Monday’s Mystery eBooks
Digging Up Trouble
by Kitt Crowe
Rating: 4.4 #ad
Life is sweet when you live in Confection, Oregon. Or, at least, that’s how it’s supposed to be. But on a summer day, when tourists and locals alike gawk at the majestic mountains, quaint Craftsman houses, and lovely flowers–particularly the renowned Confection Rose–the last thing anyone has come to see is a dead body, unearthed from a shallow grave by a curious dog.
A bathrobe-clad Lexi rushes next door to her neighbor’s backyard to find her pooch, Cookie, stalwartly sitting watch over a body in the vegetable garden. Cookie, encrusted in dirt, grips a copper pipe between her teeth.
My Canvas Bag
by Lucas Kinkaid
Rating: 5.0 #ad
“A heart -wrenching story about a young man who is born into a family who at times, I felt that I disliked so strongly, I wish he’d have run away and never seen them again. But resilience is his best ally, humor, wit, wisdom, and bravery. This story is told so well that I was riveted to each page. I could visualize every scene unfolding through this writer’s amazing words. A great book for discussions in family groups, and good for others who may have gone through a dysfunctional childhood and felt as if they were the only one.” Karen Malena, Author
Mark is a young man born into a bad family situation. He lies about the reality of his life to hide his shame. Mark escapes from the chaos of his home by spending time in some nearby woods. He keeps a canvas bag hidden close to his house. It contains blankets, a flashlight, cans of food, a transistor radio, things to read, and more. The canvas bag makes his time in the woods possible.
Mark’s life is a constant struggle to avoid the judgments of his family being placed on him. He feels helpless against his parent’s unstable relationship constantly bringing him into embarrassing situations.
On Her Majesty’s Frightfully Secret Service
by Rhys Bowen
Rating: 4.6 #ad
Lady Georgiana Rannoch juggles secret missions from the Queen, her beau, and her mother in this mystery in the Royal Spyness series.
When royal sleuth Georgie Rannoch receives a letter from her dearest friend Belinda, who’s in an Italian villa awaiting the birth of her illegitimate baby, she yearns to run to her side. If only she could find a way to get there! But then opportunity presents itself in a most unexpected way—her cousin the queen asks her to attend a house party in the Italian Lake Country. The Prince of Wales and the dreadful Mrs. Simpson have been invited, and Her Majesty is anxious to thwart a possible secret wedding.
Check out:
(A Royal Spyness Mysteries)
The Adventures of Black Lace
by Dennis Higgins
Rating: 5.0 #ad
Lacey Straight was just a boring, 9 to 5 type woman. Her freshwater fish was the most exciting thing in her tedious life. That all changed the day her twin sister, Alice, brought her to Mindbender for the adventure of a lifetime.
When Alice’s steampunk past comes calling, Lacey becomes Black Lace and is left to fend for herself in this world from a pseudo time. Undaunted, she takes to her new and magical surroundings as a Siamese fighting fish takes to water, leaving outlaws, air pirates, and a host of unique individuals in her wake. She finds courage and purpose she never knew she had. As her old life fades to memory, Black Lace must decide where she truly belongs.
A Blue So Dark
by Holly Schindler
Rating: 4.6 #ad
Holly Schindler’s Award-Winning Debut Novel – The 2022 Re-Release
Fifteen-year-old Aura Ambrose has been hiding a secret. Her mother, a talented artist and art teacher, is slowly being consumed by schizophrenia, and Aura has been her primary caretaker ever since Aura’s dad left them. Convinced that creative expression is behind her mother’s deteriorating condition, Aura shuns her own artistic talent. But as her mother sinks still deeper into the darkness of her disorder, the hunger for a creative outlet draws Aura toward the depths of her imagination. Just as desperation threatens to swallow her whole, Aura discovers that art, love, and family are profoundly linked—and together may offer an escape from her fears.
The Falcon at the Portal
by Elizabeth Peters
Rating: 4.7 #ad
The Land of the Pharaohs harbors more secrets than any tomb can hide.
In Egypt for the 1911 archaeological season, Amelia Peabody and her family are not anticipating trouble, but it finds them nonetheless. Their young friend David is accused of selling ancient artifacts, and it’s up to the Emersons to expose the real culprit. But the body of an American discovered at the bottom of their excavation shaft and a child of mysterious antecedents are sparking twin crises that threaten to tear the family apart. Amelia brings her estimable powers of deduction to bear, but she might not survive long enough to unravel more than one perplexing puzzle—because suddenly someone is shooting bullets in her direction…and coming too close for comfort!
Check out:
(Amelia Peabody Mysteries)
The Downstairs Neighbor
by Helen Cooper
Rating: 4.1 #ad
An addicting and twisty debut about an apartment building devastated by the disappearance of a teenage girl–and by the secrets that won’t be kept behind each closed door–that will thrill fans of Lisa Jewell and Shari Lapena.
One House. Three Families. Countless Secrets.
From her downstairs apartment in suburban London, Emma has often overheard the everyday life of the seemingly perfect family upstairs–Steph, Paul and teenage daughter Freya–but has never got to know them. Until one day, she hears something that seizes her attention: Freya has vanished and the police are questioning Steph and Paul about their life. Do either of you have any enemies? Anyone who might want to harm or threaten you?
Thriller: Stories To Keep You Up All Night
by Multiple Authors
Rating: 5.0 #ad
Lock the doors. Draw the shades. Pull up the covers and be prepared for Thriller to keep you up all night!
Featuring North America’s foremost thriller authors, Thriller was the first collection of pure thriller stories ever published. Revisit these heart-pumping tales of suspense, including thirty-two of the most critically acclaimed and award-winning names in the business. From the signature characters that made such authors as David Morrell and John Lescroart famous to some of the hottest new voices in the genre, this blockbuster will tantalize and terrify.
The Uplift War
by David Brin
Rating: 4.6 #ad
Although they were uplifted and given full sapience, the Bururalli clearly weren’t ready to run a planet, almost wrecking Garth. As a “salvage world,” it was given to despised Earthlings, assigned to reclaim it from the brink. Many senior Galactics—leaders of the Five Galaxies—hoped humanity would fail. But now Garth is peacefully surging back, tended by human and neo-chimpanzee colonists.
Meanwhile, enemies desperately seek some way to coerce Earthclan, looking for a possible answer to the secret of the Progenitors. One of them – the Gubru avian race – prepares to invade and hold hostage defenseless Garth.
Check out:
(The Uplift Saga)
Sunday’s Mystery eBooks
The Rocky Road to Ruin
by Meri Allen
Rating: 4.5 #ad
Justice will be swirled by amateur sleuth Riley Rhodes in the first in Meri Allen’s brand-new mystery series, The Rocky Road to Ruin!
Riley Rhodes, travel food blogger and librarian at the CIA, makes a bittersweet return to her childhood home of Penniman, Connecticut – land of dairy farms and covered bridges – for a funeral. Despite the circumstances, Riley’s trip home is sprinkled with reunions with old friends, visits to her father’s cozy bookshop on the town green, and joyful hours behind the counter at the beloved Udderly Delicious Ice Cream Shop. It feels like a time to help her friend Caroline rebuild after her mother’s death, and for Riley to do a bit of her own reflecting after a botched undercover mission in Italy. After all, it’s always good to be home.
Dream Town
by David Baldacci
Rating: 4.4 #ad
It’s the eve of 1953, and Aloysius Archer is in Los Angeles to ring in the New Year with an old friend, aspiring actress Liberty Callahan, when their evening is interrupted by an acquaintance of Callahan’s: Eleanor Lamb, a screenwriter in dire straits.
After a series of increasingly chilling events – mysterious phone calls, the same blue car loitering outside her house, and a bloody knife left in her sink – Eleanor fears that her life is in danger, and she wants to hire Archer to look into the matter. Archer suspects that Eleanor knows more than she’s saying, but before he can officially take on her case, a dead body turns up inside of Eleanor’s home . . . and Eleanor herself disappears.
Secret of the Broken King
by Eliza Raine
Rating: 4.6 #ad
He married me, exiled me, and now he’s the only thing stopping me from saving my sister.
My sister is turning to stone. She’s been asleep for eight years – the same amount of time I’ve been the secret, exiled wife of the King of the Ocean. Poseidon is fierce, unforgiving, and terrifyingly powerful. I’m just a broken sea nymph whose magic never surfaced. But the only way to save my sister lies in his underwater palace, and I’ve got nothing else to lose.
I expected escaping exile and getting to the palace to be tough. What I didn’t anticipate was battling a torrent of unexpected desire for Poseidon when he catches me. The devastatingly beautiful ocean god has secrets. Wild waves crash through his eyes when he looks at me, and I soon realize he might be just as broken as I am.
But when a god has secrets, the consequences are deadly.
Check out:
(The Poseidon Trials)
Who Killed These Girls?
by Beverly Lowry
Rating: 4.3 #ad
“Gripping, moving, and as good as any depiction of a murder case since In Cold Blood…. Brilliant.” – Ann Patchett, award-winning, bestselling author
The facts are brutally straightforward. On December 6, 1991, the naked, bound-and-gagged, burned bodies of four girls – each one shot in the head – were found in a frozen yogurt shop in Austin, Texas.
Grief, shock, and horror overtook the city. But after eight years of misdirected investigations, only two suspects (teenagers at the time of the crime) were tried; their convictions were later overturned and detectives are still working on what is now a very cold case. The story has grown to include DNA technology, coerced false confessions, and other developments in crime and punishment.
The Dime
by Kathleen Kent
Rating: 4.2 #ad
Dallas, Texas is not for the faint of heart. Good thing for Betty Rhyzyk she’s from a family of take-no-prisoners Brooklyn police detectives. But her Big Apple wisdom will only get her so far when she relocates to The Big D, where Mexican drug cartels and cult leaders, deadbeat skells and society wives all battle for sunbaked turf. Betty is as tough as the best of them, but she’s deeply shaken when her first investigation goes sideways. Battling a group of unruly subordinates, a persistent stalker, a formidable criminal organization, and an unsupportive girlfriend, the unbreakable Detective Betty Rhyzyk may be reaching her limit.
Check out:
(Betty Rhyzyk Mysteries)
The Girl She Wanted
by K.L. Slater
Rating: 4.2 #ad
What was my sister doing standing over Florence’s cot in the middle of the night?
I trust my sister Carrie with my daughter’s life. But then she’s accused of a terrible crime. Carrie lives under our roof, she pushes my daughter on the swings, she takes her out for ice cream. You might ask, why do I let her? Why would I risk my darling baby? How could I let my sister stay?
Because I have a dangerous secret too. One that only Carrie knows about. And if that secret gets out, I could lose my little girl…
The Marriage of Sticks
by Jonathan Carroll
Rating: 4.2 #ad
Miranda marches into her high school reunion with the confidence of a professional at the top of her field. But inside she is lost, disenchanted with her career, and as alone as a person can possibly be. As a teenager in Crane’s View, she fell in love with unrepentant bad boy James Stillman, and though they never slept together, he thrilled her as no man has since. She returns to her hometown hoping to reconnect with him, but learns at the reunion that he was killed in a car crash years ago. In the weeks that follow, Miranda is haunted by visions of the past.
Stop Toxic Thoughts
by Cody Evans
Rating: 4.8 #ad
Kick Toxic Thoughts in The Teeth –Without The Same “Happy Thoughts” Advice.
Are you tired of feeling stuck, exhausted, worried, and stressed? Perhaps you’re constantly doubting and questioning yourself: Why did I say that? Why did I do that? What will they think? What will I do now?
It’s no surprise that this constant and relentless negative self-talk makes you doubt yourself, weighs you down, and brings your ambition to a dead halt. The good news is that you CAN take back control over your mind and finally stop those annoying thoughts with simple strategies proven to work!