Except that’s exactly what happened. Ryan is very much dead, having shot himself with his own police-issued gun. Guilt and grief shouldn’t cause hallucinations though, but six months after Ryan went into the ground, Bailey is freaking out and swearing his ghost is standing in her kitchen. Which he is… Ryan claims he didn’t commit suicide, but was murdered, and he needs Bailey to help him find his killer so he can earn his ticket out of purgatory. Ryan’s counting on a stairway to heaven, as opposed to wings, since that might be a little unmanly for a cop, even a dead one. An expert in home design, with her own staging business, Bailey can tell you where to place a couch to improve flow and comfort, but solving a crime? Not her area of expertise. But with help from Ryan’s former partner, Marner, she is unraveling the mystery of what happened to Ryan that day… and unwittingly putting herself in grave danger. Murder By Design Series Book 1- Gone With The Ghost Book 2- Silence of The Ghost Book 3- Once Upon a Ghost Bestselling author Erin McCarthy offers her signature humor in this fun series about an uptight fashion-conscious home stager who finds herself stiletto-deep in murder...

    But after suffering a fractured skull in a vicious mugging, he reluctantly accepts the fact that he has a long and brutal recovery to face—and his closest of kin can provide him with the time and place to do it. Now, Jeff is haunted by unexplained visions of a heinous crime—a banker, stalked, killed, and eviscerated like a ten-point buck. When Matt Sumner’s murder is discovered, a still-recovering Jeff realizes this was what he had seen. Jeff must not only convince himself of his new-found psychic ability, but also his skeptical brother Richard Alpert. Since Sumner was Richard’s banker, both brothers have a stake in finding out what happened. With Richard’s reluctant help, Jeff’s investigation leads him to Sumner’s belligerent family and hard-nosed business associates, none of whom want him snooping around. When Jeff discovers a second victim, he knows he must relentlessly chase his quarry even if it means risking his brother’s life.

    Informer tabloid. She knows everything about everyone who's anyone. And she's not afraid to print it. That is, until she receives a threatening note, promising, "If you don't stop writing about me, you're dead." Teaming with a built bodyguard, a bubbly blonde, and an alcoholic obituary writer, Tina sets out to uncover just which juicy piece of Hollywood gossip is worth killing over.(Formerly published under the title: SCANDAL SHEET)

    That’s until she discovers the vice president, Martin Dean, in a pool of blood and herself at the center of an investigation into insurance fraud.Millions of dollars are missing, the chief suspect is dead and her mysterious, sexy, new boss is not what he seems.Recruited by the joint task force working on the case, all Lexi has to do is work out who killed Dean and where the missing millions are. That’s easier said than done when her sister insists upon the baby shower to end all baby showers, her wise-ass cop family just wants to keep her safe, someone keeps leaving her creepy gifts, and all the clues point to a seedy sex club on the wrong side of town.As the bodies start to pile up, Lexi is on a race against time to find the killer and the money, before she’s the next one in the murderer’s sights.Also in the series:Armed and FabulousWho Glares WinsCommand IndecisionShock and AwesomeWeapons of Mass DistractionLaugh or DeathKissing in ActionTrigger SnappyA Few Good Women - - coming soon!

    But, a serial killer is back in town, and Jake has to follow his trail. The only clue left behind is the dying words of the three victims. And, before he could have asked Kiara's help, she is sucked into a high political game that is spread across continents. Will they be able to solve the cases without each other's help and that too using their new, inexperienced partners? Book 2 - Perfect Crime The daughter of one of the most influential man in New York falls for a struggling investment banker. After a torrid affair, they finally get married. Everything seems to head towards a life of joy when the wife vanishes into thin air and the husband becomes the prime suspect. As Agent Kiara Davenport is about to get hold of him, a ransom call is made from overseas. And, as she is about to catch the caller, someone else confesses to the crime. She knows something is amiss and as she is about to get to the bottom of it, all the suspects start getting killed one by one. Everyone is a suspect and each suspect is more influential than the other. Will Kiara find the real culprit or become a pawn in the cat and mouse game? Book 3 - Wrong One When Kiara invited Jake to a family wedding, he had not thought that it will be different from any other wedding. However, he started sensing something wrong with everyone in the wedding party. Is Jake going to find out anything or is it a mere hunch? Or Kiara's fear of Jake creating a trouble in the marriage will come true?

    A statistic. A victim. A single teenage mother from the poor part of town. Most of the time I'm too busy working and struggling to care what people think. Survival doesn't come easy.I have a dark secret, a pressure valve, a rare moment just for myself. On these nights I visit a club. There I find men who give me what I need.Men like Colin.But he wants more than a few stolen hours. He demands more than my body. He wants my heart and soul--my happily ever after. I never thought I'd be Cinderella. I never thought a man that rough could be my prince.HARD (Book Two)What Colin doesn't know can't hurt him.At least that's what I tell myself about the secrets I keep. I don't have a choice, not if I want to keep my daughter safe. And keep him Colin safe too. There are enemies in the shadows waiting to strike from all sides. I'm holding them out with my bare hands, but it's hard not to get crushed in the process.And the truth has a way of coming out.If I'm not careful, the past I've been working so hard to hide, the pain I've been fighting so long to outrun, will wipe out the man I love.FIERCE (Book Three)I'm torn between what I want and what I need. Between the men in my past and the man by my side. Colin has tried to control me, to use me. But he also guards me so fiercely my heart aches.Raincheck. Business. Don't wait up. --CThat's the note he leaves for me, as if I could sit around while he fights my dragons. As if I could let himself get killed in some vain attempt to protect me.There's no protection left for me. No redemption either.This is my battle, and I've already lost.Boxed sets in the Chicago Underground series:Rough Hard Fierce - Colin and Allie's storyWild Dirty Secret - Luke and Shelly's story

    Picturing a frail, helpless old Englishman, Angie rushes to warn him. There's only one, small problem, Alastair Honeybun is six foot two inches of yummy man, who's perfectly capable of taking care of himself. But when the thugs show up while Angie's still there, they soon figure out they'll need to take care of each other.

    do you trust yours?Money and a handsome fiancé from a good family. What more could a girl want?Jamie McKay appears to have the perfect life, but things suddenly start to go horribly wrong. A sudden death and a run-in with a would-be killer leave her alone, afraid and a long way from home.Kat McKay, long estranged from her family, returns to the small town she hasn't been back to since she walked away as a teenager. Determined to find out what happened to her niece, she must face the demons from her past and enlist the help of the man she left behind.Can the McKays survive the explosive results?

    Not only has she got a meddling mother, a wacky staff, and a dying business, but now she’s got a dead client who was strangled while awaiting her facial.With business the way it is, combing through this mystery may be the only way to save her salon. Until a second murder, an explosion, a kidnapping, death threats, and the hard-nosed Detective Romero complicate things. But Valentine will do anything to untangle the crime. That’s if she can keep her tools of the trade in her bag, keep herself alive, and avoid falling for the tough detective.In the end, how hard can that be?

    Everyone is expecting her successful music executive boyfriend, Charlie, to be her date for her best friend’s wedding. There’s one hitch: Charlie doesn’t exist. Unless she can think of something fast, she’s headed for the most humiliating weekend of her life.Alex Tanner has a problem. The former Navy SEAL's search for a double agent lands him at the Kensington Hotel, and he needs a cover to finish the job. When the sexy maid of honor blackmails him into pretending to be her lover, he thinks he's been handed the solution.Except Beth has a way of stumbling into trouble, and when the man Alex is hunting starts targeting Beth, Alex has to decide between duty and the woman who has stolen his heart.

    In every tale, Amato manages to mix all the excitement of an action thriller with the swirling emotions of a mainstream psychological novel.STEELE INTENTShrewd, 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— when she receives an anonymous phone call: "Don't think you're untouchable…you or your son." Then a dial tone...No one is spared tough breaks and/or turbulent anguish in Kimberly Amato’s hard-boiled yet deeply emotional police procedural, . A lesser cop than Jazz would barely be able to cope.MELTING STEELEIn 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 Jazz 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 STEELEGory 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 STEELEJazz 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.Emilia’s last night alive was spent at a college bar that sparks Jasmine’s least happy memory—the very same establishment that served as a backdrop to her own early adult years, a past defiled and traumatized by a dangerous man. Just as Jazz is finally happy in her personal and professional lives, her bone-chilling trauma comes rushing back. And the Carnation Killer is still out there.STEELE SHIELDJasmine’s nearest and dearest find themselves tangled in a web of terrifying cyberbullying, hair-raising stalking, sexual harassment, and murder—with Jazz stuck in the middle. Jazz heads up an investigation that quickly falls down the sordid rabbit hole of the darker, more twisted side of social media, all the while fearing for her loved ones.

    Read the first three books in the series: Maid for Love, Fool for Love and Ready for Love in this special offering. Book 1: Maid for LoveMaddie Chester is determined to leave her hometown of Gansett Island, a place that has brought her only bad memories and ugly rumors. Then she’s knocked off her bike on the way to her housekeeping job at McCarthy’s Resort Hotel by Gansett’s “favorite son,” Mac McCarthy. He’s back in town to help his father with preparations to sell the family resort and has no intention of staying long. When Mac accidentally sends Maddie flying over the handlebars, badly injuring her, he moves in to nurse her back to health and help care for her young son. He soon realizes his plans for a hit-and-run visit to the island are in serious jeopardy, and he just may be “maid” for love. Book 2: Fool for LoveJoe Cantrell, owner of the Gansett Island Ferry Company, has been in love with Janey McCarthy for as long as he can remember. At the same time, Janey has been dating or engaged to doctor-in-training David Lawrence. When things go horribly wrong between David and Janey, she calls her “fifth brother” Joe, one of the few people in her close circle who lives on the mainland. Janey decides a few days with Joe is just what she needs before she goes home to the island to face her parents and family with the news of her broken engagement. It was bad enough for Joe loving Janey from afar, but having her in his house is pure torture. Will he take advantage of this opportunity to show her what they could have together? And what will Joe’s best friend and Janey’s protective older brother Mac have to say about it? Book 3: Ready for LoveFor four of the best summers of his young life, Luke Harris was in love with Sydney Donovan, a wealthy seasonal visitor to Gansett Island. Then Sydney went off to college and never came back. She married another man and had two children while Luke remained on the island, working at McCarthy's Gansett Marina and wondering what had gone wrong between him and the only woman he ever loved. Fifteen months after Sydney suffers the tragic loss of her husband and children, she's returned to Gansett to figure out what's next, and that may very well be a rekindled love affair with the one man from her past she’s never forgotten. But is she ready for a second chance at love?Gansett Island Reading OrderMaid for Love (Mac & Maddie)Fool for Love (Joe & Janey)Ready for Love (Luke & Sydney)Falling for Love (Grant & Stephanie)Hoping for Love (Evan & Grace)Season for Love (Owen & Laura)Longing for Love (Blaine & Tiffany)Waiting for Love (Adam & Abby)Time for Love (Daisy & David)Meant for Love (Jenny & Alex)Chance for Love, A Gansett Island Novella (Jared & Lizzie)Gansett After Dark (Owen & Laura)Kisses After Dark (Shane & Katie)Love After Dark (Paul & Hope)Celebration After Dark (Big Mac & Linda)Desire After Dark (Slim & Erin)Light After Dark (Mallory & Quinn)Victoria & Shannon (Episode 1)Kevin & Chelsea (Episode 2)A Gansett Island Christmas NovellaMine After Dark (Riley & Nikki)Yours After Dark (Finn & Chloe)Trouble After Dark (Deacon & Julia)Rescue After Dark (Mason & Jordan)

    But Alan’s new job proves to be anything but boring when his co-workers start turning up dead. The mysterious megacorporation Amalgamated Synergy has taken a deadly interest in Alan and his three roommates, and the hapless quartet are woefully unequipped to deal with the psychotic secretaries, murderous middle managers, and villainous vice-presidents hunting them down. Their investigation leads them deep into Amalgamated Synergy’s headquarters, but can Alan and his friends stay alive long enough to discover who – or what – waits for them on the top floor?

     A woman dies in his arms...a drug dealer offers him $10,000...a gunman is determined to kill him. And then everything goes to hell. Shelby Alexander is an aging ex-boxer and retired fixer, whose activities often flirted with the wrong side of the law. Looking for a little peace and a slower pace of life, he moved to Serenity, the small Michigan town where he grew up. But trouble follows men like Shelby, and he finds himself embroiled in an underworld of drugs and violence that may prove to be his undoing. The first book in the new Shelby Alexander Thriller Series, Serenity is an action-packed read with a lovingly rendered cast, witty dialogue, and a main character who doesn't know when to quit.

    She’s leaving the city to fulfill her dream of rural tranquillity when she gets carjacked by a man who shouldn’t exist.When RCMP officer John Kane kills her would-be abductor, Aydan thinks her troubles are over. But Kane’s investigation implicates her in an international espionage plot, and criminal charges become the least of her worries when she’s targeted by the very spies Kane suspects her of aiding.Pity her enemies. Because nobody’s tougher than a middle-aged woman who wants her dream back.Contains coarse language, moderate violence, and sexuality. The story can stand alone but will be more enjoyable if read in order.