In spite of a genetic brain anomaly that makes it impossible for her to remember faces –even ones she’d seen just moments before—Claire tackles the cases that the cops aren’t interested in solving. She does it with American know-how and dogged perseverance. Along the way she discovers that life in the City of Light can be a new beginning—in every way that makes life pleasurable—even for a woman of a certain age. These books are a clean read: no graphic violence, sex or strong language. An adorable French bulldog is her loyal companion through her adventures.Genre: cozy amateur woman sleuth

    We spend the book trying to guess the identity of the unknown man on the fishing boat; not an easy task because Carr's big mouth alienates about everyone he knows. "Darkly comic, with an engaging protagonist." -- T.J. MacGregor, Edgar Winner, Author of The Tango Key Mysteries "Big Numbers is a gritty, sexy, violent, and funny book." -- Liz Clifford at Reviewed by Liz "Wonderful characters...well-written, entertaining...a good read." --Connie Anderson for Armchair Interviews   "Jack Getze started his career as a newspaper reporter. As a result, BIG NUMBERS is lean and mean, with not a word wasted. A truly fun, genuinely funny read." --Lisa Guidarini for Bluestalking Reader

    It doesn’t take long for the police to realize a serial killer is on the loose—and that his spree has just begun.Detective Mackenzie White, young, tough, smarter than the aging, chauvinistic men on her local force, finds herself called in grudgingly to help solve it. As much as the other officers hate to admit it, they need her young, brilliant mind, which has already helped crack cold cases that had left them stumped. Yet even for Mackenzie this new case proves an impossible riddle, something the likes of which she—and the local force—have ever seen.With the FBI called in, together, an intense manhunt ensues. Mackenzie, reeling from her own dark past, her failed relationships, and her undeniable attraction to the new FBI agent, finds herself battling her own demons as her hunt for the killer takes her to the darkest places of her mind. As she delves into the killer’s mind, obsessing over his twisted psychology, she finds that evil truly does exist. She only hopes it will not be too late to extricate herself from it, as her entire life collapses around her.As more bodies turn up dead and a frantic race against time ensues, there is no way out but to find him before he kills again.A dark psychological thriller with heart-pounding suspense, Before He Kills marks the debut of a riveting new series—and a beloved new character—that will leave you turning pages late into the night.

    You will never escape me.” She’s the most dangerous inmate in the hospital for the criminally insane...and she just broke out. When Trey Campbell takes his family to Catalina Island, his escaped patient leaves a trail of bodies behind as she hunts for her one true love – from a previous life.

    A disgraced ex-cop turned private investigator is hired by the dead woman’s father and immediately becomes the target of a violent ex-convict. An enigmatic music star performs damage control on her links to the dead woman. And a professional killer who idolizes Keith Richards is brought into town by a mysterious employer. Dead Wood is what great mysteries are all about: love, hate, faith and vengeance, all wrapped up in an explosive story that simply refuses to let up.

    Until disgraced ex-teacher Emily Swanson moves into the couple’s former home.Emily’s life is in ruins and she’s meant to be making a fresh start. But when she learns about the missing nurse, she sees a chance for redemption. Because finding Alina could help right the wrongs of Emily’s past. It could even mark the start of a new career in private investigation.But what Emily doesn’t know is that Alina had a horrifying secret. One about the care foundation where she worked. And the closer Emily gets to uncovering the truth, the closer she gets to terrible danger.Inspired by a shocking true crime, Next To Disappear introduces a thrilling, twist-filled series and a refreshingly different take on the private investigator genre.Revised edition: Previously published as Lost Lives.

    Instead, I forced myself to smile and swallow and remind myself the elbow length yellow rubber gloves grasping the handle of the standard issue plunger were all that stood between me and Pooageddon.Suck it up, Fee. Big girl panties and adulting and all that."At what point," I waved the dripping plunger, wincing as droplets of yuck flew, "did I think owning a bed and breakfast was going to be glamorous and romantic?"Fiona Fleming hasn't lived in Reading, Vermont in over a decade, her escape from small town living leading her to New York City and a life of adventure. An adventure that has left her with no career, an ex who cheated on her and zero plans for the future. Her grandmother's death grants her a new chance--inheriting Petunia's, Iris Fleming's bed and breakfast, seems like the ideal fresh start. But when Fee finds out ownership of the property Iris willed her might be in question, she's drawn into the seedy underbelly of the cutest town in America after being singled out as the main suspect in a murder.

    Passing a good time, of course, includes running from the mob, solving gritty crime lab murder mysteries, thwarting hurricane season bank heists, and a good deal of rubbing elbows with corrupt politicians—all this while answering to a family of beloved women that he just can’t seem to slip anything past… And with each action-packed adventure, you can trust—because this is a Tubby Dubonnet mystery—that these disparate events are intricately intertwined.A veritable best-of, this murder mystery anthology includes nine of Tubby Dubonnet’s Anthony and Edgar-nominated hard-boiled legal thrillers. (Editor’s Note: Why not all ten? Sorry to say the rights to TUBBY MEETS KATRINA are licensed to another publisher. But these stories need not be read in order.)CROOKED MANMeet lawyer Tubby Dubonnet. His clients are all renegades from the asylum (aka Orleans Parish), including Darryl Alvarez, the manager of a local nightclub who's been caught unloading marijuana from a shrimp boat. At their first meeting, Darryl entrusts Tubby with an ordinary-looking blue gym... of money. What could possibly go wrong?CITY OF BEADSTubby Dubonnet is bored. Sure, researching licensing law for the new casino will keep trout meunière on the table, but what could be more tedious? (Unless, of course, the client’s dealings are steeped in conspiracy).TRICK QUESTIONMedical lab janitor Cletus Busters is caught red-handed in a restricted area with the frozen head of Dr. Whitney Valentine. Busters won't say much, except that he's innocent. Calling Tubby Dubonnet!SHELTER FROM THE STORMTo out-of-town kingpin Willie LaRue, Mardi Gras seems the perfect time for a New Orleans heist. Parties, parades, chaos, alcohol – who could be concerned about a little thing like a bank job? Indeed, all might have gone well except for an out-of-season frog-flogger that threatens to flood the French Quarter. CRIME CZARTubby can't forget the last words that escaped an old friend's lips, and he can't get out of the way of a political campaign that's turning rough. Obsessed with the idea that a shadowy crime boss may be pulling the strings that have cost good people their lives, Tubby is entering into a test of courage with the most violent men in New Orleans.LUCKY MANIt's a city of sin. And murder is only one of them. So what if Judge Hughes shared a few special moments with Sultana Patel—why is this a matter of public interest? Until the D.A. hatches a plot to ensnare them—and their lawyer Tubby. And what a web they’re ensnared in!NIGHT WATCHMANWhen in the 1970s a young war protester is killed in broad daylight on Canal Street, it appears that his murder will be forgotten. But a youthful Tubby chanced to see it happen, and the tragic event's haunted him throughout his life. Decades later, Tubby decides to conduct his own investigation. And stirs up a hornets’ nest.FAT MAN BLUESEx-con Angelo Spooner is trying to start a legit business, but he just can’t catch a break. Just as his healing Holy Water, “Angelo’s Elixir” is about to go upscale, the sticky strands of the Big Sleazy’s tangled web of crime and corruption come running.FLAG BOYThe set-up alone's enough to make you believe in the butterfly effect. Two acrobats burglarize a house; a sultan moves into a French Quarter mansion; a Mardi Gras Indian, in the wrong place at the wrong time, is wrongfully arrested; and our hero Tubby Dubonnet comes upon a double murder while paying a social call on the bayou.

    At least, it feels that way until a serial killer starts dicing up women from the shelter where she volunteers. Despite the ever-present tingling at the nape of her neck, Hannah manages to convince herself that the killings have nothing to do with her brutal past—until her boyfriend is murdered in the same ruthless manner as the others. It doesn’t help that the police think she might have done it. But the cops are right about one thing: Hannah is responsible. Because she knows who the killer is. Now she must face the fact that she brought a monster with her to Ash Park—and his appetite for blood is insatiable. Everyone's hungry for something. Some are more famished than others.

    But then, plans have a way of going out the window when a girl learns her parents have skipped town, leaving behind a half-million-dollar debt. Rosemary makes the best of her situation, putting up with her boss's diva antics and halfheartedly fending off the advances of the impossibly sexy stepson who comes with the high-paying gig. Then someone decides to kill the miserable movie star. It's bad news for any chef when a client dies from an allergic reaction after eating your cooking. It's even worse news for Rosemary because the police are determined to charge her with murder. To restore her reputation (and stay out of prison), Rosemary has to find the real murderer--and fast. Her short list of suspects includes a womanizing race car driver, a powerful music producer, Hollywood's hottest leading man, and, oh yeah, Felix, the dead woman's stepson--which gets a little awkward when Rosemary starts dating him. Unfortunately, everything Rosemary thought she knew is wrong--dead wrong. After a romantic dinner with Felix ends in food poisoning, she finds herself unattached, unemployed, and once again on the wrong side of the LAPD. She knows how to salvage an oversalted sauce, but can she salvage the disaster that is her life? And will the hunky homicide detective help her--or book her? ROSEMARY'S GRAVY is the first book in the We Sisters Three series, the new romantic comedic mystery series from Melissa F. Miller, the USA TODAY Bestselling Author of the Sasha McCandless legal thriller series and the Aroostine Higgins legal thriller series.

    You can't read just one, they're like chocolates! DEATH TURNS A TRICKA rollicking tale of murder, romance, and bordellos…Rebecca Schwartz, nice Jewish lawyer with a few too many fantasies, is happily playing the piano in a whorehouse when she suddenly finds herself assigned to make sure a near-naked state senator escapes a police raid. That dirty job done, a lovely evening turns even more delightful when she’s picked up by the cops and spends the next two hours at the Hall of Justice. Could this day get any worse? Of Course! Guess who arrives home to find a dead hooker on her living room floor? Fans of Janet Evanovich, Joan Hess, and Elizabeth Peters will get a kick out of this one.THE SOURDOUGH WARSTO YOU, IT’S JUST A FROZEN LUMP OF DOUGH; BUT TO SOME, IT’S LIFE AND DEATH…Especially to handsome Peter Martinelli, who wants to auction off the fabled sourdough starter from his family’s famous bakery. But who’d buy a frozen hunk of flour and water? Only, it turns out, every bakery in San Francisco, a national food conglomerate, and an upstart ringer with a mysterious backer.Someone would even kill for it. And does.A tasty treat of a San Francisco mystery. A crisp, tangy story you’re sure to get a rise out of. You won’t find it a bit crumb-y. TOURIST TRAPFear stalks the streets! reports the San Francisco Chronicle. It also stalks these pages, and so do a lot of laughs.You just know the Easter sunrise service is going to be a bummer when the San Francisco fog lifts to reveal a body nailed to a landmark cross. Next: mass shellfish poisoning at Pier 39. A very different kind of serial killer is operating here—one who seems to have a grudge against the whole city.And this is a very different kind of serial killer tale—a funny one. Well, actually, what serial killer’s funny? But lawyer sleuth Rebecca Schwartz is warm and witty, never takes herself too seriously, and on one occasion offers closing testimony with green hair.DEAD IN THE WATERTHAR SHE FLOATS! Deader than flotsam, right in the thirty-foot kelp tower at the Monterey Aquarium.She’s the aquarium director herself, beloved by all except Marty Whitehead, lawyer Rebecca Schwartz’s weekend hostess, now cooling her heels in the county clink.

     Charlotte police officer Jordan Monroe is used to being in control. Ever since his father died, he has provided for his mother and sisters and even hired his two brothers-in-law to help run his successful construction company. On a chance business trip, however, he meets the one person who throws his life into a whirlwind--Jaynee.Jaynee has lived a tragic life and has sworn off all men. That is until a rugged southern gentleman lands in her seating area, refusing to take no for an answer. From the moment they meet, Jordan sweeps her off her feet, assuring her that happiness exists. But can she really escape her past?Five years later, Jordan finds Jaynee on their back porch with a gunshot wound to the head. While Jaynee lies in a coma, Jordan has to go back to their beginning and figure out what went wrong. Did he push his wife to the edge, or has her past come back to haunt them? ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ "You'll be swept off your feet along with Jaynee as she discovers the man of her dreams. You'll be drawn into the drama. And you'll flip the pages fast as Jordan must desperately figure out the truth in time. I was and did!" -- New York Times bestselling author Jaime Rush⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ "SHE BELONGS TO ME is definitely a good suspenseful read. Ms. DeSousa is a talented author and I had no problem in connecting with the characters. The story displayed a realistic relationship between Jordan and Jaynee." -- The Romance Reviews

    In the past, Cole a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, worked for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Time Magazine. Now, he’s returned to the paper where he started his career, The Chicago Sentinel. Instead of writing the big stories, he’s doing the work of a rookie reporter. His “big story of the day” is a cat caught in a tree. During its rescue, the cat’s owner takes her Good Samaritan neighbor hostage. Cole witnesses something so disturbing it reawakens the journalist’s desire to write again.Returning to the paper, Cole finds a desperate message asking for help from Ellie, one that got away. The one that has continually haunted his life. Cole drops everything and flies to California. He must find what would make her so desperate, she would call him after so many years. Cole finds her terminally ill, and abandoned by her husband. He discovers while Ellie was heavily medicated, she mistakenly signed a Power of Attorney. Now her estranged daughter Erin’s inheritance, won’t go to her, but her abusive step-father. Cole vows to find the girl and right the situation.The path to keeping his word is blocked at every turn by the husband who abandoned her, his shady real estate deals, violent con men, street thugs and the lure of a fortune in diamonds that unite them. The anger, sorrow, and crippling guilt of twenty years fires Cole's drive to keep a promise, that in the end, will heal and return the soul to the great journalist.Beaten, bloody but determined, Cole Sage conquers greed and hatred with a strength that only love, and a will as hard as diamond, can achieve.

    But her plans of settling into a normal life are derailed when she witnesses a prominent judge in her community committing a violent assault. Running from her own past and fueled by a passion to make the judge answer for his crimes, Piper is forced to decide if she’ll play by the rules or achieve justice in her own way.Complicating things further, Piper finds herself fighting a powerful attraction to rookie cop, Bobby Wright. Although she’s increasingly enamored with Bobby, his staunch belief in the justice system is in stark contrast to her own. She may not share his opinions about the effectiveness of the law, but she certainly can’t deny how safe she feels when she’s in his arms or how every kiss leaves her desperate for more.For Piper, the idea of finally living an ordinary life with a man to love is tempting. However, fate keeps placing the judge, quite literally, in her path. Will she decide the only way to win is to be as wicked as the judge, but with righteous intentions? And more importantly, will Bobby choose to let her go, or follow her as she crosses the line and takes justice into her own hands?

    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.