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This Isn't a Game: A Jackson Oliver Mystery (Jackson Oliver Mysteries #1)
by David MossA smart debut sends Jackson Oliver, head of online gambling casino VegasVegas, headquartered in San Jose, Costa Rica, to a New England village where he suspects someone has gotten away with murder—and used VegasVegas as part of the clever con. Jackson not only feels like a chump for accepting a bet that will cost VegasVegas a hundred grand, he's exposed the casino to blacklisting by the Offshore Gaming Association, which could ruin it.How did this happen? It's a celebrity-obsessed age. VegasVegas posts novelty propositions so its customers can bet on the outcome of TV shows like The Voice and The Bachelorette, and on political elections and celebrity murder trials. VegasVegas customers don't want to bet on speeding tickets or misdemeanor theft. They're star-obsessed. Athlete, musician, actor, socialite—the more the victim or alleged perpetrator shows up on TMZ, the more money bettors fork out. So VegasVegas offered odds on various outcomes in the trial of a movie director accused of murdering his wife. The trial comes fourteen months after Andrew Marvel's arrest, and conviction seems certain. When a customer bets $1,000 that all charges will be dropped—an outcome so unlikely that the odds are 100 to 1—Jackson takes the bet.Audrey Marvel was killed in the couple's lakeside summer home in Greensboro, Vermont. Audrey's blood was all over Andrew's clothes, which the police found at the bottom of the lake. Andrew's wild account that he'd been drugged with Doxepin and hijacked sounds like it was ghostwritten by the prosecutor. Yet two days after the bet made at VegasVegas, an unshakable video alibi for Andrew surfaces, proving the director was three hours away at the time of Audrey's murder. And all charges are dropped.Jackson suspects the bettor, a Greensboro resident, had inside information—or worse—making the bet fraudulent and letting VegasVegas off the hook. With no time to lose proving his theory, Jackson hops a plane to Vermont. There, working undercover, he begins to investigate the Marvel murder. A ring of antique weathervane thieves and an attractive crime blogger with movie scripts in her past figure in.This Isn't a Game starts a series where Jackson will explore both crimes and new career trajectories.
Frag Box (Herman Jackson Series #0)
by Richard A. Thompson2018 Colorado Book Award finalist"Featuring a crime spree and a murderer, both as cold as the Midwestern winter setting, this whodunit will burn like frostbite." —Library JournalIt's the Garden of Eden. And the weather is absolutely freezing!The discovery of the body of a young man inside the mausoleum of the Civil War veteran who commissioned this bizarre sculpture park makes the blood of Undersheriff Lottie Albright and her husband's Aunt Dorothy run cold. Dorothy Mercer, paying a visit to Western Kansas from Manhattan, may be a bestselling mystery novelist, but she is truly shocked confronting murder firsthand.But the real bone-chiller is yet to come.With snow coming on, Lottie and Dorothy act quickly to preserve the crime scene while awaiting the arrival of Sheriff Sam Adams. Eyes, and boots, on the ground, they measure and photograph underneath the park's bizarre parade of tree-high sculptures. Why would they look up?Reaching Woman stands some forty feet in the air, trapped in stone. And in her arms—a ghastly bundle. It takes the sharp eyes of the old sheriff to spot her burden. It breaks all hearts when it's brought to earth, a second body, so fresh, so frozen, so forlorn.Lottie, transitioning from local historian to the politicking necessary to organize a regional crime center, is made the lead investigator. It's a test of the concept and of her role as its director. She needs investigators, forensics, technology, manpower—and a psychologist to pit wits with a clearly deranged killer. Her twin, Kansas City's Dr. Josie Albright, is the perfect choice.Frank Dimon at the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, a reluctant champion of the regional concept, believes too many members of Lottie's family—her veterinarian/deputy husband Keith, Josie, even Dorothy—are on Lottie's team. But Frank's insertion of a forensic psychologist of his own choosing sets off a ferocious conflict between Josie and his appointee, Dr. Evan Ferguson, as a hastily assembled crew from the region's counties pits rural wisdom against the KBI's sophisticated methods. Frustration mounts and urgency grows as more statues of women cradling victims are found, the vicious winter weather aiding the psychopath's work.No matter how cutting edge the technology, you can't beat luck. In a break from the stress, Lottie begins to read a Commonplace Book deposited at the Historical Society. As she follows the heartbreaking words penned by a desperate, shunned child of stunning inner beauty and strength, his observations provide the key—at a terrible cost.
The RagTime Traveler (Ragtime Mysteries #4)
by Larry Karp Casey Karp"The fourth Ragtime Mystery is filled with warmth and wonder and interesting music trivia, buoyed by the relationship between the two sleuths, which may well echo that between the late Larry Karp and his son, who finished this final installment after his death." —Kirkus ReviewsIt takes one moment in 2016 for ragtime music expert Alan Chandler to go from sitting in his hotel room in Sedalia, Missouri, to standing beside the King of Ragtime—Scott Joplin—at his upright piano in 1899. Chandler suddenly finds himself more than one hundred years earlier inside the famous Maple Leaf Club with its gas chandeliers, massive walnut bar, gaming tables, and pals surrounding the noted pianist and composer."What in the hell is going on? Am I dreaming?"Clearly something unexpected is going on for Chandler in the fourth and final Ragtime Mystery by father and son Larry Karp and Casey Karp. A longtime friend Mickey Potash phones Chandler, top ragtime performer and national expert on Joplin, to say that a duffel filled with Joplin's handwritten music has surfaced. Chandler and his grandson, Tom, race from Seattle to Sedalia to evaluate what may be the most important find in popular American music. Potash shows them initial pages which look authentic, but before they can get the duffel hidden in a padlocked closet, he is tortured and murdered. The duffel is stolen.Disappointment encourages a resurgence of symptoms in Chandler's Stage 4 cancer. He's determined to validate the music before time runs out. Tom, and later his wife, Miriam, help him. Another murder complicates their investigation. The trail to the duffel is crowded: Jackson and Saramae, two young people with journalism in their blood, want to solve the crime, as do homicide detectives and antique shopkeepers. Not surprisingly, the roots of the lost music lie in past emotional conflict, now tangled in genealogical warfare.
Big Wheat: A Tale of Bindlestiffs and Blood
by Richard A. ThompsonThe summer of 1919 is over, and on the high prairie, a small army of men, women, and machines moves across the land, bringing in the wheat harvest. Custom threshers, steam engineers, bindlestiffs, cooks, camp followers, and hobos join the tide. Big Wheat is king as people gleefully embrace the gospels of progress and greed.But with Big Wheat comes a serial killer who calls himself the Windmill Man. He believes he has a holy calling to water the newly plucked earth with blood. The mobile harvest provides an endless supply of ready victims. He has been killing for years now and intends to kill for many more.A young man named Charlie Krueger also follows the harvest. Jilted by his childhood sweetheart and estranged from his drunkard father, he hopes to find a new life as a steam engineer. But in a newly harvested field in the nearly black Dakota night, he has come upon a strange man digging a grave. And in that moment, Charlie becomes the only person who has seen the face of a killer....
A Killing Season (Medieval Mysteries #8)
by Priscilla RoyalBaron Herbert's return from crusade should have been a joyous occasion. Instead, he grows increasingly morose, withdraws from his family, and refuses to share his wife's bed. When his sons begin to die in strange accidents, some ask whether Herbert harbors a dark sin for which God has cursed him.Then the baron suddenly sends for Sir Hugh of Wynethorpe, begging his friend to bring spiritual and secular healers but giving little explanation for the request. Worried about Herbert's descent into melancholy and the tragic deaths, Sir Hugh persuades his sister, Prioress Eleanor of Tyndal Priory, as well as a respected physician, Master Gamel, to accompany him. Although he is pleased when the prioress brings her healer, Sister Anne, he is surprised to find the mysterious Brother Thomas included.Is there a malign presence at this storm-blasted castle, oddly named Doux et Dur? Tensions spark among family members and soon ignite too among those who came to help. Death's scythe harvests more victims, and it is not long before Ecclesiastes' grim words seem all too apt: there is a season for everything under heaven, including a time to kill....
Cactus Heart (David Mapstone Mysteries #0)
by Jon TaltonIn this "prequel" to the popular David Mapstone mysteries, author Jon Talton takes us back to 1999, when everything dot-com was making money, the Y2K bug was the greatest danger facing the world, and the good times seemed as if they would never end.It was a time before David and Lindsey were together, before Mike Peralta was sheriff, and before David had rid himself of the sexy and mysterious Gretchen.In Phoenix, it's the sweet season and Christmas and the new millennium are only weeks away. But history professor David Mapstone, just hired by the Sheriff's Office, still finds trouble, chasing a robber into an abandoned warehouse and discovering a gruesome crime from six decades ago.Mapstone begins an investigation into a Depression-era kidnapping that transfixed Arizona and the nation: the disappearance of a cattle baron's grandsons, their bodies never found. And although the kidnapper was caught and executed, Mapstone uncovers evidence that justice was far from done. But this is no history lesson. The cattle baron's heirs now run a Fortune 500 company and wield far more clout than a former-professor-turned-deputy. Then one of the heirs turns up dead....
But Remember Their Names: A Cynthia Jakubek Legal Thriller (Cynthia Jakubek Legal Thrillers #0)
by Hillary Bell LockeThere's one corpse too many in a Pittsburgh museum's life-size diorama of the Battle of Lexington, 1775. The extra body is that of philanthropist and art connoisseur T. Colfax Bradshaw. But why? Maybe he knew too much about the biggest art heist in history.When their daughter Caitlin seeks legal advice, newly minted lawyer Cynthia Jakubek finds herself representing the teen. Jakubek aches to jump from Main Street to Wall Street but is stuck interning for ace Pittsburgh attorney Luis Mendoza while she waits for her future New York employer to recover from the Great Recession. Or for her fiancé to finish his post-modern novel....Protecting Caitlin will take Jakubek from a ghetto church in Pittsburgh to a confessional at St. Patrick's Cathedral to the opulent Manhattan office. Along the way she'll meet people who carry guns on the job and she'll pick up a broken nose and a broken heart for her trouble....
Gentlemen Formerly Dressed (Rowland Sinclair WWII Mysteries #5)
by Sulari GentillA fascinating historical mystery by Sulari Gentill, author of #1 LibraryReads pick The Woman in the Library"This book has it all: intrigue among the British aristocracy, the Nazi threat and a dashing Australian hero. I didn't want it to end!" —Rhys Bowen, New York Times bestselling authorHandsome, wry, and witty despite his impeccable manners, and the dedicated black sheep of his conservative, wealthy Australian family, Rowland Sinclair prefers to leave managing the immense family fortune and politics to his elder brother, Wil, while pursuing a life as a gentleman artist. A life in company of boho housemates Clyde, a fellow painter; Milton, a plagiarising poet; and Edna, the beautiful, emancipated sculptress who is both his muse and the (unacknowledged) love of his life.Having barely escaped 1933 Germany while reluctantly pursuing an off-the-books mission in Munich, the usually stoic Rowly remains horrified and deeply troubled by the changes that have come about under the Nazi government. For the first time he is moved to take a stance politically, to try and sway the political thought of the time. A friend of the Left and son of the Right, Rowland doesn't really know what he is doing, or what should be done, but he is consumed with a notion that something should be done. Plus he needs to recuperate.And so Rowly and his friends make for England, where a British aristocrat is soon found murdered in his club, dressed in a negligée impaled by a sword. It's too bizarre a death for a gentleman. His murder, and the suspicion falling on his young niece, quickly plunge the Australians into a world of trouble.Featuring the dark underbelly of the, British aristocracy, fascists, illicit love, scandal, and spies, as well as players like H.G. Wells and Winston Churchill, this Rowland Sinclair WWII Mystery will appeal to fans of Rhys Bowen, Kerry Greenwood, and Jacqueline Winspear.
Prairie Gothic (Mad Dog & Englishman Series #0)
by J. M. HayesAs a howling blizzard blows down upon the sparsely-populated Benteen County seat of Buffalo Springs, Kansas, Sheriff English encounters a doll and a dead baby. Their bodies have been switched, but by whom? And why? The elderly coroner disclaims any knowledge, but seems uneasy when a swastika is revealed on the tiny corpse.Meanwhile, the sheriff's part-Cheyenne half-brother, "Mad Dog" Maddox, has collected a naked body from the Sunshine Towers retirement home and is headed toward a treetop burial when he is diverted by the storm. In a makeshift mound nearby, Mad Dog's pet wolf-dog hybrid finds a child's skull, evidence of adult bones, and a fading ID for a living County Supervisor. Can the Hornbaker clan really be as gothic as it seems? And what of the tiny woman in the red shoes back at the Towers who calls herself Dorothy...?
The Dead Hand: A Rachel Gold Mystery (Attorney Rachel Gold Mysteries #10)
by Michael A. KahnSt Louis lawyer Rachel Gold deals with many a family drama, mostly of the dysfunctional variety. Divorce. Paternity. And death. Occasionally, all three combine into a "dead hand" trifecta, where the deceased seeks to control the living—and especially his descendants—from beyond the grave.Rachel calls them "zombies." The legal term for such inheritance plans is "the dead hand," the English translation of the Old French term "mortmain." The term refers to the attempt by wealthy individuals to exert perpetual ownership over property (and future generations) through legal documents prepared before they die. But not even the most obsessed tycoon or his skilled attorneys can foresee every future contingency. To quote the old Yiddish maxim, "Man plans, and God laughs." And angry descendants sue.It's so true. Rachel suddenly finds herself representing two women—one a young widow, one an older divorcee—in a pair of nasty zombie cases where the outcome of each hinges upon a clause in a contested estate plan.Client Cyndi Mulligan is the trophy widow of the late Bert Mulligan, a billionaire entrepreneur whose last will and testament left his estate to Cyndi's unborn daughter. The challenge comes from Bert's angry first wife and her angrier only son. Their claim: Cyndi's daughter—born eleven months after Bert's death—cannot possibly be Bert's child.In the other case, Rachel represents Marsha Knight, the first wife of the wealthy founder of a women's lingerie manufacturer. Marsha has been sued by his young widow, who seeks to invalidate Marsha's divorce settlement and, in the process, impoverish her through invocation of the ancient and nearly inscrutable Rule Against Perpetuities.As the trial date approaches in each lawsuit, the threats to Rachel and her two clients begin to escalate. Zombies, as Rachel discovers, are hard to kill. And even worse, they can still kill—and where least expected.The Dead Hand is written with the verve, humor, and legal smarts that are trademark Michael Kahn.
Mykonos After Midnight (Chief Inspector Andreas Kaldis Mysteries #5)
by Jeffrey Siger2014 Left Coast Crime Awards nominee for Best Mystery in a Foreign Setting"Vibrant with the frenzied nightlife of Mykonos and the predators who feed on it. A twisty page-turner." —Michael Stanley, award-winning author of the Detective Kubu mysteriesMykonos holds tight to its past even as it transforms from an obscure, impoverished Aegean island into a tourist mecca and summertime playground for the world's rich, a process making the Mykonian people some of the wealthiest in Greece. Yes, the old guard is still a force to be reckoned with despite the new money. One of them, a legendary nightclub owner, has been found savagely bludgeoned in his home. All evidence points to obvious thugs. Yet the murder has put long hidden, politically explosive secrets in play and drawn a dangerous foreign investor to the island paradise. Andreas Kaldis, feared head of Greece's special crimes division, is certain there's a far more complex solution to the murder than robbery, and he vows to find it. His quest for answers cuts straight into the entrenched cultural contradictions that give Mykonos so much of its magic and soon has him battling ruthless opportunists preying on his country's weakened financial condition. Kaldis learns there is a high, unexpected price to pay for his curiosity as he becomes locked in a war with a powerful, clandestine international force willing to do whatever it takes to change and wrest control of Mykonos, no matter the collateral damage. Such is global crime. And the need for a wily hero to stand against it.
Bitter Recoil (Posadas County Mysteries #2)
by Steven F. HavillSecond book in the Posadas County Mystery Series"Havill delivers an evocative tale of hard lives on the edge of society. His portly detective is a genuine low-key pleasure."—Publishers WeeklyWhen Undersheriff Bill Gastner heads to New Mexico's mountains for some respite, the last thing he expects to find is a dead body. But he's a cop through-and-through, and he can't let a criminal walk…Aging Posadas County Undersheriff Bill Gastner has weathered his quadruple bypass and is taking a rare vacation up in New Mexico's northern mountains. He's escaping meddlesome medical providers and small town gossip, but he's looking forward to reconnecting with his former detective Estelle Reyes who is working in San Estevan County. Arriving a day early at the Steamboat Rock Campground, his camping plans are interrupted by sirens. Suddenly, Gastner, Reyes, and her new doctor husband reunite over the body of a pregnant young woman.At first the detectives assume she was a hit-and-run victim. Then the medical exam reveals she was instead thrown from a moving vehicle after a rape attempt. Gastner's curiosity is piqued but he's on vacation—he should leave the case up to local law enforcement. Then four more deaths follow and the still-to-be-reckoned-with lawman steps in to stop the rash of murders....He's not in Posadas County, but Undersheriff Bill Gastner can't ignore an unsolved case when a body turns up in the New Mexico mountains. Steven F. Havill's next police procedural finds the aging undersheriff taking on a disturbing case far from home.Check out the acclaimed series:Perfect for fans of C.J. Box and Michael McGarrityFor readers who enjoy police procedurals and Southwest desert mysteries
Driven: The Sequel To Drive (Bride Series)
by James Sallis"The perfect piece of noir fiction." —New York Times Book Review"Terse, brutal, poetic, perfectly wrought." —Publishers Weekly STARRED reviewAt the end of Drive, Driver has killed Bernie Rose, "the only one he ever mourned," ending his campaign against those who double-crossed him. Driven tells how that young man, done with killing, becomes the one who goes down "at 3 a.m. on a clear, cool morning in a Tijuana bar."Seven years have passed. Driver has left the old life, become Paul West, and founded a successful business back in Phoenix. Walking down the street one day, he and his fiancée are attacked by two men and, while Driver dispatches both, his fiancée is killed.Sinking back into anonymity, aided by his friend Felix, an ex-gangbanger and Desert Storm vet, Driver retreats but finds that his past stalks him and will not stop. He has to turn and face it. Because he drives. That's what he does.
The Koala of Death: A Gunn Zoo Mystery (Gunn Zoo Series #2)
by Betty WebbWhen zookeeper Theodora "Teddy" Bentley fishes the body of Koala Kate out of Gunn Landing Harbor, she discovers that her fellow zookeeper didn't drown; she was strangled. The clues to Kate's killer implicate other animal keepers at Gunn Zoo, including Outback Bill, marsupial keeper and Kate's Aussie ex-boyfriend; and Robin Chase, the big cat keeper who's got it in for Teddy. Also displaying suspicious behavior are several "liveaboarders" at the harbor; Speaks-To-Souls, a shady "animal psychic;" and even Caro, Teddy's much-married, ex-beauty queen mother.But murderers aren't all Teddy has to worry about. Her embezzling father is still on the run from the Feds, and the motor on her houseboat is failing. To pay for the repairs, Teddy agrees to appear on a weekly live television broadcast featuring misbehaving animals that range from a cuddly koala to a panicky wallaby - and all hell breaks loose in the TV studio. All the while, the killer is narrowing in on Teddy....
Among the Departed: A Constable Molly Smith Mystery (Constable Molly Smith Novels #5)
by Vicki Delany2019 recipient of the Derrick Murdoch award from the Crime Writers of Canada Fifteen years ago a young girl named Moonlight Smith went to her best friend Nicky Nowak's house for a sleepover. Moonlight joined the family for breakfast the following morning and was then picked up by her mother. Shortly after, Mr. Nowak went for a walk. He was never seen again.Autumn has arrived on the mountains above Trafalgar, B.C. and Constable Molly "Moonlight" Smith is cuddled by the fireplace with Adam Tocek of the RCMP when Tocek and his dog Norman are called to a wilderness camping ground to join the search for a little boy who sneaked away from his family looking for bears. The child is found, dirty, terrified, weeping, but unharmed. Then the inquisitive Norman digs up something else: human bones.The ID isn't positive, but it is enough to have Sergeant John Winters of the Trafalgar City Police re-open the Brian Nowak investigation. He finds a family shattered beyond recognition. Mrs. Nowak is an empty shell of a woman, dressed in pajamas, never leaving the house. Her son Kyle haunts the streets of Trafalgar at night and spends his days creating beautiful, but highly troubling, art. Nicky Nowak lives in Vancouver and has grown up to be gorgeous, charming, and elegant. Yet behind that façade lies a woman whose heart has closed so tightly against human relationships that she comes to Trafalgar trailing in her wake a terrifying threat to another innocent family....
The Wrong Hill to Die On (Alafair Tucker Mysteries #6)
by Donis Casey"Alafair Tucker deserves to stand beside Ma Joad in literature's gallery of heroic ladies." —TONY HILLERMAN, New York Times bestselling author1916: Alafair Tucker had not wanted to come to Arizona, but because of her young daughter Blanche's lung ailment, she and her husband Shaw bundled Blanche onto the train and made the nightmare trip from Oklahoma to Alafair's sister in Tempe, Arizona, hoping the dry desert air would help their daughter.As soon as they arrive, Blanche begins to improve, and Alafair is overjoyed to see her witty, beautiful sister Elizabeth again. For added excitement, a Hollywood motion picture company is shooting their movie right in Tempe.But Alafair and Shaw soon discover that all is not well. Elizabeth's marriage is in tatters; tensions are high between the Anglo and Latino communities following Pancho Villa's murderous raid on Columbus, New Mexico; and Alafair suspects her sister is involved in an illegal operation to smuggle war refugees out of Mexico and into the U.S.And now here there's Bernie Arruda, dead on his back in a ditch. The night before he had been singing Mexican love songs at the party in Elizabeth's backyard. Can Alafair connect all the pieces and discover a murderer before it is too late?
Final Undertaking: A Buryin' Barry Mystery (Buryin' Barry Series #4)
by Mark de Castrique"De Castrique offers original plots, strikingly human characters, and a heartwarming portrait of American culture. His writing is to be savored." —Library Journal STARRED reviewWhen Barry Clayton's father developed Alzheimers, Barry gave up his career in law enforcement to return to the North Carolina mountain town of Gainesboro and run the family funeral home. But even a small town in the Appalachians is not immune to crime. At a summer street dance, Barry's friend Sheriff Tommy Lee Wadkins is gunned down by an old man distraught at the death of his wife. To the dismay of Deputy Reece Hutchins, hospitalized Tommy Lee appoints Barry as the deputy in charge of the investigation. Who was the old man stalking? Why was a young woman who was wounded at the scene traveling with the intended victim? What at first appears to be a case of a mentally unstable summer tourist quickly develops into a tangled web of deceit stretching from western North Carolina to the Florida coast. Someone is preying upon senior citizens.... Barry realizes Deputy Hutchins is undercutting his investigation, but as potential witnesses and informants begin to die under mysterious circumstances, Barry confronts a conspiracy that runs so deep he no longer knows who to trust. One false step, one betrayal, will make this case Buryin' Barry's final undertaking.
Pleasing the Dead: A Storm Kayama Mystery (Storm Kayama Series #0)
by Deborah Turrell AtkinsonSome nasty predators dwell in paradise, and they arenat all hiding in the azure waters. The day attorney Storm Kayama arrives in Kahului to help Lara Farrell set up her new dive shop, someone bombs a restaurant. When one of Laraas employees, a recent Japanese immigrant, kills himself and one of his young daughters, Storm begins to ask questions. The tentacles of the Yakuza, the dangerous, Japanese organized crime group, grip local businesses, real estate, and politics. Cunning and deadly, the clan leaders exploit underage women and eliminate anyone who dares face up to them. Storm finds herself up against a lethal and faceless enemy, in a place where disposing of a victim is easy as dumping her in shark-infested waters. But who is hunting whom? In a struggle to the death, Storm begins to realize that surviving doesnat always mean living. For some, the ghosts of the past may be more painful than the anguish of the present. Hawaii lawyer Storm Kayama must battle against the yakuza's presence and an ancient adherence to tradition to save more young girls from a terrible fate.
Tyrant of the Mind (Medieval Mysteries #2)
by Priscilla RoyalA nun and a monk defy death and dishonor at her family's Welsh fortress...In the winter of 1271, Death stalks the corridors of Wynethorpe Castle on the Welsh border. When the Grim Reaper touches the beloved grandson of the castle lord, Baron Adam sends for his daughter, Prioress Eleanor of Tyndal, and her sub-infirmarian, Sister Anne, to save the child with prayers and healing talents. Escorting them to the remote fortress is Brother Thomas, an unwilling monk fighting his private demons.Death may be denied once in his quest for souls but never twice. Soon after the trio arrives, an important guest is murdered. The prioress's brother, bloody dagger in hand, stands over the corpse. All others may believe in his guilt, but Eleanor is convinced her brother is innocent.Outside her priory, in a world of armed men, Eleanor may have little authority, but she is determined to untangle the Gordian knot of thwarted passions and old resentments even if it means defying her father, a man with whom she longs to make peace. As passions rise with the winter wind and time runs short, Eleanor, Anne and Thomas struggle to find the real killer.
Crying Blood: An Alafair Tucker Mystery (Alafair Tucker Mysteries #5)
by Donis Casey"Casey depicts family ties that uplift and support and family ties broken by anger in a poignant, lyrical, authentic novel of early day Oklahoma." —CAROLYN HART, New York Times bestselling authorIn the autumn of 1915, Shaw Tucker, his brother James, and their sons go hunting. Instead of a quail, Shaw's dog, Buttercup, flushes an old boot...containing the bones of a foot. Buttercup then leads the men to a shallow grave and a skeleton with a bullet hole in the skull. That night, Shaw awakens to see a pair of moccasin-clad legs brushing by his tent flap. He chases the intruder, but he has disappeared. His concern is justified when he realizes that someone—or something—has followed him home.Dread turns to relief when he captures a young Creek Indian boy called Crying Blood. Shaw ties the boy up in the barn, but during the few minutes he is left alone, someone thrusts a spear through Crying Blood's heart. The local law is on the killer's trail, but Shaw Tucker has a hunch...Only Shaw's wife Alafair might be able to forestall his dangerous plan. So Shaw sends her on a wild goose chase so he can confront the killer...
The Anteater of Death: A Zoo Mystery (Gunn Zoo Series #1)
by Betty Webb2009 Winner of the Arizona Book Award for Mystery/SuspenseIf Lucy, the pregnant Giant Anteater from Belize, didn't kill the man found dead in her enclosure at California's Gunn Zoo, who did? Zookeeper Teddy Bentley must find the real murderer before her furry friend is shipped off to another zoo in disgrace.Then another human bites the dust, the monkeys riot, and the wolves go nuts. Things get worse when the snooty folks at Gunn Landing Harbor attempt to evict Teddy from the Merilee, her beloved houseboat.That's just the beginning. Her father, on the lam from the Feds for embezzling millions, gets targeted by a local gangster; and Caro, Teddy's socialite and former beauty queen mother, who loathes Teddy's dangerous job, starts introducing her to eligible bachelors. Then Teddy herself becomes a target for murder.
Killing the Emperors: 'hilariously Un-pc' The Times (Robert Amiss/Baroness Jack Troutbeck Mysteries #12)
by Ruth Dudley Edwards"A raucous send-up of the art world's collectors, critics, curators and especially those postmodernists who call themselves artists."—Kirkus ReviewsLady (Jack) Troutbeck is missing. So is celebrity curator Sir Henry Fortune and his partner in love and money, louche art dealer Jason Pringle. But panic doesn't begin in the London art world until no one can locate Anastasia Holliday, sensational abject artist; Jake Thorogood, the critic who catapulted her into stardom; or Dr. Hortense Wilde, notorious for having influenced generations of art students to despise craftsmanship. Are these fashionable adopters of conceptual art hostages? If so, why? Ransom? Revenge?Who will be next? Will it be Sir Nicholas Serota, mighty overlord of British temples of the avant garde? The internationally renowned Young British Artist Damien Hirst, whose dross became platinum? Is Charles Saatchi, mega-rich husband of a TV cook and the genius who took talentless young people and turned them into a winning brand, in danger? When news comes of a New York disappearance, the fears of the art establishment go transatlantic.But why is Baroness Troutbeck a target? After all, Jack is a standard bearer of conservative values in education and art who recently publicly described admirers of conceptual art as knaves and fools.Can Jack's friends rescue her before her own worst fantasies are turned into reality and she becomes the next horrifying "hommage murder" satirizing notorious works of art?
Cats Can't Shoot: A Pru Marlowe Pet Noir (16pt Large Print Edition) (Pru Marlowe Pet Noir #2)
by Clea SimonWhen Pru Marlowe gets the call that there's been a cat shooting, she's furious. Animal brutality is the one thing that this tough animal psychic won't stand for, and she's determined to care for the traumatized pet. But when Pru finds out that the cat did the shooting—accidentally setting off a rare dueling pistol—she realizes something else is going on. Could the white Persian really have killed her owner? Or did the whole bloody mess have something to do with that pricey collectible? With the white cat turning a deaf ear to her questions, Pru must tune in to Beauville's other pampered residents—from the dead man's elite social set to their equally spoiled pets—and learn the truth before her ex, a former New York cop, gets too close. In a world where value is determined by a price tag, only Pru and her trusty tabby Wallis can figure out if this was a case of feline felony...or if some human has set the Persian up to be the ultimate cat's paw.
Blind Switch: A Jack Doyle Mystery (Jack Doyle Series #1)
by John McEvoyDesperate Jack Doyle accepts a sketchy job which leads to a deadly game of fixing horse races and murder—of the four-legged kind.... One-time amateur boxer Jack Doyle, an irreverent and rebellious advertising account representative, goes to work one fine Chicago day and finds his desk—and his job—both gone. A two-time loser at the marriage game as well, Doyle, usually ultra-confident, fishes himself out of a bottle to take stock, realizing, "with a thumping finality, that Life sure as hell did have his number and was crunching it". At loose ends, Doyle accepts a most unusual offer from an acquaintance, Moe Kellman, "furrier to the Mob", to fix a horse race. The context of making the deal, a Cubs game at storied Wrigley Field, sets the tone for the drama that follows. Thus begins a chain of events that will lead the FBI to Doyle's door where they "co-opt" him into a quest after people who are maiming or killing thoroughbred horses for their insurance values. Their number one target is a loathsome media mogul who can't bear to lose at anything. Built upon recent factual events, spiced with satire and peppered throughout with engaging loonies, Blind Switch is a noteworthy first novel with a hero forced to ask in its ultimate line, "Where have I gone right?"
Face of the Enemy (New York in Wartime Mysteries)
by Joanne Dobson Beverle Graves Myers"A deft historical novel...and window into a too-often ignored chapter in recent american history."—S. J. Rozan, Edgar award-winning author of Ghost HeroIn December 1941, America reels from the attack on Pearl Harbor. Patriotism and paranoia grip New York as the city frantically mobilizes for war. Nurse Louise Hunter is outraged when the FBI, in a midnight sweep of prominent Japanese residents, arrests her patient's wife. Masako Fumi is an avant-garde artist, a newcomer to the bustling city. The nurse vows to help free Masako.When the body of Masako's art dealer is discovered in the gallery where he'd been closing down her controversial show, Masako's troubles multiply. Homicide detective Michael McKenna doubts her guilt, but an ambitious G-man schemes to turn the murder and ensuing espionage accusations into a political cause célèbre.Louise hires a radical lawyer and enlists the help of her journalist roommate. But sensing a career-making story, Cabby Ward sets out to exploit Masako's dilemma for her own gain. Louise and McKenna must defy both racism and ham-fisted government agents to expose the real killer.