But nothing is the way it seems in this gripping mystery, and as the close calls evolve into murder, the drama grows and the tension mounts. Private Investigator Burnside, the former football star and LAPD officer, enters into a confounding world that gets murkier as the probe deepens. From former clients to spurned lovers to angry underworld figures, there are an inordinate number of people who harbor reasons to kill. With many avenues to go down, Burnside doggedly pursues an investigation that mystifies everyone involved, and also leads the police to suspect Burnside himself of a capital crime. Combining an intricate plot with compelling characters, Burnside goes down yet another treacherous path. Fraught with wry humor, the unexpected climax of the story will take readers by surprise -- in more ways than one. CORNER BLITZ (Book 5):The Governor of California's teenage daughter has gone missing, and it's happened right in the middle of a nasty re-election campaign. Adamant about keeping the investigation quiet, the governor brings in Burnside to find her. But when the case evolves into murder, everything changes and Burnside is plunged into a scenario where things are not what they appear to be. Cobbling together the world of politics, sports and teen romance, Corner Blitz moves through the wealthy canyon enclaves to the mean streets near downtown Los Angeles. And as Burnside overcomes the many obstacles in the investigation, he also comes face-to-face with his own past, one that haunts him to this day.The fifth Burnside mystery continues to deliver the witty banter and unexpected surprises that readers have enjoyed in this series. Corner Blitz follows Burnside on another tightly written mystery, loaded with plot twists, and finishes with an unforeseen, yet very satisfying ending.NICKEL PACKAGE (Book 6):A vicious killer is on the loose. Their targets are connected, but the motives are unclear. Brought in by a Fortune 500 company to do a simple background check, Private Investigator Burnside is suddenly thrown into the middle of a sea of carnage. And as he moves forward into this harrowing case, his own life is placed in mortal danger.Desperate to find the culprit before they strike again, Burnside faces his biggest challenge yet, and one in which a single wrong move -- or an ill-timed quip -- could prove to be very deadly.Filled with unexpected obstacles in his journey, the story leads Burnside into the glitz of the entertainment industry, but as he pushes forward, he discovers the harsh corruption that lies seething beneath the surface.Nickel Package embarks on another vivid tour through the eclectic world that is Los Angeles. From the tony corporate suites to the seemingly peaceful middle-class neighborhoods to the gritty urban neighborhoods, the reader is introduced to intriguing new areas and fascinating characters.And it wouldn't be a Burnside novel if it weren't loaded with irreverent humor! Nickel Package delivers an exciting mystery that is both compelling to follow -- and marvelous to read.

    But her fresh start isn’t everything she hoped it would be – daughter Mia is struggling to fit in at school and she’s finding it challenging living with her overbearing mother.But when she joins the local dog-walkers group, Nicky finds the support she’s been looking for – The Lonely Hearts Dog Walkers never fail to be there for each other in a crisis. When their local park is threatened by developers, they are determined to rally together to save it. Can Nicky fight to protect her new community and find her happy furever after? A heart-warming tale of love, family and four-legged friends – perfect for fans of Lucy Diamond, Phillipa Ashley and Katie Fforde.

    That’s all it’s supposed to be.One wild, unforgettable night.And then we'd go our separate ways.... I was wrong. Get the complete Clarke Brothers series, featuring brooding mountain heroes with hearts of gold, and the heroines that make them hot.  Absolutely Kindle-melting!

    She is falling in love with the ideal man while advancing in her professional career. Then her neat and ordered life crashes. She receives a strange email from her deceased grandmother. Coupled with this, her apartment is burgled and her cookbooks are stolen, the ones she was instructed to preciously guard. After hiring a quirky private detective she goes on a quest that leads to an impossible truth. This exciting action thriller is interlaced with memories of tastes, smells and laughter in the kitchen, and how a grandmother lovingly prepared a young girl to face enormous challenges. Not only did Kate learn the craft of cooking, but also values from old-world traditions. These savoury breaks in the story provide unusual twists not typically found in bestseller action-thriller novels. Those lessons passed from one generation to the next give Kate the strength to face powerful forces. While solving mysteries she is led on a journey of self-discovery, having to ask hard questions. What is this disconcerting game that her grandmother is playing and for what purpose? Is her past just an illusion? And, why are these malevolent people intent on extracting some unknown truth from her? There are unique and unexpected rewards with this book. Recipes for dishes in the novel are found on the author’s website, thereby prolonging the pleasant memories of the story. Kate is a gourmet cook and you can recreate her delectable delights, whether for a special candlelight dinner for two or for an entire family. ‘The Cookbook’ carries themes of romance and love, and of faith and hope as it explores the limits of how much trust one can give to others. When everyone is against you, how can you stand up with toughness and tenacity against the world? One reviewer wrote, “This book is like a superb meal. It’s a wonderful mix of the pleasures of cooking and the enjoyment of an action read. One can only say, ‘Bon Appetit!’” If you love an adrenaline driven escape found in a fun action story, this is it.

    He's working a routine case, complete with hours of tedious surveillance, when he sees something that shakes him to the core. There, with the subject, is a little blond girl wearing a pink top and denim shorts—the same outfit worn by Tracy Turner, a six-year-old abducted the day before. When the police are skeptical of Ballard's report—and with his history, who can blame them?—it's the beginning of the most important case of his life.LAST CHANCE LASSITERPaul LevineIn this prequel to the “Jake Lassiter” series, the linebacker-turned-lawyer faces overwhelming odds. Fired from his job and dumped by his girlfriend, Lassiter rents a grungy law office in a Miami Beach parking garage. What else could go wrong? Well, he could be disbarred for punching out his own client. As for cases, the down-and-out lawyer has only one. Lassiter represents Cadillac Johnson, an aging rhythm and blues musician who claims his greatest song was stolen by a top-of-the-charts hip-hop artist. The evidence is long gone and chances of winning are slim. Except for one thing. “If your cause is just,” Lassiter says, “no case is impossible.”CLIENTParnell HallStanley Hastings couldn't be happier. He had his first paying client, and the assignment was straight out of a forties noir movie, tailing the man's cheating wife and snapping pictures of her at a motel. If only he hadn't fallen asleep on stakeout. When he wakes up the woman is dead, the murder weapon is in his car, and a small town police force straight out of In the Heat of the Night has him cast in the Sidney Poitier role. To clear his name—and get paid—Stanley will have to figure out who his client is, who killed the woman in the upstate motel, and who was the resultant corpse!RADIO ACTIVITYBill FitzhughFM rock deejay Rick Shannon has just been fired from his latest Classic Rock station. He’s thinking it’s time to get out of radio once and for all. But when a famous deejay disappears in Mississippi, Rick gets a job offer to take over the slot. So he packs his bags and moves back to his home state where he comes across a tape of an illegally recorded phone conversation that might explain the fate of the missing deejay. Rick starts looking into the matter, and before you can say “Stairway to Heaven” he’s uncovered a scheme of blackmail, arson, murder, and a major FCC violation. Based on an illegal recording made by the author (and former FM rock deejay), Radio Activity redefines classic rock.CALABAMA Steve BrewerWhen a speeding Corvette flies over his head, leaving him without a scratch, Eric Newlin decides it's an omen and his life is about to change. He's right. Within days, he's broke, homeless, unemployed and getting divorced. He falls so far that he ends up involved in a kidnapping scheme with hillbilly crimelord Rydell Vance. Leavened with dark humor, CALABAMA takes a wry look at California's rural, redneck interior, a bitter, precarious place where it's easy for an outsider's life to spiral out of control.

    

    Addison Goodheart is not like other people…Addison Goodheart lives in solitude beneath the city, an exile from a society which will destroy him if he is ever seen.Books are his refuge and his escape: he embraces the riches they have to offer. By night he leaves his hidden chambers and, through a network of storm drains and service tunnels, makes his way into the central library.And that is where he meets Gwyneth, who, like Addison, also hides her true appearance and struggles to trust anyone.But the bond between them runs deeper than the tragedies that have scarred their lives. Something more than chance – and nothing less than destiny – has brought them together in a world whose hour of reckoning is fast approaching.

    Being on call means that anything could happen.Take half an hour out of your busy day, and join the midwife on call at Christmas.The best presents are sometimes the ones we least expect.This is a quick-read story, featuring characters from the Lessons of a Student Midwife series.

    

    With beauty, brains, money, and a loving family, she seemingly had it all. All but love! Just when she'd given up on men, on love, Arjun Warrier, the ex-army man who broke her heart, re-entered her life. One look at him, and her walls threatened to crumble. Arjun vowed to protect her from danger, but who will save her heart from him?Arjun Warrier remembered Natasha as a beautiful teenager. He was unprepared for the stunning and confident entrepreneur who was facing threats from an unknown stalker. As the stalker raised the stakes, Arjun knew he had to keep close to Natasha. But, would he be able to keep his hands off her? Last time he'd walked away, it had almost destroyed them. Can he walk away unscathed this time around?

    The sentiments of the main speaker of the book, a person given the name Qohelet, sound incredibly modern. Expressing the uncertainty and anxieties of our own age, he is driven by the question, "Where can we find meaning in the world?"But while Qohelet's question resonates with readers today, his answer is shocking. "Meaningless," says Qohelet, "everything is meaningless." How does this pessimistic perspective fit into the rest of biblical revelation? In this commentary Tremper Longman III addresses this question by taking a canonical-Christocentric approach to the meaning of Ecclesiastes.Longman first provides an extensive introduction to Ecclesiastes, exploring such background matters as authorship, language, genre, structure, literary style, and the book's theological message. He argues that the author of Ecclesiastes is not Solomon, as has been traditionally thought, but a writer who adopts a Solomonic persona. In the verse-by-verse commentary that follows, Longman helps clarify the confusing, sometimes contradictory message of Ecclesiastes by showing that the book should be divided into three sections -- a prologue (1:1-11), Qohelet's autobiographical speech (1:12-12:7), and an epilogue (12:8-14) -- and that the frame narrative provided by prologue and epilogue is the key to understanding the message of the book as a whole.

     After spending years with a death sentence hanging over his head, Ashbourne knows that his time could nearly be up. For Peter Harrigan, his attorney, in a way this case is the last shot at putting his own life back together. Five years earlier, while preparing Ashbourne's first appeal, Harrigan lost his entire family in a sudden car accident. For Harrigan, it really isn’t just a case. For Harrigan, after putting what little left he had into his work, losing the case would mean losing the final, fragile link to his past. Now when a surprise witness surfaces, Harrigan is not sure whether this new development is a blessing or a curse. His new witness is a master of deception who, at the same time, may hold the proof of Ashbourne's innocence. In Harrigan’s desperation to find the truth and free his client, he will have to plunge into the treacherous corners of California's radical environmental movement. In a final desperate race to lay his ghosts to rest, he will have to team up with a beautiful female investigator. Under the glare of the courtroom, the pressure is mounting as Harrigan has to face his old demons in order to try and finally lay the case to rest, once and for all. Praise for Bill Blum ‘A thrilling legal drama’ – Thomas Waugh Bill Blum is an experienced attorney. Familiar with the ins and outs, and the pitfalls of criminal procedures, he presents a riveting, hard-hitting and authentic legal thriller, one that offers a fascinating insider’s look at the shifting political dynamics within the criminal justice system. Bill Blum has also written for a wide array of publications, including the Los Angeles Times, ABA Journal, The Nation and California Lawyer, hosted a radio talk show, and lectured widely. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and family.

     Meg Walton hopes her days of sleuthing are behind her. So when another murder occurs, the secret witch turned sleuth finds her life turned upside down. This time, the case is personal when Meg finds out one of her dearest friends is the victim. Even more, Meg's friend has made enemies of the most influential family in town. Somehow, Meg has to find a way to navigate her grief while cracking her hardest case yet. Is Meg finally in over her head?

     NOTE: Portions of this work were previously published in 2 separate volumes as Shadewright and Shadowslave under the pen name Dean McMillin in Dec. 2012--however this is a completely re-edited, re-imagined version of the story, re-written from front to back. Phantist just wants to be an entertainer, earning his living with his shadow magic. But then, an ancient evil known as Earth Darkness declares war on the land. The dark lord's allies have powerful war machines of a kind never seen before... And the enemy uses a combination of magic and technology to corrrupt life itself, creating monsters. Now, to save his people and his country, Phantist joins with an eccentric lightning-mage and a mysterious female soldier on a quest to stop Earth Darkness and its murderous plans. But this battle demands that Phantist find the warrior within himself… And that he must embrace the darkest, deadliest aspects of his own magic.