Mystery Reads

One poisoned cupcake just might close this bookstore’s doors forever. Enjoying the success of their small town bookstore Read Wine, Trixie, Cora, and Sally can finally focus on other aspects of their lives—like planning Cora's upcoming wedding. As the friends prepare for the big event, they discover someone in town is poisoning baked goods, and they are being served at the bookstore. This is not a good look for their business, and they need to act fast before their customers disappear. Can they discover who the culprit is and get their friend down the aisle? Only time will tell.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Tom Sawyer is an orphaned boy who lives together with his kindhearted aunt Polly. Although his poor aunt takes good care of him, Tom grows up to be rebellious who comes up with a new plan for troublemaking every day. He steals snacks, comes home late, lies to his friends, tricks them into giving him various things and each time he manages to get away with it. But when he falls in love with a girl and tries to win her heart, he gets into even bigger trouble.

"The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes" is Sir Conan Doyle’s second collection about the great detective. In this collection we meet the same two protagonists, namely Holmes and Watson, but the cases and mysteries that must be solved are completely new. The disappearance of a champion horse, a dead coachman and stolen naval treaty are only a small portion of all the mysteries the two men will have to deal with.

Lucy Honeychurch and her cousin are on a vacation in Florence. The girls are given a room looking into the courtyard, but they would rather have one with a view over the river. George Emerson and his father offer the two girls to change rooms and this is how George and Lucy meet for the first time. George grows fond of Lucy but she is not sure of her feelings towards him. She returns home to England where she accepts to marry Cecil Vyse, a man who had already proposed to her three times.

Zorro is a mysterious man who always wears a large sombrero and a long black cloak. He covers his face with a black mask with two holes through which his sharp gaze follows everything that goes on around him. Zorro has some problems with the Californian governor, who thinks that the man is a thief. The governor is ready to pay a lot of money to the one who kills Zorro. This is where real problems begin for the mysterious man.

The "League of the Scarlet Pimpernel" is a secret society made up of twenty English aristocrats. The commander is the so-called "Scarlet Pimpernel" but almost nobody knows his real identity. The society aims to defy the French revolutionaries. The main goal is to rescue innocents from the deadly guillotine.

Ballantrae and Henry are two brothers and Scottish noblemen, whose family is torn apart during the Jacobite rising of 1745. Ballantrae is an unscrupulous and bold man, who joins the fights to restore the Stuarts to the English throne. His brother, an honest and good-natured man, stays as a supporter of King George. Just when everyone thinks that Ballantrae has been killed, he returns to find out the terrible truth about his younger brother.

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.

David Balfour is a young Scottish man whose parents have recently died. The seventeen-year-old orphan decides that the time has come for him to seek his fortune. Right before Balfour departs for Edinburgh, he meets with his guardian Mr Campbell. Campbell tells the young boy that he has a wealthy uncle living in Cramond.

Victor Frankenstein is a young scientist who artificially creates a human being. His expectations are however far from reality as is Creation is so monstrous that it cannot fit into human society. This leads to dreadful consequences as the monster decides to take it revenge his creator. Will Frankenstein manage to control his creature or will he loose everything? "Frankenstein" is Mary Shelley’s best-selling work and is a vivid combination of genres with gothic, philosophical and early science-fiction elements. B. J.

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.

Allan Quatermain is a hunter who lives in South Africa. One day, after he returns home from an unsuccessful elephant hunt, he meets Sir Henry Curtis and Captain John Good. The two men are looking for Curtis’ brother, who disappeared whilst trying to find King Solomon’s Mines. Quatermain owns a map that show the way to the mines, so he decides to help Curtis and Good. Allan organizes an expedition that will take them to the edge of the desert.

Rachel Innes is a rich lady who has been taking care of her niece and nephew since their father died. The three of them decide to rent a house in the country and although everything seems to be alright in the beginning, strange events soon begin to occur. Her niece disappears then reappears a few days later. There is a murder they are involved in. They hear strange noises. Things fall down the stairs in the middle of the night. Will Rachel solve the mysteries and how will their summer end? Find out in "The Circular Staircase". B. J.