Collateral Damage (Iris Reid Mystery #4)


Susan Cory - 2020
    Her client becomes the prime suspect and Iris sets out to find the real killer. Things go from bad to worse when Iris' boyfriend reconnects with an old flame, bringing up buried secrets and unintended consequences that threaten to change Iris' life forever.“Mystery and distinctive characters hone this remarkable tale.”Kirkus ReviewsCory teases out her twisty plot at the perfect pace, leaving readers on the edge of their seats. Her multilayered characters are working at cross purposes, and even the most astute mystery reader won’t see where everything is headed until the final thread is unknotted. Completely absorbing, fast-paced, well-written and with a shocking ending guaranteed to satisfy.P.M. Steffen, best-selling author of The Profiler’s Daughter and Killing Ulysses.

Missing Amanda


Duane Lindsay - 2021
    Lou Fleener’s got a great disguise—he’s kind of short, slightly pudgy, and a little nondescript. But whatever you do, don’t get in a fight with him, even if you’ve brought a couple of buddies. Because you’re gonna lose every time. Some people just have a gift.One of Lou’s is that nobody ever sees him coming, and he’s pretty much the Bruce Lee of street fighting. Who they see—especially if they’re female—is his tall, handsome friend Monk, and that brings us to Lou’s second superpower. He’s got a little something for the ladies too—he can dance like an Arthur Murray instructor.Not your average 1950s Chicago P.I.Duane Lindsay’s fresh take on the tough-guy detective is nicely buttressed by humor, graceful writing, and big, fun plots that sometimes evolve into intricate capers. Like this one.It starts out nice and easy. Lou—an expert in Chicago gangster lore—is hired against his better judgment to find the adorable missing daughter of a wise guy. Only Amanda’s not really missing. In fact, there is no Amanda. The gangster’s got a devious agenda of his own.But by the time Lou’s found that out, he’s got four crime bosses gunning for him, and he’s plenty pissed off. Not only should you never fight with Lou Fleener, you should also never piss him off. He quickly enlists Monk to outplot the plotters— because Monk’s super power is working out intricate and diabolical revenge plans. Next thing you know, Lou, Monk, a ragtag bunch of other P.I.s and blonde, intrepid Cassidy, Lou’s new squeeze, are conducting a dizzying array of heists that whisk the reader around glorious 1950’s Chicago.If it all works, they get to live. And they might get rich. And for sure, somebody gets the girl.Hard-boiled and caper readers step up—because here Lindsay pulls off a trick few writers who aren’t Donald Westlake will even attempt—he manages to create a noir yet delightfully careening and often humorous read.Who else will like it? Well, since it pretty much has everything, pretty much all mystery fans, whether your favorite sub-genre is 50s pulp, noir, caper, or even cozy (because of the endearing characters, fun plot, and good humor). In particular fans of Westlake, Lawrence Block and Tim Hallinan (when in burglar mode), Thomas Perry, and TV shows like Good Girls and Imposters.

Joey Mancuso Mysteries: Volumes 4 - 6


Owen Parr - 2020
    Layer upon layer, twist upon twist, secret upon secret, this is a case tailor-made for a Sherlock Holmes devotee like private investigator Joey Mancuso. From the beginning, there’s just something funny about parents who didn’t report a missing student right away, and days later still want no police.Hold it here! This is their beloved daughter, last seen leaving for a date. Why wouldn’t they want as much firepower as they can get? Because they know too much, that’s why—and Owen Parr’s clever detective senses that. Joey’s first job’s to save the girl, but no way he’s going to stop there. The scrappy PI and ex-cop’s going to get answers if it kills him.A lot of the fun is in the clever Russian doll structure of a puzzle wrapped in a mystery, each discovery leading to a bigger and more surprising twist, but it wouldn't be half as delightful without the loveable series ensemble author Parr has assembled. The usual suspects are here—Marcy, Joey’s new wife and favorite FBI agent; researcher Agnes, who goes to Father Dom’s Mass every morning, presumably to repent for her shameless hacking; and Mr. Pat, gentle giant bartender-turned-detective. There’s also a welcome new addition—a professor who’s as close as you’re ever going to get to Indiana Jones.BOOK 5 -AT 16, HE SAW HIS DAD GUNNED DOWN. NOW HE HAS A CHANCE TO FIND THE KILLER,,,PI Joey Mancuso was just a kid when he watched a stranger walk into a Little Italy bar, shoot his mobster dad in the chest, and calmly walk back out, disappearing into the Manhattan din. The murder was never solved. And the old mob adage “an eye for an eye” went unfulfilled.But now, at death’s door, infamous mobster Tony the Hammer summons Joey and utters three mysterious words: “Wetherly Stevens, Barcelona.” Joey has no doubt he’s just been told how to find his father’s killer. From tantalizing tapas near La Sagrada Familia to bourbon-soaked pulled pork sandwiches at a South Carolina B&B, murder couldn’t get any more flavorful—or more personal.Perhaps retired partner Alexander Wetherly has answers. Next stop: Hilton Head, where Wetherly is happily ensconced with a houseful of help serving up bottomless Arnold Palmers. But a peaceful Q&A on quaint Daufuskie Island turns murderous when the elderly gentleman who runs Joey’s B&B winds up stabbed to death. And this isn’t the first murder of its kind—it seems Daufuskie Island has a grisly and deeply-seated cold case all its own. With the help of his cohorts—including Father Dom and a talented hacker (their researcher, Agnes)-- Joey meticulously puts together the pieces of two puzzles at once—and scrutinizes the connections between them—hoping to solve his father’s murder while preventing another from haunting the Carolina shores. BOOK 6 -THE WOMAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH. As the men around her are dropping like fliesIn his sixth labyrinthine hard-boiled puzzler, NYC private eye Joey Mancuso finds himself neck-deep in a maze of a murder mystery—the kind that weaves through military secrets and international espionage—at the center of which is the woman he loves. The vic, Oscar Stanton (name etched into his designer trousers), was gunned down in Washington Square Park in broad daylight, just after a lunchtime rendezvous with a business associate. A quick and dirty ID reveals the real Oscar Stanton was working in cybersecurities for the DOD—and, perhaps unsurprisingly, was KIA in Afghanistan. And since Mancuso’s antics tend to weave a winding yarn as intricately-connected as a satisfying Sherlock Holmes.

Trust No One


L.J. Breedlove - 2013
    Mac Davis likes being a reporter.No one shoots at him, he eats real meals regularly -- what's not to like? Then someone kidnaps his friends, and tries to kill him. Mac doesn't know who or why, but he plans to find out. And make them pay.First book of the Mac Davis thrillers.

Dead Calm


Emma Rose Watts - 2017
    Marshal, he’s a cranky veteran detective, together they'll make one hell of a team in the sweltering, mosquito-filled swamps of Florida. Skylar Reid has spent her entire career hunting down fugitives as part of the country’s most elite task force. After losing her fiancé in a tragedy six-months prior, it sent her world into a spin and caused her superiors to slam the brakes on. Now with the big city in the rearview mirror, and the quiet Panhandle town of Carrabelle in her sights, Skylar takes a position as an investigator for the local sheriff's office and partners with an aging detective. Within days, Skylar is at odds with the powers at be when the dead body of the chief medical examiner is pulled from a mosquito-filled swamp and deemed a suicide, but she's not convinced. Though quick to dismiss her as a loose cannon, her partner soon agrees when the investigation takes a dangerous turn in a new direction. But can she prove it was murder? Everyone thinks the sunshine state is beautiful. What if it's not?

The Heart Ladder


Sibby Spencer - 2021
    Leaving behind everything she knew, including the mystery of what happened to the father of her unborn child after he went missing behind enemy lines. Three decades on and her son, thirty-something slacker Dan, knows he's wasting his life in pubs, nightclubs, and his dead-end job. That all changes, though, when a man with storied eyes and an old army jacket introduces himself as the father Dan never had a chance to know.But is Jacob, a battered and broken war veteran, really who he claims to be?As he and Dan kindle their relationship, more and more comes under question; including Jacob's true purpose in seeking Dan out, the unanswered mysteries of his past, and the pivotal role he'll play in Dan's uncertain future. Soon, Dan comes to understand that his life is very far from meaningless - and that the choices he's being forced to make might have deadly and irredeemable consequences.

Cesspool


Phil M. Williams - 2016
    He was the devoted husband that didn’t know what his wife was up to. His life was a tragedy waiting to happen.After the accident, he moved to a backwoods town, content to waste away while the world burned. He was awakened from his apathy by a small girl with a big problem. It was safer to look the other way. Getting involved would place James squarely in the crosshairs of the local police.He was afraid, but he did it anyway.Adult language and content.

Burying the Truth (The Society #1)


J. Stark - 2021
    Secret Societies. Missing VIPs.When a billion-dollar corporation attempts to commit the crime of the century, an investigative reporter, Nathan Hughes, and his beautiful ex-girlfriend, Jenny Mars, begin to hear rumors of fraud, payoffs, and secret societies through a frightened whistleblower.Skeptical at first, both become the target of a ruthless assassin as they dig deeper into the business dealings of JVK Inc., an international company whose CEO is a cool and calculating manipulator.Soon, people associated with the case turn up missing and the FBI joins to assist in taking them down. Death lurks around the corner and lies spring up from every crack in the wall.Someone is burying the truth.

Fog City Fraud


Peter Ralph - 2015
     Why had he been holding a young girl on the ledge with a knife to her throat? Did he fall or did the shock of the bullet that ripped his shoulder apart kill him? Why had made this otherwise, peaceful, family man snap? Did the answers to these questions die with him?

"Lies" Mystery Series, Books 1-3


Andrew Cunningham - 2019
    Now they want it back! One crime, committed decades before Del Honeycutt was born, changes his uneventful life to one of mystery and adventure--and pairs him up with bestselling mystery author Sabrina Spencer. In Books 1-3, Del and Sabrina try to solve the 85-year-old mystery; lock horns with a serial killer; and find themselves in a desperate race to rescue five kidnapped girls.ALL LIESA seemingly innocent date gone tragically wrong plunges Del Honeycutt into a web of murder, lies, greed, and a hidden fortune dating back to a crime committed 85 years earlier by his great-grandfather.Accompanied by Sabrina, the sister of Del's brutally murdered date, a violent journey of discovery and fear begins. Pursued by vicious killers intent on eliminating anyone with knowledge of the 85-year-old crime, their only hope of survival is to find the reason behind the original crime and why, decades later, someone is still willing to kill to keep it hidden.But Sabrina is concealing a monstrous lie of her own. Is she who she says she is?FATAL LIESShe was murdered ... twice!Daisy Leduc was forgotten and alone. That was just how she wanted it. But when she is discovered stabbed to death in a dusty little Texas town, it plunges Del Honeycutt and bestselling mystery author Sabrina Spencer into a 30-year-old mystery involving murder, hidden identities, dangerous family secrets, political intrigue, and a long-forgotten serial killer.When they discover that Daisy, under a different name, supposedly died 30 years earlier, they find themselves squarely in the crosshairs of killers whose deadly secrets lie in Daisy's mysterious past.VEGAS LIESFive teenage girls from a small town in Oregon disappear without a trace.Were they kidnapped, or have the five friends perpetrated a massive hoax? Nine hundred miles away in Las Vegas, a woman with a dark secret vanishes on her way to meet friends for dinner.Those friends are Del Honeycutt and bestselling mystery author Sabrina Spencer, in Las Vegas for a book convention. As Del and Sabrina investigate their friend's disappearance, they are convinced that she has been abducted, and they begin to uncover the secrets that might have triggered her abduction, secrets that now put Del and Sabrina's lives in jeopardy.When clues indicate that the five missing girls might also be in Las Vegas, the situation takes a new turn, directly into the unthinkable.Once again, Del and Sabrina find themselves in deep trouble and marked for death, and they only have a few hours to solve the case or their friend and the five young girls will be gone forever.

Sanctioned


R.A. McGee - 2020
    But there’s a bullet out there with his name on it…Covert operative Czerny Clark has had his fill of black-ops and bloodshed. After an assassination mission ends in chaos, he vows to hang up his holster. But when his former partner disappears while tailing a Russian explosives expert, Clark picks up his guns and dives back into the life he thought he left behind.Following a trail of bodies to Central America, Clark will stop at nothing to free his colleague. But while he’s busy squeezing the trigger on his rescue mission, a plan for a devastating act of terrorism brews in the wings.Can Clark neutralize a madman before thousands of innocents die?Sanctioned is the heart-stopping first book in the Blackthorn spy thriller series. If you like gritty heroes, pulse-pounding plots, and top-secret twists, then you’ll love R.A. McGee’s blood-soaked tale.

Samson's Deal


Shelley Singer - 1983
    Ex-Chicago-cop Jake Samson is tired of the rat race. He's living in laid back Oakland, California with a couple of cats and just enough savings to eat canned oysters and accept collect calls from his bemused parents, when an old friend--a progressive political science processor--calls with an enticing offer. Seems the professor's wife was found dead in the backyard of their Berkeley home, and he wants to pay Jake ten thousand dollars (plus expenses) to figure out whodunit. The police pick up the usual leads; jealousy, dirty politics, and an estate worth killing for. Naturally, since the professor is the dead woman's spouse, he's the primary suspect. Samson doesn't like the guy much, but the case heats up—quite literally—when the professor's office is set afire by a radical right wing activist group, of which, it turns out, the wife was a member. With his good friend Rosie, and her justice-dispensing two-by-four, Samson follows a twisted trail leads through the Bay Area's bizarre cultural labyrinth; from pop meditation ashrams to neo-Nazi rallies, to the startling, but all too human truth.

Angel With A Bullet


M.C. Grant - 2012
    When she’s assigned to look into the death of her former lover, artist Diego Chino, Dixie’s instincts tell her there’s more behind the apparent suicide than the police are letting on.Dixie’s canvassing of the Bay Area art district reveals it to be a perfect picture of corruption, with a handsome art dealer and a reclusive patron in the foreground. After a romantic evening in Chinatown ends in a brush with death, Dixie is more determined than ever to expose the truth. But when a fire in her vicinity turns out to be more than just performance art, it’s clear the perpetrators would rather see Dixie dead than let her destroy their criminal masterpiece.“Dixie Flynn may be the most kick-ass heroine ever created.  Kudos to Grant for giving us the ultimate ‘girl power’ thriller!” — Tess Gerritsen, New York Times bestselling author of The Silent

Making Her Bones (Stephanie Chalice Thrillers Book 8)


Lawrence Kelter - 2021
    

Deadmistress


Carole B. Shmurak - 2004
    When professor Susan Lombardi learns that her friend John is the prime suspect, she sets out to clear his name, but her research uncovers some troubling secrets about the school's faculty and students. And soon it becomes clear that John is not the only one with a motive for murder. “This is a story about puzzles and people, and that’s where it shines.” - Kim Malo, Mystery Morgue “There is a continual twinkle in the author’s prose.” - Steve Lewis, Mystery File