Paige Shelton - Read Online Free Books Archive

Deadly Editions

Tue, 01 Jun 2021 18:47:14 +0300

A treasure hunt through Edinburgh gives way to a search for a villain terrorizing the city in the sixth Scottish Bookshop Mystery.
Bookseller Delaney Nichols receives a mysterious cloaked visitor one evening at the Cracked Spine Bookshop. He presents to her an even more perplexing note: an invitation to an exclusive treasure hunt hosted by eccentric socialite Shelaigh O'Connor. Delaney is intrigued, but also cautious: Shelaigh, while charming in person, has a reputation for her hijinks as a wealthy young woman in the '70s. She was even once suspected for the murder of a former boyfriend, though ultimately cleared of all charges.
But Delaney is enticed by the grand prize at the end of the treasure hunt: a highly valuable first edition copy of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson. The winner is also to receive the contents of Shelaigh's vast library, and an unspecified sum of cash.
The night after the first meeting of the...

Fateful Words--A Scottish Bookshop Mystery

Sun, 20 May 2001 09:41:27 +0300

In Fateful Words, the eighth Scottish Bookshop Mystery from beloved author Paige Shelton, bookseller Delaney Nichols stakes her reputation—and her life—when a literary tour turns deadly...
When Edwin, Delaney's boss at the Cracked Spine bookstore, leaves town on secret business, Delaney is called upon to guide his yearly literary tour around Edinburgh. But on the first night of the tour, at the inn where the tour group is staying, the inn manager falls—or is pushed—off the roof of the inn, and killed. Then, one of the tour members disappears, leaving a trail of puzzles in her wake.
In a race against the clock, Delaney sets out on the expedition of her life, following clues around Edinburgh to get to the bottom of this mystery. Exploring sights from Greyfriars Bobby to the Royal Mile to the Sir Walter Scott Monument, she'll have to put the pieces together quickly, or the bookstore's survival could be on the line...as well...

Lost Hours

Thu, 16 Feb 2023 15:41:28 +0200

Lost Hours is the fifth instalment in Paige Shelton's gripping, atmospheric Alaska Wild series.
A year after arriving in Benedict, Beth Rivers is feeling very at home in Alaska, even as outsiders are starting to return to enjoy the brief summer perfection. Beth feels like she's finally let go of most of her demons. She's even found her father, Eddy Rivers—or, rather, he found her—and she's trying to find the middle ground between anger and forgiveness.
One sunny July day, Beth boards a tourist ship to see the glaciers, the main reason visitors venture to the area, and something Beth hasn't attempted until now. But when the captain has to navigate to an island, a bloodied woman is found standing on the shore, waving for help. When she's brought aboard, she claims she was kidnapped from her home in Juneau three days earlier, and that a bear on the island killed her captor. She, however, is unharmed.
The woman, Sadie, finds a sympathetic ear in...

Thin Ice

Mon, 16 Dec 2019 20:22:27 +0200

First in a new series set in Alaska from beloved cozy author Paige Shelton, Thin Ice will chill your bones.

Beth Rivers is on the run – she's doing the only thing she could think of to keep herself safe. Known to the world as thriller author Elizabeth Fairchild, she had become the subject of a fanatic's obsession. After being held in a van for three days by her kidnapper, Levi Brooks, Beth managed to escape, and until he is captured, she's got to get away. Cold and remote, Alaska seems tailormade for her to hideout.

Beth's new home in Alaska is sparsely populated with people who all seem to be running or hiding from something, and though she accidentally booked a room at a halfway house, she feels safer than she's felt since Levi took her. That is, until she's told about a local death that's a suspected murder. Could the death of Linda Rafferty have anything to do with her horror at the hands of Levi Brooks?

As Beth navigates her way...

The Stolen Letter

Wed, 06 May 2020 11:03:53 +0300

New York Times bestselling author Paige Shelton returns with the next installment of The Scottish Bookshop Mystery series, The Stolen Letter

Bookseller Delaney Nichols meets a woman who believes she is Mary, Queen of Scots, reborn. When the Cracked Spine is royally threatened, she must do all she can to save the shop.

Heading back to work the day after she returns from her European honeymoon, Delaney Nichols is excited to get back to the Cracked Spine. But as she disembarks the bus and hurries toward the shop she and another woman collide, sending a stack of books the woman is carrying to the ground.

Delaney's hapless victim's name is Mary, and she and Delaney can't help but notice that they bear an uncanny resemblance to one another. According to Mary, they both also look like the long-beheaded Mary Queen of Scots. Even stranger, Mary believes she is reincarnation of the Scottish queen. But peculiar as Delaney's doppelganger is, she...

Perfect Storm

Mon, 25 Nov 2024 19:05:36 +0200

The next installment in Paige Shelton's Alaska Wild series, a gripping, atmospheric, traditional mystery series with a great wilderness hook.

Beth Rivers needs to disappear. Her one-time kidnapper, Travis, is on his way to her town in Alaska, and she's losing time to get out quickly.
The perfect spot for Beth and her boyfriend, Tex, to hide, presents itself in a camp in the woods, away from Benedict. But when their trip takes them by Blue Mine, a small community that has seen tragedy over the last couple months, plans get diverted. Beth and Tex bring the widow of a recently murdered man back to Benedict, for Police Chief Gril to investigate, only to find that nothing is quite what it seems. When the woman vanishes, Beth must be on the alert for further danger. Who knows what further unwelcome disappearances—or appearances—might be lurking in the unforgiving Alaska storms.

Cold Wind

Mon, 03 Feb 2020 12:15:22 +0200

Second in a new series set in Alaska from beloved cozy author Paige Shelton, Cold Wind will chill your bones.

Beth Rivers is still in Alaska. The unidentified man who kidnapped her in her home of St. Louis hasn't been found yet, so she's not ready to go back.

But as October comes to a close, Benedict is feeling more and more like her new home. Beth has been working on herself: She's managed to get back to writing, and she's enjoying these beautiful months between summer and winter in Alaska.

Then, everything in Benedict changes after a mudslide exposes a world that had been hidden for years. Two mud-covered, silent girls appear, and a secret trapper's house is found in the woods. The biggest surprise, though, is a dead and frozen woman's body in the trapper's shed. No one knows who she is, but the man who runs the mercantile, Randy, seems to be in the middle of all the mysteries.

Unable to escape her journalistic roots, Beth is...

Dark Night--A Mystery

Fri, 12 Feb 2021 09:51:12 +0200

The third book in the gripping, atmospheric Alaska Wild series, in which Benedict, Alaska is met with some unexpected visitors...and then disappearances.
Winter is falling in the remote town of Benedict, Alaska, and with the cold comes a mysterious guest. The dreaded "census man," seemingly innocuous, is an unwelcome presence to those members of this secretive community who would prefer to keep their business to themselves. Meanwhile, thriller writer Beth Rivers has received her own unexpected company: her mother. The last Beth heard, Mill Rivers had gone underground in the lower forty-eight, in search of Beth's kidnapper, and Beth can't help but be a little alarmed at her appearance: If Mill was able to track down her daughter, who knows who else might be able to?
Beth doesn't have time to ponder this for long, after a battered woman stumbles into the town bar one night, and her husband is found dead the next morning. Suspicions immediately turn to the census man,...

Written in Stone

Tue, 25 Nov 2025 19:05:34 +0200

Written in Stone, the tenth installment in the Scottish Bookshop series by Paige Shelton, set in a specialty bookstore in Edinburgh called The Cracked Spine.
When Delaney wins a special Hidden Door Festival invitation to artist Ryory Bennigan's studio, she isn't sure quite what to expect. What she finds is an elusive fellow obsessed with the Picts—complete with his own versions of their blue tattoos and vibrant red hair—recreating the stones they left behind. She also meets a visiting paleontologist, Dr. Adam Pace, from the University of Kansas attempting to sell an artifact that might just explain what the Picts' language really sounded like.
Or at least that's what he claimed the artifact was for. Before the deal can close and Ryory can get a closer look at it, Dr. Pace is found dead.
With the police dragging their feet in the investigation, Delaney takes it upon herself to dig into Dr. Pace's past. Her research goes murky as she quickly...

The Burning Pages

Mon, 16 May 2022 00:35:25 +0300

Delaney Nichols faces off against an elusive arsonist in the seventh Scottish Bookshop Mystery, The Burning Pages, from beloved author Paige Shelton....
One winter's night, bookseller Delaney Nichols and her coworker Hamlet are invited to a Burns Night dinner, a traditional Scottish celebration of the poet Robert Burns. She's perplexed by the invitation, but intrigued. The dinner takes place at Burns House itself, a tiny cottage not far from the Cracked Spine bookshop but well hidden. There, it becomes clear that Delaney and Hamlet were summoned in an attempt to make amends between Edwin, Delaney's boss, and one of the other invitees, who suspected Edwin for burning down his own bookshop twenty years ago after a professional disagreement.
But after the dinner, there's another fire. The Burns House itself is burned to the ground, and this time there's a body among the ruins. When Hamlet is accused of the crime, Delaney rushes to prove his innocence, only to...

Winter's End--A Mystery

Sun, 25 Dec 2022 20:10:13 +0200

The fourth installment in the gripping, atmospheric Alaska Wild series, Paige Shelton's Winter's End.
It's springtime in Benedict, Alaska, and with the warmer weather comes an unseasonably somber local tradition...the annual Death Walk. At the end of each brutal winter, citizens gather downtown and then break into groups to search the community for those who might have somehow gotten stuck at home. Beth Rivers sets off with her friend Orin and dog Gus, toward the cabin of an elderly resident, intending to check on him.
When they reach the cabin, the old man is alive, but not in the best shape. Beth stays with him while Orin hurries to town for help, but it's not Orin who returns. Gril comes back with shocking news, and it soon becomes clear that Orin has also vanished. When they discover that their friend has been doing some top-secret research, they start to worry he's been exposed, or worse.
Meanwhile, Beth continues on her own search, for her father,...

The Poison Pen

Fri, 14 Jun 2024 16:30:09 +0300

The Poison Pen, the ninth installment in the Scottish Bookshop series by Paige Shelton, set in a specialty bookstore in Edinburgh called The Cracked Spine.
Edinburgh is mourning recent the death of Queen Elizabeth II when Bookseller Delaney Nichols's boss comes to her with a most unusual assignment. An old friend of his, living in an estate in the village of Roslin, has found what could be a priceless relic on her property, and Delaney is tasked with investigating. Could Jolie possibly have an item of breathtaking Scottish historical significance in her possession? But when Delaney arrives at Jolie's estate, she is greeted by a legal team with a vested interest in the property. Jolie manages to remove the interlopers, but as they're examining the priceless item, they hear a scream, and meet a much less welcome discovery: a body.
As Delaney digs deeper, she discovers Jolie's own fascinating history. Jolie's mother had long claimed that her daughter was the...

The Loch Ness Papers

Tue, 19 Nov 2019 11:01:59 +0200

Bookseller Delaney Nichols befriends a Loch Ness monster enthusiast; when he stands accused of murder she'll do whatever it takes to learn who the killer is—and whether Nessie herself is really lurking in the Scottish waters.Delaney Nichols is delighted with her life in Edinburgh, working at The Cracked Spine—a shop that specializes in hard-to-find books and artifacts. With a job she loves, and her fast approaching marriage to devastatingly handsome Scottish pub-owner Tom Shannon, Delaney's life could be straight out of a fairy tale—at least it would be, if the pastor meant to perform the wedding ceremony hadn't recently passed away. Outside the church where Delaney is searching for another reverend, she stumbles across Norval Fraser: an elderly man obsessed with the Loch Ness monster. Always attracted to the interesting and unusual, Delaney befriends Norval. But when his nephew is found dead, the police decide Norval's obsession has moved from...

Farm Fresh Murder

Thu, 25 Nov 2010 20:10:23 +0200