Yet even the most deliberate plans can go sideways. On his campaign south, the Marine’s “inner idiot” takes charge, leaving a smattering of dead bodies in his wake.In the dark before dawn, a telephone rings. Kern County Sheriff’s detective Lucas “Lucky” Dey, no stranger to being awakened with bad news, answers the call. But this time, the voice on the phone tells Lucky that his ill-fated younger brother has been gunned down on a blackened desolate highway.As Lucky chases the former Marine and his black semi-rig into the bowels of Los Angeles, he’s thrust into a landscape of competing agendas. Conrad Ellis, the multi-millionaire entertainment mogul, demands justice for the murder of his starlet daughter. Ambitious federal attorney Lilly Zoller is determined to turn any opportunity into her personal spotlight. Rey Palomino, the morally challenged contractor, colludes with the former Marine hoping to crawl out from under a crushing debt. LAPD detective and dedicated single mom Lydia "Gonzo" Gonzales, reluctantly accepts her assignment to "babysit" the unrestrained Kern County detective hell-bent on avenging his brother's death at any cost.A knee-breaking private detective, some unwitting feds, and a coterie of gang-busting L.A. Sheriffs deputies further complicate the scenario and round out the cast of characters in this explosive and unpredictable thrill ride.

    M. Mitchell has been compared to Ruth Rendell, Martina Cole, Dean Koontz, Stephen King, M. R. James, Linwood Barclay, Umberto Eco, Charles Dickens and many more. Now's the time to discover D. M. Mitchell for yourself... THE WOMAN FROM THE BLUE LIAS - a murder mystery and psychological thriller with a difference... Toby Turner didn’t expect to stumble upon the remains of a human skeleton, washed down from the cliff top by a recent landslip. He runs a small bookshop in the quiet seaside town of Lyme Regis in Dorset. His life’s not quite on track; his bookshop’s not doing too well, for one thing, and he’s not sure his relationship with his girlfriend-cum-fiancé Trisha is going anywhere either – at least, nowhere she would like it to go. Toby takes a walk along the Blue Lias cliffs on Monmouth Beach to think things through, and here he finds the body of a woman; a woman, it transpires, who was murdered in 1978. The gruesome discovery and the resulting media attention he receives would have been hard enough to cope with, but he soon suspects the woman who keeps coming into his shop is the woman from the Blue Lias, that he is being haunted by the very woman he found on the beach. What’s more, he finds himself falling for her, eventually feeling he is unable to live without her. Is she real, or is he imagining things? His strange obsession starts to have a negative effect on his life and his health, which begins to deteriorate. He decides to try and solve the mystery of her death and why she chose him, of all people, hoping by discovering what happened to her all those years ago they can both find peace. And so begins Toby Turner’s bizarre journey of discovery that will lead him into very dark and dangerous territory. His search leads him to a hotel that used to stand high on the cliff, lost to a landslide in the 1980s, and to an old musician called Steely Jacobs who appears to be linked to the dead woman. But events take an unexpectedly disturbing contemporary turn when Toby discovers his best friend Mark has been secretly amassing information on a number of missing young women going back a decade or more. He learns about Mark’s secret past and how he'd been implicated in the murder of his teenage girlfriend. Is this tragic death connected to the list of missing young women he's made? And what has their disappearance got to do with the body Toby discovered on the beach, a woman murdered thirty-five years ago? How is all this connected to the mysterious hotel called the Belle Vue, long ago collapsed into the sea, and the aged guitarist called Steely Jacobs? Not only has he uncovered a body, Toby Turner had inadvertently scuffed away the thin covering of dirt from dark, long-held secrets that will lead him into a corrupt world of vice and murder. His life will never be the same again. D. M. Mitchell pens yet another taut psychological thriller complete with supernatural chills, peopled with an array of larger-than-life characters, deliciously devious twists and turns, with every seemingly disparate thread coming neatly together in a trademark surprise ending that will leave you speechless…

    Meanwhile, the world stands on the brink of war as a CIA plot to incite a conflict between the Muslim oil countries and Israel unfolds. Three Covert Operatives have already been brutally murdered.Enter John Drake, a man driven by personal demons, who is determined to bring his own brand of justice to this ruthless gang.Tracking the most powerful enemy he has ever faced, haunted by trauma from his past, Drake must ultimately confront the most terrifying identity of all - his own.An impossible mission becomes even tougher when Drake's assignment propels him to the fulcrum of a new World War.

     Detective Kyle Villante gets his first call after coming off a two-year undercover stint that ended in a bloodbath and marred his reputation with the brass. But he doesn’t get to work the case alone. Detective Solomon Aduwo of the State Police has arrived in Harding to assist with the investigation. Villante bristles at the perceived leash around his neck, but he and Aduwo set out to work the case, all while Villante struggles to keep secrets and ghosts of the past from coming back to haunt him. Meanwhile, Aduwo has come to Harding with secrets of his own and an agenda that could doom Villante’s future. Murder Upstream is a thrilling mystery, full of vivid characters, puzzling questions, action and suspense.

     Warrior. Patriot. Traitor? Jacques Fontaine always wanted to serve but he never expected to lead this band of brothers. Different nationalities, different languages, a collection of misfits. And the world's elite terrorist hunters. Sent to Iraq during the US drawdown on what appears to be a routine investigation, they find themselves under attack from insurgents, the military and unseen forces with widespread political connections. With their careers—if not their lives—under threat, Fontaine must lead his unit through the fire if this isn't to become their final tour of duty. "There is absolutely nothing to not like about this series debut if you like thrillers!" - Reader Review "Action packed story with realistic elements." - Reader Review USA Today bestseller list 6 April 2017

    No matter how much time has passed, it’s always there, ready to punch you in the chest when you least expect it. All it takes is something ordinary—a brief glance, a certain food, or a melody on the radio—and regret strikes hard and fast. For Odessa Feldman, the trigger is a Pacific Northwest storm. When the muddy bones of a murder victim buried over fifty years ago are discovered in the storm’s aftermath, Odessa overcomes her long struggle with guilt to finally reveal the truth. But her overdue confession comes with a difficult price—reliving her role in the tragic summer of 1956 and worse, betraying the best friend she’d ever had. Dessa and Ellie Matthews were both fourteen-years-old when they met that summer. Ellie’s father was a foreman at the dam under construction on the Columbia River. At least that’s what he said. But, like murder and the motives behind it, some things in life are rarely as they seem.

    He has few possessions and few friends. He works part-time in the little shop downstairs, and spends most of his free hours out on the open water with just his board and the waves. But he is about to be pulled back into action by a voice out of one of his former lives. He is asked to keep a woman named Lindsay Hammond alive for the next 72 hours, as an army of street thugs, career criminals and professional assassins press in around them from every direction. As they go off the grid, surviving minute to minute, cutting off all contact with the outside world, Lindsay learns to trust Archer in a way she has never trusted anyone before.

    His fiancée has been kidnapped, and Farr is given only twenty-four hours to follow and solve a trail of ten hidden clues, or she dies. Identifying the abductor could provide Farr with a vital shortcut for locating his fiancée. But with each new clue connected to a different criminal from his past cases, which offender should he pursue? With the window closing fast, Farr must race the clock to rescue his love…or be consumed by the madness and violence he had thought left behind.

    Given a set of rules and the promise of a generous compensation package at the end, can several hundred people govern themselves and live in relative harmony for six years? The experiment, designed to mimic future colonization on a distant planet, appears to be a huge success. Until something goes terribly wrong… Two undercover operatives from an ultra-clandestine government agency called The Circle are sent to investigate. When Diana Dawkins and Nicholas Colt discover the shocking truth, it’s clear the experiment must be stopped. What isn’t clear is if they’ll make it out alive.

    It’s not long before Inoue discovers that nearly everyone involved in the case is harbouring their own secrets and lies.However, when a second university employee is murdered on campus in the dead of night, Inoue’s Commanding Officer – Superintendent Takenaka – takes over the case and makes a sudden arrest, eager for the high profile case to be closed as soon as possible.But whilst everyone is convinced they have caught the murderer, Chief Inspector Inoue is certain that they have the wrong man.Inoue faces his greatest challenge to date – risking professional ruin and disgrace in a race to find the killer.But with everyone around him a potential suspect, who can he trust?Can the small town of Fujikawa ever return to normal?Or is it impossible to find perfect justice in an imperfect world?‘Imperfect Strangers’ is a gripping murder mystery and an intriguing dissection of modern day Japan.'A thrilling page-turner.' - Tom Kasey, best-selling author of 'Cold Kill'. Lea O’Harra, an American by birth, has lived in Japan for over 30 years. This is her first novel and marks the first book in the Inspector Inoue series. Endeavour Press is the UK's leading independent digital publisher.

    After her sometime boyfriend —a CIA agent— is murdered before her eyes, she finds herself holding a ticket to Moscow and a mysterious metal card. A far cry from her usual pairing of a Faulkner novel and bottle (or two) of white Bordeaux.Alone and haunted by her lover’s death, apolitical Lily resolves to complete his mission and find out who killed him. Masquerading as a gung-ho member of the American Communist Party, she travels to Moscow, where she is contacted by Pasha Tarkhan. Brutal, yet charismatic, Tarkhan is both a high-ranking Soviet official and CIA asset, not to mention a covert supporter of the Russian Spiritual Underground. This alliance of self-styled “deists” have rejected the secular Soviet state and vowed to bring it down by means of faith, prayer...and blood.Grinding her old life beneath the heel of her Dior stiletto, Lily puts her new one on the line, surrendering to fate, love and, for once, events bigger than herself.

    Break the Story. Stay Alive.One year after the 9/11 attacks, Alex Vane--a brilliant, fitness-obsessed reporter for The New York Standard--wants nothing more than to break into the flashy world of TV news. But when he uncovers the scoop of a lifetime, his tightly controlled world is rocked: his editor buries his story, a source turns up dead, and Alex finds himself at the center of a violent media conspiracy.As he receives tips from a mysterious source, Alex enlists the help of a captivating professor, Camila Gray. Aided by an Internet genius, a billionaire's sexy widow, and a washed-up sports reporter, Alex and Camila discover a $500-million secret that could derail the largest media merger in history.It's a secret that unearths dark memories from Alex's past. It's a secret that leads back to the morning of 9/11. And it's a secret that could get them both killed. Book 2: THE INVERTED PYRAMID Uneasy Lies the Head that Wears a Crown.Journalist Alex Vane has finally found stability. He's living with a fiery massage therapist and co-managing a website that investigates the inner workings of the media. But when he breaks a story detailing low-level political corruption in Washington, a source hints at a vaster conspiracy, one that may reach all the way to the top of the fast-approaching 2004 presidential election.At a conference in Seattle, Alex runs into an old friend--and flame--Media Studies Professor Camila Gray. But just as they begin to reconnect, Alex's business partner disappears, leaving Alex only one clue: the name of a hacker who was recently murdered in New York City.Alex and Camila travel to Alex's hometown, where they race to untangle a web of connections between the dead hacker, the disappearance of Alex's partner, and the death of Alex's parents seven years earlier. But all the while, a mysterious source is pulling the strings of their investigation, of the election, and possibly of their lives. Book 3: THE MOCKINGBIRD DRIVE Data Never Dies. But People Do.Alex Vane was once a top investigative journalist. Now he peddles celebrity gossip and clickbait listicles, watching from a distance as his wife moves on with her life - without him. Alex's past catches up with him when he learns that an old source, James Stacy, has been killed in a random mass shooting.But James left Alex one last scoop: a 50-year-old hard drive that may contain a secret worth killing for...

    In 1986, while Kate was a college student at Sweet Briar in western Virginia, she was raped and witnessed a murder. Kate’s eyewitness testimony convicts a man who’s released more than 20 years later based on DNA evidence. The development isn’t a complete surprise to Kate, who has lived with the knowledge that she perjured herself. Her life since the trial has been a disappointment, and her social life is limited by her possessive and creepy father, Pop, who keeps her on a tight leash. That constraint becomes even more difficult to bear when Kate, who works as a landscaper, falls for a gardener, Tony, and hopes she has found the love of her life. Things don’t go smoothly, and more blood is shed along the way to a jaw-dropping, but logical, climax that will make veteran mystery readers eager for more of Buhmann’s work. Big Al's Books & Pals 2014 Readers' Choice Awards: Mystery Nominee Twenty years ago, Kate Cranbrook’s eyewitness testimony sent the wrong man to prison for rape and murder. When new evidence exonerates him, Kate says that in the darkness and confusion, she must have mistaken her attacker’s identity. She is lying. Kate would like nothing better than to turn her back on the past, but she is trapped in a stand-off with the real killer. When a body turns up on her doorstep, she resorts to desperate measures to free herself once and for all from a secret that is ruining her life.

    Five months later, the mayor is dead, found collapsed in his mine. His widow asks Flint to investigate. He agrees to help her as a favor but expects to find that Joe died of natural causes.To Flint's horror, he discovers instead that Joe was hiding a terrible secret from his wife and the town. Joe's unexpected death pulls back a curtain and exposes a criminal enterprise thriving in Hallelujah's dark and remote mines.Human monsters roam those hidden corridors, torturing and killing innocent victims. And when more murders follow, the town turns to the marshal they once cast aside, praying for him to save them all.

    For fans of John D. MacDonald, Raymond Chandler, Mickey Spillane and Elmore Leonard. Goodey's Last Stand (Joe Goodey #1) - Hailed as “...the next best thing to finding a new and unsuspected Raymond Chandler phantasmagoria” (The New Yorker), this hard boiled mystery novel might be Joe Goodey’s last. After the San Francisco PD dismisses Joe Goodey from the force and runs him out of town for shooting the mayor’s cousin, the ex-detective's career prospects look bleak. But then a local exotic dancer turns up murdered—and more importantly, her secret journal of clients goes missing. The mayor himself extends Joe Goodey the offer: save the city's esteemed politicians from public embarrassment by retrieving the dancer's black book and Joe gets his badge back. But fail to deliver, and there are far worse fates than death for a down-and-out former cop. Not Sleeping, Just Dead (Joe Goodey #2) - She was rich, young and pretty—so why did Katie Pierce jump? Unless she didn’t. Former San Francisco detective turned private investigator Joe Goodey is broke and needs a case. When a wealthy man shows up at Goodey's local watering hole and cuts him a check on the spot to investigate his wealthy niece’s alleged suicide, Goodey immediately shuttles off to the scene of the crime: a mansion housing a local cult called The Institute. To find the killer and uncover the truth about Katie Pierce's death, Goodey must infiltrate The Institute's ranks. But as the investigation twists and turns through the mansion's labyrinthine halls, Goodey finds that the murderer might not even be the most dangerous person in the group. Fighting Back - When Harry Castor opens a bar to support his family, no sooner do the doors open than local gangster Charlie Rizzo waltzes right through them, demanding a cut of the action. With his entire life's savings invested in the bar, Harry Castor can’t afford to pay Rizzo protection. But Harry can’t afford not to, either. Out of options, Harry concocts a desperate plan to fight back against the vicious mobster. But as the stakes escalate and the men's duel becomes more violent, both Harry and Rizzo realize that their thirst for vengeance and retribution could cost them the one thing they swore to protect—their families.