Mystery Reads

Featured Book: Forgotten Valor: A Novel of the Korean War by Richard Thomas Lane

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Forgotten Valor: A Novel of the Korean War by Richard Thomas Lane

An untested lieutenant. An unwinnable war. An impossible choice that could tear his platoon apart. Korea, 1950. Lt. Jonas Stuyvesant’s privileged upbringing hadn’t prepared him for the hardships of war. But when North Korea launches a surprise attack, he and his ragtag platoon suddenly find themselves on the front lines of a war not even Washington expected. And instead of North Korean peasants armed with pitchforks, Jonas and his fellow soldiers find themselves up against armored Soviet tanks and battle-tested hardened soldiers. Outgunned and outnumbered, his platoon retreats from Osan through Taejon on down the whole length of the Korean Peninsula until their backs are pressed against the sea. As the war-weary troops hunker in for a final stand, a twist of fate gives Jonas a chance to leave the deadly frontline far behind. Before their attackers close in, Jonas must make an impossible choice: leave his brothers-in-arms facing the enemy alone or sacrifice everything to stand by their side to the bitter end. Forgotten Valor: A Novel of the Korean War is a visceral work of historical fiction covering the first three months of America’s forgotten war. If you like under-examined military history, gritty details, and soldiers’ perspectives, then you’ll love Richard Thomas Lane’s story of courage under fire. Buy Forgotten Valor to march into an action-packed story of courage in the combat zone today!

Get The Book Here.

The Secret of Heaven by Felix Alexander

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When investment banker Lazzaro de Medici is found dead, Professor of Biblical Studies at University of Illinois at Chicago Aiden Leonardo is the prime suspect. In possession of an encrypted letter given to him by Lazzaro, Aiden utilizes his extensive knowledge of Scripture to piece together clues that lead to a Lost Bible dating back to the time of Christ.

Hidden within the text is an ancient truth about the most controversial message Jesus left to His disciples. But as Aiden embarks on his quest to unravel the mystery of redemption and faith, a secret organization known only as The Group hunts him down to destroy the Lost Bible and tie up loose ends.

With the help of his fiancé Dr. Miriam Levin—a cultural anthropologist and a professor of historical archaeology in her own right, their friend Nagi, a philologist, religious historian and an eccentric cryptographer, Aiden soon realizes the Lost Bible was written by the only disciple who walked with Jesus and had his gospel omitted from Scripture.

Things are further complicated when a mysterious stranger warns Aiden that possessing the secret of heaven could cost him his life. Pursued by the F.B.I. for the ancient Black market relic and the Chicago PD in connection to the murder of Lazzaro de Medici, Aiden races against the clock to prove his innocence and fulfill his mentor’s dying wish.

Expose the secret of heaven…

Targeted Age Group:: 18+

What Inspired You to Write Your Book?
One afternoon during a slow start of shift, while at work in 911 Police dispatch, I perused articles online and came across a few articles about a lost bible found by the Turkish government on the Mediterranean Sea.

During their attempt to prevent an arms deal on the Black market to prevent weapons of mass destruction from ending up in the hands of terrorists, they found a cache of relics that belonged in museums.

Among their findings was a lost bible dating back to the time of Christ that was purportedly written by one of Jesus' disciples, but it correlated the Islamic view of Jesus as a prophet and not a deity.

The Vatican requested to review the relic, so the Turkish government transported it to Rome with a police escort, because it had been valued at $25-million Euro. Shortly thereafter, the Pope stepped down for medical reasons, which caused quite a stir.

An Islamic cleric then spoke out about the incident, citing that in 2,000 years a pope NEVER stepped down for medical reasons, and added that the Catholic church has rituals in place for when a pope dies in office. A pope must serve for the remainder of his life.

Given that I had been raised Catholic, I was familiar with this rule and my curiosity had been piqued even further.

The cleric later went on to postulate that the real reason the pope stepped down was because he had read the lost bible and could no longer–in good conscience–lead a church that had been predicated on a lie.

Having studied religions for the past 25 years, I found the sequence of events to be quite fascinating!

So, upon reading these articles, I thought to myself: "There is a novel here!"

Featured Book: The Girl In The Manor by A.J. Rivers

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About Featured Book: The Girl In The Manor by A.J. Rivers

The sound of a blood curdling scream echoed through the manor.
Her pleas ignored, her screams unheard. Tomorrow would not come for Everly Zara…
What does the death of a young child, and the sudden death of the girl in the manor have in common?
Was it simply just a coincidence, or is there something far more disturbing than anyone could ever imagine?

Everly Zara, a beautiful young woman, is found dead in the bedroom of the manor. The bedroom which she shares with her new fiancé.
She is naked and hanging. Her ankles are bound. There are words written on her body.
The news is shocking and disturbing to everyone who knows her.
Could Everly no longer bear the sadness and guilt of the little boy’s death, and killed herself to escape it?
But the heartbreaking death of a beautiful young woman accused of a horrible act may not be as straightforward as everyone thought.

The further Emma dives into the case, the more she realizes, everything is not as it seems.
As secrets from Everly’s past rise to the surface and the shocking nature of it discovered.
Emma must unravel the truth before she becomes a victim herself. In the close-knit town of Sherwood, something or someone is coming for Emma Griffin.
With her past constantly haunting her, and the disturbing nature of this mystery. Nothing is what it seems, yet everything feels so familiar.
Emma is left to wonder if she is really losing her mind.

How deep down the rabbit hole will Emma go to find out the truth of her past?
How far will she go to find out the truth behind Everly Zara’s death?
One thing’s for certain, Emma’s entire world will be forever changed once the truth is revealed.

The Girl in the Manor is the third book in the Emma Griffin Mystery series, it can be read as a standalone.

This Thriller book is available in these Formats: eBook

Buy Book Here.

Featured Book: The Mia Kazmaroff Mysteries, Books 1-3 by Susan Kiernan-Lewis

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Mia Kazmaroff is able to tell the story behind any object simply by touch.It’s a gift that comes in handy when she solves cases with her partner, ex-cop Jack Burton. Together, Mia and Jack create a partnership that breaks all the rules, skirts the law, and sparks fireworks as they attempt to ignore their undeniable mutual attraction.

Buy The Mia Kazmaroff Mysteries, Books 1-3 Here

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Featured Book: Spouse Trap by Cynthia Hamilton

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Imagine you have the perfect life: money, position, influence, an enviable marriage. Then you awake in a hotel room – alone, unclothed, a splitting headache, and no idea how you got there. Welcome to Madeline’s world…

Madeline Ridley had all she’d ever dreamed of: a handsome, successful husband, a place at the top of Santa Barbara society, every luxury money could buy. In all respects, her world was perfect…until one horrible night when everything unraveled.

When Steven Ridley comes home in the middle of a weekday and throws a sheaf of damning photos at her, Madeline’s comfortable world collapses in a swirl of blackmail, sabotage and deceit. Hoping to convince Steven of her innocence, Madeline drives to his office and unwittingly stumbles onto a scene that makes her realize who the real enemy is.

From that point on, Madeline Ridley deconstructs herself, reverting back to Madeline Dawkins in order to salvage what’s left of her life. In the process, she discovers where her true strengths lay, and with those, she steels herself for the battle of a lifetime.

Spouse Trap is the prequel to the Madeline Dawkins Series.

Buy Spouse Trap Here

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Blowback by H. Max Hiller

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Louisiana State police Detective Cooter Holland has worn out his welcome with the New Orleans Police Department, but is given a time-sensitive mission that NOPD’s Chief of Detectives hopes will either give him enough justification to fire the son of his predecessor or earn himself an IOU with the mayor. Detective Holland needs to find a murder suspect before he carries out his phone threats against the primary witness against him. The troubled detective doesn’t make his own job any easier when he begins to question the case against the suspect, or when his search keeps turning up things to investigate that aren’t part of what he is expected to do. Fast paced and witty, this novella is the opening salvo in the award-winning “Cadillac” Holland Mystery series.

Targeted Age Group:: 18+

What Inspired You to Write Your Book?
I am a huge fan of the Foyle's War series on the BBC and decided to write a series of books set in New Orleans in the early years after Hurricane Katrina, when cases were as likely to be hampered by recovery efforts as Detective Foyle was to be thwarted by events during WW2. I also wanted to develop a character who had figured out a way to incorporate his PTSD into his crime-solving toolbox.

Featured Book: Murder à la Mode by Susan Kiernan-Lewis

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With the wine harvest behind them, things had just started to calm down for Maggie and Laurent in their French village of Saint-Buvard when a team of food industry entrepreneurs and celebrity judges arrived to put on a contest to decide in a blind taste test which country makes the best chocolate éclairs—the Brits, the Americans, the Germans or the French.

When one of the contestants ends up stabbed to death, the suspect is Maggie’s close friend. Maggie will need to find a way past the woman’s obvious motive and the damning circumstantial evidence to help her friend—without putting herself or Laurent in the hot seat in the process.

Buy Murder à la Mode Here

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Beautiful Monsters by Brian Anthony and Bill Walker

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Beautiful Monsters by Brian Anthony and Bill Walker

Beautiful Monsters, a novel by Brian Anthony & Bill Walker, with illustrations by Rick Geary

In London, in the year 1916, an ailing Sherlock Holmes is attended by his old friend and colleague Dr. John Watson. Sensing that time is short, Holmes relays one final, remarkable story to his biographer, that of Holmes’s own mentor, Professor Harry Nelson Beadle.

In 1874 thirty-year-old Professor Beadle, laureate at Cambridge University with degrees in biology, anthropology, and sociology, is widely respected by faculty and students alike. But the Professor’s obsession with his theories concerning the cross-evolution of humans and insects–beautiful monsters—proves to be his undoing. Based on a spurious piece of evidence, the Professor spends years researching and writing a tome, which is eventually published to some acclaim. But the price is high; his obsession costs the Professor his position at the University, his wife, and his young daughter.

Jim Beam, an American, a former student, and an unwitting participant in the deceit, belatedly reveals the terrible truth to the Professor: that the empirical evidence was fake! Thus, begins a forty-year odyssey in which Professor Beadle, aided and abetted by his former student, searches the world for the thousand printed copies of his book, Beautiful Monsters—buying, begging, and sometimes stealing them, with the goal of eventually destroying every last copy.

Early in their journey, Beam meets a lovely young woman, Mabel, and the couple wed. Mabel is initially sympathetic to the Professor’s plight, but as the obsession with tracking down the book grows and takes hold of her husband, their marriage begins to suffer. The impending tragedy is completely lost on Beam, but not on the Professor, who sees an eerie similarity to his own failed marriage. Could the book—with its terrible invocation of insect-men—be cursed?

In his quest to erase “this published monument to my own stupidity,” the Professor and Beam cross paths with an odd assortment of characters, including Thomas Edison, a giant, George Méliès, and on the final leg of their bizarre journey, Sherlock Holmes himself.

Cursed indeed!

Go-Go Juice by Nichole Williams

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This typical Monday morning turns out to be more delusional for Shawnda as she enjoys her free caramel latte at her favorite neighborhood coffee shop. The atmosphere and customers don’t quite seem to fall into the typical Monday morning coffee shop routine, which leaves her bamboozled.

Targeted Age Group:: Over 18

What Inspired You to Write Your Book?
Go-Go- Juice, right? I know it sounds silly but that’s usually what I call my coffee. So, I had a thought of writing a story based around coffee. At first, I wanted to write a comedy but then a mystery was better suited for this story.

The Blue Garou by H. Max Hiller

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Louisiana State Police Detective Cooter ‘Cadillac’ Holland is asked to determine whether the dog that killed one of New Orleans’ most notorious felons was the murderer or just the murder weapon. The investigation finds far more than an answer to this question, including a rogue FBI operation, the blackmailing of a Hollywood actress, and even the elusive answer to his own father’s disappearance following Hurricane Katrina.

Targeted Age Group:: 18+

What Inspired You to Write Your Book?
I was looking for a way to tell stories about the recovery effort from Hurricane Katrina and chanced upon the Foyle's War series. I pieced together a jigsaw puzzle of actual and fictionalized pieces from New Orleans' storied past and used the recovery to cause my fictionalized detective problems in solving the case. I incorporated hyper-aware PTSD into his character as well as an additional hurdle, which was mitigated by the extensive PTSD of the storm's survivors he interacted with on a daily basis.