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Among the Dead by Kevin Wignall


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The Blue Hallelujah


Andy Straka
    When Rebecca died of cancer in prison—branded as a disturbed vigilante after killing one of his murder suspects—Jerry knew he needed to put the truth in writing to set the record straight.Now, as an old man nearing his own demise, Jerry is unsure whether to share his narrative about Rebecca with the world. But when his eight-year-old granddaughter Marnee disappears, Jerry learns she’s been taken by someone close to the killer depicted in the pages hidden in his dresser drawer.It’s time for Jerry to finish the story—by confronting an evil that threatens Marnee’s life and the lives of everyone around her. And by placing his faith in a higher power to redeem the love for Rebecca in his heart.

The Mary Russell Series Books 1-4: The Beekeeper's Apprentice; A Monstrous Regiment of Women; A Letter of Mary; The Moor


Laurie R. King - 2014
    King. The Beekeeper's Apprentice In 1915, Sherlock Holmes and his fifteen-year-old protege Mary Russell are called to Wales to help Scotland Yard find the kidnapped daughter of an American senator, a case of international significance with clues that dip deep into Holmes's past.A Monstrous Regiment of Women It is 1921 and Mary Russell is on the verge of acquiring a sizable inheritance. Her attentions turn to the New Temple of God and its leader, a charismatic suffragette and a mystic. When four bluestockings from the Temple turn up dead shortly after changing their wills, could sins of a capital nature be afoot? A Letter of Mary It is 1923. Mary Russell Holmes and Sherlock Holmes are visited by an old friend, an archaeologist just returned from Palestine. She leaves in their protection an ancient, controversial manuscript. When their friend is suddenly killed in a tragic accident, Russell and Holmes find themselves on the trail of a fiendishly clever murderer. The Moor In the eerie wasteland of Dartmoor, Sherlock Holmes summons Mary Russell to aid the investigation of a death and some disturbing phenomena of a decidedly supernatural origin. There have been sightings of a spectral coach made of bones carrying a woman long-ago accused of murdering her husband--and of a hound with a single glowing eye. Returning to the scene of The Hound of the Baskervilles, Holmes and Russell investigate a mystery darker and more unforgiving than the moors themselves.

Catching Water in a Net


J.L. Abramo - 2001
    He is a careless dresser with a sloppy lifestyle and he couldn't keep his marriage from falling apart. But he also epitomizes the best of the modern shamus. He has the kinds of friends a man in his profession needs-jailbirds, mob bosses, and a cop who can surreptitiously run license plate numbers for him. Jake has been down on his luck lately, barely making enough money to pay the bills and it looks like business might finally be picking up. A woman comes to his office begging him to find her missing husband who has been accused of murder. Jake remembers that his mentor Jimmy Pigeon always says "Whenever I'm asked to locate a missing spouse, the words 'no, but thanks for asking' always come to mind" and almost turns the case down, but then he learns that the murder victim was Jimmy Pigeon. Determined to discover the identity of Pigeon's killer, Diamond scrambles between Los Angeles and San Francisco following leads that range from weak to delusional. With the help of his trusty and sarcastic assistant, Darlene Roman, compulsive gambler Vinnie "String" Stradivarius, and Italian-American "businessman" Joey Russo, Jake slowly uncovers the motives behind Pigeon's murder. Jake's adventure has all the components of a great new private eye series-scares, suspense, lots of laughs, a few tears and a big surprise at the end.

Unknown Remains: A Novel


Peter Leonard - 2016
    Outside his office window, Jack hears a booming sound, and then the worst thing imaginable. He works in the World Trade Center, and it is September 11, 2001.His wife in Connecticut, Diane, is visited the next day by a grief counselor, and then the mob, where she learns her husband owes them $750,000. Their personal bank accounts have been emptied. She’s totally and utterly broke. Lost in grief and now shock, Diane soon learns her husband was not the loving spouse he appeared to be. But neither is she, owing to that Beretta she keeps tucked into her handbag.The perfect summer read, Unknown Remains boasts an exciting crime story, inventive plot twists, and a cast of rogues, who just might be using a national tragedy to cover up their own deep transgressions and greed.

The Essential Margery Allingham Collection: Sweet Danger, Traitor's Purse, The Tiger in the Smoke (The Albert Campion Mysteries)


Margery Allingham - 2017
    And the rumours are true: Jack Havoc, charismatic outlaw, knife-wielding killer and ingenious jail-breaker, is on the loose once again. As Havoc stalks the smog-cloaked alleyways of the city, it falls to Albert Campion to hunt down the fugitive and put a stop to his rampage – before it’s too late… The Tiger in the Smoke can rank with any of the great thrillers in English literature. It conveys an understanding of goodness and evil more assuredly than any of them. More than an outstanding mystery, Margery Allingham has created a major novel. Traitor's Purse Celebrated amateur detective Albert Campion awakes in hospital accused of attacking a police officer and suffering from acute amnesia. All he can remember is that he was on a mission of vital importance to His Majesty’s government before his accident. On the run from the police and unable to recognise even his faithful servant or his beloved fiancee, Campion struggles desperately to put the pieces together while the very fate of England is at stake. Tightly plotted and perfectly drawn, Traitor’s Purse is an enduring classic of wartime fiction. Sweet Danger Nestled along the Adriatic coastline, the kingdom of Averna has suddenly – and suspiciously – become the hottest property in Europe, and Albert Campion is given the task of recovering the long-missing proofs of ownership. His mission takes him from the French Riviera to the sleepy village of Pontisbright, where he meets the flame-haired Amanda Fitton. Her family claim to be the rightful heirs to the principality, and insist on joining Campion’s quest. Unfortunately for them, a criminal financier and his heavies are also on the trail – the clock is ticking for Campion and his cohorts to outwit the thugs and solve the mystery of Averna.

After Eli


Terry Kay - 1981
    Each woman feels connected to Michael, whose charm and wit draws them inexorably into his play of madness--a drama of psychological horror that threatens the weak and unsuspecting.Terry Kay's riveting suspense novel is filled with twists and turns that will keep readers guessing until the very end.

The Assignment - An Orlando Story


Brett Battles - 2013
     When Orlando receives her new assignment, she thinks she's in for an easy day. But the simple chauffeur job she assumes she is on, is not so simple, after all. THE ASSIGNMENT is a seven thousand word short story, featuring Orlando from the award winning Jonathan Quinn Thriller series. It first appeared in the digital anthology SHAKEN: Stories for Japan.

Lawyers, Guns and Money


J.D. Rhoades - 2011
    Local crime boss Voit Fairgreen has just dropped a bag full of cash on his desk and hired him to defend Voit's brother Danny on a murder charge. Andy's one of the movers and shakers in the small southern town of Blainesville, and Voit figures Andy's the kind of inside guy that can cut a deal to get his baby brother out of the jam. The problem is that Danny just might be innocent. But someone powerful needs this case buried, and if an innocent man dies for that, so be it. Andy Cole is a guy who's made a good living by going along to get along. He's been willing to bend every rule, except Rule One--always get paid. But this case will cause him to re-examine his life and push him and his lover, beautiful newspaper editor Elizabeth Sinclair, to risk everything--including their lives-- for the truth. J.D. Rhoades, author of the Kindle bestseller BREAKING COVER and an attorney himself, turns his eye on his own profession in a book that combines the hard-boiled tone of the classic P.I novel with the white-knuckle suspense of the legal thriller.

Black Jack Justice: Dead Men Run


Gregg Taylor - 2015
    When it comes to deeply unqualified guardians of the moral high ground, it would be tough to find many that equaled Black Jack Justice and his erstwhile partner, Trixie Dixon, girl detective. But they will learn the hard way just how serious the sender was, and that in the end, only Dead Men Run.The his and hers private detectives of Decoder Ring Theatre’s long-running radio mysteries return to two-fisted prose adventure, delighting long-time fans and new readers alike with the classic, hard-boiled feel of their exploits.

Wreckage


Niall Griffiths - 2005
    In the foreground is a caper story; in the background, a poetically expressed, apocalyptic history of Liverpool." —The Daily TelegraphThat woman with the grey hair and the specs and the kind face and the accent all like his grandmother, his nain in hospital and when she can talk that is what she sounds like. Don'thitmepleasedon'thitme. These women falling, sliding off this earth and not just from violence but the one commonality that turns life to a wreck—age.After their botched and brutal mission to punish a one-armed man in a small Welsh village, Darren and Alastair head back to Liverpool to report to their mob boss. On the way home, Darren robs a rural postal office in Wales that serves as a bank and needlessly cracks the skull of a little old postal lady. Darren's eyes are full of fire. "We're rich, Alastair!" But Alastair sees his own nain in this elderly woman and falls victim to his conscience. Darren has finally gone too far.As Alastair and Darren weave their way through the lowlife milieu of Liverpool, we hear many voices: the alky, the crack addict, the busman, the whores, the gangsters, and Darren's many victims. But we also hear the voices of their ancestors going back generations of unthinkable grief and poverty.A fascinating sequel to Niall Griffiths' Stump, which Irvine Welsh calls "a magnificent novel of loss and obsession . . . [by] a major talent."

The Getaway


Jim Thompson - 1958
    But when for the first time in Doc's long criminal career, his shot doesn't hit the mark, everything begins to fall apart. And Doc begins to realize that the perfect bank robbery isn't complete without the perfect getaway to back it up.THE GETAWAY is the classic story of a bank robbery gone horribly wrong, where the smallest mistakes have catastrophic consequences, and shifting loyalties lead to betrayals and chaos. The basis for the classic Steve McQueen film of the same name, as well as a 1994 remake with Alec Baldwin, Thompson's novel set the bar for every heist story that followed--but as Thompson's proved time and again, nobody's ever done it better than the master.

The Mercenary


Dan Hampton - 2013
    A former military officer haunted by a personal tragedy in his past, the Sandman embarks on a quest for revenge that pits him against friend and country and leads him straight to the heart of the American military establishment.

The Uttermost Farthing (a Savant's Vendetta)


R. Austin Freeman - 1914
    Austin Freeman was an early 20th century British writer of detective stories. . Freeman first used the inverted detective plot in which the commission of the crime is described at the beginning, usually including the identity of the perpetrator, with the story then describing the detective's attempt to solve the mystery. Many of these stories include arcane scientific knowledge on such topics as tropical medicine, toxicology and metallurgy. The Red Thumb Mark, written in 1907 is the first of the Dr Throndkye novels. Dr Thorndyke was a medical/legal forensic investigator. The Uttermost Farthing, an unusual tale begins, "It is not without some misgivings that I at length make public the strange history communicated to me by my lamented friend Humphrey Challoner. The outlook of the narrator is so evidently abnormal, his ethical standards are so remote from those ordinarily current, that the chronicle of his life and actions may not only fail to secure the sympathy of the reader but may even excite a certain amount of moral repulsion. But by those who knew him, his generosity to the poor, and especially to those who struggled against undeserved misfortune, will be an ample set-off to his severity and even ferocity towards the enemies of society.'

Murder Mountain


Stacy Dittrich - 2010
    CeeCee and FBI Agent Michael Hagerman follow the trail of chilling clues deep into the West Virginia woods, and a dark world of drugs, torture, and cannibalism. With her family in grave danger, CeeCee will have to risk everything if she's to bring justice to ... Murder Mountain. In this haunting prequel to The Devil's Closet (2008), Stacy Dittrich introduces her readers for the first time to CeeCee Gallagher, Agent Michael Hagerman, and the case that changed both of their lives forever. Murder Mountain is the fifth novel published, first in the series, in Dittrich's provocative detective series - novels inspired by actual police cases, told by one of America's leading female crime experts, and now in production for a syndicated television series.

Old Age Private Eye (Old Age Pensioner Investigations (OAPI) #1)


A.W. Blakely - 2015
    Then he mowed the lawn (again) and knew his life was over. His wife was happy doing her crosswords, but Stanley felt like an old age pensioner with nothing to look forward to apart from sitting in his chair, watching daytime TV, and walking his dog, Roobarb. On a whim, after yet another wet walk with his overweight pooch, he put an advert in the corner shop window: Old Age Pensioner Investigations. No job too big, or small. From murder to missing cats, Detective Stanley can solve it all. He went home, got told off for letting Roobarb get mud on the lino, stared at Custard the cat who stole the only biscuit he was allowed a day (he was putting on weight), and fell asleep in his chair. Then the doorbell rang. He had a case. The old age private eye was in business. Now all he had to do was actually solve a murder. Oh, and get a pad, and a pen, and maybe detectives had cars too, and secretaries, and offices... He wasn't bored any more, that was the main thing. Plus the murder mystery, of course.