Thursday’s Mystery eBooks
Two Little Girls in Blue
by Mary Higgins Clark
Rating: 4.5 #ad
Hours after throwing a third birthday party for their twins Kathy and Kelly in their Connecticut home, Margaret and Steve Frawley return home from a dinner in New York to discover the police in the house, their daughters missing, and an eight million dollar ransom note. The Frawleys meet the kidnapper’s demands, but the abandoned car they’re led to contains only Kelly, the body of the driver, and a suicide note, saying he had inadvertently killed Kathy and dumped her body in the ocean.
At the private memorial Mass for Kathy, Kelly tugs Margaret’s arm and says that her sister Kathy “wants to come home right now.”
The Darkness That Comes Before
by R. Scott Bakker
Rating: 4.3 #ad
A mysterious traveler intervenes in an epic holy war in this “impressive, challenging debut” of the critically acclaimed fantasy epic (Publishers Weekly, starred review).
Bakker’s Eärwa is a world scarred by an apocalyptic past, evoking a time both two thousand years past and two thousand years into the future. As untold thousands gather for a crusade, two men and two women are ensnared by a mysterious traveler, Anasûrimbor Kellhus – part warrior, part philosopher, part sorcerous, charismatic presence – from lands long thought dead. The Darkness That Comes Before is a history of this great holy war, and like all histories, the survivors write its conclusion.
Cut Throat
by Sharon Sala
Rating: 4.6 #ad
He killed her once . . .
Throat slashed and left for dead next to her murdered father, a thirteen-year-old girl vows to hunt down the man who did this to them—Solomon Tutuola. Now grown, bounty hunter Cat Dupree lets nothing—or no one—stand in the way of that deadly promise. Not even her lover, Wilson McKay.
Their sexually charged encounters leave McKay wanting more, but Cat is determined to keep her distance. She doesn’t need a man making emotional demands, not now, when revenge is near.
Dead Cert
by Dick Francis
Rating: 4.6 #ad
Steeplechaser Alan York knows well the dangers of the sport. But when his best friend and rival jockey Bill Davidson takes a fall in the middle of a race and doesn’t get up again, Alan discovers it was no accident. Someone rigged a tripwire to take down the running horse.
The more Alan investigates, the more he suspects that there is more to the plot than just murderous horseplay. But even as he approaches the finish line to this mysterious race, those responsible for his friend’s death are already planning for Alan to have a mysterious accident of his own . . .
The Stories of Ray Bradbury
by Ray Bradbury
Rating: 4.7 #ad
An extensive collection of imaginative short stories by a National Medal of the Arts–winning author of science fiction, fantasy, horror, and suspense.
Fly to Mars and explore the mysteries of the red planet. Journey through time to futures ruled by cold computers and hear the deafening roar of dinosaurs in the past. Sing the body electric and look into the mechanical eyes of androids that want to replace human life as we know it. Visit idyllic landscapes and nostalgic towns that hide sinister secrets. Available in one massive collection for the first time digitally, experience the wondrous mind of Ray Bradbury through one hundred of his all-time greatest tales. These are the stories that ask “What if?,” the stories that make the mind turn, and those that are, in the true spirit of Ray Bradbury, best read under the safety of a blanket.
The Silent Sisters
by Robert Dugoni
Rating: 4.6 #ad
After a harrowing escape from Russian agents on his last mission, Charles Jenkins thinks he’s finally done with the spy game. But then the final two of the seven sisters – American assets who have been deep undercover in Russia for decades – cut off all communication with their handlers. Are they in hiding after detecting surveillance? Or have they turned and become double agents? It’s Jenkins’s duty to find out, but he’s been added to a Russian kill list. It will require all of Jenkins’s knowledge of spycraft – and an array of disguises – to return to the country undetected.
Breath of Malice
by Karen Fenech
Rating: 4.6 #ad
A gripping novel of romantic suspense from USA Today bestselling author Karen Fenech.
It’s a game of cat and mouse. And she is losing . . .
FBI Special Agent Paige Carson hoped she’d be able to start a new life in small-town South Carolina. But when a senator’s sister is murdered and a blank postcard is left next to the body, Paige realizes that a killer from her past has found her–and is sending her a very personal message.
From the moment he hired her, FBI Special Agent in Charge Sam McKade knew Paige was hiding something. Prompted by this recent threat, she finally opens up: one year ago, she caught the eye of suspected serial killer Todd Thames.
Wednesday’s Mystery eBooks
Finding Moon
by Tony Hillerman
Rating: 4.5 #ad
Tony Hillerman’s bestselling Navajo mysteries have thrilled millions of readers with their taut, intricate plotting, sensitive, subtle characterizations and lyrical evocations of landscapes and cultures. Now he departs his trademark terrain and applies his talents to a story he has wanted to tell for decades about an ordinary man thrust into total chaos.
Until the telephone call came for him on April 12, 1975, the world of Moon Mathias had settled into a predictable routine. He knew who he was. He was the disappointing son of Victoria Mathias, the brother of the brilliant, recently dead Ricky Mathias and a man who could be counted on to solve small problems.
Cocaine Blues
by Kerry Greenwood
Rating: 4.5 #ad
“Phryne can not get enough of adventure and the reader can not get enough of Phryne.” – Deadly Pleasures
The London season is in full fling at the end of the roaring 1920s, but the Honourable Phryne Fisher – she of the green-gray eyes, diamant garters, and outfits that should not be sprung suddenly on those of nervous dispositions – is rapidly tiring of the tedium of arranging flowers, making polite conversations with retired colonels, and dancing with weak-chinned men. Instead, Phryne decides it might be rather amusing to try her hand at being a lady detective in Melbourne, Australia.
The Long Sword
by Christian Cameron
Rating: 4.6 #ad
Pisa, May 1364. Sir William Gold is looking forward to a lucrative career as a hired sword in the endless warring between Italy’s city states. But when a message comes from the Grand Master of the Hospitaliers, William is forced to leave his dreams of fame and fortune behind him.
The Hospitaliers are gathering men for a crusade, and Sir William must join them. Yet before they set out for the holy land, the knights face deadly adversaries much closer to home . . .
Into the Forest
by Christina Henry, Lindy Ryan
Rating: 4.1 #ad
Deep in the dark forest, in a cottage that spins on birds’ legs behind a fence topped with human skulls, lives the Baba Yaga. A guardian of the water of life, she lives with her sisters and takes to the skies in a giant mortar and pestle, creating tempests as she goes. Those who come across the Baba Yaga may find help, or hindrance, or horror. She is wild, she is woman, she is witch— and these are her tales.
“Perfect for horror fans who can’t get enough of folklore and fairy-tale retellings that veer in unexpected directions.” — Booklist Starred Review
Ghost Night
by Heather Graham
Rating: 4.6 #ad
A slasher movie turns all too real when two young actors are brutally murdered on a remote island film set. Their severed heads and arms are posed in macabre homage to a nineteenth-century pirate massacre.
Two years later, survivor Vanessa Loren is drawn back to South Bimini by a documentary being made about the storied region. Filmmaker Sean O’Hara aches to see how the unsolved crime haunts her . . . and Sean knows more than a little about ghosts.
Touch and Go
by Patricia Wentworth
Rating: 4.3 #ad
But Sarah Trent is determined to try. She has just been engaged as governess to seventeen-year-old Lucilla Hildred, whose mother and stepfather were killed in a car accident. Lucilla’s father died in the war, and his younger brother, Maurice, has been missing since 1918.
Uncle Maurice’s disappearance isn’t the only mystery at the Red House. One night Sarah is awakened by a frightening noise. Something flings itself against her window and she hears the sounds of claws against glass. Then Holme Fallow, the estate where Lucilla was born—and where no one has lived since the war—is burgled. The only clue as to the culprit is a set of muddy footprints.
Tuesday’s Mystery eBooks
Berry Little Murder
by Nancy M. Wade
Rating: 5.0 #ad
Meadowood has a new mystery and it’s just in time for the holidays! Strings of miniature sparkling lights adorn tree branches and hang across the entrance to the holiday pavilion. Christmas carolers try to enhance the holiday mood, but it was murder in the air, not friendship and goodwill. What can Meredith Gardner do when suddenly her new friend plus the sheriff collapse after drinking cups of poisoned mulled cider?
Suspicion and fear run rampant in the town of Meadowood as local businesses are burglarized and everyone becomes a suspect. Newly promoted Chief Deputy Sheriff Doug Gardner butts head with his stubborn wife as she inserts herself into his murder investigation, risking her own life.
Check out:
(A Meadowood Mysteries)
The Death Shift
by Peter Elkind
Rating: 4.5 #ad
The true story of a killer nurse whose crimes were hidden by a hospital for years.
It’s 1980, and Genene Jones is working the 3 to 11 PM shift in the pediatric ICU in San Antonio’s county hospital. As the weeks go by, infants under her care begin experiencing unexpected complications—and dying – in alarming numbers, prompting rumors that there is a murderer among the staff. Her eight-hour shift would come to be called “the death shift.” This strange epidemic would continue unabated for more than a year, before Jones is quietly sent off – with a good recommendation – to a rural pediatric clinic. There, eight children under her care mysteriously stopped breathing – and a 15-month-old baby girl died.
The Vilokan Asylum Omnibus Collection
by Theophilus Monroe
Rating: 4.8 #ad
9 Books and over 2000 pages of magic, deranged chaos, and werewolf shenanigans fill this expansive urban fantasy omnibus collection.
Welcome to the Vilokan Asylum of the Magically and Mentally Deranged. I’m Doctor Cain. I’ll be supervising your treatment plan. Yes, before you ask, I am that Cain. I’ve come a long way since I became the world’s first murderer. I’m now a licensed psychiatrist.
What is it you just asked? You heard that I was cursed? Yes, I’m also the world’s first werewolf…
But don’t worry. I have it under control. It won’t interfere with your progress at Vilokan Asylum.
The Unkindness of Ravens
by M. E. Hilliard
Rating: 4.1 #ad
Small-town librarian Greer Hogan must match wits with a deviously clever serial killer terrorizing the Hudson River Valley . . .
Greer Hogan is a librarian and an avid reader of murder mysteries. She also has a habit of stumbling upon murdered bodies. The first was her husband’s, and the tragic loss led Greer to leave New York behind for a new start in the Village of Raven Hill. But her new home becomes less idyllic when she discovers her best friend sprawled dead on the floor of the library.
Was her friend’s demise related to two other deaths that the police deemed accidental?
Smash and Grab
by Lori Matthews
Rating: 4.4 #ad
“Romantic Suspense at its finest!” “Keeps you on the edge of your seat!” “Breathtaking!” Logan suspects Lacy is a spy, but he’s accidently swept up in her kidnapping. Will he live long enough to discover the truth?
Logan Callahan, the CEO of Callahan Security, knows he’s out of his depth. The woman he came to the Bahamas to investigate was kidnapped, and he was taken right along with her. He knew the sexy lady lawyer was trouble. He just had no idea how much. Taken. Again. Lacy Carmichael on the other hand, was not new to the “Kidnap and Ransom” game.
Seasons of Fortitude: The Complete Collection
by Elizabeth Rose
Rating: 5.0 #ad
Now you can read the entire series in one boxed set. Follow the sisters, Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter as they go through their trials, tribulations, successes, and triumphs as well as find love along the way.
Highland Spring
Summer’s Reign
Autumn’s Touch
Winter’s Flame
Silent Knight
Killers of the Flower Moon
by David Grann
Rating: 5.0 #ad
In the 1920s, the richest people per capita in the world were members of the Osage Nation in Oklahoma. After oil was discovered beneath their land, the Osage rode in chauffeured automobiles, built mansions, and sent their children to study in Europe.
Then, one by one, the Osage began to be killed off. The family of an Osage woman, Mollie Burkhart, became a prime target. One of her relatives was shot. Another was poisoned. And it was just the beginning, as more and more Osage were dying under mysterious circumstances, and many of those who dared to investigate the killings were themselves murdered.
Spirit of Gettysburg
by S. Elizabeth Calvert
Rating: 4.0 #ad
Epic…Spellbinding…Thrilling Love Story Extraordinaire! Can ghosts die twice? Apparently so!Washington, D.C. psychic to the powerful elites headstrong, vulnerable Maureen McAlister flees a contemporary, shattered life into the ghostly, loving arms of Confederate soldier Major Clayton Fontaine Douglas, her former husband and one-true-soulmate. He is the only man she loves and trusts.
Clayton, an unrepentant Rebel and proud, brave officer in General Robert E Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia, is now a ghost stuck in time in her inherited Gettysburg, Pennsylvania estate. He is furious at God for the loss of his Country and her. He is dying again because of her. Once more she must try to save him, change his fate and rewrite karma. How?
Monday’s Mystery eBooks
The Body in the Wake
by Katherine Hall Page
Rating: 4.5 #ad
For the first time in years, Faith Fairchild has time for herself. Her husband Tom is spending days on the other side of the island using a friend’s enhanced WiFi for a project; their son, Ben, after his first year in college, is studying abroad for the summer; and their daughter Amy is working at the old Laughing Gulls Lodge, now a revamped conference center.
Faith is looking forward to some projects of her own. Her friend Sophie Maxwell is also spending the summer on Sanpere Island, hoping for distractions from her worries that she isn’t yet pregnant…
The Sword of Bedwyr
by R. A. Salvatore
Rating: 4.3 #ad
In the once-stable land of Eriador, young fighter Luthien Bedwyr is too naive to grasp the consequences of the evil new reign of Wizard-King Greensparrow—until Luthien’s best friend is slain by one of the despot’s cyclopean soldiers. Publicly vowing revenge, Luthien becomes not only the wizard’s most-wanted adversary, but also a fugitive embarking on a grand scheme to restore peace to the kingdom.
His mettle tested, Luthien crosses paths with highwayhalfling Oliver deBurrows. The irrepressible thief is game to join him. But at the behest of an ancient mage, Luthien must first secure two ancient weapons from a dragon’s lair: a legendary sword and a mystical blood-red cape that renders its wearer invisible.
Hot Ice
by Nora Roberts
Rating: 4.3 #ad
A seductive novel of red hot passion and cold hard cash, as a Manhattan socialite living at jet-set speed crosses a desperate man on the run—and finds herself trapped in a deadly game that may have no winners or losers . . . or survivors.
Reckless Whitney MacAllister possesses all the wealth and beauty every woman dreams of. Streetwise Douglas Lord has the good looks and quick wits to be a success at his chosen profession: larceny. She has the cash and the connections. He has the stolen documents leading to a fabulous hidden fortune. It is a business proposition, pure and simple.
The Paper Wasp
by Lauren Acampora
Rating: 3.9 #ad
In small-town Michigan, Abby Graven leads a solitary life. Once a bright student on the cusp of a promising art career, she now languishes in her childhood home, trudging to and from her job as a supermarket cashier. Each day she is taunted from the magazine racks by the success of her former best friend Elise, a rising Hollywood starlet whose life in pictures Abby obsessively scrapbooks. At night, Abby escapes through the films of her favorite director, Auguste Perren, a cult figure known for his creative institute the Rhizome. Inspired by Perren, Abby draws fantastical storyboards based on her often premonitory dreams, a visionary gift she keeps hidden.
Deal With Cupid
by L.W. Lowe
Rating: 4.4 #ad
Sisters. Inspirations. Legends. Meet… The Muses.In between juggling their own dramas and romances, the nine sisters are paid to motivate souls and reignite passions. But never before have they faced a job like this. Hedone, The Goddess of Pleasure, hires the sisters to save the marriage of her parents, Eros and Psyche. Yet one misstep could provoke the wrath of Aphrodite. Join the Muses as they figure out how to clean up Cupid’s mess without causing one of their own!
Weekend with Death
by Patricia Wentworth
Rating: 4.3 #ad
This thriller from the author of the Miss Silver Mysteries offers fascinating insight into the British mindset during World War II
While waiting for a train connection, Sarah Marlowe is drawn into a conversation with an elderly woman who is also traveling alone. For the past five years, Emily Case has lived in Italy as companion to a wealthy aristocrat. She tells Sarah an incredible tale of being entrusted with a package by a stranger dying of a stab wound. Soon afterward, on the train to London, Sarah discovers the selfsame package in her own handbag. The next day, she learns Emily has been murdered.
Lady in the Lake
by Laura Lippman
Rating: 4.1 #ad
The revered New York Times bestselling author returns with a novel set in 1960s Baltimore that combines modern psychological insights with elements of classic noir, about a middle-aged housewife turned aspiring reporter who pursues the murder of a forgotten young woman.
In 1966, Baltimore is a city of secrets that everyone seems to know – everyone, that is, except Madeline “Maddie” Schwartz. Last year, she was a happy, even pampered housewife. This year, she’s bolted from her marriage of almost twenty years, determined to make good on her youthful ambitions to live a passionate, meaningful life…