Mysteries
Wednesday’s Mystery eBooks
Slay in Character
by Lynn Cahoon
Rating: 4.5 #ad
Cat and the members of her writers’ retreat have just arrived in Outlaw, Colorado, an “Old West” tourist town complete with inhabitants dressed up as famous figures from history. But this authentic slice of Americana takes a murderous turn when a college student masquerading as a nineteenth-century saloon girl becomes history.
Was she the killer’s intended target? Or did she take a hit meant for someone else? With a colorful cast of suspects to choose from – including some notorious gunslingers and the sleazy town founders—Cat must unhorse the culprit before a real-life ghost story is given a killer twist.
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(A Cat Latimer Mysteries)
The Nidderdale Murders
by J. R. Ellis
Rating: 4.3 #ad
In a Yorkshire Dales village everyone has a motive for murder—except the killer.
A retired judge is shot dead outside the Dog and Gun inn in the remote Yorkshire village of Niddersgill. There’s a witness who saw everything, and the gunman’s on the run; the case should be open-and-shut for DCI Jim Oldroyd. But the murderer had no motive for wanting Sandy Fraser dead and, what’s more, no trace of him can be found.
As Oldroyd and his team cast the net wider, they discover that Fraser wasn’t without enemies in Niddersgill. As the wealthy owner of a grouse moor, he’d clashed with farmers, debtors, hunt saboteurs and blackmailers. But none of them were at the scene of the murder. And when a local shopkeeper is gunned down in a second senseless attack, it’s clear that these killings are anything but random.
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(A Yorkshire Murder Mysteries)
Flu
by Gina Kolata
Rating: 4.6 #ad
The fascinating, true story of the world’s deadliest disease.
In 1918, the Great Flu Epidemic felled the young and healthy virtually overnight. An estimated forty million people died as the epidemic raged. Children were left orphaned and families were devastated. As many American soldiers were killed by the 1918 flu as were killed in battle during World War I. And no area of the globe was safe. Eskimos living in remote outposts in the frozen tundra were sickened and killed by the flu in such numbers that entire villages were wiped out.
Scientists have recently rediscovered shards of the flu virus frozen in Alaska and preserved in scraps of tissue in a government warehouse…
The Night Swim
by Megan Goldin
Rating: 4.4 #ad
In The Night Swim, a new thriller from Megan Goldin, author of the “gripping and unforgettable” (Harlan Coben) The Escape Room, a true crime podcast host covering a controversial trial finds herself drawn deep into a small town’s dark past and a brutal crime that took place there years before.
Ever since her true-crime podcast became an overnight sensation and set an innocent man free, Rachel Krall has become a household name—and the last hope for people seeking justice. But she’s used to being recognized for her voice, not her face. Which makes it all the more unsettling when she finds a note on her car windshield, addressed to her, begging for help.
Evidence Not Seen
by Carlene Havel
Rating: 5.0 #ad
Love keeps no record of wrongs.
Jeff Galloway cannot forget how he and his mother were left to cope on their own when his father went to prison. Furthermore, he does not understand why his mother wants to welcome John Galloway home with open arms after almost thirty years. As a new romance begins to blossom with perky social worker Melanie Clark, she encourages Jeff to let go of the past.
Can a crotchety retired detective help Jeff unravel long-kept secrets in his attempt to accept his parents as they are?
The Girl They Took
by Leslie Wolfe
Rating: 4.4 #ad
Where her daughter had played Gretel in front of a cheering audience, only two faint stage lights remained. The theater was deserted and eerily silent; the only sound she could hear was her own heart, pounding in a frenzy against her chest. She rushed outside and stopped sharply at the top of the stairs, stunned, her blood turned to icicles. Darkness had fallen, thick and filled with ocean mist, lampposts like ghosts sprinkling yellow haloes in the sky.
After eight-year-old Paige disappears without a trace, FBI Special Agent Tess Winnett is called to investigate one of the boldest kidnappings the bureau has seen. The girl was taken from a theater filled with witnesses, in the middle of a children’s play. And no one saw anything.
Starting a frenzied search and following leads that seem to suggest a link to the girl’s father, the state district attorney, Tess is stunned to learn of a ransom call that points to an entirely different motive, old as time itself: money.
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(Tess Winnett Mysteries)
The Last Time We Met
by Trisha Ridinger McKee
Rating: 5.0 #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.
Tuesday’s Mystery eBooks
Lexy Baker Cozy Boxed Set Vol 1
by Leighann Dobbs
Rating: 4.4 #ad
Hilarious whodunits that will keep you turning the pages well into the night.
This USA TODAY bestselling box set contains the first four books in the Lexy Baker Culinary Cozy Mystery series. Join Lexy Baker and her posse if iPad toting grandma’s on their first four adventures as they try to outwit a varity of clever killers. This box set has a lot of mystery and a little bit of romance complete with recipes!
This set includes the first 4 books in the Lexy Baker Cozy Mystery Series:
Killer Cupcakes
Dying For Danish
Murder, Money and Marzipan
3 Bodies and A Biscotti
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(Lexy Baker Cozy Mysteries Boxed Sets)
Cards on the Table
by Agatha Christie
Rating: 4.6 #ad
In Agatha Christie’s classic mystery, Cards on the Table, the wily Hercule Poirot is on the case when a bridge night turns deadly
Mr. Shaitana is famous as a flamboyant party host. Nevertheless, he is a man of whom everybody is a little afraid. So when he boasts to Hercule Poirot that he considers murder an art form, the detective has some reservations about accepting a party invitation to view Shaitana’s “private collection.”
Indeed, what begins as an absorbing evening of bridge is to turn into a more dangerous game altogether.…
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(Hercule Poirot Mysteries)
Ember of Night
by Molly E. Lee
Rating: 4.3 #ad
I’ve never been a stranger to the darkness. But when darkness comes knocking and looks that good, who wouldn’t invite him in?
Draven is mysterious, evasive, and hot as sin. The only thing more infuriating than how much he won’t say is how obnoxious he is every time he does open his mouth. But when a group of strangers attacks me and he fights back, causing them to vanish into a cloud of black dust, I know Draven is more than he seems.
He finally shows me there’s a veil separating the world I know from a world of demons living all around us. Turns out, good and evil are just words. Some of the demons don’t fall into either category. And I’m realizing just how easily I fit in among the ancient warlocks, the divine soldiers, and the twisted supernaturals…
U is for Undertow
by Sue Grafton
Rating: 4.6 #ad
Sue Grafton takes the mystery genre to new heights with this twisting, complex #1 New York Times bestseller that draws private investigator Kinsey Millhone into a case shrouded in the sins of the past.
Looking solemn, Michael Sutton arrives in Kinsey Millhone’s office with a story to tell. When he was six, he says, he wandered into the woods and saw two men digging a hole. They claimed they were pirates, looking for buried treasure. Now, all these years later, the long-forgotten events have come back to him—and he has pieced them together with news reports from the time, becoming convinced that he witnesses the burial of a kidnapped child.
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(A Kinsey Millhone Mysteries)
Do No Harm
by James B. Cohoon
Rating: 4.2 #ad
Doctors go to medical school to save lives… right?
When Matthew Preston was eight, his father was shot and killed in rarefied Pacific Palisades by Ted Nash, a home burglar who happened to be the Preston’s neighbor. Though Nash was sentenced to life in San Quentin, Matthew’s lifelong obsession is to somehow get into the prison, gain access to Nash, and exact the ultimate personal revenge. He devises a plan to become a prison doctor to gain access to Nash.
While in medical school, Matthew falls for brilliant classmate Torrey Jamison from poverty-stricken East Palo Alto…
Infinity’s Shore
by David Brin
Rating: 4.4 #ad
A once peaceful planet of refugees faces complete annihilation in this hard science fiction sequel to Brightness Reef.
Book Two in the Uplift Storm Trilogy
It’s illegal to occupy the planet Jijo, but six castaway races have managed to coexist there for some time. They’ve successfully hidden from watchful law enforcers of the Five Galaxies – until now . . .
After making an amazing discovery far away – a derelict armada whose mere existence triggered interstellar war – the Terran exploration vessel Streaker and its crew of humans and dolphins arrive at Jijo in search of sanctuary from the Galactic forces out to destroy them.
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(The Uplift Saga)
THE SUM OF OUR SORROWS
by Lisette Brodey
Rating: 4.7 #ad
In an idyllic suburb in Northern California, tragedy strikes the Sheppard family when Abby, the mother of three daughters and wife to Dalton, is killed in a car accident. Charlotte, the middle daughter, is in the car with her mother and survives without physical injury but remains deeply scarred on the inside.
Dalton tells Lily, his eldest daughter, that she must sacrifice long-awaited college plans and put her life on hold to take care of her sisters. Lily is torn between her devotion to family and an increasing need to find her place in the world — but how can she leave, knowing her family may crumble? Will her presence eventually cause more problems than it resolves?
Jane Whitefield
by Thomas Perry
Rating: 5.0 #ad
A Native American of Seneca descent, Jane Whitefield helps people in harm’s way disappear without a trace and take on entirely new lives with new identities. Of course, not everyone is a fan of Jane’s work . . .
There is a group of men who would like to speak with the elusive woman. That’s why they’ve kidnapped three people connected to Jane to serve as bait. One of the poor souls is Jane’s longtime friend and neighbor, Jake Reinert.
As the three hostages ponder their escape, Jake begins to tell the story of the one person who could rescue them from a horrible death: Jane Whitefield.
Monday’s Mystery eBooks
Cracked to Death
by Cheryl Hollon
Rating: 4.4 #ad
It’s the dog days of summer in St. Petersburg, Florida, and Webb’s Glass Shop proprietor Savannah Webb has an eco-friendly plan to help locals escape the heat—a recyclable bottle-crafting workshop taught by reticent store manager Amanda Blake. Turns out, the class is a bigger smash than expected, thanks in part to a pair of staggeringly old bottles brought in by snorkeler Martin Lane . . .
Linked to a storied pirate shipwreck, the relics definitely pique Savannah’s interest. But intrigue turns to shock when Martin’s lifeless body washes ashore the next morning, another glass artifact tucked in his dive bag.
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(A Webb’s Glass Shop Mysteries)
All Flesh Is Grass
by Clifford D. Simak
Rating: 4.2 #ad
Long before Under the Dome, this novel of a town trapped within an invisible force field earned a Nebula Award nomination for the author of Way Station.
Nothing much ever happens in Millville, a small, secluded Middle-American community—until the day Brad Carter discovers he is unable to leave. And the nearly bankrupt real estate agent is not the only one being held prisoner; every resident is confined within the town’s boundaries by an invisible force field that cannot be breached. As local tensions rapidly reach breaking point, a set of bizarre circumstances leads Brad to the source of their captivity, making him humanity’s reluctant ambassador to an alien race of sentient flora, and privy to these jailers’ ultimate intentions. But some of Millville’s most powerful citizens do not take kindly to Carter’s “collaboration with the enemy,” even under the sudden threat of global apocalypse.
Nuclear Winter Armageddon
by Bobby Akart
Rating: 4.5 #ad
For decades, Nuclear Armageddon hanged over us like a mighty sword. Some said it would be the war to end all wars. They were wrong. The real battle against extinction was just beginning.
International bestselling author, Bobby Akart, one of America’s favorite storytellers, delivers up-all-night thrillers to readers in 245 countries and territories worldwide. “Masterful and suspenseful!”
This is how the world ends. Not with a bang, but with many nuclear bombs detonated around the planet. It was no longer a topic of conversation around the dinner table as in years past. Nobody was prepared, including the world’s governments. Yet the threat was always real and the devastation was predictable.
“Bobby’s uncanny ability to take a topic of what could happen and write an epic story about it is short of preternatural!”
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(Nuclear Winter Mysteries)
Into the Dread Void
by Abe Moss
Rating: 4.3 #ad
In the dark woods, you see it. An emerald glow in the distance. Coming closer. Glowing brighter. There is no escape.
Something wicked roams the California wilderness. Its victims form a gruesome trail across the Sierra Nevada mountains – dead on their knees, flesh hanging off their bones, expressions of euphoria upon their faces…
Spending her first weekend with her new foster family at their summer cabin, fourteen-year-old Nell has no idea it’s heading their way. She has no idea they’ll soon be thrust into a terrifying struggle for their lives, or that the secret she keeps – a supernatural gift she’s hidden most of her childhood – might be the one thing that can save them.
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(The Dread Void Mysteries)
The Guardian
by Nicholas Sparks
Rating: 4.6 #ad
Julie Barenson’s young husband left her two unexpected gifts before he died – a Great Dane puppy named Singer and the promise that he would always be watching over her. Now four years have passed. Still living in the small town of Swansboro, North Carolina, twenty-nine-year-old Julie is emotionally ready to make a commitment to someone again. But who?
Should it be Richard Franklin, the handsome, sophisticated engineer who treats her like a queen? Or Mike Harris, the down-to-earth nice guy who was her husband’s best friend?
Summer Camp Culprit
by C.K. Fyfe
Rating: 5.0 #ad
Camp Starfall is closing. But that doesn’t mean the past is going with it.
Despite her misgivings, Lindsey returns to the campground she last left as a broken-hearted teen. She’s determined to spend Camp Starfall’s farewell weekend focusing on the good memories she has of her time as a camper. But fate has other plans.
Lindsey’s teenage sweetheart Tyler shows up, stirring up feelings in her that had long lain dormant. Too bad she doesn’t have time to dwell on him. Someone is breaking into the cabins, and if she doesn’t find the culprit, more than her heart will be at stake.
Police at the Station and They Don’t Look Friendly
by Adrian McKinty
Rating: 4.6 #ad
Another thrilling mystery featuring Detective Sean Duffy and his most dangerous investigation yet
Belfast, 1988. A man is found dead, killed with a bolt from a crossbow in front of his house. This is no hunting accident. But uncovering who is responsible for the murder will take Detective Sean Duffy down his most dangerous road yet, a road that leads to a lonely clearing on a high bog where three masked gunmen will force Duffy to dig his own grave.
Hunted by forces unknown, threatened by Internal Affairs, and with his relationship on the rocks, Duffy will need all his wits to get out of this investigation in one piece.
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(The Sean Duffy Mysteries)
Sunday’s Mystery eBooks
Hunting for Handcuffs
by Jinty James
Rating: 4.6 #ad
Coffee, cupcakes, and kitty day care – just a normal day for Lauren, Annie, and Zoe – when they’re not busy catching a killer!
Lauren temporarily hires a college student to help out in the cat café in the small town of Gold Leaf Valley, Northern California, while her cousin Zoe enjoys a belated honeymoon in beautiful Puerto Rico.
But Darrell isn’t working out. Not at all. When Darrell doesn’t turn up for his last shift, Lauren, Annie (her Norwegian Forest Cat), and her police husband Mitch visit his apartment. And find him dead.
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(Norwegian Forest Cat Café Mysteries)
Four Steps Missed
by Luana Ehrlich
Rating: 4.7 #ad
CIA covert operative Titus Ray is used to keeping secrets. This time, it’s different.
This time, he’s keeping secrets from his boss, his handler, and his wife.
Operation False Flag is the secret Titus is keeping from his boss . . .
While his boss, Deputy Director of Operations, Robert Ira, would ordinarily be aware of any operation being run out of the Agency, this mission concerns the DDO himself, a mission that could cost him his job.
The whistleblower behind the operation is the secret Titus is keeping from his handler . . .
Even though his handler, Douglas Carlton, has been tasked with directing Operation False Flag, he has no idea Titus knows the identity of the whistleblower who gave the Inspector General the files that set the operation in motion.
The operation itself is the secret Titus is keeping from his wife . . .
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(A Titus Ray Thrillers)
The Midnight Lock
by Jeffery Deaver
Rating: 4.5 #ad
A woman awakes in the morning to find that someone has picked her apartment’s supposedly impregnable door lock and rearranged personal items, even sitting beside her while she slept. The intrusion, the police learn, is a message to the entire city of carnage to come. Lincoln Rhyme and Amelia Sachs are brought in to investigate and soon learn that the sociopathic intruder, who calls himself “the Locksmith,” can break through any lock or security system ever devised. With more victims on the horizon, Rhyme, Sachs and their stable of associates must follow the evidence to the man’s lair… and discover his true mission.
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(Lincoln Rhyme Mysteries)
A Trick of the Light
by William Stuart
Rating: 4.2 #ad
William Stuart, bestselling author of The Moonlit Road and popular NoSleep Podcast contributor, presents sixteen tales of terror that will leave you wondering what may be lurking nearby.
A mad professor delivers deadly punishments to his captive pupils. A children’s game sets an entire mythology in motion. A talented girl’s drawings win her a set of pencils that bring her creations to life. An old investigator comes out of retirement to face down one final ghost from his past.
You catch a shadow in your peripheral vision… Is there something moving in that window? A ghost? A killer? Or is it just A Trick of the Light?
Hometown Prophet
by Jeff Fulmer
Rating: 4.5 #ad
A desperate, thirty-one year old Peter Quill moves back home to live with his mom in Tennessee. When he begins to have dreams that seem to be coming true, he is more surprised than anyone. With the support of his pastor, he predicts a major event in front of his church and is suddenly heralded as a modern day prophet. Foreseeing an environmental disaster and an attack on a local Muslim mosque, he attracts more followers, as well as a growing chorus of critics. As his dreams continue to challenge the biases of people in his community, he comes under personal attack, discovering what it truly means to be a prophet of God.
The Paradox Hotel
by Rob Hart
Rating: 4.0 #ad
ONE OF THE MOST ANTICIPATED BOOKS OF 2022 – CrimeReads
January Cole’s job just got a whole lot harder.
Not that running security at the Paradox was ever really easy. Nothing’s simple at a hotel where the ultra-wealthy tourists arrive costumed for a dozen different time periods, all eagerly waiting to catch their “flights” to the past.
Or where proximity to the timeport makes the clocks run backward on occasion—and, rumor has it, allows ghosts to stroll the halls.
None of that compares to the corpse in room 526. The one that seems to be both there and not there. The one that somehow only January can see.
Black Swan, White Raven
by Multiple Authors
Rating: 4.4 #ad
Dark and decidedly grown-up stories inspired by fairy tales—from New York Times bestsellers Karen Joy Fowler, Joyce Carol Oates, Susanna Clarke, and more.
This collection from World Fantasy Award–winning editors Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling proves that fairy tales don’t have to be for little children and that happily ever after doesn’t necessarily mean forever. Here, the plights of Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Rapunzel, and others are reimagined by some of today’s finest literary talents.
Hansel and Gretel make several appearances, not the least being at their trial for the murder of a supposedly helpless old woman. The real, shocking reason for Snow White’s desperate flight from her home is revealed. And the steadfast tin soldier, made flesh and blood, pays a terrible price for his love and devotion.
Wolves of Gypsum Creek Box Set
by Serena Meadows
Rating: 4.7 #ad
The tiny town of Gypsum Creek is home to a high number of brooding, sexy-as-sin men that disappear with each full moon. The heroes in this boxset of steamy, standalone stories will get your heart racing…and tongue wagging. But you’d better watch out. The howling has started, and no lady is safe when the wolves of Gypsum Creek go on the hunt.
Third Time a Charm
Triumph
Young Love
Restoration
Her White Wolf
Lose yourself in the Appalachian Mountains with these powerful protectors, and the courageous women that claim their love.