I had just come off I-65, and my high beams lit her up from behind. She was walking along the road between dark, endless cornfields, and her right leg was in a cast. She wore denim shorts and a yellow tank top that didn’t quite reach the shorts. Without crutches, she moved as fast as she could on the gravelly shoulder. She would take a long step with her good leg, stiffly swing the cast forward the same distance, and immediately start the next step. Tilting jerkily, she looked as if she would fall with every stride. I crossed the centerline to give her more room to fall. Just as I was about to pass her, she glanced over her shoulder and stuck out a thumb.When Phil Larrison picks up a hitchhiker, he gets more than he bargained for.

    A Patterson-style thriller with a dash of Hannibal...A city paralyzed by a serial killer stalking the night, taking a most gruesome trophy.The only standing in the murderer's way is an FBI profiler...recently released from a mental institution.Plain Jane combines the swift action of Patterson with the macabre of Harris.Just remember to keep the lights on when reading this one!

     When his mentor’s niece rips off a local organised crime syndicate and disappears, Adam Park – a former private investigator and security consultant – has little choice but to return home to help track her down. As he commences his investigation, it becomes clear the troubled young woman was acting under the influence of a domineering boyfriend and, using cutting edge technology, Adam tracks the pair to Paris. Here, he learns not only have they involved themselves in a criminal venture that may now cost them their lives, but elements back home are also seeking revenge upon them. Pursuing them from the UK to Paris, then out into the wider world, Adam will confront an international network of criminals for whom human life is nothing but another business commodity. If he is to survive, return the girl safely, and protect the people he cares for most, he must delve into the darkest recesses of his soul, and blur his previously-solid concepts of right and wrong.

    When a former client bequeaths Drayco a rundown Opera House in a Virginia seaside town, he figures he'll arrange for a quick sale of the place while nursing his battered soul in a peaceful setting near the shore. What he doesn't count on is finding a dead body on the Opera House stage with a mysterious "G" carved into the man's chest. With hopes for a quick sale dashed and himself a suspect in the murder, Drayco digs into very old and very dangerous secrets to solve the crime and clear his name. Along the way, Drayco must dodge a wary sheriff, hostility over coastal development, and the seductive wife of a town councilman - before the tensions explode into more violence and he becomes the next victim. Want to read a Scott Drayco novella for FREE? Sign up for BV’s Mysteries in Crimetime newsletter at bvlawson.com and receive a FREE copy of "The Maltese Moon Rock"! Scott Drayco Thrillers in order: PLAYED TO DEATH (A Shamus Award Finalist and Best Mystery, Next Generation Book Awards) REQUIEM FOR INNOCENCE DIES IRAE ELEGY IN SCARLET

    Now someone with inside knowledge is feeding clues to true crime writer Dougal Lachlan, promising him the best story of his career. Pursuing the leads means returning to Twisted Cedars, where his sister Jamie, is about to marry a man he deeply dislikes.Local Twisted Cedars librarian Charlotte Hammond prefers her mysteries - and her romances - between the covers of a good book, especially since the disappearance of her older sister, Daisy, eight years ago. But then the dark and tortured soul who is Dougal Lachlan walks into the Twisted Cedars Library asking for her help.Before long Charlotte realizes there is no safe zone. Not even in libraries...and especially not in Twisted Cedars.Twisted Cedar MysteriesBuried, Book 1Forgotten, Book 2Exposed, Book 3

     My mother used to tell me that evil only comes to those who are looking for it, and maybe she was right. Corruption and death walk hand and hand in this town. I refuse to give in, but giving up seems to be my only option. As a detective, I’ve seen enough killing for ten lifetimes, and now, leaving is the only way to keep my sanity. I never thought that my last case while training my replacement would have a stranglehold on me personally. It’s like the Hangman is placing the noose around my neck, and the rope is only getting tighter.

    He’s become more of a recluse cutting off communication with his parents and most of the outside world. He talks mainly through his YouTube channel “Nic Says” and his cold, spine tingling rants are very disturbing; especially to the young women at his University campus. He does not take rejection well and he’s got sweet revenge on his mind. But what’s even more alarming is that he’s got a sympathiser who’s got even bigger ideas. Are they part of a murder club? Detective Jack Creed needs to stop this attack. He’s got 48 hours to stop the perpetrator or witness Australia’s greatest mass University shooting. Australian author C T Mitchell is Australia's newest detective mystery, suspense and thriller writer with crime fiction plots centred around the seaside town of Cabarita Beach and the Northern Rivers District, in far north New South Wales, Australia.

    Ten Bodies. One Empty Grave.In this international bestseller, rookie FBI Agent Brandon Fisher takes on his first case with the Behavioral Analysis Unit, but will he survive long enough to catch the killer? Eleven is a fast-paced, spine-tingling thriller that will have you gasping for breath at every twist... When Brandon Fisher joined the FBI Behavioral Analysis Unit, he knew he'd come up against psychopaths, sociopaths, pathological liars, and more. But when his first case takes him and the team to Salt Lick, Kentucky, to hunt down a ritualistic serial killer, he learns what nightmares are truly made of. Beneath a residential property, local law enforcement discovered an underground bunker with circular graves that house the remains of ten victims. But that's not all: there's an empty eleventh grave, just waiting for a corpse. The killing clearly hasn't come to an end yet, and with the property owner already behind bars, Brandon is certain there's an apprentice who roams free. As the FBI follows the evidence across the United States, Brandon starts to struggle with the deranged nature of his job description. And if the case itself isn't going to be enough to push Brandon over the edge, he's working in the shadow of Supervisory Special Agent Jack Harper, who expects nothing short of perfection from his team. To make matters even worse, it seems Brandon has become the target of a psychotic serial killer who wants to make him--or his wife--victim number eleven.

    The worst part is that they're human. "Name?" "Nathan Miller.""What happened?""I was shot.""By whom?""A homicidal lunatic with a gun and bad aim." "Her name?""Caitlin Lockyer.""What happened to her?""Looks like someone tried to kill her."Nathan found Caitlin on a beach covered in blood. Saving her life was just the start. Now he's the prime suspect and he has to find out who's really responsible. Both of their lives depend on it.Who hurt her? Why was he shot? What did he promise? Why doesn't his story add up? Who was the dead man on the beach? What will she remember when she wakes up? A tiny taste of what's in store: "Stay away from her, Nathan. That girl isn't good for you."Stay away from her? I'd go crazy with worry in a day. "You don't know her."Chris looked grim. "Neither do you. Is there anything you wouldn't do for her?" "Yes," I snapped. "I wouldn't die for her."Chris turned around to stare at me, her mouth hanging open. "Do you want to know why?" I asked steadily. "I wouldn't die for her because I wouldn't be able to protect her any more. What if I missed one of the people who hurt her? I couldn't take that risk. She's too important." Nightmares Trilogy Dark, disturbing and definitely scary - Nightmares of Caitlin Lockyer is the first book in Demelza Carlton's Nightmares Trilogy. The second book is Necessary Evil of Nathan Miller.

    His clients are all renegades from the asylum, including a transvestite entertainer with curious medical issues, a buxom deadbeat blonde, a doctor who refers his own patients to a malpractice lawyer, and the driver of a Mardi Gras float shaped like a giant crawfish pot. He also has his hands full with an ex-wife and three teenage daughters, who are experts in the art of wrapping Tubby around their little fingers. And somehow, between work and family, Tubby finds time to sample the highs and lows of idiosyncratic Crescent City cuisine, from trout meuniere amandine and French roast coffee with chicory to shrimp po-boys and homemade pecan pralines. Tubby is asked to take on a new client: Darryl Alvarez, the manager of a local nightclub, who has been caught unloading fifteen bales of marijuana from a shrimp boat. At their first meeting, Darryl entrusts Tubby with an ordinary-looking blue gym bag. But when Darryl is later found shot at the nightclub, Tubby realizes he must tighten his grasp on the gym bag - and its million-dollar contents. Tubby can't just give up the cash. But if he gets caught, he'll be in jail. And if the wrong people catch him, he'll wish he was.

    No one cared. But a stranger, bent on revenge, is out to change all that. Kit Griffin has finally overcome a painful childhood at the hands of her mother, former actress Alana Stevens. No longer living in the grasp of the cold, tyrannical woman, Kit has found a new life tucked away in little San Madrid, California, running a business she loves, surrounded by friends she considers family. For the first time her life is on track. That is, until Alana is found brutally murdered on Mother’s Day, pulling Kit back in to the dark horrors of her past. To make matters worse, the police consider her the prime suspect.Jake Boston, an old family friend and the man Kit has loved since she was a teen, is fighting his own demons as a suspect in his wife’s murder two years earlier. Despite his past, he’s determined to win Kit over once and for all. But before that can happen they need to convince the police there’s a killer working his way down a list with cold-hearted vengeance in mind. Forced to delve into Alana’s dark past, it becomes clear someone is out to settle a score. When Jake and Kit uncover a forty year old double murder that leads them straight to the door of a legal dynasty, they soon find out just how far the heirs will go to keep the past buried and eliminate all the loose ends to protect their empire. Will Jake and Kit become the next victims or will they find an unexpected guardian angel?

     Moving through streets where people line up at soup kitchens, Maggie draws information from sources others overlook: The waitress at the dime store lunch counter where she has breakfast; a ragged newsboy; the other career girls at her rooming house. Her digging gets her chloroformed and left in a ditch behind the wheel of her DeSoto. She makes her way to an upscale bordello and gets tea – and information – from the madam herself. A gunman puts a bullet through Maggie’s hat. Her shutterbug pal on the evening paper warns her off. A new cop whose presence unsettles her thinks she’s crooked. Before she finds all the answers she needs, she faces a half-crazed man with a gun, and a far more lethal point-blank killer. If you like Robert B. Parker's hard boiled Spencer series and strong women sleuths, don't miss this one-of-a-kind Ohio detective from a time in United States history when dames wore hats -- but seldom a Smith & Wesson.

    The Homecoming Dance is just one night away and she can already feel the weight of the crown upon her head. But when she leaves her home that Friday night, it’s for the very last time. When her body is found in a park the next morning, a whole town is turned upside down and a family is torn apart. Fifteen years later, Olivia still hasn’t moved on from her sister’s murder. Not only does she still see the ghost of her dead sister, she is pursuing a career studying the very monsters that destroyed Rosie and hundreds of other helpless victims. Olivia is desperate to find closure, but a new murder with connections to her past has reopened old wounds. Nate Tucker is a successful Chicago detective. He also happens to be Olivia’s best friend. Nate has been fascinated by the Thompson case since the first time Olivia mentioned her dead sister to him. When a dead girl shows up in the city under circumstances eerily similar to Rosie’s murder, he is quick to make the connection. Now, with stale evidence and fifteen-year-old memories to guide him, Nate has the chance to solve the current murder case, as well as the death of the Homecoming Queen that refuses to stop haunting the people she left behind. Dark and haunting, Ring Around the Rosie is utterly suspenseful and surprising to the end.

    As air raid sirens shriek from her computer’s speakers, her laptop displays an image of Mike’s face, frozen in fear. Medics repair Mike’s leg injury. But when he returns home, Sarah is thrust into the role of caregiver to a man she hardly recognizes. Tortured by wild mood swings, flashbacks, and anti-social behaviors, her husband becomes a danger to himself and others. A business opportunity seems to offer a way out for Mike from a military that now considers him weak and surplus to requirements. But can Sarah risk her family’s future on a man who may be damaged beyond repair?

    Fiercely independent Carly is the number one suspect. When Carly asks Willa for due justice, Willa has everything to lose. But she risks it all to uncover the conspiracy and keep Carly alive. Can Willa possibly win?<**formerly titled Carly's Conspiracy