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.

    Betrayal. Retribution. Married con artists, using the aliases Tom and Patty Brown, arrive in the small city of Seanboro with their partner, Buddy Ray, masquerading as land speculators. Their plan is to falsify the environmental reports on a contaminated tract of lakefront property and sell the land to a local gangster who is involved in real estate development. But as their plan progresses, and the double-crosses pile up, they find themselves pursued by their now ex-partner Buddy, seeking revenge, and by an old enemy plotting their murder. This novel is a dark crime thriller that will take you for a roller coaster ride.

    When a former client bequeaths Drayco a rundown Opera House in a Virginia seaside town, he figures he'll arrange for a quick sale of the place while nursing his battered soul in a peaceful setting near the shore. What he doesn't count on is finding a dead body on the Opera House stage with a mysterious "G" carved into the man's chest. With hopes for a quick sale dashed and himself a suspect in the murder, Drayco digs into very old and very dangerous secrets to solve the crime and clear his name. Along the way, Drayco must dodge a wary sheriff, hostility over coastal development, and the seductive wife of a town councilman - before the tensions explode into more violence and he becomes the next victim. Want to read a Scott Drayco novella for FREE? Sign up for BV’s Mysteries in Crimetime newsletter at bvlawson.com and receive a FREE copy of "The Maltese Moon Rock"! Scott Drayco Thrillers in order: PLAYED TO DEATH (A Shamus Award Finalist and Best Mystery, Next Generation Book Awards) REQUIEM FOR INNOCENCE DIES IRAE ELEGY IN SCARLET

    She and her mother moved too many times to a series of cheap motels. There were too many men visiting her mother and none of them were her father. As for him, all Penny knew was that her father was rich and dead.When she was found abandoned on a deserted beach on the Salish Sea when she was four years old, Penny didn't even know her own name. Shunted from one foster home to another, she struggled to overcome the odds.When a Police Detective from the Victoria, B.C. Police Department calls about remains that were identified as belonging to her mother, Penny starts a quest to find out what happened to her and who her father really is. She enlists crime reporter Tess McClintock and Michael Carter to help her find her family, but when they start uncovering Penny's past, not everyone is happy to learn their connection to the girl with no name.The Salish Sea is a new standalone book in the Salish Sea Crime Thriller series.

    

    Miller!Dark Path (Book 1)Healthy residents of a posh assisted living facility are dying in the middle of the night ... expressions of pure terror etched on their faces.After solving a series of unexplained deaths several years ago, forensic pathologist Dr. Bodhi King retreated from the limelight. Now, he's called out of early retirement to help investigate a death cluster on a private island in the Florida Keys, where he lands in the middle of a simmering conflict.Members of the Golden Island Church have a furtive agenda to protect. The dying Cuban-Americans have long-held secrets of their own. And everyone seems to have a reason to stop Bodhi from bringing the truth to light.Lonely Path (Book 2)An overdose epidemic, a girl who’s supposed to be dead, and a chance encounter with an old flame land Bodhi in the middle of a high-stakes crime ring.Bodhi’s honored when he’s invited to present a paper at an international forensic pathology conference. And he’s stunned when he learns his former girlfriend is a fellow panelist. It’s been more than a decade since Bodhi broke Eliza’s heart, and his behavior weighs on him. He convinces her to join him for dinner in the Quebec countryside so he can make amends.Returning to the hotel after their meal, they see a dazed young woman, barefoot and mute, standing by the roadside. She has no memory of who she is or what's happened to her. Bodhi and Eliza put aside their past to help the shattered woman reclaim her life. In the process, they discover the horrifying truth about an overdose epidemic plaguing the region. The knowledge paints a target on their backs.As a Buddhist, Bodhi follows a path of nonviolence, but his faith will be tested when Eliza’s life is on the line.

    An iconoclast. A loner. That's how people describe Garrison Gage, and that's when they're being charitable. After his wife's brutal murder in New York, and Gage himself is beaten nearly to death, the crippled private investigator retreats three thousand miles to the quaint coastal town of Barnacle Bluffs, Oregon. He spends the next five years in a convalescent stupor, content to bide his time filling out crossword puzzles and trying to forget that his wife's death is his fault. But all that changes when he discovers the body of a young woman washed up on the beach, and his conscience draws him back into his old occupation – forcing him to confront the demons of his own guilt before he can hope to solve the girl's murder.

    He beat and choked her to death. I'm told that he was found hanging from a homemade noose in his cell. I want to know why he waited so long to do it." Sydney Brennan isn't sure how to answer her client's question, short of holding a séance, and the Tallahassee detective has some questions of her own. Why does Noel Thomas remember so little about her childhood? Why is she delving into her father's suicide now? And, most importantly, why isn't Noel telling her the truth?Sydney crisscrosses the Florida Panhandle, reconstructing the tragic Thomas family history. The violence that destroyed the Thomas family connects to a present-day web of deceit and corruption through a desperate man willing to do anything to keep his secrets safe. To discover his identity, Sydney must go Back to Lazarus, back to the town where Noel's beautiful but troubled mother began her inevitable descent over twenty years ago. But by following in the footsteps of the murdered woman, does Sydney risk sharing her fate?Rooted in bars and back roads and Panhandle prisons, forgotten towns and forgotten people, at its heart Back to Lazarus is about stories: the stories people tell us, the stories we tell ourselves, and what happens when we realize it's all a lie.

    But the horrific crime has gone unsolved for thirty years when a mysterious stranger begs a true crime podcaster to investigate.Kendra Dillon hosts The Cold Trail Podcast. She’s made it her mission to uncover new clues in old mysteries. She’s shocked that this brutal display of evil against an innocent nun has gone unchecked for decades. No suspects. No arrests. No justice.With police and church officials refusing to reopen the investigation, Kendra believes someone’s hiding a vile conspiracy. But right as Kendra gets close to the disturbing truth, another shocking crime derails her investigation. The Cold Trail may be leading Kendra straight into the path of a serial killer. With every podcast episode, Kendra gets closer to waking an evil that’s been lying in wait.And Kendra isn’t alone. A stalker is following her every move, ready to ensnare her in his own twisted fantasy.Can Kendra catch the culprit and serve up justice before she’s silenced forever?The Hour Of Her Death is the first book in the suspenseful Kendra Dillon Cold Case Thriller series. If you like engaging female sleuths, unexpected twists, and cold case crime podcasts, then you’ll love Rebecca Rane’s pulse-pounding tale.Enter the world of a true crime podcaster on the hunt for a serial killer!

    Ten years ago, Magnolia Steele fled Franklin, Tennessee after an incident that left her with hazy memories and a horror of the place where she had been born and bred. Though her abrupt departure destroyed most of her treasured relationships, she vowed never to return . . . until she has no choice. When Magnolia’s breakout acting role in a Broadway musical ends in disgrace, there’s only one place she can go. She finds herself on her momma’s porch, suitcase in hand. Drama follows Magnolia around like a long lost friend. She reluctantly agrees to help her momma’s catering company at a party for a country music star, only to find herself face-to-face with a sleazy music agent from her past. After a very public spat, Magnolia not only finds him dead but herself center stage in the police’s investigation. Now she must scramble to prove her innocence, relying on the help of acquaintances old and new. But the longer Magnolia stays in Franklin, the more she remembers about the big bad incident that chased her away. The past might not be finished with her yet, and what she doesn’t remember could be her biggest danger.

    Retired Detective Bayard Lott hosts the weekly poker games at his home. The group calls themselves the Cold Poker Gang. And they succeed at closing old cases. Lott’s very first homicide case as a brand-new detective had gone cold more than twenty years earlier. But retired Reno detective Julia Rogers, new to the Cold Poker Gang, suggests they look at that case again for personal reasons. From that simple suggestion spins one of the strangest and most complicated murder mystery puzzles the gang has ever seen. “Dean Wesley Smith does for poker what James Patterson does for serial killers.” —Sheldon McArthur, former owner of Mysterious Books in Los Angeles “[An] exhilarating political poker thriller.” —Harriet Klausner, Genre Go Round Reviews on Dead Money

    Except then she discovers a body. Before she knows it, she's the prime suspect in a mysterious murder. She's desperate to restore the old fixer upper - and her reputation. All she has to do is try to get along with her notoriously grouchy handyman... and solve a murder. Easy, right?A fun, casual read with a thirty-something amateur sleuth. Set in a charming rural town on the Canadian prairies, this series has quirky characters, no profanity, and plenty of cats. Each book is a full-length, standalone novel.

    Uncertain about the problem from Timothy's cryptic texts, Mitch Turner slips into his suit and heads over to visit Timothy, unable to imagine any reason why Timothy would be calling for help at such a late hour. Mitch arrives to find the police at Timothy's apartment and learns that Timothy's roommate was murdered. Mitch immediately retrieves Timothy from the police before they can get him to say anything more and while in the process has a run-in with his ex-girlfriend who is now a detective. Mitch takes Timothy back to his office to debrief, but not long afterward, the police show up and arrest Timothy for the murder of his roommate. There are no witnesses. There are no other suspects. The police consider it an open and shut case, but the only thing that keeps Mitch from arranging a plea bargain is his belief that his client did not do it. The deeper Mitch digs, the more he learns that his client has secrets that he wants to be kept quiet at any cost, even at the expense of going to jail for something he did not do. Mitch soon learns he must work at odds with his client to provide the best legal representation possible, going around Timothy as he fights to keep his client out of jail. If you like legal thrillers, this novel is for you. Mitch Turner is a fast-talking lawyer who takes risks where others might not. Fans of John Grisham, Michael Connelly, and Scott Turrow will enjoy this story. Pick up your copy today! Sneak Peek: I sent the message and tried to figure out what my next step ought to be. I had intentionally not asked for details but I needed to know what I was walking into. The communications should be privileged, but I wasn’t going to trust to that, especially not in the heat of the moment. If the fool had thought to encrypt his phone this might have been easier. My instruction to password protect his phone had been done more to protect me than him. If it wasn’t encrypted it was already too late. From now on I was going to require every employee to encrypt their phone. Of course, I expected this would be the first and last time I would ever have an employee call me for criminal defense work. “Ok. What next?” Timothy sent as a text. “Our communications should be privileged,” I texted back, “assuming you want me to be your attorney. Are you retaining my services as your attorney?” The message came back instantly. “Yes.” “In a typical situation I would have you pay a retainer and sign an agreement, but we do not have time. We will go over the details later. I am assuming you are willing to pay. Correct?” While this might have seemed a little self-serving, I just wanted to make sure that I had evidence to back me up if I needed to prove an attorney-client relationship had formed. What I had already done should have been sufficient, but I liked to be thorough. “I will pay whatever I can. My dad can wire you the retainer.” “Please be succinct in response to my next question. Assume the cops will read it so admit nothing.” I waited. “What are we dealing with here?” I sent a moment later. It was a minute or two before Cooper replied. “My roommate is dead on his bed. Somebody blew out his brains.”

    She’s positive she’s a good mother and hard worker. So why is she in an alley with a needle in her arm? Waking up in the hospital without her son is terrifying. Being told she can’t have him back nearly crushes her. With her memory spotty and the circumstances incriminating, Tara must fight to learn the truth and wrestle with the idea that maybe her son is better off without her. Reid Holliston defends guilty people for a living and it's slowly killing him. He’s certain there is no such thing as a truly blameless client anymore. When his phone rings with a voice from his childhood his jaded views make him certain Tara is just one more criminal claiming innocence. But even his skepticism isn’t enough to keep him away. Best friends from a lifetime ago, the two must find a way to trust each other again in spite of how the years apart have changed them. Can a promise made in childhood be enough to save them both?

    Husband thinks wife is cheating, husband hires private investigator... Until someone ends up dead.As a former police detective turned PI, Sam Arbichaut has seen it all. Having moved from Florida to Portland, Oregon for a new start in life, he spends his days fighting middle-age spread and investigating whatever civilians pay him for.When his latest job takes a homicidal turn, Sam soon figures out this case is anything but the usual... and finding out what the real story is might just cost him everything.Get excited for this brand new mystery following the determined Detective from Hunting Delilah as Sam gets his own series!