Mystery/Crime

Few detective novels can make as strong a claim to social and political relevance as John Ball's 1965 mystery, In the Heat of the Night. Its protagonist, a black police officer from Pasadena California named Virgil Tibbs, passes through a southern town at an inauspicious moment. An orchestra conductor has been gruesomely murdered, and the police, without much in the way of evidence or possible motives for the crime, arrest Tibbs. When the police discover that he is not the killer, but in fact a ... more info>>

Brassy Honolulu police officer Katrina Ogden is known at work as K.O. She runs a tight ship in the Records and I.D. department and calls things as she sees them. A series of homicides is somehow connected to K.O., who is oblivious because the whole police department is moving from its old digs in the Sears department store to a gorgeous state-of-the-art facility downtown. She is in charge of relocating the whole Records and I.D department, so she fails to notice the possible significance of some... more info>>

A shocking Sherlock Holmes story, too scandalous for Watson to publish during his lifetime--and perhaps too controversial even now.

Covering City Hall during an election year was all the excitement reporter Dan Fox needed--until he discovered Alderman Bill Franklin's bullet-ridden body. Who killed the alderman? Why did they do it? Fox wants the story. Everyone else wants him. Hit men, mob bosses, politicians, and mistresses: They all have stories to tell, and Fox pieces them together while dodging bullets and fighting deadlines. Fox digs for the story, and he unearths the long-hidden secrets of the city as he's caught in the... more info>>

Fictions within fictions: an enigma inside a mystery wrapped in a conundrum. Only Sherlock Holmes--as related by Watson, rendered by Theodore Dreiser trying very hard, and failing, to write like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle--could possibly get to the bottom of this. Melancholia, old Irish animosities, and beautiful illuminated manuscripts abound.

Indianapolis attorney Brigit Bauer has a vested interest in protecting her neighborhood from an unknown threat. She uncovers a thread which leads her through a maze of holding companies to the Chicago mob presence in her city. A journey which may very well cost her her life. Paul Patrone isn't the innocuous real estate developer he seems to be. His real job is laundering money for the mob. With his greed for wealth and recognition driving him, he's on a collision course with Bree's crusade to st... more info>>

You're supposed to find sex, sin, sun and sand in Tahiti! Quiet lagoons, beautiful vahines, complaisant women, languor and love. But instead, you'll find kidnapping, murder, and exploding bombs. Mais non! It all starts with a beautiful, naked damsel in distress in expatriate LaRoche's adventures in the real-life Garden of Eden.

A funny thing happens to Albert Weston, mystery writer, on his way to his wedding in Reno. Driving across the high desert, he comes upon a wrecked auto and two terrified women. Good Samaritan that he is, Albert gives the comfort, a bit of first aid, and a lift. Then, a wild tale of murderers on the prowl, a flash flood, and a dead man later, Albert is stranded in an isolated land brimming with snakes. His bride waits in Reno, he hopes, but Albert is in dire jeopardy and just might not live long ... more info>>

In these five stories you will meet Keith Richardson, a former Police Officer turned Private Investigator. He changed professions abruptly after his partner and best friend was shot in the line of duty. He blames himself. You will learn about his strengths and weaknesses. You may forgive him, although he can not forgive himself. You will pity him. These short stories feature Private Detective Keith Richardson, who has one adventure after another and somewhere in the whole mess gets involved with... more info>>

In the 1920s, a country policeman, Constable Michael Walsmear, punches his way into the London studio of Charles Castle, the world-famous American photographer, to show him some pictures. What Castle sees in Walsmear's pictures is incredible. When he goes to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle for verification of the faerie images found on the negatives, Doyle tries to bribe Castle to destroy the pictures. But Castle will not be bought; he is out to discover the truth. And truth he finds in the small village... more info>>

A teacher of the deaf witnesses a murder while attending a conference in Miami. The man accused of murder catches a glimpse of a fleeing form, and will stop at nothing to ensure his enemy's testimony never echoes within a court of law. From the sultry shores of Florida to the majestic mountains of the Canadian Rockies, a web of deception unravels. The police are on the hunt for the killer and gang activity is exposed. The ringleader is desperately hunting down Jake and Callie, who may be running... more info>>

Marcel Maki (Marc) is a gigolo and a "kept man". He doesn't see it that way, and he's the writer. The reader should know better. Marc's a ghost-writer, specializing in celebrity autobiographies. When his wealthy university "sweetheart" asks him to look into the disappearance of her father he resists until she and her family make it clear that he has no choice but to do what they want. Trouble is, all the members of the family want different things.

This time around Shell Scott gives up chasing downtown lowlifes for the uptown high-end kind. A mysterious and industrious industrialist trusts Scott with finding a stock swapper that seems to know too much. And too much is just the beginning. From big-time boardrooms to bawdy motel rooms our man Scott isn't about to sell these crooks short. Tempers flare and plots boil over but in this contest between Shell Scott and some bad guy big wigs, busty femme fatales and flying bullets, between life an... more info>>

An Arizona attorney has a client with a problem. It's no ordinary problem and this is no ordinary client. Luckily this legal eagle happens to be friends with the hawkish private eye, Shell Scott. Scott is a sure-fire shamus with no shame and a pocket full of bullets. But he will need more than a pocketful of miracles to make this missing persons case go away. A father desperately wants to see his daughter before he dies. But she's disappeared. Scott must find her. But he can't use her name. The ... more info>>

Shell Scott has been dealt a really lousy hand and the stakes are somebody's life--probably his. What will the luck of the draw bring to our hard-boiled hero? Will Shell find the culprit in this full house of crooks and cons or will the queen of hearts call his bluff? A four of a kind is no match for a .44 slug in this all-hours game of guns and girls, guts and grit, life and death. Here the women are crazy and the joker's wild, but so is Shell Scott!

Just when surefire shamus Shell Scott was thinking that unannounced naked women don't show up on his doorstep frequently enough, a Ms. Naked USA contestant and next-door neighbor comes knocking with nothing on. But the real knockout is her story: someone tried to kill her and is now dead on her floor! This private eye can't believe what he's seeing! Before Scott can even ask where she kept the weapon, she's disappeared and our private dick is stuck with the stiff�and a tall tale to tell the co... more info>>

The tranquility of the village of Bear Creek in the Southern Sierra is disrupted by the suspicious death of the owner of the local Inn. Investigating a murder case isn't Deputy Tempe Crabtree's job, but when the detectives don't look any further than Nick Two John as the primary suspect, Tempe begins asking questions. Putting the planning for her wedding to Pastor Hutch Hutchinson on hold, it doesn't take long for her to discover there are several more people who wanted the victim dead, includin... more info>>

At night Sandi's perfect life seems less than perfect. The only child of a well-to-do family that runs an art gallery, in the light of day she's beautiful (although she doesn't think so), and engaged to a successful stockbroker. But at night, there are the whispers… Are the whispers trying to say something, or is she simply insane? Sandi doesn't understand, and is sure her family and fiancé won't either. She changes her major from art history to psychology to look for answers. Then, one evening ... more info>>

Shell Scott. He's a guy with a pistol in his pocket and murder on his mind. The crime world's public enemy number one, this Casanova is a sucker for a damsel in distress. When a pair of lovely legs saunters into his office, he can't help but to take the job, even when the case is a killer. Martinique was a cool, creamy piece of dynamite with a ten-second fuse and an I.Q. around one hundred sixty. Those were numbers Shell Scott like to play--except in her case they seemed to add up to murder.

A petroleum magnate--a snake oil salesman at heart--finds himself in a gusher of a business deal with a shifty-eyed Sheik. The businessman needs some leverage but how do you get at a guy who has everything? You could kidnap his wife but he has six! Sure enough the girls are gone and the Sheik is freaked. The friction between the two sides is setting off sparks and the plot threatens to explode. For our trigger-happy gumshoe it's another case of burning ambition, white-hot action, bounty in the b... more info>>

This case couldn't have been more up Shell Scott's alley. Twelve naked, luscious beauties, one for each month of the year, were Scott's next assignment. They were called the "Wow" pinup girls and, man, were they wow! Scott's mission: find four freckles. Four freckles located on one of these tomatoes' tushies. That was the only clue Scott had to help him solve this murder. But not to worry, it's the perfect mixture of business and pleasure for Shell Scott, P.I.

False identities, the persistence of memory, and the refusal to admit that love cannot save you, combine in a razor-edged crime novel that establishes Randall Silvis as one of the preeminent practitioners of the literary art. The hero of this novel, Mac Parris, isn't who he appears to be. A wildlife photographer living under an assumed name, he knows firsthand that the most dangerous animal of all is the one behind the camera. He has spent his adult life hiding from the FBI and his own past, whi... more info>>

[A Sam McCain Mystery] The morning of February 4, 1959, brought bad news for Sam McCain, rock and roll fan. His musical idol, Buddy Holly, had perished in a plane crash. But the day also brought bad news that hit closer to home in Sam's small Iowa town. A local couple was dead, too--in an apparent murder-suicide with some disturbing loose ends. For Sam McCain, P.I. and lawyer, that means an investigation. And McCain is about to find that behind the white picket fences of Black River Falls, there... more info>>

Twelfth century England: Geoffrey, a young clerk working for Archbishop Thomas Becket, is ordered to find a murderer. If the murder was committed by a priest, it will cause further trouble between the archbishop and King Henry II. But it's the accused priest's motive--not to mention the demeanor of Becket himself--that Geoffrey finds to be the most discomforting aspect of the case.

When Toni Credella teams up with a tough private investigator in hopes of getting her own PI license, she finds herself investigating one crime too many. What's the connection between the murder of a homeless woman and a young girl who met a mysterious death decades earlier? Why has that forgotten girl's body been buried in a public place for so long? The search for answers sends Toni on a roller coaster ride of suspense, mystery and danger. To get her feet safely back on the ground, she'll have... more info>>