Monday’s Mystery eBooks
Scared Stiff
by Annelise Ryan
Rating: 4.4 #ad
When Deputy Coroner Mattie Winston and her boss/best friend, Izzy, are called to the home of waitress and part-time model Shannon Tolliver, they find the ghoulish Halloween decorations a bit too authentic. Among the fake blood and skeletons is the corpse of Shannon herself. Since the whole town knows Shannon recently had a very public spat with her estranged husband, Erik, he’s suspect #1. But Mattie happens to know Erik truly loved his wife, and is simply incapable of the brutal act—even if he owns the exact same caliber handgun as the murder weapon . . .
Check out:
(Mattie Winston Mysteries)
The Keepers of Metsan Valo
by Wendy Webb
Rating: 4.3 #ad
In Metsan Valo, her family home on Lake Superior, Anni Halla’s beloved grandmother has died. Among her fond memories, what Anni remembers most vividly is her grandmother’s eerie yet enchanting storytelling. By firelight she spun tall tales of spirits in the nearby forest and waters who could heal—or harm—on a whim. But of course those were only stories…
The reading of the will now occasions a family reunion. Anni and her twin brother, their almost otherworldly mother, and relatives Anni hasn’t seen in forever—some with good reason—are all brought back together under one roof that strains to hold all their tension…
In This Place Together
by Jean Rezab
Rating: 4.1 #ad
In the town of Naraah, near the region of Judea, Sapphira begins a desperate quest to find a physician to heal her beloved husband Aaron, who is near death. Living in a time when women are considered possessions, Sapphira fears her brother will force her to marry a cruel man if Aaron doesn’t survive.
Sapphira’s frantic search forces her to associate with criminals and leads her into committing actions she’ll regret. When she hears about the miraculous healings by Jesus of Nazareth, she convinces her friends to set out on a journey to bring her husband to the Great Healer, hoping the stories about him are true.
The Mulberry Bush
by Charles McCarry
Rating: 4.1 #ad
Many years ago, a young American spy crossed the wrong people and found himself on the wrong side of Headquarters. He soon fell into a slow, shameful decline of poverty and self-destruction. But Headquarters didn’t count on him having a son.
Now, years later, the boy is an American spy himself, serving two masters: Headquarters and his own insatiable need for revenge. Sent to Argentina to infiltrate a revolutionary group with deep ties to Russia, the young man finds himself dangerously drawn to his target’s daughter. Yet, despite the passion between them, he refuses to lose sight of his ultimate goal: destroying the institution that ruined his father all those years ago.
The Lost Colony
by A.G. Riddle
Rating: 4.4 #ad
Can humanity survive on a new world? On Eos, the last survivors of the Long Winter face their greatest challenge yet—and race to unravel the deepest secrets of the grid. It’s a journey across space and time and into humanity’s past and future—with a twist you’ll never forget.
“Well-constructed and tightly-wound as a fine Swiss watch—DEPARTURE has non-stop action, an engaging plot and, of course, wheels within wheels.” —Diana Gabaldon, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Outlander
Check out:
(The Long Winter Trilogy)
Flawed, And Loved
by Florence Linnington
Rating: 4.6 #ad
Loving an outlaw isn’t easy, but it’s harder if you do not know you are loving one.
When Ellie accidentally gets caught up in an outlaw gang’s escape, gang member David manages to convince his group to release Ellie since her blindfold meant she has not seen any of her abductors.
As the outlaws lie low after the bank robbery, David is forced to become a ranch hand at a nearby ranch. He believes it will be just a matter of weeks before he and the rest of the gang are able to slip out of town and escape. But fate has other plans for David Bynes.
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(Frontier Women)
Girls Who Lie
by Eva Björg Ægisdóttir
Rating: 4.2 #ad
When single mother Maríanna disappears from her home, leaving an apologetic note on the kitchen table, everyone assumes that she’s taken her own life … until her body is found on the Grábrók lava fields seven months later, clearly the victim of murder. Her neglected fifteen-year-old daughter Hekla has been placed in foster care, but is her perfect new life hiding something sinister?
Fifteen years earlier, a desperate new mother lies in a maternity ward, unable to look at her own child, the start of an odd and broken relationship that leads to a shocking tragedy.
Check out:
(The Creak on the Stairs)
Santa Puppy
by Lynn Cahoon
Rating: 4.2 #ad
Jill Gardner has volunteered her Coffee, Books, and More to host a Christmas adopt-a-pet party. Among the potential forever friends is a male terrier named Baby, whose owner died of a heart attack. With few clues to go on, even finding the name of Baby’s human is a daunting task. But there’s no challenge too big for Jill this holiday season.
Playing Santa’s Little Helper, Jill is determined to find out what happened —and to fulfill a long-time coming Christmas wish .
Sunday’s Mystery eBooks
The Burning Issue of the Day
by T E Kinse
Rating: 4.6 #ad
January 1910. A journalist has been killed in a suspicious blaze. Everything points to a group of suffragettes, but the apparent culprit insists she is innocent.
When Lady Hardcastle receives a letter from a suffragette requesting her urgent help, the retired spy turned sleuth knows only she stands between an accused young woman and the gallows. Evidence at the scene makes Lizzie Worrel’s innocence difficult to believe, and with the police treating it as an open-and-shut case of arson, Lady Hardcastle faces a barrage of resistance as she tries to dig out the truth…
Check out:
(A Lady Hardcastle Mysteries)
The Black Echo
by Michael Connelly
Rating: 4.6 #ad
For maverick LAPD homicide detective Harry Bosch, the body in the drainpipe at Mulholland Dam is more than another anonymous statistic. This one is personal . . . because the murdered man was a fellow Vietnam “tunnel rat” who had fought side by side with him in a hellish underground war. Now Bosch is about to relive the horror of Nam. From a dangerous maze of blind alleys to a daring criminal heist beneath the city, his survival instincts will once again be tested to their limit. Pitted against enemies inside his own department and forced to make the agonizing choice between justice and vengeance, Bosch goes on the hunt for a killer whose true face will shock him.
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(A Harry Bosch Mysteries)
A Different Dawn
by Isabella Maldonado
Rating: 4.6 #ad
For nearly thirty years a serial killer has been hiding in plain sight. So has the key to an FBI agent’s dark past.
A family is murdered as they sleep. FBI Special Agent Nina Guerrera and her new team are tasked with determining whether there is any link between this attack and another triple homicide from four years earlier and more than two thousand miles away. In the process, they’ll discover a serial killer so cunning that his grisly trail of death spanning nearly three decades has gone undetected. Each crime scene reminds Nina of the ghostly Latin folktale of La Llorona, which terrified her when she was an abandoned and vulnerable child. Now it’s back to haunt her…
Check out:
(Nina Guerrera Mysteries)
OFF GRID
by J. P. Redding
Rating: 4.5 #ad
From the halls of D.C. to the remote shores of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, OFF GRID is a wild ride through a dystopian near future of mass surveillance.
In the wake of a global calamity, the economy collapses. The Feds respond by wielding every power of the Welfare State to control the populace. A key tool is PivPal, an indispensable smartphone used to track citizens. As civil liberties crumble, resistance is relegated to flyover country whose residents—derided as off-gridders—cling to the time-honored virtues of freedom, self-reliance, and charity. Against this backdrop, Jenny Hernandez struggles to keep her rural church community nourished and safe. Hiding from the Feds, a team of inventors, and Jenny’s ex, arrive to complete the amazing plasma drive. They bring hope, but also the watchful eye of Big Brother. With the authorities closing in, local law enforcement must choose sides.
Death Comes to Bath
by Catherine Lloyd
Rating: 4.4 #ad
After Major Sir Robert Kurland’s injury from the battle of Waterloo begins troubling him again, his wife Lady Lucy insists they relocate from the village of Kurland St. Mary to Bath, along with her sister Anna, so that Robert can take the waters and recover.
At the Roman baths, Robert befriends an elderly and pugnacious businessman, Sir William Benson, ennobled by the Crown for his service to industry. Their acquaintance is short-lived, however, when the man is found drowned in the baths. Robert vows to find his killer, with Lucy’s aid.
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(A Kurland St. Mary Mysteries)
Art of the Hunt
by Lindsay Buroker
Rating: 4.4 #ad
Our heroes have escaped with the ancient dragon gate, rekindling their hope of finding allies on other worlds, but powerful enemies are right behind them. Unfortunately, Jak and Jadora must decipher the gate’s secrets before they can use it.
That’s a difficult task with mages from numerous kingdoms hunting them, Lord Malek stalking Jadora through magical dreams, and a new threat lurking deep within the jungle.
Faced by overwhelming odds, Jak and Jadora may be forced to work with the only man who can keep them alive: Malek. But what price will they have to pay for his protection?
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(Dragon Gate Mysteries)
Those Across the River
by Christopher Buehlman
Rating: 4.4 #ad
A man must confront a terrifying evil in this captivating horror novel that’s “as much F. Scott Fitzgerald as Dean Koontz.”*
Haunted by memories of the Great War, failed academic Frank Nichols and his wife have arrived in the sleepy Georgia town of Whitbrow, where Frank hopes to write a history of his family’s old estate—the Savoyard Plantation—and the horrors that occurred there. At first their new life seems to be everything they wanted. But under the facade of summer socials and small-town charm, there is an unspoken dread that the townsfolk have lived with for generations. A presence that demands sacrifice.