A boy running for his life. A town defending them both.From award-winning USA TODAY Bestselling Author BETTE LEE CROSBY, the first book of a gritty, small-town, family saga in the tradition of the finest Southern fiction.Small-town gossip never much bothered Olivia Westerly. As a single career woman, she's weathered her share. It's easy to ignore the raised eyebrows over her late-in-life marriage to Charlie Doyle. But after he drops dead on their honeymoon, the whispers are salt on her raw grief. Especially when an orphaned, eleven-year-old-boy shows up on her doorstep, looking for the grandfather he never met.Behind Ethan Allen Doyle's wary blue eyes lie heavily guarded emotions that unexpectedly tug on Olivia's heart, and she finds herself wanting to win his trust. But when his murderous secret comes looking for him, the entire town embraces the lonely widow and desperate child to show its true heart when danger threatens one of its own.A heartwarming tale of love, loss and unexpected gifts, featuring a woman you'd like to call friend, a boy you will ache to hug, and a town you wish you could call home. USA TODAY BESTSELLER AND WINNER OF FIVE LITERARY AWARDS - Royal Palm Literary Award, Reviewer's Choice Award, FPA President's Book Award, IAN Outstanding Fiction Award, Eadon Contemporary Fiction Award

    But behind closed doors, she's suffering.She has a life many women would kill for, complete with two healthy young children and a doting husband who puts her every want and need above his own. Her happy family is the envy of friends and neighbors alike.Looks can be quite deceiving. Layla's husband is in big, life-altering trouble and will soon be headed to federal prison. No one knows. Layla is desperate to keep it that way.Can she withstand the pressure? Will her marriage survive? And how will she hold true to her own sense of right and wrong? Her Broken Trust is the eighth book in the Rosemary Run Series featuring the women of a California town who face the darkness hiding beneath their community’s picturesque facade.

    A murdered girl. A case where everyone has something to hide...Hushabye (A Kate Redman mystery) is the new novel from crime writer Celina Grace, author of Lost Girls and The House on Fever Street.On the first day of her new job in the West Country, Detective Sergeant Kate Redman finds herself investigating the kidnapping of Charlie Fullman, the newborn son of a wealthy entrepreneur and his trophy wife. It seems a straightforward case... but as Kate and her fellow officer Mark Olbeck delve deeper, they uncover murky secrets and multiple motives for the crime.Kate finds the case bringing up painful memories of her own past secrets. As she confronts the truth about herself, her increasing emotional instability threatens both her hard-won career success and the possibility that they will ever find Charlie Fullman alive...

    One survived.Seventeen-year-old Jill Turner is the final girl, the lone survivor of a campsite massacre. Now, a killer is on the loose, and Jill holds the key to catching him. But this killer is no ordinary man. He is a monster, both alive and dead, and Jill knows this all too well. She knows what the monster is. She knows where he comes from. And she knows that he will kill again.For veteran homicide detective Darlene Moore, this case is personal. Having lost her daughter two years ago, she finds herself drawn to Jill, and she will stop at nothing to protect her. But there is something strange about Jill’s story, something that leads Darlene to wonder if the girl knows more about the killer than she is letting on.Jill is keeping a secret, one that has cost the lives of four of her friends. As Jill struggles with her past and the knowledge that her actions may have created a monster, Darlene races against time to stop a killer before he strikes again.

    Maggie Redmond is called to a crime scene on St. George Island, where she is met with the body of Gregory Boudreaux. The medical examiner calls it a suicide, but no one knows that Maggie has a horrible connection to the dead man.When Gregory’s uncle, Bennett Boudreaux, the richest and scariest man in town, takes a sudden interest in Maggie, people start to wonder, Maggie included. Maggie knows he may suspect her of killing his nephew, but she finds herself slowly drawn to the man.As Maggie fights to help a young girl escape the clutches of a volatile drug dealer who’d love to see Maggie dead, she also struggles to hide her dark link to a dead man, and her burgeoning relationship with her boss, Sheriff Wyatt Hamilton.Unfortunately, secrets have a way of revealing themselves at low tide.Riptide - Book 2Once again, sinister things are afoot in Apalachicola, FL, and one of them is an actual foot.When a local fisherman finds a severed limb in his net, it sets off a chain of events that no one can anticipate.Lt. Maggie Redmond soon discovers that the foot belongs to the friend of another recently dead guy, Gregory Boudreaux, the man she never told anyone about. Gregory’s death was thought to be a suicide. That seems less likely, now that his best friend Sport’s foot has shown up out of the blue, as it were.When it starts looking like town villain Bennett Boudreaux might be responsible for eliminating Sport, things begin to get a little weird. Especially since Maggie’s started to take a liking to Bennett. She’s also taken a real liking to her boss, Sheriff Wyatt Hamilton, but both her relationship to Bennett and her secret connection to the dead men threaten hers and Wyatt’s relationship.Is Bennett protecting or avenging Maggie for some reason, or does he have something altogether different on his mind?What Washes Up - Book 3Karma’s alive and well in Apalachicola, Florida, and there are several people who are about to meet it face to face. When more than a dozen bodies wash up on the beach on St. George Island, the residents of Apalach are outraged, and none more so than investigator Maggie Redmond and Sheriff Wyatt Hamilton. It’s time for the greedy to answer for the lives of innocents.Meanwhile, a man is found tied to a burning boat in the middle of the bay, and Maggie’s instincts tell her Bennett Boudreaux is behind it. But if he is, Maggie has to decide whether she really wants him punished, or if justice has already been served.Landfall - Book 4Two storms that nobody thought were coming just made landfall. As a hurricane gathers its power just off Apalachicola’s shore, another storm comes to a head in Lt. Maggie Redmond's home.Held prisoner by a man bent on avenging the death of a son, Maggie must find a way to save herself and her two children. No one knows where they are. No one is coming to help.Maggie and her children will have to find a way to survive both the madness inside their home and the madness raging outside.

    Pointing them out now no longer applies to the current edition.Tom Reed is a crime reporter with The San Francisco Star, whose superb journalistic skills earned him a Pulitzer nomination. But years later Reed’s life is coming apart. His editor wants him fired. His wife has left him to wrestle with his demons. Alone, Reed is tormented by the fear he may have caused the suicide of an innocent man suspected of murdering a two-year-old girl.Reed’s friend on the case is legendary San Francisco Homicide Inspector, Walt Sydowski, who has one of California’s highest clearance rates. He is also a lonely widower haunted by the fact he cannot solve the girl's heartbreaking death.Both men grapple with the past while they race the clock to learn the truth behind a several new abductions that have anguished the Bay Area, in this acclaimed thriller set in the late 1990s.

    The search for her brother and her career as a juvenile court attorney collide when she defends a nine-year-old whose father will go to any length to obtain custody. Sabre finds herself immersed in a case with too many unanswered questions. Her quest for the truth takes her coast to coast and five years into the past. Confronted with mysterious clues and strange occurrences, Sabre is threatened by someone wanting to make her suffer the unbearable anguish of losing everything-including her life. As Sabre's passion to find the answers intensifies, she discovers a twisted history of desperation, deceit, and revenge. And she discovers how obscure and treacherous the truth can be.

    A woman of many identities. Lucille to her doting mother, Lulu to her devoted husband, Mom to her pre-teen daughter, Lucy to her friends, LT to her co-workers, and Supervisory Special Agent Guardino to the criminals she captures for the FBI's Sexual Assault Felony Enforcement squad.A loving mom and wife, dutiful daughter, consummate professional, and kick-ass federal agent, Lucy is living the perfect life.Until the day she comes up against a predator more vicious and cunning than any she's ever tackled before, one who forces Lucy to choose between the life of the young victim she is fighting to save and her own daughter's....and Lucy's dream life is shattered.

    Josie, once a hot-shot criminal defense attorney, left the fast track behind for a small practice in Hermosa Beach, California. But Hannah Sheraton intrigues her and, when the girl is charged as an adult, Josie cannot turn her back. But the deeper she digs the more Josie realizes that politics, the law and family relationships have created a combustible and dangerous situation. When the horrible truth of the murder is uncovered it could save Hannah Sheraton or destroy them both.

    His car was found. He wasn't. Unbelievably, the police report said, "No foul play suspected." There were a few unreliable sightings over the following months, but little else.Now, on the last day before summer break, her three children have gone missing from their schools, all at the same time.And the note under her windshield wiper asks one simple question: Are you ready to play the game?

    She's just taking out the trash. Don’t call Lucy Kendall a serial killer. She’s fighting for the innocent, and she’ll do whatever it takes to bring justice. When a child disappears, Lucy quickly discovers the link to a predator she’s faced before–a man the state of Pennsylvania decided to turn loose on the streets. Determined to find the little girl and put a criminal behind bars for good, Lucy forces her way onto the case.As the search for the kidnapped child pulls Lucy into a web of evil beyond her darkest imagination, she’ll have to face her own dark truths to save the little girl–and herself.

    The sleuth is not a detective, private eye, or lawyer. He's an ordinary guy with an extraordinary dog.Jacob Martin is trying to make the best of a divorce and mid-life crisis when he gets a call at two o’clock Sunday morning from his mother. His sister has been arrested for the murder of her fourth husband, and his father is near death. Thus begins an adventure that takes Jake and his golden retriever from their Colorado retreat to a backwater town in the Missouri Ozarks where they search for cold-blooded killers, a cache of gold coins buried by Jesse James, and the love of a beautiful nurse.

    Now somebody says they can have him back. Dylan and Erin Reeve have lived with a gaping emotional wound ever since their five-year-old son, Kyle, was kidnapped in broad daylight. And never found. Though the shadow of their loss hangs heavy, Dylan and Erin have managed to get on with their lives, even finding bits of happiness along the way. Until one night when a crayon-scrawled note is slipped under Dylan Reeve's door. All it says is, Your son is alive. Could it be true? Or is it a sick game played by somebody out for money? Or something else? But what? And why now? As clues begin to emerge—both agonizing and expectant in their implications—Dylan and Erin Reeve know they have to play this out to the end. Because it's their last chance—and their only hope—to find the son they lost all those years ago. You'll be blown away by this domestic thriller with twists and turns and the beating heart of parental love.

    Little did he know . . .Two skeletons are discovered in Lamentation Tarn, a mountain lake.Talented detective Mike Nash and his team have little evidence with which to work, until a surprising discovery prompts them to contact law enforcement agencies in Eastern Europe.A joint task force is formed to uncover a criminal network involved in prostitution, drugs, and human trafficking, but Nash's preoccupation with internal politics, as well as with an attractive Russian detective, proves to be a distraction.Finally, a young victim escapes the gang's clutches, providing Nash with much needed evidence. A search of the neighboring tarn yields evidence of even more heinous crimes.Who else will die before the criminals are brought to bitter justice?Please note: this is a revised edition of Depth of Despair

    It's convenient and efficient. And potentially deadly. Assistant U.S. Attorney Aroostine Higgins put her personal life on hold to join the Department of Justice's elite Criminal Division. Now she’s prosecuting two men accused of attempting to bribe a foreign government official. But everything's going wrong. Her pretrial motion vanishes from the federal court's electronic docketing system. Her apartment catches fire. Routine dental surgery turns into a near-death experience. When Aroostine's past comes crashing into her present, her most critical vulnerability is exploited and she finally admits she isn't simply suffering a string of bad luck. An unseen enemy is determined to destroy her—and the only man she's ever loved—unless she finds him first. Critical Vulnerability is the latest whip-smart legal thriller by USA TODAY Bestselling Author Melissa F. Miller.