Monday’s Mystery eBooks
Murder at the Christmas Cookie Bake-Off
by Darci Hannah
Rating: 4.6 #ad
Tucked away inside an old lighthouse in Beacon Harbor, Michigan, bakeshop café owner Lindsey Bakewellis ready to make her first Christmas in town shine bright. But her merry plans crumble fast when murder appears under the mistletoe . . .
With the spirit of the holidays wafting through the Beacon Bakeshop, Lindsey thinks she has the recipe for the sweetest Christmas ever—winning the town-wide cookie bake-off. Unfortunately, striving for a picture-perfect December in Beacon Harbor is a lot like biting into stale shortbread. Low on staff and bombarded by visits from family, Lindsey can barely meet demands at work, let alone summon the confidence to face fierce competition . . .
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(A Beacon Bakeshop Mysteries)
Secrets
by Fern Michaels
Rating: 4.5 #ad
The #1 New York Times bestselling author of Fear Thy Neighbor and No Way Out blends mystery and drama in this twisty new Lost and Found novel, as siblings Cullen and Luna set out to uncover the secrets behind a long-lost diary.
Every antique tells a story. Cullen and Luna Bodman learned that through their parents’ furniture business. Now, with their restoration shop and café, they often find themselves at the center of those stories, unraveling mysteries for their clients. The old steamer chest that Cullen receives from an anonymous source is fascinating in its own right. But inside, Cullen discovers more—a locked diary accompanied by a letter, asking for the diary to be restored to its rightful owner…
The Murder Of Seth Madison
by Gary Diamond
Rating: 4.5 #ad
When the stagecoach arrives at Winchester Flats, two people disembark, an attractive woman called Julie Jefferson and an old Polish gentleman called Abraham Ziberman, who was once a police detective in London’s Scotland Yard. They are greeted by Sheriff Lincoln Lane who is dressed in all his finery, ready to go to a wedding out at the Maddison ranch. But then everything changes.
Firstly, they discover that the father of the bride, Seth Maddison, has been murdered at his daughter’s wedding. Secondly, Abraham Ziberman declares that he believes he might be Seth Maddison’s father, although he has never met him.
Forming a connection with the sheriff, he uses his detective training to investigate Seth’s murder in true whodunnit style.
Autopsy
by Patricia Cornwell
Rating: 4.4 #ad
In this relaunch of the electrifying, landmark #1 bestselling thriller series, chief medical examiner Dr. Kay Scarpetta hunts those responsible for two wildly divergent and chilling murders.
Forensic pathologist Dr. Kay Scarpetta has come almost full circle, returning to Virginia, the state where she launched her storied career, as the chief medical examiner. Finding herself the new girl in town once again after being away for many years, she’s inherited both an overbearing secretary and a legacy of neglect and potential corruption.
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(Kay Scarpetta Mysteries)
Preacher on the Run
by Jayna Baas
Rating: 4.4 #ad
STANDING FOR TRUTH COULD COST HIM HIS FREEDOM. FIGHTING FOR FREEDOM COULD COST HIM HIS LIFE.
It’s 1771, and North Carolina is at war. On one side stands the power of the Crown. On the other side stands a dangerous freedom of conscience.
Former circuit rider Robert Boothe has spent the last four years leading the tyrant-hating Regulators against North Carolina’s corrupt British government. All he wants is a safe place for his little Baptist church to worship God. But when Colonel Charles Drake arrives in town, Robert becomes a target. The Church of England wants him to shut up. The governor wants him dead…
Memory’s Legion: The Complete Expanse Story Collection
by James S. A. Corey
Rating: 4.7 #ad
From Leviathan Wakes to Leviathan Falls, James S. A. Corey’s Hugo Award-winning Expanse series has redefined modern space opera. Now, available in print for the first time comes the complete collection of short fiction set in the Expanse universe, including both a brand-new novella set after the events of Leviathan Falls and author’s notes on each story.
On Mars, a scientist experiments with a new engine that will one day become the drive that fuels humanity’s journey into the stars.
On an asteroid station, a group of prisoners are oblivious to the catastrophe that awaits them.
On a future Earth beset by overpopulation, pollution, and poverty, a crime boss desperately seeks to find a way off planet.
On an alien world, a human family struggles to establish a colony and make a new home.
My Canvas Bag
by Lucas Kinkaid
Rating: 4.4 #ad
“A heart -wrenching story about a young man who is born into a family who at times, I felt that I disliked so strongly, I wish he’d have run away and never seen them again. But resilience is his best ally, humor, wit, wisdom, and bravery. This story is told so well that I was riveted to each page. I could visualize every scene unfolding through this writer’s amazing words. A great book for discussions in family groups, and good for others who may have gone through a dysfunctional childhood and felt as if they were the only one.” Karen Malena, Author
Mark is a young man born into a bad situation. His parents drink too much, and his family often forgets him. He works hard to hide the harsh reality of his home life from those around him. Mark does this to avoid feeling shame. He escapes the chaos of his family by spending time in nearby woods. Mark keeps a canvas bag hidden close to his house. It contains blankets, a flashlight, cans of food, a transistor radio, things to read, and more. It has everything he needs to escape from his family’s dysfunction for a while. Mark truly enjoys the peace and solitude he finds in the woods.
The Dinosaur Who Roared Very Loud
by Cynthia Hickey
Rating: 5.0 #ad
New release from Cynthia Hickey
Ethan loved to roar more than anything, but his family and friends got very upset when he did.
Ethan’s roar was very, very LOUD! He should save his roar for something important. When disaster strikes, and Ethan is separated from his family, he must rely on his God-given talent to find his way and make an unlikely friend as he learns when it’s okay to be loud.
Carrie Soto Is Back
by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Rating: 4.4 #ad
Carrie Soto is fierce, and her determination to win at any cost has not made her popular. But by the time she retires from tennis, she is the best player the world has ever seen. She has shattered every record and claimed twenty Grand Slam titles. And if you ask Carrie, she is entitled to every one. She sacrificed nearly everything to become the best, with her father, Javier, as her coach. A former champion himself, Javier has trained her since the age of two.
But six years after her retirement, Carrie finds herself sitting in the stands of the 1994 US Open, watching her record be taken from her by a brutal, stunning player named Nicki Chan…
As Silent as the Night
by Danielle Grandinetti
Rating: 4.7 #ad
He can procure anything, except his heart’s deepest wish. She might hold the key, if she’s not discovered first.
Chicago, 1933―Lucia Critelli will do anything for her ailing grandfather, including stand in a breadline to have enough food to make him a St. Nicholas Day meal. When she catches the eye of a goon who threatens her grandfather, she discovers the end of Prohibition doesn’t mean the end of the mafia’s criminal activity.
Retired Marine Scout Giosue “Gio” Vella can find anything, especially if it helps a fellow Italian immigrant, so he has no doubt he can locate his neighbor’s granddaughter, who has gone missing from a local church. Keeping her safe is another matter. Especially when he chooses to hide out with his Marine buddy in Eagle, Wisconsin, the site of a barely-held truce among striking dairy farmers.
Sunday’s Mystery eBooks
The Lies I Tell
by Julie Clark
Rating: 4.4 #ad
Two women. Many aliases.
Meg Williams. Maggie Littleton. Melody Wilde. Different names for the same person, depending on the town, depending on the job. She’s a con artist who erases herself to become whoever you need her to be—a college student. A life coach. A real estate agent. Nothing about her is real. She slides alongside you and tells you exactly what you need to hear, and by the time she’s done, you’ve likely lost everything.
Dark River Inn
by J.R. Erickson
Rating: 4.5 #ad
Inspired by a chilling true story… It’s the day of his ex-wife’s wedding when Dan makes the winding mountain journey to a remote cabin for an escape from the life that another man has stepped into.
Less than 48 hours into his reprieve, the forest tranquility is shattered when he looks through a telescope and witnesses the violent abduction of a young woman. Dan springs into action, but there’s no evidence of an abduction nor reports of a missing woman. That is, until Dan sees the missing person’s poster for Ivy Trent.
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(A Troubled Spirits Mysteries)
The Demon Code
by David Leadbeater
Rating: 4.3 #ad
An impossible heist. An ancient code. A deadly race against time…
High in the Italian alps, cut off from the outside world, sits a chapel battered by winds and icy blizzards. The priests who guard this sacred place have sworn to protect the dangerous treasure that lies within their walls.
But when Joe Mason and his team are called to the remote church, they find its ancient stones reduced to rubble, the priests murdered in cold blood and their precious cargo stolen.
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(Joe Mason Mysteries)
The American Adventuress
by C. W. Gortner
Rating: 4.4 #ad
“No one writes bright, bold, bad, and beautiful women of history like C.W. Gortner, and he outdoes himself with his latest heroine: Jennie Jerome, American heiress, royal mistress, and mother of Winston Churchill. The American Adventuress shines on every page with Jennie’s irrepressible thirst for adventure, love, and everything else life has to offer!” — Kate Quinn, New York Times bestselling author of The Rose Code
The story of Jennie Jerome Churchill, mother of Winston, a New York born heiress who always lived life on her own terms.
Daughter of New York financier Leonard Jerome, Jennie was born into wealth—and scandal. Upon her parents’ separation, her mother took Jennie and her sisters to Paris, where Mrs. Jerome was determined to marry her daughters into the most elite families. The glamorous city became their tumultuous finishing school until it fell to revolt.
Family Magic
by Patti Larsen
Rating: 4.3 #ad
WORLD’S BEST STORY 2014
Magic? Check. High school cheerbullies? Check. Impending evil? You betcha. She’s so doomed…
While Sydlynn Hayle might be her coven’s heir, her reluctance to accept her power puts their fate at risk. But when a mysterious evil infiltrates the collective and comes for those she loves, she has to choose–either turn her back on her destiny or step up and save her family’s magic.
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(The Hayle Coven Mysteries)
The Lost Man of Bombay
by Vaseem Khan
Rating: 4.5 #ad
Bombay, 1950. When the body of a white man is found frozen in the Himalayan foothills near Dehra Dun, he is christened the Ice Man by the national media. Who is he? How long has he been there? Why was he killed?
As Inspector Persis Wadia and Metropolitan Police criminalist Archie Blackfinch investigate the case in Bombay, they uncover a trail left behind by the enigmatic Ice Man – a trail leading directly into the dark heart of conspiracy. Meanwhile, two new murders grip the city. Is there a serial killer on the loose?
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(The Malabar House Mysteries)
The Last Time We Met
by Trisha Ridinger McKee
Rating: 4.5 #ad
As a member of the richest family in town, Willow understands the importance of reputation. Her stern grandmother has taught her that family secrets are to be buried, and as the most popular girl in school, Willow follows that lesson with a smile covering up the darkness.
But when Walden, the new guy from the wrong side of town comes to her school, Willow finds her image slipping and the secrets of her homelife in danger of being exposed. As a scandal tears the couple apart and throws Willow into a new, unfamiliar life, she must choose between saving Walden’s future or risking it all for love.
Saturday’s Mystery eBooks
Dogged by Death
by Laura Scott
Rating: 4.5 #ad
Ally Winter is going through a ruff patch. The thirty-something veterinarian lost her fiancé, her clinic, and her savings in rapid succession. So when Ally’s grandfather undergoes hip replacement surgery, she moves back to Willow Bluff, Wisconsin, to care for him. She arrives home, tail between her legs, only to find sleazy lawyer Marty Shawlin murdered in his home office. And the only witness was Marty’s faithful boxer, Roxy.
Quick as a greyhound, Noah Jorgensen is on the case. The good news is, he’s the best detective around. The bad news, at least the way Ally sees it, is that Noah is still just as fetching as he was back in high school…
The Third Victim
by Lisa Gardner
Rating: 4.5 #ad
The past isn’t over….
An unspeakable act has ripped apart the idyllic town of Bakersville, Oregon, and its once-peaceful residents are demanding quick justice. But though a boy has confessed to the horrific crime, evidence shows he may not be guilty.
Officer Rainie Conner, leading her first homicide investigation, stands at the center of the controversy. It’s hitting too close to home, bringing back her worst nightmares, threatening to expose her secret sins. But with the boy’s life at stake, she won’t let anything stop her from finding the real killer.
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(FBI Profiler Mysteries)
Rejectors
by Kyle Watson
Rating: 3.8 #ad
What would you do as last of the Rejectors? They are coming. Run.
Rejecting the system has a price, and the last rejectors are on the run and must outpace the evil forces that are hunting them. Vowing to never bend to the will of evil leader, will the rejectors be able to escape capture and avoid the delusion that overtakes those who are forced to accept the system? Wrestling with the reality that the battle is taking place in both the seen and unseen realms, the rejectors will stop at nothing to fight for their souls and lives.
The Shadows We Hide
by Allen Eskens
Rating: 4.6 #ad
Joe Talbert, Jr. has never once met his namesake. Now out of college, a cub reporter for the Associated Press in Minneapolis, he stumbles across a story describing the murder of a man named Joseph Talbert in a small town in southern Minnesota.
Full of curiosity about whether this man might be his father, Joe is shocked to find that none of the town’s residents have much to say about the dead man-other than that his death was long overdue. Joe discovers that the dead man was a loathsome lowlife who cheated his neighbors, threatened his daughter, and squandered his wife’s inheritance after she, too, passed away — an inheritance that may now be Joe’s.
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(Max Rupert and Joe Talbert Mysteries)
Edge of Dusk
by Colleen Coble
Rating: 4.7 #ad
Even though secrets lie off the coast of Rock Harbor, the truth will set Annie Pederson free – if it doesn’t kill her first. Return to the beloved town of Rock Harbor in the first installment of a new series by bestselling suspense author Colleen Coble.
Nine-year-old Annie Pederson’s life changed the night her sister was kidnapped. The two had been outside playing on a dock, and Annie never forgave herself for her role in her sister’s disappearance. Twenty-four years later and now a law enforcement ranger, Annie is still searching for answers as she grieves a new loss: the death of her husband and parents in a boating accident…
Peaches and Schemes
by Anna Gerard
Rating: 4.7 #ad
In Anna Gerard’s third delightful Georgia B&B mystery, Nina Fleet learns that despite the satin, lace, and buttercream trappings, weddings often prove to be anything but sweet…
Nina Fleet might be new to the innkeeping business, but she’s savvy enough to know that Cymbeline’s tourists aren’t enough to keep her fledgling bed and breakfast going. And so, Nina decides to tap into the destination wedding market by taking a booth at the Veils and Vanities Bridal Expo. The twice-yearly event is sponsored by the town’s two wedding pros: Virgie Hamilton, the sixtysomething owner of Virgie’s Formals, and Roxanna Quarry, a Gen X event planner and Nina’s new friend. But everything goes wrong during the expo’s fashion show, when Roxanna comes tumbling out of an oversized prop wedding cake, strangled to death by her own scarf.
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(A Georgia B&B Mysteries)
The Munich Girl
by Phyllis Edgerly Ring
Rating: 4.7 #ad
Anna Dahlberg grew up eating dinner under her father’s war-trophy portrait of Eva Braun.
Fifty years after the war, she discovers what he never did—that her mother and Hitler’s mistress were friends.
The secret surfaces with a mysterious monogrammed handkerchief, and a man, Hannes Ritter, whose Third Reich family history is entwined with Anna’s.
Plunged into the world of the “ordinary” Munich girl who was her mother’s confidante – and a tyrant’s lover – Anna finds her every belief about right and wrong challenged. With Hannes’s help, she retraces the path of two women who met as teenagers, shared a friendship that spanned the years that Eva Braun was Hitler’s mistress, yet never knew that the men they loved had opposing ambitions.
Tear Down the Throne
by Jennifer Estep
Rating: 4.7 #ad
Bestselling author Jennifer Estep continues her Gargoyle Queen epic fantasy series where magic reigns, alliances are tested, and a dangerous attraction could tear down a throne. . .
Crown princess. Clever spy. Powerful mind magier. Gemma Ripley of Andvari is all those things—and determined to stop an enemy from using magical tearstone weapons to conquer her kingdom.
Gemma’s quest for answers leads her to a trade Summit between the various kingdoms. Among the other royals in attendance is Queen Maeven Morricone of Morta and her son, Prince Leonidas—Gemma’s charming and dangerous nemesis.
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(A Gargoyle Queen Mysteries)
Friday’s Mystery eBooks
Bed and Breakfast and Murder
by Patti Larsen
Rating: 4.3 #ad
PEACE AND QUIET CAN BE MURDER! Fiona Fleming had hoped inheriting her grandmother’s bed and breakfast and returning home to quiet Reading, VT would be a welcome escape from the city life in New York and her cheating ex-boyfriend. She figured the most excitement she’d face would be making beds, pesky customers and the awful stench coming from her grandmother’s ornery pug, Petunia. Instead, she finds herself elbow-deep in clogged toilets, with the town blackmailer floating belly-up in her fish pond–and she’s the prime suspect.
She’s soon looking for answers on the seedy-side of her tiny town and winds up in dangers she never even faced in the city.
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(Fiona Fleming Cozy Mysteries)
Murder at the Serpentine Bridge
by Andrea Penrose
Rating: 4.6 #ad
For fans of Miss Scarlet and the Duke and Bridgerton—a masterfully plotted mystery that combines engaging protagonists with rich historical detail and “an unusually rich look at Regency life,” (Publishers Weekly), plus a touch of romance that readers of Amanda Quick and Deanna Raybourn will savor.
Charlotte, now the Countess of Wrexford, would like nothing more than a summer of peace and quiet with her new husband and their unconventional family and friends. Still, some social obligations must be honored, especially with the grand Peace Celebrations unfolding throughout London to honor victory over Napoleon.
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(A Wrexford & Sloane Mysteries)
The Beginning of Sorrows: The Complete Box Set
by Mark Goodwin
Rating: 4.7 #ad
When Agent Joshua Stone is called to a high-level meeting at the Department of Homeland Security, he learns about a new global order which will be transitioning into power. Stone is read in on the plan for a single planetary government and a world-wide cashless-currency, which will step in to fill the void left by the failing monetary system. To win wide acceptance by the nations of the world, the old system must first be allowed to fail, bringing about a state of global chaos never before seen by mankind. Once desperation has taken the place of pride and hubris, humanity will beg for the proposed one-world empire led by the charismatic tech guru Lucius Alexander.
The United States will fall without a single shot being fired…
The Match
by Harlan Coben
Rating: 4.5 #ad
After months away, Wilde has returned to the Ramapo Mountains in the wake of a failed bid at domesticity that confirms what he’s known all along: He belongs on his own, free from the comforts and constraints of modern life.
Suddenly, a DNA match on an online ancestry database brings Wilde closer to his past than he’s ever dreamed, and finally gives Wilde the opening he needs to track down his father. But meeting the man brings up more questions than answers. So Wilde reaches out to his last, most desperate lead, a second cousin who disappears as quickly as he resurfaces, having experienced an epic fall from grace that can only be described as a waking nightmare.
The Girl Who Survived
by Lisa Jackson
Rating: 4.5 #ad
Has she already had her last chance to be the final girl?
All her life, she’s been the girl who survived. Orphaned at age seven after a horrific killing spree at her family’s Oregon cabin, Kara McIntyre is still searching for some kind of normal. But now, twenty years later, the past has come thundering back. Her brother, Jonas, who was convicted of the murders has unexpectedly been released from prison. The press is in a frenzy again. And suddenly, Kara is receiving cryptic messages from her big sister, Marlie—who hasn’t been seen or heard from since that deadly Christmas Eve when she hid little Kara in a closet with a haunting, life-saving command: Don’t make a sound.
Broken Rhodes
by Kimber Silver
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…
Chrysalis
by Lincoln Child
Rating: 4.3 #ad
Like millions of people around the world, Jeremy Logan (famed enigmalogist, or investigator of unexplained things) has grown to rely on his incredible new tech device. Made by Chrysalis, the global multibillion dollar tech company, the small optical device connects people in a stunning new way, tapping into virtual reality for the first time on a wide scale.
And yet, when Logan is summoned by Chrysalis to investigate a disturbing anomaly in the massive new product rollout, Logan is shocked to see the true scope of the massive company…
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(Jeremy Logan Mysteries)
The Lightning Rod
by Brad Meltzer
Rating: 4.3 #ad
Zig and Nola are back—in the hugely entertaining, highly anticipated follow-up to Brad Meltzer’s #1 New York Times bestselling thriller The Escape Artist.
What’s the one secret no one knows about you?
Archie Mint has a secret. He’s led a charmed life – he’s got a beautiful wife, two impressive kids, and a successful military career. But when he’s killed while trying to stop a robbery in his own home, his family is shattered – and then shocked when the other shoe drops. Mint’s been hiding criminal secrets none of them could have imagined.
Storm’s Justice
by Mary Stone
Rating: 4.6 #ad
Taking justice into your own hands can be deadly…
After receiving a mysterious note from the man claiming to be her brother’s confidential informant, Special Agent Amelia Storm decides to trust fellow agent Zane Palmer with the truth. But as Amelia tells Zane about her murdered brother’s activities and her own ties to the mafia world, they’re called into work. A federal judge, along with her husband and daughter, have been murdered execution-style. The case reeks of mafia involvement, but several aspects of the case hint at something more personal.
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(Amelia Storm FBI Mysteries)
Desert Star
by Michael Connelly
Rating: 4.7 #ad
LAPD detective Renée Ballard and Harry Bosch team up to hunt the brutal killer who is Bosch’s “white whale”—a man responsible for the murder of an entire family.
A year has passed since LAPD detective Renée Ballard quit the force in the face of misogyny, demoralization, and endless red tape. But after the chief of police himself tells her she can write her own ticket within the department, Ballard takes back her badge, leaving “the Late Show” to rebuild and lead the cold case unit at the elite Robbery-Homicide Division…