Which Mystery Thriller Books Blend Locked-Room Puzzles With Action?

With her enemies in pre-civil war Virginia still seeking her death, Esmerelda is forced to return to the future only days after wedding Lance. Because it was necessary to fake her death in order to stop her enemies from following her to the future, her new husband, Lance, was forced to stay behind. He’d placed a magic box for them to communicate until he found a way to safely be with her beneath the floorboards of the house. Now, she must find it. A task that is easier said than done! “The Magic Box” is book two of the exciting paranormal-romance-mystery-thriller Esmerelda Sleuth Series

Jordy River and Matt Ethan never expected to cross paths in a way that would change everything. What starts as a chance encounter at a club quickly turns into a secret, passionate affair—an intense connection they know they shouldn’t have. But just as their desire grows, life throws them a devastating twist: their parents are falling in love and plan to marry, which will make Jordy and Matt stepbrothers. Suddenly, every stolen glance, every hidden touch, carries the weight of forbidden temptation. As they navigate the boundaries between family and desire, they must decide: can their secret survive the reality of their new lives, or will the truth force them apart? Between Closed Doors is a provocative, modern romance about love, secrecy, and the dangerous thrill of wanting someone you shouldn’t.

When Emma's sister vanishes, she's thrust into a deadly game of cat and mouse. A mysterious figure, hidden behind a mask, demands Emma play a twisted game of puzzles and clues to rescue her sister. With time running out, Emma must use her wits to unravel the mysteries and face the sinister forces behind the game. But as the stakes grow higher, Emma realizes the game is designed to test her limits, and the truth about her sister's disappearance may be more terrifying than she ever imagined. Will Emma solve the puzzles and save her sister, or will she become the game's next victim?

When Elena Hart meets billionaire Adrian Vale, her whole life changes fast; he showered her with gifts, love, care, and attention, and soon they got married,Elena thought she had found the perfect man. But on her wedding night, strange women began to call her with unknown numbers each of them said the same words “Do not marry him. Run before midnight.” Before she could even check her phone, the calls had disappeared from her phone history. After moving to Adrian's home, the Blackthorn Manor, she began to notice disturbing things. There's a locked room where no one is allowed to enter and Adrian keeps disappearing by midnight, she will hear women crying inside the walls, the workers in the house hardly speak to each other, and mirrors are covered. No one is allowed to pray in the house. Elena searches for answers and she discovers the most horrible truth The portraits hung inside the locked room were of Adrian's former wives All of them are dead but somehow they still exist inside the manor watching. Elena is trapped inside a house filled with dark secrets that she must fight to survive, expose the curse surrounding Adrian, and escape before she becomes the next woman trapped in the walls forever.

"He's gone, Elizabeth," her captain Charles Johnston tells her. Elizabeth blinks back her tears. Her face full of shock and disbelief. Her frozen stare interrupted by his words. "He left his badge." "There's no way," she thought. He wouldn't leave her like this. No warning, no phone call, no letter. She was more to him than that or at least so she thought. That conversation has plagued her for 3 years. For 3 long years, Detective Elizabeth Ryan tried to shut out him, to finally be able to move on. But just as she does, he abruptly returns seeking more than what either of them anticipated. Will Elizabeth be able to forgive him, or will the past be too much to swallow? What happens when life throws her too many twists to handle?

Meet Esmerelda Sleuth. Sleuth is her name and investigating is her game. (Paranormal Investigating, that is.) Esmerelda makes a good living as an investigator in a rather progressive firm. She lives a stable and sensible life until she meets Lance; an old money "hottie" who works for a real estate firm next to her building. After accepting an invitation for a weekend getaway party, she quickly discovers that Lance has a secret. He is wealthy. That part is true. And, yes, he's procured a job as a realtor in the building next door. His secret is that he belongs to an underground society of humans who didn't abandon their connection to magic centuries ago when religion declared it evil and he has traveled through time specifically to find her and bring her back to his time to marry him. If that isn't enough of a far fetched tale to absorb, he informs her that she was born in his time to a family belonging to that same secret society and was promised in marriage to him as an infant. When enemies who didn't want to see the union of families take place made attempts on her life, her parents sent her into the future and erased her memories of them as a precaution. Possessing virtually no belief in magic, ghosts, psychics, time travel, etc., it takes some doing on Lance's part to convince her to believe his story and go back with him. When she does, the lies, deceit and attempts on her life start all over again. Will she escape emotionally and physically unscathed? "The Other Side Of the Mirror" is a steamy-paranormal-romance- mystery-thriller and book one of the Esmerelda Sleuth series.