Mystery Reads

In this 5th novel in the UNDERCOVER HILLBILLY MYSTERY SERIES, Billy Hill's new girlfriend becomes frantic with worry about her half-brother who has gone missing. Billy drives to the bayous of Pecan Island, Louisiana to investigate. Danger tends to stick to Billy like an unwanted hemorrhoid and this latest mystery is no exception. Billy soon finds himself immersed in a confusing and perilous predicament as he is inadvertently scooped up in the Joe Biden administration's latest illegal plot to change the very fabric of American society. ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Donald W. Desaulniers is a retired ...

A mother knows her children… or does she? Bonita Gray has the perfect life until tragedy strikes and she is left to raise her two boys by herself. Like all other single parents, she, too, endures many challenges and fears before her little ones are all grown up. However… parenthood as she knew it is flipped upside down when one obstacle that Bonita thought she’d never have to face arises. One that may force her to choose life or death for one child over the other and lead her to fear for her very own livelihood. What if one of your children did something so horribly wrong and the ...

Charlie Truganini can’t believe his eyes when on a trip into Tasmania’s wilderness he sees a Tasmanian tiger – a carnivorous marsupial considered by most Australians to be extinct. Charlie has a number of claims to fame – one of those being he’s a direct descendant of one Truganini, the woman considered to be the last full-blooded Aboriginal Tasmanian and whose name he inherited. A close second to that is he’s the great-grandson of one Dingo Truganini, the tracker who helped capture the last known Thylacine cynocephalus – an animal better known as the Tasmanian tiger. It’s ...

Secrets, lies, and misunderstandings - after 65 million years, has it all come down to this? Gerry is determined to cross the treacherous waters of Lake Origin and continue his hunt for the remaining Mosasaurs, a group of aquatic dinosaurs that have captured his scientific heart. His reputation, his credibility, and his future career rest on the outcome of this venture, and he is committed to the idea that this is a chance to not only rescue his dreams but also prove to himself that for once he can finish what he has started. However, he should have known by now that smooth sailing doesn't ...

How can a perfectly planned Halloween party go really, really wrong? Easy. A dead body shows up in my decorated coffin. Welcome to my witchy world. Hi, I’m Glinda Goodall, the good witch from the south, who is a hopeless snoop turned amateur sleuth. I had one job this October, and that was to decorate for the annual Halloween fest at my aunt’s restaurant. It was organized to the max: ghosts floating on the ceiling, a coffin with a vampire, and a small cemetery surrounded by pink-painted pumpkins. Spooky yet festive. Just my luck, someone was murdered at the party. I might not have ...

In the quiet, close-knit town of Benning, North Dakota, single mother Susan Groves is living a simple life—until her son Gus disappears from school without a trace. As rumors swirl and unsettling secrets about the townspeople come to light, Susan turns to her best friend, Ryan, a local detective, for help. Together, they uncover eerie clues pointing to a mysterious woman who has been watching Gus. In a town where everyone knows everyone, Susan must unravel the dark secrets hidden in plain sight before it's too late.

In a peaceful suburban neighborhood, a single rumor ignites a chain reaction that threatens everything Christine Granger holds dear. When she suspects the glamorous Andrea Beard is luring away her devoted husband, Christine shares a secret she should have kept hidden. What begins as a spark of jealousy soon explodes into a high-stakes scandal—complete with whispered affairs, money-laundering suspicions, and dangerous criminal entanglements. As the rumor spirals out of control, Christine’s husband Steve finds his career—and his freedom—on the line. Determined to clear his name, ...

Blair Charlston swapped the stock market for salvation - and now he's making a killing. Once a controversial venture capitalist, Charlston reinvented himself as a personal and business development guru after surviving an attempt to take his own life when a business deal went disastrously wrong. So when he decides to host a weekend retreat on the outskirts of Stirling for more than 300 people, Connor Fraser is drafted in to cover the security for a man who is at once idolised as a saviour and hated as a ruthless asset stripper.

The quirky local patrons and owners of No Egrets are back, ready to solve another Oak Island mystery or two (or three). The long-awaited fourth book in the humorous Oak Island series! When Glenn buys an antique medicine cabinet and moves it beside the Wurlitzer at No Egrets (much to Glenda’s chagrin), he is surprised when a black notebook falls out from behind the middle drawer. Upon further inspection, he finds a small metal box Velcroed to the side of the drawer. The notebook contains chemical structures and the results from experiments; the box contains trinkets including a gold tooth....

In Dogwood Valley, even the dogs have alibis. When Olivia "Liv" Barker traded her high-powered legal career for a peaceful life as a dog walker in the quaint suburb of Dogwood Valley, she never expected her new job would lead her to unraveling a murder mystery. But when wealthy Mrs. Edith Pemberley is found strangled with a diamond-studded dog leash, suspicion falls on one of Liv's more challenging clients—a grumpy Rottweiler named Buster. Convinced of Buster's innocence and determined to save him from a grim fate, Liv digs deeper into the secrets of Dogwood Valley. What she uncovers is a...

Last Christmas, Callie Aspen left her tour-guide job and settled in Heart's Harbor, Maine. Now, she helps out at Book Tea, her great aunt’s vintage tearoom, where each treat has a bookish clue. Although she’s excited to start her new life, Callie worries she may regret having burned her bridges behind her. Fortunately, she finds immediate distraction in the preparations for a spectacular Fourth of July tea party, which will recreate key moments from the town's rich history.

What could be better than watching the eclipse and eating eclairs with book club friends? Unfortunately, when Taffy is a no-show to book club, Meredith gets worried. And now she can’t get to her friend’s apartment. The roads are blocked by eclipse enthusiasts! Luckily, Meredith’s book club friends and her boyfriend Logan will do all they can to help figure out what happened to Taffy. This is a Merryville Mystery short story, book #5. Like the other mysteries in the series, this one can be read as a stand-alone.

5 SHORT STORY GEMS is a compendium of short stories written by New Zealand author Lance Morcan and published by Sterling Gate Books in 2019/2020. The stories, which have also been released as standalone Kindle ebooks, are aimed at lovers of thrillers, adventure, romance and historical fiction. Details follow… ONCE WERE BROTHERS – Life will never be the same for young Benjamin Thomas after disaffected Maoris abduct his identical twin brother in this moving short story adventure set in Nineteenth Century New Zealand. Mr. 100% – When New York defense lawyer Madison ‘Mr. 100%’ Harley ...

Giant arachnids, killer snowmen, ravenous sharks, ghostly motorcades, and the mother of all lobsters—it’s all in here, including a new Samantha Moon story! Included in this collection: "Vampire Widow" - Tammy Moon hears a distant, telepathic cry for help... and convinces her mother, Samantha Moon, to go on a road trip deep into the heart of the Mojave desert to help something ancient... and massive. "Little Snowmen Everywhere" - They are new to town, trying to fit in. All is going well until the first snowfall. That's when their neighbors frantically start building little snowmen. Now, ...

Family…however close or distantly connected…is still family. And no one knows that better than the many members of the McAdams family. Few understand the vast implications that come with a large extended family as Drew McAdams does…and especially now. His brothers and sisters are also beginning to understand just how complicated it can be now that the four of them are responsible for the equally vast and extensive McAdams Trust. The headaches have only just begun. Life as they knew it will never be the same. Drew McAdams strongly suspects that if another call or message comes into his...

Family meant everything to Ayden Stratton. It always had even when he didn’t always allow it to show. Because of that, he understood the fury in Tobias Blaise’s eyes when they learned that his sister had been dragged out the backdoor of her restaurant despite every effort to stop her from being kidnapped. Fury didn’t begin to describe what he saw in his brother’s face. Cassidy Blaise might be Tobias’s sister, but she was Benjamin’s entire world. Tobias Blaise never expected to find any woman he wanted to spend his life with, let alone one who looked at him the way Ellis did, ...

✅ If Jack Reacher and Lisbeth Salander had a black/Thai love child, she would be SOPHIE. ✅ Domestic abuse survivor, brilliant hacker, chronic depressive, Sophie is a complicated woman ✅ Sophie’s superpower: everyone falls in love with her ✅Never, never gives up on a case. Never. Paradise hides a master thief. What if diamonds aren’t a girl’s best friend? A heist at a high-end auction house sends tech specialist Sophie on a new case hunting down a thief whose skills match her own. Even as she chases a cache of precious gems, events begun in a distant land threaten the fragile ...

When movie producer Cody Ziegler goes missing from The Homestead’s Millionaires’ Row, his wife, retired actress Olivia, immediately claims there’s foul play afoot. A million-dollar ransom demand soon follows, with clear instructions not to involve the cops. In desperation she enlists the help of Moira, Rick, Philip and Lizzie, aka the Retired Detectives Club. Racing against the clock, the four retirees set to work.

A wedding and a murder...Star football player and NFL hopeful, Michael “Bumper” Hackett is getting married. Word’s going around that it’s a shotgun wedding, and there just might be some truth to it, seeing that the bride-to-be is showing a baby bump. But before the ceremony can even get started, the poor groom collapses from what appears to be an asthma attack. Unfortunately, things aren’t always what they seem. Romaine knew it was a bad idea to have a wedding at the funeral home, but newly elected justice of the peace and sole proprietor of the Ball Funeral Home & Crematorium, ...

Forbidden Love, Betrayal, and Heartache… In a world shrouded in secrets and haunted by shadows, I am Jezebel, the alpha female of my wolf pack, commanding an unmatched power with a mysterious talisman. But my journey for dominance takes an unexpected twist when the enigmatic Damian captures me. Bound in captivity, I find myself entwined with him in ways I never thought possible. With a life growing inside me, I begin to grasp the depth of our opportunity for a second chance, I'm ripped away and thrust back into my pack, nursing a secret that will change our lives forever. Torn between my ...