American Detective

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."

The 40 short stories in this collection chronicle the heartache, pain, love, loneliness, fears, marital discord, joys, and dreams among normal people from a variety of backgrounds and professions in contemporary American society. The captivating characters and their compelling stories hold up a mirror to the country in which we live.

Jake Scarne has retired. But he has mixed feelings about it. He suspects that there is more to life than golf outings and sojourns down the Jersey Shore. Little does he know that some of his old skills will come in handy when the Staten Island Ferry he is on is hijacked! The hijackers claim they are terrorists. But their real motives are more venal. Scarne avails himself of possibly the most unusual ally he's ever had. But there is death and tragedy in this twisty tale that reminds some critics of two classic movies: DIE HARD and THE TAKING OF PELHAM ONE-TWO-THREE. “IF YOU LIKE HARD-...

An engineer is dead. His friend has been charged with his murder. How many lives would the conspiracy take before it is unveiled to its roots? Blake Turley grew up in a series of foster homes and joined the police force in Page, Arizona to give back to the community. The community of native Navajo people around and the city of vendors and employees of power plants was bewildered by the murder of a young engineer. The evidence pointed towards his colleague and his sole friend in the city. Blake was not convinced about all the evidence, though. The accused claimed of a deeper conspiracy that ...

Murder of Emma, the billionaire at twenty-two, threatened the town of business owners. Can the police bring justice before anyone else gets hurt? Detective Avery Hudson thought the dead body at the Crompton Gardens Park would be a routine investigation. When the dead body was identified as the body of Emma Holden, the owner of a tenth of the city real estate, then Avery felt some extra pounds on her shoulder. The entire town is watching Avery with their microscopes. The height of public attention wrecks Avery’s nerves. Investigation of Emma’s murder turns ever more complicated because ...

Lives in the city are all under attack. Can she nab the killer or the attackers before they hurl on another life? Young yet respectable Keira Jones is a detective in the Collinsville Police Department in Illinois. Each case appeared before her as a new challenge as it is difficult for others to accept that her eyes are as sharp as those of the eagles. The difficulty deepens when she is asked to take part in a joint investigation with the federal agents. To prove her smartness she always needed to move fewer steps ahead of her partner from the federal agencies. The stress pushed her on the ...

A severed finger. A missing person. Are they linked? Detective Amber Cooper believed in resolving cases fast. When visitors picked up a severed finger in a national monument, Detective Cooper felt that the leads were just like needles in a haystack. In addition, Amber found out that a man had gone into thin air. Amber felt that the vanished man was the key to saving lives. She risked almost everything in her pursuit of solving the mystery, though time was not on her side. Could she bring the perpetrators to justice? Just a Finger is the second book in the American Small Town Mysteries ...

A dead bride and a missing maiden - in a small town, surrounded by loved ones. Can detectives save lives and bring the killer to justice? Detective Danielle Hall believed in the goodness in everyone. When her best friend found the dead body in the bridal suit she was about to rent for her own wedding, Danielle had no option other than finding the killer in their small town community. She discovered that one of the bride’s maids disappeared. Danielle felt that the bride was not killed because she was hated. She risked her personal relationship with her town folks to get to the bottom of ...

Veteran fashion designer Claude Macaron was killed during his own after-party following an annual fashion show celebrating Valentine’s Day. Can the city police bring justice to the artistic soul? Detective Anna Barnhurt of Moon Township Police Department, was quick in reaching conviction in nine out of ten cases. When a famous fashion designer from France was killed in the town, Detective Anna Barnhurt was the obvious choice of her supervisors to bring justice to a deceased foreigner so that the city could save some face. Many out of town suspects were hurrying to leave the town making ...

The pet doctor of the town who knew too much about the animals was murdered. Would the community come forward and stand together to take the devil? Jennifer Moore was a brilliant Detective in the East Liverpool Police Department in Ohio. The community was shaken when the body of the popular pet doctor was discovered in Beaver Creek. The prime suspect had left the country even before the discovery of the dead body. Moore was not sure if the killer would ever be back. Hatching a plan to catch the killer would further put the lives of the community members at risk. Could Moore measure her ...

Detective Jack Yu returns in a pulse-pounding fifth investigation in New York's Chinatown - can he save an old gangster friend from a ruthless killer? Chinatown gang leader "Lucky" Louie was shot outside of a Chinatown off track betting establishment on the 13th of January and lay in a coma for 88 days, waking on Easter Sunday. The number 88 is a double-helix double-lucky Chinese number; religion and superstition all lean Lucky's way. But Detective Jack Yu, Lucky's boyhood blood brother, fears his friend's luck is about to run out.

Los Angeles, 1986. A group of right-wing Christians has put an initiative on the November ballot to allow health officials to force people with HIV into quarantine camps - and it looks like it’s going to pass. Rios, now living in LA, agrees to be counsel for a group of young activists who call themselves QUEER. QUEER claims to be committed to peaceful civil disobedience. But when one of its members is implicated in the bombing of an evangelical church that kills its pastor, Rios finds himself with a client suddenly facing the death penalty.

Part speculative fiction, part horror novel, part hardboiled mystery, James Goodridge presents the stunning and unusual chronicles of detective duo Madison Cavendish and Sue SunMountain. It's Nick and Nora meets good old fashioned monsters in these strange mysteries that could only be solved by detectives from another realm. Goodridge adds Black history throughout the 20th century to each spine-tingling tale. These stories have depth and real fear inside them as Goodridge shows us the other side of night. JAMES GOODRIDGE was born and raised in the Bronx and now resides in the Yorkville ...

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.

Serial murder with a sick ritual... The most unusual way to use Eggs Benedict... The mismatched duo's race against time... FREE with Kindle Unlimited! Former London socialite Kelly Kinki doesn’t always see eye to eye with her sexy-as-hell boss Michael Archangel, but she’ll follow the brilliant, cross-dressing detective anywhere to help solve their latest case. Kelly was happy to lay her rep as the Dragon Lady to rest when she moved across the pond, but to catch an eyeball snatching serial killer she’ll have to put her skills at fire breathing to the test once again. A gruesome autopsy...

The way Clae’s mom tells it, her dad took off when Clae was a baby, end of story. Ever since, it’s just been the two of them, living in the coastal city of Gloucester, where Clae is one of the only few Black girls. But when Clae discovers clues about a mysterious person she calls her fairy god somebody, she’s determined to know more. Her chance comes when she’s accepted into a summer journalism program in New York City, where her parents lived before she was born. With a couple of leads and a steel resolve, Clae leaves home for the first time to find out about her history.

Severed hands, five victims, one crime family, and an extra body. Detective Rugbee’s day started out like any other until the call came into dispatch about hands on the beach. He wasted no time in responding to the distress call. Upon his arrival, he found two men, one on the ground, unresponsive, lying next to fingers poking up from the sand. The men are friends and have been for decades. Since retirement, they search for treasures on the beach. This morning, they found severed hands on a dune, and the finder had a heart attack. After Rugbee secured a ride to the hospital for the men, he...

Can you figure out who the killer is before the guilty culprit is revealed? During an Easter egg hunt, Roland “Beanie” Bean and his two-year-old son Evan are searching for eggs when they find a woman sprawled in the dirt beneath a hibiscus bush. Little Evan thinks the lady is just sleeping, but Beanie knows better. The woman is dead. As an investigative reporter at the Palmchat Gazette, Beanie is the perfect person to cover the story, considering that he found the victim. Narrowing down the field of suspects, Beanie finds out the victim had plenty of enemies. Not only was she unfaithful...

Experience the PULSE-POUNDING action thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat for days! NICARAGUA 1975 ... Deep in the heart of the Nicaraguan jungle, An elite squad of Green Berets secretly undertake covert operations on behalf of the United States. A COUNTRY ON THE CUSP OF REVOLUTION ... Times are changing, however, and the political climate of Nicaragua begins to take a step away from dictatorship and towards revolution, with the team caught in the center of it all. With the sudden explosive arrival of a mysterious female doctor and a deadly assassin, the team realize a grave...

A case too cold, a killer too bold. Some mysteries are worth breaking the rules for…even for a lady. Mineral Wells, Texas – 1925 Lady Anne Worthington, an English countess and ingenious inventor, returns to Mineral Wells determined to build a future on her own terms: secure investors and lasso a Texas Ranger. But when the body of a missing Pinkerton agent is discovered and hastily ruled an accident, Lady Anne isn’t convinced. The victim had a penchant for blackmail, a ledger filled with dangerous secrets, and more than a few enemies in the small town. As tensions rise, it’s clear ...