No city-slickcop shop either, but an earnest, elected Sheriff and his aging Undersheriff,William C. Gastner. Pushing sixty, and the girth of his Sam Browne uniformbelt, widower Bill has no other life than in law enforcement and doesn t wantone, even if he s being nudged gently towards retirement. Then big time troublestrikes. A car full of teens out by the lake, running from a stop by Deputy Torrez, goesairborne into a rocky outcrop, killing all five kids and revealing a packageunder the seat. A stash of cocaine this size argues someone or ones has broughtbig time crime to the county. Were the dead kids merely innocent dupes?Partying that July Fourth night? Dealing? Searching for answers, Bill deploys his department while dealing with grievingparents, one of whom starts packing a gun. Then a second explosion of violencefells an undercover cop whose fate is decided in a tension-filled, brilliantlydescribed, air ambulance flight.Under pressure, the sheriff s department shows its mettle and pulls together tomake a formidable team. Its weak spot may be Bill whose mind is too tough tocrumble but whose body, long mistreated, gradually succumbs to stress. Ignoringall advice and sense he pilots the case to a final dramatic, midairconfrontation where the fate of the killer and the cop will be decided....The author s deep affection for southern New Mexico and his gift for vividlyetching ordinary people make this well-plotted first novel a standout. About the Author: Steven F. Havill lives near Albuquerque, New Mexico,with his wife Kathleen, a writer and artist. A dedicated high school teacherof high school biology and English by day Havill earned both his B.A. and M.A.from the University of New Mexico. Besides writing the seven UndersheriffBill Gastner mysteries, of which Heartshot is the first, Havill has alsowritten three Western novels.

    If anyone found out she’d left them alone, it could be disastrous for him and Raff; and she'll be back, he’s nearly sure.With growing unease, he puzzles over the clues she’s left behind. Who sent her the flowers? Why are all her shoes still in the house? Why is her phone buried in a plant pot?And who, in their diverse south London community, might know more about her than he does?For fans of My Name is Leon and The Trouble with Goats and Sheep, Tamsin Grey’s outstanding debut is tender, funny and unsettling.

    Their boss thinks it’s all down to drug lord Ray Fallon, but Calladine’s instincts say something far nastier is happening on the Hobfield housing estate. Can the duo track down the murderer before anyone else dies and before the press publicize the gruesome crimes?BOOK 2: DEAD SILENTA body is found in a car crash, but the victim was already dead . . . Calladine and Ruth Bayliss race against time to catch a vicious serial killer. The first two victims are American university students and both have livestock tags fixed to their earlobes. Who wanted them dead and what’s the connection? The detectives piece together the forensic evidence and track down the witnesses, to reach a shocking conclusion.BOOK 3: DEAD LISTAn unlikely serial killer with a bucket list of victims . . .Calladine and Bayliss battle a murderer who is working their way through a list of victims. Each murder is meticulously planned and unique, and a tarot card is left at the scene of the crime. When two children disappear in the local area, the stakes are raised and the team are baffled by the link between the crimes. Calladine and Bayliss race against time to prevent any more carnage.BOOK 4: DEAD LOSTAn abandoned cotton mill holds horrific secretsBOOK 5: DEAD & BURIEDAnnie Naden and her husband buy a remote country cottage at auction. It’s the home of their own they wanted, but as they begin renovations, Annie discover a schoolgirl’s satchel in a dusty old hidden cupboard. Inside are the usual schoolbooks, now over 40 years old, and a girl’s diary. Among the record of day-to-day crushes and pop concerts, is a secret that may have had terrible consequences. What happened to that girl forty years ago?BOOK 6: DEAD NASTYA GIRL’S BODY IS FOUND IN A DUSTBIN. DEAD MEAT IS WRITTEN ON A NOTE FOUND WITH HER. When another girl goes missing from the same group of friends, Calladine must look elsewhere for the killer and comes across a sinister online predator who was in touch with all the girls.BOOK 7: DEAD JEALOUSTwo mothers have lost their daughters — seventeen years apart. can Detective Calladine bring them justice?BOOK 8: DEAD BADA woman’s body is found in a disused church, a homemade stuffed toy by her side. The victim had been dumped there months ago. The crime has the hallmarks of twenty-year-old case whose alleged perpetrator is in prison.BOOK 9: DEAD GUILTYDetectives Calladine and Bayliss hunt for a missing child in a mystery with a shocking ending.Sophie Alder is the three-year-old daughter of local factory owner, Richard Alder. Richard and his wife Annie are locals from the rough housing estate who’ve made it big.

     While trying to support her grieving Goth office manager, Ellen ponders the mysterious flashes of light she saw in another part of Santa Fe, wondering if they are related to Captain Dusenberry, the tearoom's resident ghost. She asks for help from the local spirit-tour guide, Willow Lane, who takes curiosity about the captain's unsolved murder to a new level, where Ellen finds herself exploring the very meaning of spirit. Will a séance in the tearoom finally provide the answers to her questions? (This is a novella, a short companion story to the Wisteria Tearoom Mysteries series. It is recommended that you read A Masquerade of Muertos before reading this story.)

    Louise tries to keep her friend from getting too involved, but Camilla's never been one to miss out on an interesting story. And this time, Camilla may have gone too far...Emotionally riveting and filled with unexpected twists, THE MIDNIGHT WITNESS is a tour-de-force from international phenomenon Sara Blaedel.

    But Addie Gorsky moved to Florida to live with her ailing father, not to chase criminals. In fact, her new job as head of Mystic Cove security is a nice break from all the big-city bloodshed.But when the community's most despised resident is found dead in his tricked-out golf cart, Addie's ready for action. The local cops focus on the obvious suspect—the unhappy wife—but Addie knows there's more to the story. When the sheriff asks for assistance, she can't resist. Only the deeper she digs, the more questions she turns up.Surrounded by secretive, tight-lipped residents, Addie soon finds herself hip-deep in a mystery as tangled as cypress roots—and directly in the sights of a clever killer who has no compunction about killing again…90,000 words

    When the magician’s assistant is murdered in a dilapidated tram car, the dramatic, Czech trapeze artist, Ruta, draws Promise into the mystery with a strange Tarot Card deck---which she insists she’s held for Promise since 1939---and a bizarre story of the magician Reznik and the Old Towne Clock in Prague. Promise’s husband, Perry County Sheriff Daniel Allen, is determined to go with the facts of the case, but when they meet the other members of Jest’s circus family, Daniel realizes no one is who they seem, and the facts are masked in past violence and lies. Though, as the murder goes unsolved, Promise is haunted by nightmares and struggles with an elusive illness, she and Daniel are determined to bring the murderer to justice. Fact by fact, they narrow the field of suspects until another death at the academy forces them to reconsider Ruta’s wild stories and think like the killer, if they are to catch him before he disappears for good.

    Yet she refuses to forget her best friend Elizabeth, who she is convinced is missing and in terrible danger.But no one will listen to Maud—not her frustrated daughter, Helen, not her caretakers, not the police, and especially not Elizabeth's mercurial son, Peter. Armed with handwritten notes she leaves for herself and an overwhelming feeling that Elizabeth needs her help, Maud resolves to discover the truth and save her beloved friend.This singular obsession forms a cornerstone of Maud's rapidly dissolving present. But the clues she discovers seem only to lead her deeper into her past, to another unsolved disappearance: her sister, Sukey, who vanished shortly after World War II.As vivid memories of a tragedy that occurred more than fifty years ago come flooding back, Maud discovers new momentum in her search for her friend. Could the mystery of Sukey's disappearance hold the key to finding Elizabeth?

    It lives in your bones and pulses in your blood, waiting for just the right moment to expose your sins. J.R. Hudson was the golden boy of Timber Falls. Born into privilege as the mayor’s son, he was the envied quarterback on the high school football team with big dreams and aspirations. Along with his teammates and best friends, Ethan Young and Caleb Weston, the trio ruled senior year at Timber Falls High and the small Washington town they lived in. And then one day they vanished. Now the town is in a desperate attempt to solve the mysterious disappearance of these strong, dynamic young men. Searching for answers dredges up dark secrets and haunting revelations, revealing the grim truth—that maybe these boys weren’t as perfect as they seemed. Author note: Set in the mid-1990s, before cellphones and social media was present, this book reminds us that when someone went missing, they left no trace. The boys are high school teens, though due to graphic scenes and mature content, this book is recommended for 18+

    This bundle offers a great introduction to Blake Pierce’s series with over 140,000 words of reading.In BEFORE HE KILLS, a woman is found murdered in the cornfields of Nebraska, strung up on a pole, the victim of a deranged killer. It doesn’t take long for the police to realize a serial killer is on the loose—and that his spree has just begun. Detective Mackenzie White, young, tough, smarter than the aging, chauvinistic men on her local force, finds herself called in grudgingly to help solve it. As much as the other officers hate to admit it, they need her young, brilliant mind, which has already helped crack cold cases that had left them stumped. Yet even for Mackenzie this new case proves an impossible riddle, something the likes of which she—and the local force—have ever seen. With the FBI called in, together, an intense manhunt ensues. Mackenzie, reeling from her own dark past, her failed relationships, and her undeniable attraction to the new FBI agent, finds herself battling her own demons as her hunt for the killer takes her to the darkest places of her mind.In ONCE GONE, women are turning up dead in the rural outskirts of Virginia, killed in grotesque ways, and when the FBI is called in, they are stumped. A serial killer is out there, his frequency increasing, and they know there is only one agent good enough to crack this case: Special Agent Riley Paige. Riley is on paid leave herself, recovering from her encounter with her last serial killer, and, fragile as she is, the FBI is reluctant to tap her brilliant mind. Yet Riley, needing to battle her own demons, comes on board, and her hunt leads her through the disturbing subculture of doll collectors, into the homes of broken families, and into the darkest canals of the killer’s mind. As Riley peels back the layers, she realizes she is up against a killer more twisted than she could have imagined. Dark psychological thrillers with heart-pounding suspense, BEFORE HE KILLS and ONCE GONE mark the debut of riveting new series—and beloved new characters—that will leave you turning pages late into the night. Books #2 and #3 in the Riley Paige series are also available!