Mortal Crimes 2 (The Mortal Crimes Collection)


J. Carson Black - 2014
    After that the bundle will be gone for good!_____________IMPROPER INFLUENCE (Sasha McCandless Series) - Melissa F MillerSasha McCandless and fiance Connelly follow a trail of corruption to political influencers, backroom deals, and the biggest law firm in Pittsburgh when investigating the interconnected deaths of several young women._____________THE DEVIL'S CAULDRON (Devil's Deep Series) - Michael WallaceParalyzed and locked in, Meggie can't tell anyone what really happened the night of her accident seven years earlier. Now, for the first time, there's hope for a cure -- and there are those who will do anything to keep it from her..._____________ULTIMATE JUSTICE (The Justice Series) - M A ComleyA shocking cover-up, a family trauma, an old wound reopened -- P.I. Lorne Simpkins navigates a minefield of danger as she takes on a grisly case of human trafficking that may well end up with her locked in a cage herself._____________DARK SIDE OF THE MOON (Laura Cardinal Series) - J Carson BlackThe murder of two newlyweds leads Laura Cardinal to the dark side of love when she discovers ties to an underground organization that plunge her into a high-stakes conspiracy deep in the Mojave -- where there are no second chances._____________NIGHT GAME (The Night Series) - Carol Davis LuceWhen the King's Club resort casino becomes the hunting ground for a shadowy killer, owner Jay King places his bets on PI Kasey Atwood's talents, instigating a game of passion and revenge that puts Kasey's heart -- and her life -- at risk._____________POE (Alexandra Poe Series) - Brett Battles & Robert Gregory BrowneDesperate to locate her father -- who's been disgraced and accused of treason -- Alexandra agrees to run point on a dicey mission to acquire a fugitive that will take her behind the walls of a brutal and dangerous women's prison._____________SECTOR C - Phoenix SullivanThe search for Patient Zero in a cross-species outbreak leads CDC analyst Mike Shafer and veterinarian Donna Bailey to a shocking discovery at a big-game compound in North Dakota whose owner will kill to keep the secret of Sector C.

Rotten Perfect Mouth


Eva H.D. - 2015
    These poems are loose enough for the reader to flop down inside and stay awhile. They are plangent, personal, confessional, noisy, nostalgic, and maybe a little bit broken. They often contain boats and travel and Toronto (street names and railroad tracks, dives and parks and kitchens) because those are the sorts of things Eva H.D. is drawn to. In Rotten Perfect Mouth, readers will discover a writer with her heart on her sleeve and her hand on her pen, capturing the world around her with vibrant immediacy.

Outcast


José Latour - 1999
    The plan goes dangerously amiss, and Steill is soon on the hunt through Miami’s mean streets for the man who betrayed him. To find him, Steill first has to figure out why he was singled out, an exercise that has him mentally searching his past in Cuba for clues.The fast-paced story, which reveals as much about real life in Cuba as it does about the émigré community in Miami, sees Steill transformed into a man of hair-trigger reactions as he’s forced into playing an increasingly violent game of cat and mouse. In just one of the novel’s many twists, the teacher becomes the fast learner he has to be to navigate this new world of greed, corruption, and crime — but also of compassion so unexpected it is wrenching.

Button Bright


Michael Kurland - 1990
    But Button was only dimly aware of the sounds. Her consciousness had shrunk down to focus on the body that was blocking her hole— —and the warm, thick liquid that was dripping onto her hand.” Button is an 11 year old, bubbly and intelligent girl who is haunted in her dreams by a tapping sound… Living with her mother and father in Cottsborough, Vermont, Button had been trained to hide and not ever answer to her secret name, ‘Rachel’. One day, two men arrive at Button’s family home searching for her by this secret name. Refusing to give Button up, things turn violent and the men shoot her father dead. Through a narrow crack in the floor boards, Button bears witness to the murder. Eluding the two men who tried to catch her, Button uses her wits to navigate herself from Vermont to Boston and then to New York. Button has a plan to find her uncle Dromkin. When her search seems hopeless, Button is taken in by a resident of her uncle’s apartment building, Phil, who claims he can help. But when they find Dromkin sprawled on the floor with his throat cut, Button is convinced she is somehow the cause of these family murders... Will Phil be able to keep her identity hidden long enough for her to find out the truth? Praise for Michael Kurland: "A perfect tale of childhood terror." - Tom Kasey Michael Kurland grew up in New York City, attended Columbia University, spent four years in the Army, much of it in Europe, and now lives in California with his partner, novelist Linda Robertson, a dog, a cat, and an occasional visiting family of raccoons. He has been a teacher of obscure subjects to disinterested children, the editor of a magazine even more idiosyncratic than himself, a seeker of absent persons, a magical explainer, and guest lecturer at numerous unrelated events. Kurland has written a dozen or so science fiction novels, a brace of mysteries, and several books that fit into that tenuous genre known as “mainstream.” He has been nominated for an Edgar (twice) and for the American Book Award. His books have been translated into eleven other languages. His other novel with Venture Press is Psi Hunt.

Being Mary Ro


Ida Linehan Young - 2018
    When a series of dramatic events brings a strange man to her door, Mary emerges from the comfortable isolation that she knows to follow her dreams in Boston. Those desires do not come without sacrifice and hard choices. When her past comes back to haunt her, Mary must decide whether there is room for both her aspirations and her heart—or if she must surrender one to have the other.

Lost on Skinwalker Ranch


Erick Rhetts - 2014
    –Tom Clancy I met Riley in a small tavern in Peru. As we were both ex-pats and enjoyed the same libations, we got to talking. One thing led to another and he told me he had a story he thought would make a good book. By this time, he knew that I had written and published a number of books, most as a ghost-writer. Before our conversation started, he asked me if I believed in the paranormal--ghosts and spirits, that kind of thing. I told him I kept an open mind. That's when he told me about Skinwalker Ranch, a ranch property in Utah believed to be the location of a portal between worlds or into some alternate dimension, depending on your take on these things. He explained that the property was purchased by one of the wealthiest men in America, Robert Bigelow, who bought it from a family which had experienced some fantastic encounters with alien entities, unidentifiable anomalies and disembodied voices. Following the purchase, Mr. Bigelow hired a team of scientists and security experts to both investigate the alleged paranormal activity and keep the property free of trespassers and thrill seekers. Riley was one of those security experts. His story tells of his own personal experiences and encounters, not only while working on the ranch itself, but how the entities he attracted interrupted his life some 500 miles away. The climax of his tale--and he tells it in a way that is so real and genuine that it is hard to deny--is actually passing through the portal and to the other side--the only property guard to report such an encounter. Here for the first time anywhere and in any form is Riley's story. If you have read the other fantastic books written about Skinwalker Ranch, or are interested in the paranormal and the concept of portals, this book is a must read for you. Read and learn what's really out there!

The Sleepless Ones


James Marrison - 2016
    When DCI Guillermo Downes arrives at the farmhouse he finds a sickening scene of devastation and destruction.Now Downes has a murder investigation to run. But what were the ransackers looking for? Why didn't they take anything? And could there have been a witness who made a lucky escape?At first Downes struggles to find answers. But as he and Graves follow the threads of this case past crimes come to light. The criminals Downes is chasing have been used to getting away with it. But when a local boy goes missing it might be the key to breaking this case once and for all.

Deadly Switch


Karen Dodd - 2013
    Each obsessed and tormented.Both harboring too many secrets. He’s on the run; she’s in the chase of her life.What they discover changes everything. From the gruesome discovery in an exclusive enclave of West Vancouver, British Columbia, DEADLY SWITCH takes you on a wild ride from Italy’s Amalfi coast, to the idyllic seaside town of Carmel, California. Gavin Stone’s tormented daughter, Alexis, searches frantically for her missing father, matching wits with devious criminals. With demons of her own to fight, she shouldn’t care about proving him innocent of murder and embezzlement—but she does.Murder…intrigue… a romance built on a house of cards: this thriller will satisfy your thirst for the adrenaline rush that this intricately plotted story delivers. A delicious stay-up-all-nighter, DEADLY SWITCH stuns with its heart-pounding conclusion. You will not see it coming.If you love suspense/thrillers, you will devour DEADLY SWITCH.

Festival Man


Geoff Berner - 2013
    Follow the flailing escapades of maverick music manager Campbell Ouiniette at the Calgary Folk Festival, as he leaves a trail of empty liquor bottles, cigarette butts, bruised egos, and obliterated relationships behind him. His top headlining act has abandoned him for the Big Time. In a fit of self-delusion or pure genius (or perhaps a bit of both), Ouiniette devises an intricate scam, a last hurrah in an attempt to redeem himself in the eyes of his girlfriend, the music industry, and the rest of the world. He reveals his path of destruction in his own transparently self-justifying, explosive, profane words, with digressions into the Edmonton hardcore punk rock scene, the Yugoslavian Civil War, and other epicentres of chaos.

The Convict Lover


Merilyn Simonds - 1996
    In 1987, writer Merilyn Simonds found a cache of letters, albums, clippings and other memorabilia in the attic of her Kingston, Ontario, home, the bits and pieces of an unknown woman's life. Among the overflowing boxes and stuffed sugar sacks was a tin box that held one complete, brief collection of letters from the months immediately after the First World War in 1919, a one-way correspondence written in pencil on flimsy paper, undated and without postmarks. From this careless jumble of pages, remarkable individuals and events emerged: a convict, a penitentiary, a village girl, a life in small town Canada at the end of the Great War. Merilyn Simonds was drawn irresistibly to the lives of Joe "Daddy Long Legs," a thief and con artist incarcerated inside the stone fortress that was the country's most notorious prison, and of Phyllis Halliday, a seventeen-year-old schoolgirl whose family home bordered the prison quarry and who fell under the spell of a man she could never meet or touch, except through their clandestine correspondence. Around them swirled a cast of equally compelling characters, chief among them William St. Pierre Hughes, superintendent of the nations' prisons, whose fate, like those of Joe and Phyllis, was bound to the conspiracies and intrigues inside Kingston Penitentiary. All three are caught in prisons of their own devising; only one truly escapes. In the year after its publication, families of all the major characters in the book contacted author Merilyn Sinonds to share their stories and find out more about these little known relations. As a result, she learned that Joseph Cleroux had been part of the Cleroux gang that burgled Ottawa Valley businesses in the first decades of the 1900s. The story of Josie Cleroux's early years and what is now known about where he ended up is told in the epilogue of the paperback edition of "The Convict Lover" "From the Hardcover edition."

The Saint Of Baghdad


Michael Woodman - 2018
     A special forces veteran turned VIP bodyguard, CJ has seen it all. But nothing could have prepared him for the ambush in Iraq that left everyone else dead and CJ in a coma. Eight years later he resurfaces, damaged but determined, and he wants answers. Someone set them up, but who? The only person who may know is Enya, the sister of the man he was hired to protect. She’s stuck by him throughout his recovery, but like every other player in this dangerous game, she has her own agenda. And the more questions he asks, the bigger the target on his back. One thing is clear. Someone is afraid of what he knows, and they want him dead. The answers are buried somewhere in his own hazy memory. But can he uncover them before he’s the one buried?

RAGE


Hylton Smith - 2018
    The local police were confounded by the almost total absence of forensic evidence. However, there was a growing unease that this would not be an isolated event. Without specifics it became difficult to visualise any motive for what had happened. Nobody, not just the police, could have predicted what would develop from this sea of confusion.

Missing from the Village: The Story of Serial Killer Bruce McArthur, the Search for Justice, and the System That Failed Toronto's Queer Community


Justin Ling - 2020
    On paper, an investigation continued for a year, but remained "open but suspended." By 2015, investigative journalist Justin Ling had begun to put in multiple requests to speak to the investigators on the case. Meanwhile, more men would go missing, and police would continue to deny that there might be a serial killer. On January 18, 2018, Bruce McArthur, a landscaper, would be charged with three counts of first-degree murder. In February 2019, he was convicted of eight counts of first-degree murder.This extraordinary book tells the complete story of the McArthur murders. Based on more than five years of in-depth reporting, this is also a story of police failure, of how the gay community failed its own, and the story of the eight men who went missing and the lives they left behind. In telling that story, Justin Ling uncovers the latent homophobia and racism that kept this case unsolved and unseen. This gripping book reveals how police agencies across the country fail to treat missing persons cases seriously, and how policies and laws, written at every level of government, pushed McArthur's victims out of the light and into the shadows.

Growing Up Next to The Mental


Brian M Callahan - 2018
    No more than eeny, meeny, miney, mo and who we were supposed to catch by the toe.Wish Mooney’s earliest memory in life is finding a corpse in the Waterford River. Jarring stuff for a four-year-old, yet far from the most shocking or bizarre he would witness growing up in west end St. John’s next door to the Waterford Hospital. Or, as it was unabashedly labelled before the advent of political correctness: the Mental.An unfortunate moniker, but one legitimately derived from the original name of the place—the Hospital for Mental and Nervous Diseases—when it opened in 1854. Not until 1972 would it be renamed after the river that runs by it. But in Mooney’s world, which revolved mostly in and around the asylum’s drab, depressing confines in the mid-1970s, it was colloquially the Mental, just as its largely despondent inhabitants were the mental patients.Thus was the oft-surreal environment that unavoidably enveloped Wish and the rest of the Irish Catholic Mooney clan, including the quietly acknowledged other realities of the place—the sad, the tragic, the maniacal. Little did Wish ever consider that any or all of that would come full circle later in life when, as the court reporter for the Daily News, he would be thrust into the middle of his own life story, replete with shocking conclusion.

The Line Painter


Claire Cameron - 2007
    when Carrie’s car breaks down on the highway somewhere north of Lake Superior. It’s dark, the road is quiet, her cell phone is down, and she is alone. She took off from Toronto that morning, running from grief over the death of her boyfriend, and unable to cope with the truth about the events that led to it. The relief Carrie feels as a truck pulls up soon turns to fear after its driver offers her a lift. Frank, her would-be rescuer, is a line painter, putting lines on the road “to stop people from being killed.” But after Carrie gets in the truck, she starts to realize that this will be the road trip of her life—a trip of terror, transformation and forgiveness.Claire Cameron has created a unique portrait of Carrie, a young woman whose actions are driven by grief and shame, her personality a beguiling combination of naïveté and streetsmarts. Frank is equally sharply drawn, his flashes of humour and tenderness disguising the wreckage within. Written in spare, unvarnished prose that brims with menace against the forbidding backdrop of a northern landscape, The Line Painter takes us on a riveting trip down a twisted road of memory and redemption.“Smoke?”I looked over. He held up two cigarettes. I had quit. It was all part of my campaign of the past few years to try and grow up. Quit smoking, drink less, no drugs, move in with boyfriend and play house, get a real job and wear a suit. I stopped short of wearing nude-coloured hosiery, but only just. It was my own sort of a personal temperance plan. If I could just suppress all my bad urges then . . . um . . . I’d forgotten what, actually.But Frank wasn’t just asking me to smoke. This was quite a different thing. Frank was trying to forge a link. He was calling a truce. He was trying to bond. He was offering me a peace pipe of sorts, though packaged with a few more chemicals and a filter.I took a smoke and accepted Frank’s outstretched lighter. I inhaled deeply. I never have any trouble starting smoking again and I certainly didn’t this time. . . . I sat down on the shoulder a safe distance away from him.—from The Line Painter