Thursday’s Mystery eBooks
Wicked Charms
by Janet Evanovich, Phoef Sutton
Rating: 4.4 #ad
Before he was murdered and mummified nearly a century ago, notorious bootlegger Collier “Peg Leg” Dazzle discovered and re-hid a famous pirate’s treasure somewhere along the coast of New England. A vast collection of gold and silver coins and precious gems, the bounty also contains the Stone of Avarice—the very item reluctant treasure seeker Lizzy Tucker and her partner, Diesel, have been enlisted to find. While Lizzy would just like to live a quiet, semi-normal life, Diesel is all about the hunt. And this hunt is going to require a genuine treasure map and a ship worthy of sailing the seven seas . . . or at least getting them from Salem Harbor to Maine.
Zombie Fungus
by Bryan Dean
Rating: 5.0 #ad
Abe thought he was ready for this. He’d watched the movies, read the books, and prepared accordingly. But when the monsters arrived, he realized Hollywood didn’t get all the facts right. Some of these zombies are not your father’s zombies — not even close.
Maybe it’s because the source isn’t a virus, but a fungus? Or that it was synthesized in a laboratory? But who would attempt something so dastardly? How many lives will be lost when humans manipulate what they should have left alone?
The Lake House
by James Patterson
Rating: 4.3 #ad
Six kids on the run must face a villain who threatens the future of human existence . . . but winning comes at a high price.
Six children have escaped horrifying government experiments, a childhood in captivity, and a frightening brush with death. Living out in the world for the first time, they yearn to be reunited with Kit and Frannie, the couple who saved their lives. And Max, the leader of the flock, is seized by an overpowering fear that the kids are about to face a danger greater than any they’ve ever known.
All that the children want is to return to the one place they have ever felt truly protected: the waterfront cabin known as the Lake House.
Newspaper Spring
by Jesse Storm
Rating: 4.6 #ad
John Biles wakes in the back of a strange family’s wagon, and his whole life is in ruin.
John’s family is riding their way to El Paso to establish a newspaper. His father is a newspaper man, and the rest of the family works in the print shop. Descended upon by a group of Indians who talk like white men, John’s family wagon is besieged, leaving his parents and sister dead.
Wounded, John is found by the Jensen family whose wagon is on its way to a massive piece of land they’ve inherited on the outskirts of Whistle Springs.
A Thin Dark Line
by Tami Hoag
Rating: 4.5 #ad
Terror stalks the streets of Bayou Breaux, Louisiana. A suspected murderer is free on a technicality, and the cop accused of planting evidence against him is ordered off the case. But Detective Nick Fourcade refuses to walk away. He’s stepped over the line before. This case threatens to push him over the edge.
He’s not the only one. Deputy Annie Broussard found the woman’s mutilated body. She still hears the phantom echoes of dying screams. She wants justice. But pursuing the investigation will mean forming an alliance with a man she doesn’t trust and making enemies of the men she works with. It will mean being drawn into the confidence of a killer.
The Light of Days
by Judy Batalion
Rating: 4.5 #ad
One of the most important stories of World War II, already optioned by Steven Spielberg for a major motion picture: a spectacular, searing history that brings to light the extraordinary accomplishments of brave Jewish women who became resistance fighters—a group of unknown heroes whose exploits have never been chronicled in full, until now.
Witnesses to the brutal murder of their families and neighbors and the violent destruction of their communities, a cadre of Jewish women in Poland—some still in their teens—helped transform the Jewish youth groups into resistance cells to fight the Nazis. With courage, guile, and nerves of steel, these “ghetto girls” paid off Gestapo guards, hid revolvers in loaves of bread and jars of marmalade, and helped build systems of underground bunkers.
King’s Ransom
by Ed McBain
Rating: 4.2 #ad
For a wealthy businessman, a kidnapping puts him in a predicament as troubling as any he has ever experienced. For Detective Steve Carella and the men at the 87th Precinct, their troubles are even worse. Their only hope is that he will play ball—at least long enough for them to catch the perps before the kidnapping turns into a homicide.
Ed McBain delivers another rapid-fire nail-biter in his 87th Precinct series with King’s Ransom, a morally complex weaving of friendship, personal responsibility, and the nature of man hailed by the Daily Mirror: “McBain spins the tightest tale in town…there’s nobody who does it better.
Wednesday’s Mystery eBooks
The Funeral Parlor Quilt
by Ann Hazelwood
Rating: 4.5 #ad
A wedding, burial traditions, and a missing quilt combine to keep the Colebridge Community locals on their toes in this crafty mystery.
The third chapter in the life of Anne Brown and the Colebridge Community! In The Basement Quilt and The Potting Shed Quilt, the first and second novels by Ann Hazelwood, you became familiar with the family and friends of Anne Brown, the plucky florist whose life decisions remind us of our own. In the third book in the Colebridge Community series, even as Anne and her quilting friends welcome newcomers into their lives, they come across strange death practices and unusual (to them) uses for quilts. These events give them pause to consider life’s deeper meanings. But what do they signal for the future?
A Fool For Love & Money
by John D. Ottini
Rating: 4.5 #ad
Love and Money are two important ingredients in a man’s recipe for happiness. Unfortunately, those same two ingredients under the wrong circumstances can be a man’s recipe for disaster.
Unlucky at love, unemployed and drowning in debt, Thomas Murphy is a man in need of salvation.
When an unexpected gift arrives from an unknown source, Tom is confused, yet elated about his new-found fortune. His luck continues when he runs into an old flame he hasn’t seen in years and sparks begin to fly. Strange how a man’s fate can change when he least expects it – one moment he’s miserable and struggling to make ends meet, and the next he’s back on his feet and looking forward to a bright future… or so Tom thinks.
Standing in the Shadows
by Peter Robinson
Rating: 4.3 #ad
The 28th twisting installment in the DCI Alan Banks mystery series that Stephen King calls “the best now on the market.”
In November 1980, Nick Hartley returns home from a university lecture to find his house crawling with police. His ex-girlfriend, Alice Poole, has been found murdered, and her new boyfriend Mark Woodcroft is missing. Nick is the prime suspect. The case quickly goes cold, but Nick cannot let it go. He embarks on a career in investigative journalism, determined to find Alice’s murderer—but his obsession leads him down a dangerous path.
The Aaron Schneider Collection
by Aaron D. Schneider, Michael Anderle
Rating: 5.0 #ad
A fell-handed warrior treads a bloody road. Can Ax-Wed truly leave her people’s crumbling decadence behind her? Or will it haunt her as she wanders a savage world, determined to carve her future one ax stroke at a time? Find out with the Outcast Royal Complete Series!
Enter a darkened world where, so far, no one has won World War I and now dark monsters are choosing sides in the World First Wizard Complete Series boxed set. Dive into a double fisted tale of war, magic, and bloody conspiracies in the grim alternate history of the War to End All Wars with the World’s First Wizard!
Let the Dead Sleep
by Heather Graham
Rating: 4.4 #ad
An Object of Desire? Or of Fear?
It was stolen from a New Orleans grave – the centuries-old bust of an evil man, a demonic man. It’s an object desired by collectors and by those with wickedness in their hearts.
One day, its current owner shows up at Danni Cafferty’s antiques shop on Royal Street, the shop she inherited from her father. But before Danni can buy the statue, it disappears and the owner is found dead….
The Essex Serpent
by Sarah Perry
Rating: 4.0 #ad
“A novel of almost insolent ambition – lush and fantastical, a wild Eden behind a garden gate…it’s part ghost story and part natural history lesson, part romance and part feminist parable. I found it so transporting that 48 hours after completing it, I was still resentful to be back home.” – New York Times
London, 1893. When Cora Seaborne’s brilliant, domineering husband dies, she steps into her new life as a widow with as much relief as sadness: her marriage was an unhappy one, and she never suited the role of society wife. Seeking refuge in fresh air and open space, she leaves the metropolis for coastal Essex, accompanied by her inquisitive and obsessive eleven-year-old son, Francis, and the boy’s nanny, Martha, her fiercely protective friend.
Who Killed Jane Stanford?
by Richard White
Rating: 3.7 #ad
In 1885 Jane and Leland Stanford cofounded a university to honor their recently deceased young son. After her husband’s death in 1893, Jane Stanford, a devoted spiritualist who expected the university to inculcate her values, steered Stanford into eccentricity and public controversy for more than a decade. In 1905 she was murdered in Hawaii, a victim, according to the Honolulu coroner’s jury, of strychnine poisoning. With her vast fortune the university’s lifeline, the Stanford president and his allies quickly sought to foreclose challenges to her bequests by constructing a story of death by natural causes. The cover-up gained traction in the murky labyrinths of power, wealth, and corruption of Gilded Age San Francisco. The murderer walked.
Transformation
by Zhao Lihong
Rating: 4.7 #ad
With his highly celebrated collection “Pain,” Zhao Lihong redefined modern Chinese poetry and captured audiences worldwide with its persistent, unrelenting, and affectionate style.
In his latest collection “Transformation,” the multi-award-winning author brings new, powerful poems that offer a unique perspective on society, culture, family, and the self. After more than 50 years of writing, Lihong reflects on parts of his past and, using the classic, prosaic language that defines his work, manages to capture the essence of multiple generations.
Tuesday’s Mystery eBooks
A Dead End Christmas
by Alyssa Day
Rating: 4.7 #ad
It’s Christmas time in Dead End. And this year Santa’s bringing … murder!
It’s Christmas time in Dead End, and a rash of crimes is making residents nervous. And the giant UltraShopMart that wants to move to town is pitting Dead Ender against Dead Ender.
Who’s breaking into homes and businesses? Why does the new veterinary clinic keep getting vandalized? Who’s dumping cats and dogs on the road across from the pawnshop? And why in the world is there a reindeer on the roof??
A Black and Endless Sky
by Matthew Lyons
Rating: 3.9 #ad
From the author of The Night Will Find Us comes a white-knuckled horror-thriller set across the American Southwest.
Road trips can be hell. Siblings Jonah and Nell Talbot used to be inseparable, but ever since Jonah suddenly blew town twelve years ago, they couldn’t be more distant. Now, in the wake of Jonah’s divorce, they embark on a cross-country road trip back to their hometown of Albuquerque, hoping to mend their broken relationship along the way.
Two from the Heart
by James Patterson, Frank Costantini
Rating: 4.1 #ad
From the author of Suzanne’s Diary for Nicholas and Sundays at Tiffany’s comes the New York Times bestseller featuring two heartwarming stories of loss, love, and the life-changing power of stories.
Anne McWilliams has lost everything. After her marriage falls apart and a hurricane destroys her home she realizes that her life has fallen out of focus. So she takes to the road to ask long-lost friends and strangers a simple question: “What’s your best story?” Can the funny, tragic, inspirational tales she hears on her journey help Anne see what she’s been missing?
Mists of the Highlands
by Miranda Martin
Rating: 4.1 #ad
Torn between two worlds, two men, and two times.
While on a college-sponsored field trip to experience a real archaeology dig, Missouri University student Quinn Cameron is separated from the rest of her class by a heavy fog. A fog that transports her back in time, to 1592. Something that even her 3.8 GPA and sarcastic wit won’t be enough to help her survive.
Now she’s in a primitive world she has only studied in books. History, she learns, is a far cry from the comfort and security of her former life. And her only safe harbor from politics and violence is Duncan MacGregor, a valiant, brooding, and mysterious Scottish warrior.
Smoke
by Lisa Unger
Rating: 4.4 #ad
In the final installment of her Lydia Strong series, bestselling author Lisa Unger, writing as Lisa Miscione, brings us her most shocking and emotionally wrenching case yet. An NYPD detective visits Lydia and her husband, P.I. Jeffrey Mark, to inform them that Lily, one of Lydia’s former writing students, has been missing for more than two weeks. Before she disappeared, Lily had tried to get in touch with Lydia, seeking her help.
Could this have had something to do with the death of Lily’s brother, which Lily refused to accept as a suicide?
Her Last Hour
by Daniel Hurst
Rating: 4.0 #ad
One woman. Many enemies…
Home alone on a Friday night, Katherine is anticipating a peaceful evening. But that all changes when she receives a shocking note through her letterbox…
The note tells her that she only has one hour left to live, but with no other information, Katherine has no idea who just threatened her or why. But things quickly go from bad to worse when she suspects her tormentor is already in her home and suddenly, her fight for survival begins.
Living An Awakened Life
by Julie Hoyle
Rating: 5.0 #ad
Life rarely goes according to plan. Learn how to meet each challenge and view it from the highest perspective. Discover how to extract wisdom from everything that happens in your life.
Living An Awakened Life is book two in the Honoring Your Sacred Self Series. It is a fabulous resource for aligning all aspects of your life with your highest wisdom. In this book, Julie shares her in-depth experience, following her radical and life-changing awakening. She opens up about her challenges and she shares her successes. Find out how you can dive deep, grapple with your difficulties and start living true to your highest purpose and vision.
Monday’s Mystery eBooks
The Potting Shed Quilt
by Ann Hazelwood
Rating: 4.5 #ad
The second saga of Anne Brown and the Colebridge Community! In The Basement Quilt, the debut novel by Ann Hazelwood, you got to know the family and friends of Anne Brown, a plucky florist whose daily ups and downs are as familiar as your own. In this follow-up book, Anne and her fiancé, Sam, start house-hunting, or is that haunting? Once again, a quilt holds keys and clues to important family secrets, but whose family is it this time? And why would anyone hide a quilt in a potting shed? Life continues apace for Anne’s family and friends, too. Share in their joys and sorrows as Colebridge goes about every community’s business.
A Billy Jo McCabe Mystery Box Set
by Lorhainne Eckhart
Rating: 4.7 #ad
Social worker Billy Jo and detective Mark Friessen have nothing in common — except their commitment to protecting the innocent at all costs on a secluded Pacific Northwest island where nothing is as it seems…
The social worker and the cop, an unlikely couple drawn together on a small, secluded Pacific Northwest island where nothing is as it seems. Protecting the innocent comes at a cost, and what seems to be a sleepy, quiet town is anything but. This box set collection includes Nothing as it Seems, Hiding in Plain Sight and The Cold Case
Standing by the Wall Collection
by Mick Herron
Rating: 4.5 #ad
At last in one volume: the collected Slough House spy novellas, including the never-before-published Christmas interlude Standing by the Wall.
Espionage. Blackmail. Revenge. Cunning. Slapstick. State secrets dating back to the fall of the Berlin Wall. All this and more in a tight package of five novellas by Mick Herron, CWA Gold Dagger–winning author of Slow Horses. From the troubled recruitment of a new MI5 informant to a botched information transfer, Herron’s novellas capture the drama, humor, and high stakes of everyday life in the world of spycraft, a world rife with both legends and secrets, where thrill-seeking and loneliness are ubiquitous and deadly, and where the lines between friends, enemies, and lovers are perpetually blurred by circumstance and subterfuge.
SO WE LIE
by Willow Rose
Rating: 4.3 #ad
This book kept me guessing, and I couldn’t put it down. It held me glued to the pages until the surprising end!– Goodreads reviewer
What do we do when the truth hurts too much?
Fresh out of the national academy – mother of two – FBI profiler Eva Rae Thomas is in over her head on her first assignment in multi-million-copy bestselling author Willow Rose’s breath-taking mystery.
When the mother of two, Arlene Wood, crashes her car against a tree at four in the morning, the case seems pretty straightforward.
The Old Scrapbook
by Dennis Higgins
Rating: 4.5 #ad
The Old Scrapbook is real. The characters within its pages were real as well. This story is an attempt to fill in the blanks of their actual relationship. Bet and Ray met, fell in love, and got engaged until a war separated them, World War II.
Seventy years later, the old scrapbook was found, and the mysteries involved rediscovered.
I became obsessed with the scrapbook and what could have become of the young woman, Bet, who created it. I felt that woman was somehow guiding me as I wrote the story. That’s how I felt from the beginning, like I was led to that war-time scrapbook by an unseeing hand that I could feel something from its pages.
The Lowcountry Murder of Gwendolyn Elaine Fogle
by Shuler
Rating: 4.0 #ad
A South Carolina police investigator’s account of solving a thirty-seven-year-old murder—includes photos.
For decades, evidence of the 1978 murder of Gwendolyn Elaine Fogle lay in the evidence room at the Walterboro Police Department. Investigators periodically revisited the case, but it remained the department’s top cold case for thirty-seven years. However, Special Agent Lieutenant Rita Shuler worked on the case shortly after she joined the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED), and she couldn’t let it go, not even after her retirement in 2001.
The King in Yellow, Deluxe Edition
by Robert W. Chambers
Rating: 4.3 #ad
A beautiful gift edition of the cult classic work of supernatural horror and weird fiction, which inspired H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos and the first season of True Detective
The weird tales in this slim volume are all linked by a play, the second act of which reveals truths so terrible and beautiful that it drives all who read it to despair: The King in Yellow.
These four macabre, uncanny and unsettling stories are some of the most thrilling ever written in the field of weird fiction, and since their first publication in 1895 have become a cult classic, influencing many writers from the renowned master of cosmic horror H.P Lovecraft to the creators of HBO’s True Detective.
The Dragon King
by R. A. Salvatore
Rating: 4.5 #ad
The thrilling conclusion to the New York Times–bestselling fantasy trilogy from the legendary million-selling author and creator of Drizzt Do’Urden.
Luthien Bedwyr, warrior leader of an elven rebellion and crusader for justice known as the Crimson Shadow, will not rest until he vanquishes the evil Wizard-King Greensparrow forever and wipes out the tyrant’s cyclopean army. No less than the fate of Luthien’s oppressed kingdom of Eriador hangs in the balance.