Beach Town Boogie


Bart Hopkins Jr. - 2015
    But things have gotten a bit more complex lately. This week she's been stalked, attacked, and embroiled in a murder investigation. And it's only Thursday.

Tips for Living


Renee Shafransky - 2018
    With the help of her best friend, she fled New York City for a small resort town, snagged a job as the advice columnist for the local paper, and is cautiously letting a new man into her life. But when Hugh and his perfect new family move into a summer house nearby, Nora backslides. Coping with jealousy, humiliation, and resentment again is as hard as she feared. It’s harder still when Hugh and his wife are shot to death in their home.If only Nora could account for the night of the murders. Unfortunately, her memories have gone as dark as her fantasies of revenge. But Nora’s not the only one with a reason to kill—and as prime suspect in the crime, she’d better be able to prove it.

Lost Hills


Lee Goldberg - 2020
    The sheriff, desperate for more positive press, makes Eve the youngest female homicide detective in the department’s history.Now Eve, with a lot to learn and resented by her colleagues, has to justify her new badge. Her chance comes when she and her burned-out, soon-to-retire partner are called to the blood-splattered home of a missing single mother and her two kids. The horrific carnage screams multiple murder—but there are no corpses.Eve has to rely on her instincts and tenacity to find the bodies and capture the vicious killer, all while battling her own insecurities and mounting pressure from the media, her bosses, and the bereaved family. It’s a deadly ordeal that will either prove her skills…or totally destroy her.

Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore


Matthew J. Sullivan - 2017
    Lydia Smith lives her life hiding in plain sight. A clerk at the Bright Ideas bookstore, she keeps a meticulously crafted existence among her beloved books, eccentric colleagues, and the BookFrogs.....the lost and lonely regulars who spend every day marauding the store’s overwhelmed shelves. But when Joey Molina, a young, beguiling BookFrog, kills himself in the bookstore’s upper room, Lydia’s life comes unglued. Always Joey’s favorite bookseller, Lydia has been bequeathed his meager worldly possessions. Trinkets and books; the detritus of a lonely, uncared for man. But when Lydia flips through his books she finds them defaced in ways both disturbing and inexplicable. They reveal the psyche of a young man on the verge of an emotional reckoning. And they seem to contain a hidden message. What did Joey know? And what does it have to do with Lydia? As Lydia untangles the mystery of Joey’s suicide, she unearths a long buried memory from her own violent childhood. Details from that one bloody night begin to circle back. Her distant father returns to the fold, along with an obsessive local cop, and the Hammerman, a murderer who came into Lydia’s life long ago and, as she soon discovers, never completely left.

A New Dawn Rising


Michael Joseph - 2013
    An opportunity to move on and make a fresh start. But when Carl is murdered, the police suspect Sam is responsible, forcing him to hunt down the real killer himself. Only someone doesn't want Sam Carlisle finding out the truth...

Mark of the Loon


Molly Greene - 2012
    She struggles with the inability to put down roots years after the sudden death of her beloved parents. Madison and her three wise, hilarious friends all wonder if she uses her busy, work-centric lifestyle as an excuse to avoid connection with anyone but them.When Madison checks out a probate sale outside Healdsburg, California, she falls in love with the European-style house on a private tract of land overlooking Lake Sonoma. In fact, she likes the place so much she climbs in the window for a private tour. With help from lawyer and friend Genevieve Delacourt, Madison soon learns that the estate’s corrupt attorney has manipulated the sale and is attempting to steer the purchase to an anonymous client in a deceitful plan for personal gain.Good fortune enables her to purchase the Blackburne’s property, but far more than a new home and lush gardens await discovery during this renovation. As Madison works on the remodel, she’s drawn into an old love story with dangerous consequences. In the process, she discovers herself as she unearths buried secrets. The series of events both endanger Madison and lead her to love – and a permanent home. Mark of the Loon is the skillful combination of history, mystery, and romance in a novel that explores deep friendship, choices, and how individuals cope with loss.

Bone Music


Christopher Rice - 2018
    If only the nightmare had ended when she was rescued. Instead, her real father exploited her tabloid-ready story for fame and profit—until Charlotte finally broke free from her ghoulish past and fled. Just when she thinks she has buried her personal hell forever, Charlotte is swept into a frightening new ordeal. Secretly dosed with an experimental drug, she’s endowed with a shocking new power—but pursued by a treacherous corporation desperate to control her.Except from now on, if anybody is going to control Charlotte, it’s going to be Charlotte herself. She’s determined to use the extraordinary ability she now possesses to fight the kind of evil that shattered her life—by drawing a serial killer out from the shadows to face the righteous fury of a victim turned avenger.

Death Notes: The Beginning- Book 0


James Hunt - 2016
    And she won’t stop until the scales of justice are balanced. No matter how hard she tries, Homicide Detective Adila Cooper can’t outrun her past. Buried in her work, she soon finds herself pulled into a killer’s world that she’s never experienced before. With opposition from both sides of the law it’ll take everything she can to end these seemingly senseless murders.

Fava


John Hazen - 2014
    Francine is a rising TV news reporter in New York City. Despite her brains, beauty and a growing following, she is stuck covering local interest stories. That is until her career literally hits the jackpot when the winner of a $450 million dollar lottery tells Francine that he is committed to using his new fortune to avenge his brother's killing at the Pentagon on 9/11. His seemingly crazy plan is backed by more than just money-he is in league with a ruthless and powerful Army Colonel gone rogue, religious extremists and co-conspirators in the highest levels of government. Francine teams with FBI Special Agent Will Allen, one of the few people who believe the threat is real, in a desperate race across three continents to stop the plot before it's too late.

The Profiler's Daughter


P.M. Steffen - 2012
    A six-year-old eyewitness. A gun from the grave.The Profiler's Daughter is a psychologically haunting thriller that combines murder mystery, love triangle, and family intrigue in one satisfying page burner.Sky Stone was born into the wealth and privilege of Boston's oldest Brahmin family but chooses instead to follow in the footsteps of her deceased father, legendary FBI profiler Monk Stone. In the chilly morning hours before the Boston Marathon, when a beautiful university student is found strangled and mutilated, her body left at the base of Heartbreak Hill, Sky returns from self-imposed exile to investigate. Thirty-six hours into the investigation, Sky's world turns upside down when she is fired from the Homicide team. They pin the murder on an innocent man, forcing Sky into a life-threatening game of cat and mouse with the real killer. From the stately mansions of Beacon Hill to the flat scrubland of central Texas, Sky keeps the reader on a razor's edge, culminating in a no-holds-barred shoot-out.The Profiler's Daughter, the first in the Sky Stone Thriller series, introduces a moody, enigmatic, and brilliant female heroine with the fierce bite of Stieg Larsson's Lisbeth Salander. As adeptly written as Martin Cruz Smith's complex Arkady Renko novels, this thriller offers an intriguing plot, richly detailed characters, and an astonishing conclusion guaranteed to leave the reader begging for more.

Tuppenny Hat Detective


Brian Sellars - 2008
    Their haste to close the case heightens Billy's suspicions and he and his pals decide to investigate. They turn detectives, unwittingly provoking a long hidden killer and unearthing secrets of wartime conspiracy and betrayal. Written for those teenage and adult readers who like a genuinely intriguing mystery, the story is set in Sheffield in 1951 as the bomb damaged steel city struggles to recover from World War Two. It's funny and nostalgic, but a genuine whodunit nonetheless – and with a surprise at the end.

Tombstoning


Doug Johnstone - 2006
    What do you do?Well, if you're David Lindsay from Arbroath, you get the hell out of there and don't return. Not for at least fifteen years. Until Nicola Cruickshank - yes, that Nicola, the girl you always fancied but never had the guts to approach - gets in touch and asks - no, demands - that you go back for a school reunion. To the place where it happened. The place you've been running from for fifteen years. Of course you go. Not to belatedly lay your mate to rest, but because you still fancy Nicola.The thing is, if you are David Lindsay, then returning to Arbroath isn't going to lay any ghosts to rest. And when someone else takes a dive off the cliffs - an act the locals have taken to calling 'tombstoning' - while David's there, he has a choice: run away again, or finally find out why people keep dying around him . . .

The Complete Hester Lynton Mysteries


Tony Evans - 2013
    This casebook promises twists and turns with a pair of lady sleuths with sharp wits and Holmesian intelligence. The Complete Hester Lynton Mysteries includes - The Puzzled BridegroomIt was just another ordinary day when private tutor Hester Lyton boarded a steam train from Paddington to London. But this would be no ordinary journey.Within just a few short miles. the amateur detective has held two menacing convicts at gun point, acquired an inquisitive assistant by the name of Ivy Jessop, and embarked on an investigation into the case of a missing governess. Teaming up together, Hester and Ivy must combine their Sherlock Holmes style intellect with their feminine wiles, to solve a series of mysteries that have defeated lesser minds.Over the course of three adventures, Hester and Ivy find themselves up against a spate of murders, confused identities, missing people, thieves and forgeries.The Soho AnarchistThe Victorian detective Hester Lynton and her sharp-minded assistant Ivy Jessop are back for another series of dazzling adventures.In London a mysterious package with a deadly secret has landed on Hester's desk. In the suburbs, a woman is plagued by a series of pranks which hint at the supernatural. And in Islington, a medium claims to have the power to access the thoughts of her client's dead relatives, as well as the money in their pockets.Can Hester find the elusive Soho Anarchist before another bomb is blown? Will she unearth the secret of Greystones Villa and identify its tormentor? And will she unveil the true identity of Madame Valland and the secrets of her supernatural powers?The Wayward HusbandIn her latest baffling case, a complex and unusual tale involving a certain Mrs Bramming leads Hester and Ivy into the most dangerous case of their career.Meanwhile, when a famous writer loses a valuable manuscript, and enlists Hester's help to find it, an eminent doctor appears to be involved in the inexplicable events. But how? And why? Some mysteries are baffling even to Victorian London's greatest detective. The Complete Hester Lynton Mysteries is a dazzling collection of Victorian mystery stories that are perfect for fans of Sherlock Holmes, G W Calkitto, and the Raffles series.

Memory Scents


Gayle Eileen Curtis - 2012
    her green eyes were still sparkling, but now glazed they held a snapshot of the fear she had endured only moments previously. Death fascinated Tim. The way a person's eyes altered, showing no emotion, becoming empty, coloured oval shaped glass. He loved that part, when he could reflect on the stillness of his victim like a photo in an album.It's been ten years since the disappearance of Alice and her mother, Eve can't process the information she may have been murdered by a serial killer. She finds solace in writing Alice love letters, believing this will bring her daughter home, but years of denial, pain and isolation have left behind an inability to accept the truth.A series of unsolved child murders is the shocking news that greets Chrissie shortly after moving to a picturesque North Norfolk coastal village. Sinister paranormal activity in her idyllic cottage causes her to wonder if she is receiving a message from one of the victims, or if her memory is playing tricks on her and she is recalling a past life. Many eerie coincidences begin to reveal the truth.Grace is married to a serial killer, something she has been aware of for over a year. Her decision to keep it a secret comes from her desire for revenge, but she may have left her carefully thought out plans too late.All three women are linked by their connection to the same nightmare, as they try to unravel the catastrophic chain of events caused by a child killer.

Lies in High Places


Dana Killion - 2017
    A sniper. A city on edge. As investigative journalist Andrea Kellner is heading out of Chicago for a long weekend, a driver in front of her is shot and killed. The city’s gang violence problems have spilled onto a major expressway for the third time in a month. Or is something else at play? Her career faltering and marriage all but over, Andrea desperately needs a win, provided she can find out what’s really behind the shootings. With a boss who wants her sitting on the sidelines—or back in his bed, a competitive co-worker who just wants her gone, and a detective blinded by his own past, Andrea must look past CPD’s explanation and discover the truth behind the shootings. Provided she can live to tell the story. Lies in High Places is the first book in the Andrea Kellner crime fiction series. If you like complex plots and smart, ballsy, crime-solving women, you’ll love Dana Killion’s page-turning debut.