Mystery Reads

No one ever thinks the unthinkable will happen... When Grace Hughes’s family was murdered outside their suburban home the police told her it was a senseless tragedy. Just another madman with a gun. Happens every day in America. One year later and still overwhelmed by grief, Grace struggles to make sense of her shattered world. Then Grace meets two abandoned children in desperate need of help and she discovers a newfound sense of purpose. But as Grace starts to heal, secrets about her husband’s past unfold.

Maybe some secrets should stay buried. After the devastating loss of her husband and daughter, Grace Hughes is determined to rebuild her life. She has created a community for herself and forged a new career helping children in need. She evens starts dating again. But she cannot ignore the past forever. As Grace delves deeper into her husband's secrets, she uncovers shocking truths that shake her to her core.

Detective Inspector Ken "Chunky" Mason finds himself trapped between a rock and a hard place when history and current events conspire against him. A dead body, blackmail, conflicts of interest. He’s almost at the end of his tether, when events take an unexpected twist.

Summer 1977. The police have barely got their heads around an arson attack when a second occurs. Where’s the evidence? A detective is following up a hunch when the arsonist strikes again. This time, the attack on an Orphanage leads to the loss of life of children and adults. An arrest is made. The suspect ticks some of the boxes, but detective "Chunky" Mason isn’t sure they’ve got their man. As the investigation steps up a gear Mason begins to unearth an unpalatable truth.

When four unconnected serial killers simultaneously commit identical murders across four different US cities, FBI Special Agent Shannon Wallace faces an unprecedented threat—a cooperative of killers working in unison. Each homicide is witnessed by a survivor, and now these lucky ones need to decide how to tell their stories to the world. Their posts about the horrific murders create a media storm and a new term is soon coined for the killers: The Alliance.

On a tiny island off Paradiso, Florida, in 1970, neighbors gather to toast two new arrivals: shy Catherine and her taciturn husband, Dr. Frank Overbrook, who is taking over an old friend’s medical practice. It’s an intimate welcoming for the newlyweds, who have abandoned city life for swaying palms and an ocean breeze. But the morning after is anything but peaceful when Frank is found dead on the beach.

When Abbie Coleman is asked to host a relaxing wellbeing retreat at the Hummingbird Hotel after a stressful photoshoot on board celebrity fashion designer Pierre Fontaine's luxury yacht, she knows it's the perfect opportunity to showcase the peace and tranquility on offer. But when a member of the local goat fraternity is discovered in a guest's room munching on a pair of his paisley boxer shorts, and a delicious avocado and kale smoothie has unexpected soporific properties, Abbie must once again join forces with local vineyard owner to unravel the mystery and save the hotel.

My printsessa thinks she's taken a regular job for a regular lawyer. She doesn't know the devils that lurk below the surface now that she's in my world. The bratva world. Innocent, sweet, and trusting. All the things I am not. All the things I never knew I wanted.

The first season focuses on the short story tradition, and B. J. Harrison has selected some of the most prominent representatives of the genre. As far as the thematic aspect is concerned, the stories cover crime and mystery episodes like Arthur Conan Doyle’s "The Speckled Band", or revenge-driven ones like Shakespeare’s "Hamlet". There are also supernatural and horror classics such as Hawthorne’s "The Devil and Tom Walker" and W. W. Jacobs’ masterpiece "The Monkey’s Paw".

"The Moonstone" by Wilkie Collins is one of the forefathers of detective fiction, cementing the foundations of the genre. At the centre of it lays the theft of a diamond, dating in origin from a religious Indian shrine, which prompts detective Sergeant Cuff to take up the case. It is an absolute page-turner of a story and goes through the accounts of the different characters, winding and meandering from fact to fiction and vice versa.

Pip is a poor orphaned boy who lives together with his sister and her husband. Pip is not educated but has great dreams of the future. He is determined to get out of the low class and seek progress in the higher class. One day a lawyer appears. Pip has suddenly received a large fortune from a secret benefactor and he has to get to London to start his education. Pip’s life changes in a second. But he is ready to embark on his next journey.

Hungary during the Ottoman wars: Turks attack Buda and set up a siege of Eger. Gergely Bornemissza is a poor half-orphan who is about to become a national hero. "Eclipse of the Crescent Moon" follows Gergelys life from the age of eight until his early thirties. His life is a vivid combination of poverty, love, battles and dangers. He is on the front line when the Turks capture Buda and later when they approach Eger. His country is in danger and so is his family. The battle is one of life or death.

You have certainly heard of Dracula. But do you know the whole story? Everything begins with Jonathan Harker, an English solicitor who travels to Transylvania. He is about to sell a piece of real estate to Count Dracula. The locals warn Harker of the strange things that occur near Count Dracula’s castle, but Harker doesn't listen. Shortly after he realizes that he has fallen into captivity.

Sent away to convent school at the age of six, Irini McGuire has never really known her celebrated archaeologist mother, Bridget, who lives on the paradise island of Santorini. So, when Irini receives news that Bridget has been injured at a dig and is in coma she knows it is time to return to the island of her birth. Discovering her mother's notes, and driven by rumours that her mother's injury was no accident, Irini starts to reveal the dark secrets behind her family's separation. Can she unearth the truth about her parents and her past before it is too late?

In 1990, within the deceptively peaceful woods of her Sussex neighborhood, Mia witnesses the brutal murder of her mother and wakes up in a shallow grave. A man confesses to the murder and later dies in prison, but Mia never comes to terms with her mother's death. After another brush with tragedy in 2021, Mia and her boyfriend Rich move from London to a small Spanish village where they can begin a new life. At first, Val Verde seems to be everything they could wish for. But when a body is found in the olive grove outside of town, they realize that their would-be safe haven harbors a secret.

Grace Hughes has finally uncovered the truth behind the tragic deaths of her husband and daughter. But now that she knows the truth, she must act on it. Her conscience demands nothing less. With the help of an unlikely ally, Grace hatches a plan to insinuate herself into the lives of her family’s killers. Her goal is simple: infiltrate their organization and gather evidence to use against them at trial. But as Grace delves deeper into the criminal world, the danger to herself and her family escalates.

B. J. Harrison does not tire of the adventurous and mysterious settings in his choice of narratives. This time, the horror element is a bit subdued, though Edgar Allan Poe makes up for the lost thrills with his haunting poems "The Raven", "Annabel Lee", and "The Sleeper". P. G. Wodehouse appears with four works, scoring points for his humor.

A kaleidoscope of genres, themes, topics, and motifs await the listener here. From comedy and mystery, to horror and children’s stories, Season Four abounds in fairy tales adventures, challenges to the listener’s imagination, and joyrides through the unknown realms of the psyche. One of the most famous short stories in horror fiction, "The Call of Cthulhu" sits next to the funny characters of "Right Ho, Jeeves" by Wodehouse, while the eponymous sleepyhead from "Rip Van Winkle" is very much awake, facing H. G. Wells’ "The Door in the Wall".

Season Three comes with serious firepower. The genre of adventure, science fiction, fantasy, horror, romance, melodrama, and the psychological are all present, turning the collection into a kaleidoscope of characters, plot twists, emotions, and revelations. Magicians hurl lightnings at each other, talking rabbits and vanishing cats talk to a little girl, while mad scientists try to create life from dead body parts. One of the most prominent names in this season is the American master of horror H. P.

Nicholas Nickleby is a young boy left without a father. Nicholas has to take care of his mother and sister and is forced by his uncle to work as an assistant to the schoolmaster Wackford Squeers. Squeers’ intentions are however not good and his only goal is to make Nicholas’ life miserable. At the same time Squeers’ wife convinces herself that Nicholas loves her and this gets the young boy in even greater trouble. Nicholas’ uncle is colluding with the schoolmaster and it seems like everybody is against him.