Catalog

The Black Hour | Lori Rader-Day

For Chicago sociology professor Amelia Emmet, violence was a research topic-until a student she'd never met shot her. He also shot himself. Now he's dead and she's back on campus, trying to keep up with her class schedule, a growing problem with painkillers, and a question she can't let go: Why?

Black Karma | Thatcher Robinson

Bai Jiang-San Francisco's best-known souxun ("people finder")-is hired to track down the mysterious Daniel Chen. Police inspector Kelly suspects Chen of being involved in a botched drug heist that resulted in the death of an officer. Bai has her own suspicions. She thinks the police just want to see Chen dead.

The Blood Promise | Mark Pryor

In post-Revolution Paris, an old man signs a letter in blood, then hides it in a secret compartment in a sailor's chest. A messenger arrives to transport the chest and its hidden contents, but then the plague strikes and an untimely death changes history.

Blind Moon Alley | John Florio

Jersey is an albino of mixed race. Known as "Snowball" on the street, he tends bar at a speakeasy the locals call the Ink Well. There, he's considered a hero for having saved the life of a young boy. But when his old grade school buddy, Aaron Garvey, calls from death row and asks for one last favor, all hell breaks loose.

The Bloody Black Flag | Steve Goble

Spider John Rush never wanted to be a pirate, but it had happened and he’d learned to survive in the world of cut and thrust, fight or die. He and his friend Ezra knew that death could come at any moment, from grapeshot or storm winds or the end of a noose. But when Ezra is murdered in cold blood by a shipmate, Spider vows revenge.

The Blue Journal | L.T. Graham

When one of Randi Conway’s psychotherapy patients is found dead of a gunshot wound, the investigation is turned over to Lieutenant Anthony Walker.

The Bookseller | Mark Pryor

Max—an elderly Paris bookstall owner—is abducted at gunpoint. His friend, Hugo Marston, head of security at the US embassy, looks on helplessly, powerless to do anything to stop the kidnapper.

Marston launches a search, enlisting the help of semiretired CIA agent Tom Green. Their investigation reveals that Max was a Holocaust survivor and later became a Nazi hunter. Is his disappearance somehow tied to his grim history, or even to the mysterious old books he sold?....

The Bomb Maker’s Son | Robert Rotstein

Attorney Parker Stern's estranged mother, the enigmatic leader of the cultish Church of the Sanctified Assembly, shows up unannounced and asks him to represent a man named Ian Holzner-better known as the Playa Vista Bomber.

Brave Hearts | Carolyn Hart

Catharine Cavanaugh is caught in a loveless marriage. Married to a British diplomat, she goes through the motions of playing the dutiful American wife in war-time London, while nightly German bombers bring terror and death to the city. Then she meets American war correspondent Jack Maguire and discovers hope and love again in the midst of desolation.

A Brilliant Death | Robin Yocum

Amanda Baron died in a boating accident on the Ohio River in 1953. Or, did she? While it was generally accepted that she had died when a coal barge rammed the pleasure boat she was sharing with her lover, her body was never found.

The Button Man | Mark Pryor

Hugo Marston has just joined the State Department as head of security at the US Embassy in London. His task is to protect a pair of spoiled movie stars, Dayton Harper and his wife Ginny Ferro, whose reckless driving killed a prominent landowner in rural England.

A Bottle of Rum | Steve Goble

August, 1723 -- Spider John Rush believes he has escaped piracy forever. Enjoying rum and chess in a dark Lymington tavern, he dreams of finding passage to Nantucket to reunite with his beloved Em and to finally get to know the son he remembers only as a babe in arms, though the lad must be dreaming of going to sea himself by now.

The Book Artist | Mark Pryor

Hugo Marston, head of security for the U.S. Embassy in Paris, puts his life in danger when he investigates the murder of a celebrated artist, all the while fending off an assassin looking to settle an old score against him.

Blade of the Samurai | Susan Spann

June, 1565: Master ninja Hiro Hattori receives a pre-dawn visit from Kazu, a fellow shinobi working undercover at the shogunate. Hours before, the shogun's cousin, Saburo, was stabbed to death in the shogun's palace. The murder weapon: Kazu's personal dagger.

The Body in Griffith Park | Jennifer Kincheloe

Los Angeles, 1908. Anna Blanc is a former so-so socialite, a flailing police matron, and a killer detective.

The Big Man’s Daughter | Owen Fitzstephen

18 year-old Rita Gaspereaux is suddenly "orphaned" when her con-artist father's illegal enterprise blows up around her. Alone and broke in San Francisco 1922, she must now navigate his criminal world, all the time haunted by tales of a black bird statuette reputed to possess otherworldly, wish-fulfilling powers. Rita has learned much from her father about the dark fringes of society. But has she learned enough?

Between a Wok and a Dead Place | Leslie Budewitz

It’s the Lunar New Year, and fortunes are about to change.

Castle Rock | Carolyn Hart

Serena Mallory came to the huge New Mexico ranch of Castle Rock as a twelve-year-old orphan. She grew up as the ward of owner Dan McIntire. Now in her early twenties, Serena watches the ranch's idyllic summer charm disappear when Dan dies in a riding accident.

Cast the First Stone | James W. Ziskin

February 1962: Tony Eberle has just scored his first role in a Hollywood movie, and the publisher of his hometown newspaper in upstate New York wants a profile of the local boy who’s made good. Reporter Ellie Stone is dispatched to Los Angeles for the story. But when she arrives on set to meet her subject, Tony has vanished. The director is apoplectic, his agent is stumped, and the producer is dead.

Cat on a Cold Tin Roof | Mike Resnick

Hard-luck gumshoe Eli Paxton is hired to find a missing cat-a very important cat, it turns out, because its collar is studded with diamonds worth a small fortune. What starts as a routine search of animal shelters soon becomes a perilous journey through a murky underworld. The woman who hired Paxton is the wealthy widow of a recently murdered financial adviser with an alias and mobster ties.

The Crypt Thief | Mark Pryor

The second Hugo Marston mystery begins when two tourists are murdered in the famous Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris. The killer leaves the bodies untouched but moves deeper into the cemetery, where he breaks into the crypt of a long-dead Moulin Rouge dancer. In a bizarre twist, he disappears into the night with part of her skeleton.

Claws of the Cat | Susan Spann

May 1564: When a samurai is brutally murdered in a Kyoto teahouse, master ninja Hiro has no desire to get involved. But the beautiful entertainer accused of the crime enlists the help of Father Mateo, the Portuguese Jesuit Hiro is sworn to protect, leaving the master shinobi with just three days to find the killer in order to save the girl and the priest from execution.

Chai Another Day | Leslie Budewitz

Seattle Spice Shop owner Pepper Reece probes murder while juggling a troubled employee, her mother’s house hunt, and a fisherman who’s set his hook for her.

Dig Your Grave | Steven Cooper

A killer is on the loose, burying his victims among the dead in Phoenix cemeteries, and leaving ghoulish signs that warn of more evil to come. It’s a crude camouflage that has Detective Alex Mills stumped. As he has done before, Mills turns to his buddy, the reluctant psychic Gus Parker. His visions, as cryptic and baffling as they sometimes are, mean something.

Dante’s Wood | Lynne Raimondo

Psychiatrist Mark Angelotti knows that genes don't lie. Or do they?

Back at work after a devastating illness, Mark believes he has put his past behind him when he is asked to examine Charlie Dickerson, a mentally handicapped teenager whose wealthy mother insists he is a victim of sexual abuse. Mark diagnoses a different reason for Charlie's ills, but his prescription turns deadly when a teacher is murdered and Charlie confesses to the police...

Dante’s Poison | Lynne Raimondo

Attorney Jane Barrett knows all about Lucitrol. She defended the manufacturer of the powerful antipsychotic drug against product liability claims. So when Barrett's lover, investigative journalist Rory Gallagher, collapses from a fatal dose of the same drug, it falls to Hallie Sanchez, Barrett's oldest friend, to defend her on murder charges.

Dante’s Dilemma | Lynne Raimondo

Psychiatrist Mark Angelotti has a physical disability—legal blindness—that complicates his fact-finding and forces him to rely on unique skills to solve crimes while acting as an expert witness or psychiatric evaluator.

Dead Broke in Jarrett Creek | Terry Shames

Jarrett Creek is bankrupt. Gary Dellmore, heir apparent to the main bank, is dead, apparently murdered. Samuel Craddock thought he was retired but now he's been asked to return as police chief. Dellmore supposedly had a roving eye, although his wife says he was never serious about dallying.

Deadly Catch | E. Michael Helms

When recently retired U.S. Marine Mac McClellan hooks a badly decomposed body while enjoying a leisurely fishing vacation in the Florida panhandle, and then a bag of rare marijuana is discovered stashed aboard his rental boat, he realizes someone is setting him up to take the fall for murder and drug smuggling.

Deadly Ruse | E. Michael Helms

Mac's girlfriend, Kate Bell, thinks she's seen a ghost. Wes Harrison, Kate's former boyfriend, supposedly perished twelve years ago in a boating accident. But now she swears a man she spotted in a crowded theater lobby is Wes. Mac has his doubts-it was only a fleeting glimpse. But to calm her shattered nerves, he starts making inquiries.

Death by Surprise | Carolyn Hart

K.C. Carlisle and her cousin Kenneth Carlisle both grew up rich. Kenneth is a corporate lawyer in an exclusive Northern California seaside community while K.C. has a storefront office on the seedy side of town. She takes whatever kind of case walks in her door.

The Deep Dark Descending | Allen Eskens

Homicide Detective Max Rupert never fully accepted his wife’s death, even when he believed that a reckless hit and run driver was the cause. But when he learns that in fact she was murdered, he devotes himself to hunting down her killers. Most of his life he had thought of himself as a decent man. But now he’s so consumed with thoughts of retribution that he questions whether he will take that last step and enact the vengeance he longs for.

Desert Remains | Steven Cooper

Someone is filling the desert caves around Phoenix with bodies—a madman who, in a taunting ritual, is leaving behind a record of his crimes etched into the stone. With no leads and no suspects, Detective Alex Mills sees a case spinning out of control. City leaders want the case solved yesterday, and another detective wants to elbow Mills out of the way. As the body count rises, Mills turns to Gus Parker, an “intuitive medium” whose murky visions sometimes point to real clues. It’s an unorthodox approach, but Mills is desperate.

The Devereaux Legacy | Carolyn Hart

Leah Devereaux is a dead woman. At least, that's what the folks now running the Devereaux plantation tell her: Leah has been presumed dead for nineteen years—since the day that both her parents died.

Leah, very much alive, has returned to South Carolina to uncover the untold story of her parents' deaths. While some, like her cousin Merrick, welcome her, Cissy and John Edward tell her to stay away, tell her to stop meddling in secrets long kept....

Dog in the Manger | Mike Resnick

A dog is missing. Not just any dog. The number one Weimaraner in the country and current Westminster winner.

Down-on-his-luck private eye Eli Paxton is hired to find him. Not exactly an elite assignment, but better than nothing. Maybe it will help him pay his rent. It turns out to be anything but a routine case. People start dying in mysterious ways, a cargo plane goes missing, and someone is taking shots at him. It makes no sense. Even a top show dog isn't worth that much...

Dominic | Mark Pryor

Only two other people know that Dominic, a charming Englishman, prosecutor, and musician in Austin, Texas, is also a psychopath. They also know that a year ago he got away with murder.

One of those people is his “special lady,” and the other is her brother, a teenager and fellow psychopath called Bobby. When a wily homicide detective starts digging up that past murder, little Bobby offers to take care of the problem—permanently. Dominic tries to dissuade him, but as he himself knows, psychopaths aren’t good with following instructions. Or impulse control.

Divorce Is Murder | Elka Ray

Toby Wong visits her quiet hometown in British Columbia, where nothing ever happens--until her old high school rival is found murdered.

A Dismal Harvest | Daisy Bateman

Autumn on the Sonoma Coast. A welcome chill is whipping through the crisp Pacific air, but something else is stirring in this rural California town . . .

Flask of the Drunken Master | Susan Spann

August 1565: When a rival artisan turns up dead outside Ginjiro's brewery, and all the evidence implicates the brewer, master ninja Hiro Hattori and Portuguese Jesuit Father Mateo must find the killer before the magistrate executes Ginjiro and seizes the brewery, leaving his wife and daughter destitute.

Fires of Edo | Susan Spann

Edo, February 1566: when a samurai’s corpse is discovered in the ruins of a burned-out bookshop, master ninja Hiro Hattori and Jesuit Father Mateo must determine whether the shopkeeper and his young apprentice are innocent victims or assassins in disguise.

A Fondness for Truth | Kim Hays

Honesty isn't always the best policy in Kim Hays' third Linder and Donatelli Mystery novel . . .

Ghost of the Bamboo Road | Susan Spann

January 1566: En route to Edo, Master ninja Hiro Hattori and Portuguese Jesuit Father Mateo spend the night in a rural mountain village whose inhabitants live in terror of a legendary vengeful ghost.

Heart Of Stone | James W. Ziskin

In the waning days of a lazy August holiday, Ellie Stone is enjoying a bright Adirondack-lake morning. Nearby, two men plummet to their deaths just a few feet short of the water of a dangerous diving pool. A tragic accident, it seems. But the police quickly establish that the two victims—one a stranger to the lake and the other a teenaged boy from a nearby music camp—surely didn’t know each other. So how did they come to die together?

Hammett Unwritten | Owen Fitzstephen

A worthless bird statuette—the focus of Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon. And much more. As Dashiell Hammett closes his final case as a private eye, the details of which will later inspire his most famous book, he acquires at a police auction the bogus object of that case, an obsidian falcon statuette. He casually sets the memento on his desk, where for a decade it bears witness to his literary rise. Until he gives it away.....

The Heavens May Fall | Allen Eskens

Detective Max Rupert and attorney Boady Sanden’s friendship is being pushed to the breaking point. Max is convinced that Jennavieve Pruitt was killed by her husband, Ben. Boady is equally convinced that Ben, his client, is innocent.

The Hemingway Thief | Shaun Harris

Paris, 1922—Ernest Hemingway asks his young wife, Hadley, to pack up every last scrap of his work into a single suitcase and join him in Switzerland.

While Hadley waits for her train in the Gare de Lyon, the suitcase containing a year’s worth of Hemingway stories vanishes, never to be seen again. Until now.

Holmes Entangled | Gordon McAlpine

From the Edgar®-nominated author of Hammett Unwritten and Woman with a Blue Pencil comes a startling meta-fiction tale told in the voice of Sherlock Holmes. Set in 1920s’ London, Cambridge, and Paris, Holmes’s final adventure leads him through labyrinths of crime and espionage in a mortally dangerous inquiry into the unseen nature of existence itself.

Idyll Threats | Stephanie Gayle

Clean-cut Thomas Lynch is police chief of Idyll, Connecticut, where serious crimes can be counted on one hand—until Cecilia North is found murdered on the town’s golf course. By chance, Chief Lynch met her mere hours before she was killed.

Idyll Fears | Stephanie Gayle

Two weeks before Christmas, Police Chief Thomas Lynch faces a crisis when Cody Forrand, a six-year-old with a life-threatening medical condition, goes missing during a blizzard. Lynch’s suspicions about who abducted Cody are met with scorn by his detectives, some of whom can’t handle the fact that’s he’s gay. When half the station calls in sick with flu, Lynch seeks outside help. It arrives in the shape of an FBI agent for whom Lynch feels an immediate attraction.

A Knife in the Fog | Bradley Harper

September 1888. A twenty-nine-year-old Arthur Conan Doyle practices medicine by day and writes at night. His first Sherlock Holmes story, A Study in Scarlet, although gaining critical and popular success, has only netted him twenty-five pounds. Embittered by the experience, he vows never to write another “crime story.” Then a messenger arrives with a mysterious summons from former Prime Minister William Gladstone, asking him to come to London immediately.

Killer Coin | Elka Ray

A wealthy socialite goes missing… a battered body is found in her abandoned cabin . . . At the center of it all lies the witty and down-to-earth divorce lawyer, Toby Wong. How did she manage to get wrapped up in all of this . . . again?

The Killer’s Wife | Susan Furlong

A serial killer, a woman on the run, and an obsessive parole officer tangle in a psychological net of death and secrets . . .

The Last Death of Jack Harbin | Terry Shames

Just before the outbreak of the Gulf War, two eighteen-year-old football stars and best friends from Jarrett Creek, Texas signed up for the army. But Woody Patterson was rejected and stayed home to marry the girl they both loved, while Jack Harbin came back from the war badly damaged. The men haven't spoken since. Just as they are about to reconcile, Jack is brutally murdered.

Little Pretty Things | Lori Rader-Day

Juliet Townsend works a dead-end job cleaning rooms at the Midnight Inn, a one-star hotel that attracts only the cheap or the desperate. Embittered by her bleak life, she takes to stealing small possessions from customers' rooms. At home she hoards a secret collection of these "little pretty things."

The Last Tea Bowl Thief | Jonelle Patrick

For three hundred years, a stolen relic passes from one fortune-seeker to the next, indelibly altering the lives of those who possess it.

The Ninja’s Daughter | Susan Spann

Autumn, 1565: When an actor’s daughter is murdered on the banks of Kyoto’s Kamo River, master ninja Hiro Hattori and Portuguese Jesuit Father Mateo are the victim’s only hope for justice.

No Stone Unturned | James W. Ziskin

A dead girl in the woods. Three little oil spots on the dirt road. A Dr. Pepper bottle cap in the shallow grave. And a young reporter, armed with nothing but a camera.

A Perfect Shot | Robin Yocum

A local basketball star in a small Ohio town tries to remake his life in middle age, but instead must confront a murderer and the prospect of leaving his hometown and giving up everything that once gave his life meaning.

Pieces of Eight | Steve Goble

1723—Spider John is almost home, free of the horrors of the pirate life, free of the violence, free of the death. The wife and baby he left behind almost a decade ago are almost within reach. But then a murder aboard Minuet uncovers a deeper conspiracy, and soon Spider and his friends—curmudgeonly Odin, swashbuckling young Hob and alluring Ruth Copper— find themselves in the midst of flintlock smoke and bloodshed.

Pesticide | Kim Hays

Bern, Switzerland—known for its narrow cobblestone streets, decorative fountains, and striking towers. Yet dark currents run through this charming medieval city and beyond, to the idyllic farmlands that surround it.

Peppermint Barked | Leslie Budewitz

A Dickens of a Christmas turns deadly…

A Reckoning in the Back Country | Terry Shames

When Lewis Wilkins, a physician with a vacation home in Jarrett Creek, is attacked by vicious dogs, and several pet dogs in the area around Jarrett Creek disappear, Police Chief Samuel Craddock suspects that a dog fighting ring is operating in his territory.He has to tread carefully in his investigation, as lawmen who meddle in dog fighting put their lives at risk. The investigation is hampered because Wilkins is not a local.

The Reluctant Matador | Mark Pryor

A twenty-something American model, Amy Dreiss, disappears in Paris. Her father turns for help to his old friend Hugo Marston, the security chief at the American Embassy. Marston makes some enquiries and quickly realizes something is amiss: Amy was not a model, as she claimed, but a dancer at a seedy bar. Now she's in Spain with a guy named Felix.

A Risky Undertaking for Loretta Singletary | Terry Shames

After using an online dating site for senior citizens, town favorite Loretta Singletary--maker of cinnamon rolls and arbiter of town gossip--goes missing.

The Survivors | Robert Palmer

Successful psychologist Cal Henderson has a busy practice in Washington, DC, good friends, and big plans for the future. But he can’t escape a terrible secret.

See Also Murder | Larry D. Sweazy

In 1964, a grisly murder is committed in the small town of Dickinson, North Dakota. Erik and Lida Knudsen are found murdered in their bed, their throats slit. Two grown sons-Jaeger and Peter-live in the same house, but claim to have heard nothing while asleep in their rooms.

Styx & Stone | James W. Ziskin

Ellie Stone is sure that Sgt. McKeever meant that as a compliment, but that identity-a girl wanting to do a man's job-has throttled her for too long. It's 1960, and Ellie doesn't want to blaze any trails for women; she just wants to be a reporter, one who doesn't need to swat hands off her behind at every turn.

See Also Deception | Larry D. Sweazy

October 1964—just months after freelance indexer Marjorie Trumaine helped solve a series of murders in Dickinson, North Dakota, she is faced with another death that pulls her into an unwanted investigation. Calla Eltmore, the local librarian, is found dead at work and everyone considers it suicide. But Marjorie can’t believe that Calla would be capable of doing such a thing.

See Also Proof | Larry D. Sweazy

Dickinson, North Dakota, 1965. It’s a harsh winter and freelance indexer Marjorie Trumaine struggles to complete a lengthy index while still mourning the recent loss of her husband, Hank. The bleakness of the weather seems to compound her grief and then she gets more bad news: a neighbor’s fourteen-year-old disabled daughter, Tina Rinkerman, has disappeared. Feeling she needs to do something to help the Rinkerman family, Marjorie joins Sheriff Guy Reinhardt in the search for the missing girl. Their investigation quickly leads to a shocking discovery and further complications. Not far from the Rinkerman’s house, the body of grocery store manager Nils Jacobsen is found with a bullet in his head.

Skulduggery | Carolyn Hart

Beijing, 1941: The ancient bones of the famed "Peking Man" areplaced in two wooden crates for shipment to the United States to escape the invading Japanese army. The bones are never seen again. New York City, 1970s: a mysterious woman offers to sell the bones to an unknown man on top of the Empire State Building. But when someone takes a photograph, she makes a hasty retreat and disappears forever....

The Sorbonne Affair | Mark Pryor

American novelist Helen Hancock is in Paris to research her work-in-progress and teach a writing class when she discovers a spy camera hidden in her room at the luxury Hotel Sorbonne. Hancock notifies the US embassy, which dispatches former FBI profiler Hugo Marston to investigate.

Stone Cold Dead | James W. Ziskin

James W. Ziskin is the author of Styx & Stone and No Stone Unturned, the first two Ellie Stone mysteries. A linguist by training, Ziskin was director of New York University’s Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò for five years, where he collaborated with an impressive catalogue of writers, journalists, and academics on cultural and educational events.

A Stone’s Throw | James W. Ziskin

August 1962. A suspicious fire claims a tumbledown foaling barn on the grounds of the once-proud Tempesta Stud Farm, halfway between New Holland and Saratoga Springs, NY. The blaze, one of several in recent years at the abandoned farm, barely prompts a shrug from the local sheriff. That is until “girl reporter” Ellie Stone, first on the scene, uncovers a singed length of racing silk in the rubble of the barn. And it’s wrapped around the neck of one of two charred bodies buried in the ashes. A bullet between the eyes of one of the victims confirms it’s murder, and the police suspect gamblers. Ellie digs deeper.

Sugar Pop Moon: A Jersey Leo Novel | John Florio

Jersey Leo is the quintessential outsider—an albino of mixed race. Known as "Snowball" on the street, he makes a living as the bartender at a mob-run speakeasy in Prohibition-era Hell's Kitchen. Being neither black nor white, he has no group to call his own. His own mother abandoned him as a baby. And his father—a former boxing champ with his own secrets—disapproves of Jersey's work at a dive owned by one of New York's most notorious gangsters.

A Shattered Lens | Layton Green

A detective investigates the murder of a teenage golden boy that has rocked a small town--and the chief suspect is the victim's mother.

The Solace of Bay Leaves | Leslie Budewitz

Pepper Reece never expected to find solace in bay leaves. But when her life fell apart at forty and she bought the venerable-but-rundown Spice Shop in Seattle’s Pike Place Market, her days took a tasty turn. Now she’s savoring the prospect of a flavorful fall and a busy holiday cooking season, until danger bubbles to the surface . . .

The Secret Lives of Dentists | W.A. Winter

In 1955, small-town girls flock to Minneapolis for work, love, and adventure. But Teresa Hickman, from Dollar, North Dakota, is a special case. Beguiling. Promiscuous. And, on a chilly April morning, dead along an abandoned trolley track in a Southside neighborhood.

The Strange Case of Eliza Doolittle | Timothy Miller

Sherlock Holmes has retired to the Sussex countryside . . . that is, until a most formidable puzzle is dropped upon his doorstep by a certain Colonel Pickering.

The Strange Case of the Dutch Painter | Timothy Miller

Paris, 1890. When Sherlock Holmes finds himself chasing an art dealer through the streets of Paris, he’s certain he’s smoked out one of the principals of a cunning forgery ring responsible for the theft of some of the Louvre’s greatest masterpieces. But for once, Holmes is dead wrong.

The Strange Case of the Pharaoh’s Heart | Timothy Miller

To crack the case the time around, Sherlock Holmes must return to the place he swore he'd never revisit and face his demons. . . literally . . .

Sons and Brothers | Kim Hays

Kim Hays' second novel serves us a suspicious drowning, ugly secrets, and unresolved romantic tension . . .

A Thousand Falling Crows | Larry D. Sweazy

While Sonny struggles with recuperating and tries to get used to the idea of living a life with only one arm, Aldo Hernandez, the hospital’s janitor, asks Sonny to help find his daughter and bring her back home.

The Trojan Colt: An Eli Paxton Mystery | Mike Resnick

What starts as a routine security assignment turns out to be anything but for down-on-his-luck private eye Eli Paxton. Hired to guard the high-priced yearlings of "Trojan," a recently retired classic winner in Lexington, Kentucky, Paxton is no sooner on the job than he must respond to a fracas in the horse barn.

Turn to Stone | James W. Ziskin

This 1960s-era locked-room mystery takes Ellie Stone to Florence, Italy--a seemingly idyllic setting, which in this case has sinister undertones.

To Err is Cumin | Leslie Budewitz

One person’s treasure is another’s trash . . .

Written in Blood | Layton Green

After a decade tracking down killers in Atlanta, and with a reputation as one of the finest homicide detectives in the city, his career derailed when he suffered a mental breakdown during the investigation of a serial killer who was targeting children. No sooner does Preach arrive at home in Creekville, North Carolina—a bohemian community near Chapel Hill—than a local bookstore owner is brutally killed, the first murder in a decade. The only officer with homicide experience, Preach is assigned to the case and makes a shocking discovery: the bookstore owner has been murdered in exactly the same manner as the pawnbroker in Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment.

The Woman in the Camphor Trunk | Jennifer Kincheloe

Los Angeles, 1908. In Chinatown, the most dangerous beat in Los Angeles, police matron Anna Blanc and her former sweetheart, Detective Joe Singer, discover the body of a white missionary woman, stuffed in a trunk in the apartment of her Chinese lover.If news about the murder gets out, there will be a violent backlash against the Chinese. Joe and Anna work to solve the crime quietly and keep the death a secret, reluctantly helped by the good-looking Mr. Jones, a prominent local leader.

Where I Can See you | Larry D. Sweazy

When a rare murder occurs in the lakeside community, Hud’s veteran skills are called upon to capture the killer. Pulled deep into the threads of the community with ties to the past, Hud quickly becomes a target, not only of the killer, but of those who wish the past to be left alone. As Hud gets closer to discovering the truth about the crimes, he has to face a choice of enforcing the law, or stepping outside of it to make sure that his version of justice is served.

White Ginger | Thatcher Robinson

Armed with Buddhist philosophy and wicked knife skills, Bai Jiang works at being a better person by following her conscience, while struggling with what she likes to think of as "aggressive assertiveness."

A Welcome Murder | Robin Yocum

After his unspectacular professional baseball career ends with a knee injury in Toledo, Ohio, Johnny Earl gets busted for selling cocaine.Sent to prison for seven years, he is finally released in 1991. All he wants to do is return to his hometown of Steubenville, retrieve the drug money he stashed before he went to jail, and start a new life where no one has ever heard of Johnny Earl.

What They Don’t Know | Susan Furlong

A picture-perfect suburban life fractures . . . and a darker reality bubbles beneath the surface.