Saturday’s Mystery eBooks
A Baffling Absence
by D.S. Lang
Rating: 4.7 #ad
A missing teacher. Old grudges. Disappearing suspects.
What happens when a teacher from a girls’ boarding school near Ballantyne Resort does not return for the new term? Arabella Stewart is asked to substitute, but she finds the position involves more than lesson planning. Her sleuthing skills are needed, especially after the secretary also goes missing. Soon, Constable Jax Hastings is on the case. The pair deals with multiple suspects and motives as they uncover details about faculty members, former students, and local residents.
Solving the case is first and foremost, but secrets from the war arise, and Jax is forced to reveal why he has kept Bella at a distance for so long.
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(Arabella Stewart Historical Mysteries)
Pines: Wayward Pines
by Blake Crouch
Rating: 4.7 #ad
Secret Service agent Ethan Burke arrives in Wayward Pines, Idaho, with a mission: locate two federal agents who went missing in the bucolic town one month earlier. But within minutes of his arrival, Ethan is involved in a violent accident. He comes to in a hospital, with no ID, no cell phone, and no briefcase.
As the days pass, Ethan’s investigation turns up more questions than answers: Why can’t he get any phone calls through to his wife and son in the outside world? Why doesn’t anyone believe he is who he says he is? And what is the purpose of the electrified fences surrounding the town? Are they meant to keep the residents in? Or something else out?
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(The Wayward Pines Mysteries)
The Curse of Naram-Sin
by Peter Gibbons
Rating: 3.8 #ad
If you like R F Kuang, David Gemmell, Simon Scarrow and John Gwynne, you will love this epic adventure set in the ancient world, packed with battles, magic, and a war across time.
530 BC. The Persian Emperor Cyrus the Great is at war with Queen Tomyris of the Massagetae on the Scythian steppe. On either side of that epic conflict, are immortal forces locked in a battle between good and evil which stretches back to the dawn of time.
Xantho, slave to a Persian Satrap… bereft at the death of his wife and ashamed of his status… caught in the eye of a war between gods and magic wielding warriors.
No Parm No Foul
by Linda Reilly
Rating: 4.5 #ad
After a long hot summer in Balsam Dell, Carly Hale is ready for crisp Vermont weather and gourmet grilled cheeses at her Grilled Cheese Eatery. And the upcoming Halloween food competition is the perfect way to impress the locals.
But Ferris Menard, the owner of Sub-a-Dub-Sub, is nursing a serious grudge against Carly. Two days before the competition, one of Carly’s employees quit his part-time gig at Menard’s sub shop, sending Menard into a serious snit. In a confrontation at the Eatery, Menard accused Carly of sabotage and vowed to bring her down.
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(Grilled Cheese Mysteries)
The Exorcist’s House
by Nick Roberts
Rating: 4.3 #ad
This psychological thriller follows a family to their Appalachian farmhouse, where they encounter an unimaginable horror.
In the summer of 1994, psychologist Daniel Hill buys a rustic farmhouse nestled in the rolling hills of West Virginia.
Along with his wife and teenage daughter, the family uproots their lives in Ohio and moves south. They are initially seduced by the natural beauty of the country setting. That soon changes when they discover a hidden room in the basement with a well, boarded shut and adorned with crucifixes.
My MacArthur
by Cindy Fazzi
Rating: 4.2 #ad
The year is 1930. The place: Manila. Douglas MacArthur is the most powerful man in the Philippines, a United States colony. He’s fifty years old, divorced, and he falls in love at first sight with a ravishing young Filipino woman. He writes her a love note on the spot. Her name is Isabel Rosario Cooper, an aspiring movie actress. One glance at his note and she thinks of him as my MacArthur.
MacArthur pursues his romantic obsession even though he’s breaking numerous taboos. She reciprocates his affection because he could open doors for her financially struggling family. That MacArthur happens to be handsome compensates for the fact that he’s as old as her father.
The Mammoth Book of Folk Horror
by Stephen Jones
Rating: 4.3 #ad
Welcome to a landscape of ancient evil . . . with stories by masters of horror Arthur Machen, Algernon Blackwood, H. P. Lovecraft, M. R. James, Ramsey Campbell, Storm Constantine, Christopher Fowler, Alison Littlewood, Kim Newman, Reggie Oliver, Michael Marshall Smith, Karl Edward Wagner, and more!
The darkness that endures beneath the earth . . . the disquiet that lingers in the woodland surrounding a forgotten path . . . those ancient traditions and practices that still cling to standing stone circles, earthworks, and abandoned buildings; elaborate rituals that invoke elder gods or nature deities; the restless spirits and legendary creatures that remain connected to a place or object, or exist in deep wells and lonely pools of water, waiting to ensnare the unwary traveler . . .
These concepts have been the archetypes of horror fiction for decades, but in recent years they have been given a name: Folk Horror.
Reckoning
by Catherine Coulter
Rating: 4.7 #ad
Agents Savich and Sherlock are back in the latest installment in Catherine Coulter’s #1 New York Times bestselling FBI Thriller series, and this time both are enlisted to help women with traumatic pasts who are in mortal danger.
When she was twelve years old, Kirra Mandarian’s parents were murdered and she barely escaped with her life. Fourteen years later Kirra is a commonwealth attorney back home in Porte Franklin, Virginia, and her goal is to find out who killed her parents and why. She assumes the identity of E.N.—Eliot Ness—and gathers proof to bring down the man she believes was behind her parents’ deaths.
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(An FBI Thrillers)
Friday’s Mystery eBooks
A Vacation to Die For
by Lynn Cahoon
Rating: 4.5 #ad
Hustling her fiancé off to a neighboring tourist town might be the only way Jill Gardner can plan her nuptials to South Cove’s in-demand police detective. But when a mystery man turns up dead at South Cove’s PD, Greg is hightailing it back home to investigate, leaving Jill to finish the vacation solo.
Jill can barely get in a spa day before her own respite is spoiled by a greedy hotel guest and unexpected revelations about Max Winter, the developer conniving to buy her home out from under her…
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(A Tourist Trap Mysteries)
Broken Rhodes
by Kimber Silve
Rating: 4.9 #ad
Kinsley Rhodes blows into Harlow, Kansas like a tornado, twisting Sheriff Lincoln James’ life into knots. Her grandfather has been murdered and she wants answers.
As if the town’s first homicide in twenty years wasn’t enough, the beleaguered sheriff now has to deal with Henry Rhodes’ bobcat of a granddaughter, plunging his life deeper into chaos. As a dark storm threatens, long-held secrets are exposed, placing Kinsley directly in harm’s way.
In a race against time, Lincoln’s prime objective is to discover the killer’s identity before Miss Rhodes becomes the next victim…
The Mugger
by Ed McBain
Rating: 4.3 #ad
This mugger is special.
He preys on women, waiting in the darkness…then comes from behind, attacks them, and snatches their purses. He tells them not to scream and as they’re on the ground, reeling with pain and fear, he bows and nonchalantly says, “Clifford thanks you, madam.” But when he puts one victim in the hospital and the next in the morgue, the detectives of the 87th Precinct are not amused and will stop at nothing to bring him to justice.
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(87th Precinct Mysteries)
One Last Breath
by Lisa Jackson, Nancy Bush
Rating: 4.5 #ad
Rory Abernathy’s wedding to Liam Bastian was supposed to be the event of the season. Instead, it was a bloodbath. Rory fled after stabbing a masked intruder, just before a gunman opened fire on the wedding party. Five years on, Rory still has no idea who was behind the attacks. Fearful she and her daughter remain targets, she’s made a new life far from Liam and the wealthy, powerful Bastians.
But even in remote Point Roberts, Washington, Rory can’t hide from the past. Liam tracks her down, stunned to learn they have a child. Did someone in Rory’s family try to kill him for his portion of the Bastian estate? As they gradually overcome distrust in search of the truth, Rory knows one thing for certain: someone is watching her…
Midwinter Murder
by Agatha Christie
Rating: 4.5 #ad
An all-new collection of winter-themed stories from the Queen of Mystery, just in time for the holidays – including the original version of “Christmas Adventure,” never before released in the United States!
There’s a chill in the air and the days are growing shorter . . . It’s the perfect time to curl up in front of a crackling fire with these wintry whodunits from the legendary Agatha Christie. But beware of deadly snowdrifts and dangerous gifts, poisoned meals and mysterious guests. This chilling compendium of short stories – some featuring beloved detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple—is an essential omnibus for Christie fans and the perfect holiday gift for mystery lovers.
Winter’s Return
by Mary Stone
Rating: 4.5 #ad
Everything’s bigger – and deadlier – in Texas…
Finally free from the claustrophobic worry caused by her psychotic baby brother’s bloodthirsty reign, former Special Agent Winter Black – newly Mrs. Winter Black-Dalton – is ready for a fresh start in Austin, Texas. With her husband and former partner, Noah Dalton, at her side, she’s hoping to shed the skin of her past and return to hunting down criminals, but in a very different way…
Black Investigations is now open for business.
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(Winter Black FBI Mysteries)
Texas Firebrand Volumes 1-3
by Barb Han
Rating: 4.4 #ad
USA TODAY Bestselling Author Barb Han guarantees danger lurking around every corner, hearts on the line, and romantic suspense that keeps you on the edge of your seat. Join her Firebrand family in Lone Star Pass, Texas as they break through deep-rooted family feuds and find their way to love.
RANCHER TO THE RESCUE
DISARMING THE RANCHER
RANCHER UNDER FIRE
Thursday’s Mystery eBooks
Twelve Slays of Christmas
by Jacqueline Frost
Rating: 4.5 #ad
When Holly White’s fiancé cancels their Christmas Eve wedding with less than two weeks to go, Holly heads home with a broken heart. Lucky for her, home in historic Mistletoe, Maine is magical during Christmastime—exactly what the doctor ordered. Except her plan to drown her troubles in peppermints and snickerdoodles is upended when local grinch and president of the Mistletoe Historical Society Margaret Fenwick is bludgeoned and left in the sleigh display at Reindeer Games, Holly’s family tree farm.
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(A Christmas Tree Farm Mysteries)
Her Perfect Life
by Hank Phillippi Ryan
Rating: 4.0 #ad
Publishers Weekly PICK OF THE WEEK!
BookTrib MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK!
Crime Reads MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK!
Goodreads BIGGEST MYSTERIES/THRILLERS OF THE YEAR!
Everyone knows Lily Atwood – and that may be her biggest problem. The beloved television reporter has it all – fame, fortune, Emmys, an adorable seven-year-old daughter, and the hashtag her loving fans created: #PerfectLily. To keep it, all she has to do is protect one life-changing secret. Her own…
Within and Without Time
by D. I. Hennessey
Rating: 4.8 #ad
Experience the Origin of a Prophet …
When a sixteen-year-old boy is suddenly caught up in a series of miraculous encounters, it heralds an adventure that will transform his life, rock his town, and trigger events that will ultimately change the world!
Befriended by a powerful angelic warrior, Jimmy finds himself in the center of God’s plan for Earth’s final Great Revival. The beginning of God’s amazing harvest at the End of the Age. Like an intense roller coaster, the journey he experiences is exciting and unpredictable. Heartwarming, as well as heart-rending. God prepares him for a mission more extraordinary than anything he could have imagined, placing him in the rare company of ancient prophets and apostles alike.
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(Within & Without Time Mysteries)
A Blossom at Midnight
by A.L. Knorr
Rating: 4.7 #ad
One earns a coveted place among royalty. Another is imprisoned by her betrothed, while the third is exiled until he can prove his worth. Can these three fae prevent a war?
Dreaming of escaping her simple country life and tired of keeping her winged familiars a secret, half-fae Jessica finds herself swept into a breathtaking world of an elite retinue of fae performers known as the Calyx. As she learns to master her abilities, Jess is expected to entertain at glittering balls in the richest kingdom in Ivryndi, alongside far more experienced and beautiful flora fae. She is sworn to secrecy as she discovers the source of their wealth–the perfumes that royals travel from far-flung and exotic kingdoms to possess. As her exciting new life—and magic—blossoms, Jess learns that her mother has been keeping a secret of her own, one that changes everything.
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(The Scented Court Mysteries)
Run!
by Patricia Wentworth
Rating: 4.4 #ad
In the English countryside, a man is caught up in an intricate web of greed and murder, in this mystery from the creator of Miss Silver
The nightmare begins when James Elliot gets lost on a dark, foggy country road. When he stops at a house to ask for directions, a woman rushes out and tells him to run. Seconds later, shots are fired.
After they escape the unknown shooter, Aspidistra Aspinall says she’s an orphan and has no idea who’s after her. She tells an incredible story about a dying aunt and a priceless diamond necklace…
Wash Away
by J.S. Bowers
Rating: 4.4 #ad
Grad-student chemist Zenna Cherny is in thrall to a stubborn adolescent mermaid, genetically engineered by Zenna’s mad-scientist grandmother.
The execs at Fospey Industries would like to buy that mermaid, but they’d prefer to take her by force.
Zenna’s cousin Alex is helping a band of emancipated customer-service robots build weapons out in the barn. And the town is currently overrun by obsessed fans who want to discover the siren voice on that viral video.
All The Broken People
by Amy Rivers
Rating: 4.2 #ad
Alice Bennett knows what it means to suffer. After burying her abusive childhood and reinventing herself, Alice is living a life she never imagined could be hers. She’s married to a perfect Southern gentleman. She has a challenging job she loves—writing for a woman’s magazine. But when her past comes back with a vengeance, Alice finds herself on the outs with her husband, her perfect life crumbling around her feet.
Desperate to get things back to where they were, Alice travels to the mountains of North Georgia to care for her mother-in-law who was injured in a bad fall. Her motives aren’t purely altruistic; she’s hoping to get back into her husband’s good graces. When she arrives, Alice discovers that the fall was no accident.
Act of Oblivion
by Robert Harris
Rating: 4.2 #ad
From the bestselling author of Fatherland, The Ghostwriter, Munich, and Conclave comes this spellbinding historical novel that brilliantly imagines one of the greatest manhunts in history: the search for two Englishmen involved in the killing of King Charles I and the implacable foe on their trail—an epic journey into the wilds of seventeeth-century New England, and a chase like no other.
He took a while to reply. By the time he spoke the men had gone inside. He said quietly, “They killed the King.”
1660 England. General Edward Whalley and his son-in law Colonel William Goffe board a ship bound for the New World. They are on the run, wanted for the murder of King Charles I—a brazen execution that marked the culmination of the English Civil War, in which parliamentarians successfully battled royalists for control…
The Book of Flora
by Meg Elison
Rating: 4.3 #ad
In the wake of the apocalypse, Flora has come of age in a highly gendered post-plague society where females have become a precious, coveted, hunted, and endangered commodity. But Flora does not participate in the economy that trades in bodies. An anathema in a world that prizes procreation above all else, she is an outsider everywhere she goes, including the thriving all-female city of Shy.
Now navigating a blighted landscape, Flora, her friends, and a sullen young slave she adopts as her own child leave their oppressive pasts behind to find their place in the world. They seek refuge aboard a ship where gender is fluid, where the dynamic is uneasy, and where rumors flow of a bold new reproductive strategy.
Wednesday’s Mystery eBooks
Sweet Spirits of Three
by J A Whiting
Rating: 4.7 #ad
The main mystery is solved in each book but you will enjoy the stories more if they are read in order as some character threads run from book to book.
It is holiday time in Sweet Cove and the Roseland sisters and Mr. Finch are getting ready for Christmas when a criminal begins to harass some of the town residents. Finch has rediscovered his love for drawing and has been spending time sketching, but some of his pictures reveal clues that someone in the family is in grave danger. Will the mystery be solved before someone they love loses his or her life?
Check out:
(A Sweet Cove Mysteries)
OFF GRID: ESCAPE FROM THE SURVEILLANCE STATE
by J. P. Redding
Rating: 4.5 #ad
From the halls of D.C. to the remote shores of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, OFF GRID is a wild ride through a dystopian near future of mass surveillance.
In the wake of a global calamity, the economy collapses. The Feds respond by wielding every power of the Welfare State to control the populace. A key tool is PivPal, an indispensable smartphone used to track citizens. As civil liberties crumble, resistance is relegated to flyover country whose residents—derided as off-gridders—cling to the time-honored virtues of freedom, self-reliance, and charity. Against this backdrop, Jenny Hernandez struggles to keep her rural church community nourished and safe. Hiding from the Feds, a team of inventors, and Jenny’s ex, arrive to complete the amazing plasma drive.
Murder in the Dark
by Betsy Reavley
Rating: 4.1 #ad
Deadly secrets hides among the stacks of a quaint English bookshop in this “entertaining, tense, suspenseful and so well-written” mystery novel (John Nicholl, author of Mr. Nice).
When Tilly Edgely lands a position working at Ashton’s bookshop in Cambridge, England, she thinks she’s found her perfect job. But when she arrives to open the shop one winter’s morning, she discovers the body of her boss suspended from the ceiling, hanging by a rope around his neck. DCI Barrett and DI Palmer are called to the scene of appears to be an open and shut case of suicide. But nothing about this case is as simple as it first appears.
Next in Line
by Jeffrey Archer
Rating: 4.4 #ad
London, 1988. Royal fever sweeps the nation as Britain falls in love with the ‘people’s princess’, Princess Diana. Which means for Scotland Yard, the focus is on the elite Royalty Protection Command, and its commanding officer. Entrusted with protecting the most famous family on earth, they quite simply have to be the best. A weak link could spell disaster.
Detective Chief Inspector William Warwick and his Scotland Yard squad are sent in to investigate the team. Maverick ex-undercover operative Ross Hogan is charged with a very sensitive—and unique—responsibility. But it soon becomes clear the problems in Royalty Protection are just the beginning.
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(William Warwick Novels Mysteries)
Unbroken
by Laura Hillenbrand
Rating: 4.8 #ad
In boyhood, Louis Zamperini was an incorrigible delinquent. As a teenager, he channeled his defiance into running, discovering a prodigious talent that had carried him to the Berlin Olympics. But when World War II began, the athlete became an airman, embarking on a journey that led to a doomed flight on a May afternoon in 1943. When his Army Air Forces bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean, against all odds, Zamperini survived, adrift on a foundering life raft. Ahead of Zamperini lay thousands of miles of open ocean, leaping sharks, thirst and starvation, enemy aircraft, and, beyond, a trial even greater. Driven to the limits of endurance, Zamperini would answer desperation with ingenuity; suffering with hope, resolve, and humor; brutality with rebellion. His fate, whether triumph or tragedy, would be suspended on the fraying wire of his will.
The Girl in the Spider’s Web
by David Lagercrantz
Rating: 4.2 #ad
The next installment in the Millennium series: a genius hacker who has always been an outsider; a journalist with a penchant for danger. She is Lisbeth Salander, the girl with the dragon tattoo. He is Mikael Blomkvist, crusading editor of Millennium. One night, Blomkvist receives a call from a source who claims to have been given information vital to the United States by a young female hacker. Blomkvist, always on the lookout for a story, reaches out to Salander for help. She, as usual, has plans of her own. Together they are drawn into a ruthless underworld of spies, cybercriminals, and government operatives—some willing to kill to protect their secrets.
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(Millennium Mysteries)
The Ninth Month
by James Patterson
Rating: 4.1 #ad
A mother-to-be is being stalked but no one believes her in this intense thriller from the #1 bestselling author of The Midwife Murders.
Emily Atkinson leads a complicated life in New York City. She’s a successful marketing executive who lives in a luxury apartment and enjoys a glamorous existence until she lands in the hospital with a double diagnosis: she parties too much—and she’s pregnant. Her nurse and new best friend, Betsey, helps Emily rediscover how much she loves morning runs in the park and quiet nights at home. But as a series of women in her wealthy social circles go missing, Emily’s pregnancy becomes decidedly high-risk.
A Very Furry Christmas
by John D. Ottini
Rating: 4.3 #ad
Finalist in the 2016 Royal Palm Literary Award Competition. (Florida Writers Association)
Slipper’s Last Breath
The Unwrapped Gift
A Charcoal Christmas
“Each story takes you away from the commercial side of Christmas and makes you think about people that may find it hard at this time of year, while also giving you a happy ending. There is always hope and by unconditional acts of kindness, there can be miracles too.The author writes with compassion and I am sure that many readers will identify with some of the experiences of the characters involved.” – Catworld Magazine