Mystery Reads

Narrated by Liz Miller, a penniless PhD candidate desperate to finish her dissertation, the novel begins when Liz's boyfriend abruptly ditches her, rendering Liz homeless and reduced to couch-surfing at best friend Petra's tiny Manhattan studio apartment. Trying to find an affordable living space, she stumbles across a Craigslist posting that will change her life: a room with a view in a prewar Greenwich Village apartment. The rent is a pittance, but in exchange, the tenant must be willing to read aloud daily to the apartment's sight-impaired landlady.

When Danielle Roberts inherits a boarding house in Charters Towers, her first thought is that it’s a scam. Assured by the solicitor that it isn’t, she decides to make a quick trip and sort everything out. She has no intention of staying. A pastry chef, she owns a café in Redcliffe. The first person she sees when she arrives is the last person she wants to see. Brett Bainbridge, her first boyfriend, broke her heart when he walked out on her. Now, here he is, standing in her garden bed.

"The Man Who Knew Too Much" tells the story of Horne Fisher and the burden he had to carry throughout his whole life. He knew too much about politicians and aristocracy, about corruption and covered crimes. The prime minister of England was a friend of his father, the foreign minister married his sister. Without even intending to, he found out many things about the private life of politicians, which is very different from what is presented to the people. The question is, what is Fisher going to do with all this information? B. J.

Jerome, George and Harris are three hypochondriacal friends who like to spend time comparing their illnesses, although none of them is ill. One day they decide to go on a vacation by sailing down the Thames river towards Oxford. The three friends prepare a long list of things they will need and even take the dog Montmorency with them. During the journey they visit many different places and fall into various and interesting situations.

Summoned to war-torn Bosnia, ex-SAS officer Jeff Hawkins' main role is to keep UN aid convoys running at all costs. But his new company commander isn't up to the job and his colleague in Liaison is running his own agenda. The arrival of the winter snow brings another problem. It's vital that one huge convoy runs the gauntlet of fighting along the icy mountain roads, breaking the siege of Sarajevo with essential provisions and medical supplies before Christmas.

The plan is so complex, the target so well protected that the three snipers have to rehearse the killing in the seclusion of the Arizona desert. Cole Howard of the FBI knows he has only days to prevent the audacious assassination. But he doesn’t know who the target is or where the crack marksmen will strike. Former SAS sergeant Mike Cramer is also on the trail, infiltrating the Irish community in New York as he tracks down Mary Hennessy, the ruthless killer who tore his life apart.

Tony Freeman rescued Mersiha when she was fighting for her life in war-torn Yugoslavia. Now she is his adopted daughter, the perfect all-American girl - and the past is another country. Or so it seems. But Mersiha has been trained to kill. And when she discovers that Freeman’s company is subject to a sinister takeover bid, she decides to help. Whatever the risks. The consequences of her actions are lethal - for Mersiha has unearthed a conspiracy of terrifying proportions.…

The Assassin - the world’s most successful contract killer. Ice cool, accurate, and elusive. An anonymous professional with a unique calling card - one bullet in the head and one in the chest for each of his targets. An ex-member of the SAS, Mike Cramer is the perfect sacrificial bait. When the FBI discover the next name on the assassin’s hit list, Cramer is set up to take his place. But Cramer’s past has caught up with him....

In the highly competitive modern world, doing well in any competition is not enough. Being number one is what counts. This book traces the lives of five colorful individuals. They are winners in their unique ways from the early stages of their lives. We experience, intimately, the twists and turns that occur as they enter early adulthood and get embroiled in a contest anchored in the pursuit of business success and love. At some point, each character realizes that things can get highly complex, emotionally draining, and even dangerous when love is in the mix.

"In newspaper-land a dull lie is seldom detected, but an interesting exaggeration drives an unimaginative rival to hysterical denunciations." When a British politician pushes through a law that will allow political refugees to be sent back to their countries of origin, he becomes the target of the Four Just Men - a group of vigilantes who set out to the punish the people who consider themselves above the law.

"The Room in the Dragon Volant" is a mysterious story about a premature burial, a theme favoured by Poe some years previously. When a chivalric young man tries to save an innocent countess from the clutches of a greedy count, little does he suspect that the whole situation could be a trap. With plenty of Gothic elements and some remarkable episodes of horror, "The Room in the Dragon Volant" is a haunting mystery story that will keep readers at the edge of their seat. B. J.

William Dyer is a geologist who embarks on a long expedition to the Antarctic continent. The journey is dangerous but the strange things he and his group witness and find are far from what they had expected. The discovery mission turns into a fantastical and supernatural experience. Things get out of control when Dyer finds one of his colleagues’ camp demolished. The bigger part of the group is slaughtered, another man and his dog are missing.

From the Big Island to Kauai, the far side of Maui to the bustling streets of Honolulu, experience paradise in all its glory...and darkness. This collection of 10 stories brings out the beauty of the islands, the passion of the tropics, and, yes, murder. Join 10 writers who love the islands and want you to savor the tropics while benefiting literacy in Hawaii.

After a lucrative television writing career comes to an abrupt end, ex–high school teacher Ray Mitchell returns to the New Jersey city of his birth—to rethink his life, reconnect with his teenage daughter and to spread the wealth on the housing project that reared him. He begins teaching again, embarks on an affair with a married woman from the old neighborhood and becomes a mentor to a former student recently released from jail. Then, disaster: he is found beaten nearly to death in his own apartment.

When Claude's little sister, Amity, runs off in forbidden Badwell Woods—where children disappear—Deliah, Sam and Claude follow her to a mysterious mansion. Inside, time has frozen in the 1930s and an invitation promises a devious party game. Not long after they find a terrified Amity, hiding from 'ghosts', the floor beneath their feet starts to twist and turn: the rooms are changing places. The house has rearranged itself like a giant Rubik's cube. To escape, they must solve the puzzle—and the century-old mystery of a girl who disappeared.

What would you do if your ex got abducted? Remember, they're an ex for a reason. So let's assume you hate them from the depths of your soul. Line up the tequila shots, right? Not your problem? Now stay with me for a second. What if you were the only person who could save their life? Then would you save them? We are talking about another human being's life, after all. Now, imagine you have seven million dollars in your bank account. Sweet, right? It's seven million dollars or your ex's life. This is a judgment-free zone.

Sam McGee is one of the many gold miners of the Klondike Gold Rush. The freezing-cold and harsh winter of Yukon is about to take his next victim in the face of McGee. The poor man freezes to death on the trail. The night before he passed away, McGee had asked his friend, the narrator of the story, to cremate his remains, saying that he did not want to be buried in the frozen ground. However, after the man is cremated some strange things begin to happen.

Helen Turrell is a young and well-off single woman, living a the countryside village. But one day, she decides to travel to southern France and returns home with a baby called Michael. Helen says that Michael is the son of her brother, George, who died in India after falling off a horse. However, the truth is quite different and secretly, Helen tells Michael that he can call her "Mummy". Why did Helen travel to France? Is Michael really her nephew? Find out the truth in Rudyard Kipling’s story "The Gardener" from 1925. B. J.

In 1989, the Alphabet Killer, Professor Rodney Boone, murdered eight students. The victims, A to H, were each found with their surname initial carved into their neck. Victim nine narrowly escaped, and the murderer was left to burn to death. Eight years later, rookie Police Officer Rebecca Angell is thrown headlong into assisting a murder investigation. A body is found floating in the sewer, bearing the initial J. The investigators are convinced they are dealing with a copycat killer, but Boone's body was never recovered....

Megan Daniels was only three years old the day President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, but flashes of that day begin to trigger other disturbing memories. At first they are merely snippets, but then they begin to appear more frequently. In her attempt to learn more, she sets out to find her biological mother, but keeps hitting brick walls. No adoption papers exist, and all she has to go on is her possible birthday: November 22. In the small town of Meredith, California, Megan’s search takes on a dire, domino effect - one woman has already been murdered as a result of her inquiries.