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.