Dangerous Stakes


G.K. Parks - 2019
    Her target, Axel Kincaid, is smart and ruthless. His forte - stealing cars. His temperament- violent. And his legitimate business keeps half the judges and city officials entertained, so collecting enough evidence to put him behind bars is nearly impossible. But when a parking attendant is murdered and two exotic sports cars are stolen, all bets are off. There's just one problem. Axel claims to have an airtight alibi, but there are more than a few holes in his story. The only thing Liv knows for sure is someone is determined to get away with murder, and now the killer has set his sights on her. Will she stop the murderous thief before he strikes again? Or will she become his next victim?

The World Beneath


Rebecca Cantrell - 2013
    This subterranean labyrinth inhales three million bustling commuters every day. And every day, it breathes them all out again... except for one. Software millionaire Joe Tesla is set to ring the bell on Wall Street the morning his company goes public. On what should be the brightest day in his life, he is instead struck with severe agoraphobia. The sudden dread of the outside is so debilitating, he can't leave his hotel at Grand Central Terminal, except to go underground. Bad luck for Joe, because in the tunnels lurk corpses and murderers, an underground Victorian mansion and a mysterious bricked-up 1940s presidential train car. Joe and his service dog, Edison, find themselves pursued by villains and police alike, their only salvation now is to unearth the mystery that started it all, a deadly, contagious madness on the brink of escaping The World Beneath.

Polar Bear Dawn


Lyle Nicholson - 2013
    But not with employees of the same company in Oil Camps in the high Arctic and Northern Canada. Two detectives, one from Alaska and one from Canada, are given the case. They find the murders are connected. Now, they have to work together to find out why the victims were silenced. What secrets did their deaths conceal?Frank Mueller, the Alaskan Detective, is close to retirement. He’s been through three marriages and two stints in rehab. He is on probation with the force. He knows the Anchorage Police department has given him this case because they don’t want it investigated fully and there’s no booze in the Arctic oil camps.Bernadette Callahan, the Canadian Detective, is in her mid thirties with a lot to prove on the force. She is Cree Indian and Irish, raised on a native reservation in Northern Canada. She’s been ingrained with the ways of the ‘people,’ by her grandmother that have given her instincts. Her instincts tell her there is something more than four dead people—someone is settling a score. The real crime will happen soon.The oil companies think the deaths are bad for publicity and they want them solved quickly. The detectives are under pressure to come up with a verdict they know is wrong.Callahan begins to unravel a series of unlikely suspects. A Chemistry Professor with a grudge against big oil, a Mexican low life gangster and Wall Street Executives. How are they connected?Something is about to happen to oil supplies in the Arctic. The two Detectives can sense it. They know it’s real—can they convince others to act?

May Queen Killers (May Queen Killers, #1)


Lorna Dounaeva - 2015
     A beauty queen is missing Sapphire Butterworth disappears in the middle of May Day celebrations in the quiet village of Fleckford. Mystery writer, Jock Skone is one of the last to see Sapphire and determined to use his detective skills to find her. But Jock quickly discovers that Sapphire’s friends do not know her as well as they thought they did. And Sapphire is not the first May Queen to go missing. Is there a deeper reason why Sapphire wanted the title so badly? Does she know more about the May Queen Killers than she’s been letting on? May Queen Killers is a very British thriller set on the English/Welsh border. If you enjoy fast-paced mysteries/psychological thrillers, visit www.LornaDounaeva.com for a free 10k book, The Muse, plus giveaways and updates on new releases.

Agent Zero


Jack Mars - 2019
    Kent Steele, 38, a brilliant professor of European History at Columbia University, lives a quiet life in a New York suburb with his two teenage daughters. All that changes when late one night he gets a knock on his door and is abducted by three terrorists—and finds himself flown across the ocean to be interrogated in a basement in Paris. They are convinced that Kent is the most lethal spy the CIA has ever known. He is convinced they have the wrong man. Do they? With a conspiracy around him, adversaries as smart as he is, and an assassin on his tail, the wild game of cat and mouse leads Kent on a perilous road—one that may lead back to Langley—and to a shocking discovery of his own identity.

Next to Disappear


Malcolm Richards - 2015
    Until disgraced ex-teacher Emily Swanson moves into the couple’s former home.Emily’s life is in ruins and she’s meant to be making a fresh start. But when she learns about the missing nurse, she sees a chance for redemption. Because finding Alina could help right the wrongs of Emily’s past. It could even mark the start of a new career in private investigation.But what Emily doesn’t know is that Alina had a horrifying secret. One about the care foundation where she worked. And the closer Emily gets to uncovering the truth, the closer she gets to terrible danger.Inspired by a shocking true crime, Next To Disappear introduces a thrilling, twist-filled series and a refreshingly different take on the private investigator genre.Revised edition: Previously published as Lost Lives.

The Darkest Lies


Solomon Carter - 2018
    SOME SECRETS CAN’T BE HIDDEN WITHOUT DEADLY CONSEQUENCES… AND HOGARTH HAS A SECRET ALL OF HIS OWN… DI Joe Hogarth and his team are called to a murder at a seaside nightclub. A big man with a reputation for extortion has been stabbed to death, but no one saw the killer strike. A young man disappeared from the scene moments before the murder. The young man has no clear motive but Hogarth can’t let go of his suspicions. He decides to track down the missing youth… And soon discovers the motive for the murder is far older, and far darker than he could have imagined.One man goes missing and a ghost from the past reappears as the darkest lies of two generations are ruthlessly exposed. One cop takes justice into her own hands. And yet another may pay the ultimate price.AS HOGARTH AND THE TEAM PEEL BACK THE LAYERS OF CRIME, THE BODYCOUNT STARTS TO RISE…DI Hogarth’s reputation hangs in the balance. And one cop’s life hangs by a thread.Secret Affairs. Lies and Betrayal. Murder.And Hogarth’s personal life is heading for a crisis. In a truly thrilling conclusion, DI Hogarth and his team race against time to stop a killer who watches their every move. Perfect for fans of Angela Marsons, Ian Rankin, Val McDermid and Ruth Rendell, Helen Durrant, Joy Ellis and LJ Ross. If you love to read gripping detective thrillers with flawed characters and police procedurals with shocking twists and a noir flavour, then the DI Hogarth Darkest series is for you.Readers have described the Darkest series as pefect for fans of British crime thrillers, Female detective novels, British crime mysteries, Police Procedurals, Heist thrillers and Noir Thrillers.The Darkest Lies is a crime novel you won’t want to put down. The Setting: Southend-on-sea, Just over an hour from London. A tough and densely packed suburban town sandwiched between the sparkling Thames Estuary and a semi-rural hinterland of fields and marshes. A place where wealth and glamour sit cheek-by-jowl with addiction, poverty and crime. When he transferred to the Essex coast, ex-Met Detective Joe Hogarth might have imagined he was signing up for sun, sea and semi-retirement. But the merry hell of Southend might just have him beat. It’s a good thing this DI doesn’t know when to quit… THE DI HOGARTH DARKEST SERIES THE DARKEST LIESTHE DARKEST GRAVETHE DARKEST DEEDTHE DARKEST TRUTH ALSO BY SOLOMON CARTER LONG TIME DYING series featuring private investigators Eva Roberts and Dan BradleyTHE LAST LINELUCK AND JUDGMENTLONDON CALLINGTHE FINAL TRICK For more information visit SolomonCarter.net

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.**

She's Not There / Trespass / Girl Undone


Marla Madison - 2016
     The series opener, SHE’S NOT THERE, introduces TJ Peacock, a Milwaukee-based PI, a former cop struggling to make it in her own business. Her life intersects with that of Lisa Rayburn, a clinical psychologist who has just found evidence that abused women are going missing in the Milwaukee area. When the police inform Lisa that without hard evidence, they cannot open an investigation, she joins TJ on a mission to reveal foul play at work in the disappearances. TJ and Lisa put their lives on the line as they attempt to unearth a devious serial killer. In the next two books of the series, TRESPASS and GIRL UNDONE, TJ and Lisa maintain their friendship and use their skills to uncover a cold case from the past and a deadly plot by a serial killer against a crime blogger.

FREE TO DIE


Bob McElwain - 2009
    Now he's back. And his hope for freedom appears to be within reach.Unfortunately there are those who have no interest in his legal status; they only want him dead or on the run once more.But for Brad, running is no longer an option. It's a table stakes game in which the risks are high. But he puts everything he has, including his life, on the table, then settles in, determined to win every hand.

Gone... But Not Missed


A.R. Kennedy - 2013
    She is held captive in her kidnapper's basement apartment, summoned upstairs once a week for a chaste dinner. But will his kindness last, and more importantly, why isn’t anyone looking for her? Lillian’s story is interwoven with that of Nathan, a NYPD officer, who is intrigued by Lillian’s disappearance- how can a young woman be gone for two weeks before a Missing Person Report is filed? Local police believe Lillian has voluntarily abandoned a life she didn’t like. Lillian’s best friend convinces Nathan the authorities are wrong. With no jurisdiction, no resources, and no witnesses, he is compelled by the pictures of Lillian with her sweet smile and sparkling green eyes to obsessively take up the case. Armed with Lillian’s keys and personal information, he spends hours, then days in her home trying to find clues that will lead him to her.

Skeletons in the Closet


Jennifer L. Hart - 2008
    As the wife of retired Navy SEAL, and the adoptive mother of two little hellions, Maggie is constantly looking for ways to improve her family’s financial situation. She accepts a cleaning position for her new neighbors (who redefine the term ‘eccentric’), never imagining she will end up as the sole alibi for a man with a fascination for medieval torture devices when he is brought up on murder charges.While Maggie struggles to prove the man’s innocence, her deadbeat brother arrives, determined to sell Maggie and Neil on his next great scheme and to mooch with a vengeance. If that isn’t bad enough, her in-laws, (the cut-throat corporate attorneys) descend on the house, armed with disapproval and condemnation, for the family’s annual Thanksgiving celebration.As the police investigation intensifies, Maggie searches for the killer among the upper echelon of Hudson, Massachusetts in the only way she can— by scrubbing their thrones.Of the porcelain variety, that is…

Cicada Spring


Christian Galacar - 2015
    . .On a warm May evening in the spring of 1979, the people of Heartsridge, Massachusetts, are living the American dream. Families are gathered for barbecues. Kids are playing in front yards. Gardens are being kept. Meanwhile, Kara Price stumbles home through the woods, raped and beaten, her life shattered by a wicked act of violence, perpetrated by one of the town’s most beloved and public figures. Surrounding Kara is a cast of compelling and nefarious characters—a violent-tempered mayor who can do no wrong in the eyes of the town, a sheriff bound by the rules and plagued by a guilty conscience, a father bent on revenge, a serial killer in the midst of an identity crisis. And at the center of it all there's Kara, who just wants to move on with her life and forget everything that happened to her. But how can she do that when everyone thinks she is a liar who is only out for attention? With plot and emotion braided together by a careful hand, this haunted group of people all acting on behalf of their own interests begs the question: How far would you go to protect your own?

Little Threats


Emily Schultz - 2020
    But Kennedy's teenage rebellion goes too far when, after a night of partying in the woods, her best friend, Haley, is murdered, and suspicion quickly falls upon Kennedy. She can't remember anything about the night in question, and this, along with the damning testimony from a college boy who both Kennedy and Haley loved, is enough to force Kennedy to enter a guilty plea.In 2008, Kennedy is released into a world that has moved on without her. Carter has grown distant as she questions Kennedy's innocence, and begins a relationship with someone who could drive the sisters apart forever. The twins' father, Gerry, is eager to protect the family's secrets and fragile bonds. But Kennedy's return brings the tragedy back to the surface, along with a whole new wave of media. When a crime show host comes to town asking questions, believing the murder wasn't wasn't as simple as it seemed, murky memories of Haley's death come to light. As new suspects emerge and the suburban woods finally give up their secrets, two families may be destroyed again.

The Grave Man


David Archer - 2015
     Sam Prichard was a cop, and a good one, until the bullets took out the joint of his right hip. Now he's trying to learn to live without being a cop, and getting to know his neighbors, learning to walk again and even ride a motorcycle. Life is bearable, barely, but then he gets asked to find a missing child, and the lure of getting back into some kind of police work is too much for him to resist. When he teams up with computer whiz Indiana Perkins, he suddenly becomes one of the best investigators he's ever even known. Now, he's found the missing child, but it's thrown him right into the middle of something that may be a drug war--or could be a chance to stop the next 911! There's no way out for Sam, so he's in for the ride of his life, but when the girl he's becoming fond of is suddenly drawn into the line of fire with her own little daughter, Sam is ready to forget all the rules and do whatever is necessary to win the day.