Mystery Reads

Vardin Homecoming by Maggie Spence

Six former friends from Vardin Village reluctantly reunite eight years after the devastating homecoming weekend that tore apart their lifelong friendship.
When they were seniors at Vardin Village High, they weren’t supposed to be in the abandoned Butler Building after the homecoming dance but the adventure seemed harmless enough… until they find their friend’s dead body.
After fleeing the building just one step ahead of the police chief, the six teenagers make a decision to keep quiet about their presence at the crime scene and never tell a soul.
Fast forward eight years; the murder has never been solved. The teenagers are now young adults with successful careers and unlimited potential. Andrea is the only one of the six still living in Vardin Village and when new evidence comes to light, she knows the truth must be told. She contacts her former friends who have more reasons now to keep their secret than they did eight years ago. This homecoming weekend means they’re all coming home to face the consequences and hopefully, solve the murder.

Twin Time by Olga Werby

Alex and Sasha are twin sisters, physically identical down to their freckles. But the resemblance is only skin deep—Sasha is profoundly autistic, while Alex is not. Sasha can’t communicate and acts bizarrely, and the family revolves around her and her intense needs. Yet the aged, wealthy, and mysterious Aunt Nana seems to have a particular interest in both girls. Offering a helping hand, she encourages the family to move to San Francisco to be near her. And when the young twins discover a tunnel in Nana’s tool shed, it leads them on a journey across the world and back 100 years in time. The tunnel is a pathway to the Firebird Estate, the home of their ancestors, located in rural Russia at the beginning of the twentieth century. Even more remarkable, through the effect that twisting time has on cognition, Sasha is not autistic when she’s at the Firebird Estate. Now, growing up in two strikingly different times and places, the twins must face their separate destinies among the ravages of the incipient Russian Revolution. Can they save their families on both sides of the tunnel? Can they simultaneously stay true to their own hearts, to each other, and to the people they left behind? Each sister must face her own personal challenge — but only together can they discover their own future within their family’s past.