American Detective Fiction

Kate Ardleigh is everything the Victorian English gentlewoman is not - outspoken, free-thinking, American...and a writer of the frowned upon penny dreadfuls. Soon after her arrival in Essex, England, a body is unearthed in a nearby archeological dig - and Kate has the chance to not only research her latest story but to begin her first case with amateur detective Sir Charles Sheridan.

A small boy and a young girl make a contract to kill. A school girl and her young brother arrive at private detective Jack Hamma's office. They scatter coins over Jacks desk, the contents of their piggy bank, and ask Jack to shoot dead two men. They want to save a forest and take revenge for the murder of their parents. Murder, revenge and retribution combine with Jacks wry humor to make this a great read. ‘The same fast paced action we've come to expect from a Jack Hamma story.’ ‘Flows well as we travel with Jack across the world, from the wilds of Yorkshire to the depths of the ...

Easy Rawlins, L.A.'s most reluctant detective, comes home one day to find Easter, the daughter of his friend, Christmas Black, left on his doorstep. Easy knows that this could only mean that ex-marine Black is probably dead, or will be soon. But Easter's appearance is only the beginning, as Easy is immersed in a sea of problems.

Don't blink A gripping thrill ride begins when Oklahoma private investigator Buck McDivit witnesses a murder and finds himself possessing an ancient artifact with mystical powers. The investigation leads him to the Spiro Mounds Archeological Museum, where he meets the gorgeous Chief Archeologist Thorn Little Deer and discovers someone recently stole the artifact he now possesses—the priceless Black Cup of Oklahoma. A deadly ex-Army Ranger with the nickname Blade may be responsible for both the theft and the murder. As Buck sets out to catch the thief, he joins a cryptid expedition to the ...

After a long Labor Day weekend, 73-year-old Eugene Washington is found dead in his Leimert Park home. At first blush, his death seems unremarkable- heat wave combined with food poisoning from a holiday barbecue. But something in the way Washington died doesn’t make sense. LAPD Homicide Detective Elouise "Lou" Norton is called to investigate the death and learns that the only family Washington had was the 6,000-member congregation of Blessed Mission Ministries, led by Bishop Solomon Tate. But something wicked is lurking among the congregants of this church.

In Parson, Texas, a small town ravaged by a devastating hurricane and the Vietnam War, twenty-nine-year-old Lou is diligently renovating a decaying old mansion for Miss Kate, the elderly neighbor who has always been like a mother to her. Mourning her brother’s death in Vietnam, Lou dreams of enjoying a more peaceful future in Parson. But those hopes are crushed when Miss Kate is murdered, and no one but Lou seems to care about finding the killer.

Are you a fan of Jack Reacher, John Wick, and The Equalizer?! Meet Ray Price. Ex-Cop, Ex-Plosive! "There's so many laugh out-loud moments, you almost forget everyone is fighting for their lives." Ray Price's days as a Detroit cop are over. When word drops that his estranged younger brother is missing, Ray escapes from his broken career--and even more broken marriage--to return to his small Michigan hometown looking for answers. Teaming up with an on-the-run hooker, Ray quickly becomes convinced someone involved with the powerful, corrupt family running the town made his brother disappear....

When Melody Owens receives a call informing her that her seven-year-old daughter, Haven, is missing, her world is shattered. After she learns the details surrounding Haven’s disappearance, she is angry but keeps her anger at bay so she won’t cause further pain for her family. As she copes with Haven’s disappearance, she discovers a shocking betrayal that makes keeping her family together nearly impossible. Rueben Owens can barely stand seeing his family in agony. He feels helpless and like a failure for not protecting his daughter. He does all he can to comfort his wife Melody and ...

When Howard Moon Deer's girlfriend Aria storms from his cabin in the middle of the night, he just considers it another conflict in their tempestuous relationship. But when he finds her Jeep abandoned down the road with no sign of her nearby, his instincts lead him on an investigation that uncovers the dark underbelly of a trendy southwestern town.

In "Hard Water," a historical fiction novel set in the scorching July of 1884, William Pinkerton has assigned Oliver Redcastle to capture a train robber who happens to be a tight-rope-walker. But this mission is anything but simple, as Redcastle finds himself entangled with two beautiful women, a dangerous cult, and reminders of his Civil War past. As old loves and hatreds are reignited, Redcastle must navigate a web of personal and professional hazards to complete his mission. Along the way, he encounters some of the most powerful figures in Midwestern industry and politics, including John...

On a rainy spring day in Los Angeles, Homicide Detective Elouise "Lou" Norton is called away from a rare lunch date to Bonner Park, where the body of 13-year-old Chanita Lords has been discovered. Chanita was interested in photography and, much like Lou, a black girl destined to leave the housing projects behind. Her death fits a chilling pattern of exceptional African American girls - dancers, artists, honors scholars - gone recently missing in the same school district, the one Lou attended not so long ago.

Alberto Ruiz-Tagle, fascinante y seductor poeta autodidacta habitual de los talleres literarios del Chile de Salvador Allende, y Carlos Wieder, piloto de las fuerzas aéreas chilenas que escribía versículos de la Biblia con el humo de una avioneta tras el golpe de estado de Pinochet: una y otra cara de la misma moneda, uno y el mismo oscuro personaje. Un individuo, encarnación pura del mal y la crueldad, que el narrador de esta historia, el alter ego de Bolaño y perenne detective salvaje Arturo Belano, se cuida de desmenuzar.

A completely revised edition of the first Henry Rios mystery, The Little Death, Lay Your Sleeping Head introduces Michael Nava’s singular protagonist, gay Latino criminal defense lawyer Henry Rios. Rios, beset by personal and professional problems, begins a passionate affair with the black sheep heir to a great California fortune who tells Rios an improbable tale of murder and sexual predation in his wealthy family. When the young man is found dead of an apparent drug overdose, Rios begins an investigation that ultimately reveals much more than murder.

Tinseltown's awards season is in full swing, and everyone is obsessed with dressing up, scoring free swag, and getting invited to the biggest awards shows of the year. But when celebrity publicist Lyla Davis is killed, the festive mood comes to an abrupt halt. Apprentice private eye Dayna Anderson thinks she's uncovered the killer. Unfortunately, what starts as an open-and-shut case turns out to be anything but.

In Alaska, 100 years of bad blood between the villages of Kushtaka and Kuskulana come to a boil when the body of a young Kushtaka ne'er-do-well is found wedged in a fish wheel. Sergeant Jim Chopin's prime suspect is a Kuskulana man who is already in trouble in both villages for falling in love across the river. But when the suspect disappears, members of both tribes refuse to speak to Jim. When a second murder that looks suspiciously like payback occurs, Jim has no choice but to call in Kate Shugak for help.

An Afro-Russian KGB agent returns to his forefathers' homeland — Chicago — to track down a Russian dissident prepared to unleash the ultimate doomsday device. Dissatisfied by the results of the Post World War I Civil Rights movement, angry African-Americans immigrated to the Soviet Union in the 1930's, for the promise of equality under Communism. Colonel Damian Turner, a native Afro-Russian KGB agent, returns to Chicago, the former home of his grandfather, as part of a worldwide manhunt for one of his nation's highest ranking officers, Marshall Victor Craig. Craig, infuriated at the ...

With only a handful of “tourists” - CIA-trained assassins - left, Milo Weaver would like to move on and use this as an opportunity to regain a normal life, a life focused on his family. His former boss in the CIA, Alan Drummond, can’t let it go. When Alan uses one of Milo’s compromised aliases to travel to London and then disappears, calling all kinds of attention to his actions, Milo can’t help but go in search of him. Worse still, it's beginning to look as if Tourism's enemies are gearing up for a final, fatal blow.

A wedding and a murder...Star football player and NFL hopeful, Michael “Bumper” Hackett is getting married. Word’s going around that it’s a shotgun wedding, and there just might be some truth to it, seeing that the bride-to-be is showing a baby bump. But before the ceremony can even get started, the poor groom collapses from what appears to be an asthma attack. Unfortunately, things aren’t always what they seem. Romaine knew it was a bad idea to have a wedding at the funeral home, but newly elected justice of the peace and sole proprietor of the Ball Funeral Home & Crematorium, ...

A matriarch murdered in her bedroom. Four wholesome nieces and nephews sat in the living room. Seventeen million dollars at stake. Which one did it?Lyric Adler has been keeping devastating secrets. Now that the one person who made her keep the secrets is dead, she is ready to tell it all. When she stood before the casket of her wealthy ninety-eight-year-old aunt, Gretchen Prescott, and whispered, “I kept the secrets, but now it’s time to tell,” she was convinced her aunt had been murdered. The two hadn’t liked each other yet couldn’t stay apart, and behind their contentious ...

Jack Wilder and Howard Moon Deer are back with a baffling new case. A lonely woman, recently arrived in New Mexico, has vanished mysteriously from her house on a snowy winter day, leaving her front door open and her emotional support dog, Gurdjieff, dead on the dining table.