Winner Fiction: Mystery/Suspense The 2020 Best Book Awards
Caitlin Strong wages her own personal war on drugs against the true power behind the illicit opioid trade in Strong from the Heart, the blistering and relentless 11th installment in Jon Land's award-winning series.
The drug crisis hits home for fifth generation Texas Ranger Caitlin Strong when the son of her outlaw lover Cort Wesley Masters nearly dies from an opioid overdose. On top of that, she’s dealing with the inexplicable tragedy of a small Texas town where all the residents died in a single night.
When Caitlin realizes that these two pursuits are intrinsically connected, she finds herself following a trail that will take her to the truth behind the crisis that claimed 75,000 lives last year. Just in time, since the same force that has taken over the opiate trade has even more deadly intentions in mind, specifically the murder of tens of millions in pursuit of their even more nefarious goals.
The power base she’s up against—comprised of politicians and Big Pharma, along with corrupt doctors and drug distributors—has successfully beaten back all threats in the past. But they’ve never had to deal with the likes of Caitlin Strong before and have no idea what’s in store when the guns of Texas come calling.
You're never too old to fall in love or to be framed for murder! Gretchen Malloy, the fifty-something (she's not telling) elite Kansas City event planner stumbles over a dead groom on his wedding day. The police suspect the fashionable Ms. Malloy may be a murderer. She suspects the police don't appreciate her flair for the dramatic or her good taste for the better things in life. One detective knows she's not guilty, but desperately wishes he could charge the woman who gives him a headache anytime she's near.
In a race to save her business and her life, Gretchen becomes an investigator determined to discover who is framing her. Surely it isn't her former love who just happens to arrive in town at the same time? Her friend launching a political career wouldn't want her in prison, would he? Would his new wife take some sort of weird revenge on her? And would the detective throw her in the clink just because of her big hair and amazing high heels?
Gretchen Malloy, supreme snoop and who usually knows everything about everyone, is in the search of her life. She's left wondering...she may not be the only one in town with killer heels.
Strait-laced forty-something Franco definitely picked the wrong night to get freaky. A hook-up with a hot guy on his Manhattan rooftop, and a joint he's unaware is laced, leaves him dazed. And-if memory serves him-the sole witness to a murder across the street.
Except, the cops can't find a crime scene or a body, and Franco's perforated recollections and conflicting testimony leave the detectives unimpressed. When days later the mutilated body of a philanthropic millionaire is discovered, he's not only shocked to learn he knew him, but with Franco's fingerprints all over the crime scene, he quickly graduates from unreliable witness to prime suspect. And the random trick who could alibi him has vanished into the anonymity of the Internet.
Unsettled, and confronted with forty-year-old memories, when Franco's father was murdered in front of him during Manhattan's infamous blackout, a shocking revelation finally—unmasks the man who pulled the trigger that night. And painting Franco the perfect suspect.
With a target on his back and time running out, the truth will set Franco free, or earn him a toe tag at the morgue.
Ballerina Leah Siderova knows the career of a professional dancer is short. But rarely is it as brief as that of her rival, Arianna Bonneville, whose rise to stardom ends when she is stabbed in the back.
New York City police detective Jonah Sobol fixes upon Leah as the prime suspect. After all, she was the one who found the body, she had the most to gain from Arianna’s death, and it was her name Arianna whispered, just before she died.
Leah is desperate to clear her name, and she begins her own investigation, collaborating with her best friend and her ballet coach. As the three dancers sort through backstage intrigues, attempted blackmail, and a tangle of romantic liaisons, the noose around Leah’s neck grows tighter.
Ballet, with its merciless discipline, is all Leah has ever known. Is that enough to keep her one step ahead of the police—and the killer?
A missing body. Two new deaths. A man in search of the truth.
1980 - Revere Beach, Massachusetts
Detective Eddie Devlin is about to be relieved of his duty by the Revere Police Department.
A year ago, he shot the killer of a woman in the marsh, but the man’s body disappeared from the crime scene. Eddie soon became a suspect, then a person of interest, and finally a casualty of the ongoing investigation.
Shortly after he is let go, two bodies are found in the same place, and suspicions about Eddie’s guilt resurface. Determined to clear his name, the new civilian Devlin conducts his own investigation with the help of his bartender friend, Dana, and his almost girlfriend, Gwen.
The sordid beachfront, the murky marsh, and the rain-soaked season all help to set the stage for this gritty and unsettling mystery, where Devlin battles his relentless demons on the way to uncovering a deeper conspiracy.
A brutal crime. A town shaken to its core. And the woman who saw it all...
For her entire life, Maureen has done nothing but run. Run from her past, run from her nightmares. But when she finds herself intertwined in the investigation of the brutal murders of two young boys, her dreams may hold the key to helping a struggling detective find justice.
Film editor Rick Potter is serving thirty years for a murder he didn't commit . . . but all things considered, life behind bars isn't so bad. In fact, he's flourishing in his new environment, regaling his colorful group of fellow inmates with tales from working in Hollywood during the Golden Age of television.
While Rick gets roped into compiling a bar mitzvah video for the warden (and starts falling for the warden's pretty assistant), the real killer is still out there . . . and ready to kill again to cover up his crimes. It will take the combined efforts of a pair of oddball detectives, a recently comatose octogenarian ex-cop, a savvy nurse, and a rehab aide to piece together the clues to unmask the true culprit and get the film editor released from prison.
Fast-paced and funny, Well, I'll Be Damned is the conclusion to the Rick Potter trilogy, following Should Have Seen It Coming and Just My F***ing Luck....
Based in Atlanta, Georgia the world of antiquarian and collectible bookselling is exposed as a hotbed of collectors and booksellers who will do almost anything to score that perfect collectible book. Emma and Molly find themselves in the middle of both a murder, and an occult cult, as they pursue their work and each other in a delightfully twisted, intriguing puzzle.
FBI Special Agent Leah Capello knew the art world had a dark side, but kidnapping is a whole new hue. To save a young child she accepts the help of Joshua Fawls, who claims to be an art expert, seems a little psychic and is probably, more than likely, a delightfully skilled conman. Together they bend conventions, break rules, and learn that the artist Edgar Degas was right: Art is not what you see, but what you make others see. Just like the perfect crime.
What do you get for remembering faces? Not much. Just ask Nigel Grant, an adjunct professor at Portland State University, barely surviving after a failed marriage and the global recession of 2009. Well, that was until a trip to San Diego over the holidays turned into an unexpected job offer from Face Value Corporation, a San Diego-based company with the leading face recognition technology used by INTERPOL and other law enforcement agencies.
There are some that want to ban the use of face recognition, but the call for greater enforcement and monitoring resonates with others who are worried about the increased sophistication of criminal activity. Throw in the challenges from the coronavirus, and surveillance becomes even more difficult. With intelligence and enforcement practices failing around the world, Face Value and INTERPOL are forced to use people for real time assessment. Nigel Grant is one of these people.
Meet my protagonist, Rekha Rao, a thirty-something Indian American professor of art history. Disillusioned by academia and haunted by the murder of her father, for which she believes police convicted the wrong person, she moves away from her match-making family. She’s focusing on managing her PTSD and healing her heartbroken by an abusive boyfriend.She gets entangled in a second murder, that of her mentor and father figure. An idol of the Hindu Goddess Durga is the murder weapon left on the body. Detective Al Newton asks her to look into the relationship, if any, between the meaning of the statue and the motive for the murder. Rekha is attracted to Al but steers clear of him because of her distaste for cops and fear of a new relationship, sticking to her job. The two constantly clash, starting a love-hate relationship.
Grace Pierrepoint Rendell, the only child of an ailing billionaire, has been treated for paranoia since childhood. When she secretly quits her meds, she begins to suspect that once her father passes, her husband will murder her for her inheritance. Realizing that no one will believe the ravings of a supposed psychotic, she devises a creative way to save herself—she will write herself out of danger, authoring a novel with the heroine in exactly the same circumstances, thus subtly exposing her husband's scheme to the world. She hires acclaimed author Lynn Andrews to help edit her literary insurance policy, but when Lynn is murdered, Grace is discovered standing over the bloody remains. The clock is ticking: can she write and publish her manuscript before she is strapped into a straitjacket, accused of homicide, or lowered six feet under?
In the years since she had the twins, CIA Agent Isabella Bendel, never imagined having to think the worst. Now she was living it. After the loss of her husband, she accepts a promotion to Chief Supervisor—a much less dangerous position than what she's accustomed to—so she can raise her two children without fear of leaving her children without parents. But any illusions of safety are shattered when, while on her Sunday morning jog in a Washington, DC park, Isabella survives a brutal assassination attempt. Someone was gunning for her, and gunning hard. While interrogating the assassin, she learns that armed men invaded her home and took that which is nearest and dearest to her heart, her twins and her mom. With the window of time to find her family alive and safe shortening, Isabella needs information fast. As she searches for her family, she discovers vague chatter about a mover and shaker in Russia planning an attack on American soil.
It's 1941, and the chill of something evil is spreading around the world like a black plague. Suspicion and fear have replaced the trust of innocence of humankind. The news of unheard-of violence and brutality presses heavily on the hearts of mankind. What is tomorrow going to look like? What has happened to the world as we once knew it? World War II begins its escalation, extending its chaos in all directions, including the outer shores of America, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Annie Elizabeth Jordan (known to most as Cricket) can't make any sense of the turbulence that is swirling around her life. This thing called war, newspapers headlines that are hidden from her, the heartache, the fears of loved ones all around her are very disturbing, and no one seems to want to explain it all to her. She is looking forward to her annual visit with her grandparents, who live in the Northwestern United States.
Finalist Fiction: Mystery/Suspense The 2020 Best Book Awards
A murdered source. A board room power play. Reporting this story may prove fatal.
Investigative reporter Andrea Kellner is under fire. After she inherits a media company from her husband, a hostile board member hires an efficiency consultant to force her out. Turning a blind eye to the power struggle, she throws herself into her next story only to find her key source dying in her home with an X slashed across her mouth.
While even Andrea thinks the victim's corrupt ex-husband is the likely culprit, a second murder with a similar M.O. hints at a much larger scheme.
Two strong, successful women are dead, their only connections are a divorce attorney and ex-husbands with an ugly past. Did speaking out get them killed?
Can Andrea expose a murderer in her midst before the killer takes another victim?
Lies of Men is the third thrilling novel in the Andrea Kellner mystery series. If you like complex plots and smart, ballsy, crime-solving women, you’ll love Dana Killion’s page-turning series.
Finalist Fiction: Mystery/Suspense The 2020 Best Book Awards
A girl is dead. A boy is locked up. Can Debbie Bradley discover the truth before more lives are lost...maybe even her own?
A series of deadly shootings. An outbreak of stolen cars. When journalist Debbie Bradley returns home to St. Louis, the summer crime wave has started. And she's in the center: A witness, a reporter, a target.
Debbie's reasons for leaving behind her promising career in Washington D.C. were complicated. Her mother, a prominent lawyer, was diagnosed with cancer. Her engagement was cooling. When she got offered a job in St. Louis that she hadn't been looking for, Debbie recognized an opportunity. Or an escape.
But she didn't expect to come home and see a girl die. Debbie never planned to investigate a boy behind bars. And she didn't anticipate colliding with hostile cops and wary politicians.As her work gains attention, Debbie gathers enemies. Will her assignment to cover the St. Louis crime beat be her last?
Finalist Fiction: Mystery/Suspense The 2020 Best Book Awards
On the eve of an international G7 Summit, event coordinator Mattie Maguire discovers that the venue, a century-old estate close to Asheville, NC, is more than simply a picturesque setting. It is also the center of political conspiracies involving a ruthless Russian spy ring that will stop at nothing to steal the massive fortune they believe to be hidden there. The search intensifies and a rogue Russian agent attacks Mattie’s grandmother, still living on the estate. She hovers in a coma, barely clinging to life.
As Mattie struggles to protect her family and ensure a safe event for the most important leaders in the world, her discovery of a fraudulent heir to the estate puts her own life in danger as well. But when her eighty-five-year-old grandfather is kidnapped and held at gunpoint, her path becomes clear. Despite her fear, she must locate the only person who has the information the Russians seek—the estate’s rightful heir, hidden away for decades after the murder of his father. But will the true owner’s return to his childhood home put his life in danger, too?
Finalist Fiction: Mystery/Suspense The 2020 Best Book Awards
He tried to escape his past, but his past came with him.
He came to Las Vegas for a bachelor party and never left. But when a game of high stakes poker turns into a boxing match, Massimo "Max" Rossi, the son of mob "fixer" Boston Rossi, winds up with more than he bargained for. All eyes turn to him when the police find his opponent, a hitman from Chicago, dead. And if that isn't bad enough, his only alibi--the dead man's girlfriend--is missing.
Now, if the cops don't get him, the mob will!
Rossi is in the struggle of his life, where every turn brings him closer to an untimely end. He's got to find the girlfriend before his time runs out. But in fledgling Las Vegas, time is an abstract concept, and people can hide almost anywhere. Rossi came to Vegas to escape his past, but his past came with him.Set in Las Vegas of the 1950s, Maximum Rossi takes the reader on a thrilling crime noir ride, reminiscent of tales penned by the likes of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett. Rossi takes his place as a true hard-boiled detective. A man who doesn't take no for an answer, and isn't about to let himself get pushed around by anyone...especially a dame.
Finalist Fiction: Mystery/Suspense The 2020 Best Book Awards
A man wakes up in present-day Alaskan wilderness with no idea who he is, nothing on him save an empty journal with the date 1898 and a mirror. He sees another man hunting nearby, astounded that they look exactly alike except for his own beard. After following this other man home, he witnesses a wife and child that brings forth a rush of memories of his own wife and child, except he’s certain they do not exist in modern times—but from his life in the late 1800s.
After recalling his name is Wyatt, he worms his way into his doppelganger Travis Barlow’s life. Memories become unearthed the more time he spends, making him believe that he’d been frozen after coming to Alaska during the Gold Rush and that Travis is his great-great grandson. Wyatt is certain gold still exists in the area and finding it with Travis will ingratiate himself to the family, especially with Travis’s wife Callie, once Wyatt falls in love. This turns into a dangerous obsession affecting the Barlows and everyone in their small town, since Wyatt can’t be tamed until he also discovers the meaning of why he was able to be preserved on ice for over a century.
Finalist Fiction: Mystery/Suspense The 2020 Best Book Awards
Abandoned at a hospital when she was only three years old, Aubrey Ross grew up as a ward of the state, passed from one foster family to the next. Having endured years of abuse and neglect, she’s become hardened to the world around her.
She’s flirted with depression and anxiety, and she’s haunted by premonitions. When a strange man approaches Aubrey with information about her past, she knows her life is about to change. Inside the envelope is the deed to a house in Ohio—her ancestral home.
When Aubrey arrives in Rossdale, the town named after her family, she immediately experiences situations she cannot explain. She hears voices, sees apparitions, and has vivid visions of tragedies she can scarcely comprehend. Aubrey comes to realize she is reliving events which have happened to those who came before her.
