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

    Her career with the FBI looks promising, and her wedding is on the horizon. But, she learns, all is not as it seems in suburbia. Chloe begins to see the underside—the gossip, the secrets, the lies—and she finds herself haunted by her own demons: her mother’s mysterious death when she was 10, and her father’s imprisonment. And when a fresh body is found, Chloe soon realizes that her past, and this small town, might hold the key to solving both.An emotionally wrought psychological suspense with layered characters, small-town ambiance and heart-pounding suspense, NEXT DOOR is book #1 in a riveting new series that will leave you turning pages late into the night.

    Nobody knows her father was a notorious serial killer. And she intends to keep it that way.Then Nora discovers one of her young female patients has been murdered. In the same unique and horrific manner that her father used to kill his victims.Somebody knows who Nora is. Somebody wants her to take the fall for this unthinkable crime. But she’s not a killer like her father. The police can’t pin anything on her.As long as they don’t look in her basement.

    His clients are all renegades from the asylum, including a transvestite entertainer with curious medical issues, a buxom deadbeat blonde, a doctor who refers his own patients to a malpractice lawyer, and the driver of a Mardi Gras float shaped like a giant crawfish pot. He also has his hands full with an ex-wife and three teenage daughters, who are experts in the art of wrapping Tubby around their little fingers. And somehow, between work and family, Tubby finds time to sample the highs and lows of idiosyncratic Crescent City cuisine, from trout meuniere amandine and French roast coffee with chicory to shrimp po-boys and homemade pecan pralines. Tubby is asked to take on a new client: Darryl Alvarez, the manager of a local nightclub, who has been caught unloading fifteen bales of marijuana from a shrimp boat. At their first meeting, Darryl entrusts Tubby with an ordinary-looking blue gym bag. But when Darryl is later found shot at the nightclub, Tubby realizes he must tighten his grasp on the gym bag - and its million-dollar contents. Tubby can't just give up the cash. But if he gets caught, he'll be in jail. And if the wrong people catch him, he'll wish he was.

    Now an ordinary wife and mother, she hides a terrible secret someone is determined to expose to the world. Who is Polly's mystery stalker? And what do they know about the events that occurred in the woods that long ago July day?

     Moving through streets where people line up at soup kitchens, Maggie draws information from sources others overlook: The waitress at the dime store lunch counter where she has breakfast; a ragged newsboy; the other career girls at her rooming house. Her digging gets her chloroformed and left in a ditch behind the wheel of her DeSoto. She makes her way to an upscale bordello and gets tea – and information – from the madam herself. A gunman puts a bullet through Maggie’s hat. Her shutterbug pal on the evening paper warns her off. A new cop whose presence unsettles her thinks she’s crooked. Before she finds all the answers she needs, she faces a half-crazed man with a gun, and a far more lethal point-blank killer. If you like Robert B. Parker's hard boiled Spencer series and strong women sleuths, don't miss this one-of-a-kind Ohio detective from a time in United States history when dames wore hats -- but seldom a Smith & Wesson.

    Which should be easy, given his assignment is a routine protection detail for Stanley Tuchek, the California Governor’s son. But on the first morning of protection an intruder breaks into Chase’s home. When the cops arrive and discover Chase’s unusual collection of weapons, he’s taken to the local police station for questioning. By the time Chase catches up with the governor’s son, Stanley gets shot, and Chase starts to suspect this might all have something to do with his own murky black-ops past. Though he’s pulled off protection, and ordered to stay away from Stanley, Chase won’t let the case go. Desperate to figure out what’s going on, Chase begins an unofficial investigation that takes him from a bullet ridden confrontation with a government hitman to a conspiracy that reaches to the highest level of American intelligence. With no-one to trust, and the line between good and evil becoming increasingly blurred, Garrison Chase must do everything in his power to uncover the truth, stop the conspiracy, and bring down the players involved.

    No matter what.Born into a wealthy but flawed North Carolina shipbuilding family, Chase was somehow immune to the dysfunction. The sky was the limit for the 18-year old football prodigy, until one terrible event changed the course of his life and prison became his new home. Through the highs and lows of his incarceration, there was one person he couldn’t forget, no matter how hard he’d tried: childhood best friend Bailey Masters. For reasons unknown to him, she'd shunned him ever since her mysterious return to Foggy Harbor at the beginning of their sophomore year.Now, seven years into a twelve-year manslaughter sentence, Chase is given an unusual second chance, one that comes with its own set of rules. Suddenly, he's thrust into a position he's not ready for: the tip of the spear in a quiet war against an American enemy. A war that could cost him his family . . . and his life.

    But when eight-year-old Tanisha Walker offers him a jar full of change to find her missing brother, he doesn’t have the heart to turn her away.Justin had hoped to find the boy alive and well. But all that was found of Devon Walker was his brutally murdered body—and the bodies of twelve other African American teenagers, all discarded like trash in a mass grave. Each had been reported missing. And none had been investigated.As simmering racial tensions explode into violence, Justin finds himself caught in the tide. And as he gives voice to the discontent plaguing the city’s forgotten and ignored, he vows to search for the killer who preys upon them.

    James Rollins and Clive Cussler have nothing on Paul Kemprecos who has been and continues to be a master of the form and then some. This is everything a great read should be, a riveting, tried-and true tale of quests and daring-do, of great heroes and equally contemptuous villains. There’s a reason why Kemprecos is a #1 New York Times bestselling author and it’s all on display here.” —Jon Land, bestselling author of ”Pandora’s Temple” “A brilliant mystery that combines suspense with exciting adventure. Intriguing plot twists from beginning to end shrouded under genuine history.” —Clive Cussler, New York Times bestselling author of “Zero Hour” Something bad happened to Matinicus "Matt" Hawkins in Afghanistan. The ex-SEAL was grievously wounded in an ambush that killed men under his command and almost ended his life. When he pushed for an investigation, he was kicked out of the Navy with a psychiatric discharge. The doctors put his shattered leg back together, but the bitterness destroyed his marriage. Five years later, Hawkins is jerked out of his tranquil life as a designer of undersea robots. A super-secret government group wants him to go back to Afghanistan on a strange and dangerous mission. A Georgetown University historian has unearthed evidence that could lead to the fabulous treasure of Prester John, a legendary Christian ruler of an eastern empire. The historian has disappeared, and the government wants Hawkins to track down the treasure as a matter of national security. The centerpiece of the trove, an emerald-encrusted gold scepter, is the linchpin in the Prophet's Necklace, code-name for a plot that is intended to kill more people than the attack on the Twin Towers and rally others to the terrorist cause. Hawkins sees his mission to foil the plot as an opportunity to search for answers. He pulls together an eclectic team that includes his ex-wife, a former comrade-in-arms and a mentally unstable computer whiz. Backed by his unlikely team, Hawkins will travel thousands of miles and hundreds of years on an amazing time-space odyssey. He'll face off against a cold-blooded killer. Probe the underwater secrets of an ancient tomb. Navigate the treacherous stands of an unimaginable conspiracy. And in the process, will discover that there are treasures even more valuable than gold.

    Lily Sparks was born with a perfect eye. As Conservator of Paintings at the Denver Art Museum, she uses her keen visual powers to restore masterpieces and detect what's authentic and what is not. When the museum's billionaire benefactor is brutally murdered and Lily is dragged into the case, the grisly tableau stuns her: it's the human embodiment of the museum's prized landscape by famed Impressionist Gustave Caillebotte. Lily comes to believe the Caillebotte was forged and the killer is a painter the art world spurned. But this knowledge comes at a terrible cost. As she confronts where art ends and fraud begins, she must face the deceptions in her own past.

    An anonymous young woman murdered in a run-down hotel, all identifying characteristics dissolved by acid. A father publicly beheaded in the blistering heat of a Saudi Arabian public square. A notorious Syrian biotech expert found eyeless in a Damascus junkyard. Smoldering human remains on a remote mountainside in Afghanistan. A flawless plot to commit an appalling crime against humanity. One path links them all, and only one man can make the journey. Pilgrim.'

    Now he's out - for revenge.Former CIA officer James 'Wes' Wesley paid the ultimate price for his patriotism when he was locked up in a French jail for an anti-terror operation gone wrong - abandoned by the Agency he served, shunned by his colleagues and friends, cut off from his family.Now he is shattered by the news that his ex-wife, Rachel, a State Department analyst, has been killed in a terrorist attack in Spain. He also discovers that his young son, Ethan, is missing. But Wes didn't know he had a son - until now.Why was Rachel in Spain? And why did she keep his son secret from him?Granted early release, Wes takes flight across Europe to search for the truth and exact his revenge. But can he catch the spies who betrayed him before they track him down? In order to find the answers and save his son, Wes realises he must confront the dark secrets in his own past - before it's too late.

    He has been headhunted because of his particular skill set; that of a super efficient stone cold killer. The stories throughout the series will cover the activities of the secret organisation which recruited the man they have named ‘The Phoenix’ as they send their agents across the world removing anyone who poses a threat to political or economic stability.In this fast paced thriller we follow 'The Phoenix' as he exacts revenge and rights wrongs in his inimitable style. ‘The Phoenix’ has always been a loner; can he and his new colleagues work together as a team to prevent a terrorist cell from causing havoc in Central London?

     Eighteen-year-old Lydia Stone wakes up one morning in the north London gothic mansion she shares with her family, to find that her twin sister Kate has disappeared off the face of the earth. CCTV footage shows Kate entering a night club in south London on the night she went missing, but there is no evidence that she ever came out of the club, and police are considering the idea that she was sex-trafficked. In the days and weeks that follow, Lydia takes a closer look at her twin sister's life; her modelling career, penchant for fetish clubs, and interesting array of older friends. It seems like Kate was definitely hiding something. But she isn't the only one...