Mystery Reads

One freezing winter morning a dead body is found in the backyard of the Dharma family’s house. It’s the body of Anu Krishnan. For Anu, a writer seeking a secluded retreat from the city, the Dharmas' "back-house" in the sleepy mountain town of Merrit's Point was the ideal spot to take a year off and begin writing.

Set in 1928 in Victoria, Australia. The Thornton family made its money in the goldfields during the 1850s and the antiques trade. Their principal home is Thornton Park, a lavish mansion close to Melbourne. They also own a home and a goldmine in Daylesford, where their close friends, the Bassetti family, are part of a thriving Swiss-Italian community.

The recently rediscovered short story 'The Lost One', perfect for fans of Daphne du Maurier, Santa Montefiore and Anya Seton. First published in Woman's Journal in 1960, and set against the backdrop of unfenced country and dark winding valleys at night, the aptly named 'The Lost One' features The Wind off the Small Isles heroine Perdita West, who brings her characteristic pluck and courage to this classic Mary Stewart tale of suspense and intrigue....

Beach Reads and Deadly Deeds has descriptive copy which is not yet available from the Publisher.

The story of "The Three Musketeers" continues in "The Man in the Iron Mask" but the plot is even more intricate. D’Artagnan, Athos, Porthos and Aramis return to the scene but this time each of them is fighting for completely different things. D’Artagnan remains in the service of the corrupt King Louis XIV while his "brothers" try to remove him from the throne.

New England, 1890. Doctor John Shepherd arrives at a women's mental hospital to begin work as assistant to the owner. As Shepherd struggles to conceal his secrets, he finds the asylum has plenty of its own. Intrigued by a girl who is fascinated by books but cannot read, Shepherd embarks upon an experiment to help her. In this chilling literary thriller everyone has something to hide and no one is what they seem.

The war, they said, would be over by Christmas. That was in 1939, and it is now January 1944. An exhausted Britain faces another year of conflict. Meanwhile, small coastal villages in Devon are facing an invasion from an army just as foreign as that of the Germans. The Americans are smart, well-fed and well-equipped, and they have swept the bewildered citizens of South Devon from their homes in deadly earnest rehearsal for D-Day.

Spread some Christmas cheer with Nate the Great in this holiday adventure! Young listeners are introduced to the detective mystery genre, perfect for the Common Core. Kids can problem-solve with Nate, using logical thinking to solve mysteries! Annie's dog is unhappy. When Fang is unhappy, everyone is unhappy. Especially Nate the Great. So Nate agrees to sniff out Fang's mysteriously missing Christmas mail. It's cold and snowy. But Nate the Great and his dog, Sludge, will try to solve this holiday case in time for Fang to have a crunchy, munchy Christmas.

This Christmas, Callie Aspen returns to her childhood hideout Heart's Harbor, Maine, where her great aunt runs Book Tea, a vintage tearoom where every sweet treat contains a bookish clue. Upon arrival in the fairy-tale snowy town, Callie is drawn into the preparations for a special tea party at Haywood Hall, the rambling house of Heart's Harbor's oldest resident, rich but lonely widow Dorothea Finster, who invited her estranged relatives, old friends, and the elite of the town to make a mysterious announcement about her will.

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.

Man against nature, Leiningen against ants. Leiningen, an owner of a plantation, gets one day warned that an army of ants is approaching his fields and that it would be smartest to leave. Leiningen is however not going to give up on his land without a fight. The ants arrive and a long and exhausting battle follows. The technology and the power of the human brain are on Leiningen’s side. However the ants have a numerical superiority.

In the beautiful village of Vernazza, the Mazzone family have transformed an old convent overlooking the glamorous Italian Riviera into the elegant Lemon Tree Hotel. For Chiara, her daughter, Elene, and her granddaughter, Isabella, the running of their hotel is the driving force in their lives. One day, two unexpected guests check in. The first, Dante, is a face from Chiara's past, but what exactly happened between them all those years ago, Elene wonders. Isabella is preoccupied with the second guest, a mysterious young man who seems to know a lot about the history of the old convent.

Anthony William reveals the secrets of mystery illnesses and shares compelling insights from the Spirit on how to heal using the natural power of fruits, vegetables, and spiritual connections.

When Beach Reads bookshop hosts a Valentine’s Day event, “Romance by the Sea,” bookseller Summer Merriweather has no idea that the guest author is under investigation for her own husband’s murder. When that same author is found dead at the local bed and breakfast, nobody assumes it’s natural causes—there were plenty of people who wanted her dead.

Lucas and his friends are still reveling in their city-wide middle school basketball championship when the trophy they won goes missing. Foul play is afoot, and it’s going to take all their basketball and detective skills to find it.

Mimi Lee is on top of the world. She has a thriving pet grooming business, the sweetest boyfriend, and a talking cat to boot. When she arrives at the elementary school where her sister Alice works, she’s expecting a fun girls’ night out - but instead finds a teacher slumped over in her car, dead.

It's the year 2035 and fiction has been banned by the government for five years. Writing novels is a crime. Reading fairytales to children is punishable by law. Fern Dostoy is a criminal. Officially, she has retrained in a new job outside of the arts but she still scrawls in a secret notepad in an effort to capture what her life has become: her work on a banned phone line, reading bedtime stories to sleep-starved children; Hunter, the young boy who calls her and has captured her heart; and the dreaded visits from government officials.

Hitchcock's Rear Window meets Messud's The Woman Upstairs in this unnerving, superbly crafted novel which takes listeners deep into the mind of a serial stalker and, through him, the lives of his unsuspecting victims. Read Me is a seductive, haunting novel that holds a sinister mirror up to the ways in which we observe, judge, and influence people. Benedictus' prose commands and draws listeners into the dark, manipulative mind of a serial stalker as he targets women across London, escalating his efforts until he settles on Frances - a bright young professional....

In this dark story by Robert W. Chambers we are introduced to a detective, who is tasked to uncover a hoax in the Pacific Northwest. There he investigates the possible existence of a terrible porpoise-skinned humanoid with an insatiable hunger for human females. If you like reading dark and weird stories, then "The Harbor Master" from 1904 is the right one for you. Do not hesitate to embark on this journey and solve the mystery of the porpoise-skinned humanoid. B. J.

There's no place like home for the holidays - even if home is sleepy beachside Brigid's Island, North Carolina. During this season for giving, the town wakes up to a welcome throng of shoppers - and Beach Reads is no exception. But bookseller Summer Merriwether's Christmas cheer turns to cringing fear when she uncovers a deadly secret about her late mother - a secret someone will kill to keep.