Mysteries

Mysteries

Looking to download free and discounted mystery ebooks? Well then, you sleuth, you’ve found the right place. Satisfy your crime solving needs in this category, and never pay more than what you should. We routinely feature the best authors of mystery ebooks, and they always promote their ebooks to you--for free or for a discount.

 

Definition of "Mystery Genre": Fiction in which a detective resolves a crime or series of crimes.  This genre can also be referred to as detective or crime novels.  The plot of a mystery ebook focuses on the crime that needs to be solved, and the detective that will solve it.  Typical elements include the detective being in danger, a host of suspects with their own motives, and clues, motives and alibis.  The genre can vary greatly dependent on the time in which the mystery is set, as that will drive what tools the detective has at his/her disposal.

 

Some examples of the best mysteries of all-time include Dashiell Hammett (The Maltese Falcon), Agatha Christie (Murder on the Orient Express), Caleb Carr (The Alienist), Lyndsay Faye (Dust and Shadow), James Cain (The Postman Always Rings Twice).  Of course, many of these are the best mystery ebooks of all time, as well as classics.  We try to bring you free and discounted mystery ebooks on their way to being the tops in their genre.

The Valentine Circle (A Silas de San Michel Mystery)

by Reinaldo DelValle

Boston, Winter of 1885.

A string of kidnappings plagues the snow-laden city of Boston while a murderer runs amok hunting and killing the unborn babies of they city's social elite.

A powerful group called the Valentine Society controls the city's police department, and the people of Boston's last hope for justice lies in the hands of a man who mysteriously washes ashore from a distant foreign land, battered and bruised.

To complicate matters, he doesn't remember who he is or where he's from...


Just a week after he is found unconscious aboard a cargo ship, Officer Silas de San Michel is thrust into a mysterious case dealing with the vicious killings of pregnant teenage girls. But what he doesn't know is that these young girls belong to the secret Valentine Society, an elite group of Boston socialites that have corrupted the city's top officials, unashamedly operating above the law.

With the help of his boss, the highly intelligent Inspector Belloc, and his lovely assistant, the boisterous and spirited Miss Posy Chapman, Silas embarks on a journey that takes him inside a secret world of rules and privileges, of oppressive parents and mischievous alliances.

Weighed down by the sickness of memory loss, Silas struggles to maintain his sanity as he begins to discover the darkness plaguing his own sordid past, a darkness that ultimately brings him to the brink of becoming that which he hunts, a serial killer who was raised and trained by an insidious organization known only as The Factory.

 

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Any Witch Way You Can (Wicked Witches of the Midwest Book 1)

by Amanda M. Lee

Bay Winchester is having a tough week.


As the local editor of Hemlock Cove's only newspaper, she just happens to be present when a body is found in an area corn maze. To make matters worse, the police believe the murder may have something to do with the occult.
This wouldn't be a problem for a normal reporter, but since Bay is descended from a well-known line of actual witches, the town is understandably on edge.


Between the suspicious townspeople, the befuddled police presence and that random hot biker guy that may or may not have something to do with the murder -- Bay has her hands full.


When you add the typical family problems, multiplying ghosts -- and one monster of a zit that she's sure came from her aunt's curse -- Bay is just struggling to make it through the week.
Of course, when the killer sets his sights on Bay, things could get a whole lot worse.

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Don't Dare a Dame (Maggie Sullivan mysteries Book 3)

by M. Ruth Myers

Depression-era private investigator Maggie Sullivan risks losing her P.I. license — and her life — when two spinsters hire her to learn the fate of their father, who vanished twenty-six years earlier. She’s barely started when her main suspect commits suicide and Maggie is summoned before the powerful chief of police. A stroke of his pen will revoke her license, and he warns her he’s getting complaints about her from City Hall.

With her livelihood on the line, fortified by a nip of gin and her .38, the intrepid detective follows a trail all but obliterated by time and the catastrophic Dayton flood of 1913 in which the vanished man went missing. It leads her to a local politician with bigger ambitions — and possibly secrets to hide. It takes her into dime stores, cheap hotels, and a violent ambush by men wearing brass knuckles.

As a cop wages a wily campaign to win her affections, and a rag-tag newsboy pushes to become her assistant, crimes of the past explode in the present. Maggie fights to survive foes who must destroy her to destroy each other.

Fans of strong women sleuths and historical atmosphere have dubbed this tough little private investigator “Sam Spade in a skirt.”

 

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Creatures of Appetite

by Todd Travis

They call it the Heartland Child Murders.
Everyone else calls it a nightmare.
Locked doors don’t stop him.
He leaves no trace behind.
He only takes little girls.
His nickname…

The Iceman.

A deranged serial killer roams wintry rural Nebraska targeting little girls with a demented purpose that no one can fathom.

Special Agent EMMA KANE, a former DC cop and damaged goods now with the FBI, is assigned to baby-sit burned out profiler JACOB THORNE, once the best in the business but now said to have lost his edge, as they both fly to Nebraska to catch this maniac.

Thorne is erratic, abrasive and unpredictably brilliant, but what he and Kane find in the heartland is much more than anyone bargained for, especially when the Iceman challenges them personally, where it hurts most.

The clock is ticking and a little girl’s life is on the line.

And maybe even more with that, once they find out what he’s really up to.

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The Pursuit of Lies, Mystery with a Romantic Twist (Paradise Valley Mystery Series Book 4)

by Debra Burroughs

Sassy small-town private-eye Emily Parker races to solve a scandalous murder. Her world is ripped apart when the man she loves, the town's hunky police detective, is arrested, accused of murdering a female Assistant District Attorney with whom the police believe he was having an affair. The D.A. is pushing for the death penalty. With the help of her close circle of friends, Emily is in for the fight of her life!

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Murder at Green Meadows: Cozy Mystery Set In Florida: An Angie Walker Cozy Mystery

by Jessica Woodridge

Angie Walker is a few days from fulfilling a life-long dream of being her own boss. Soon, she and her best friend will open a treasure/antique business on the Florida east coast.  But as a reporter for the Tequesta Sun, she has one last assignment – interview former boss Frederick Canterly about his five-decade career as publisher of the Madera Beach Tribune.  The interview should be a piece of cake but her former boss very inconveniently drops dead.

 

 

Police believe he’s been poisoned and detectives find an incriminating vial in Angie’s purse. Now instead of opening the door to her business dream, she may open the door to a prison nightmare.
With the help of long-time friend and reporter Harry Landon, she begins a desperate search for the shrewd killer who framed her.

 

 

Canterly made enemies during his time in Madera Beach. Many people hated him, with good reason. Even Landon had an opportunity and a very good motive to kill the Madera Beach Publisher.
While keeping her eye on her good friend Harry, Angie will have to shift through the evidence and find the ruthless murderer.

 

 

In doing so, she will also become a target. Unless she is careful,intelligent and ruthless, Canterly will not be the only murder victim in this small tightly-knit community.

 

 

 

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The Case Of The Tattooed Buttocks: An Inspector Cullot Mystery

by Alan Hardy

Following the murder of a sexy, blonde bombshell (and, soon after, the bloody, gruesome, shocking murder of yet another sexy broad), ex-Inspector Cullot is called in to team up with his old side-kick, Detective Sergeant Watkins, to investigate the baffling crime. Together they set about solving the mysterious deaths at Bounderdales, the opulent mansion of the oil magnate, Henry Barble. A small group of the rich, decadent, sophisticated and ultra-sexy are staying at the mansion. What secrets are each of them harbouring? Who are the guilty parties? And what is the dark secret from his own past which causes Cullot’s frequent moments of dark despair? Why did he leave the Police Force? Did he jump, or was he pushed? Why does he now work in a department store, in Ladies Underwear? The police constable first on the scene of the initial murder, PC Blunt, is ready to record every detail of the case, and assist his colleagues in their work. But what is his own past..? Is he as half-witted as he seems? What about gorgeous, sexy blonde bombshells, Stephanie and Gloria? And louche, limp-wristed Anthony Newhome? And Barble’s son, Oswald? And Barble’s demure, bespectacled secretary, Abigail? And ex-movie star, Janice Butler? Are they all who they say they are, or are some of them involved in a deadly game of murder and revenge? How are these murders linked to the unsolved Night-Club Hostess Murders which took place two years earlier? And, most puzzling of all, what is the meaning of the tattoos on the gorgeous buttocks of the assembled ladies? Thrill to the suspense, the heart-ache, the twists and turns, the laugh-a-minute of this hilarious, baffling mystery. Get ready to follow the roller-coaster plot, with one surprise after surprise, and scintillating word-play and sparkling dialogue between the marvellous host of characters. Will you be able to work out who did it? A detective/murder mystery like no other…

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Waiting for Armando (Kate Lawrence Mysteries Book 1)

by Judith K. Ivie

Ever had a boss you hate?

Volume One in the Kate Lawrence Mystery Series features the support staff at a Hartford, Connecticut, law firm and exposes the overpriced blowhards to whom they report. Meet Kate, Margo and Strutter , three hardworking forty-somethings, as they attempt to exonerate one of their colleagues by solving the murder of a prominent lawyer-- and become best friends in the process. 

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Just Add Trouble (Hetta Coffey Series, Book 3)

by Jinx Schwartz

Hetta Coffey is a sassy Texan with a snazzy yacht, and she's not afraid to use it!

A globe-trotting engineer with adventure in her soul, Hetta is determined to solidify her relationship with her long-distance boyfriend, Jenks Jenkins. What better place for a romantic interlude than aboard her yacht in Mexico's hauntingly beautiful and solitary Sea of Cortez?
But where Hetta goes, trouble follows, and chaos is sure to ensue. After a run-in with a couple of sea serpents that threaten to rock the boat, she nevertheless decides to take on a project in the Mexican port city of Guaymas. After all, Jenks is headed back to Kuwait, so why not cash in on the best of both worlds by picking up a few pesos while living aboard her boat in Mexico?
Once again Hetta's indomitable spirit, stubborn independence and penchant for deceit will keep the reader in stitches as she launches herself and her best friend, Jan, into a sea of trouble. A pesky parrot, a drunken aunt, and a shadowy figure who is handsome in a "criminal sort of way" lead to murder, mayhem, kidnapping, and run-ins with several federal agencies on both sides of the border.

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All the Blue-Eyed Angels (Erin Solomon Pentalogy Book 1)

by Jen Blood

Jonestown. The Solar Temple. Heaven's Gate. In the summer of 1990, the Payson Church of Tomorrow joins the ranks of those infamous cult suicides when thirty-four members burn to death on a small island off the coast of Maine. At ten years old, Payson member Erin Solomon watches helplessly as the church and its congregation are reduced to ash and embers. 


More than twenty years later, Erin is an accomplished investigative journalist when she receives word that she has inherited Payson Isle... and all its ghosts. She returns to Maine to learn the truth behind the tragedy that has haunted her since childhood, aided by the rakish mentor who's stood by her side since she was a teenager, her trusty mutt Einstein, and a mysterious stranger with his own dark past. 
 
Soon, Erin is enmeshed in violence, conspiracy, and scandal, as she fights to unearth the secrets of the Payson Church of Tomorrow -- secrets someone will kill to keep buried.  
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Found, Near Water

by Katherine Hayton

Rena Sutherland wakes from a coma into a mother’s nightmare. Her daughter is missing – lost for four days – but no one has noticed; no one has complained; no one has been searching.

As the victim support officer assigned to her case, Christine Emmett puts aside her own problems as she tries to guide Rena through the maelstrom of her daughter’s disappearance.

A task made harder by an ex-husband desperate for control; a paedophile on early-release in the community; and a psychic who knows more than seems possible.

And intertwined throughout, the stories of six women; six daughters lost.

I thought that not knowing was the worst thing I could ever endure. Not knowing if she was in trouble or needing my help or in pain. I worried that she’d been taken by someone that would hurt her, then I worried that she’d been taken by someone who would love her and care for her and in a year or two she’d have forgotten I ever existed. Not knowing was killing me.

The police found her body stuffed into an old recycling bin out the back of a sleep-out. My beautiful girl had been bent to fit as though she was just a piece of rubbish, something to be disposed of.

When I went to the hospital to identify my beautiful girl’s broken body - that was worse than not knowing. When I buried her in the cemetery and compared the size of the gravesite to the other freshly buried bodies - that was worse than not knowing. When I drank myself to sleep on the anniversary of her sixth birthday, and realised that I would likely be doing that until my life ended - that was worse than not knowing.


 

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TRESPASS (TJ Peacock & Lisa Rayburn Mysteries Book 2)

by Marla Madison

TRESPASS

A deadly house explosion in her neighborhood lures investigator TJ Peacock to the site of the fire where she meets Gemma, a woman tortured by the death of a friend who died in the explosion.


Gemma, struggling with the ghosts of her past, is convinced the explosion was deliberate, and hires TJ to find out who murdered her friend. TJ takes the case and returns to the work she loves, despite feeling guilty about the responsibilities of motherhood and the attitude of her long-time lover, Detective Richard Conlin.


When a series of attacks and a murder take place in the same neighborhood, TJ unearths a bizarre connection to a sixteen-year-old double suicide of a couple who were partnered in a swingers’ group. A killer is trying to eliminate everyone who had been players in the group.
The clock is ticking as TJ tries to unravel the mystery before more people are killed.

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Cold Lake (David Wolf Book 5)

by Jeff Carson

The truth emerges one piece at a time.

When a fisherman reels in a plastic bag containing a severed human head from the depths of Cold Lake, Colorado, Sheriff David Wolf and his deputies scramble to the scene, and quickly realize there are more surprises to be found below.

Their grim discoveries reopen a cold case Wolf’s father worked twenty-two years ago, and Wolf must try to succeed where his father failed before him. Wolf has the advantage on his dad, however, because he has bodies. Lots of them.

Amid sweeping political changes that have his department and the entire county on edge, Wolf and his deputies come to the disturbing realization there is a dangerous serial killer in their midst—one who will stop at nothing to remain hidden.

Can Wolf and his deputies unveil the truth before someone pays the ultimate price?
 

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Soot Angel (featuring Dr. Anja Toussaint)

by m.a. petterson

A beautiful forensic engineer hiding a tragic past seeks the killer of a homeless child and uncovers a deadly plot to destroy a foreign government.

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Fade Route (Burnside Series Book 2)

by David Chill

A candidate for mayor has been murdered and there's one obvious suspect.

But Burnside, the former football star turned private investigator, pushes forward into a harrowing investigation that reveals more and more possible culprits, all with their own motives. As the action intensifies, Burnside himself becomes embroiled in a case which goes beyond just one murder. And when the police suspect he's a person of interest, Burnside must race against time to find the killer.

With little more to go on than his gut feeling, Burnside pokes at everything around him. Desperately trying to untangle a web of deceit that threatens to destroy him personally, he is also faced with a scenario that could take down an entire community...

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Full Irish

by Peter Morin & Susanne O'Leary

A Dublin reporter is on a mission to find the murderer of an honest politician and close friend. A Boston lawyer is hired to dig up dirt on a conniving Irish competitor. 

When the two collide at a famous County Kerry castle and discover their mutual interests, the ensuing game plan is more Pink Panther than Hercule Poirot. 

Full Irish marks the return of Paul Forté and his wife, Shannon, and the introduction of Finola McGee. In a sometimes madcap, sometimes dark adventure, Shannon lands a blow against lecherous politicians, McGee shows off her pole dancing prowess, an Anglo-Irish butler turns double-agent, and the zygomatic bone takes disproportionate abuse. But can the trio unravel the web of conspiracy stretching from the back corridors of Leinster House to the polished inner sanctum of the Massachusetts Senate? 

Against the backdrop of the windswept west coast of Ireland and the watering holes of Dublin and Boston, Full Irish exposes a rivalry that goes to the very heart of politics. 

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Aunt Bessie Assumes (Isle of Man Cozy Mystery Book 1)

by Diana Xarissa

Aunt Bessie assumes that she'll have the beach all to herself on a cold, wet, and windy March morning just after sunrise, then she stumbles (almost literally) over a dead body.

Elizabeth (Bessie) Cubbon, aged somewhere between free bus pass (60) and telegram from the Queen (100), has lived her entire adult life in a small cottage on Laxey beach. For most of those years, she's been in the habit of taking a brisk morning walk along the beach. Dead men have never been part of the scenery before.

Aunt Bessie assumes that the dead man died of natural causes, then the police find the knife in his chest.

Try as she might, Bessie just can't find anything to like about the young widow that she provides tea and sympathy to in the immediate aftermath of finding the body. There isn't much to like about the rest of the victim's family either.

Aunt Bessie assumes that the police will have the case wrapped up in no time at all, then she finds a second body.

Can Bessie and her friends find the killer before she ends up as the next victim?

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Vengeance is Mine - A Benjamin Tucker Mystery

by Harry James Krebs

2014 GOLD Readers' Favorite for Mystery/Murder

Driven by a traumatic, violent event in his teenage years, Benjamin Tucker, a true crime author and amateur detective, is obsessed with solving crimes near his home turf of Holly Springs, North Carolina. When a series of decapitated female victims is found in neighboring communities, he is helplessly drawn in to the investigation. The hunt for the killer becomes personal and Tucker isn’t sure if he’s become the killer’s idol or his next victim.

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The Truth About Alex (Montana Marrenger Book 2)

by M.W. Griffith

On a frigid cliff overlooking the sea, investigators find the body of an elderly man named Alex Keaton. After notifying Alex’s next of kin about the grim discovery, they are shocked to learn that the old man wasn't who he had claimed to be.


The real Alex Keaton was a young boy who vanished on a snowy night over a decade ago.

Baffled, the local police enlist the help of FBI Special Agent Selena Marrenger. What she finds will lead her on a journey that will push her to the limits, and bring her face to face with those who won’t hesitate to protect a dangerous secret.

Can Selena bring the truth to light before it's buried forever?

 

 

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The Murder Pit (A Moose River Mystery Book 1)

by Jeff Shelby

Daisy Savage finally has everything she wants. A new husband. A bunch of kids. A charming old house.

What she doesn't want is a dead body.

When a frozen pipe in the basement of her century-old home leads her and her husband downstairs into a newly discovered crawl space, they find a coal chute they didn't know they had. And a corpse inside of it.

Things become complicated when Daisy realizes she knew the victim. And things get even worse when it becomes increasingly clear that the body was placed there to make Daisy look like the killer.

Against her husband's advice and her own common sense, Daisy makes it her mission to prove to the denizens of Moose River that she is innocent. But doing so may be more dangerous than she planned.

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