Mystery Reads

Journeys: the Archers of Saint Sebastian by Jeanne Roland

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Journeys: the Archers of Saint Sebastian by Jeanne Roland

15-year-old Marieke disguises herself as a boy to hide in the all-male archers’ guild of Saint Sebastian to escape her father’s killers. Soon she’s determined to discover the truth about her father’s mysterious past at the guild, and to help the most charming young Journeyman archer in the place win the annual guild trials – without ever letting him discover her secrets. Robin Hood meets Princess Bride and Mulan in this historical adventure set in 14th-century Belgium and packed with romance, humor, intrigue, and of course, longbow archery trials.

Destiny Falls Mystery & Magic: Box Set Books 1-3 by Elizabeth Pantley

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Destiny Falls Mystery & Magic: Box Set Books 1-3 by Elizabeth Pantley

An accidental journey through a magic mirror. A portal to an enchanted land. A mysterious family she never knew she had. Hayden’s life is upended with the wonder of Destiny Falls. But there always seems to be a mystery to unravel and a murder to solve. Luckily, Hayden, her sassy sidekick Latifa, and their growing circle of family and friends are always up for the task. There’s never a dull moment in this captivating world. “It will blow you away!” says Cozy Mystery Book Reviews

Hostile Witness by Rebecca Forster

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Hostile Witness by Rebecca Forster

Once a hotshot attorney, Josie Bates swore off the legal limelight until her college roommate came calling. Her daughter, sixteen year-old Hannah Sheraton, is accused of murdering a judge and no one in the legal community will represent her. Josie, abandoned by her own mother as a teenager, can’t turn her back. Josie’s best hope is to get the girl sentenced to a a juvenile facility but when the D.A. decides to try her as an adult, Josie knows conviction would be as good as the death penalty. Digging deep to build a defense, Josie finds that within a tangled web of family relations, politics, and money, a teenage girl’s life is worthless — except to Josie.

The Barrakee Mystery: The Lure of the Bush (Inspector Bonaparte Mysteries Book 1) by Arthur Upfield

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Why was King Henry, an aboriginal from Western Australia, killed in New South Wales? What was the feud that led to murder after nineteen long years had passed? Who was the woman who saw the murder and kept silent?

This first story of Inspector Bonaparte takes him to the Darling River bush country where he encounters those problems he understands so well – mixed blood and divided loyalties.

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Forever Rumpole: The Best of the Rumpole Stories by John Mortimer

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John Mortimer—novelist, playwright, memoirist, and the author of more than eighty Rumpole short stories—will never be forgotten. While still a practicing barrister, Mortimer took up the pen, and the rest is literary history. His stories featuring the cigar-chomping, cheap-wine-tippling Rumpole and his wife, Hilda (aka “She Who Must Be Obeyed”), have justly earned their place in the pantheon of mystery fiction legends, becoming the basis for the very successful television series Rumpole of the Bailey. Bringing fourteen of Rumpole’s most entertaining adventures (seven of which were collected in The Best of Rumpole) together with a fragment of a new story, Forever Rumpole proves beyond a reasonable doubt that Rumpole is never less than delightful.

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The Big Sleep: A Novel (Philip Marlowe series Book 1) by Raymond Chandler

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The iconic first novel from crime fiction master Raymond Chandler, featuring Philip Marlowe, the “quintessential urban private eye” (Los Angeles Times).

A dying millionaire hires private eye Philip Marlowe to handle the blackmailer of one of his two troublesome daughters, and Marlowe finds himself involved with more than extortion. Kidnapping, pornography, seduction, and murder are just a few of the complications he gets caught up in.

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Assault and Pepper (A Spice Shop Mystery Book 1) by Leslie Budewitz

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The Agatha Award-winning author of Crime Rib is proud to introduce Pepper Reece, the owner of the Seattle Spice Shop who thinks she can handle any kind of salty customer—until a murderer ends up in the mix…

After leaving a dicey marriage and losing a beloved job in a corporate crash, Pepper Reece has found a new zest for life running a busy spice and tea shop in Seattle’s Pike Place Market. Her aromatic creations are the talk of the town, and everyone stops by for a cup of her refreshing spice tea, even other shopkeepers and Market regulars. But when a panhandler named Doc shows up dead on the store’s doorstep, a Seattle Spice Shop cup in his hand, the local gossip gets too hot for Pepper to handle—especially after the police arrest one of Pepper’s staffers, Tory Finch, for murder.

Tory seems to know why she’s a suspect, but she refuses to do anything to curry favor with the cops. Convinced her reticent employee is innocent, Pepper takes it on herself to sniff out some clues. Only, if she’s not careful, Pepper’s nosy ways might make her next on the killer’s list…

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A Deadly Grind (A Vintage Kitchen Mystery Book 1) by Victoria Hamilton

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A Hoosier to die for?
When vintage cookware and cookbook collector Jaymie Leighton spies an original 1920s Hoosier brand kitchen cabinet at an estate auction, it’s love at first sight. Despite the protests of her sister that the 19th-century yellow-brick house they share in Michigan is already too cluttered with Jaymie’s “junk,” she successfully outbids the other buyers and triumphantly takes home her Hoosier.

But that night on the summer porch where they’ve left the Hoosier to be cleaned up, a man is murdered, struck on the head with the steel meat grinder that is part of the cabinet. Who is this stranger—and what was he doing on their porch? Does his death have anything to do with the Hoosier?

As the police struggle to determine the man’s identity, Jaymie can’t help doing a little digging on her own, accompanied by her three-legged Yorkie Poo, Hopalong. But in her bid to uncover the truth about the hidden secrets of the Hoosier, Jaymie may be the one who ends up going, going…gone.

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The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett

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A coolly glittering gem of detective fiction that has haunted three generations of readers, from one of the greatest mystery writers of all time.

A treasure worth killing for. Sam Spade, a slightly shopworn private eye with his own solitary code of ethics. A perfumed grafter named Joel Cairo, a fat man name Gutman, and Brigid O’Shaughnessy, a beautiful and treacherous woman whose loyalties shift at the drop of a dime. These are the ingredients of Dashiell Hammett’s iconic, influential, and beloved The Maltese Falcon.

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Phantom in the Pines by R.K. Latch

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Phantom in the Pines by R.K. Latch

Henry Lawton is a young man in 1930’s Mississippi. He works for his father in the family moonshining business and is one of the best bootleggers around.

He is secretly in love with the granddaughter of a woman the locals consider a true-to-life witch. So he has plenty to keep him busy.

But, when a relentless federal agent enlists the aid of the corrupt local sheriff, things take a turn for the worse. Lives and families are destroyed.

As the death toll mounts and the situation grows dire, perhaps the only thing that can fight man’s evil is the supernatural.

When the spirit of the trees walks free, evil runs in fear.