Thursday’s Mystery eBooks
Deception, Denial & Murder
by Christa Nardi
Rating: 4.6 #ad
A domineering co-worker, a flirtatious neighbor, and a dead body make for many questions and awkward situations.
As HR Specialist and trauma counselor, Stacie Maroni is used to dealing with difficult situations. When her night out is derailed by the discovery of a body outside a local watering hole, she’s glad she’s not involved. But when the police investigate and close friends are cast as potential suspects, Stacie will do whatever it takes to identify the true culprit, even if it creates waves with the men in her life, her father included. The suspect list is slim and she’s grasping at straws.
Check out:
(A Stacie Maroni Mysteries)
Adam’s Witness
by J.C. Paulson
Rating: 4.4 #ad
Where does justice end and vengeance begin? When newspaper journalist Grace Rampling learns that the Pride Choir has been banned from performing in the cathedral, she rushes to the church to get some answers.
Instead, she literally stumbles onto a grisly crime scene: the bishop is lying in a pool of his own blood before the altar. Suddenly, Grace is no longer the observer and reporter. She finds herself central to the case — not only as the key witness, but a suspect and even potential victim.
Lead investigator Detective Sergeant Adam Davis is thrown by the fierce attraction he feels toward Grace that, if acted upon, could throw the entire case into jeopardy.
Check out:
(Adam and Grace Mysteries)
Magic Triumphs
by Ilona Andrews
Rating: 4.8 #ad
Kate has come a long way from her origins as a loner taking care of paranormal problems in post-Shift Atlanta. She’s made friends and enemies. She’s found love and started a family with Curran Lennart, the former Beast Lord. But her magic is too strong for the power players of the world to let her be.
Kate and her father, Roland, currently have an uneasy truce, but when he starts testing her defenses again, she knows that sooner or later, a confrontation is inevitable. The Witch Oracle has begun seeing visions of blood, fire, and human bones. And when a mysterious box is delivered to Kate’s doorstep, a threat of war from the ancient enemy who nearly destroyed her family, she knows their time is up.
Check out:
(Kate Daniels Mysteries)
The Eclipse Dancer
by Laura Koerber
Rating: 4.3 #ad
Andy thought of flying. She imagined the air under her arms, her hair lifting and floating. She felt her heartbeat separate from the faraway beat and form its own rhythm: light, quick, a dancing thrum. When she opened her eyes, her yard was dusky and her mood had lightened. She let her gaze drift across the darkening landscape. Andy’s heart filled with exultation. She raised her arms, fanned out her fingers, and arched her feet until she was on her toes. She was assaulted by memories.
Her mother was dying, and Danny had been dead for years. Her daughter was in Minneapolis, and Alana was up in the North Woods someplace. All of her childhood friends–the fairies, Hairy, Mr. Tolliver, and Kenshi–were gone. Is it true that childhood is never overcome?
Bloody Bones
by Laurell K. Hamilton
Rating: 4.8 #ad
For the first time in trade paperback: the fifth novel in the #1 New York Times bestselling series from Laurell K. Hamilton.
When Branson, Missouri, is hit with a death wave ‘four unsolved murders’ it doesn’t take an expert to realize that all is not well. But luckily for the locals, Anita Blake is an expert in the kinds of preternatural goings-on that have everyone spooked. And she’s got an ‘in’ with the creature that can make sense of the slayings-the sexy master vampire known as Jean-Claude.
Check out:
(Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter Mysteries)
The Pine Barrens Stratagem
by Ken Harris
Rating: 4.8 #ad
Private Investigator Steve Rockfish needs cash, like yesterday. The bad news is that yesterday, a global pandemic raged, and Maryland was headed toward a lockdown that would ultimately lead to cheating spouses no longer “working late,” and hence a lack of new clients.
Rockfish’s luck changes when a Hollywood producer reaches out, but the job is two states away and involves digging up information on a child trafficking ring from the 1940s. What he uncovers will be used to support the launch of a true crime docuseries. He grabs a mask, hand sanitizer and heads for South Jersey…
From Beyond the Stars
by Dakota Ryder Hatch
Rating: 4.4 #ad
Would you trust an alien slime? Cassius was the first to witness it fall from the sky . . . but its crash landing wasn’t an accident. Novae was shot down. And now, the aliens that did it are searching for him. Their father, Overlord Cerebrum, hungers after the blob’s flesh and will stop at nothing to obtain the living slime.
If Cassius doesn’t get Novae off the planet and back to his home above, the world will become a warzone. People will die – his friends will perish – and any survivors will have their brains hijacked and become slaves to the faceless tyrant looming over the planet…
Thawed to Death
by Stephanie Parker McKean
Rating: 4.2 #ad
There’s non-stop laughter and suspense as 60-year-old antique “picker” Zoey Thunderbird explores the local ghost house and discovers a body in a freezer. She knows it was murder – no one deliberately thaws themselves to death – but she doesn’t know that her search for truth will endanger her life. Killers don’t want to get caught.
Her quest to catch a killer introduces Zoey to strange crime motifs – everything connected with the murder has a tendency to vanish, and the apparent killer seems to have an affinity for sitting in her lap…
He Started It
by Samantha Downing
Rating: 3.9 #ad
Beth, Portia, and Eddie Morgan haven’t all been together in years. And for very good reasons – we’ll get to those later. But when their wealthy grandfather dies and leaves a cryptic final message in his wake, the siblings and their respective partners must come together for a cross-country road trip to fulfill his final wish and – more importantly – secure their inheritance.
But time with your family can be tough. It is for everyone…
Wednesday’s Mystery eBooks
Murder at Beechwood
by Alyssa Maxwell
Rating: 4.5 #ad
For Newport, Rhode Island’s high society, the summer of 1896 brings lawn parties, sailboat races…and murder.
Having turned down the proposal of Derrick Andrews, Emma Cross has no imminent plans for matrimony—let alone motherhood. But when she discovers an infant left on her doorstep, she naturally takes the child into her care. Using her influence as a cousin to the Vanderbilts and a society page reporter for the Newport Observer, Emma launches a discreet search for the baby’s mother.
Check out:
(A Gilded Newport Mysteries)
The Heroes
by Joe Abercrombie
Rating: 4.6 #ad
They say Black Dow’s killed more men than winter, and clawed his way to the throne of the North up a hill of skulls. The King of the Union, ever a jealous neighbor, is not about to stand smiling by while he claws his way any higher. The orders have been given and the armies are toiling through the northern mud. Thousands of men are converging on a forgotten ring of stones, on a worthless hill, in an unimportant valley, and they’ve brought a lot of sharpened metal with them.
Check out:
(First Law Standalones Mysteries)
If I Die Before I Wake
by Multiplea UAuthors
Rating: 4.3 #ad
TDon’t deny it. Your mind has dwelled for hours on the things you would do if your name was Karma. Malevolence towards those that wronged you festers and there is no relief—until now. Plunge headfirst into these sinister tales where karma finally takes control and vengeance is a dish that is best served hot.
The Better Off Dead series delves into the farthest corners of your mind, where your deepest, darkest fears lurk. These masters of horror will haunt your dreams and stalk your nightmares, taking you to the edge of sanity before pushing you to the brink of madness!
Check out:
(The Better Off Dead Mysteries)
Shadow Dance
by Julie Garwood
Rating: 4.7 #ad
Jordan Buchanan is thrilled that her brother and best friend are tying the knot. The wedding is a lavish affair–for the marriage of Dylan Buchanan and Kate MacKenna is no ordinary occasion. It represents the joining of two family dynasties. The ceremony and reception proceed without a hitch–until a crasher appears claiming to be a MacKenna guest. The disheveled and eccentric professor of medieval history warns that there’s “bad blood” between the couple’s clans, stemming from an ancient feud that originated in Scotland, and involving the Buchanan theft of a coveted MacKenna treasure.
Check out:
(Buchanan / Renard / MacKenna Mysteries)
Sleeping Dogs Lie
by Samantha Downing
Rating: 4.0 #ad
From the internationally bestselling author of My Lovely Wife and For Your Own Good comes a twisted, entertaining novella about a dog walker swept into a criminal investigation when her client winds up dead.
Shelby works as a dog walker in northern California, and she’s just finished up her bi-weekly trip to the park with a husky named Pluto. When she brings him back to his house, she finds his owner—Todd Burke, a well-known local businessman and founder of an organic supplements company—lying on the bathroom floor, dead…
Broken
by t.g. brown
Rating: 4.5 #ad
At first glance, the figure could have been construed as a large cocoon hanging from the church rafters. But as one moved closer, the outline of a man came into focus, his body strung upside down . . . his thick torso squirming against his restraints as though he was about to be reborn.
While bullfrog hunting on a cloud-covered night in the Louisiana Bayou JOSH INGRAM had no way of knowing the cogs of a grisly nightmare had already begun to turn. A nightmare that takes root with the murder of a priest in Northern Ireland only to find its way to a schoolyard in Louisiana.
Check out:
(Josh Ingram Mysteries)