Paradise City


Lorenzo Carcaterra - 2004
    His father was gunned down by the Camorra, the murderous clan run by Don Nicola Rossi. When his mother moved him from New York back to his family’s ancestral home in Naples, Gian found himself face-to-face with the source of the mob’s strength, the spring that spawned its deadly killers.Today, twenty-three years later, he is a dogged detective on the Naples police force, homicide division, the most dangerous beat in Europe. He is the nemesis of all who export evil, the man who stops it before it spreads overseas. His efforts have not gone unnoticed. “The strength of Naples reinforces the muscle of New York”–and now the two worlds are about to collide.In the highest towers of the most expensive streets of New York City, Pete Rossi, the son of Don Nicola, has decided to bring Gian back to America–permanently. When Gian learns that his teenage niece, Paula, has gone missing in Manhattan, he cancels a much-needed vacation to Capri, to paradise, joking that “one island is just as good as the other.”Gian’s homecoming will be anything but smooth. Someone must always watch his back, and Detective Jennifer Fabini gets the job. A gifted officer with her own personal demons, Jennifer thinks she’ll be dealing with a peasant from the old country. The handsome, reserved, unrelenting Gian is a revelation: an irritant and a temptation–especially for a woman who has sworn off cops as lovers. Together the two must solve a disappearance that appears to be a kidnapping . . . but turns out to be a deadly trap.As they dash from the sun-struck villages of Italy to the darkest drug dens of New York, their journey links old-world honor and modern-day danger, and ends in a dizzying explosion of the present and the past.

A Perfect Murder


Jeffrey Archer - 1991
    Each story is different and each ends with a surprising twist.

The Way Home


George Pelecanos - 2009
    After years of trouble and rebellion that enraged his father and nearly cost him his life, he has a steady job in his father's company, he's seriously dating a woman he respects, and, aside from the distrust that lingers in his father's eyes, his mistakes are firmly in the past.One day on the job, Chris and his partner come across a temptation almost too big to resist. Chris does the right thing, but old habits and instincts rise to the surface, threatening this new-found stability with sudden treachery and violence. With his father and his most trusted friends, he takes one last chance to blast past the demons trying to pull him back. Like Richard Price or William Kennedy, Pelecanos pushes his characters to the extremes, their redemption that much sweeter because it is so hard fought. Pelecanos has long been celebrated for his unerring ability to portray the conflicts men feel as they search and struggle for power and love in a world that is often harsh and unforgiving but can ultimately be filled with beauty.

Mr. Mercedes


Stephen King - 2014
    They are tired and cold and desperate. Emerging from the fog, invisible until it is too late, a lone driver plows through the crowd in a stolen Mercedes, running over the innocent, backing up, and charging again. Eight people are killed; fifteen are wounded. The killer escapes.Months later, an ex-cop named bill Hodges, still haunted by the unsolved crime, contemplates suicide. When he gets a crazed letter from "the perk," claiming credit for the murders, Hodges wakes up from his depressed and vacant retirement, fearing another even more diabolical attack and hell-bent on preventing it.Brady Hartfield lives with his alcoholic mother in the house where he was born. He loved the feel of death under the wheels of the Mercedes, and he wants that rush again. Only Bill Hodges, with a couple of eccentric and mismatched allies, can apprehend the killer before he strikes again. And they have no time to lose, because Brady's next mission, if it succeeds, will kill or maim thousands.Mr. Mercedes is a war between good and evil from the master of suspense whose insight into the mind of this obsessed, insane killer is chilling and unforgettable.--front flap

Her Last Breath


Hilary Davidson - 2021
    However, her sorrow turns to bone-chilling confusion when she receives a message Caroline sent days earlier warning that her death would be no accident. Long used to being a pariah to her family, Deirdre covers her tattoos and heads to Manhattan for her sister’s funeral.The message claimed Caroline’s husband, Theo, killed his first wife and got away with it. Reeling from the news, Deirdre confronts Theo on the way to the cemetery, and he reveals both his temper and his suspicion that Deirdre’s “perfect” sister was having an affair.Paranoid and armed with just enough information to make her dangerous, Deirdre digs into the disturbing secrets buried with Caroline. But as she gets closer to the truth, she realizes that her own life may be at risk…and that there may be more than one killer in the family.

Bleak Harbor


Bryan Gruley - 2018
    Deep down, they think they’re to blame. Summertime in Bleak Harbor means tourists, overpriced restaurants, and the Dragonfly Festival. One day before the much-awaited and equally chaotic celebration, Danny Peters, the youngest member of the family that founded the town five generations ago, disappears. When Danny’s mother, Carey, and stepfather, Pete, receive a photo of their brilliant, autistic, and socially withdrawn son tied to a chair, they fear the worst. But there’s also more to the story. Someone is sending them ominous texts and emails filled with information no one else should have. Could the secrets they’ve kept hidden—even from one another—have led to Danny’s abduction?As pressure from the kidnapper mounts, Carey and Pete must face their own ugly mistakes to find their son before he’s taken from them forever.

Don't Know Jack


Diane Capri - 2012
    Fifteen years and sixteen novels later, Reacher still lives off the grid, until trouble finds him, and then he does whatever it takes, much to the delight of readers and the dismay of villains. Now someone big is looking for him. Who? And why? Hunting Jack Reacher is a dangerous business, as FBI Special Agents Kim Otto and Carlos Gaspar are about to find out. Otto and Gaspar are by-the-book hunters who know when it's necessary to break the rules; Reacher is a stone cold killer. But is he their friend or their enemy? Only the secrets hidden in Margrave, Georgia will tell them.

Somebody I Used to Know


David Bell - 2015
    She is the spitting image of his college girlfriend, Marissa Minor, who died in a campus house fire twenty years earlier. But when Nick tries to speak to her, she acts skittish and rushes off.The next morning the police arrive at Nick’s house and show him a photo of the woman from the store. She’s been found dead, murdered in a local motel, with Nick’s name and address on a piece of paper in her pocket.Convinced there's a connection between the two women, Nick enlists the help of his college friend Laurel Davidson to investigate the events leading up to the night of Marissa’s death. But the young woman’s murder is only the beginning...and the truths Nick uncovers may make him wish he never doubted the lies.

Snowbound


Blake Crouch - 2010
    Will under suspicion, they flee. Suddenly a hard-edged FBI agent appears on their doorstep. “I know you’re innocent, because Rachael wasn’t the first ... or the last.”

Big Fish


Thomas Perry - 1985
    Powerfully-plotted and funny, Big Fish follows dangerous and mysterious Los Angeles entrepreneur Altmeyer, and his wife Rachel whose quiet lives in the Hollywood hills are disrupted when a multi-million dollar gunrunning deal goes bad. Under most circumstances, Altmeyer might be mildly amused by the audacity of the double-cross. But whoever cheated Altmeyer may also be planning to destroy the world. With so much at stake, Altmeyer and Rachel and their friend, super-agent to the stars Bucky Carmichael, set off on a perilous adventure in search of the identity of the Big Fish. What they find is shocking and horrifying and all too credible.Reviews:“A fast-reading, big-time, silky thriller.” - People“A new contender for top tough guy… We wanted to sell our house and buy the film rights, we were that impressed. Big Fish features a dashing, upscale couple… the Nick and Nora Charles of gunrunning… Altmeyer and Rachel have a chemistry that reaches critical mass on the opening page.” – Playboy“Written with the same expertise as Mr. Perry’s previous successes… and that should keep his fans happy. All men will want to be Altmeyer and all women his Rachel.” – New York Times Book Review

Mary Higgins Clark Gift Set Cst: While My Pretty One Sleeps and Weep No More My Lady


Mary Higgins Clark - 1992
    The killing of one of her best customers reminded her of the one thing -- they slaying of her own mother years earlier. Faced with a variety of suspects, Neeve plunges into the mystery of Lambston's death, determined to find the truth. But as she is drawn into a whirlwind of money and romance, she is also being stalked by a killer who's closer than she could ever dream . . .Weep No More, My LadyYoung Elizabeth Lange is haunted by the tragic death of her beloved sister, the legendary actress Leila LaSalle. Ted Winters, Leila's multi-millionaire fiance, has been accused of her murder -- and Elizabeth is slated to be the star witness for the prosecution. But before the trial begins, Elizabeth gets an invitation to unwind at a swank California spa. There is caught up in a torrent of confusing emotions and perplexing questions. Elizabeth must discover the truth -- and soon. Because someone is stalking her, patiently waiting for the right moment to strike . . .

Cross Bones / Break no Bones / Bones to Ashes


Kathy Reichs - 2010
    

Debbie Macomber's Heart of Texas Series Volume 2: Dr. Texas\Nell's Cowboy\Lone Star Baby


Debbie Macomber - 2014
    It's a ranching town in the Texas hill country�and it's a place with a mysterious past. But Promise has a heart of goodness, and everyone here knows what really matters in life. Love, family, community…Now meet the people of Promise.They call her Dr. Texas. She's Jane Dickinson, a newly graduated physician from California who's working at the Promise clinic. They call him Mr. Grouch. Cal Patterson was left at the altar by his out-of-state fiancée, and he's not over it yet. Too bad Jane reminds him so much of the woman he's trying to forget! Dr. TexasNell Bishop, widowed mother of two children, is turning Twin Canyons into a dude ranch. One of her first guests is Travis Grant, a wannabe cowboy, an Easterner known for his books about the West. Nell's kids are crazy about him, and Nell�she could fall for him herself. Except that it's too soon… Nell's CowboyWade McMillen might be a minister, but he's also a man. Is it as a man that he responds to the lovely young woman who shows up in Promise, pregnant and alone? Or as a man of God? Maybe it's both. Amy Thornton hopes to make a new life for herself and her baby, and she needs Reverend McMillen's help. What she wants is the love of a man named Wade. Lone Star Baby The Heart of Texas. There's no place like it!

Superstitious


R.L. Stine - 1995
    Liam is a bachelor professor of folklore and he's incurably superstitious. When people start getting murdered, it seems that Liam's demons are real.

Deception Point


Dan Brown - 2001
    A conspiracy of staggering brilliance. A thriller unlike any you've ever read....When a NASA satellite discovers an astonishingly rare object buried deep in the Arctic ice, the floundering space agency proclaims a much-needed victory—a victory with profound implications for NASA policy and the impending presidential election. To verify the authenticity of the find, the White House calls upon the skills of intelligence analyst Rachel Sexton. Accompanied by a team of experts, including the charismatic scholar Michael Tolland, Rachel travels to the Arctic and uncovers the unthinkable: evidence of scientific trickery—a bold deception that threatens to plunge the world into controversy. But before she can warn the President, Rachel and Michael are ambushed by a deadly team of assassins. Fleeing for their lives across a desolate and lethal landscape, their only hope for survival is to discover who is behind this masterful plot. The truth, they will learn, is the most shocking deception of all.