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Kiss & Tell
Luke Murphy - 2015
This is a time limited offer, so happy reading and hunting!
With the death of her father…
Officer Charlene Taylor has received her dream promotion—working Homicide with the LAPD. Her first case is the high-profile murder of Ken Anderson, a playboy UCLA professor with a haunted past. A mafia kingpin, billionaire tycoon, cheated wife and jaded lover are only a few on a long list of suspects, all with motive and opportunity.
…all hope of reconciliation is lost.
Not only does she feel the pressure from media and her boss to solve her first case, but Charlene must also deal with her father’s murderer, the “Celebrity Slayer,” a serial killer who enjoys baiting her with his knowledge of her life and routines.
Can a rookie detective work two high-profile cases and still keep her sanity?
Editorial Reviews: “Luke Murphy scores big with this deep psychological thriller. Just when you think you've got things pegged, Murphy serves up another twist. Fast paced and fun, you won't want to put this book down.” —Tim Green, New York Times bestselling author of Unstoppable “An intricately detailed and clever mystery featuring a tough minded but vulnerable protagonist with more than a few demons of her own. The twists and turns kept me guessing to the very end.” —Christy Reece, New York Times bestselling author of Nothing To Lose “Luke Murphy’s novel, Kiss & Tell, has lots of twists and turns, and police procedures where the good guy, in this case, Charlene Taylor, is not always good. The characters come to life with suspense, drama, explosive action, and an ending you never see coming.” —John Foxjohn, USA Today bestselling author of Killer Nurse “Luke Murphy’s Kiss & Tell is a character driven page-turner with an interesting plot. The main character, LAPD Detective Charlene Taylor, draws the reader into her world for a ride throughout the book. This is one definitely not to miss.” —Dianna T. Benson, bestselling author of The Hidden Son “Luke Murphy’s heroine, Charlene Taylor, is tough and tender. Kiss & Tell is a first-rate police procedural. Hang on. You’ll have fun.” —James Thayer, author of The House of Eight Orchids
Picnic at Hanging Rock
Joan Lindsay - 1967
After lunch, a group of three of the girls climbed into the blaze of the afternoon sun, pressing on through the scrub into the shadows of Hanging Rock. Further, higher, till at last they disappeared.They never returned.Whether Picnic at Hanging Rock is fact or fiction the reader must decide for themselves.
With a Vengeance
Eileen Dreyer - 2003
She has to be-as a tactical emergency medic for the St. Louis SWAT team and a trauma nurse at Blymore Memorial. The daughter of a violent ex-cop she prefers wits over weapons. Then one of her patients, a psychotic former FBI agent known as Montana Bob, dies in the ER from superficial wounds following a botched stand-off-but not before revealing a secret about Blymore...It's called The List-a chillingly precise run-down of expendable citizens and patients. And one by one, under Maggie's care, they're dying from inexplicable causes. With each one comes another step in framing Maggie...with each step comes Maggie's fear that no colleague or friend is above suspicion-including her lover, police officer Sean Delaney. With no one left to trust but herself, her investigation takes her into the darkest recesses of a killer's mind bent on a vengeance that targets Maggie as the final victim.
Cold Skin
Albert Sánchez Piñol - 2002
When he arrives, the predecessor he is meant to replace is missing and a deeply disturbed stranger is barricaded in a heavily fortified lighthouse. At first adversaries, the two find that their tenuous partnership may be the only way they survive the unspeakably horrific reptilian creatures that ravage the island at night, attacking the lighthouse in their organized effort to find warm-blooded food. Armed with a battery of ammunition and explosives, the weather official and his new ally must confront their increasingly murderous mentality, and, when the possibility of a kind of truce presents itself, decide what kind of island they will inhabit. Equal parts Stephen King, a phantasmagorical Robinson Crusoe, and Lord of the Flies, Cold Skin is literary horror that deals with the basest forms of human behavior imaginable, while exploring why we so vehemently fear the Other.
Ghosted
Rosie Walsh - 2018
To Sarah, it seems as though her life has finally begun. And it's mutual: It's as though Eddie has been waiting for her, too. Sarah has never been so certain of anything. So when Eddie leaves for a long-booked vacation and promises to call from the airport, she has no cause to doubt him. But he doesn't call.Sarah's friends tell her to forget about him, but she can't. She knows something's happened--there must be an explanation.Minutes, days, weeks go by as Sarah becomes increasingly worried. But then she discovers she's right. There is a reason for Eddie's disappearance, and it's the one thing they didn't share with each other: the truth.
Survive
Tom Bale - 2020
And for one unsuspecting family, the holiday of a lifetime is about to become a desperate battle for survival.As young parents, Sam and Jody have managed to defy the odds once before. But years of struggle have taken their toll, and Sam’s demons return to haunt him at the worst possible time.Caught up in a sick game of cat and mouse, can they put their differences aside and work under intolerable pressure to save themselves and their children?Live or die. It’s the only choice they have.
Dunn's Conundrum
Stan Lee - 1985
The Library, a super-secret U.S. espionage agency is keeping an eye on the Russians and everybody else. A dozen elite intelligence experts relentlessly sift out classified information from everywhere. They know all the secrets except for one – which of the librarians is a traitor.It’s up to Walt Coolidge, a librarian with a Sherlockian gift for analyzing people’s garbage, to uncover the mole and, if he fails, it could lead to nuclear Armageddon.
Necessary Evils
Bill Carson - 2012
The pain and anguish over his wife’s murder has been harnessed, molded and channeled into a hatred of the most abnormal ferocity, and an un-closable door had now been wrenched open in his mind, and he had crossed over into the darker realms of humanity where the merciless, cruel, vicious and uncompromising sides of human nature reside. His brain had been rewired and the switch had been flicked.Has all this been preordained? Are there sinister dark forces at work at here? Necessary Evils will have you on the edge of your seat with your heart in your mouth.
Twisted Minds
Hilary Norman - 2002
Two of her three teenage daughters - charming to him in public - are determined to get rid of him.
She's a Killer
Kirsten McDougall - 2021
Alice’s imaginary friend, Simp, has shown up, with a running commentary on her failings. ‘I mean, can you even calculate the square root of 762 anymore?’ The last time Simp was here was when Alice was seven, on the night a fire burned down the family home. Now Simp seems to be plotting something.When Alice meets a wealthugee named Pablo, she thinks she’s found a way out of her dull existence. But then she meets Pablo’s teenage daughter, Erika – an actual genius full of terrifying ambition.She’s a Killer is the story of a brilliant and stubborn slacker who is drawn into a radical action. It’s about what happens when we refuse to face our most demanding problems, told by a woman who is a strange and calculating force of chaos.‘A claustrophobic eco-thriller with a gloriously unreliable narrator, She’s a Killer is tense and sharp, and feels unnervingly prescient.’ –Brannavan Gnanalingam‘Equipped with an exhilaratingly badly-behaved protagonist, She’s a Killer builds from a slice of very strange life into a thriller by way of a succession of stunning comic set pieces. You’ll laugh—a lot. And then you’ll cry and be really surprised about it since you were laughing so much.’ –Elizabeth Knox
Hostile Takeover (Hostile Takeover Thrillogy Book 1)
Derek Blount - 2015
Isolated. Deadly.Pulled from the brink of suicide after suffering a tragic loss, John and Sarah Michaels enter an exclusive rehabilitation facility deep in the New Mexico desert where they hope to rediscover a reason to live.His life as a corporate raider behind him, John attempts to embrace the program to save his marriage and himself. But as the days pass, John begins to suspect all is not as it seems with the unusual treatment methods.When participants begin dying, John realizes the only chance for his and Sarah's survival is to do the impossible and launch a hostile takeover of the program...but can he do it before time runs out?Compulsively readable and brimming with unforgettable characters, Hostile Takeover is a complex, exhilarating thriller and an electrifying debut novel.
The Chemist
Stephenie Meyer - 2016
She used to work for the U.S. government, but very few people ever knew that. An expert in her field, she was one of the darkest secrets of an agency so clandestine it doesn't even have a name. And when they decided she was a liability, they came for her without warning. Now she rarely stays in the same place or uses the same name for long. They've killed the only other person she trusted, but something she knows still poses a threat. They want her dead, and soon. When her former handler offers her a way out, she realizes it's her only chance to erase the giant target on her back. But it means taking one last job for her ex-employers. To her horror, the information she acquires only makes her situation more dangerous. Resolving to meet the threat head-on, she prepares for the toughest fight of her life but finds herself falling for a man who can only complicate her likelihood of survival. As she sees her choices being rapidly whittled down, she must apply her unique talents in ways she never dreamed of. In this tautly plotted novel, Meyer creates a fierce and fascinating new heroine with a very specialized skill set. And she shows once again why she's one of the world's bestselling authors.
Between a Smile and a Tear (A Crime Thriller)
Robert Bucchianeri - 2012
He meets a fan, an attractive woman, in a coffee shop and she plies him with compliments and a Mickey. The next morning he wakes up at a seedy motel naked, reeking of alcohol, alone, and confused. A blackmail ensues and he becomes entangled in a shadowy underworld involving strippers, prostitutes, gangsters, corrupt politicians, and cops. His wife and son leave him and he plunges into the mean streets of San Francisco seeking answers to the riddles at the heart of those seeking to destroy him.My main character in Between a Smile and a Tear, Jack Waters, a successful novelist, is a recovering alcoholic coming to terms with the damage his drinking has caused to his family and friends. He's trying his best to make amends, but is it too late? Is it impossible to right some wrongs?I've read a number of James Hall's antic thrillers set in Florida (primarily the Thorn books) with their wild and crazy bad guys and they inspired me to create my villain here: Wallace Unger. I tried to make him both humorous and scary, a counterpoint to the serious and darker action and themes of the novel.Wallace is wild and crazy, funny and dumb, but also unpredictable and a dangerous antagonist made even more fearsome by his employer, the amoral gangster boss, NIck Ravelli.This is a "bigger" novel than others that I have written, featuring multiple point-of-view characters, more subplots, a wider range including political and social forces impacting the characters, as well as a deeper attention to location and geography.I've tried to make San Francisco a major character in its own right here. I grew up in the city and know it well, but supplemented that knowledge with research and maps and a couple of trips back to the Bay Area. I think San Francisco, in all of its beauty and mystery, comes alive in the novel and I hope you agree.I put my heart and soul into this book and hope you feel that while you read.Thanks for taking the time.
Behind Closed Doors
Natalie R. Collins - 2007
Melissa was the only one who knew what had really happened to Jannie beyond the sacred walls of the Mormon Temple the night that changed her life forever…. UNTIL HER BEST FRIEND VANISHED WITHOUT A TRACE.Now Melissa has gone missing, just days after entrusting Jannie with a mysterious box that someone would kill to possess. And someone has--leaving in their murderous wake an innocent victim and a trail of blood that leads to the heart of Jannie's hidden burden. Desperate to protect her secret, and to find out what has happened to Melissa, Jannie trusts no one. Not the stranger whose piercing green eyes have already seen too much, nor the family and friends whose familiar fold may be shielding a cold-blooded killer who is lurking BEHIND CLOSED DOORS.
Nicu II and Victoria's Incestuous Romance
Kenneth Jarrett Singleton - 2013
Prince Nicu II and Princess Victoria's immutable, romantic feelings for one another forces them to engage in extremely risky actions and fabricate various falsehoods. Throughout the play Nicu II and Victoria deceive everyone; including their parents King Nicu I and Queen Isabella. Nicu II is presumptuous in character, therefore, he maintains an excessive confidence within himself that he and his sister's romantic relationship can continue without being discovered, but Victoria fears that they cannot continue their affair emotionally unscathed. Despite Victoria's worries, she continues with the relationship as Nicu II emboldens her more and more.