thieves…
The Dowager Duchess has no problems in letting her two children go to the subcontinent as having her beautiful daughter Twinks married off to a massively rich Maharaja offers the Dowager Duchess the prospect of a permanent solution to the cash-draining maintenance of the Tawcester Towers plumbing.
Tools of the Trade
by Bruce Rolfe
Rating: 4.8 #ad
When the remains of Chip Hale’s daughter are uprooted by a summer storm nine years after she went missing, he vows to find her killer. Cold case detectives from The Biggest Little City in the World have investigated her disappearance without success. But when another young woman goes missing, it becomes too much for the blue-collar handyman to handle by himself.
Hard as a titanium pop-rivet, except when it comes to raising his two techno-savvy, wise-cracking teenage granddaughters, Chip relies on the girls’ computer skills and his coworkers’ military and law enforcement backgrounds when looking for the dirtbag who murdered his daughter. Meanwhile the clock is ticking as his vigilante team risks everything by taking the law into their own hands. But will their old-school sleuthing Tools of the Trade be enough?
Check out:
(Chip Hale Handyman Mysteries)
Good Girl, Bad Girl
by Michael Robotham
Rating: 4.5 #ad
A girl is discovered hiding in a secret room in the aftermath of a terrible crime. Half-starved and filthy, she won’t tell anyone her name, or her age, or where she came from. Maybe she is twelve, maybe fifteen. She doesn’t appear in any missing persons file, and her DNA can’t be matched to an identity. Six years later, still unidentified, she is living in a secure children’s home with a new name, Evie Cormac. When she initiates a court case demanding the right to be released as an adult, forensic psychologist Cyrus Haven must determine if Evie is ready to go free. But she is unlike anyone he’s ever met—fascinating and dangerous in equal measure.
Check out:
(Cyrus Haven Mysteries)
Goth Drow Unleashed Boxed Set
by Martha Carr, Michael Anderle
Rating: 5.0 #ad
My name is Cheyenne Summerlin, remember that name. Somebody should…
I’m not Goth to hide my Drow heritage, I’m Goth because I’m not a quitter.
My world is about to be turned upside down by a heritage I am discovering.
Get the first 9 books of the best-selling Goth Drow series with this boxed set to join Cheyenne on her journey to use her Drow heritage and stake her claim in the world!
Cold Fear
by Brandon Webb, John David Mann
Rating: 4.6 #ad
Disgraced Navy SEAL Finn is on the run. A wanted man since he jumped ship from the USS Abraham Lincoln, he’s sought for questioning in connection to war crimes committed in Yemen by a rogue element in his SEAL team. But his memory of that night—as well as the true fate of his mentor and only friend, Lieutenant Kennedy—is a gaping hole.
Finn learns that three members of his team have been quietly redeployed to Iceland, which is a puzzle in itself; the tiny island nation is famous for being one of the most peaceful, crime-free places on the planet.
Tales of Japan
by Chronicle Books
Rating: 4.8 #ad
This collection of 15 traditional Japanese folktales transports readers to a time of adventure and enchantment. Drawn from the works of folklorists Lafcadio Hearn and Yei Theodora Ozaki, these tales are by turns terrifying, exhilarating, and poetic.
• Striking illustrations by contemporary Japanese artist Kotaro Chiba
• Special gift edition features an embossed, textured case with metallic gold ink, and a satin ribbon page marker
• Part of the popular Tales series, featuring Nordic Tales, Celtic Tales, Tales of India, and Tales of East Africa
Kwik Krimes
by Otto Penzler, Albert Ashforth
Rating: 4.1 #ad
Entire novels are often written about a single crime, detailing every gruesome, dark detail until the last drop of blood spatters across the page. Yet in this mystery anthology, renowned editor and author Otto Penzler weaves together to heart-stopping effect more than ninety tales of brutality, terror, and unexpected demise, with each story told in a swift one thousand words or less.
These crimes may be fast in both form and fallout, but none lack the dark impulses that too often guide human hands to ill ends. Prepare to be transported into the diabolical schemes of criminal masterminds…into robberies and pranks gone horribly awry…into closets crammed with skeletons…into families bound not by love but wickedness.
Tuesday’s Mystery eBooks
Anastasia Pollack Crafting: Books 7-8
by Lois Winston
Rating: 4.5 #ad
Drop Dead Ornaments: Alex and Sophie beg Anastasia to find the real killer, but Anastasia has had her fill of dead bodies. She’s also not convinced of Shane’s innocence. Besides, she’s promised younger son Nick she’ll stop risking her life. But how can she say no to Alex?
Handmade Ho-Ho Homicide: The next morning Anastasia once again heads to his house before work to drop them off. When she arrives, she discovers Ira’s attacker dead in Santa’s sleigh. Ira becomes the prime suspect in the man’s murder and begs Anastasia to help clear his name…
Check out:
(Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries)
Dead Man’s Watch
by Kay DiBianca
Rating: 4.5 #ad
SAVING ONE LIFE IS LIKE SAVING THE WHOLE WORLD
Half-sisters Kathryn Frasier and Cece Goldman stumble into another mystery in this second book in the Watch series. When a former acquaintance of Kathryn’s is accused of murder, she and Cece go on a mission to prove his innocence by finding the real killer. But things are never what they seem in this tangled web, and Kathryn’s spunky determination to solve the mystery pushes her closer and closer to a deadly climax.
Join the adventure as these two young women commit themselves to live up to the quote from the Jerusalem Talmud: “Whoever saves a life, it is considered as if he saved an entire world.”
Check out:
(The Watch Mysteries)
The Wolf Gift
by Anne Rice
Rating: 4.3 #ad
When Reuben Golding, a young reporter on assignment, arrives at a secluded mansion on a bluff high above the Pacific, it’s at the behest of the home’s enigmatic female owner. She quickly seduces him, but their idyllic night is shattered by violence when the man is inexplicably attacked – bitten – by a beast he cannot see in the rural darkness. It will set in motion a terrifying yet seductive transformation that will propel Reuben into a mysterious new world and raise profound questions. Why has he been given the wolf gift? What is its true nature—good or evil? And are there others out there like him?
Brazen Planet
by Gayle Katz
Rating: 4.3 #ad
A government secret threatens all life on Earth. Can one scientist get off the ground to save humanity and herself before doomsday?
Charlotte Miller never backs down from a challenge. Haunted by her astronaut mother’s disappearance on a decades-old exploratory mission to Venus, the distraught scientist will do anything to find out what happened to her. When data surfaces that points to a global calamity, Charlotte is desperate to follow in her mom’s footsteps to solve both mysteries.
Taking matters into her own hands, Charlotte accepts a top-secret presidential assignment to track down her mother. Partnered up with experts to save the global population, she hopes to find a new home before the deep state stops her and humanity is rendered extinct.
Check out:
(Tears of Venus Mysteries)
Shadow Game
by Shawna Coleing
Rating: 4.3 #ad
Morgan Caine spent three years in prison for a crime she didn’t commit before being acquitted, but that doesn’t mean she’s innocent. While trying to rebuild her life, she takes a gamble and hacks into a computer network, stumbling across an assassination plot in the process. But despite the possible risks, she refuses to sit back and let a man die, even if he represents everything she’s never had.
But Oliver Wright is not the man she thinks he is, and her good deed traps her in a conspiracy that forces her to question everything she’s known to be true and reveals to both of them that they have more in common than they first realized.
Check out:
(Shadow Alliance Mysteries)
Celtic Empire
by Clive Cussler, Dirk Cussler
Rating: 4.7 #ad
The murders of a team of United Nations scientists in El Salvador. . . A deadly collision in the waterways off the city of Detroit. . . An attack by tomb raiders on an archaeological site along the banks of the Nile. . . Is there a link between these violent events? The answer may lie in the tale of an Egyptian princess forced to flee the armies of her father three thousand years ago.
During what was supposed to be a routine investigation in South America, NUMA Director Dirk Pitt finds himself embroiled in an international mystery, one that will lead him across the world and which will threaten everyone and everything he knows–most importantly, his own family.
Check out:
(Dirk Pitt Adventure Mysteries)
A Life Stolen
by Vanessa Luther
Rating: 4.4 #ad
A Life Stolen is the gripping account of a father and daughter’s devastating, but inspiring journey through Alzheimer’s. It’s an inside look into the day-to-day challenges facing not only the patient, but also the caregivers. For many years, her father exhibited signs of dementia, eventually becoming too significant to ignore. Everything culminated during an incident one night, after which her father was taken away, never to return to his home again. The disease changed him every day until he was a stranger. Then, it stole his life.
Through the initial days at home to hospital stays, living in a memory care unit, rehab stints and eventually hospice care, this book reveals many of the struggles encountered while facing Alzheimer’s in a world not quite ready for it…
HOTEL OBSCURE
by Lisette Brodey
Rating: 4.4 #ad
In a run-down neighborhood in an unnamed city, people live and die in “the Obscure.”
Whether anyone remembers the real name of the derelict establishment is a mystery. In this six-story building, most who occupy the rooms are long-term residents, though some stay for as little as an hour.
The patronage is an eclectic group: musicians, writers, addicts, hookers, lonely people, poor people, rich people, once-well-off people, and those who have reason to hide from their former lives or to escape the demands of a disapproving and punishing society.
As shabby as the Obscure is, as long as its walls keep out the wind and the rain, it remains a shelter, a hideaway, and a home for the many bewildered souls.