Wednesday’s Mystery eBooks
Murder in a Cape Cottage
by Maddie Day
Rating: 4.6 #ad
ʼTis the day after Christmas, following a wicked-busy time of year for Mac’s bike shop. It’s just as well her Cozy Capers Book Group’s new pick is a nerve-soothing coloring book mystery, especially when she has last-minute wedding planning to do. But all pre-wedding jitters fade into the background when Mac and her fiancé, Tim, begin a cottage renovation project and open up a wall to find a skeleton – sitting on a stool, dressed in an old-fashioned bridal gown . . .
As Mac delves into the decades-old mystery with the help of librarian Flo and her book group, she discovers a story of star-crossed lovers and feuding families worthy of the bard himself.
Check out:
(A Cozy Capers Book Group Mysteries)
Red Flags
by Lisa Black
Rating: 4.3 #ad
When D.C. crime scene analyst Dr. Ellie Carr is called to investigate the heartrending case of a missing baby, she’s shocked to discover that the child’s mother is her own cousin. Close during their impoverished childhoods, Ellie and Rebecca eventually drifted apart. Rebecca is now half of a Washington power couple, and she and her wealthy lobbyist husband, Hunter, have been living a charmed life in an opulent mansion—until their infant son is taken.
“Every contact leaves a trace.” That’s the basic principle of forensic science followed by pathologist Dr. Rachael Davies. A reluctant Ellie is teamed with Rachael, employed by Hunter to help with the investigation…
Friends in High Places
by Donna Leon
Rating: 4.5 #ad
In this vivid and atmospheric mystery, Commissario Brunetti is visited by a young bureaucrat investigating the lack of official approval for the construction of Brunetti’s apartment years before. What began as a red tape headache ends in murder when the bureaucrat is later found dead after a mysterious fall from a scaffold. Brunetti starts an investigation that will take him into the unfamiliar and dangerous areas of drug abuse and loan-sharking, and will reveal, once again, what a difference it makes in Venice to have friends in high places.
A Dark and Snowy Night
by Sally Goldenbaum
Rating: 4.6 #ad
Winter in Sea Harbor is a feast for the senses—crackling bonfires, the scent of snow in the salty air, carols ringing out on the village green. This year, the Seaside Knitters have a sackful of obligations in addition to their usual Christmas preparations. Izzy is so overloaded with knitting classes that she hires an extra salesperson, but the new addition has trouble fitting into the yarn shop’s holiday spirit. Cass, juggling the stresses of running her lobster fishery, has finally found a nanny for her active toddler. Molly Flanigan seems practically perfect in every way—until she suddenly disappears, taking Cass’s beloved rescue mutt with her . . .
- Includes a knitting pattern *
Check out:
(Seaside Knitters Society Mysteries)
Crimson Phoenix
by John Gilstrap
Rating: 4.4 #ad
West Virginia Congresswoman Victoria Emerson has always put the needs of her community before the power games of Washington, D.C. Then an Army officer appears on her doorstep, deploying the code words “Crimson Phoenix”—meaning this is not a drill. The United States is on the brink of nuclear disaster. The major will escort her to a secure bunker. She cannot bring her family.
A single mother, Victoria refuses to abandon her teenage sons. Denied entry to the bunker, the family somehow survives the unthinkable. In the aftermath, the nation is in chaos. The grid is gone. Food is scarce. Civility gives way to desperate survival.
Check out:
(A Victoria Emerson Thriller)
Peanut Butter Panic
by Amanda Flower
Rating: 4.7 #ad
Thanksgiving is Bailey King’s busiest holiday weekend. This year promises to be even more hectic, since Bailey’s candy shop, Swissmen Sweets, is providing desserts for Harvest, Ohio’s first village-wide Thanksgiving celebration. Yet, even with a guest list close to seven hundred people—Amish and English alike—the event’s organizer, Margot Rawlings, is unfazed . . . until she discovers her mother, former judge Zara Bevan, will be in attendance.
Zara’s reputation as a harsh critic is matched only by her infamy as a judge who has actively harmed the Amish community…
Check out:
(An Amish Candy Shop Mysteries)
The Institute
by Stephen King
Rating: 4.7 #ad
In the middle of the night, in a house on a quiet street in suburban Minneapolis, intruders silently murder Luke Ellis’s parents and load him into a black SUV. The operation takes less than two minutes. Luke will wake up at The Institute, in a room that looks just like his own, except there’s no window. And outside his door are other doors, behind which are other kids with special talents—telekinesis and telepathy—who got to this place the same way Luke did: Kalisha, Nick, George, Iris, and ten-year-old Avery Dixon. They are all in Front Half. Others, Luke learns, graduated to Back Half, “like the roach motel,” Kalisha says. “You check in, but you don’t check out.”
The Mitford Trial
by Jessica Fellowes
Rating: 4.2 #ad
It’s lady’s maid Louisa Cannon’s wedding day, but the fantasy is shattered shortly after when she is approached by a secretive man asking her to spy on Diana Mitford—who is having an affair with the infamous Oswald Mosley—and her sister Unity.
Thus as summer 1933 dawns, Louisa finds herself accompanying the Mitfords on a glitzy cruise, full of the starriest members of Society. But the waters run red when a man is found attacked.
Check out:
(The Mitford Murder Mysteries)
The Angelic Realm
by Dennis Macy
Rating: 4.5 #ad
Become inspired as this book reveals mystifying and unusual encounters outside the realm of normal existence. You will become fascinated by the way spirits try to make contact with their loved ones here on earth as I take you into the Angelic Realm with my visits, spiritual encounters, along with the messages and the signs that are being revealed to me to deliver to others. The stories and revelations are heartening and enlightening that will provide a sense of hope and healing of one’s heart, mind and soul. As my journey takes me to seek out and understand my enhanced abilities in this uplifting and powerful book that will bring joy, peace and comfort to those who seek it. My hope is that my experiences can bring reassurances to those who are seeking answers and for those individuals who have had spiritual encounters along with visions that scientifically cannot be explained.
Tuesday’s Mystery eBooks
Message for Murder
by Jerri Kay Lincoln
Rating: 4.4 #ad
After one final insult, Lorry Lockharte leaves her abusive husband stranded at the Grand Canyon. Returning home, she finds their house repossessed and her elderly employer deceased. Her cousin gets her a job at the Rutledge Historical Society after the previous employee had a fatal accident with a steep set of stairs. On her first day of work, Lorry finds a dead body at the foot of those same stairs! When she learns the dead woman is the sister of the previous victim, Lorry suspects the two deaths are related. Will she discover the killer in time or will she be the next victim? One recipe included! And now available as an audiobook!
Check out:
(A Rutledge Historical Society Cozy Mysteries)
M: Son of the Century
by Antonio Scurati
Rating: 4.4 #ad
The massive international bestseller—an epic historical novel that chronicles the birth and rise of fascism in Italy, witnessed through the eyes of its founder, the terrifyingly charismatic figure who would become one of the most notorious dictators of the twentieth century, Benito Mussolini.
It is 1919, and the Great War that has ravaged Europe is over. In Italy, the people are exhausted. Tired of the political class. Tired of vague promises, inept moderates, and the agonizing machinations of a democracy that has failed ordinary citizens.
While elite leaders have sat idly by, achieving nothing, one outsider—the director of a small opposition newspaper and a tireless political agitator—is electrifying the masses, promising hope for a demoralized nation hungry for change…
The Attic on Queen Street
by Karen White
Rating: 4.7 #ad
Return to the house on Tradd Street one last time in this hauntingly spectacular finale to the bestselling series featuring psychic medium Melanie Trenholm.
After the devastating events of the past few months, the last thing Melanie Trenholm wants is to think about the future. Why, when her husband, Jack, has asked for a separation—a separation that might have been her fault? Nevertheless, with twin toddlers, a stepdaughter leaving for college soon, a real estate career to resume and a historic home that is still being restored, Melanie doesn’t have much time to wonder where it all went wrong—but that doesn’t stop her from trying to win her husband back.
Their relationship issues are pushed aside, however, when longtime nemesis, Marc Longo, comes to them with a proposition: allow their Tradd Street house to be used as the filming location for the movie adaptation of Marc’s bestselling book, and he will help Jack re-establish his stalled writing career.
Check out:
(Tradd Street Mysteries)
Winter’s Fury
by A.E. Rayne
Rating: 4.4 #ad
Jael Furyck isn’t happy. Her father is dead, her uncle has stolen the throne, and now he wants to marry her off to the son of her arch-enemy. But Jael is a battle-hardened warrior, trained to kill since she was ten-years-old.
She doesn’t plan on being anyone’s wife.
Eadmund Skalleson is trapped. His father is threatening him with a wife again, and this time he’s given him an ultimatum: marry Jael Furyck, or he’ll find another heir. But if Eadmund was ever to choose a wife, it wouldn’t be her.
Sleeping Murde
by Agatha Christie
Rating: 4.6 #ad
In Agatha Christie’s classic, Sleeping Murder, the indomitable Miss Marple turns ghost hunter and uncovers shocking evidence of a perfect crime.
Soon after Gwenda moved into her new home, odd things started to happen. Despite her best efforts to modernize the house, she only succeeded in dredging up its past. Worse, she felt an irrational sense of terror every time she climbed the stairs.
In fear, Gwenda turned to Miss Marple to exorcise her ghosts. Between them, they were to solve a “perfect” crime committed many years before.
Check out:
(Miss Marple Mysteries)
The Coldness of Objects
by Panayotis Cacoyannis
Rating: 4.4 #ad
Named to KIRKUS REVIEWS’ BEST BOOKS OF 2021
London 2030. When a postman knocks on his door, the news he delivers will cause 70-year-old Anthony Pablo Rubens to reflect on all the sorrows and joys of the past, while he begins to prepare for the surprises of the future.
The past still revolves around the moment in the summer of 1984 when young Anthony, while navigating London’s gay scene, first realized he had fallen in love.
The present is a Kafkaesque nightmare worse than Orwell’s 1984, “a hideous world where people don’t need to be watched by Big Brother.” It’s a world that Anthony has mostly shut his eyes to, but which suddenly he is forced to confront…
Justified
by Carolyn Arnold
Rating: 4.2 #ad
She could feel her life draining from her body, but there was nothing she could do except wait until it was all over…and for the darkness to descend upon her.
The brutal murder of Claire Reeves, a successful entrepreneur, darkens Christmas Eve for Detective Madison Knight, who is assigned the case. Claire was found stabbed in her home, and her intimate attire would suggest her killer was someone close to her, but Madison knows things aren’t always as they appear…
Check out:
(Detective Madison Knight Mysteries)
A Pinch of Poison
by Alyssa Maxwell
Rating: 4.5 #ad
The Mezzogiorno (Southern Italy). Up to 85 per cent of Italian Americans have their roots in this region. The story of the Coriello family begins in the fictional fishing village of Punto Roccioso along the Amalfi Coast. Alta Italia (Northern Italy) looks down on their southern countrymen as uneducated peasants. With limited opportunities available, many southern Italians dream of escaping poverty by leaving the land they love for a better life in America. But like all dreams, hardships, sacrifices, and realities intrude.
Having lived through World War I, the Spanish Flu, the dictatorship of Benito Mussolini, and racial laws, Raffaela must raise and feed her ten children without any help from her estranged abusive husband Giuseppe, who refuses to give her money. With the support of her two oldest children, Geno, and Luisa, she struggles to survive. World War II devastates Italy and Italian Americans alike when “Il Duce” joins Hitler’s side, leaving Italians vulnerable at home and the object of hatred abroad. Young Italians are sent around the world to fight in a war they don’t believe in. At home Jewish families are under increasing threat. Yet, Italian men and women rebound to fight the Germans and Italian Fascists with a large and fervent partisan guerilla army…
The Groomer
by Jon Athan
Rating: 4.0 #ad
Andrew McCarthy grows concerned for his family after he catches a young man, Zachary Denton, photographing his daughter, Grace McCarthy, and other children at a park. To his dismay, Zachary talks his way out of trouble when he’s confronted by the police. He hopes that’s the end of it. Then he finds Zachary at a diner and then at a grocery store. He knows their encounters aren’t coincidences. And just as Andrew prepares to defend his family, Grace vanishes.
As the police search stalls and the leads dry up, Andrew decides to take matters into his own hands. He starts by searching for sex offenders in the area and researching enhanced interrogation techniques… He convinces himself he’ll do anything to rescue his daughter, unaware of the pure evil he’ll face in his journey. He’s willing to hurt—to torture—anyone to save his family.
THE SUM OF OUR SORROWS
by Lisette Brodey
Rating: 4.6 #ad
In an idyllic suburb in Northern California, tragedy strikes the Sheppard family when Abby, the mother of three daughters and wife to Dalton, is killed in a car accident. Charlotte, the middle daughter, is in the car with her mother and survives without physical injury but remains deeply scarred on the inside.
Dalton tells Lily, his eldest daughter, that she must sacrifice long-awaited college plans and put her life on hold to take care of her sisters. Lily is torn between her devotion to family and an increasing need to find her place in the world — but how can she leave, knowing her family may crumble? Will her presence eventually cause more problems than it resolves?