Thursday’s Mystery eBooks
Furmidable Foes
by Rita Mae Brown
Rating: 4.6 #ad
Spring arrives in northern Virginia, and as the ground thaws and the peonies begin to bloom a bright magenta, the women of St. Luke’s Lutheran Church prepare for a Homecoming celebration like no other. Harry, Susan Tucker, and their friends are busy planting flowers and trimming hedges to get the church grounds in shape for the big day.
But a note of a menace mars the beautiful spring: The brewery owned by Janice Childs and Mags Nielsen, two members of the gardening committee, gets robbed, with hundreds of dollars in merchandise taken off their delivery trucks in the dead of night. Is this the work of a random thief? Or is something more sinister afoot?
Check out:
(Mrs. Murphy Cozy Mysteries)
Rogue State
by Steven Konkoly
Rating: 4.4 #ad
A family runs for its life across the wastelands of a future America on the brink of collapse.
Twenty years in the future, America perches on the edge of collapse, devastated by drought and dwindling resources. California, now a totalitarian surveillance state controlling the lion’s share of the nation’s economy, is on the brink of secession. And family man Nathan Fisher finds himself at the heart of a bloody conspiracy that threatens the lives of his loved ones and the future of the country itself. Pursued by Mason Flagg and the sinister Cerberus organization, Nathan and his embattled family—accompanied by tough-as-nails Marine David Quinn—make a desperate run across the blasted wastes of the western United States, seeking sanctuary in Nevada.
Sheriff Rick
by Jesse Storm
Rating: 4.6 #ad
After the murder of Teller City’s two law enforcers, Rick Walker jumps at the opportunity to be the town’s next sheriff.
Shortly after assuming the sheriff role for Teller City, a wave of crimes plague the troubled town. A notorious outlaw by the name of Leopold Lodges has been released from Colorado’s penitentiary for good behavior. But he is far from reformed. Leopold is striking back in order to get his revenge on the law for locking him up.
One peaceful night, Leopold and his gang ride through the town to look for trouble before kidnapping Jenny Bridle from her bed. Upon learning about the kidnapping, Sheriff Rick heads after the criminals to rescue the innocent woman while proving to the doubtful locals that he is the sheriff that Teller City deserved.
The Burnside Body Snatcher
by G.G. Morris
Rating: 3.9 #ad
The residents of Portland’s charming Alphabet District are horrified when the neighborhood’s favorite auntie goes missing–on the day of her funeral! Soon, other prominent citizens are meeting nasty ends and bodies are vanishing like pies on windowsills.
When the boondoggling detective fails to provide the terror-stricken community with answers, amateur sleuth Wanda Whipple steps up to the plate. But the disturbing clues quickly lead her down a sinister path involving an enigmatic cult and a frightening legend from the Alphabet District’s shadowy past. Will Wanda uncover the identity of the Burnside Body Snatcher, or will she become the killer’s next victim?
Check out:
(The Alphabet District Mysteries)
The Tywi Estuary Killings
by John Nicholl
Rating: 4.2 #ad
Is it revenge or is it justice?
DI Gravel is supposed to be on mandatory leave, but when a severed head washes up on the estuary beach his holiday is cut short. Back on the job, he’s shocked when the case leads him to the victim from an old case
Seventeen years ago, the system failed Rebecca. They let the abuser of a six-year-old girl walk free. But she’s all grown up now and taking the law into her own hands.
Is this one killer DI Gravel doesn’t want to catch?
Plymouth Undercover
by Pamela M. Kelley
Rating: 4.3 #ad
A mother and daughter inherit a PI Agency with a reputation that takes them by surprise.
Meet Emma McCarthy, a thirty-year-old failed actress that just moved home to Plymouth, MA. And her mother, Cindy, a yoga instructor in the Pinehills, an exclusive golf community in Plymouth.
They’ve just inherited Court Street Investigations, a private detective agency. And its one part-time employee, eighty-year-old Mickey, a retired police detective.
They expect typical cases like cheating spouses or workman’s comp, but quickly learn that the agency also has a reputation for solving murders when they are hired to find a local missing woman.
Boogie Beach
by Winnie Winkle
Rating: 4.4 #ad
Two bars, one magical and one human, lie in the exact same space. That should work. It’d better; I run those joints and we’re under attack.
I live a pretty weird life – as in gods in speedos, powerful witches with little patience for mere humans, and shifters whose vibrations make my guts quake. Plus, an oceanside bar and a magical book run my existence.
Beach life and eccentric are besties. The record picked me, Cleopatra O’Keefe, to be the next Keeper. I took over the book and started chronicling the intersection and occasional asininity of the human and magical worlds. That’s when eccentric plunked its butt on the deck next to mine and we careened into the world of funky oddities seasoned with occasional mayhem.
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(The Record Series)
Medical Mystery
by Richard Mabry
Rating: 3.9 #ad
When her phone rang, Diane Macklin wondered what her sister wanted now. Then, she heard that their mother was in the Emergency Room with a heart problem.
The doctor tending to her mother was Dr. Joe Adams, who was far from Diane’s idea of the family doctor. He had been alone since his first wife had died, and was apparently heaven-sent as a mate for Diane, if she could only get past the trauma of her previous near-miss at the altar.
The heart problem was hard to solve initially, the subsequent difficulty turned out to be murder, and affected the lives of both Diane and Joe.
Wednesday’s Mystery eBooks
Bake Sale Murder
by Leslie Meier
Rating: 4.4 #ad
Ever since local developer Fred Stanton and his wife, Mimi, built five modular homes next door to Lucy Stone’s farmhouse, life hasn’t been the same. With Mimi complaining about everything from the state of Lucy’s lawn to another neighbor’s lovable dog, quaint Tinker’s Cove, Maine, is now entangled in cul-de-sac politics and backstabbing. And when Mimi doesn’t show up for her shift at The Hat and Mitten Fund bake sale, the scent of burnt sugar leads Lucy to a shocking discovery: Mimi, face down on her kitchen floor—with a knife in her back.
Check out:
(A Lucy Stone Mysteries)
Dead Lake
by Miranda Kate
Rating: 4.8 #ad
After a massive shift of the tectonic plates decimated the world and its population, life on the remaining landmass has returned to simple living, with money, rulers and religion no longer tolerated.
Sometimes it pays to be tricky
Damn and blast! That rancid piece of excrement, Carter, has had her ransacked out of Clancy!
Tricky returns to her cottage to find it turned upside down. An action that means she’s got three days to leave the district or face punishment. Randolf Carter, head of the district, is spreading lies and suspicion about her kind, making life difficult. But it wasn’t just an ordinary ransacking – they were searching for something…
Silent Scream
by Lynda La Plante
Rating: 4.8 #ad
Film star Amanda Delany has the world at her feet. Never one for the quiet life, she has had a string of affairs with the hottest actors around. Then, coming home late from a night shoot, Amanda puts the key in her front door for the very last time. The next morning, Amanda’s body is found, stabbed many times, only her beautiful face left unharmed.
DI Anna Travis is ordered to the team assigned to the Delany murder, headed by Anna’s former lover, the demanding DCI James Langton. Anna is shocked by the truth behind Amanda’s public image: her addictions to drugs and starvation diets; her cold, unemotional parents; her elusive film agent; and the former lovers so quick to distance themselves. But Anna has challenges of her own to overcome too. Promotion to Chief Inspector is within her grasp, but when the time comes for her to stand before the board, she faces a shocking accusation of personal misconduct.
Check out:
(Anna Travis Mysteries)
Ski Weekend
by Rektok Ross
Rating: 4.1 #ad
Six teens, one dog, a ski trip gone wrong . . .
Sam is dreading senior ski weekend and having to watch after her brother and his best friend, Gavin, to make sure they don’t do anything stupid. Again. Gavin may be gorgeous, but he and Sam have never gotten along. Now they’re crammed into an SUV with three other classmates and Gavin’s dog, heading on a road trip that can’t go by fast enough.
Then their SUV crashes into a snowbank, and Sam and her friends find themselves stranded in the mountains with cell phone coverage long gone and temperatures dropping. When the group gets sick of waiting for rescue, they venture outside to find help—only to have a wilderness accident leave Sam’s brother with a smashed leg and, soon, a raging fever.
The Observer Effect
by Nick Jones
Rating: 4.6 #ad
Time calls the shots.
Unwitting time traveler Joseph Bridgeman is adjusting to life in the present and wondering if his traveling days are behind him. But when he’s contacted by the Continuum, an organized group of time travelers based in the future, he learns his career is just getting started.
The Continuum needs Joe’s help. One of their operatives is missing, last seen in nineteenth-century Paris and they believe Joe’s ability to see the past might be the only way to find him. Teamed up with Gabrielle Green, an acerbic, wisecracking traveler, Joe heads back to 1873 on his most dangerous mission yet, one that will take him deep inside a burning opera house.
Check out:
(The Joseph Bridgeman Mysteries)
The Collective
by Alison Gaylin
Rating: 4.2 #ad
Camille Gardener is a grieving – and angry – mother who, five years after her daughter’s death, is still obsessed with the privileged young man she believes to be responsible.
When her rash actions draw the attention of a secret group of women – the collective – Camille is drawn into a dark web where these mothers share their wildly different stories of loss as well as their desire for justice in a world where privilege denies accountability. Fueled by mutual rage, the collective members devise and act out retribution fantasies via precise, anonymous, highly coordinated revenge killings.
Love At War
by Alan Hardy
Rating: 4.3 #ad
It’s 1940. World War Two. Germany is on the rampage. The Battle of Britain is at its height. The Royal Air Force is all that stands between England and invasion. Jennie is a young woman from the Welsh valleys. Petite. Slender. Quite plain. Teeth a bit too big. Mouth too wide. She’s quite willing to admit it. She gives herself no airs or graces. She finds herself one evening in a London night-club. Who should she meet but Malcolm, looking gorgeously resplendent in his iconic RAF blue-grey uniform? She is shocked. Scared. Angry. And excited.
You see, there’s a history between the two of them, stretching back three years. He seeks her out. He asks for her help. Can she turn him down? Can she forgive him, and forget his despicable behavior? Has he changed? Or is he that same arrogant, inconsiderate man who treated her like dirt?