Thursday’s Mystery eBooks
Murder in Georgetown
by Margaret Truman
Rating: 4.1 #ad
When the corpse of a young woman is found floating down Washington’s C&O Canal, everyone is shocked to learn the victim is none other than Valerie Frolich—a senator’s daughter, Georgetown graduate, and a rising star in the cutthroat world of investigative journalism.
Washington Post reporter Joe Potamos is good at unearthing the skeletons in the nation’s capital, so when he’s assigned the Frolich story, he immediately senses this case is rife with secrets. As he digs further to uncover the truth about Valerie’s death, it soon becomes apparent someone wanted the young, beautiful reporter dead.
Skin Flicks
by Duncan Ralston
Rating: 3.9 #ad
Extreme Horror Collection From the Twisted Mind That Brought You WOOM.
In Skin, former Golden Era-porn star Larry Walker gets a shot at the role of a lifetime… only to discover it may be his final role ever. The dark side of the porn industry has bred a monster with a penchant for recreating “classic” scenes. And Larry isn’t the first actor The Doll has kidnapped to make his twisted “film.”
Old friends reconnect over a dead body and a peculiar infection in “Bait,” one that makes Alexa crave sex with strangers which usually ends fatally for her partners. The trouble is, Brook’s had a secret crush on Alexa since grade school, but will she be willing to do anything to help her friend?
Where Are the Children Now?
by Mary Higgins Clark, Alafair Burke
Rating: 4.6 #ad
Of the fifty-six bestsellers the “Queen of Suspense” Mary Higgins Clark published in her lifetime, Where Are the Children? was her biggest, selling millions of copies and forever transforming the genre of suspense fiction. In that story, a young California mother named Nancy Harmon was convicted of murdering her two children. Though released on a technicality, she was abandoned by her husband and became such a pariah in the media that she was forced to move across the country to Cape Cod, change her identity and appearance, and start a new life. Years later her two children from a second marriage, Mike and Melissa, would go missing, and Nancy yet again became the prime suspect – but this time, Nancy was able to confront the secrets buried in her past and rescue her kids from a dangerous predator.
Fracture
by Elyse Hoffman
Rating: 3.9 #ad
A heart-wrenching WW2 story of forbidden love and torn allegiances.
Franz Keidel is a monstrous SS soldier: loyal, hateful, and devoted to Hitler. With a cold heart, he hunts down his Führer’s enemies, but one fateful mission will fracture his shield of ice.
While hunting for Jews, Franz stumbles across a familiar face: Amos Auman, his childhood friend. Amos is the only source of joy in Franz’s life, but he is also a Jew. Unable to bring himself to kill his friend, Franz vows to protect Amos from his fellow Nazis.
Mr. Mercedes
by Stephen King
Rating: 4.4 #ad
The stolen Mercedes emerges from the pre-dawn fog and plows through a crowd of men and women on line for a job fair in a distressed American city. Then the lone driver backs up, charges again, and speeds off, leaving eight dead and more wounded. The case goes unsolved and ex-cop Bill Hodges is out of hope when he gets a letter from a man who loved the feel of death under the Mercedes’s wheels…
Brady Hartsfield wants that rush again, but this time he’s going big, with an attack that would take down thousands – unless Hodges and two new unusual allies he picks up along the way can throw a wrench in Hartsfield’s diabolical plans.
The Crimson Maple
by C.R. Eaton
Rating: 5.0 #ad
At the heart of the forest lies a dark secret…
Kelvin Forest provides a place of serenity for historian Hugo and his friend Den, a strange-looking boy with superhuman strength. Hugo spends his days studying ancient texts in the nearby town of Harten while Den keeps busy doing what boys do in a place where people won’t make fun of him.
Their peace is interrupted when a bounty hunter named Grill stops by and inquires about a wanted man believed to be in the area. At about the same time, pets start disappearing from town, and they agree to team up to investigate the forest.
Citadel
by Frank Wheeler
Rating: 5.0 #ad
Dakota Thorne was happy to get home to his wife. After six years building the Transcontinental Railroad, all he wanted was a bed, a home, and a woman to love.
Until the night Crawford Lory had it all ripped away.
Dakota almost lost his life. Instead, he just lost the life he’d dreamed of.
Now, a year later, it looks like Crawford may have been acting on someone else’s orders. His boss tells him it was Chen Hai, Chinatown’s most infamous opium dealer. Chen says it’s his boss, Pat Buzzard, a railroad tycoon turned gambling hall magnate.
Wednesday’s Mystery eBooks
Front Page Murder
by Joyce St. Anthony
Rating: 4.5 #ad
Irene Ingram has written for her father’s newspaper, the Progress Herald, ever since she could grasp a pencil. Now she’s editor in chief, which doesn’t sit well with the men in the newsroom. But proving her journalistic bona fides is the least of Irene’s worries when crime reporter Moe Bauer, on the heels of a hot tip, turns up dead at the foot of his cellar stairs.
An accident? That’s what Police Chief Walt Turner thinks, and Irene is inclined to agree until she finds the note Moe discreetly left on her desk. He was on to a big story, he wrote…
Alien 3
by Pat Cadigan, William Gibson
Rating: 4.3 #ad
William Gibson’s never-before-adapted screenplay for the direct sequel to Aliens, revealing the fates of Ripley, Newt, the synthetic Bishop, and Corporal Hicks. When the Colonial Marines vessel Sulaco docks with space station and military installation Anchorpoint, a new form of Xenomorph appears. Written by Hugo Award-winning novelist and “Queen of Cyberpunk” Pat Cadigan, based on Gibson’s never-produced first draft.
The Sulaco – on its return journey from LV-426 – enters a sector controlled by the “Union of Progressive Peoples,” a nation-state engaged in an ongoing cold war and arms race. U.P.P. personnel board the Sulaco and find hypersleep tubes with Ripley, Newt, and an injured Hicks. A Facehugger attacks the lead commando, and the others narrowly escape, taking what remains of Bishop with them.
Three Small Bones
by Jennifer Chase
Rating: 4.5 #ad
When firefighters tackling a blazing house in a quiet suburb of Pine Valley, California discover human remains, Detective Katie Scott races to 717 Maple Street. She calls a halt to the excavations the moment she sees the full number and size of the bones; someone has buried a whole family down here.
Working night and day, it’s up to Katie to prove her theory that the fire was no accident, that someone wanted to expose the secret in the basement. Tiny traces of explosives residue found at the scene is all the proof she needs. But the Cross family have been missing for months – leaving friends and loved ones in agonizing pain – what twisted soul would do this now? And why?
Invasive
by Chuck Wendig
Rating: 4.0 #ad
Hannah Stander is a consultant for the FBI—a futurist who helps the Agency with cases that feature demonstrations of bleeding-edge technology. It’s her job to help them identify unforeseen threats: hackers, AIs, genetic modification, anything that in the wrong hands could harm the homeland.
Hannah is in an airport, waiting to board a flight home to see her family, when she receives a call from Agent Hollis Copper. “I’ve got a cabin full of over a thousand dead bodies,” he tells her. Whether those bodies are all human, he doesn’t say…
The Anniversary
by Laura Marshall
Rating: 4.2 #ad
They thought the killer had no motive. But these murders are not what they seem . . .
On 15th June 1994, Travis Green – husband, father, upstanding citizen – walked through the streets of Hartstead and killed eleven of his neighbours. The last victim was little Cassie Colman’s father.
As the twenty-five-year anniversary approaches, Cassie tries to forget the past – even as her mother struggles to remember it at all. Then something hidden in her mother’s possessions suggests the murders were not what everyone believes.
Where Dandelions Sway
by Vanessa Luther
Rating: 4.3 #ad
My name is Paul. About a year ago, I moved my family to the country for some peace of mind and security. I love them and would do anything in my power to protect them. They think I have a temper. A bad temper. Maybe I do. Three armed men are in our home right this very moment holding us hostage. My wife and children are shaken to the core. The last thing I ever expected was intruders in my own home. The last thing they ever expected was me.
On a Friday afternoon in the small town of Glen Ridge, three armed men invade the home of Paul and Alexis Hudson. The Hudson’s find themselves in a life or death situation where tempers flare, demands soar and repercussions loom. On the surface, the invasion appears to be a simple robbery. Until one of the assailants demands a mysterious safe. Nothing is as it seems. As the situation unravels, secrets are revealed. Secrets casting doubt on everyone involved. Was this a random home invasion or were the Hudson’s targeted? And why?
Venom
by Colin Falconer
Rating: 4.4 #ad
A fast paced historical thriller of abandonment, retribution and justice.
Saigon, 1946: Michel Christian is born in a pauper’s hospital during a tropical storm. At five years old, he is thrown out on the dangerous streets to survive as best he can. He is bui doi – the dust of life – and he cares for nothing and no one. But he remembers every beating and every betrayal, and declares vengeance on those who abandoned him.
He grows into a ferocious manhood in the back alleys of wartime Saigon and learns not only to survive, but to thrive, in a pitiless world. Brilliant, chilling and charismatic, there is no prison that can hold him, no policeman he cannot buy. He is a chameleon, invisible and untouchable.
The Nine
by William Black
Rating: 5.0 #ad
The Nine. Scattered across the Indian Territory. US Marshal Caleb Maddox has been warned against going after them.
After a brutal train robbery by the Harvey Gang leaves his best friend dead, Caleb is determined to bring the nine outlaws to justice.
Led by Cutter Ray Harvey, robbing that train was just another day’s work for him and his eight desperados. And leaving the innocent dead? A regular occurrence.
With the sting of his friend’s death still fresh, Caleb hunts the nine outlaws in their hideouts across the Indian Territory and takes them all down. One by one.