Unauthored Letters (John Sanders Series)


Tara C. Allred - 2013
    John Sanders has given Rebecca Brownell a new chance at life. After an isolated childhood, an abused adolescence, and an institutionalized existence, Rebecca is finally free to conquer her demons and build a promising life.However, just as it appears Rebecca has achieved her dreams, eerily personal letters begin arriving in the mail. Letters sent from an unidentified source who knows far more about her past than anyone should. Letters that threaten and question Rebecca's sanity."Unauthored Letters" is the inspiring tale of a woman's troubled past, a man's quest to protect her, and their fight against a mysterious foe. It's a story of trust strained by illness, love tried by lies, and promises terrorized by illusive danger.

The Fatal Heir


Lois Lewandowski - 2006
    A few years previous, she survived a car accident that shattered her ankle and her first marriage. Now she’s remarried and walking again and life would be perfect—if only she could get pregnant.Fortunately, Gillian’s mother-in-law and one of the Jackson County commissioners from Bend Brook, Nebraska, hatch a plan that will enable Gillian and her husband Clint to afford the next step in fertility treatment: they ask her to become an investigator for the county. Her first assignment is to find the biological parents of the commissioner’s adopted daughter, Caroline. With only one concrete fact to go on—Caroline was left at a Colorado monastery in 1967—Gillian heads for Aspen. Unfortunately, no one at the monastery remembers any such event—or so they say. When one monk goes missing and a woman who’s sleeping in the bed reserved for Gillian is murdered, Gillian has second thoughts. She can’t turn back, though, since most of Bend Brook has taken bets on whether she’ll be able to solve the case.As she uncovers past events that lead to the discovery of Caroline’s true identity, Gillian realizes that sometimes the perfect family might be the one you already have …

In Servitude


Heleen Kist - 2018
    She discovers Glory was indebted to a local crime lord and laundering money through her café. What’s worse, Grace is now forced to take over.Defying her anxiety, Grace will stop at nothing to save herself and those Glory left behind from the clutches of Glasgow’s underworld. But her plans unravel when more family secrets emerge and Grace is driven to question everything she believed about her sister – even her death.Could Glory’s accident have been murder?

Armed and Outrageous


Madison Johns - 2012
    Also check out the Agnes Barton Paranormal series, same characters, different spin. Hilarious Senior sleuths — Grandma Mazur meets Murder She Wrote — cozy mystery. Agnes Barton is not your typical senior citizen living in Tadium, MI, on the shores of Lake Huron. She drives a red hot Mustang, shops at Victoria's Secret, rankles local police officials, and has a knack for sticking her nose where it doesn't belong. What does a murder that happened forty-three years ago have to do with missing tourist Jennifer Martin? Agnes makes it her personal mission to find out, and she's not letting the fact she's seventy-two get in the way. Butting heads with Sheriff Clem Peterson is something she's accustomed to, but lately Clem seems to be acting even more strange, making Agnes wonder what he may be hiding ala the Martin disappearance. Agnes’ partner in crime, Eleanor Mason tags along, Watson to her Holmes. Together, they unearth clues. If only Eleanor would behave, as although lovable, she has a knack for getting into trouble by tangling with her rival, Dorothy Alton, or flirting with anyone—male or female—and gossiping! She's incorrigible, but she does carry a Pink Lady revolver in her purse, one that has proved useful at times. Life for Agnes and Eleanor is shaken up when Agnes' former boss and secret crush comes to Tadium. Before long, the lady sleuths have more on their hands to contend with as goons roll into town and bullets begin to fly. Adult content. Also by Madison Johns Agnes Barton Senior Sleuths Mystery Series in order: Armed and Outrageous (Book one) Grannies, Guns and Ghosts (Book two) Senior Snoops (Book three) Trouble in Tawas (Book four) Treasure in Tawas (Book five) Agnes Barton/Kimberly Steele Cozy Mystery Series Pretty, Hip & Dead (Book one) A Cajun Cooking Mystery series Target of Death (Book one) Romance Pretty and Pregnant (Kimberly Steele novella) Redneck Romance (Kelly Gray, standalone) http://madisonjohns.com Join Madison newsletter list. https://www.facebook.com/MadisonJohns...

Ash


Jason Brant - 2013
    10:32 AM EST: An entire floor of government agents leap to their death from their office building. 12:57 PM EST: All the police officers inside a station murder each other. And the day has just begun. Lieutenant Asher Benson left Iraq with a traumatic brain injury, PTSD, and a Purple Heart. His doctors warned that the symptoms would be life altering. They had no idea. As his body healed, the thoughts of those around him began to echo through Ash’s mind, stretching the boundaries of his sanity. Five years later, Ash is drowning the voices with copious amounts of booze and self-loathing. When unidentified intelligence agents abduct him in broad daylight, Ash is thrust into a world of espionage and assassinations. A unique terrorist is operating on U.S. soil, and the government needs Ash, and the malady that has plagued him for half a decade, to find the killer. *Ash is the first book in the Asher Benson thriller series, which is full of snarky humor and nonstop action.

True-Life Adventure


J. Paul Drew - 1985
    It wasn’t much, but it would keep Spot the cat in Kitty Queen tidbits.But then somebody poisoned Jack in Paul’s own living room. A day that begins with a body in your house really ought to get better, but next comes burglary and after that, assault-by-cop. And Paul’s got a feeling that’s just the beginning. There must have been something someone didn't want him to know in one of those client reports. But what?The wise-cracking, funny, but slightly depressed ex-journalist better become an ace private investigator in about two seconds—or end up like his detective mentor.Birnbaum's last report concerned a kidnapped child, so Paul begins there. The trail leads him to the laboratory of a Nobel laureate geneticist, and then to San Francisco City Hall, where an extremely nasty surprise awaits. But there’s an upside—lovely witness Sardis Kincannon. Nothing like falling in love while you’re running for your life!

Prepped to Kill


M. Lee Prescott - 2011
    While she pretends to be an ace private investigator, the niece of Massachusetts’ governor goes missing and a murderer terrorizes the campus. Ricky enlists the aid of her former roommates and together, the three create mayhem during Whitley School’s reunion weekend, bungling along in search of the truth. Join Ricky on her first caper and see how this humorous rollicking mystery series got its start.

If Angels Fall


Rick Mofina - 2000
    Pointing them out now no longer applies to the current edition.Tom Reed is a crime reporter with The San Francisco Star, whose superb journalistic skills earned him a Pulitzer nomination. But years later Reed’s life is coming apart. His editor wants him fired. His wife has left him to wrestle with his demons. Alone, Reed is tormented by the fear he may have caused the suicide of an innocent man suspected of murdering a two-year-old girl.Reed’s friend on the case is legendary San Francisco Homicide Inspector, Walt Sydowski, who has one of California’s highest clearance rates. He is also a lonely widower haunted by the fact he cannot solve the girl's heartbreaking death.Both men grapple with the past while they race the clock to learn the truth behind a several new abductions that have anguished the Bay Area, in this acclaimed thriller set in the late 1990s.

Lamb to the Slaughter


Karen Ann Hopkins - 2014
    To solve the murder, she must investigate the nearby Amish community with the help of a man who was shunned years ago. Lamb to the Slaughter is a story about the intertwining lives of three unlikely people in an Indiana Amish Community and the devastating results when a rebellious teenage girl is found shot to death in a corn field during the harvest. Serenity Adams is the newly elected young sheriff in the country town of Blood Rock and besides dealing with the threatening behavior of her predecessor, she now has a dead Amish girl on her plate. At first glance, the case seems obvious. The poor girl was probably accidentally shot during hunting season, but when the elders of the Amish community and even the girl’s parents react with uncaring subdued behavior, Serenity becomes suspicious. As she delves deeper into the secretive community that she grew up beside, she discovers a gruesome crime from the past that may very well be related to the Amish girl’s shooting. Serenity enlists the help of the handsome bad-boy building contractor, Daniel Bachman, who left the Amish when he was nineteen and has his own dark reasons to help the spunky sheriff solve the crime that the family and friends who shunned him are trying desperately to cover up. Serenity’s persistence leads her to a stunning discovery that not only threatens to destroy her blossoming romance with Daniel, but may even take her life in the end.

Maniacal


C.M. Sutter - 2016
     The newly promoted Sergeant Jade Monroe, and her partner, Detective Jack Steele, have just been informed of an unidentified male body found at a local lake. The town is in an uproar. The victim was nearly decapitated, and murder simply doesn’t happen in North Bend. As more bodies turn up, the single connection between all of the victims becomes clear—it’s Jade, herself. With each new victim getting one step closer to Jade, time begins to tick away. She must find the person responsible before her loved ones, or herself, are targeted next. Note: All Detective Jade Monroe books are standalone stories, yet they are best read in chronological order. #1 Maniacal #2 Captive #3 Fallacy #4 Premonition

Dark Sky


Joel Canfield - 2015
    Suddenly, he’s given a mission way above his paygrade — to uncover the truth about First Lieutenant Robert Davidson, the son of an American military legend and a war hero who died in combat during the Afghanistan conflict. Or did he?To find the answer, Max must take a road trip into the heart of America’s darkness as well as his own. Along the way, he encounters an exploding home, a murderous clone of a classic TV hero, a sexy heiress, and a misguided teenager desperate for a father figure. And, oh yeah, there’s also a para-military organization that’s just waiting for the right moment to kill him. It all happens in DARK SKY, a sardonic and suspenseful mystery-thriller in which an underwhelming hero must confront an overwhelming conspiracy — not to mention himself.

No Man's Land


Hervey Copeland
    While working on his latest novel, he makes a gruesome discovery and uncovers secrets that some would want to remain dead and buried.   Soon Mark becomes a target and is forced to run for his life. The nearest town is thirty miles away, and the only way to escape is through the forest. The people chasing him are hot on his heels, and will stop at nothing to prevent him from getting out of the wilderness alive.

Jasmine Steele Mysteries Vol. 1-4


Kimberly Amato - 2019
    Lovers of traditional mysteries will appreciate the web of fierce loyalty tempered with fearful caution that links Jazz’s tiny but hardy support system—both at work and at home. In every tale, Amato manages to mix all the excitement of an action thriller with the swirling emotions of a mainstream psychological novel. STEELE RESOLVE "Don't think you're untouchable…you or your son." Then a dial tone... Home is no haven with that that kind of caller on the line. Shrewd, hardened New York homicide detective Jasmine (Jazz) Steele’s just come back from a grisly crime scene involving the body of a brutally-beaten young girl, the second she's investigated this week. That was horrendous, but with these eight words, ending ominously in “your son,” Jazz’s immediate fear is for her nephew Chase, who’s already been through hell in his seven short years. In Kimberly Amato’s hard-boiled yet deeply emotional police procedural, no one is spared tough breaks and turbulent anguish. A lesser cop than Jazz would barely be able to cope. MELTING STEELE In Jasmine Steele’s heartbreaking new case, an entire family's been viciously murdered. Hard-boiled alert: author Kimberly Amato pulls no punches. The mother's throat was slit while trying to call for help and the father was shot in the chest, then gruesomely sliced up while still alive, like a scene from a horror film. Also found, the body of their young son, about Jazz’s son’s age, left in the closet with a snapped neck.  But it's the remaining clues to a missing fourth victim--a teenage daughter named Kaley--that leave her reeling. Kaley's seemingly disappeared without a trace. Soon Jazz discovers that the family had plenty of disturbing skeletons in its closet. Skeletons possibly warranting hiring a hit man on the Internet. BREAKING STEELE Gory video game violence comes home to roost when two store managers are brutally murdered in the back room of their gaming shop just before peek holiday season. The corporation that owns the store is doing everything it can to keep the matter quiet—but they won’t succeed if detective Jasmine Steele cracks the case. A fast-paced police procedural that’s as gripping as it is eerily personal. And this one comes with a captivating (although, as Jazz might say, a slightly “nerdy”) bonus: a heaping dose of the fascinating ins and outs of video game subculture. Which is far more murderous than the average reader would suspect. COLD STEELE Jazz gets a rude awakening when a 3-year-old cold case comes back hot. New York City’s “Carnation Killer,” a serial rapist and murderer, leaves his fifth calling card on a woman named Emilia Smith. The calling card? A heart-shaped carving into the woman’s chest and a single white carnation.

Unforeseen


Nick Pirog - 2008
    After all, it was his case, and he doesn t need to be reminded of the gruesome details. The book dubbed the serial killer, Tristen Grayer, The MAINEiac. Grayer is allegedly dead, but only Prescott knows the truth, Grayer is alive and lurking in the shadows. On October 1st, the anniversary of the first murder, Tristen resurfaces, killing someone special from Prescott's past. Suddenly, it s deja vu for Prescott except this time the women closest to him begin to fall victim at the hands of Grayer. With the help of former flame, medical examiner Dr. Caitlin Dodds, and Eight in October author, Alex Tooms, Prescott must race against the clock to stop Tristen from completing his encore.

The Advocate


Lori Lacefield - 2018
    A young recruit who will have to expose the truth of just how far one of them will go to get revenge.\Former victim Palmer Reed is facing the 20th anniversary of her kidnapping when she is recruited to the board of a prestigious foundation dedicated to helping the victims of crime. Run by Marjoram Swall, a woman known as The Vindicator, who helped rescue Palmer twenty years ago from the hands of their mutual enemy, the foundation gives Palmer something to believe in, hoping that by helping other victims, she will resolve her own painful past.But something dark lies beneath the foundation’s surface, and after Palmer learns of the foundation's use of blackmail to raise money for their cause, she discovers that several individuals who escaped their blackmail attempts all later died in mysterious accidents. She investigates, and soon believes their deaths are anything but accidental.Faced with the dilemma of staying loyal to her mentor and the foundation that's provided her with a purpose, or exposing the truth and tearing her life apart, she's forced to question her own ethical boundaries, whether the pursuit of justice and the equalization of a faulty legal system is worth murder.But her mentor won't risk giving her that choice, and soon Palmer finds herself the target of an unknown killer, her former kidnappers, and even Marjoram herself. For Palmer has opened a deadly link to their past, and she's on a mission to uncover the truth.