Mysteries
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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.
“A welcome addition to this tough genre.” The New York Times Book Review
“In recent years women private eyes have become big business, as anyone who’s been following the fortunes of Sue Grafton and Sara Paretsky can attest. Thanks to their success, the way has been opened for many other women to write mysteries uniquely their own. A fine example is Janet Dawson.” The Denver Post
“Janet Dawson’s new kid on the block, Jeri Howard, another Californian, is a kindred spirit of Dashiell Hammett’s Continental Op character.” USA Weekend
Filipino-American professor Lito Manibusan is dead, murdered in a San Francisco parking garage. His body was found by a fellow Cal State history professor – whose daughter is Oakland private eye Jeri Howard.
Several months after the funeral, mystery woman Dolores Cruz shows up on campus, claiming to be the dead man’s widow. Dolly wants the professor’s papers, but they’ve already been turned over to Dr. Manibusan’s next-of-kin.
Jeri discovers the pattern of death and deception leads from the Bay Area’s Filipino-American community all the way back to the Philippines and World War II.
After all, the past never dies. It’s just covered up.
***Special Launch Price - Very Limited Time***
Sheriff Ray Pacheco returns from his introduction in The Bootlegger’s Legacy to start a new chapter as a private investigator, along with his partners: Tyee Chino, often-drunk Apache fishing guide, and Big Jack, bait shop owner and philosopher.
The trio are pulled into a mystery immediately when an abandoned show dog appears at Ray’s cabin and the dog’s owner is reported missing. Ray and his team pursue leads that bring them into confrontations with the local sheriff, the mayor, and the FBI, while in the meantime two bodies are found—neither of which is the missing woman.
From New York Times bestselling author Deanna Chase, the first book in the Pyper Rayne series (a spin-off of the Jade Calhoun Series).
All Pyper Rayne—medium and coffee shop owner—wanted was the perfect vintage dress. What she got was a dead shop owner and a sexy ghost who’s suddenly everywhere—at her shop, in her car, and even lounging in her bedroom. But he’s not just any ghost. He’s a witch and able to appear in solid form…sometimes. If only he'd stop disappearing on her.
And Pyper needs his help. When she becomes target numero uno and the prime suspect in the shop owner’s death, it appears her ghost holds the key to solving the murder. In between stolen kisses, Pyper will need to get to the bottom of all of his secrets if she wants to stay alive and out of jail…and maybe finally get that date he keeps promising her.
"Carter's writing is on target." - Publishers Weekly
A curmudgeon. An iconoclast. A loner. That's how people describe Garrison Gage, and that's when they're being charitable.
After his wife's brutal murder in New York, and Gage himself is beaten nearly to death, the crippled private investigator retreats three thousand miles to the quaint coastal town of Barnacle Bluffs, Oregon. He spends the next five years in a convalescent stupor, content to bide his time filling out crossword puzzles and trying to forget that his wife's death is his fault. But all that changes when he discovers the body of a young woman washed up on the beach, and his conscience draws him back into his old occupation - forcing him to confront the demons of his own guilt before he can hope to solve the girl's murder.
Scam Man is the Thirteenth mystery in the highly entertaining Dev Haskell Private Investigator Series. Morton, the golden retriever is back just in time to turn Dev's dating experience with gorgeous AJ into an absolute disaster. Meanwhile his longtime "friend with benefits" Heidi is being showered with jewels and romantic getaways. Dev is investigating Austin Hackett, a scheming attorney who has run scams on everything from porn to disability lawsuits. He can set everything right if only Swindle Lawless and Woofy Barker can keep their act together. Assaults, shootings, scams, broken hearts and murder combine for more humorous entertainment from the master of the bizarre, Mike Faricy. If you like Carl Hiaasen, Tim Dorsey and Elmore Leonard-make room for one more!
When an old-time bootlegger dies and leaves his son Mike a cryptic letter hinting at millions in hidden cash, Mike and his friend Joe embark on a journey that takes them through three states and 50 years of history. What they find goes beyond money and transforms them both.
This is an action-packed adventure story that partially takes place in the early 1950s. It all starts with a key, embossed with the letters CB, and a cryptic reference to Deep Deuce, a neighborhood once filled with hot jazz and gangs of bootleggers. Out of those threads is woven a tapestry of history, romance, drama, and mystery; connecting two generations and two families in the adventure of a lifetime.
Sue Grafton ups the ante for private investigator Kinsey Millhone like never before in this “taut, terrifying, transfixing”* #1 New York Times bestselling mystery in the Alphabet series.
Kinsey Millhone's elderly neighbor, Gus Vronsky, may have been the original inspiration for the term “Grumpy Gus.” A miser and a hoarder, Gus is so crotchety that after he takes a bad fall, his only living relative is anxious to find someone to take care of him and get back home as soon as she can.
To help, Kinsey runs a check on the applicant, Solana Rojas. Social security, driver's license, nursing certification: It all checks out. And it sounds like she did a good job for her former employers. So Kinsey gives her the thumbs-up, figuring Gus will be the ideal assignment for this diligent, experienced caregiver.
And the real Solana Rojas was indeed an excellent caregiver. But the woman who has stolen her identity is not, and for her, Gus will be the ideal victim...
“The best and strongest book in the series...Solana is one of the most evil, calculating characters Grafton has created.”—*USA Today
Norman Green is a disgraced former professional athlete turned private investigator. He has created a career out of working for those the police have turned their back on. The only people he won't work with are child abusers, rapists, and journalists.
However, when Robin Sweetwater, a journalist working for the same paper that destroyed Norman's athletic career, comes begging for help, Norman finds himself dragged into the same web of lies and deception that destroyed his life once before.
In order to find the truth surrounding the alleged suicide of Robin's younger brother, a star athlete himself, Norman will need to wade through the dark depths of his past and unravel a conspiracy stretching farther than he could ever have imagined.
Praise for Ben Follows's novels:
"Explosive, extraordinary and engrossing; this is how I would describe this exceptional book. The Absence of Screams is a sensational crime/thriller novel that chilled me to my core from beginning to end."
"What a great book. I found this book in my hands every time I had a spare minute. "
"I couldn't go to sleep until I finished this book."
"Ben Follows does it again; another excellent read by an accomplished writer."
July 8, 1921. Ireland.
A British Officer is shot dead on a remote hillside south of Dublin.
November 22, 2015. United Kingdom.
Former police detective, Jayne Sinclair, now working as a genealogical investigator, receives a phone call from an adopted American billionaire asking her to discover the identity of his real father.
How are the two events linked?
Jayne Sinclair has only three clues to help her: a photocopied birth certificate, a stolen book and an old photograph. And it soon becomes apparent somebody else is on the trail of the mystery. A killer who will stop at nothing to prevent Jayne discovering the secret hidden in the past
The Irish Inheritance takes us through the Easter Rising of 1916 and the Irish War of Independence, combining a search for the truth of the past with all the tension of a modern-day thriller.
It is the first in a series of novels featuring Jayne Sinclair, genealogical detective.
Here's what people are saying about The Irish Inheritance:
‘You won't want to put it down. Great summer read.’
‘The final twist was a masterstroke.'
‘What a great story!’
‘I absolutely loved this book!’
‘Being a genealogist myself I loved Jayne Sinclair.’
‘Can’t wait for the next one’
‘Wonderful saga.’
‘Very well done. The author had me from the first chapter.’
‘For anyone who loves history or Ireland!’
‘This is a brilliant well told story. Very well written and had me gripped all the way through.’
‘Very good. I couldn’t put it down.’
A campsite killer. An off-the-record investigation. For two small-town detectives, murder is only the beginning…
Chief Sam Mason and Sergeant Jody Harris don't have the luxury of being off the clock. When a drowning disrupts the funeral of a fellow detective, they have no choice but to leave early. After the body is pulled ashore, Sam and Jody suspect the camper's death was no accident…
As they attempt to solve their co-worker's own suspicious death, the detectives parse through the motives of the drowning victim's friends. With a nosy cop on their trail and a mayor desperate to restore quiet to their small town, Sam and Jo attempt to get beyond the cover-up. Just when they think they can rest after solving one murder, a shocking discovery proves that sometimes even your most trusted allies could be telling lies.
Telling Lies is the first book in the riveting Sam Mason mystery series. If you like police procedurals and complex characters, then you'll love this twisty whodunnit.
Instant #1 New York Times Bestseller!
For readers of Gillian Flynn and Tana French comes one of the decade’s most anticipated debuts, to be published in thirty-six languages around the world and already in development as a major film from Fox: a twisty, powerful Hitchcockian thriller about an agoraphobic woman who believes she witnessed a crime in a neighboring house.
It isn’t paranoia if it’s really happening . . .
Anna Fox lives alone—a recluse in her New York City home, unable to venture outside. She spends her day drinking wine (maybe too much), watching old movies, recalling happier times . . . and spying on her neighbors.
Then the Russells move into the house across the way: a father, mother, their teenaged son. The perfect family. But when Anna, gazing out her window one night, sees something she shouldn’t, her world begins to crumble and its shocking secrets are laid bare.
What is real? What is imagined? Who is in danger? Who is in control? In this diabolically gripping thriller, no one—and nothing—is what it seems.
Twisty and powerful, ingenious and moving, The Woman in the Window is a smart, sophisticated novel of psychological suspense that recalls the best of Hitchcock.
“Evanovich…with a dash of CSI.” – Publishers Weekly (review of Lucky Stiff)
A TWO-BOOK LUCKY STARTER SET!
Book One: Wanna Get Lucky?
AND
Book Two: Lucky Stiff
Haven’t met Lucky yet? Here’s your chance!
Everyone Has a Hidden Talent
For Lucky O’Toole it’s murder…solving it.
Surviving in Sin City takes cunning, a pair of five-inch heel, and a wiseass attitude. Lucky has mastered them all and has a pair of legs she uses to kick butt and turn heads.
As the Chief Problem Solver for the Babylon, Las Vegas’s most over-the-top destination, mischief is in her job description.
She’s good at her job.
She’s less good at life. But who has time for a life when there’s a killer on the lose?
READING ORDER
Wanna Get Lucky? (The Lucky O'Toole Vegas Adventure Series Book 1)
Lucky Stiff (The Lucky O'Toole Vegas Adventure Series Book 2)
Lucky in Love (A Lucky O'Toole Original Novella 1)
So Damn Lucky (The Lucky O'Toole Vegas Adventure Series Book 3)
Lucky Bang (A Lucky O'Toole Original Novella 2)
Lucky Now and Then: Parts One and Two (A Lucky O'Toole Original Novella 3-4)
Lucky Bastard (The Lucky O'Toole Vegas Adventure Series Book 4)
Lucky Catch (The Lucky O'Toole Vegas Adventure Series Book 5)
Lucky Flash (A Lucky O'Toole Original Novella 5)
Lucky Break (The Lucky O'Toole Vegas Adventure Series Book 6)
Lucky the Hard Way (The Lucky O'Toole Vegas Adventure Series Book 7)
Lucky Ride (The Lucky O'Toole Vegas Adventure Series Book 8)
NEW ORLEANS JAZZFEST PRODUCER STABBED! TEENAGE SISTER MISSING!
Everybody loved easygoing Ham Brocato, producer of the famed New Orleans JazzFest. So how did he end up stabbed to death on his kitchen floor?
New Orleans Homicide Detective Skip Langdon just happens to be on hand when Ham’s body is discovered in the middle of his own party the evening before the Fest. To complicate the already murky case, the victim's sixteen-year-old blues musician sister has disappeared, and Skip suspects that if the young woman isn't the murderer, she's in mortal danger from the person who is. So Task One is finding Melody, ambitious, unhappy at home, and determined to break from her family.
As she probes the victim's tangled relationships, Skip finds a Southern family to rival any in Tennessee Williams, including Ham's live-in lover, feisty and swiftly rising star Ti-Belle Thiebaud; his father George, enmeshed with family members in a bitter disagreement over the family's lucrative Po' Boy chain; and Patty, his distraught stepmother.
In this tale of southern kinships gone awry, she's assisted by her long-distance love, Steve Steinman, and her gay landlord, Jimmy Dee. Meanwhile, Melody's dangerous yet exhilarating journey tugs at the heart and raises the pulse rate.
Fans of Laura Lippman, Ace Atkins, James Lee Burke, and the HBO series TREME will adore this satisfying and complex cop whodunit. And fans of YA fiction will fall in love with Melody!
Excerpt:
“At $250 a pop,” fumed a red-faced man, “you’d think we’d at least get a drink.”
The shrill, uncertain buzz they’d noticed was developing a hysterical note. This was a party that wasn’t fun. Bemused, Skip and Steve worked their way back around to the front.
“Ham I could see,” said Skip. “He could have had to work late—it’s his busiest time. But where’s Ti-Belle?”
“Oh, ‘bout two houses away, I’d say. Approaching at a dead run, having just parked a Thunderbird with a squeal of wheels.”
Skip had heard the squeal, but had paid it no mind. Now she saw a very thin woman coming towards them, hair flying, long legs shining brown, sticking out from a white silk shorts suit. Over one shoulder she carried a lightweight flight bag. Golden-throated Ti-Belle Thiebaud, the fastest-rising star on the New Orleans music scene.
Steve said, “I’d know those legs anywhere.”
She never performed in any garment that wasn’t short, split, slit, or halfway missing. Some said the whole country would know those legs soon. They said she was going to be bigger than large, larger than huge.
Thiebaud was approaching at a dead trot, fast giving way to a gallop. She was wearing huge hoop earrings. She had giant black eyes and shining olive skin, flyaway blond hair that looked utterly smashing with her dark complexion. Her skin clung to her bones, hanging gently, as naturally as hide on a horse.
“How’d Ham get her?” she blurted.
A black man waved at the singer, tried to slow her progress, pretend it was a party: “Hey, Ti-Belle.”
Thiebaud paid him no mind but cast a look at the crowd in general. Skip saw twin wrinkles at the sides of her nose—one day they’d be there permanently if she worried a lot in the meantime.
“Hi, y’all.” She was trying to smile, but it wasn’t working. “Excuse me a minute.” She let herself in and closed the door behind her.
Almost immediately, a scream that could have come from anyone—the hottest Cajun R&B singer in America or any terrified woman—ripped through the nervous buzz.
SPECIAL PRE-ORDER PRICE **$0.99** (normally $4.99)
Cam Crawford, brother of Palm Beach homicide cop Charlie Crawford, just checked himself into a ritzy rehab facility in Connecticut. Admitted the same day were a drunk, an addict, and a psychopath.
With little in common except deep psychic scars are Avril, a drugged-out actress, Rachel, a 18-year old self-destructive wild child, and haunted, pretty boy, Cam, just trying to piece together their tormented lives.
All they want is to learn how to cope, find peace of mind, make a few friends…but better watch out, because there are a few twisted people inside the ivy covered walls of Clairmount. And not everyone’s going to make it home.
Bite Me is the THIRD masterfully bizarre mystery in the Dev Haskell Series.
"What an absolute delight. I enjoyed myself from hilarious the first chapter to the spine tingling ending ... Faricy is the next Carl Hiaasen." -Crime Scene
Wise-cracking, back-slapping, sideways-thinking Private Investigator Dev Haskell is in the middle of dissipating a lover's quarrel with his newest gorgeous knife-wielding female conquest when he gets a call. Members of KRAZ, a radio station that considers itself "the voice of America's future," need protection from an apparent death threat. A cursory investigation leads Dev to the conclusion he's just landed his dream job: providing security for people who don't actually need it. But alas, the dream ends the moment someone shoots at his clients in broad daylight.
Things quickly fly out of control when Dev suddenly finds himself under the police microscope, literally tied up in a relationship with an unpredictable woman, and dodging a growing pile of bodies that all seem to be linked to him.
"Faricy is America's hottest new mystery writer." -The Dirty Lowdown
"Even now I can't believe the way this guy can weave a tale. Just when things were about to get too grim there's a laugh out loud scene that kept me turning the pages. Run, don't walk, to pick up your copy of Bite Me." -The Irish Gazette
From New York Times bestselling author Angie Fox, the first book in the new Southern Ghost Hunter mysteries
One simple mistake…
For a girl who is about to lose her family home,
Releases the ghost of a long-dead gangster,
And opens Verity Long’s eyes to a whole new world.
When out of work graphic designer Verity Long accidentally traps a ghost on her property, she’s saddled with more than a supernatural sidekick—she gains the ability see spirits. It leads to an offer she can’t refuse from the town’s bad boy, the brother of her ex and the last man she should ever partner with.
Ellis Wydell is in possession of a stunning historic property haunted by some of Sugarland Tennessee’s finest former citizens. Only some of them are growing restless—and destructive. He hires Verity to put an end to the disturbances. But soon, Verity learns there’s more to the mysterious estate than floating specters, secret passageways, and hidden rooms.
There’s a modern day mystery afoot, one that hinges on a decades-old murder. Verity isn't above questioning the living, or the dead. But can she discover the truth before the killer finds her?
Murder, mayhem, and Mazzio continue at lightning speed in this second set of three Bone Series Medical Thrillers from the Lambs.
RN Gina Mazzio is sometimes battered, but never daunted in her life-threatening pursuit of individuals and groups who would do harm to her patients and co-workers.
This action-packed, shocking, and take-no-prisoners medical thriller series is definitely not for the faint of heart. Fans of the more hard-boiled medical thrillers (and also of Patricia Cornwell) will eat it up ... as will lovers of, strong women sleuths, hospital mysteries, and all medical fiction, especially fans of Tess Gerritsen, Carolyn McCray, Eileen Dreyer, Lisa Genova, and Robin Cook.
BONE of CONTENTION (#4)
Gina returns to Ridgewood Hospital after a near-death experience while working with fiancé Harry Lucke as travel nurses in Nevada’s barren gold country. Now, she’s assigned to the Ob/Gyn Women's Health Clinic.
An outbreak of mystifying post-abortion deaths among Clinic patients puts Gina on the trail of unknown perpetrators. Her relentless investigation soon makes her the target of a fanatical couple who kidnap and attempt to kill her to keep from being found out.
BONE DUST (#5)
An influenza epidemic slams San Francisco, pushing medical facilities to and beyond normal limits. The chaos masks deadly blood-letting by a sociopathic hospital phlebotomist.
Gina, distracted by a serious breakup with her longtime fiancé, Harry Lucke, and on the brink of a new romance, misreads the full danger of a stalking that leads to the murder of another Internal Medicine nurse.
Gina’s investigation into the killing of the nurse, along with trying to find out why flu patients are dying unexpectedly, makes her the new prime target of the phlebotomist stalker.
BONE CRACK (#6)
RN Gina Mazzio and her long-time love, Harry Lucke, are deep into marriage plans when a particularly nasty murder intervenes—the bookkeeper in their friend Lolly’s office has been raped and carved up. The worst part? The carving occurred before the murder.
Lolly suspects her cardiologist boss, Dr. Mort Tallent, is involved. And since Gina helped her friend get “the job of a lifetime,” she jumps right into the fire. What she uncovers? Mort is one unsavory cardiologist. His ex-wife was murdered when she dumped him a year ago, and there's some shady shenanigans of a business nature—the kind you might kill to keep secret.
Worst of all, there’s that pal of his, the kind of person you never want to meet in a dark alley, or anywhere else.
Orcs, vampires, rogue mages, and strange familiars... The night's filled with beasts looking for kicks, who trod the urban landscape with cloven hoof or sharpened claw, keeping a yellow eye out for easy prey. But what's a citizen to do when dark shadows lie heavy, spells become useless, and wands lose their charm?
They call on the heroes of Eight in the Chamber.
These hardboiled cops and investigators specialize in a preternatural kind of justice. They aren't afraid to delve into dark magic or wield a cursed instrument to save the pure and innocent. They won't quit until every dark deed is punished, and the scales of justice are balanced.
In Eight in the Chamber, a cadre of your favorite authors have banded together to bring you all the thrills of the urban supernatural, with a twist of sci-fi noir, in a collection of full length novels, spellbinding novellas, and enough short stories to choke a bag of holding. Buy your copy today, and let them take you on a thrill ride through the dark that you won't forget!
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Dagger to the Heart
Novella
By Alex P. Berg
Detective Jake Daggers prefers his barbecue blackened, but with a serial arsonist on the loose, it's the city's murder victims coming in crispy. With the body count rising and fires burning across town, will the case get too hot to handle? Find out in this heart-wrenching prequel to the Daggers & Steele series.
Blood Money
Short Story
By Chris Underwood
Folk wizard Ozzy Turner can track down anyone, but when he's hired to return a missing bloodslave to her vampire mistress, the question is not whether he can, but whether he should.
Croft & Wesson
In a cozy mystery, that is. As always, author Brianna Bates delivers a yummy read that’s lighter than lemon cake, and goes down just as easy.
There’s nothing like a breezy, easy-reading Missy Demeanor mystery for a quick, relaxing break in your favorite tea room; or to make those minutes fly by in the dentist’s waiting room. They're fast, fun reads—maybe two or three hours—and just as luxuriously light as the froth on your latte (if you’re not a tea-drinker). In fact, they’re kind of like a short vacation from real life. (And so much cheaper!)
In TEA ROOM TOXIN, the FIFTH series entry, Missy’s best friend Noreen realizes her dream of opening a tea room, only not with Missy (as Missy’d kind of hoped), but with her other friend, Tonya, with whom Missy has never…quite….clicked. And then someone slips a deadly toxin into the very cup of tea Missy herself handed Tonya.
“Never quite clicked” is how Missy sees it, but the cops have other ideas—they think she had a perfect opportunity and at least two motives to murder Tonya--all except for Missy’s true love, Tyler, who knows she couldn’t be a murderer. He should—he investigated her once before (in Flea Market Fatal) and got his fingers burned. Although she’s sworn off sleuthing, there’s really no other way out, especially when she finds herself in handcuffs. So once again, Missy Demeanor, amateur detective, dons her deerstalker—and the game is on!
Since Missy works in a bookstore, devotees of Carolyn Hart’s Death on Demand series will think they've come home again. Animal lovers will fall for her dog Cody, and fans of women sleuths, especially light, delicious cozies you can read fast, with no cliffhangers, on-the-page violence or graphic scenes will eat this series up. If you like Gina LaManna, Jana DeLeon, Mary Daheim, and Leighann Dobbs, give Missy a try!