Social Death


Tatiana Boncompagni - 2014
    They have deadlier secrets.A beautiful socialite is brutally murdered in her exclusive New York City apartment building. A financier's trophy wife and the night doorman are the last two people to see her alive. There's no sign of forced entry. No known motive. Just a neighbor's account of overhearing a heated argument outside the victim's apartment on the night of the murder. Clyde Shaw has built a career covering brutal crimes for the FirstNews network, but this story may be more than the top news producer can handle. The murder victim, Olivia Kravis, is the daughter of FirstNews's mogul founder-and Clyde's best friend since childhood. As a high-stakes network ratings war begins, Clyde's own privileged yet troubled past comes back to haunt her, and she's forced to choose between finding her best friend's killer and losing everything-her job, her reputation, even her life. Long-guarded secrets. Millions at stake. And only Clyde holds the key to unlocking the truth. PRAISE FOR SOCIAL DEATH"A breathless thriller that takes the reader deep inside the worlds of television news and glitterati New York. This is great stuff. " Stuart Woods, New York Times Bestselling author of Unintended Consequences

Give It Back


Danielle Esplin - 2017
    She thought that was the worst thing that could happen to her, but soon she realizes it’s just the beginning of an everlasting nightmare. Lexy:Lexy, an au pair from London, moves to Seattle to help Lorraine with her infant son. But she didn’t come for the child…she came for something else. Ella:When Ella receives a call from her sister, Lorraine, who begs her to leave San Diego to spend time with her, she decides to take a few days off from work to visit her. Frightened to see how much Lorraine has weakened since her diagnosis eight months ago, she packs a bag and heads to Seattle with a foreboding feeling that this might be the last time she sees Lorraine. But on her way to the airport, she learns that something shocking has happened since she last spoke with Lorraine and now. To make matters worse, once Ella arrives in Seattle, Lorraine’s story keeps changing, making Ella question how reliable her sister really is. Soon Ella is entangled in a mysterious investigation, and more so, in the lives of everyone involved. She realizes not only that she won’t go home anytime soon but also that she’ll never look at others the same way she did before.

The Last Safe Place


Ninie Hammon - 2012
    and then one of them crawls up out of the pages and confronts her face to face. A deranged, fanatical fan who believes he is The Beast of Babylon from her novel turns up at a book signing and then comes after her to claim her as his bride. And to sacrifice her son, Ty, as an offering to their unholy union. Gabriella, Ty and Ty's grandfather, Theo-the crusty old stand-up comic called Slap Yo Mama Carmichael-run for their lives, back to the only place in Gabriella's life where she ever felt safe. But once there, she discovers that facing the demons from her past may be harder and more dangerous than facing the one who hunts her. As Ty and Theo battle their own, personal monsters, Gabriella begins to fall for a man who carries a guilt she can't even begin to imagine. The predator who stalks Gabriella and her family tracks them down and corners his prey as a full moon rides high in the night sky and lightning explodes on the mountaintop. Then all their lives and demons collide in a final, apocalyptic celebration of one man's madness. Gabriella's only hope lies in the unexplainable power of 2,000-year-old tree. Is it strong enough to save them? Can a single, perfect bristlecone pine somehow determine the fate of them all?

Impala


Andrew Diamond - 2016
    Someone is eavesdropping on his WiFi, watching him at the funeral, waiting in the alley. By the time he finds out why, all the FBI can tell him is that he’s in more trouble than he understands. It seems an old friend has bequeathed him one last gift before departing this earth: digital clues to the location of a stolen fortune. As his enemies close in from all sides to recover the money he can’t even find, Russ begins to understand that none of the clues are what they seem, and that the only way to find the money is to unravel the mysteries of his friend’s paranoid and slightly deranged mind.

The Bellhop Only Stalks Once


Cat Hickey - 2020
    But the vacation of a lifetime quickly takes a dark turn when a young, overly flirty bellhop starts following her everywhere. It gets even worse when he disappears, and Chloe is the sole witness.As bellhop after bellhop goes missing, she struggles to figure out what’s happening. When suspicion falls upon her, Chloe must not only try to rescue the kidnapped bellhops, but also to clear her name.Complicating things further is the relationship she forms with Mateo, Club Pacifica’s guest liaison. Charming and easygoing, he is everything that her fiancé at home is not, and she finds herself fighting a growing attraction to him. But can he be trusted?She soon discovers that she’s landed herself in a world of secrets, and, worse, that these are not just those of others, but also the secrets she keeps from herself.Can Chloe find her way through all the lies to finally discover the truth before it’s too late?

Say Her Name


Dreda Say Mitchell
    But she’s not the only one looking…It’s twenty years since Eva, a biracial woman, was adopted as an eight-year-old, and Cherry and Carlton ‘Sugar’ McNeil have always been the only parents she’s wanted or needed. But when she’s dealt the double blow of Cherry’s death and her own suspension from work, Eva decides it’s time to discover who she was before she was theirs.Against Sugar’s advice, Eva joins a DNA database, desperate for a match that will unlock her identity. And when a positive hit comes, she’s excited to learn there are relations out there who might hold the key. But the closer Eva gets to uncovering her past, the more it appears someone is trying to stop her finally finding the truth…As she continues to dig, Eva is drawn into a dark and merciless underside to society, where black women disappear without a word. Names erased from history, no search parties, no desperate pleas for their return. Once, someone tried to save Eva from all this. Someone wanted a better life for her. But now that she’s torn down the facade of her life, has she come too far to be spared again?

Marigolds and Murder


London Lovett - 2017
    With her pet crow Kingston and a tabby cat named Nevermore, she is settling right into her new life in the small coastal town of Port Danby. With a flower shop opening soon and a full cast of quirky neighbors and friends, her new digs are exactly what she's been looking for. Away from the hectic hustle and bustle of the city Lacey has found peace and happiness. However, her heightened sense of smell proves to be of use once again when a Port Danby neighbor turns up dead. Lacey finds herself caught up in an unexpected murder investigation alongside the handsome local detective, James Briggs. She’s determined to find the killer and solve the murder mystery before any more bodies turn up.Book 1 of the Port Danby Cozy Mystery Series. 1. Marigolds and Murder2. Carnations and Chaos (October 15, 2017)3. Mistletoe and Mayhem (November 2017)Full-length novel ~50,000 words.

Celilo's Shadow


Valerie Wilcox - 2017
    No matter how much time has passed, it’s always there, ready to punch you in the chest when you least expect it. All it takes is something ordinary—a brief glance, a certain food, or a melody on the radio—and regret strikes hard and fast. For Odessa Feldman, the trigger is a Pacific Northwest storm. When the muddy bones of a murder victim buried over fifty years ago are discovered in the storm’s aftermath, Odessa overcomes her long struggle with guilt to finally reveal the truth. But her overdue confession comes with a difficult price—reliving her role in the tragic summer of 1956 and worse, betraying the best friend she’d ever had. Dessa and Ellie Matthews were both fourteen-years-old when they met that summer. Ellie’s father was a foreman at the dam under construction on the Columbia River. At least that’s what he said. But, like murder and the motives behind it, some things in life are rarely as they seem.

Rooked


Caitlin Sara - 2018
    . . Despite her desire for control, Ara Hopkins has always felt like a pawn—constantly being maneuvered by those surrounding her. Carrying a riddled past of abandonment by her mother, a jealous step-sister and exploitation by men she was supposed to be able to trust, Ara craves a social media certified life. So, when she meets her husband, a New York congressman’s son, she believes she’s finally won her game. Secure in a life her mother would approve of—and having firmly shut the door on her chaotic and miscalculated past—Ara feels she’s thriving. Until the night her husband is murdered. Thrust into a game of deceit and lies, Ara realizes that nothing is as it seems and that the past can quickly return to the present. The facade crumbles as relationships are tested and family boundaries crossed. Faced with losing it all, she discovers what a person is really capable of. Because in this game of life, it's either rook or be rooked. An intricately braided plot with unforeseeable twists and a sucker-punch ending, Rooked is a captivating thriller that shatters all perceptions.

The Scarry Inn


Shirley McCann - 2015
    Surely the owners, Dick and Thelma are simply trying to drum up business for their new motel by terrifying their guests.But when Kara is found brutally murdered, they realize the danger is real and they must find their way to safety before the secrets of the inn claim another victim. Making things even more difficult is the lack of cellphone service in the small town of Frighton, Arizona. With no clue as to who they can trust, the remaining threesome are now caught up in a fight for their lives.

Long Time Coming


Edie Claire - 2003
    But back at home, the past is ready and waiting to haunt her...Eighteen years have passed since Joy's childhood best friend, Jenny, met her death in a tragic car accident just a few days after their senior prom. A broken Joy left their small Kentucky hometown shortly after - determined never to come back. But when her father's illness forces her to return, she realizes that neither time nor distance have truly healed her troubled soul.Plagued with nightmares of the accident and crippled by a vague fear whose source she can't identify, Joy realizes that in order to move on she must face the truth behind several disturbing gaps in her memory of that fateful spring. But the only person who can help her is a man she despises - Jenny's erstwhile boyfriend Jeff, now a respected doctor, whose carelessness as a teenager was the cause of Jenny's horrendous death - and Joy's own emotional destruction. Can she ever forgive? She may have no choice but to try. Because both the danger she sensed - and the childhood friendship she treasured - now suddenly seem very much alive...

The Gated Trilogy


Matt Drabble - 2017
    Their lives are complete when Emily falls pregnant, however their dreams are shattered one cold winter night by a car accident that robs them of their happiness.To overcome their loss they up stick and move to Eden Gardens, a US gated community that offers "Heaven on Earth and Twice as Nice". The people are warm and friendly and welcome them with open arms. The town is a beautiful throwback to a bygone age, where the sun always shines and the sky's always blue.As they settle into their new perfect lives, the circle is complete when Emily falls pregnant. The town is perfect, the weather is perfect and their lives are perfect. But are the stares from their neighbours a little too intense, is the town a little too interested in their happy news, and is Eden all that it seems.They are about to find out that paradise comes at a cost, and when you sign a lease, you should always check the fine print. Book 2."GATED II: Ravenhill Academy"It has been 10 years since the events in the small picturesque town of Eden. Lives were forever altered as two newcomers found the courage to peek behind the curtain and bring Tolan Christian's reign to a violent end as the town burned around them.No-one was more affected than Sarah-Jane Mears. The once bubbly ball of good nature is now a shadow of the former woman she used to be. After travelling to try and find a new home she has eventually settled in Northern England. She has taken a teaching position at Ravenhill Academy, an exclusive private school.But now there is a new student who has just transferred. A young American boy who is strangely familiar and oddly charismatic. As the school breaks for the Christmas holidays the harsh winter weather has cut them off from the outside world. Sarah is starting to learn that Ravenhill is an old building seemingly with a life and an energy of its own, one that is slowly stirring.She is going to realise that not all lessons are learnt in the classroom and that some secrets won't stay buried.Book 3."GATED III: Election Day"It was the chance of a lifetime for Avery Grant, the opportunity to run an election campaign for a candidate that seemed like the real deal.Christian Tolanson has risen through the ranks of British politics. A man with a unique ability to inspire those around him to almost cult like levels of devotion. He has lived many lives down through the ages from his humble beginnings as a child preacher. But now his life force is finally starting to fade and time is running out pushing him to desperate levels. A man consumed by his own destiny and ready to burn the world to get what he wants.Avery will discover the path that many have walked before her and never returned from. A realization that anything that seems too good to be true, will likely get you killed.

Steel Breeze


Douglas Wynne - 2013
    It’s been a year since novelist Desmond Carmichael's wife Sandy was brutally murdered. Now, with someone stalking him and his four-year-old son, he fears that the wrong man has been imprisoned for the crime. Sandy’s parents and Detective Chuck Fournier have a different fear: that Desmond, despondent over Sandy’s death, has become too unstable to raise his own son.To prove them wrong, Desmond must work outside the law to defeat a threat born in the dust of an American wasteland, baptized by fire, and hellbent on riding the winds of karma.

Ghosts of Rosewood Asylum


Stephen Prosapio - 2011
    It's Zach's dream investigation- but there's a catch: the network forces Xavier Paranormal Investigators to partner with the more dramatic-but less ethical-Demon Hunters. Now, Zach must fight for both his show's integrity and his team's loyalty while trying to protect his own secret: that he, himself, is possessed.

The Man of Legends


Kenneth C. Johnson - 2017
    The bet pays off, resulting in a story that will be popular with book clubs and fun to discuss.” —Associated Press New York City, New Year’s weekend, 2001. Jillian Guthrie, a troubled young journalist, stumbles onto a tantalizing mystery: the same man, unaged, stands alongside Ulysses S. Grant, Theodore Roosevelt, and Gandhi in three different photographs spanning eighty-five years of history.In another part of town, Will—an enigmatic thirty-three-year-old of immense charm, wit, and intelligence—looks forward to the new year with hope and trepidation. Haunted by his secret past and shadowed by a dangerous stranger, he finds himself the object of an intense manhunt spearheaded by an ambitious Vatican emissary and an elderly former UN envoy named Hanna.During the next forty-eight hours, a catastrophic event unites Will, Jillian, and Hanna—and puts them in the crosshairs of a centuries-old international conspiracy. Together, the three must unravel an ancient curse that stretches back two millennia and beyond, and face a primal evil that threatens their lives and thousands more.Award-winning science-fiction mastermind Kenneth Johnson blends epic adventure, romance, and evocative drama into an intense supernatural thriller rooted in one of the great untold legends of human history.