Friday’s Mystery eBooks
The Couch Carnival Caper
by G.G. Morris
Kindle $0.99 Rating: 4.7 #ad
The Two Fellows Carnival has rolled into town! Residents of Portland’s charming Alphabet District are flocking to Couch Park to enjoy the funfair’s electrifying performances. But on opening night spectators get more bang for their buck when a carnie performer bites the big one in a spectacular way. Was it an unfortunate accident? Or is something more sinister afoot?
Soon, more performers are taking their final curtain calls. Something must be done before the gig is permanently up. Enter amateur sleuth, Wanda Whipple! Navigating a cast of whacky suspects with more motives than you can shake a cinnamon churro at, Wanda must get to the bottom of the Couch Carnival Capers before she ends up with her ticket permanently punched.
The Bandit Queens
by Parini Shroff
Kindle $1.99 Rating: 4.2 #ad
Longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal • A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: Shondaland, She Reads, CrimeReads
Five years ago, Geeta lost her no-good husband. As in, she actually lost him—he walked out on her and she has no idea where he is. But in her remote village in India, rumor has it that Geeta killed him. And it’s a rumor that just won’t die.
It turns out that being known as a “self-made” widow comes with some perks. No one messes with her, harasses her, or tries to control (ahem, marry) her. It’s even been good for business; no one dares to not buy her jewelry…
Bullets in the Briar
by Kimber Silver
Kindle $5.99 Rating: 4.8 #ad
“Light from an almost full moon bathed the flat expanse of land in a milky glow. A scraggly coyote trotted into sight, and when it stopped a few yards in front of his pickup, Lincoln wrapped his arms around the steering wheel to study the animal. Seconds after hearing the report, bullets pinged off his pickup…”
The discovery of a mutilated body on remote farmland is only the start of Sheriff Lincoln James’ latest investigation. A mysterious religious sect and an intimidating biker gang add fuel to the fire. Within the sheriff’s circle of friends is someone with a hidden connection – If only she’d be willing to step forward…
To add to his problems, Lincoln has a fiercely contested election to win if he’s going to continue as sheriff. His opponent is a smooth out-of-towner who is making friends among the local people, so it’s going to be a fight.
1979
by Val McDermid
Kindle $3.99 Rating: 4.0 #ad
The year started badly and only got worse—blizzards, strikes, power cuts, and political unrest were the norm. For investigative journalist Allie Burns, however, someone else’s bad news was the unmistakable sound of opportunity knocking, and 1979 is ripe with possibilities.
But Allie is a woman in what is still a man’s world. Desperate to get away from the “women’s stories” the Glasgow desk keeps assigning her, she strikes up an alliance with wannabe investigative journalist Danny Sullivan. From the start, their stories create enemies…
A Nearly Normal Family
by M. T. Edvardsson
Kindle $1.99 Rating: 4.1 #ad
Eighteen-year-old Stella Sandell stands accused of the brutal murder of a man almost fifteen years her senior. She is an ordinary teenager from an upstanding local family. What reason could she have to know a shady businessman, let alone to kill him?
Stella’s father, a pastor, and mother, a criminal defense attorney, find their moral compasses tested as they defend their daughter, while struggling to understand why she is a suspect. Told in an unusual three-part structure, A Nearly Normal Family asks the questions: How well do you know your own children? How far would you go to protect them?
The Butch Karp and Marlene Ciampi Novels Volume Three
by Robert K. Tanenbaum
Kindle $3.99 Rating: 4.6 #ad
Four razor-sharp thrillers in the long-running series from a New York Times–bestselling author—and “one hell of a writer” (New York Post).
Corruption of Blood,
Falsely Accused,
Irresistible Impulse,
Reckless Endangerment
Handling the Undead
by John Ajvide Lindqvist
Kindle $1.99 Rating: 3.9 #ad
In his new novel, John Ajvide Lindqvist does for zombies what his previous novel, Let the Right One In, did for vampires.
Across Stockholm the power grid has gone crazy. In the morgue and in cemeteries, the recently deceased are waking up. One grandfather is alight with hope that his grandson will be returned, but one husband is aghast at what his adored wife has become.
A horror novel that transcends its genre by showing what the return of the dead might really mean to those who loved them.
Thursday’s Mystery eBooks
The Ankeny Arsonist
by G.G. Morris
Kindle $0.99 Rating: 4.1 #ad
Daughter of a famous chanteuse, Wanda Whipple prefers sleuthing to champagne and caviar. When an arsonist lights up the mayor’s home, Wanda’s investigative skills are put to a trial by fire…literally!
Before long, a body is discovered in the rubble of the mayor’s home, and the hunt is on for a killer. Wanda’s old flame heads up the investigation, but Detective Rubio’s no match for Wanda’s talent for smoking out a suspect. Wanda soon learns, however, if you play with fire you’re apt to get burned. Can Wanda catch the Ankeny arsonist before she becomes the next victim?
Check out:
(The Alphabet District Mysteries)
Murder On The Brazos
by Bruce Hammack
Kindle $0.99 Rating: 4.6 #ad
He has no badge and no authority, in a county full of corruption, drugs and murder.
Newman County, Texas was clean and safe when Fen Maguire left office as sheriff nine months ago. But the dead drug dealer found floating down the river says things may be changing… and not for the better.
Fire engulfs the dead man’s home, and all evidence points to the new sheriff’s father. Fen, however, knows there’s more to this case than a drug deal gone bad.
Check out:
(A Fen Maguire Mysteries)
Paparazzi
by Jo Fenton
Kindle $0.99 Rating: 4.1 #ad
The tables are turned for a celebrity photographer who’s being stalked, in this mind-blowing thriller featuring PI Becky White.
After a traumatic incident forces her out of the police force, Becky’s longtime friend Joanna convinces her to start the White Knight Detective Agency. Their first case seems simple—help photographer Penny with a stalker who appears whenever she works with a band led by singer Troy. But the case turns deadly when Troy’s wife is murdered. And then a child goes missing. . .
A Darkness More Than Night
by Michael Connelly
Kindle $2.99 Rating: 4.5 #ad
LAPD Detective Harry Bosch crosses paths with FBI profiler Terry McCaleb while investigating the murder of a Hollywood actress.
Harry Bosch is up to his neck in a case that has transfixed all of celebrity-mad Los Angeles: a movie director is charged with murdering an actress during sex, and then staging her death to make it look like a suicide. Bosch is both the arresting officer and the star witness in a trial that has brought the Hollywood media pack out in full-throated frenzy.
Meanwhile, Terry McCaleb is enjoying an idyllic retirement on Catalina Island when a visit from an old colleague brings his former world rushing back…
December Park
by Ronald Malfi
Kindle $1.99 Rating: 4.5 #ad
The Piper has come to take the children away . . .
In the fall of 1993, fifteen-year-old Angelo Mazzone sees his first dead body. The murder is linked to the Piper, the possible abductor of three other children—who haven’t been found—over the past few months.
Some people in town say the woods are haunted, but Angelo and his friends head in anyway, to search the darkness for a monster. What they find there will change who they are—and everything they once believed in . . .
Mouse’s Tale
by Kevin Hardman
Kindle $0.99 Rating: 4.6 #ad
Mouse – the mysterious man with the unassuming moniker (and the mentor of teen super Kid Sensation) – finally has his story told.
Brilliant and gifted, Mouse is a mental whiz who fails utterly in his initial attempts to join a superhero team. With his dream ostensibly out of reach, he eventually ends up working at an electronics repair shop, toiling in relative obscurity but seemingly content and at peace with the hand fate has dealt to him. However, a surprise visit from the Alpha League – the world’s premier team of superheroes – changes all of that in a heartbeat.
Public Secrets
by Nora Roberts
Kindle $1.99 Rating: 4.6 #ad
Emma McAvoy may have grown up in the limelight, but some secrets are hidden in a darkness no light can reach. Now on the verge of a successful career, and having fallen in love with the man of her dreams, Emma is looking to the future. Yet it’s the past that is about to catch up with her.
For Emma, her childhood had been almost like a rags-to-riches fairy tale—until the tragic night that changed her family forever. But what Emma thinks she knows about that terrible night and the man she’s about to marry is only half the truth…
The Cottage by the Sea
by Keri Beevis
Kindle $0.99 Rating: 4.4 #ad
How well do you really know your husband?
Two years ago, my whole world was ripped apart when my husband and best friend were killed in a car accident in Norfolk. Since then, I’ve struggled to come to terms with my overwhelming grief and to understand why they were together in Charlie’s car that fateful day.
I know I can’t carry on with my reclusive lifestyle, hiding away, alone in this big house. I have to find a way to start living again…
Presumed Guilty
by Scott Turow
Kindle $7.99 Rating: 4.6 #ad
New Release from Scott Turow
of Presumed Innocent, the phenomenon that redefined the legal thriller and is the basis for Apple TV+’s most-watched drama series ever (Kristin Hannah, #1 NYT bestselling author).
Rusty is a retired judge attempting a third act in life with a loving soon-to-be wife, Bea, with whom he shares both a restful home on an idyllic lake in the rural Midwest and a plaintive hope that this marriage will be his best, and his last. But the peace that’s taken Rusty so long to find evaporates when Bea’s young adult son, Aaron, living under their supervision while on probation for drug possession, disappears. If Aaron doesn’t return soon, he will be sent back to jail.