The House's Money (Indecent Fortunes)


Owen Sullivan - 2015
    Dressed to kill and running on pure ambition, he enters the ranks of mortgage-backed securities trader twice his age, for one of the most prestigious firms in San Francisco. Life couldn't be sweeter. Butt the roller coaster ride has only just begun. Upon meeting Stephanie, an equally enterprising young real estate appraiser, his dreams appear to be unstoppable. But unbridled love too often hides the truth in its shadow and not everything is as it appears. As he discovers the world of real estate investment, experiencing a soaring financial wave never seen before in the housing market, Matt is welcomed with open arms into a seductive arena almost too good to be true. When insatiable greed raises its ugly head, jealousy and betrayal follow quickly behind. In a moment of brutal clarity, his world shatters with the realization he is merely a pawn in someone else's wicked game. Just as quickly as it all begun, the housing bubble begins to burst and his dreams slip through his fingers as he desperately struggles to hold on to a world that never really existed.

Prescription: Murder! Volume 3: Authentic Cases From the Files of Alan Hynd


Alan Hynd - 2014
     From the files and pen of world renowned true crime writer Alan Hynd (1903 - 1974) comes the final installment of deliciously dark true murder cases of the first half of the 20th Century. These stories, the third of these three short collections, are unified by a single theme: they all involve physicians. And not for the autopsy, but as perpetrators or accused perpetrators. You may never see your family care giver again in the same light. Told in the characteristic wry, anecdotal reportorial style that made Alan Hynd famous in his day (two wartime best sellers in 1943, contributions to The Reader's Digest, Colliers, Coronet, The Saturday Evening Post, True, Liberty, The American Mercury and almost every true detective magazine in print) these tales will have you cringing one minute, laughing the next, and gasping in shock a moment later. Truly, no one could make up classics like these. We meet here the notorious Dr. Cream, a twitchy-eyed psychotic with a yen for prostitutes, a Philadelphia chiropractor whose girlfriend lost her head, and Marcel Petiot, whose patients payed their own way out of this world. Then as a bonus, get to know (from a safe distance) "Lethal Louise," the black widow of California, and Adolf Luetgert of Chicago, whose sausage-making plant was put to extracurricular uses. This is not for the faint of heart. True crime is always farther out there than fiction.

Songbird (Daniel Trokic, #3)


Inger Wolf - 2018
    From an international best-selling and award winning author. On an early morning in May, the police find the heavily beaten body of Maja Nielsen in a public park in central Aarhus in Denmark.She has fallen from a great height and her right arm has been cut repeatedly. Everything points to a suicide, and as the police dig deeper into the world of Maja, they discover a young woman plagued by paranoia and violent nightmares. Something was tormenting her. The investigation leads Daniel Trokic and his team to a distinct blood profile with traces of an unknown drug, a tattooed Colombian, and a particularly uncompromising animal rights activist who has been run over in a hit-and-run accident. SONGBIRD is the third book in the bestselling Scandinavian mystery series about Police Inspector Daniel Trokic, his colleague Lisa Kornelius, and the rest of the investigative unit at Århus Police station. If you like Stieg Larsson and Scandinavian mysteries, then you’ll love Inger Wolf’s spine-chilling who-done-it. Buy SONGBIRD to guess the chilling plot today!

In Search of Jessica


Declan Conner - 2015
    One other thing they couldn’t share was the love of their dad. He had his favorite for reasons best not mentioned.The family is torn apart when their dad is found murdered with all the traits of a particular twisted MO. A robbery gone wrong, jealous partner in a love triangle, warring neighbors, or someone closer to home? For Logan, the lead detective at the time and now head of LAPD homicide, the answer was and is simple. Jessica was guilty. That’s despite the case having never gone to trial, now gathering dust after fifteen years as his only cold case file of an otherwise illustrious career.When a murder takes place with a similar MO, detective Jason Stone is allocated the case. He’s a young man on a one–man mission to make a name for himself, and one who will break the rules to get there. Stone believes a mysterious person he dubs the Night Girl holds the key to unraveling the case. But just as he is close to cracking the case, his suspect list grows.Taken off the case, he goes undercover to continue his investigation. Infatuated, he places Jessica under surveillance to get close. Too close. Someone should tell him to stop chasing a dream, or could end up as the serial killer’s next target.

The Last Appeal


Bill Blum - 1997
     After spending years with a death sentence hanging over his head, Ashbourne knows that his time could nearly be up. For Peter Harrigan, his attorney, in a way this case is the last shot at putting his own life back together. Five years earlier, while preparing Ashbourne's first appeal, Harrigan lost his entire family in a sudden car accident. For Harrigan, it really isn’t just a case. For Harrigan, after putting what little left he had into his work, losing the case would mean losing the final, fragile link to his past. Now when a surprise witness surfaces, Harrigan is not sure whether this new development is a blessing or a curse. His new witness is a master of deception who, at the same time, may hold the proof of Ashbourne's innocence. In Harrigan’s desperation to find the truth and free his client, he will have to plunge into the treacherous corners of California's radical environmental movement. In a final desperate race to lay his ghosts to rest, he will have to team up with a beautiful female investigator. Under the glare of the courtroom, the pressure is mounting as Harrigan has to face his old demons in order to try and finally lay the case to rest, once and for all. Praise for Bill Blum ‘A thrilling legal drama’ – Thomas Waugh Bill Blum is an experienced attorney. Familiar with the ins and outs, and the pitfalls of criminal procedures, he presents a riveting, hard-hitting and authentic legal thriller, one that offers a fascinating insider’s look at the shifting political dynamics within the criminal justice system. Bill Blum has also written for a wide array of publications, including the Los Angeles Times, ABA Journal, The Nation and California Lawyer, hosted a radio talk show, and lectured widely. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and family.

Tune Up: The Secrets of Mylin - Book I


Joe Klingler - 2017
    Hit and run. By a motorcycle. The victim is an elderly Asian woman. A young witness in a nearby dry cleaner and a truck driver suggest all “accidents” aren’t created equal. Then the Captain drops a new assignment on their desk: an affluent Bay Area lawyer is missing. The man’s wife stomps into their office screaming about a contract she found hidden in the backups of their home computer. A contract with a seven-figure payout, and an incriminating Exhibit A.Following the trail of both the motorcycle rider and the lawyer with Kandy complaining, “We’re homicide detectives, there should be a body,” leads to a vintage motorcycle club called the Ton Up where lips are sealed, a yacht harbor on the coast where riddles run deep, and a midnight roadside confrontation that ends with a splash. As the trails twist they soon find that these people and places have one thing in common:A violist named Mylin. Who plays in an all-female orchestra called The Girls of the Orient. And, unbeknownst to her, is the subject of a fine-art photographer’s latest collection.From San Francisco to Mexico, the treacherous cliffs of the Pacific coast to the desolation of Nevada’s high desert, Tune Up moves like Kandy’s turbocharged Mini through a foggy landscape of false identities, fake romance, and frenzied chases, as Qigiq realizes one picture really can reveal more than 1,000 words.

Cold Mourning - Part 1


Brenda Chapman - 2013
    Stonechild, who is from a First Nations reserve, is a lone wolf who is used to surviving on her wits. Her new boss, Detective Jacques Rouleau, has his hands full controlling her, his team, and an investigation that keeps threatening to go off track.Old betrayals and complicated family relationships brutally collide when love turns to hate and murder stalks a family.

Death on D'Urville: A Claire Hardcastle Mystery


Penelope Haines - 2019
     When Claire’s routine flight to pick up regular passenger, Jorge, from a remote island turns into a homicide investigation, she is excited to discover she may hold a clue to the crime! A growing attraction to investigator Detective Sergeant Jack Body, and a desire to help solve the murder, leads Claire into a world of disputed Maori history, artefact smuggling and child abuse. Death on D’Urville is the first novel in the Claire Hardcastle Mystery series set in New Zealand, following Claire’s adventures as a commercial pilot, flying instructor and accidental detective.

Dead Man's Walk: An Unofficial Inspector Morse Mystery


Antony James - 2018
     Set in 1971, Detective Sergeant Morse is confronted by two deaths along Dead Man’s Walk, which he’s sure are connected to the Oxford Martyrs of the 1550s. There are clues and red-herrings aplenty as Morse uses his detective skills to be metaphorically furlongs ahead of the field, albeit on the wrong racecourse. For Morse there is romance, an unpleasant academic with which to contend, beer in copious quantities, opera, a crossword-type clue, and even an appearance by a boy named Dexter, but above all there is a murder mystery puzzle, set against the backdrop of 1970s Oxford, which only he can solve. For those who love Oxford, the iconic Inspector Morse or even just a good old mystery, Dead Man’s Walk is a taut, entertaining tale of intrigue and delight. Antony James is a British author. A pseudonym for Antony Richards, he is the chairman of the Inspector Morse Society and was a close friend of the late Colin Dexter. He is also an actor with the Irregular Special Players, who regularly produce Sherlock Holmes-based plays.

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.

FOOD TRUCK MYSTERIES: Books 6-10 (A Cozy Mystery Bundle)


Chloe Kendrick - 2016
     A THIEF OF ANY MAN Maeve Kinkaid, owner of the food truck Dogs on the Roll, prides herself on her financial management skills, until she realizes that someone is pilfering small amounts from the register. As she begins to take steps to stop the thefts, she learns of a larger plot that could put her business in jeopardy. But when murder enters the picture, she worries she could lose more than just her money... JUSTICE IS SERVED When food truck owner Maeve Kinkaid is asked to be in her friend Gina’s wedding, she expects to come in taffeta, not in her truck...but she winds up catering the event with the help of her Basque boyfriend, Land Mendoza. One of the guests dies with a hot dog in his pocket and Maeve has to solve the crime before the police try to link the unsavory murder to her catering firm. A GRAVE CONCERN When some of the homeless men near Government Square are not what they seem to be, food truck owner Maeve Kinkaid is driven to find out what’s going on. Her investigation takes her into the odd world of Capital City’s art district and the potentially dangerous world of the local political scene. Maeve and Land mingle with the rich, but they quickly learn that money doesn’t solve all problems…especially not the violent kinds. FIVE WILL GET YOU TWENTY Life is good for food truck owner Maeve Kinkaid. She’s engaged, making good money, and buying a third truck. When Maeve decides to park her latest food truck next to those of mogul Ryan Pohler, odd things begin to happen. The pranks are minor at first, but as they escalate in frequency and severity, Maeve begins to wonder if Pohler is behind the attacks. Of course, Maeve can’t leave something like this alone and investigates the incidents. Even with everything she’s whipped up in the past, she isn’t prepared for what she’ll find. DEADLY BELOVED Food truck operator Maeve Kinkaid has her hands full preparing for her wedding, but she thinks she has everything under control…until she meets a woman who claims to be her fiancé wife. As if that doesn’t complicate things enough, Maeve gets caught up in an deadly espionage plot and is forced to solve puzzles that will save lives, including her fiancé’s. Does she have a quick enough wit to stop an assassination and still say, “I do?”

The Seventh Taking


B.J. Bourg - 2015
     When Joy Vincent disappears in the Blue Summit Mountains of Tennessee while vacationing with her family, park rangers begin an intensive search for the Louisiana high school junior. Seven weeks later, the search is abandoned and authorities conclude that Joy voluntarily ran away because of a fight with her father. Unwilling to believe it, Abraham Wilson makes the long drive to the mountains and sets off on a journey that will change his life--and the lives of his friends, Brett Lester and Charlie Rickman--forever. Will they discover the secret behind Joy's disappearance, or will they meet with the same fate? (NOTE: Originally published on April 5, 2015 by Amber Quill Press, LLC)

Don't Mess With Mrs. Sedgewick: A Caper Story


Marie F. Martin - 2016
    She convinces her three golfing buddies, all in their seventies, to sell their homes and buy adjoining condos. The widows intend to spend the rest of their days golfing, gambling at the casino, and having fun. Oh, the heaven of it. But then they all hire the same maid who uncovers long-hidden criminal secrets kept by each woman. Oh, the horror of it. The reputations of their deceased husbands, a banker, a minister, and a respected farmer, will be tarnished forever. Three of the widows could face jail time, and the fourth fears for her life. Whatever will they do with the conniving, blackmailing maid? If you grew to love the characters in Marie F. Martin’s previous novels Maternal Harbor, Harbored Secrets, and Ratham Creek, you will treasure Roberta and her friends in the mystery Don’t Mess With Mrs. Sedgewick.This is a caper story where the not so pure put their lives at risk to catch the real bad guys and save their little town.

Betrayal


Sharon Brownlie - 2014
    Now, as an adult, Helen is spiraling out of control. Old wounds are surfacing; can she face her demons without the drugs? Will revenge help release her from her past? Beating her addiction is her only chance at a new life. But, an encounter with a former school teacher opens up old wounds that had been festering deep within her. While quitting drugs, another craving takes its place. A desire for revenge: payback for those who'd betrayed her. Plagued with bitterness, Helen heads to Edinburgh to begin her killing spree.Police are mystified when her first victim is found. A second death convinces them it’s the same killer. Can they connect Helen to the crimes? How many more will die before she is stopped?

California Blood


Pete Palamountain - 2011
    Baldy.• Suicide of a wandering derelict.• Murder of a wealthy matriarch.• Murder of a charismatic Catholic priest.