Mysteries
Sunday’s Mystery eBooks
The Spy Coast
by Tess Gerritsen
Rating: 4.6 #ad
Former spy Maggie Bird came to the seaside village of Purity, Maine, eager to put the past behind her after a mission went tragically wrong. These days, she’s living quietly on her chicken farm, still wary of blowback from the events that forced her early retirement.
But when a body turns up in Maggie’s driveway, she knows it’s a message from former foes who haven’t forgotten her. Maggie turns to her local circle of old friends—all retirees from the CIA—to help uncover the truth about who is trying to kill her, and why. This “Martini Club” of former spies may be retired, but they still have a few useful skills that they’re eager to use again, if only to spice up their rather sedate new lives.
Death in the Devil’s Acre
by Anne Perry
Rating: 4.4 #ad
The sleuthing couple pursues a serial killer through Victorian London in an exciting entry in the “unfailingly rewarding” New York Times–bestselling series (The New York Times).
A serial killer is loose in the slums of Devil’s Acre. The murders are brutal, but it is the killer’s grisly signature that shocks even Inspector Thomas Pitt, no stranger to death and violent crime. The victims are stabbed and sexually mutilated. When Pitt recognizes one of the victims as a blackmailing footman from a case on Callander Square, his investigation takes him from the brothels to the high reaches of Victorian society and into a world where upper-class women descend to depravity to relieve their boredom. Despite Pitt’s warnings, his wife, Charlotte, pursues her own investigation.
Someone Is Watching
by Amanda Stevens
Rating: 4.5 #ad
How can she remember the night. She desperately wants to forget?
Radio host Ellie Brannon fears the return of the monster who abducted her and two of her friends from the Ruins…and left her for dead. Fifteen years later, Special Agent Sam Reece reopens the cold case when new evidence comes to light about one of the victims. Ellie must trust Sam completely to have any chance of discovering the truth – especially since the gaps in her memory left them with few leads. But is someone luring Ellie into a terrifying return to the scene of the crime?
Cop Town
by Karin Slaughter
Rating: 4.2 #ad
Karin Slaughter, author of the bestselling Will Trent novels, is widely acclaimed as “one of the best crime novelists in America” (The Washington Post). Now she delivers her first stand-alone novel: an epic story of a city in the midst of seismic upheaval, a serial killer targeting cops, and a divided police force tasked with bringing a madman to justice.
Atlanta, 1974: As a brutal murder and a furious manhunt rock the city’s police department, Kate Murphy wonders if her first day on the job will also be her last. She’s determined to defy her privileged background by making her own way—wearing a badge and carrying a gun. But for a beautiful young woman, life will be anything but easy in the macho world of the Atlanta PD, where even the female cops have little mercy for rookies. It’s also the worst day possible to start given that a beloved cop has been gunned down, his brothers in blue are out for blood, and the city is on the edge of war.
The Road Out of Hell
by Anthony Flacco, Jerry Clark
Rating: 4.5 #ad
The New York Times–bestselling author’s “haunting, compassionate, and terrifyingly true” story of a man breaking free from his notorious past (Gregg Olson, New York Times–bestselling author of Starvation Heights).
From 1926 to 1928, Gordon Stewart Northcott committed at least twenty murders on a chicken ranch outside of Los Angeles. He held his nephew, Sanford Clark, captive there from the age of thirteen to fifteen. Sanford would be Northcott’s sole surviving victim. Forced by Northcott to take part in the murders, he carried tremendous guilt all his life. Yet despite his youth and the trauma he endured, Sanford helped gain justice for the dead and their families by testifying at the trial that led to Northcott’s execution.
The Galaxy, and the Ground Within
by Becky Chambers
Rating: 4.6 #ad
National Bestseller!
Return to the sprawling, Hugo Award-winning universe of the Galactic Commons to explore another corner of the cosmos – one often mentioned, but not yet explored—in this absorbing entry in the Wayfarers series, which blends heart-warming characters and imaginative adventure.
With no water, no air, and no native life, the planet Gora is unremarkable. The only thing it has going for it is a chance proximity to more popular worlds, making it a decent stopover for ships traveling between the wormholes that keep the Galactic Commons connected. If deep space is a highway, Gora is just your average truck stop.
Death Goes to School
by J. Carol Nemeth
Rating: 4.7 #ad
One teacher’s missing. Another’s found dead.
Jenny Mitchell and her fellow teachers used to enjoy hiking the trails at Deep Creek, but now they’re terrified to go back. Jenny’s best friend since childhood vanished without a trace, and Jenny’s life changed forever. Not even her faith comforts her now.
Ranger Flint Stockman’s niece, Cassie, is in Jenny Mitchell’s first grade class. Not only does Flint find himself in the middle of a murder investigation, but he soon finds himself falling for Cassie’s teacher. That wasn’t in his plans, but neither are the bodies the rangers discover as the investigation continues. With one teacher missing and one dead, could Jenny be next?
Saturday’s Mystery eBooks
Bark M For Murder
by Multiple Authors
Rating: 4.1 #ad
Bestselling and award-winning mystery writers set the hounds on the killers’ trail—in an incomparable quartet of crime stories with a canine edge.
New York Times–bestselling author J.A. Jance provides a spellbinding saga of a scam-busting septuagenarian and her two golden retrievers. Anthony Award-winner and Agatha and Edgar Award finalist Virginia Lanier’s thrilling tale features bloodhounds and bloody murder. Edgar and Anthony nominee Chassie West’s suspenseful stunner is about a life-saving German shepherd and a ghastly forgotten crime. And Lee Charles Kelley, author of the series starring criminologist-turned-dog trainer Jack Field, offers an edge-of-your-seat yarn that pits an ex-cop kennel owner and a yappy toy poodle against a craven killer.
The First Two Companions, The Assembly of Thirteen
by Omayra Vélez
Rating: 4.4 #ad
My name is June Dunbar, and I am a photojournalist for SBN. I live in Livermore, California, and everyone knows they work with radiation in the labs around here. I was minding my own business at home when a shining box appeared on my kitchen table one night. Obviously, I thought it was radioactive. Mind you; this happened in the middle of the night.
Anyway, I thought everything was contaminated and needed to remove the thing out of my house. So, I grabbed the damn box, and POW. I was blinded, but when I got my sight back, I was on another planet with two moons and blue trees with leaves the size of chairs. To top my shitimetter off, I got sucked inside the blue tree. You heard it right. The tree pulled me in, or my dog pushed me. I can’t remember.
The Soulmate
by Iain Maitland
Rating: 4.1 #ad
Sharon’s found a new friend. And she’s not sharing her with anyone.
Sharon Meyer is terribly lonely. She spends her days walking by the sea, watching afternoon television and reading. She hates how small her life has become.
Then, a chance meeting with the cool and sophisticated Pippa, and Sharon knows she will be alone no more. Because she feels it in her bones – she and Pippa are destined to be best friends. Maybe even soulmates. And it seems she’s right. Soon she and Pippa are having coffee, meeting for lunch in town, and there is even talk of weekends away and holidays. It’s wonderful.
OCELLICON: Future Visions
by A.G. Russo
Rating: 4.4 #ad
Winner of the Bronze Medal from the Global Book Awards.
OCELLICON is a military science fiction story with elements of legal/detective/mystery/feminist/noir sci-fi. Earth barely survived nuclear battles until the militaries of the world took over from authoritarians. But rebellion was agitating from within. Prosecutor Major Annalisa Farrell, Military Academy honors graduate, war hero, wounded warrior, and child abuse survivor fought to champion justice. An unexpected adversary turned out to be Judge Bennett McCrae, the “Judge Prince.” In his courtroom, the Military, and the general population, he was as popular as Annalisa was hated. Before appearing before Judge McCrae, Annalisa Farrell fought in numerous conflicts, was special ops, and had missions in space where she worked side by side with aliens.
Word of Honor
by Terri Blackstock
Rating: 4.4 #ad
What will it cost to keep a promise? Of the four people at the Newpointe post office when the bomb went off, three were killed instantly. The fourth, a five-year-old boy, lies comatose in the hospital and might not survive. Who would do such a thing? The answer comes in the form of a gunman crashing through the door of the hotel room where Jill Clark is staying. With a rifle barrel pointed at her temple, the young attorney suddenly finds herself the hostage of a desperate man whose actions hardly fit his claim that he’s innocent of the bombing. Only later, when the suspect is behind bars, does Jill wonder whether he’s as guilty as he appears. Prompted by a terrifying attempt on her life, Jill and old flame Dan Nichols dig deeper into the case.
The Spawn of Lilith
by Dana Fredsti
Rating: 4.2 #ad
Working in Hollywood is a living Hell in this “fast, fun, and unrelenting” urban fantasy series about a stuntwoman who slays paranormal creatures (Seanan McGuire, author of the October Daye novels).
Out of the spotlight, in the darker corners of the studio backlots, Hollywood hides a remarkable secret. Actor or actress, set designer, electrician, best boy, or grip—in la-la land, it pays not to be human. Vampires, succubae, trolls, elementals, goblins—studios hire anyone and anything that can take direction, be discreet, and not eat the extras. (The less you know about your agent, the better.)
The Ideal Man
by Julie Garwood
Rating: 4.6 #ad
A woman’s life and love are compromised in this pulse-pounding thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling author Julie Garwood.
Dr. Ellie Sullivan has witnessed the shooting of an FBI agent in pursuit of a ruthless modern-day Bonnie and Clyde. The only person to see the shooter’s face, Ellie is suddenly thrust into the center of a criminal investigation spearheaded by the no-nonsense, by-the-book, and tantalizingly handsome agent Max Daniels.
When the couple is captured, she’ll be called to testify. But the Landrys have been caught before, and each time the witnesses are scared into silence—or they disappear.
The Hollow Tree
by James Brogden
Rating: 4.2 #ad
From an exciting name in British horror and the author of Hekla’s Children comes a dark, haunting tale of our world and the next
After her hand is amputated following a tragic accident, Rachel Cooper suffers vivid nightmares of a woman imprisoned in the trunk of a hollow tree, screaming for help. When she begins to experience phantom sensations of leaves and earth with her missing limb, Rachel is terrified she is going mad . . . but then another hand takes hers, and the trapped woman is pulled into our world.
