Bone Maker


D.F. Bailey - 2015
    A woman mourns alone. A reporter works a single lead. If you have an appetite for organized crime series, you’ll love this new crime trilogy. Add a slice of noir novels, the juice of steamy PI mysteries, the zest of a financial thriller series. Soon you’ll be stewing in this new technothriller trilogy — and begging for more. Following a family tragedy that has broken his spirit, crime reporter Will Finch returns to his news desk in San Francisco eager to reboot his career and renew his lease on life. When he’s assigned to cover the grisly death of a witness to a multi-million dollar bitcoin fraud, Finch discovers some troubling complications: A Mercedes-Benz abandoned in the wilderness. A wounded bear. A cop who rules a remote town with an iron fist. And the witness’s fiancée — a US senator’s daughter — knows there’s something mysterious about her lover’s death. But what? Inspired by true events, Bone Maker is the first thriller in this series of noir crime new releases — a new crime trilogy that races from coastal Oregon to San Francisco, Moscow, Honolulu and Washington DC. It intersects the worlds of international finance, cryptocurrency software algorithms, and corruption that reaches from the US Senate to Turk Street in the Tenderloin District. Fans of contemporary noir novels will love this technothriller trilogy. Be sure to read this gripping financial thriller series in order: Bone Maker, Stone Eater, Lone Hunter. All three books are available now. Author Interview with D. F. Bailey Q. The first page of Bone Maker states that the novel is “inspired by true events.”* Tell us more. DFB. Two events inspired these books. The first involves a massive bitcoin theft. In the spring of 2014 the bitcoin equivalent of over $450,000,000 simply disappeared from a bitcoin exchange called Mt. Gox. Solving this crime drives the plots of all three novels. At heart, the books are an organized crime series in the form of a technothriller trilogy. Q. What was the second true event? DFB. A few years ago I came across a news article about a convicted murderer — 53-year-old Rory Nelson Wagner — whose corpse was discovered outside his car in a mountain wilderness. Apparently he died of a heart attack and a bear had dragged him from his vehicle and partially devoured him. Horrible as it seems, I was drawn by the notion of some sort of natural justice at play. Early on in Bone Maker, the sheriff handling a similar case refers to the attack as “Murder by Nature.” I considered using that for the book title at one point. Q. Sounds like one of Agatha Christie’s PI mysteries. DFB. Granted, there’s an element of PI mysteries to the trilogy. However, I’m not the sort of writer who likes to create a maze or puzzle with red herrings and hidden clues to fool or mislead the reader. Bone Maker is a crime thriller with a strong noir flavor. Readers learn about the crimes one step at a time, just as our hero Will Finch uncovers the facts of each case. Q. So who is Will Finch? DFB. Finch is a 35 year-old crime reporter working for the San Francisco eXpress. Before becoming a journalist, he served in Iraq, at Abu Graib, in military intelligence. Like all noir heroes, there is an irredeemable quality to him, but he’s not completely lost. He senses that he can find his way back to a normal life, yet he’s not sure how to do it. Q. Tell us about the title, Bone Maker. DFB. Each of the three titles in the trilogy uses the nickname of a bad guy — the antagonist.

For Reasons Unknown


Michael Wood - 2015
    Twenty years. Now the killer is back for more…DCI Matilda Darke has returned to work after a nine month absence. A shadow of her former self, she is tasked with re-opening a cold case: the terrifyingly brutal murders of Miranda and Stefan Harkness. The only witness was their eleven-year-old son, Jonathan, who was too deeply traumatized to speak a word.Then a dead body is discovered, and the investigation leads back to Matilda's case. Suddenly the past and present converge, and it seems a killer may have come back for more…A darkly compelling debut crime novel. The start of a brilliant series, perfect for fans of Stuart MacBride, Val McDermid, and James Oswald.

Falling Fast


Neil Broadfoot - 2014
    But Doug is already working on a story of his own – tracking down a notorious rapist who has just been outed in Fife and thought to be heading for his parents’ home in East Lothian. Tapping his contact and sometime drinking pal DS Susie Drummond, Doug discovers that the woman who fell from the Scott Monument was the daughter of a high-profile MSP. Digging deeper, he and Susie are dragged into a story darker than they could ever have imagined – one that certain people would go to any lengths to keep hidden.

Unleashed


Emily Kimelman - 2011
    This left him unconscious on the floor of my home. Amazingly, this bullet did not kill him. Ten years ago I adopted Blue as a present to myself after I broke up with my boyfriend one hot, early summer night with the windows open and the neighborhood listening. The next morning I went straight to the pound in Bushwick, Brooklyn. Articles on buying your first dog tell you never to buy a dog on impulse. They want you to be prepared for this new member of your family, to understand the responsibilities and challenges of owning a dog. Going to the pound because you need something in your life that's worth holding onto is rarely, if ever, mentioned. I asked the man at the pound to show me the biggest dogs they had. He showed me some seven-week-old Rottweiler-German shepherd puppies that he said would grow to be quite large. Then he showed me a six-month-old shepherd that would get pretty big. Then he showed me Blue, the largest dog they had. The man called him a Collie mix and he was stuffed into the biggest cage they had, but he didn't fit. He was as tall as a Great Dane but much skinnier, with the snout of a collie, the markings of a Siberian husky, the ears and tail of a shepherd and the body of a wolf, with one blue eye and one brown. Crouched in a sitting position, unable to lie down, unable to sit all the way up, he looked at me from between the bars, and I fell in love. "He's still underweight," the man in the blue scrubs told me as we looked at Blue. "I'll tell you, lady, he's pretty but he's skittish. He sheds, and I mean sheds. I don't think you want this dog." But I knew I wanted him. I knew I had to have him. He was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. Blue cost me $108. I brought him home, and we lived together for years. He was, for most of our relationship, my only companion. But when I first met Blue, a lifetime ago now, I had family and friends. I worked at a crappy coffeehouse. I was young and lost; I was normal. Back then, at the beginning of this story, before I'd ever seen a corpse, before Blue saved my life, before I felt what it was like to kill someone in cold blood, I was still Joy Humbolt.I'd never even heard the name Sydney Rye.P.S. The dog does not die.**Beware: If you can’t handle a few f-bombs, you can’t handle this series.**

Dying to Get Published


Judy Fitzwater - 1995
    She's sure that if she can just get famous for something, someone will have to publish her books. Why not murder?She'll find a target so mean that she'd actually be doing the world a favor by bumping him or her off. And she knows just the person:Penney Richmond, a high-powered literary agent who's made it her job to ruin people's lives. All Jennifer has to do is frame herself, do the deed, and come out with an iron-clad alibi, and she'll be well on her way to getting a three book deal. So what if she chickens out at the last minute? A vegetarian good girl who rescued a greyhound could never actually kill someone. But when Penney is found murdered and the police think Jennifer did it, she’d better find the real murderer before she goes away... for life.Along with her eccentric writer's group, spunky old ladies with a nose for sleuthing, her neurotic greyhound, and a sexy, sarcastic reporter named Sam, Jennifer embarks on a journey filled with danger, deception, and disguises that could leave her Dying to Get Published...

Played to Death


B.V. Lawson - 2014
    When a former client bequeaths Drayco a rundown Opera House in a Virginia seaside town, he figures he'll arrange for a quick sale of the place while nursing his battered soul in a peaceful setting near the shore. What he doesn't count on is finding a dead body on the Opera House stage with a mysterious "G" carved into the man's chest. With hopes for a quick sale dashed and himself a suspect in the murder, Drayco digs into very old and very dangerous secrets to solve the crime and clear his name. Along the way, Drayco must dodge a wary sheriff, hostility over coastal development, and the seductive wife of a town councilman - before the tensions explode into more violence and he becomes the next victim. Want to read a Scott Drayco novella for FREE? Sign up for BV’s Mysteries in Crimetime newsletter at bvlawson.com and receive a FREE copy of "The Maltese Moon Rock"! Scott Drayco Thrillers in order: PLAYED TO DEATH (A Shamus Award Finalist and Best Mystery, Next Generation Book Awards) REQUIEM FOR INNOCENCE DIES IRAE ELEGY IN SCARLET

Blood Ties


Lori G. Armstrong - 2005
    Lack of public interest in finding his murderer, or the killer of several other transient Native American men, has left Julie with a bone-deep cynicism she counters with tequila, cigarettes, and dangerous men. The one bright spot in her mundane life is the time she spends working part-time as a PI with her childhood friend, Kevin Wells. When the body of a sixteen-year old white girl is discovered in nearby Rapid Creek, Julie believes this victim will receive the attention others were denied. Then she learns Kevin has been hired, mysteriously, to find out where the murdered girl spent her last few days. Julie finds herself drawn into the case against her better judgment, and discovers not only the ugly reality of the young girl’s tragic life and brutal death, but ties to her and Kevin’s past that she is increasingly reluctant to revisit. On the surface the situation is eerily familiar. But the parallels end when Julie realizes some family secrets are best kept buried deep. Especially those serious enough to kill for.

Castle Cay


Lee Hanson - 2010
    Who could have killed rising artist Marc Solomon, and what does Castle Cay, the Solomon's mysterious Caribbean island, have to do with it? Before long, Julie's sixth-sense pulls a hidden string that unravels a deadly conspiracy...and her own troubled past.

The Ice Maiden


B.D. Smith - 2017
    Seeming to select his victims at random, he acts out the rituals of the Spanish Inquisition before committing their bodies to the sacred waters of nearby Sebec Lake. Anne Quinn, an investigator for the Piscataquis County sheriff’s office, and Detective Douglas Bateman with the Major Crimes Unit of the Maine State Police join forces in tracking him down. Hiding in plain sight, the killer is clearly from the local community and plays a deadly “catch me if you can” game with Quinn and Bateman. He seems determined to humiliate them and demonstrate his superior intellect, leading them to suspect that perhaps there is a deeper motive and purpose behind his string of murders.

Wanted


Nick Stephenson - 2013
    Caught in the cross hairs of a ruthless assassin and on the run from the police for a murder he didn't commit, Blake and his team must fight to clear his name before it's too late.As enemies close in from all sides, Blake is about to learn who he can trust - and who is determined to destroy him - as The City of Light becomes a new hunting ground.Wanted is the first novel in the Leopold Blake series of thrillers, which can be read and enjoyed in any order.

The First Shot


E.H. Reinhard - 2016
    If a single award existed for sinking himself into his work, he’d have two.But the latest crime scene he’s called to, an old abandoned factory, leaves him with more bodies than leads. Three drug dealers are found shot to death—not an uncommon sight in the least. The problem lies with the pair of middle-aged women—bound, gagged, and executed—found at the same location.Before he can sink his teeth into the initial investigation, Kane is called out to another multiple homicide. He comes up with only more questions when the second group of murders appears connected to the first. As the lieutenant tracks down the few leads, he begins to get a clearer picture of those he seeks. That picture quickly turns crystal clear when Kane finds himself face-to-face with someone that “armed and dangerous” doesn’t even begin to describe.

The Gray and Guilty Sea


Scott William Carter - 2010
    An iconoclast. A loner. That's how people describe Garrison Gage, and that's when they're being charitable. After his wife's brutal murder in New York, and Gage himself is beaten nearly to death, the crippled private investigator retreats three thousand miles to the quaint coastal town of Barnacle Bluffs, Oregon. He spends the next five years in a convalescent stupor, content to bide his time filling out crossword puzzles and trying to forget that his wife's death is his fault. But all that changes when he discovers the body of a young woman washed up on the beach, and his conscience draws him back into his old occupation – forcing him to confront the demons of his own guilt before he can hope to solve the girl's murder.

Gone the Next


Ben Rehder - 2012
    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.

On the Street Where You Die (Stanley Bentworth, #1)


Al Stevens - 2011
    Previously a homicide cop, he drank his way out of a job and now runs a one-man private eye agency finding people who don’t want to be found. He doesn’t accept tough-guy assignments, calling himself a “soft-boiled detective,” but a recession is on, and business is off, so when a wealthy financier, formerly a mob enforcer, needs an anonymous blackmailer found in a life and death situation, Stanley seizes the chance to earn a fee.If he fails, the blackmailer outs his client to the wise guys, in which case the client gets a one-way ticket to the landfill, and Stanley risks becoming an unwilling passenger on that ride. He knows he must not fail, no small feat given that Stanley Bentworth is not all that tough.

Loose Ends


D.D. VanDyke - 2013
    As a straightforward case takes unexpected twists, Cal must quell a growing fear that an anguished mother may never see her child again. With a shadowy crime lord lurking behind every unexpected clue, Cal struggles to tie up loose ends before evil claims its next victim.Loose Ends is book one in a new P. I. mystery series from D. D. VanDyke. Set against the rich backdrop of the San Francisco Bay Area, Cal Corwin novels brim with intrigue and fully fleshed characters from cops and criminals to hit men, oddball family and unexpected allies.