Mystery/Crime

Aaron Stiles is dead. He's been dead for four years but doesn't seem to know it. He's waiting for his partner Bill to come home, and until that happens, he's not going anywhere. The trouble is, Bill Somers won't be coming home--ever--because he's dead, too. The official verdict was suicide, but? The last thing Elliot Smith needs in his latest renovation project is a ghost, especially one who won't let him sell the place until he solves the mystery of who killed Bill. He has John to help with the... more info>>

Matt Rider is made an offer that seems too good to miss. Go to Prague, find some priceless music manuscripts--and share in a fortune. Unfortunately, even for a confident backstreet PI, the clues are rather thin on the ground. All Matt knows is that a young Jewish girl called Hana Eisler had the manuscripts in Prague in 1942. Using old records from the Helios Music Academy in England, Matt tracks Hana's movements to a Nazi concentration camp in the Czech Republic. And there the trail seems to end... more info>>

Elena Jarvis is an officer committed to her duty at the Los Santos, Texas, Department of Crimes Against Persons. Not that anyone is helping her there, not when her ex-husband is in the next room, her boss treats her like a little girl and her partner thinks women shouldn't leave the kitchen. Elena always knew there would be obstacles in her job; she just figured they would come from the criminals. When an erotic poet accuses his ex-wife, Sarah, of trying to murder him with an exploding escargot,... more info>>

Sex Killings or Serial Killer? In Act of Evil, police detective Teri Harmon investigates the sadistic murders of three women. Teri and her partner, detective Garcia, better known as Chuey, are aided by Dr. Shelby Martin, psychiatrist and widower. Teri feels an increasingly strong sexual attraction to Shelby, but he is captivated by Marian Barlow, the most influential woman in the county. Shelby's affinity for Marian is mutual, and their affair is torrid and on the kinky side. As chairperson of t... more info>>

An intense engaging thriller set in London. Nominated in two categories in the British Book Awards 2005

Meet Kate Jasper, Marin County, California's own, organically grown, amateur sleuth. ("She's smart, funny, vulnerable, and unpretentious."--Marilyn Wallace, editor of the SISTERS IN CRIME series.) In this first Kate Jasper mystery, Kate visits her chiropractor for a simple spinal adjustment, but instead finds a dead man on one of the tables...dead of a broken neck. And it seems everyone in the chiropractor's office knew the victim, Scott Younger, in one way or another, except for Kate herself. M... more info>>

Lily Kovner cold not have dreamed that research for a magazine assignment would resurrect a searing memory from her childhood. A fleeting glimpse of a family treasure looted by the Nazis launches "Afikomen" - her quest for justice and restitution spanning three continents. Along the way threats, murder and the revelation of a diabolical secret deal thrust Lily onto an emotional rollercoaster further complicated by the thrill of new romance.

A FIRE MARSHAL PEDLEY MYSTERY A murderous arsonist leaves a trail of horrible death and destruction in his wake, and a series of difficult cases for fearless and resourceful Fire Marshal Pedley to solve. Pedley fights desperately through a maze of clues, and a group of evasive suspects which includes everything from slick night-club operators to a cagey lady numerologist, to ferret out an arsonist-murderer far more deadly and difficult to trace than any ordinary killer.

A prospector's body is found near the railroad tracks south of Fairbanks. At the miner's cabin, Tlingit Alaska State Trooper Sergeant Robert Sable finds two bodies slumped over a table in pools of blood. While investigating the crime scene, he finds hidden under the base of the prospector's fireplace several hundred thousand dollars in gold nuggets the killers missed. Rumors fly that the prospector had found the Dutchman, a mine of myth, legend and a curse. Over the last hundred years, men have ... more info>>

A Wildside Mystery Classic. At the time that Ted Patrick is planning to pull off his biggest house-breaking job, Dr. Morelle, aided as ever by Miss Frayle, sets up an off-beat criminological experiment, which is destined to have unexpected results. The success of Ted Patrick's coup, achieved with the inside help of a pretty blonde, Myra Campbell, is marred by the killing of a village policeman. Patrick gets away with the loot but runs into trouble when his cleverly planned alibi crumbles dramati... more info>>

Paul Hackett's life had been bounded by conventional morality until he came to New York and met lovely but corrupt Erika Rains. Paul soon left his wife for Erika, and plunged with her into a weird, surrealistic world of violent pleasures and uninhibited lovers, until Erika's neurotic mother came to town. Then Paul found out what kind of girl Erika really was, and where their desperate affair was taking them. Here is the intimate, revealing story of life and love in New York's Bohemian Underworl... more info>>

Life hasn't been easy for Shannon Knight, raised by a single mother, money's been tight, but it's about to get a whole lot worse. When her mother uproots them, to be with a boyfriend, then suddenly goes missing, it leaves Shannon facing homelessness in a strange city where she knows no one. Convinced that this man is responsible for her mother's disappearance, Shannon sets out to prove it, with surprising consequences.

"As far as I'm concerned, Richard S. Prather was the King of the paperback P.I writers of the 60s. Shell Scott should be in the Top Ten of any readers list of favorite private eyes." --Robert J. Randisi For four decades, Richard S. Prather published over 40 works of detective fiction, most featuring his clever, cad-about-town hero, Shell Scott. Known for their arched humor, punchy dialogue, and sunny Southern California locale, the Shell Scott books represent one of the greatest private ey... more info>>

The game's afoot when Sheryl Locke Holmes spots Amber's husband, Roger, who'd disappeared without a trace after Amber's tragic death. With the help of her sidekick, Dot Watson, Sheryl follows Roger and a trail of amber jewelry which leads to duplicity, mayhem and murder. As different as day and night, Sheryl, Dot and Amber bonded like sisters during college. Their friend's death left unanswered questions and an unidentifiable body. This time Sheryl won't stop until she gets answers--and avenges ... more info>>

Inviting the reformed felon in the family to Thanksgiving dinner may not seem like a good idea, especially when the table is surrounded by valuables. Of course, sometimes the real criminal in the family may not be as obvious. This short story appears in the Thanksgiving mystery anthology THE KILLER WORE CRANBERRY.

Theodore Dreiser's An American Tragedy (1925) is nothing less than what it purports to be--the harrowing story of a weak-willed young man who destroys himself, a villain who is also victim of the values of a deceptive, materialistic society. Dreiser patterned the story of Clyde Griffiths on a real-life murder that took place in 1906, a charming young social climber who killed his pregnant young girlfriend in order to romance a rich girl who had begun to notice him. A powerful murder story, An Am... more info>>

The stories in this book will introduce you to a side of police work you've never seen, and a group of heroes you've never met. EYES puts the reader in the front seat of a police unit, lets us experience some of the drama, the danger and the joy of volunteers helping law enforcement in all kinds of situations.

When the decapitated body of a student is found on the train tracks in Monterrey, Mexico, Captain Guillermo Lombardo finds his investigation taking him into the world of the Mexican drug cartels. As everyone from the university Dean to the Governor himself fails to cooperate with the investigation, Lombardo soon discovers that the body is just the tip of the iceberg of a much larger situation.

The high point of the Colorado Fiction Writers Association convention is the body discovered in the auditorium, dressed in clothing belonging to members of the executive board?until the corpse turns out to be real. To complicate matters, the collection of Weapons of Destruction that Lakewood PD Mitch Cameron brought for show-and-tell comes up short a stiletto and a garrote--which he soon discovers wrapped around the corpse's neck. Arthur Upton, association president and a former cop, works with ... more info>>

Big Bull Benson, the hotel and bar owner who first appeared in Spurlark's novel GOOD GIRLS DON'T GET MURDERED, returns in a brand-new novella. Mob boss Troy Calini doesn't exactly have the best reputation in Chicago, but when his own daughter suspects him of killing her boyfriend Calini is determined to prove to her that his hands are clean. Enter Big Bull Benson. Although Bull and Calini haven't always seen eye-to-eye, Calini is convinced that Benson can use his skills and connections to find... more info>>

Lawyer Seymour Lipp tries to help a teenage girl who was persuaded by her father to give her baby up for adoption--and now wants to change her decision. Her father, Paul Morrissey, had arranged the adoption through a shady lawyer to a Vietnam vet and his wife. When Morrissey is murdered, Lipp investigates several people who would benefit from his death. [Second Seymour Lipp mystery] Mystery by Stephen Lewis; originally published by Walker Mystery

A Soft Boiled Private Eye! Freelance reporter and sometime private detective Nick Bancroft is tough enough when he has to be. But he can be soft for the ladies. That's how he ends up at an outdoor band concert, with Maggie, a librarian, divorcee and his very talented lover, and is on hand to witness the murder of the very well-connected private secretary of a very important political figure. It doesn't earn him any points with the cops that Nick is on the scene before them, and it doesn't earn h... more info>>

Door to door census taking has it's ups and downs on any day. There's no way to know what lies behind each front door. On one afternoon, things take a particularly strange and hazardous turn for one census worker. One of the houses on the route holds dark secrets and triggers events that will never be forgotten. A short story from our Fingerprints line.

Beyond the Call of Duty! When NYPD detective Sam Mason discovers his beloved angel just might be an outlaw, it puts him at a crossroads. Going undercover to catch the culprit in a rash of burglaries among Manhattan's elite means he's investigating Cass Richards and coming face-to-face with the seductive powers of The White Star. The charmed amulet has been stolen, but is it a part of his case or not? Will Sam find the buried clues in time to solve the real puzzle and save Cass? Or will he arrest... more info>>

Danger rides the air when a kidnapper whisks his victims away in a hot air balloon and a false friend puts a curse on a collie breeder's first litter.