When his on-again, off-again, love is kidnapped, Jesse risks his life to discover the startling truth behind her disappearance. Battling the chaos of guns and violence, Jesse finds new strength and purpose.

    There, in his late wife's hometown, Hawley finds work as a fisherman, while Loo struggles to fit in at school and grows curious about her mother's mysterious death. Haunting them both are twelve scars Hawley carries on his body, from twelve bullets in his criminal past; a past that eventually spills over into his daughter's present, until together they must face a reckoning yet to come. This father-daughter epic weaves back and forth through time and across America, from Alaska to the Adirondacks. Both a coming-of-age novel and a literary thriller, The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley explores what it means to be a hero, and the cost we pay to protect the people we love most.

    After finding a job and a place to live, he quickly establishes himself as the friendly and reliable "new guy." Despite being elusive about his past, local hometown girl Claire Mathison discovers an irresistible attraction to Henry. But major trouble begins to brew one night and it soon becomes unclear whether Henry Fields is part of the problem or the solution. Filled with psychological drama, suspense, and thrills, Grey Areas is the debut release from Brad Carl.

    A city lives in fear. The police fall into chaos. A woman is savagely murdered, her body stabbed over a hundred times, and the police recognise that the perpetrator will likely strike again. DCI Bloonsbury, the once-feted detective, is put in charge of the investigation, but when an officer is slain, and an old police conspiracy begins to unravel, Bloonsbury slides further into morose, intoxicated depression. And here, somewhere in the midst of the horror, is Detective Sergeant Thomas Hutton, lost in a sea of love, lust, deception, alcohol, and murdered colleagues. But the dead will not rest, the past will not be buried, and DS Hutton must find his way, as the killer kills, and kills again…

    She is accompanied by her older brother Davey, a sullen, insular man fiercely protective of his sister. But Betsy and Davey share a dark past which they’re hoping to escape by making a new life in California. A past that will have tragic, murderous consequences.But for now Rick Mason’s life is about to change beyond his wildest imaginings. He lands a lucrative contract with Metropolitan Studios, who want to cast him as the lead in their new horror movie. And out of the blue a Hungarian lawyer lands the bombshell that Rick Mason isn’t who he thinks he is. Mason discovers he’s inherited an estate and huge fortune from his late father Baron Jozsef Dragutin and has to travel to Slavonia in Europe to sort out legalities. Here he is told the disturbing truth about his murdered mother and feared father – a corrupt and vile sadist hiding his horribly deformed face behind a white porcelain mask. A man, legend has it, who sold his soul to the devil. A man and a family line cursed by Satan for all eternity.Back in Hollywood, reviving his father’s evil character for Metropolitan Studios, Rick Mason finally gets the movie success he desires and the fame and fortune that go with it. But when elements of his on-screen monster persona begins to affect his real life, Mason begins to fear that the role he was ‘born to play’ is slowly taking over him. That the curse of Baron Dragutin lives on in him.Rick Mason is drawn inexorably into a world of corrupt desires, superstition, corporate greed, unbridled ambition and murder, where the past refuses to die. It’s a world where monsters and horror don’t only appear on the big screen.

    That is why he likes his job on the state police organized crime task force. Most of the bodies he encounters knew what they were signing up for. And when the inevitable setbacks and disappointments arise, he never feels too guilty. But Alex can’t insulate himself forever. When a criminal organization is engaged in human trafficking and child pornography, Alex is drawn into a disturbing and dangerous world. A world where anonymous forces exploit young women and girls with impunity. A world where any mistake Alex makes could lead to the suffering of innocents. Can Alex pull the curtains back on this dark world before a young girl is lost forever?

    A fascinating study in dark and evil... The stuff of Great British grit and dark, dark humour … Barlow provides plenty of twists and turns before the truth is revealed. But what is most enjoyable about Barlow's writing isn't his story archs or plotting, but his characters, dialogue and sense of place... Beautifully cinematic… far more cinematic than a McDermid or a Rankin. Crimefictionlover.comBarlow throws in plenty of twists before everything is untangled, since of course nothing in the case is exactly what it seems to be, and he spins the yarn in fast-paced, very readable prose. He also does a good job with the setting, the English city of Leeds, and made me feel like I'd been there. HOPE ROAD is a fine novel, the first in a series, and I look forward to reading the others.Rough EdgesHOPE ROAD: a crime thriller - You can't change your past. But what about your future?John Ray, son of crime boss Antonio 'Tony' Ray, is the straight one of the family. With a successful business and a lifestyle to match, he wants nothing to do with his father's criminal world. But what does that world want with him?A young prostitute is found dead in John's car, and Freddy Metcalfe, his best friend and employee, is framed for her death. Freddy denies everything but it's an open and shut case: he's going down for murder. John sets out to find the real killer.But things get complicated. A stash of counterfeit money was also found in John's car, and the police seem more interested in that than in the dead girl. Then Lanny Bride turns up; one of the north's most ruthless criminals (and an old friend of the Ray family), Lanny is desperate to know who killed the girl. But why? Meanwhile, Freddy is too scared to talk to anyone, even his lawyer.John's police detective girlfriend, Denise Danson, has been warned off the case by her boss. But she doesn't believe Freddy is guilty, and secretly helps John look for the murderer. The problem, though, is that uncovering the shocking truth about the girl's death will force John to confront his own criminal past and risk destroying his future, as well as losing the only woman he's ever loved. A novel set in Leeds, this is the first crime-mystery in the LS9 series.

    But Monk knows that danger -- like dirt -- lurks everywhere. Look at Helen Gruber, the rich tourist who took a fatal blow from a coconut. The police say it fell from a tree, but Monk suspects otherwise. His assistant, Natalie, isn't exactly thrilled about Monk's latest investigation. It was bad enough that Monk followed her on vacation, and now it looks as though the vacation is over....Smooth-talking TV psychic Dylan Swift is on the island and claims to have a message from beyond -- from Helen Gruber. Monk has his doubts about Swift's credibility. But finding the killer and proving Swift a fraud -- all while coping with geckos and the horror of unsynchronized ceiling fans -- may prove a tough coconut to crack....

    NOW THE DYING HAS BEGUN AGAIN.... LEGEND OF THE DEAD A Sheriff Lansing Mystery HIGH ON A DESERT RIDGE, THE WATCHER AWAITS The body in the arroyo belonged to a man who'd made his living plundering ancient Indian sites. And the only witness to the crime would not change his story: a demon had killed his friend. Sheriff Cliff Lansing has an unexplained death on his hands, and it's only the beginning. In Las Palmas, New Mexico, a U.S. senator is on his way to meet a Zuni shaman who is holding up a land swap involving 150,000 acres in New Mexico and Arizona. Backed by a powerful businessman, the senator intends to push the deal through, but in a long, dark night on the high desert he is led into a storm of violence and shame.... Now Sheriff Lansing is headed out to the Anasazi Strip, where the truth awaits him-in the swirling dust of magic, greed, and murder....

    Three women who, in some way or another, know the meaning of betrayal...For team leader Rachael Lambert the project is the perfect opportunity to rebuild her confidence after a double-betrayal by her lover and boss, Peter Kemp. Botanist Anne Preece, on the other hand, sees it as a chance to indulge in a little deception of her own. And then there is Grace Fulwell, a strange, uncommunicative young woman with plenty of her own secrets to hide...When Rachael arrives at the cottage, however, she is horrified to discover the body of her friend Bella Furness. Bella, it appears, has committed suicide - a verdict Rachael finds impossible to accept.Only when the next death occurs does a fourth woman enter the picture - the unconventional Detective Inspector Vera Stanhope, who must piece together the truth from these women's tangled lives...

    . . and his eleven-year-old neighbor is accused of the crime. Leading the defense is London solicitor Daniel Hunter, a champion of lost causes.A damaged boy from a troubled home, Daniel's young client, Sebastian, reminds Daniel of his own turbulent childhood--and of Minnie, the devoted woman whose love saved him. But one terrible act of betrayal irrevocably shattered their bond.As past and present collide, Daniel is faced with disturbing questions. Will his sympathy for Sebastian and his own memories blind him to the truth? What happened in the park--and who, ultimately, is to blame for a little boy's death? Rethinking everything he's ever believed, Daniel begins to understand what it means to be wrong . . . and to be the guilty one.

    But her new patron has a macabre fixation on a daughter brutally murdered in the house a decade earlier one so intense that it jeopardizes Faith's own sense of mind. And as she pieces together the details of the grisly crime scene that shadows the house, Faith slowly discovers that she herself plays the starring role in a bizarre and dangerous charade. Sophisticated and exquisitely frightening, Trick of the Eye explores a world where evil tarnishes privilege, and nothing is what it appears to be.

    Cindy disappeared forever. Allison survived amid a web of small-town secrets and lies that greeted every anguished question she asked about that fateful afternoon.Years later, Allison has come home to the bedroom community of Farmington, Utah--back to the devout tyranny of her father, back to the close-knit society she rejected, and back to the conspiracy of silence that has plagued her with nightmares of guilt and loss. Out of her patchwork memory, the truth is emerging. So is Allison's rage--and her hunger for justice. Now, in a courageous and terrifying voyage of self-discovery, it's up to Allison to avenge the guilty…

    He's been getting away with it for years. How has he kept his identity a secret? What will it take to stop him?No one knows.He hides in plain sight, and his current obsession is high school golden girl, Harper Flagg.When she was two years old Harper was the only witness to her mother's murder. She's eighteen now, and she's no ordinary teenager. She has spent the past sixteen years preparing for a confrontation with her mother's killer. And her wish is about to come true."Wow, this book had me biting my nails and obsessively turning the pages to see who and what the killer was. It had a Silence of the Lambs feel to it." -Emmie"A different type serial killer story that will keep you awake at night." - Fran

    Resolutely single, Ambrose delights in Philip as his heir, a man who will love his grand home as much as he does himself. But the cosy world the two construct is shattered when Ambrose sets off on a trip to Florence. There he falls in love and marries - and there he dies suddenly. Jealous of his marriage, racked by suspicion at the hints in Ambrose's letters, and grief-stricken by his death, Philip prepares to meet his cousin's widow with hatred in his heart. Despite himself, Philip is drawn to this beautiful, sophisticated, mysterious Rachel like a moth to the flame. And yet... might she have had a hand in Ambrose's death?