American Detective Fiction

Charmaine Joliet gets an offer she wants to refuse but can't. Someone from the old neighborhood knows a dark secret, one that could make Charmaine and her younger sister Jessi homicide suspects. But she'll keep quiet a price. The client "hires" Charmaine to help rid her of an unwanted rich husband. Meanwhile, troubled Jessi is in jail again for assault. The police would believe Jessi is capable of murder and that Charmaine is willing to be an accessory to protect her.

In "Evil Twin," ex-Pinkerton detective Oliver Redcastle returns home to face his worst nightmare: an arch enemy who is determined to destroy him, his friends, and everyone he loves. As Oliver tries to unravel the mystery behind the multiple murders in his town, he discovers a sinister scheme to steal a massive chunk of western land. As the stakes grow higher and the danger increases, Oliver must navigate a treacherous web of malice and deceit to protect his family and survive his foes. With enemies lurking around every corner, Oliver must rely on his sharpshooting skills and detective ...

Sofie's a young Greek American woman living in Queens. If you'd asked her a few months ago what she'd be doing now, she'd have replied, "I'm going to be married to a wonderful guy and working at my father's Greek restaurant." That was before Sofie caught the groom in a compromising position with her maid of honor. Before she punched the priest who tried to get her to marry the cad anyway. Before she chucked her engagement ring into the garbage disposal. Before she became a junior detective for her uncle's detective agency.

In Strawberry Yellow, he returns to the strawberry farms of his youth and encounters family intrigue, danger, and murder. The series' most compelling and evocative mystery yet is set in the strawberry fields of Watsonville, California, where young Mas first arrived as a Hiroshima survivor in the 1940s. He returns for the funeral of a cousin and quickly gets entangled in the murder of a young woman. Was his cousin murdered, too?

In Calico Springs, Willie’s life has been defined by two powerful forces: God and the river. The “miracle boy” died for five minutes as a young child, and ever since, Willie is certain he survived for a reason, but that purpose didn’t become clear until he found the Game. The Game is called Manifest Atlas, and the concept is simple: enter an intention and the Game provides a target—a blinking blue dot on the map. Willie’s second time playing Manifest Atlas, his intention takes him to an ominous target: three empty graves. Willie is sure the Game is telling him he’s going to die.

The Mrs. Holmes mystery series distinguishes itself by offering stories that can be enjoyed in just a few minutes. It is the ideal series for fans of cozy mysteries, thrill-seekers, busy people, and those who prefer quick reads over lengthy 50,000-word novels. Opening this book quickly turns into a whirlwind of intrigue with “Slumber, Sneakers, and Stardust: Mrs. Holmes and the Mall Mystery.” On the busiest shopping day of the year, known as Black Friday, a mysterious man with a soldier-like vibe enters a mattress store and lies down. However, when he fails to wake up, the cozy ...

Who shot Santa Claus? During a trip to see Santa Claus, journalist Roland “Beanie” Bean and his young sons Ethan and Evan are shocked when Old St. Nick is shot! Beanie is anxious to cover the story of Santa’s shooting, but his editor at the Palmchat Gazette has other plans for him. Beanie has to investigate the grisly murder of a victim found dead in a car that had been set on fire. After he learns the man died of a gunshot wound and that the car was torched to cover up the crime, Beanie searches for more information, but his efforts are hampered by the detective on the case, a man ...

Aaron and Grace Templeton will never forget the 1998 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. The day their daughter Kiera got lost in the crowd. Investigative journalist Miren Triggs has spent years trying to help the Templetons find her. But with no leads, Miren fears there's nothing more she can do. Until Kiera's 8th birthday, when a video arrives showing Kiera alive and well, playing in a bedroom. Miren can't believe it - finally, a lead she can follow. Until another video arrives. It's the same bedroom. But Kiera is gone.

Cara is on the cusp of adventure. Unlike her best friends, she doesn’t want to go to college, she wants different kinds of challenges. And anyway, home just doesn’t fit anymore. She is growing distant from her friends and hasn’t spoken to her father in eons. To make matters worse, her ex-boyfriend and fellow climber, Nat, has popped back into town after breaking up with her over text. So it’s the perfect time to leave, and she has big plans for a gap year to rock-climb in Patagonia. But when Cara hears that her father is actually missing, things change.

The Theory of Irv provides a suspenseful journey through not just the storyline of the book’s plot, but an overview of American health policy. How it came to be a hundred years ago. How it has adapted in the last several decades. Perhaps more importantly, how we can fix it so we can have better health and health care for all Americans into the future.

Between strike violence and a bootlegging war, no one is safe in Western Maryland. Western Marylanders are anticipating a short visit from President Harding during the summer of 1922. While the local movers and shakers want to impress the President, Matt Ansaro discovers a coal miners’ union plot against the President. Matt sets about trying to disrupt the plot while maintaining his undercover identity as a coal miner. The fallout from David Lakehurst's time in Western Maryland continues. Before he fled the area, Lakehurst wrote a letter to the area union organizer, outing Matt as an ...

As coal strike violence escalates, Matt Ansaro’s undercover identity is thrown into jeopardy. Having survived a coal mine cave-in, undercover Pinkerton detective Matt Ansaro is recovering from a broken leg. However, the union has called a coal strike, and Matt needs to walk a thin line to remain undercover and not let his employers know Matt is working in his hometown of Eckart Mines, Maryland. The 1922 national coal strike is even more violent in the Western Maryland coal fields as the non-union miners make an all-out effort to unionize. As strikebreakers are brought in to replace ...

One moment, the lovely young woman was walking through the Battle of Hastings exhibition at the British Museum. The next, she lay dead on the checkered museum floor, a Norman arrow protruding from her breast. Inspector Lestrade believed he had solved the mystery, but almost immediately recognized that Scotland Yard needed the help of Sherlock Holmes.

During his first trip to England in 1899, murder was the last thing that Hamlin Garland, the so-called "Dean of American Letters," expected to find. More predictable were his descriptions of American baseball and visits with notables like Arthur Conan Doyle and George Bernard Shaw. Yet when Garland tells Sherlock Holmes of a suspicious death that occurred at Hearthstone Hall, the detective replies, "You have described the ingredients of a classic murder mystery-a dead dowager empress and a collection of courtiers any one of whom might be the killer."

A devil haunts the City of Angels, and the most unlikely of detectives is on the case.1947: While Los Angeles is mesmerized by the sensational Black Dahlia murder, an Asian boy’s mutilated body is found in a back alley of Chinatown. With the thoroughly corrupt LAPD unwilling to devote their already strained resources to cracking the case, it seems this grisly crime is destined to remain unsolved. Tommy “Dapper” Luoo, a Chinese American college student, has dreams of becoming a private detective. Incensed and frustrated by the police’s lack of concern, he decides to help his ...

The Seven Deadly Sins One dedicated detective A town in peril Someone is making people pay for their sins and they’re targeting Detective Harper Scranton. When a wealthy resort owner is killed and a message left for Harper, it’s time to receive some help. She isn’t the only one receiving messages. So is FBI Special Agent Liam McConnell. What they don’t know is that the man behind the messages has a diabolical reason for bringing the two of them together, and he won’t stop until he gets what he wants. Can Harper and Liam stop a madman before he kills through the seven deadly sins ...

Sherlock Holmes examines the body of a murdered scrubwoman that lies on the floor of the South Kensington Museum of Art. But it is not a real corpse he looks at, for those remains have been removed by the coroner. The body Holmes studies appears in a drawing of the murder scene precisely rendered by an American art student. The drawing leads Holmes, Dr. Watson, and the artist-a young Frank Norris before he turns his talents to writing- across the English countryside in search of the killer.

Lizzie Borden took an axe, and gave her mother 40 whacks. When she saw what she had done, she gave her father 41. Or did she? Holmes and Watson, while in America find themselves face to face with Lizzie Borden when two fresh axe murders rock Fall River society. Is Lizzie to blame?

What’s lost doesn’t always stay that way… Sleuth Kim Smith always knew adventure was on her horizon, and now she has her chance. After being contacted by one of her clients, she sets off to Europe in search of art stolen by the Nazis during World War II. Thinking nothing of it, she smiles at a charming stranger seated behind her on the plane, which changes her trip more than she intended. The following day at an art auction, a chance meeting with him develops into something more. She has no idea that the one piece he’s interested in might hold a secret that could blow her case wide ...

In this sexy, mysterious and romantic follow up to Beautiful Americans, snow falls over the French countryside as Alex, Olivia, and Zack search for their missing classmate, PJ. But while they have been looking for their beautiful troubled friend, they've been losing themselves along the way.