Monday’s Mystery eBooks
Cracked to Death
by Cheryl Hollon
Rating: 4.4 #ad
It’s the dog days of summer in St. Petersburg, Florida, and Webb’s Glass Shop proprietor Savannah Webb has an eco-friendly plan to help locals escape the heat—a recyclable bottle-crafting workshop taught by reticent store manager Amanda Blake. Turns out, the class is a bigger smash than expected, thanks in part to a pair of staggeringly old bottles brought in by snorkeler Martin Lane . . .
Linked to a storied pirate shipwreck, the relics definitely pique Savannah’s interest. But intrigue turns to shock when Martin’s lifeless body washes ashore the next morning, another glass artifact tucked in his dive bag.
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(A Webb’s Glass Shop Mysteries)
All Flesh Is Grass
by Clifford D. Simak
Rating: 4.2 #ad
Long before Under the Dome, this novel of a town trapped within an invisible force field earned a Nebula Award nomination for the author of Way Station.
Nothing much ever happens in Millville, a small, secluded Middle-American community—until the day Brad Carter discovers he is unable to leave. And the nearly bankrupt real estate agent is not the only one being held prisoner; every resident is confined within the town’s boundaries by an invisible force field that cannot be breached. As local tensions rapidly reach breaking point, a set of bizarre circumstances leads Brad to the source of their captivity, making him humanity’s reluctant ambassador to an alien race of sentient flora, and privy to these jailers’ ultimate intentions. But some of Millville’s most powerful citizens do not take kindly to Carter’s “collaboration with the enemy,” even under the sudden threat of global apocalypse.
Nuclear Winter Armageddon
by Bobby Akart
Rating: 4.5 #ad
For decades, Nuclear Armageddon hanged over us like a mighty sword. Some said it would be the war to end all wars. They were wrong. The real battle against extinction was just beginning.
International bestselling author, Bobby Akart, one of America’s favorite storytellers, delivers up-all-night thrillers to readers in 245 countries and territories worldwide. “Masterful and suspenseful!”
This is how the world ends. Not with a bang, but with many nuclear bombs detonated around the planet. It was no longer a topic of conversation around the dinner table as in years past. Nobody was prepared, including the world’s governments. Yet the threat was always real and the devastation was predictable.
“Bobby’s uncanny ability to take a topic of what could happen and write an epic story about it is short of preternatural!”
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(Nuclear Winter Mysteries)
Into the Dread Void
by Abe Moss
Rating: 4.3 #ad
In the dark woods, you see it. An emerald glow in the distance. Coming closer. Glowing brighter. There is no escape.
Something wicked roams the California wilderness. Its victims form a gruesome trail across the Sierra Nevada mountains – dead on their knees, flesh hanging off their bones, expressions of euphoria upon their faces…
Spending her first weekend with her new foster family at their summer cabin, fourteen-year-old Nell has no idea it’s heading their way. She has no idea they’ll soon be thrust into a terrifying struggle for their lives, or that the secret she keeps – a supernatural gift she’s hidden most of her childhood – might be the one thing that can save them.
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(The Dread Void Mysteries)
The Guardian
by Nicholas Sparks
Rating: 4.6 #ad
Julie Barenson’s young husband left her two unexpected gifts before he died – a Great Dane puppy named Singer and the promise that he would always be watching over her. Now four years have passed. Still living in the small town of Swansboro, North Carolina, twenty-nine-year-old Julie is emotionally ready to make a commitment to someone again. But who?
Should it be Richard Franklin, the handsome, sophisticated engineer who treats her like a queen? Or Mike Harris, the down-to-earth nice guy who was her husband’s best friend?
Summer Camp Culprit
by C.K. Fyfe
Rating: 5.0 #ad
Camp Starfall is closing. But that doesn’t mean the past is going with it.
Despite her misgivings, Lindsey returns to the campground she last left as a broken-hearted teen. She’s determined to spend Camp Starfall’s farewell weekend focusing on the good memories she has of her time as a camper. But fate has other plans.
Lindsey’s teenage sweetheart Tyler shows up, stirring up feelings in her that had long lain dormant. Too bad she doesn’t have time to dwell on him. Someone is breaking into the cabins, and if she doesn’t find the culprit, more than her heart will be at stake.
Police at the Station and They Don’t Look Friendly
by Adrian McKinty
Rating: 4.6 #ad
Another thrilling mystery featuring Detective Sean Duffy and his most dangerous investigation yet
Belfast, 1988. A man is found dead, killed with a bolt from a crossbow in front of his house. This is no hunting accident. But uncovering who is responsible for the murder will take Detective Sean Duffy down his most dangerous road yet, a road that leads to a lonely clearing on a high bog where three masked gunmen will force Duffy to dig his own grave.
Hunted by forces unknown, threatened by Internal Affairs, and with his relationship on the rocks, Duffy will need all his wits to get out of this investigation in one piece.
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(The Sean Duffy Mysteries)
Sunday’s Mystery eBooks
Hunting for Handcuffs
by Jinty James
Rating: 4.6 #ad
Coffee, cupcakes, and kitty day care – just a normal day for Lauren, Annie, and Zoe – when they’re not busy catching a killer!
Lauren temporarily hires a college student to help out in the cat café in the small town of Gold Leaf Valley, Northern California, while her cousin Zoe enjoys a belated honeymoon in beautiful Puerto Rico.
But Darrell isn’t working out. Not at all. When Darrell doesn’t turn up for his last shift, Lauren, Annie (her Norwegian Forest Cat), and her police husband Mitch visit his apartment. And find him dead.
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(Norwegian Forest Cat Café Mysteries)
Four Steps Missed
by Luana Ehrlich
Rating: 4.7 #ad
CIA covert operative Titus Ray is used to keeping secrets. This time, it’s different.
This time, he’s keeping secrets from his boss, his handler, and his wife.
Operation False Flag is the secret Titus is keeping from his boss . . .
While his boss, Deputy Director of Operations, Robert Ira, would ordinarily be aware of any operation being run out of the Agency, this mission concerns the DDO himself, a mission that could cost him his job.
The whistleblower behind the operation is the secret Titus is keeping from his handler . . .
Even though his handler, Douglas Carlton, has been tasked with directing Operation False Flag, he has no idea Titus knows the identity of the whistleblower who gave the Inspector General the files that set the operation in motion.
The operation itself is the secret Titus is keeping from his wife . . .
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(A Titus Ray Thrillers)
The Midnight Lock
by Jeffery Deaver
Rating: 4.5 #ad
A woman awakes in the morning to find that someone has picked her apartment’s supposedly impregnable door lock and rearranged personal items, even sitting beside her while she slept. The intrusion, the police learn, is a message to the entire city of carnage to come. Lincoln Rhyme and Amelia Sachs are brought in to investigate and soon learn that the sociopathic intruder, who calls himself “the Locksmith,” can break through any lock or security system ever devised. With more victims on the horizon, Rhyme, Sachs and their stable of associates must follow the evidence to the man’s lair… and discover his true mission.
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(Lincoln Rhyme Mysteries)
A Trick of the Light
by William Stuart
Rating: 4.2 #ad
William Stuart, bestselling author of The Moonlit Road and popular NoSleep Podcast contributor, presents sixteen tales of terror that will leave you wondering what may be lurking nearby.
A mad professor delivers deadly punishments to his captive pupils. A children’s game sets an entire mythology in motion. A talented girl’s drawings win her a set of pencils that bring her creations to life. An old investigator comes out of retirement to face down one final ghost from his past.
You catch a shadow in your peripheral vision… Is there something moving in that window? A ghost? A killer? Or is it just A Trick of the Light?
Hometown Prophet
by Jeff Fulmer
Rating: 4.5 #ad
A desperate, thirty-one year old Peter Quill moves back home to live with his mom in Tennessee. When he begins to have dreams that seem to be coming true, he is more surprised than anyone. With the support of his pastor, he predicts a major event in front of his church and is suddenly heralded as a modern day prophet. Foreseeing an environmental disaster and an attack on a local Muslim mosque, he attracts more followers, as well as a growing chorus of critics. As his dreams continue to challenge the biases of people in his community, he comes under personal attack, discovering what it truly means to be a prophet of God.
The Paradox Hotel
by Rob Hart
Rating: 4.0 #ad
ONE OF THE MOST ANTICIPATED BOOKS OF 2022 – CrimeReads
January Cole’s job just got a whole lot harder.
Not that running security at the Paradox was ever really easy. Nothing’s simple at a hotel where the ultra-wealthy tourists arrive costumed for a dozen different time periods, all eagerly waiting to catch their “flights” to the past.
Or where proximity to the timeport makes the clocks run backward on occasion—and, rumor has it, allows ghosts to stroll the halls.
None of that compares to the corpse in room 526. The one that seems to be both there and not there. The one that somehow only January can see.
Black Swan, White Raven
by Multiple Authors
Rating: 4.4 #ad
Dark and decidedly grown-up stories inspired by fairy tales—from New York Times bestsellers Karen Joy Fowler, Joyce Carol Oates, Susanna Clarke, and more.
This collection from World Fantasy Award–winning editors Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling proves that fairy tales don’t have to be for little children and that happily ever after doesn’t necessarily mean forever. Here, the plights of Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Rapunzel, and others are reimagined by some of today’s finest literary talents.
Hansel and Gretel make several appearances, not the least being at their trial for the murder of a supposedly helpless old woman. The real, shocking reason for Snow White’s desperate flight from her home is revealed. And the steadfast tin soldier, made flesh and blood, pays a terrible price for his love and devotion.
Wolves of Gypsum Creek Box Set
by Serena Meadows
Rating: 4.7 #ad
The tiny town of Gypsum Creek is home to a high number of brooding, sexy-as-sin men that disappear with each full moon. The heroes in this boxset of steamy, standalone stories will get your heart racing…and tongue wagging. But you’d better watch out. The howling has started, and no lady is safe when the wolves of Gypsum Creek go on the hunt.
Third Time a Charm
Triumph
Young Love
Restoration
Her White Wolf
Lose yourself in the Appalachian Mountains with these powerful protectors, and the courageous women that claim their love.
Saturday’s Mystery eBooks
Here Today, Scone Tomorrow
by R. A. Hutchins
Rating: 4.2 #ad
When the self-titled Lord of the Manor, Harold Baker, meets an untimely end, the residents of Baker’s Rise believe that he has simply died from choking. It is fair to say that they are certainly not sad to see him go!
Former city dweller Flora Miller, new to the quaint English village and in charge of the recently restored Tearoom on the Rise, is the unlucky recipient of the late man’s parrot. Her new feathered companion has no filter and a vibrant personality that cannot be ignored! Witness to Harold’s murder, the bird won’t let the matter lie, and it’s not long before Flora becomes suspicious.
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(Baker’s Rise Mysteries)
Writer’s Block
by K.G. Lewis
Rating: 4.3 #ad
A group of friends find an old game that exposes the truths they’ve been hiding from each other. A small town murder has world-changing implications. A girl wakes in the hospital to find a strange man sitting next to her bed.
Be thankful you aren’t the characters in this collection of 20 terrifying, twisted, and thought-provoking tales from K.G. Lewis. In the places they live, even something as simple as Writer’s Block can be deadly.
Careless in Red
by Elizabeth George
Rating: 4.3 #ad
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth George, a stunning mystery featuring Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley that explores the perfect crime.
After the senseless murder of his pregnant wife, Detective Superintendent Thomas Lynley hands in his badge and walks out of Scotland Yard. He goes home to Cornwall. The only way he can deal with his painful memories is to hike the trails over the cliffs of the Cornish coast. There, on the forty-third day of his walk, he finds the lifeless body of a young man, dead from a fall.
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(Inspector Lynley Mysteries)
Bones of Skeleton Creek
by Eric Wilder
Rating: 4.4 #ad
Non-stop action, paranormal adventure, demonic shifters, pagan revelers, and a touch of wild romance
When an Oklahoma cattle rancher hires paranormal investigator. Buck McDivit to investigate a gory murder committed by something not quite human, and a rural community populated by pagan women, he has to think fast or end up dead. Though no choir boy, Buck is unprepared for his role as the lone male participant in a spring equinox fertility ceremony. The only thing worse for the paranormal cowboy than having no woman is too many women – or maybe being eaten alive by a supernatural black panther
The Shadow of Death
by Jane Willan
Rating: 4.4 #ad
Call the Midwife meets Agatha Christie in this charming mystery debut set at a bucolic Welsh convent, where a mystery-loving nun finds herself in the midst of a real-life murder case
The sisters of Gwenafwy Abbey have cherished their contemplative life—days spent in prayer, reflection, tending the Convent’s vegetable gardens and making their award-winning organic cheese, Heavenly Gouda. Life seems perfect, except for Sister Agatha, a die-hard mystery fan who despairs of ever finding any real life inspiration for her own novel. That is, until the Abbey’s sexton is found dead under an avalanche of gouda. Despite the reservations of the local constable, Sister Agatha is convinced it’s murder and the game is afoot.
Killing the Blues
by Michael Brandman
Rating: 4.4 #ad
Paradise, Massachusetts, police chief Jesse Stone returns in a brilliant new addition to the New York Times-bestselling series.
Paradise, Massachusetts, is preparing for the summer tourist season when a string of car thefts disturbs what is usually a quiet time in town. In a sudden escalation of violence, the thefts become murder, and chief of police Jesse Stone finds himself facing one of the toughest cases of his career. Pressure from the town politicians only increases when another crime wave puts residents on edge. Jesse confronts a personal dilemma as well: a burgeoning relationship with a young PR executive, whose plans to turn Paradise into a summertime concert destination may have her running afoul of the law.
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(Jesse Stone Mysteries)
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.
When MacArthur is appointed the U.S. Army chief of staff, he becomes the youngest four-star general and one of America’s most powerful men. Out of hubris, he takes Isabel with him to America without marrying her.
Legendary Bastards of the Crown (Complete Series)
by Elizabeth Rose
Rating: 4.9 #ad
This is the complete Legendary Bastards of the Crown Series.
This boxed set includes:
Destiny’s Kiss
Restless Sea Lord
Ruthless Knight
Reckless Highlander
“Elizabeth Rose became one of my favorite authors. I love how her mind works when writing. Her imaginations take me far and beyond. These 3 book series is about 3 brothers full of laughter, hatred , war and finally ever after. These brothers were once lost now found. I’m definitely going to continue reading.” by Amazon Customer
Tuesday’s Mystery eBooks
Silver Anniversary Murder
by Leslie Meier
Rating: 4.4 #ad
As Tinker’s Cove, Maine, buzzes over a town-wide silver wedding anniversary bash, Lucy Stone is reminded of her own nuptials and ponders the whereabouts of Beth Gerard, her strong-willed maid of honor. Lucy never would have made it down the aisle without Beth’s help, and though the two lost touch over the years, she decides to reach out. It takes only one phone call for Lucy to realize that a reunion will happen sooner than later – at Beth’s funeral.
Beth, who was in the process of finalizing her fourth divorce, had a reputation for living on the edge – but no one believes she’d jump off a penthouse terrace in New York City. The more Lucy learns about Beth’s former husbands, the more she suspects one of them committed murder.
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(A Lucy Stone Mysteries)
Herding Bats
by Stephanie Parker McKean
Rating: 4.4 #ad
Buoyed by an inspirational calendar, Dulcinea Robbins travels from shady, green Georgia to hot, semi-arid Laredo, Texas, to flee a broken romance and help an aging author with dementia write a book about her mental decline. However, she runs headlong into two antagonistic brothers, the author’s sons, who resent her presence and initially try to force her to leave.
Dulcy attempts to help older brother HJ find his long-missing father. She has no idea that the quest for truth will lead her into an encounter with the Los Zetas drug cartel in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico; the necessity to rescue a kidnapped neighbor; and other, even more sinister, dangers. Finding that her calendar quotes do little to alleviate the mounting danger, Dulcy finds herself turning back to God as the mysteries spin out of control – and so does Dulcy’s heart.
Treachery in Death
by J. D. Robb
Rating: 4.8 #ad
Detective Eve Dallas and her partner, Peabody, are following up on a senseless crime – an elderly grocery owner killed by three stoned punks for nothing more than kicks and snacks. This is Peabody’s first case as primary detective – good thing she learned from the master.
But soon Peabody stumbles upon a trickier situation. After a hard workout, she’s all alone in the locker room when the gym door clatters open, and – while hiding inside a shower stall trying not to make a sound – she overhears two fellow officers arguing. It doesn’t take long to realize they’re both crooked – guilty not just of corruption but of murder.
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(In Death Mysteries)
Immortal Rising
by Lynsay Sands
Rating: 4.7 #ad
Stephanie McGill was attacked and turned when she was just a teenager. Worse, her abilities are unlike any other immortal. Now 13 years later, with the help of her adopted Argeneau family, Steph has carved out a new – if not lonely – life for herself. Until a new neighbor arrives…
Thorne is also one-of-a-kind. The result of a genetic experiment, he’s not an immortal, but he’s not mortal either. He’s looking for a place to hide, to get some peace and quiet so he can figure things out, and Stephanie’s sanctuary is perfect. In fact, Stephanie is perfect. For the first time, Thorne is free to be himself and he’s falling for her.
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(An Argeneau Mysteries)
20th Century Ghosts
by Joe Hill
Rating: 4.5 #ad
Imogene is young, beautiful . . . and dead, waiting in the Rosebud Theater one afternoon in 1945. . . .
Francis was human once, but now he’s an eight-foot-tall locust, and everyone in Calliphora will tremble when they hear him sing. . . .
John is locked in a basement stained with the blood of half a dozen murdered children, and an antique telephone, long since disconnected, rings at night with calls from the dead. . . .
Junkyard Veterans
by Jamie McFarlane
Rating: 4.6 #ad
With a price on their heads, grumpy old vets will risk everything to bring alien assassins to justice.
Someone is killing off the old team of vets who repelled Earth’s first Korgul invasion. With the end of a war precious few even knew was happening, life’s been peaceful. Of course, Albert Jenkins isn’t a bit surprised when that peace is shattered by the sounds of rocket propelled grenades fired over the Georgia swamps. To make matters worse, when he reports the alien’s foiled attack to the Army, he’s ordered to keep things quiet and stop causing trouble.
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(Junkyard Pirate Mysteries)
The Feud: The Hatfields and McCoys
by Dean King
Rating: 4.6 #ad
Unlike previous accounts, King’s begins in the mid-nineteenth century, when the Hatfields and McCoys lived side-by-side in relative harmony. Theirs was a hardscrabble life of farming and hunting, timbering and moonshining-and raising large and boisterous families-in the rugged hollows and hills of Virginia and Kentucky. Cut off from much of the outside world, these descendants of Scots-Irish and English pioneers spoke a language many Americans would find hard to understand. Yet contrary to popular belief, the Hatfields and McCoys were established and influential landowners who had intermarried and worked together for decades.
When the Civil War came, and the outside world crashed into their lives, family members were forced to choose sides…
Irine Wicklow: Bounty Hunter
by Laura Strickland
Rating: 4.5 #ad
A brand new third adventure in a new series from Laura Strickland!
Irine Wicklow, better known as the dangerous bounty hunter, Wolverine, has sent her sometime-partner, Justice Turrant back to Kentucky, reckoning she’d rather weather a little unhappiness now than a whole lot of heartbreak later. But her wild black mare, Jezebel, is miserable without Jus’s horse, Settler. And Rine just can’t lose her longing for the handsome Reb. He’s one of only two men alive who know Wolverine’s a woman. The other’s her latest bounty, a charming Spaniard whom she intends to take in for the price on his head.
Jus hoped news of the revenge he and Rine had won for his sister, Jenny, would help her heal from her devastating past ordeal.
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(Irine Wicklow: Bounty Hunter Series)