Almost Perfect


Orly Krauss-Winer - 2011
    Three women, all deeply connected in some way to the victim, are swept into the investigation, involving a post-WWII love affair, an embezzlement case, and a brilliant police detective. When the truth is revealed, secrets are exposed – they must all face a difficult, complex, and unexpected reality. Almost Perfect is a light thriller, which does not require a thorough reading to trace the hidden details. You will find a sophisticated, intriguing story, variety in the narration, and many secondary stories (interesting in themselves), connecting to a harmonious overall picture. It has humanity and longing for warmth and love. The writer sets her stories in the real world, where the smells, tastes and feelings are known and accessible to the reader. These make the book enjoyable, thrilling, and allow the reader to connect with the characters.

Valley of Thracians


Ellis Shuman - 2013
    Retired literature professor Simon Matthews launches a desperate search only to be lured into a bizarre quest to retrieve a stolen Thracian artifact—a unique object of immense value others will stop at nothing to recover.Matthews travels through a Balkan landscape dotted with ancient tombs and fortresses, unaware that his grandson has been confined to an isolated mountain cabin, slowly recovering from a severe head injury. Nothing can be taken at face value, as the woman assisting Matthews in his quest and the nurse caring for his injured grandson may have ulterior motives in helping the two reunite. Even when Matthews succeeds in joining up with his grandson, departure from Bulgaria is only possible if the missing relic can be found.

A Shadow Fell


Patrick Dakin - 2012
    Patrick Dakin once again thrills fans with a tale that is never predictable and is always entertaining.

Dark Market


Frank Coles - 2012
    Never get caught.Coles is: "Hemingwayesque" - BBC's Focus Magazine.John Savage is a special force of one. A corporate investigator who had to leave when an investigation went wrong. He's become a 21st century warrior serving overseas but not for any one government only the highest bidder. When he finds a dead body with links to his old life he returns and finds that what forced him out was only the beginning of a conspiracy to commit murder on a grand scale. The Dark Market. In which anyone can take part and anyone can be a victim. Now Savage must battle to finish what he started.

The Sarah Roberts Series Vol. 7-9


Jonas Saul - 2014
    7-9 - Three novels in OneThe Vigilante (Sarah Roberts Book Seven)*Starring Sarah Roberts and guest starring Aaron Stevens from The SpecterDuring a five-month break in Toronto, Sarah has fallen for Aaron Stevens. When the police seek her help to find a serial killer who has operated in the Toronto area for more than twelve years, Sarah receives a series of messages from her dead sister, Vivian.As she closes in the on The Leap Year Killer, Sarah runs into a street gang bent on revenge for her shooting one of their members. Aaron won't accept that she willingly puts herself at risk doing her sister's bidding. Sarah wonders whether the messages are truly from Vivian, or if she possesses a unique psychic ability.With all that she has seen of man's darkest nature, it makes her question why she hasn't given up on humanity yet.The Rogue (Sarah Roberts Book Eight)*Starring Aaron Stevens and guest starring Darwin and Rosina Kostas from The Mafia TrilogySarah Roberts travels to Rome to assist the FBI with their hunt for an Italian-American drug lord with a penchant for violence, despite the warning that she will die within twenty-four hours.Shortly after arrival, Special Agent Penn Kierian is murdered in his hotel room, and Sarah's fingerprints are on the murder weapon. The Italian authorities want to talk to her, but she can't risk exposure to an unseen enemy. She flees to a city she had visited years ago, Umbertide, where she runs into hit men and the ruthless man who wants her out of his way.Parkman, her colleague, an ex-cop turned private investigator, is summoned to Italy to identify Sarah's remains after a massive explosion.Sarah's parents, and the people she loves, must face reality and prepare for her funeral, but Sarah has one more trick up her sleeve.Killing Sarah (Sarah Roberts Book Nine)Sarah Roberts receives a phone call from her colleague Parkman. It's important they meet right away as it's a matter of life and death. Because Parkman is a close friend, Sarah ignores a warning from her dead sister Vivian to stay away. When Sarah is shot, Parkman fires on the retreating four-door sedan, but is not successful in stopping the shooter. He attempts to revive Sarah until the paramedics arrive to take over. When Parkman gets to the hospital, the police question him about who really shot Sarah. After emergency surgery to remove the bullet and reduce the swelling on Sarah's brain, preliminary results show the bullet came from Parkman's gun.He asks to visit Sarah in the ICU, but now no one can find her. He is informed that Sarah Roberts was never admitted to their hospital and the doctor Parkman was talking to earlier about her condition has mysteriously disappeared.Sarah is gone.When Sarah wakes in a modified ambulance, far from the hospital in Toronto, she has retrograde amnesia, leaving her with temporary short-term memory loss. All she can remember of the night she was shot is the image of a man named Parkman. He is standing in front of her with a gun in his hand as a bullet enters her head.The people who shot Sarah are still after her. She needs to work with Parkman in order to stay alive, but all Sarah can think about is revenge for the head wound and Parkman is in her sights.The pain of betrayal goes deeper than the physical wound as Sarah hunts for her former friend while sorting the memories that return in pieces.Killing Sarah is an explosive ride into the depths of a strong woman who makes mistakes and learns the consequences the hard way.

Shaking the Tree (The Man with Three Names)


Michael Donohue - 2011
    Out of prison, but still on parole, the only thing he wants is to keep his head down, go to work and maybe grab a cold beer at the end of his shift. He doesn't even care that the program stuck him in Essex - a nice, but nowhere small town. With his head already full of bloody and painful memories, he'd like it just fine if his past and future stayed nice and quiet.Too bad the present just got really messy.A body in a tree. A missing briefcase. A Russian hit man. A DEA agent bent on revenge. A corrupt mayor. Not to mention a sheriff with dangerous ambition. A meth lab in the woods. And some pissed off bikers. Things are suddenly very interesting in sleepy Essex county. Bodies are turning up. Secrets are coming out. Questions are being asked. Fingers are being pointed. It's not good being the new guy in a small town.

The Trials of Max Q


Derek Ciccone - 2011
    But when his world came crashing down, Jack left the big city and his family's powerful firm, to seek solace in a small village of Cooperstown, New York. There, he re-discovered his love of the law.But the peaceful village is shattered when a body is found on the estate of the county's most famous resident, and American hero, Drew Anderson. A man considered to be so perfect that he is nicknamed Max Q after the benchmark for systems perfection during a space launch.. And it isn't just anybody who is found dead—the victim is widely considered to be one of the world's most infamous women.When Anderson is arrested for the murder, Jack ends up with the case that everyone wants to “go away,” and some are willing to go to the deadly lengths to make sure it does. Against all odds, Jack and his partner, Jessica Shepherdson, must risk their reputations, their careers, and eventually their lives, in an explosive race for the truth.

Harbored Secrets


Marie F. Martin - 2013
    473 Five Star reviews on Amazon. Historical novel with a psychological mystery in the unearthing of family secrets. In May of 1935, Blinny Platt's homestead shack burns to the ground forever leaving her family asunder, scattering them like the embers flew on the Montana wind. She was only eight-years-old, sent away and in charge of her little sister. She could handle that because Platts take care of Platts.However, it is the hidden secrets of her parents smoldering beneath the charred remains that haunts Blinny until 1982. She once again leaves the home place to build a house for herself. As the foundation is poured and the walls go up, each of the hurtful memories are uncovered. Finally the mystery, left in the ashes of the burned home, is revealed. How could her mother do what she did?Recent Five-Star Reviews:By the end of the very first paragraph, I knew Marie F. Martin had written a book I would have a hard time putting down. In between high drama, there is a love letter to Montana, and she uses her love of the English language throughout. More "Oh wow" moments in this book than any other I have ever read in my more than half a century of life.  Yvonne Bechtold, Five-star reviewerThis is a tale so well told, you can smell the sage, feel the heat, and pain this family shares. I wish more authors crafted their characters so well.  Renita Hulsey Five-Star Reader Review.The author was a master at weaving the past with the present.  Quaintreader Five-Star Reader ReviewMartin knows family dynamics and human frailties.  From these she has crafted a heartbreaking story, of love, loss, and endurance.   Barb Ward Five-Star Reader Review

The Taste of Fear


Jeremy Bates - 2012
    When robbed of their money and passports, they seek help from the U.S. Embassy in Dar es Salaam on the very day Al Qaeda chooses to bomb it. In an eyeblink they are taken hostage and whisked across the border deep into the Congo, one of the last truly wild places left on earth.Battling terrorists, deadly wildlife, and cannibalistic rebels, Scarlett and Sal must find a way to survive in a violent, primeval world. And the only person who may be able to save them is the assassin sent to kill them.

Aleutian Grave


William Doonan - 2014
    Henry Grave returns as an investigator for the Association of Cruising Vessel Operators. A World War II P.O.W., Henry is as cunning as he is charming, and at 85 years of age, he fits right in with his fellow passengers. The arctic exploration ship Nikolai Gorodish is cruising the Aleutian islands when a cabaret dancer named Rose DeSilva is found stabbed to death. More deaths will follow. But that’s only the beginning. Is there an arctic demon on board the ship? Or is someone else cannibalizing the bodies of the dead? With the help of a horror film star, a Russian heiress, and an apprentice shaman, Henry draws on skills honed in a Nazi prison camp to track down a killer who might have his own reasons for taking this particular cruise, reasons unrelated to the sumptuous meals, delightful shipboard activities, and arctic ports of call.

Extreme Malice


R.E. Swirsky - 2011
    Eighteen year old Josh Anderson, the college boy from next door, is charged with her murder. It was his guitar string around her neck. His footprints are found inside her house. Her earring found under his bed. Donna Gardner's husband Jack was hundreds of miles away on business. Was it the perfect Murder?

House of Pleasure


Caddy Rowland - 2014
    Set in the dark, depraved world of sex-trafficking, this gritty, continuing psychological thriller and drama tells the story of six victims and their hope for revenge and redemption. Book One: House of PleasureBRUTALITY Fueled by rage and disgust, Phoenix runs away from home. The situation there had become unbearable. In fact, things couldn’t get any worse.BETRAYAL But they do. Trusting a boy who she thought was a new friend, she finds herself taken prisoner by a low-class pimp. Then, when she thinks she's on her way to her first seedy trick, Phoenix winds up locked in a limo with no way out. She wakes up in an illegal brothel in New Orleans. BACKLASHPhoenix vows she will find a way to destroy Antoine, the owner of the brothel. Instead of being Antoine’s prostitute, she’ll become his lover, his confidante, and pretty soon, his manager. And then, when he least suspects it, she’ll bring the entire house down. She better be damn good. There will only be one chance.

Enforcer


Travis Hill - 2014
    Eight years and over five hundred stitches later, he’s become a fan favorite as an enforcer for the Boise Bombers of the United Professional Hockey League.Off the ice, Connor also moonlights as an enforcer for Costache Ojacarcu, the Bomber’s owner, and head of a discrete Romanian organized crime operation in the Treasure Valley. What started out as running simple errands for extra money to supplement his meager hockey salary has evolved into collection, intimidation, and retribution.After becoming an unwilling accessory to murder, Connor’s life begins to spiral out of control. When he rescues a prostitute from an abusive drug dealer, he begins to dig himself in even deeper, and soon realizes how entrenched he truly is.

God's Memory


Michael Landsberg - 2012
    Four strong, unconventional people. Their paths are destined to cross, leading them into a bloody war whose outcome could change the world.

Silent


D.M. Mitchell - 2013
    She is accompanied by her older brother Davey, a sullen, insular man fiercely protective of his sister. But Betsy and Davey share a dark past which they’re hoping to escape by making a new life in California. A past that will have tragic, murderous consequences.But for now Rick Mason’s life is about to change beyond his wildest imaginings. He lands a lucrative contract with Metropolitan Studios, who want to cast him as the lead in their new horror movie. And out of the blue a Hungarian lawyer lands the bombshell that Rick Mason isn’t who he thinks he is. Mason discovers he’s inherited an estate and huge fortune from his late father Baron Jozsef Dragutin and has to travel to Slavonia in Europe to sort out legalities. Here he is told the disturbing truth about his murdered mother and feared father – a corrupt and vile sadist hiding his horribly deformed face behind a white porcelain mask. A man, legend has it, who sold his soul to the devil. A man and a family line cursed by Satan for all eternity.Back in Hollywood, reviving his father’s evil character for Metropolitan Studios, Rick Mason finally gets the movie success he desires and the fame and fortune that go with it. But when elements of his on-screen monster persona begins to affect his real life, Mason begins to fear that the role he was ‘born to play’ is slowly taking over him. That the curse of Baron Dragutin lives on in him.Rick Mason is drawn inexorably into a world of corrupt desires, superstition, corporate greed, unbridled ambition and murder, where the past refuses to die. It’s a world where monsters and horror don’t only appear on the big screen.