House Of Mystery True Crime History

Tree planters on the run from parasitic insects. A physicist who has become the target of a murderous airline. Teenagers trapped in a museum with an eldritch horror. An escaped pit fighter thrust into a desperate stand at a sagging mountain fortress. And a luckless cowboy sailing across a sea of grass to the bloody resurrection of an elder god. Welcome to Joel McKay's It Came from the Trees and Other Violent Aberrations, a collection of five page-turners as strange, disparate and bloody as their titles suggest.So, grab a stiff drink, turn the lights down low, settle into your favorite reading nook and enjoy this brief but memorable collection of tales from one of the newest voices in Canadian pulp fiction.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/houseofmysteryradio. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In a far-future world of wizards and walled cities, Lieve Reder has risen from being a small chandler’s daughter to become the captain of a riverboat owned by House Bernaglio in the oligarch-run city of Exley. She has ambitions to rise higher and when her employer, the widow Philaria Bernaglio, asks her to travel to the remote desert town of Ur Nazim to retrieve a mysterious item her dead husband, Nulf Bernaglio ordered, she signs on to the quest.Accompanied by Dai, an artificial human created by one of the mad thaumaturges of Olliphract to be part of the wizards’ deadly war games, she sets out on the perilous journey. But the object she is sent to collect turns out to be one of the abandoned, semi-sentient tools the demiurge used to create the cosmos in which she lives. It’s the kind of entity that can become a god. And other forces seek to possess it for their own purposes.One challenge leads to another, leading Reder to embark on an even more dangerous quest, to the far northern rim of the world where she

Twin wolves howled beneath a turquoise crescent moon, their bushy manes wild and ruffled and knotted by the winds of change. “It’s us. You over my heart, and me beside you. It’s our destiny.”In the captivating sequel of To Kill a King, ancient magic collides with modern trickery, when a Wicca high priest embarks on a thrilling journey to defy the boundaries of time and challenge the very fabric of destiny. This gripping urban fantasy novel follows Estrada who, armed with extraordinary powers, ventures into the past hoping to alter Michael Stryker’s future. A maelstrom of unforeseen events unfolds, weaving an intricate web of chaos that changes the course of history itself. For in the intricate tapestry of time, even the most well-intentioned actions can have devastating consequences.While attempting to prevent the tragic outcome of To Render a Raven, Estrada struggles with the complexities of love, archaeologist Sorcha O’Hallorhan slips into her own time warp with a woman she once adored, and Conall

A gripping, fast-paced thriller for fans of Harlan Coben, Karin Slaughter, and Rachel Abbott.Last night two children knocked at his door. Someone is looking for them…Nicholas Hooper wanted to be left alone. Looking to escape his past and his unfortunate present, the best-selling author rented a luxury house in the Poconos to finish what very well could be his very last book. But his plans change when one night he opens his front door to find two frightened children.A young girl and boy all alone. They refuse to speak. Looking for help.Hooper takes them into town to see if the local police can help uncover the mystery of what has happened to these children. But what happens next is something Hooper never saw coming. The children are escaping their past too and their present is far worse than anything Hooper could have ever imagined. Can Hooper battle his own personal demons and protect these innocent children?Someone Savage is a page-turning thriller packed with shocking twists and heart-stopping suspense. If

The story of a Harvard student’s murder in 1970s Boston amid racial strife and rampant corruption, told with “careful reporting and historical context” (Providence Journal). Shortlisted for the 2021 Agatha Award for Best Non-Fiction and the 2022 Anthony Award for Best Critical or Nonfiction Work At the end of the 1976 football season, more than forty Harvard athletes went to Boston’s Combat Zone to celebrate. In the city’s adult entertainment district, drugs and prostitution ran rampant, violent crime was commonplace, and corrupt police turned the other way. At the end of the night, Italian American star athlete Andy Puopolo, raised in the city’s North End, was murdered in a stabbing. Three African American men were accused of the crime. The murder made national news, and led to the eventual demise of the city’s red-light district. Starting with this brutal murder, The Combat Zone tells the story of the Puopolo family’s struggle with both a devastating loss and a criminal justice syst

A packed house at London’s famed Royal Albert Hall.Gustav Mahler’s monumental 6th Symphony, with its three massive hammer strokes of Fate.The first and the second go by uneventfully. But then, the third!Will Mahler’s third hammer stroke of Fate claim another victim?Gerald Elias’s riveting eighth installment of the critically acclaimed Daniel Jacobus mystery series will keep readers on the edge of their seats. Blind, curmudgeonly violinist Jacobus and his devoted companions, Yumi Shinagawa and Nathaniel Williams, join forces with Branwell Small, a questionably trustworthy partner in crime solving, and officious DCI Christopher Mattheson as they follow every baffling twist and turn in a truly classical whodunnit.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/houseofmysteryradio. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A cross between Agatha Christie's Miss Marple and a Cheers bartender, Sally Witherspoon, a 50-something accountant turned biker-bar owner, loves solving puzzles. Up to now, she has focused on helping neighbors and friends find lost jewelry, lost pets, and lost loves.But when she finds her best friend and business partner, Bill Arnold, dead in a dumpster behind her bar on a Saturday night, she needs all her wits and grit to find out who did it.And she won't stop until she does.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/houseofmysteryradio. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greed, corruption, and betrayal—no murder is as simple as it seemsWhen a prominent Sacramento businessman is killed and his wife injured in a brutal home invasion, Detective Emily Hunter and her partner, Javier Medina, are called to investigate. At first glance, it seems like a crime of opportunity gone horribly wrong, but Emily soon finds there might be more to both the crime and the dead man.The high-stakes investigation also comes at a time when Emily is caring for her mother, who has early-onset Alzheimer's, and Emily struggles to balance her job with her personal life. The city's political elite seem to want the case solved quickly, but darker forces want it buried.Could there have been a motive behind the attack, making it more than a random home invasion? Emily uncovers clues that cause her to reconsider her understanding of the crime. A deadly game of greed and deception pulls Emily deeper into the shadowy world of gang violence and retribution. She has to walk the razor's edge to identify the killer—

A handwriting expert reveals the secrets hidden in your penmanship—now featuring a new afterword analyzing the handwriting of President Donald Trump.Handwriting expert Michelle Dresbold—the only civilian to be invited to the United States Secret Service's Advanced Document Examination training program—draws on her extensive experience helping law enforcement agencies around the country on cases involving kidnapping, arson, forgery, murder, embezzlement, and stalking to take us inside the mysterious world of crossed t's and dotted i's.In Sex, Lies, and Handwriting, Dresbold explains how a single sentence can provide insight into a person's background, psychology, and behavior. Throughout the book, Dresbold explores the handwriting of sly politicians, convicted criminals, notorious killers, suspected cheats, and ordinary people who've written to Dresbold’s “The Handwriting Doctor” column for help. She shows you how to identify the signs of a dirty rotten scoundrel and a lying, cheating, backstabbing l

In THE SAND GARDEN--the debut installment in a new series set in Palm Springs--Dana Forsythe is a grieving widow and hard-nosed ex-policewoman who turns private eye after her cop husband Frank is killed on duty. She gets an even bigger shock when she learns Frank had twins with a secret mistress who's just been murdered. What's more, the orphaned twins are dropped off on Dana's patio in the middle of the night, then she's hired by an attorney to help defend the accused killer. She's plunged into an investigation that takes her deep into a world of wealth, privilege and murder in California's glittering desert oasis of Palm Springs. Can she nail the real killer before he nails her?Lead author Stan Jones is the creator of the critically acclaimed and Amazon best-selling Alaska-based Nathan Active mysteries.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/houseofmysteryradio. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Bram Stoker Winner for Best Young Adult NovelIn the Metaverse, No One Knows the Dead Better than Feeni XoThe story is set on alternate Earth and follows the life of Feeni Xo, a teenage enhuman girl who wants to become an investigative forensic coroner. Similar to vampires, “enhumans” need human blood for sustenance but thanks to the creation of synthetic blood, don’t need to break enhuman laws by harming humans for survival.One night, coming home from a party, Feeni seems to kill a young girl. Her brother, who is a police officer, helps her cover it up, but when Feeni retreats to the metaverse to play a virtual reality game that uses data from police cold cases, she discovers the dead girl in real life is actually the younger sister of her neighbor, who also happens to be a police officer.Overwhelmed with guilt, she’s forced to help her neighbor investigate her sister’s death in a case that becomes ominous when they play the House of Oware game that’s been reprogrammed to kill every participant.Support this s

Why would a eunuch want to write a secret history of life in the court of ancient Babylon's most famous king? To get back at his brother: that's why. Abducted as young boys by soldiers during the conquest of Nineveh, the brothers Uruk and Nergal receive very different fates in the ancient kingdom of Babylon. Uruk enjoys favors and climbs the Ziggurat of power to become a trusted advisor and the chief propaganda minister of King Nebuchadnezzar II, while Nergal is castrated and assigned to keep records of the daily life of the King's harem. While Uruk's cushioned prosperity is enviable, his real life is anxious because the King is viewed as the Divine Plowman who must seed the land and bring forth a bountiful harvest -- in other words, make whoopie in the harem and father many children because as the King's virility goes, so goes the harvest -- but the King is both crazy and chronically impotent, and a severe drought has withered the grain fields of the kingdom, so Uruk works nervously to spin propaganda into t

Jane stands alone between a powerful artifact and the wrong hands. Jane Walker’s alarming dreams, in which she sees events that have yet to happen, have finally subsided. The man who killed her parents and kidnapped Jane is behind bars. So it’s the perfect time for Jane and her partner Ethan to set out on a road trip to unravel the secrets of her ancestry.But their journey takes a spine-chilling turn when they encounter a gang of men who stare at Jane as if they recognize her. That can only mean one thing: they’ve met her in a dream she has yet to experience. When the gang begins stalking her, Jane realizes she must have witnessed a deadly event. But what could it be? She slips into hiding and waits for the disturbing dream to arrive.And now her BFF, Sadie Prescott, is dating a cop whose curiosity about Jane leads him to unearth the mysterious deaths that litter her past. When his latest investigation crosses paths with Jane’s stalkers, Jane must intervene and turn the skeptical cop into a believer befor

In this DC-set standalone from "one of the best dialogue hounds in the business" (New York Times Book Review), Homicide Detective Alex Blum must answer a terrible question: 'how far would you go to love the wrong woman?'In a red brick house on a tree-lined street, DC homicide detective Alex Blum stares at the bullet-pocked body of Chris Doyle. As he roots around for evidence, he finds an old polaroid: the decedent, arm in arm with Arthur Holland, Blum's informant from years ago when he worked at the Narcotics branch.But Arthur has been missing for days. Blum’s only source: Arthur’s girl, Celeste—beautiful, seductive, and tragic—whom he can’t get out of his head. Blum is drawn to her and feels compelled to save her from Arthur’s underworld. As the investigation ticks on and dead bodies domino, Blum, unearths clues with damning implications for Celeste. Swallowed by desire, Blum’s single misstep sends him tunnelling down a rabbit hole of transgression. He may soon find the only way out is down below.Set in 1999

A missing surf legend. Waterlogged clues. Can he trust his gut instincts to end the wave of murder?Sheriff Jax Turner is learning to live again. Holding tight to the hope of reconciling with his FBI agent ex-wife, the wary man is determined to keep his focus on his coastal Oregon community. And after a concerned brother requests a welfare check, Jax is troubled to find the absent surf shop owner’s tracks lead to a pool of blood.Now investigating a potential homicide, Turner chases a tip from his former spouse about a severed foot found on the beach. But when a torrent of leads links the victim to a politician's son, a jealous competitor, and a get-straight program for youth, the steadfast lawman fears layers of lies and secret agendas will keep him from stopping a vicious killer.Can he unravel the fatal agenda before he’s the next corpse to wash ashore?If you like flawed heroes, gritty crimes, and dark twists and turns, then you’ll loveSupport this show http://supporter.acast.com/houseofmysteryradio. Hosted o

During the Arab Spring, an American spy’s final mission goes dangerously awry in this explosive and “remarkable debut” (Joseph Kanon, New York Times bestselling author) from a former CIA officer that is perfect for fans of John le Carré, Viet Thanh Nguyen, and Alan Furst.Shane Collins, a world-weary CIA spy, is ready to come in from the cold. Stationed in Bahrain off the coast of Saudi Arabia for his final tour, he’s anxious to dispense with his mission—uncovering Iranian support for the insurgency against the monarchy. But then he meets Almaisa, a beautiful and enigmatic artist, and his eyes are opened to a side of Bahrain most expats never experience, to questions he never thought to ask.When his trusted informant becomes embroiled in a murder, Collins finds himself drawn deep into the conflict and his growing romance with Almaisa upended. In an instant, he’s caught in the crosshairs of a revolution. Drawing on all his skills as a spymaster, he must navigate a bloody uprising, win Almaisa’s l

“Hide, Maya. Don’t let the bad people find you.”Those are the last words Forest Service law enforcement officer and K-9 handler Maya Thompson ever heard her mother say.Returning to the Colorado mountains, ex-soldier Maya is no longer a scared little girl. She’s here to investigate her mother’s cold case, but fear creeps in when it comes to her personal life—things are getting serious with sheriff deputy Josh Colten.After new DNA evidence surfaces, both her beloved grandfather and Josh warn her away from the case, suspecting that she could be the next victim. But Maya doesn’t listen.Instead, Maya and her K-9 partner, Juniper, track a suspect deep into the forest and directly into grave danger…National Forest K-9Book 1: Chasing JusticeBook 2: Hunting the TruthSupport this show http://supporter.acast.com/houseofmysteryradio. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What should Mabel do now that her piggybank is full to the brim? Buy lots of candy? Spend it all on that toy she’s been eyeing? Finally get that unicorn sprinkler that sprays water from its horn?When Mabel pulls her piggy bank out from under the bed, it’s stuffed. She can’t fit one more coin inside–Piggy is bursting!What should Mabel do with all that money? Buy candy? Toys? Games!? Mabel’s so excited that her bed becomes a trampoline and she wants to spend it all. But then her mother explains that money doesn’t have to burn a hole in your pocket—a lesson that sends Mabel on a journey to learn what it means to become “moneywise.” Follow her as she takes her first steps to independence by opening a bank account!Teach your school-aged kids fundamentals about money management with this approachable, fun, and charming debut from Kalee Boisvert, full of colorful illustrations and easy-to-understand concepts.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/houseofmysteryradio. Hosted on Acast. See acast.c

Two mauled bodies in the woods. Top secret autopsies. The most chilling cases of Scarpetta’s career.In this thrilling new installment of Patricia Cornwell’s #1 bestselling Scarpetta series, chief medical examiner Dr. Kay Scarpetta finds herself in a Northern Virginia wilderness examining the remains of two campers wanted by federal law enforcement. The victims have been savaged beyond recognition, and other evidence is terrifying and baffling, including a larger-than-life footprint.  After one of the most frightening body retrievals of her career, Scarpetta must discover who would commit murders this savage, and why.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/houseofmysteryradio. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

You’ve thought about self-publishing, but is it the right path for you? Find answers, insights, and pro tips in Self-Publishing: The Ins & Outs of Going Indie. Written by Judy Penz Sheluk, bestselling author of Finding Your Path to Publication and multiple mystery novels, this must-have reference book covers the nuts and bolts of self-publishing from business basics and publishing platforms to post-publication sales and marketing strategies.Whether you’re an aspiring author, a traditionally published author considering a change, or merely curious, “Going Indie” takes an honest, unbiased look at the pros and cons of self-publishing while guiding you through the process—one easy-to-understand step at a time.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/houseofmysteryradio. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.