Best Mystery Novels

Valerie Ashford, a girl who had just turned twenty-one, was introduced by her father to his business associates at a grand party, where she met a frightening, cold-blooded man. That man was none other than her father's business partner, the CEO of a major corporation. He was taken with Valerie and had wanted her from the moment he first laid eyes on her. For Rovano Morvane, whatever he desired was absolute and he had to have it, even by the worst means possible. That night Valerie vanished without a trace and Rovano became the prime suspect, yet the Ashford family could not prove their allegations. "P-please, I don't want to die, sir..." Valerie whispered so softly that Rovano had to bend down even lower. "Didn't you just say you didn't care whether you were kidnapped or not? So shut your mouth." Rovano ordered. Cold, Valerie felt the other side of the folding knife pressed against her cheek. Rovano was going to mark Valerie. It felt like something was missing if Rovano didn't take out his psychopathic urges on someone. And this time, for the first time, he wanted a girl: Valerie Ashford. Would Valerie's life end here?

Arlene was bound to a hellish three-year contract marriage to save her family from total ruin. Just as the contract was about to expire, she received a terminal brain cancer diagnosis and found out she was six weeks pregnant. To protect the tiny life inside her, she refused all treatment, leaving her with only three months to live. When she tried to escape, her billionaire husband, Harrison, caught her. He dragged her back, brutally assaulted her, and forced her into the freezing cold to kneel at his father's grave. Even when she suffered a threatened miscarriage, bleeding and begging in agony, he showed no mercy. He simply left her alone in the dark and went straight to a hotel with his celebrity mistress. For three years, she had endured his relentless revenge and his public declaration that he would rather his bloodline die than have a child with her. She was nothing but a prisoner in a gilded cage, waiting for a death sentence he didn't even know about. But when Harrison shamelessly summoned her to act as the doting wife and clean up his cheating scandal, the old Arlene died. She didn't cry or beg. Instead, she blackmailed him and his mistress for millions in untraceable crypto. "I'm saving up for my coffin fund." Looking him dead in the eye, she calmly pocketed the extortion money, ready to play her final, ruthless game before her three-month clock ran out.

I stared at the two red lines on the pregnancy test, hoping this tiny heartbeat would finally save my cold, three-year marriage to Kayson Logan. But when he returned from his long business trip, he brought the sweet scent of another woman's perfume, a brutal assault, and a divorce agreement. The financial settlement was entirely under the name of his first love, Alyce Murray. He tossed a box of Plan B onto the table, staring at me with absolute disgust. "Take it. If you try to get pregnant behind my back, you will walk away with nothing, and you will never see that child." The next day, I saw him at the maternity clinic, carefully guarding a pregnant Alyce as if she were made of glass. His family mocked me for being a barren, pathetic loser, cheering as I was kicked out of the house. He didn't hate children. He just hated the idea of having one with me. My three years of devotion were nothing but a joke. He even ordered his men to hunt down the legendary underground surgeon—my hidden alter ego—just to save Alyce's complicated pregnancy. Why should I risk my life to save the woman who destroyed my marriage? I spat out the pill he forced me to take and signed the divorce papers without a second thought. I smashed the multi-million-dollar diamond ring he gave me right at his sister's feet. "Keep the garbage bought by a man who sleeps with other women." Then, I walked away, ready to embrace my true identity and protect my baby alone.

I opened the door to my penthouse, only to see my stepsister's limited-edition Louboutins discarded on the foyer rug. Walking into the master bedroom, I caught my fiancé and my stepsister tangled naked in my bed. When I went back to the family estate to settle the score, my father didn't even care. Instead, he and my stepmother demanded I take my stepsister's place to save the family's reputation. "You will marry the seventy-year-old billionaire next month. We can't ruin your sister's life," my father ordered. Looking at their hypocritical faces, the last shred of my family affection died completely. They really thought I would just accept being their sacrificial pawn while they stole my mother's legacy. So, I pinned them down with a blackmail video of the affair, extorted my father for my shares, and walked out into the freezing night. To numb the betrayal, I went to an underground club, slept with a terrifyingly powerful stranger, and left a red lipstick note on his forehead. "Your technique sucks. Keep the change." Then, I vanished abroad without a trace. Five years later, I returned to New York with my three children, ready to take back everything that was mine. But I didn't expect that the "cheap gigolo" from that night was actually Kendall James, the most ruthless corporate titan in the city. And he had just spotted my five-year-old son—his exact miniature replica—standing right beside me.

In my past life, I used a black-market aphrodisiac mixed with my white peach and jasmine scent to seduce the volatile Second Alpha Son. But the drug pushed his pureblood Inner Wolf into a violent frenzy, turning me into his broken, captive Breeder. I thought my devotion would eventually earn his love, but I was completely wrong. The other maids mocked my Wolfless status, and when the East Wing's deadly politics targeted me, Jaren watched with cold, golden eyes. "A Wolfless freak could never be a real Omega," they sneered, leaving me to die an agonizing death on a cold stone floor. Until my last breath, I couldn't understand why my desperate love only bought me a terrifying execution. Opening my eyes again, I was back on the very night I made the fatal mistake, pinned under his scorching weight. This time, I bit his shoulder, slipped out of his bed, and scrubbed my skin raw with harsh lye soap and mud to hide my scent. When the Pack House Manager lined us up the next morning hunting for the girl who triggered the Alpha's feral Heat, another maid eagerly stepped forward. "It was me, sir. I served Lord Jaren last night." Watching her being dragged away to become his new Breeder, I calmly lowered my head and gripped my broom. Let her take the deadly target on her back. This time, I just want to buy my freedom and get as far away from him as possible.

After six brutal months, I returned to my Seattle villa, my sanctuary. An unsettling quiet, then a cloying mix of cheap vanilla and baby talc hit me. Pink slippers, a cookbook, and a blonde hair on Nathan's hoodie screamed betrayal. Unwashed baby bottles and a note from "M" to "feed the baby" confirmed my dread. A baby's cry led me to Misty, holding a baby with Nathan's exact curls. She claimed Nathan called me his "bankrupt ex-wife," my clothes gone, wedding photos crumpled, and his loving text proved his calculated fraud. Nathan burst in, spewing gaslighting lies, despite finding a deed transfer for *my* house. His blame—that I was a "cold work machine"—only solidified my resolve. My husband used my money, home, and trust to build a new life, systematically trying to erase me. He didn't just cheat; he tried to steal everything. A venture capitalist doesn't just walk away from a hostile takeover.