Mystery Reads

The Oldest Word by Johnny Firic

By Mystery Reads Curator Leave a Comment

The Oldest Word by Johnny Firic

The story opens with the discovery of a mysterious box from the distant past. Its makers are five orphaned friends who hope to help civilizational knowledge survive disruptive climate change centuries in the future: the ending of the Ice Age. The bar is continuously raised as the box traverses more than a dozen settings to the present day. Readers are tacitly encouraged to partner with the author and fill in the blanks by considering their metaphorical boxes, lessons for the future from their past.

Exchanges between cultures and generations highlight human transience. Adoption is the preeminent motif, many characters being orphaned, or having adopted, or both. Nature’s agency is felt throughout the story, with animals, plants and landscapes presented as respected partners rather than resources to be exploited. Nothing can fully reconcile human contradictions, and true equilibrium must come from a transcendent perspective. Plural identity followed by association with all humans, past, present and future, is only a good start. Can we progress beyond all life forms? The book ends on the question: what can you do but hope?

The Oldest Word by Johnny Firic

By Mystery Reads Curator Leave a Comment

The Oldest Word by Johnny Firic

“Plural identity is where respectful practice begins.”
Who are you? Just the one body and mind? Does your story begin with your birth? Or how far back would you go?

The Oldest Word spans ten thousand years and more than a dozen settings. Human contradictions are reconciled time and again, with tragedy and humor feeding off each other. From the twin mirror mazes of history and psychology, amid ever-shifting social and natural landscapes, enduring patterns emerge.

The story opens with the discovery of a mysterious box from the distant past. Its makers are five orphaned friends who hope to help civilizational knowledge survive disruptive climate change centuries in the future: the ending of the Ice Age. The bar is continuously raised as the box travels through space and time to the present day. Readers are tacitly encouraged to partner with the author and fill in the blanks by considering their metaphorical boxes, lessons for the future from their past.

Silver Lining by A.L. Long

By Mystery Reads Curator Leave a Comment

Silver Lining by A.L. Long

A.L. Long is an Award-Winning author and recipient of the National Indie Excellence Award.

“It seemed like all I did lately was make poor decisions. Even my decision to marry Spencer instead of telling my parents the truth about the real reason behind the marriage was a mistake. I should have never listened to my college professor, who convinced me to take Alistair Nolan’s offer and marry his son Spencer in exchange for saving my parents’ restaurant.”

Lainey thought she had done everything right until now. Her life had turned inside out and upside down because of her choice to save the two people who mattered to her the most. Having control over her future was no longer her own, and even though she would never regret helping her parents keep their restaurant, she regretted listening to her college professor. Keeping her promise to marry Spencer Nolan, Lanie loses more than her freedom; she leaves behind a future with the one man who could make her happy.

White Jade by Alex Lukeman

By Mystery Reads Curator Leave a Comment

White Jade by Alex Lukeman

White Jade spins a web of deceit and murder across the globe, against the backdrop of a deadly international power game.

Former Recon Marine Nick Carter is a man with a dark history of emotional and physical scars. He works for the PROJECT, a covert counter-terrorism team that reports only to the U.S. President. Selena Connor is a beautiful, strong, skilled linguist. When her wealthy uncle is murdered by someone looking for an ancient book about the elixir of immortality, she is thrown into Nick’s dangerous world.

Elizabeth Harker runs the PROJECT. She assigns Nick to protect Selena and recover the missing text. It’s the beginning of a life and death adventure that spans the globe. Someone is determined to take over China and attack America–and Nick and Selena are right in the line of fire.

International intrigue, terrorist acts, and the threat of nuclear war form the core of this fast paced thriller, the first volume in an award winning series featuring Nick, Selena, and the PROJECT.

The Deadlands by Minerva Hart

By Mystery Reads Curator Leave a Comment

The Deadlands by Minerva Hart

In a world ravaged and reshaped by a monstrous virus, an unlikely pair attempt to save a girl from a Jhingoist cult.

Thirty years ago, the Splicer’s Sickness swept across the globe, turning all it infected into vicious, half-animal creatures and leaving everyone else to fend for themselves. Since then, life has adapted. That goes doubly for Karl Gearhart, a former soldier in the Alpine Safe Zone who has since deserted his group and gone to live in an abandoned factory. He is happy to live the same day over and over and spend his time tinkering.

But one day, after his home is compromised, he meets Nessa Shirokuma, a charming young archer on her way to New York City. The cult that lives there, the Lightbringers, have kidnapped her sister as part of their deluded mission to reestablish the pre-Sickness USA. Karl is convinced it’s a lost cause, but Nessa will not be dissuaded. Thus, they form a deal: He will accompany her to New York, and she in turn will help him find a new home.

It will be a dangerous journey, fraught with monsters of both the splicer and human persuasion. They will come across religious zealots, angry mobs, cannibals, and many more perils. All the while, they will learn to lean on each other as their partnership blooms into something more. But will it be enough to keep them alive?

Broken Cowboy by Jamie Schulz

By Mystery Reads Curator Leave a Comment

Broken Cowboy by Jamie Schulz

From an Award-Winning author & 2022 RONE Award Finalist

Addie needs a capable ranch hand for her rundown ranch. Cade needs a job and a little TLC.
When the violence stalking Addie escalates and Cade’s past returns, can their newfound love survive or will they both be destroyed?

“…Do not miss a fantastic start to what promises to be an awesome series.”
Lynn-Alexandria McKendrick
~ InD’tale Magazine

“…The storyline is great…the plot twists and turns are absolutely crazy good; and the HEA was totally kick ass!”
~Amazon Reviewer

When Push Comes to Shoot by Rena Koontz

By Mystery Reads Curator Leave a Comment

When Push Comes to Shoot by Rena Koontz

Emma Hunter’s tyrannical brother deserved to die, even if the manner of his murder was horror-movie gruesome. As a police lieutenant, she’s duty-bound to provide whatever assistance she can in hunting down her brother’s killer, but she doesn’t mourn his loss. Business acquaintances, former friends, and even his relatives agree the world is better off without the despicable bully.
With no clues and too many suspects, it looks like the murderer might be home free—until tenacious Detective Jared Jones’ suspicions turn to Emma’s sweet sister-in-law. Emma knows for a fact that her brother’s mentally and emotionally abused wife is innocent, but conflicting loyalties prevent her from speaking up and turning the investigation in the right direction. What’s best for her brother’s widow could cost Emma everything she values—her career, her reputation, even her freedom.

Hollow Stars by Lauryn Dyan

By Mystery Reads Curator Leave a Comment

Hollow Stars by Lauryn Dyan

Discover the dire side effects of partying like a rock star.

As lead singer of popular, emerging rock band, Tracing Stars, Kennedy has the swagger of a badass, or at least she used to. While caught up in the booze, passion, and chaos of her first major rock tour, her dreams are erased by a string of ever-worsening blackouts. Now, the instability of her mind has landed her in a psychiatric hospital. Despite being convinced one of her tour mates sabotaged her, she lacks any evidence. Trapped in the asylum, she alternates between the past and the present determined to recover her lost memories so she can return to her band before she’s just a footnote in their rise to fame.

Walk the Plank by Marilyn Barr

By Mystery Reads Curator Leave a Comment

Walk the Plank by Marilyn Barr

Branko learns he will be sold into slavery when they dock in Charles Town, so he doesn’t hesitate to jump ship onto a neighboring sloop in the harbor. This boat will weigh anchor with him at the helm–once he decides what to do with the lady chained in the cargo hold who claims she’s a vampire.

Magda Dashkovari’s body has been given to science while she’s still living in it. Her prayers are answered when a pirate boards her boat, but she should have asked for her rescuer to be less bloodthirsty than she is…

Scientists hunt her in town, plantation owners hunt him from the north and south, Blackbeard blocks Charles Town Harbor to the east, and a war rages between settlers and natives to the west. These unlikely allies will have to link together to escape a life in chains…but will their trust in each other endure their journey to freedom?

Running with the Enemy by Lloyd Lofthouse

By Mystery Reads Curator Leave a Comment

Running with the Enemy by Lloyd Lofthouse

A US Marine is framed for a crime he didn’t commit. He has a choice to make, save the woman he loves, or prove his innocence. He can’t have both.

“Obviously drawn from the author’s first-hand experiences as a Marine serving in Vietnam … a rough but occasionally heartfelt war story … is quite good and has a lot to say about the nature of the conflict.”
— Judge’s comment from 21st Annual Writer’s Digest Self-Published Book Awards.