New Orleans Mourning


Julie Smith - 1992
    Amant has been crowned Rex, King of Carnival. But his day of glory comes to an abrupt and bloody end when a parade-goer dressed as Dolly Parton guns him down. Is the killer his aimless, promiscuous daughter Marcelle? Homosexual, mistreated son Henry? Helpless, alcoholic wife Bitty? Or some unknown player? Turns out the king had enemies...Enter resourceful heroine Skip Langdon, a rookie police officer and former debutante turned cynic of the Uptown crowd. Scouring the streets for clues, interviewing revelers and street people with names like Jo Jo, Hinky, and Cookie, and using her white glove contacts, the post-deb rebel cop encounters a tangled web of brooding clues and ancient secrets that could mean danger for her—and doom for the St. Amants.

Miramont's Ghost


Elizabeth Hall - 2015
    Only one person knows the truth: Adrienne Beauvier, granddaughter of the Comte de Challembelles and cousin to the man who built the castle.Clairvoyant from the time she could talk, Adrienne’s visions show her the secrets of those around her. When her visions begin to reveal dark mysteries of her own aristocratic French family, Adrienne is confronted by her formidable Aunt Marie, who is determined to keep the young woman silent at any cost. Marie wrenches Adrienne from her home in France and takes her to America, to Miramont Castle, where she keeps the girl isolated and imprisoned. Surrounded by eerie premonitions, Adrienne is locked in a life-or-death struggle to learn the truth and escape her torment.Reminiscent of Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca, this hauntingly atmospheric tale is inspired by historical research into the real-life Miramont Castle in Manitou Springs, Colorado.

Ice


Kevin Tinto - 2015
    While twisting through one of the narrow underground passageways, Leah’s flashlight illuminates the remains of a violent massacre. Ancient human remains—all slaughtered in a long-ago massacre—cover the cavern floor, along with a number of brilliantly colored, granite crystals. The rare crystals are native to only one place on earth: a frozen mountain range in central Antarctica. Could Native Americans have traveled to the frozen continent of Antarctica 800 years prior to the first known human exploration? If so how? And why? There’s only one person who can get Leah to those mountains in Antarctica: her estranged husband and climbing guide Jack Hobson. At their destination they make a stunning discovery that will change history and science forever. But Leah’s team is far from the only interested party. As her secret makes its way to the highest levels of government, a race to seize the Russian-claimed Antarctic territory brings the world to the brink of nuclear conflict.

An Invitation to Murder


Leighann Dobbs - 2017
    Not only to stop the killing but also to prove her skills at detection to her father and win her dowry and independence. There’s only one catch—she has to take one last matchmaking job to do it. Never mind that the match is impossible, all the better because if she fails, then no one will seek her services again. The job provides the perfect cover especially when her peculiar investigatory techniques are mistaken for unconventional matchmaking attempts. Things would go a lot smoother if she weren’t knee-deep in suspects and thwarted at every turn by a rival matchmaker. But when the killer strikes again, Katherine’s investigation leads down a dangerous path. Too late, she discovers that she has a lot more to lose than her dowry…

The Zen Man


Colleen Collins - 2011
     Released on bond, Rick and his girlfriend Laura have 30 days to find the real killer. In the course of their investigations, they dig for dirt among Denver’s shady legal backrooms to its tony corporate centers. Dodging bullets, a kidnapping, trumped-up charges and the FBI's unwanted intervention, Rick and Laura continue tracking key suspects who have motive...eventually learning that true redemption begins at home.

The Girls Across The Bay


Emerald O'Brien - 2017
    A bond stronger than blood. A connection that could end it all. Madigan Knox and Grace Sheppard became sisters the day they entered their foster home. After living through a childhood nightmare, one brave act set them free, but split them apart into different homes.As adults, they are reunited in the small coastal town they dreamed of living in as children, but the reality of life in Tall Pines is far from what they had imagined.When a woman is found dead​ in her home​, Madigan reports on the crime while Grace investigates. A dark connection to the victim is discovered, pulling them both closer to the crime and the traumatic past they are desperate to move on from. With old wounds ripped open and dark secrets threatening their bond, the sisters must rely on each other more than ever before to survive.

The Twelve Stones


R.J. Johnson - 2012
    Returning to his hometown of Onyx, California, Alex reunites with his father who returns the stone Alex found so many years ago. Their reunion is cut short however after Alex's father is murdered by billionaire industrialist Rupert Kline, a madman who will stop at nothing to collect all twelve stones for himself.Driven by revenge, Alex McCray vows to bring his father's killer to justice and keep the remaining Twelve Stones out of Kline's hands.A thrilling tale that mixes romance, cutting edge science, and oh yeah, the fate of human civilization.

Paracosm - Bleath: The Hauntings


Anya Allyn - 2015
     The mayor of Bleath provides Zoe with accommodation at the empty Wilmont house. It's not the friendly farmhouse Zoe was picturing, and worse, the house seems to change day by day. The walls change and strange objects appear. Late at night, scratching noises scrape along the staircase banister and inside the trinket box under her bed. And out in the wheat field below her bedroom window, ghostly figures wait . . . . Is Zoe slipping into an imaginary world of her own? Or are the things she's experiencing terrifying real? PARACOSM is a standalone novel. It is part of a wider world, having a deep connection to The Dark Carousel series.

Nemesis


Roger A. Price - 2016
     Moxley’s paranoia has him seemingly selecting victims at random. The only thing they have in common is the gruesome nature of their killings. Police, prison warders and even old ladies have been the target of Moxley’s cold-blooded murder spree. When Detective Inspector Vinnie Palmer is assigned to the case, Moxley decides that he too must die, but not before he has led him from one blood-soaked scene to another. Among his victims is Vinnie’s offsider, Detective Constable Rob Hill, who he discovers has his own dark and destructive secret that rips Vinnie’s life apart. With the help of Moxley’s psychiatrist, Vinnie delves deep into the man’s criminal past and uncovers a history of corrupt police, sexual coercion and gaol brutality. But when Vinnie closes in on Moxley and takes the law into his own hands, he ends up suspended and stripped of his police powers. Determined not to let Moxley escape justice, Vinnie continues his pursuit of the maniac as a private citizen. He teams up with determined television reporter Christine Jones and together they pursue Moxley north to Scotland and back again. But the killer always seems to be one step ahead, leaving a trail mutilated bodies in his wake. Lured on by Moxley’s taunts, Vinnie discovers that it is his own wife – a fellow police worker – who has been an unwitting aid in Moxley’s deadly deeds. As a result, his suspension is lifted in time for him and Christine to gain full police support and finally confront Moxley in a terrifying final encounter. But is it too late? The action-packed and full of gruesome detail, Nemesis is Roger’s first story in the new Badge and the Pen series that features detective inspector Vinnie Palmer. Roger A Price is a crime fighter turned crime writer who spent more than thirty-one years in the police force. He served across the UK, Europe and the Far East before retiring as a detective inspector in charge of a covert undercover drugs unit that achieved national acclaim.

Out of the Mist


Lauren Giordano - 2017
    . .     Beaten and left for dead, Juliet awakens with no memory of how she ended up alone on an isolated road. After another attempt on her life, she's forced to rely on a man who's made it clear he doesn't trust her.   Hunting a ruthless drug deler, injured DEA agent Matt Barnes has seen just about everything in a decade battling the worst humanity has to offer. But he's never seen anything like Julie-- a beautiful blonde who reminds him more of sorority Barbie than a ruthless drug kingpin. But looks can be deceiving. He's got the bullet hole to prove it.    In a case going nowhere, Julie and her memory are all he has. To erase the worst mistake of his career, his team will use her to lure the most dangerous drug lord he's ever battled. But will the woman he's fallen in love with ever forgive him for making her the bait?

Hope's Peak


Tony Healey - 2017
    He’ll make her a princess like the others…Detective Jane Harper can’t shake the image of the young woman discovered in a field—eyes closed, a crown of woven vines on her head. She expects macabre murders like this in her native San Francisco, not here. Jane and her partner, Stu, vow to catch the killer, but in this town, that’s easier said than done. The police department is in the grips of a wide-reaching scandal that could topple the entire force, and Jane and Stu face a series of dead ends. Until they meet Ida Lane.Ida knows too well the evil that lurks in the cornfields. Tortured by her mother’s murder years before, Ida is paralyzed by the fear that she could be next. As the killer grows bolder, Jane must persuade Ida to use her remarkable gifts to help in the investigation. It’s a decision that brings them closer to the killer…maybe too close.

Rejection (Lou Drake Mysteries)


Thomas K. Matthews - 2010
    Ten years later, fifty pounds heavier and three months from retirement, Drake works patrol in the backwater borough of Malcolm New York. He spends his idle time reading crime novels and writing one of his own.When Drake breaks protocol on another brutal murder scene, endangering his rookie partner, his captain demotes him to the booking cage. But when another body is discovered and both victims are identified as struggling literary agents, the NYPD Chief of Detectives decides Lou's writing experience could benefit the case and pairs him with his old partner one last time.As they look for clues in the struggling publishing industry, Drake finds himself thrust into the middle of a serial murder case where a methodical perpetrator is systematically killing those who rejected him. Drake must revive his old detective prowess and trust his writer's intuition to try and solve the case, while possibly exposing the truth about the old Hennings investigation - a secret that would expose a web of corruption that could shake the NYPD to its core.

Saving Grace


Pamela Fagan Hutchins - 2012
    When she flees Texas for the Caribbean, Katie escapes professional humiliation, a broken heart, and a wicked Bloody Mary habit, but she trades one set of problems for another when she begins to investigate the suspicious deaths of her parents on the island of St. Marcos. She’s bewitched by the voodoo spirit of an abandoned house in the rainforest and discovers that she’s as much a danger to herself as the island’s bad guys are. As the worst of her worlds collide, Katie drags herself back to the courthouse to defend her new friend Ava, an island local accused of stabbing the senator she’s been sleeping with.

The House of Closed Doors


Jane Steen - 2012
    Yet Nell is determined to elude the duties and restrictions of matrimony. So when she finds herself pregnant at the age of 17, she refuses to divulge the name of the father and even her childhood friend Martin is kept in the dark.Nell's stepfather Hiram sends Nell to live at the Poor Farm of which he is a governor, to await the day when her baby can be discreetly adopted. Nell is ready to go along with Hiram's plans until an unused padded cell is opened and two small bodies fall out.Nell is the only resident of the Poor Farm who is convinced that the unwed mother and her baby were murdered, and the incident prompts her to rethink her decision to abandon her own child to her fate. But the revelations to which her questions lead make her realize that even if she manages to escape the Poor Farm with her baby, she may have no safe place to run to.

Premonition


Leigh Walker - 2017
    What she doesn't expect? To be thrust into an intense physical training program described as special, exclusive and worst of all--top-secret. She signed up for tuition assistance, not to be held in a secret government facility for boot camp... Welcome to The Division, the government agency that's so classified, most United States senators have never heard of it. The Division wants Riley bad, but she can't figure out why. Skeptical of what she's being told, Riley's determined to uncover the truth. Boot camp is intense, physically and mentally draining. The upside? One of her new teammates is the cutest boy ever. Watching Finn hit the gym wearing a tank top doesn't suck--although sometimes his brooding attitude does. But when training forces Riley to confront her tragic past, even Finn's big biceps aren't enough to make her want to stay... Beware: The Division isn't something you just walk away from. You better run. Riley realizes her capabilities and strengths are greater than she'd ever imagined. But she also learns she wasn't just chosen for this special program... She was made for it.