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.

    DS Logan McRae investigates after a year off the job sick – but knows time is running out fast…Dying Light: A woman is found dead by the docks, in the heart of Aberdeen’s Red Light District. For DS Logan McRae it’s a bad start to another bad day. Rosie Williams is just the first – how many more will die?Broken Skin: A serial rapist leaves a string of victims as DS Logan McRae’s investigations suggest that someone in the local bondage community has developed a taste for full-blown violence. The Granite City’s seedy side is about to be exposed…

    Her brothers have given her the task of deciding what to do with their parents’ farm, which is slowly falling into disrepair. Imogen will not be rushed into passing judgement on the place. When she starts to carry out some research into the history of Kilduggan Farm, she inadvertently sets off a chain of events that ends in tragedy. Suddenly, Imogen and her psychologist husband, Hugh, find themselves faced with a seemingly insoluble puzzle. How can it be possible that an unexplained death in the present day can match, in every detail, an unsolved case from 40 years ago?As the past begins to catch up with Imogen, she realises that she must strive to discover the truth about her family, even if it means that nothing will ever be the same again…This is an intricately plotted novel, cleverly interwoven with subtle clues and the occasional red-herring. It will keep you guessing and the pages turning, right up until its final, shocking conclusion.Aoife's Chariot is the first novel in the Imogen and Hugh Croft Mysteries Series. It is an absorbing family saga, full of mystery and suspense. Husband and wife sleuths Imogen and Hugh Croft are first introduced to readers in this tense genealogical mystery with deathly consequences.

    She is married to a successful, loving husband but somehow she requires more attention than this fine upstanding man can offer. She plays hard; in fact she is a playa in her own right. But Grace forgets that Game recognizes Game when she runs into Sonia, her husband’s best friend. This is the tale of Grace’s extra-marital love affair, love and support of good friends, and lessons learned along the way.

    But appearances can be deceptive. Erica describes her successful, lawyer husband as handsome and charismatic when she recounts their whirlwind marriage. But nothing is what it seems.  What is Erica hiding?Was Joel’s death really an accident? Sometimes the truth can be ugly.

    Terry Lawler had exposed the secrets of powerful people and apparently got his comeuppance.But when DI Tara Grogan digs further, she makes a startling discovery. Within the victim’s home are details about dozens of missing women. Details that might only be known to the last person who saw them.Just what was his connection to these disappearances in Belfast and Liverpool? Has Grogan stumbled upon evidence of a serial killer who someone else has got to first?In which case, exactly who is Grogan hunting for? And does she really want to find them?

    No ordinary life. Just how does someone become an undercover cop?Find out in this gripping prequel to the Steve Regan Undercover Cop series by tagging along with the young detective in 1970's Liverpool. Mentally scarred by a tragic event involving a fatal car crash and the loss of loved ones, he is summoned to see the Chief Constable. Instead of being assessed for his fitness for duty as he expected, he finds himself offered the chance of his first undercover role.On accepting the role, his life is now changed forever as he moves to London with a different identity. The legend of Steve Regan is created with a foolproof backstory so he can infiltrate the international crime gang behind England’s biggest sporting secret. A secret so shocking it could taint the image of British sport irreversibly if it were ever divulged.What is that secret? Is it worth dying for?A page-turning thriller of a novella packed with suspense. If you like fast-paced plot-driven thrillers, discover Stephen Bentley’s undercover cop series today.

     His peaceful existence is shattered when a past he thought he’d put behind him comes crashing back into his world. Old acquaintances unhappy that he left them for a new life in a sleepy seaside town, now want their revenge. With his hopes and dreams in flames, the only road left leads back to his past. Back to the gang that wants him dead. Tony can only do one thing - fight back or die trying. NO SAFE PLACE is the debut novel from a new, exciting voice in crime fiction

    When Jennifer Murdoch is found bleeding to death in her bed, Geraghty quickly finds himself trapped in the middle of a police investigation. With everything at stake, some will go to any length to get what they want, Geraghty included.

    This season meet Brianna and Natalie. Best of friends but both deal with similar issues they both desire a man who isn’t actually theirs. Episode one- Meet the cast, get wrapped up in the sex, and guess the next secret as the drama unfolds as the Na Na rips havoc on these characters lives.

    The town of Sewardville, Kentucky teeters on the edge of a violent abyss, overrun with methamphetamine and prescription drug abuse. The Slone family controls everything. Patriarch Walt Slone is the town’s mayor and head of one of the largest crime syndicates in the eastern United States. His son metes out justice from behind his sheriff’s badge, while his daughter handles all the numbers for the family business. Business for the Slones is good, too – at least until Walt orders his son-in-law Boone to kill his own brother. That becomes the first link in a chain of events that threatens not just the livelihood of all involved, but their lives as well. While the Slones move to strengthen their empire, Boone moves to break free and take his little daughter with him. Will he escape from one of America’s most heartbroken regions, or will his dark past bury him forever in the place they call Sewerville?

    She knows it’s the end of everything, sex, sleep, going out, and generally having a life. The father was a one night Bacardi induced mistake who’s now long gone, thank goodness. She struggles with prenatal check-up’s and scans and copes with her first craving and leaky boobs, not to mention her ever increasing waistline, and say’s goodbye to size 10 dresses and pretty underwear, although who’s going to be seeing her in her underwear ever again pretty or not she has no idea, and resigns herself to ‘fat clothes’. All Judy wants is to not be pregnant and to be able to get on with her self-imposed never having another relationship life. ‘I mean who needs some bloke telling you how to do everything, or anything, while they consistently bollocks things up.’Then to add to her quandary, on a last fling night out before the bump gets too noticeably big, she meets the gorgeous Rob who could have been her ‘The One’ if only she wasn’t pregnant

    Homicide detective Ricardo Pierce suspects that many of the city's missing persons are actually victims of a serial killer.When Pierce goes on a quest to find the killer, he discovers not one, but two monsters stalking the night.Pierce is the right man to stop them, however, the detective has his own demons that he struggles against.Will Pierce stop the night predators that threaten the city, or, will he ultimately become one himself?

    But is he really safe?The mysterious observer has come out of the shadows and infiltrated the Dirty Money Crew. Together with his accomplice, he plans to exact revenge on Scar. Meanwhile, Tiphani is plotting her return from Florida to claim her children and also get back at Scar and the mayor who left her for dead. After recovering from his injuries, Derek Fuller is out of prison, looking for redemption.Can Scar fend off all of these enemies and still control the Baltimore drug trade?

    Reserves are drying up, local officials have failed to enforce water-rationing regulations, and the relentless heat is causing panic and unrest among the town's citizens.The Drought follows an eclectic cast of characters through a volatile two weeks of greed, lust, and violence, leading to an inevitable and extraordinary climax no one will see coming.And it all begins with Willie Strasbourg stealing a pair of underwear from the girl next door . . .