Private Cities

The death of a powerful Chinatown crime boss thrusts private eye Lydia Chin and her partner, Bill Smith, into a storm of double-dealing, subterfuge, murder, and New York City real estate scandal. Choi has left the Tong headquarters building to his niece, who hires Lydia and her partner, Bill Smith, to accompany her to inspect it. The building is at the center of a tug-of-war between Chinatown preservation interests - including Lydia’s brother, Tim - and a real estate developer who’s desperate to get his hands on it.

A whole lotta shakin’ is going on in the quirky and page-turning mystery series featuring Jack McCoul, an ex-con artist who solves murders. “Loaded with one liners. Keeps the plot turning.” — Kirkus Reviews As earthquakes threaten California, recovering con artist Jack McCoul must dodge killers and turn the tables on a gang of greedy developers and crooked politicians who will stop at nothing to sell the heart and soul of San Francisco to the highest bidder. Read as a standalone or as part of the series. What readers are saying: ★★★★★ The characters are delicious. The ...

Duke Dempsey is a private investigator in 1938 Charleston, SC. He is thrust into the case of a lifetime when the Vatican comes calling and hires him to find an invaluable relic. Charleston is also hit with the mysterious murders of a prominent priest of St. Patrick's Cathedral and a local cop. Duke is forced into a partnership with the presiding detective, Johnny Stampkin, to find the relic and solve the murders. The case takes a multitude of twists and turns as they navigate through Roman Catholic puzzles, Civil War secrets, and a Nazi assassin.

Summer, 1962. A scorching heat wave is suffocating LA. PI Jim Keegan is offered a small fortune to find a beautiful woman from a set of photographs. He refuses; the job seems suspicious. But the next day the same woman, Eve, turns up, unbidden, on his doorstep. Eve fears for her safety. She is being watched. Before Keegan knows it, someone has been killed with Keegan’s own gun, and he gets sucked into a world of suspicion and betrayal where he’s never quite sure where the truth lies....

Sister Eve Divine recently discovered she’s got a gift: turns out she’s a natural at private detective work. But is it a temptation or a calling? As Eve wrestles with this question, she’s taking a leave of absence from the convent, investigating a case with her PI father. But something else troubles Eve. It’s been weeks since Eve heard from her sister, Dorisanne. And Eve’s gut tells her that something sinister has happened to her difficult sibling. There’s only one place Eve can find the answers she’s looking for: in Dorisanne’s world, under the lights of Sin City.

Nick O’Flannigan and Sandra Watson, freelance photographers on assignment for Travel USA magazine, stumble upon a mystery when they visit a local brewery. A bartender reveals that her ex-girlfriend, a journalist, was recently murdered and that she is the prime suspect.

Holidays are the time of new beginnings. Still on the mend from a bullet to the shoulder, private investigator Gideon Rimes is embracing his budding relationship with attorney Phoenix Trinidad and the Buffalo Police Department’s tenuous new respect. But the honeymoon period is cut short when a missing person case comes to Driftglass Investigations.

When Tony Mandolin upset the plans of the international child slavery ring, he had no idea just how far up the chain the consequences of doing that would run. Now he has a Vatican wetwork team after him and they have no problem taking out whoever is between them and a certain San Francisco PI. To add to the chaos, someone has figured out how to make paper money in the city deadly to the touch. Pickpockets are dropping like flies, and guess who has to solve the mystery in order to prove he's innocent?

Collected here are intersecting tales not just about Rimes but about friends, antagonists, and passersby who move through his world. Included are his first case as a PI, two pieces written by Bobby Chance, the backstory of a trial that shaped a friendship, the whereabouts of the Spider after his departure from Buffalo, and a novelette (inspired by two historic murder cases) that puts Rimes in the presence of someone truly demonic.

Laurie Montgomery is the owner of the Mystic Journey Gift Shop, a Wiccan, Pagan, and occult supply store. She also runs a local death café in the back of her shop. Now, the members of her group are dropping one by one. Is she to blame? Where does she turn? Who does she turn to? Ride along with Cole and friends in this action-packed tale of lies and betrayal.

When a twin-engine Beechcraft crashes into one of Richmond’s watering holes and turns happy hour into Hell, theories run rampant. Was it terrorists who, for some reason, decided to vent their spleens on unsuspecting Richmond? Was it a statement by homegrown killers less-than-thrilled that the city still, in the 21st century, chooses to honor Confederate leaders on its most prominent avenue? The obvious answers, though, just don’t pan out. Hard-charging reporter Willie Black’s search for the truth eventually leads him to a small town on the Chesapeake....

Rip-offs are a dangerous game, but heist man Miles Keller thinks he’s found a good strategy: rob rich New York criminals and then retire early, before word’s out about his true identity. New town, new name, no worries. Retirement can’t come soon enough, though. The NYPD is investigating him for the shooting of a hit man named Jack Deen, who was targeting Lucy Gates - a former police informant and Miles’ ex-lover. Miles thinks shooting hit men counts as altruism, but in any case a murder charge would make life difficult.

Dean Jeremy Drake, a six-five, biracial private eye, nicknamed D.J., is once again up to his neck in danger, deception, and murder as he works three cases in Portland, Oregon, in the mid-1990s. The former Police Bureau homicide detective reluctantly agrees to be the bodyguard for a gorgeous lady named Bailey Carlyle, who claims to be on the run from her abusive boyfriend. When the boyfriend turns up dead and is identified as running a high-end call girl operation, the authorities point the finger at Bailey as a leading suspect in his murder, labeling her a jealous prostitute.

Homeless, mistreated, and tired of making up the difference for her alcoholic mother, a 15-year-old girl from the foothills of North Carolina leaves home with no destination in mind - she just wants to get away from the crushing burden of abuse and unwanted responsibility. Thanks to the kindness of a stranger, she finds herself in Nashville, Tennessee, with a place to live and a job at a local café. She develops a sense of belonging at the café, and her coworkers and customers become her family.

Luke Mbeki has never been a fan of politics. His family knows this about him. As well as his friends. Even his colleagues are privy to this fact. He is therefore left bewildered when he finds himself in the middle of not one, but two cases that involve opposing political parties. When he is coerced into pledging his allegiance to one political campaign after the murder of a prominent person on their team, he knows he's definitely bitten off more than he can chew.

Tim Welch is a popular history teacher at the Montague Academy, an exclusive private school in Brooklyn Heights. As he says, "I was an odd-looking, gawky kid but I like to think my rocky start forced me to develop empathy, kindness, and a tendency to be enthusiastic. All of this, I'm now convinced, helped in my quest to be worthy of Kate Oliver." Now, Kate is not inherently ordinary.

The black-veiled witch Anya and her army of ghouls aren’t used to being hunted—especially by her prodigies. In the final installment of the Moonlight City Drive trilogy, all the players are forced into a final showdown. Killers vs. Detectives. Warlocks vs. Vultures. Teenagers vs. Witches. Psychics vs. Ghouls. Everyone knows it’s the end of the road, and the city is certainly alive tonight.

It's Memorial Day weekend and Alice's beloved dog Maebelle has been lost. Alice stays in New York, desperate to find her dog, while her husband Peter drives north to stay with friends in the Berkshires. Relieved to be alone, Alice isn't sure if she should remain married to Peter, but she's built a life with him. For his part, Peter is pleased to have time alone - he's tired of the lost-dog drama, of Alice's coolness, of New York. A psychiatrist, he ponders his patients and one particularly attractive woman in particular.

Nick has traveled the southwest! From Salt Lake to Phoenix, from Phoenix to Santa Fe, Nick’s journey continues! He’s been poisoned, knocked out, and stung by a wasp. At every turn, he’s solved a difficult case. But when he reaches Oklahoma City, everything changes. He’s not only a witness, but Nick also is a victim, and the solution will threaten everything he knows and may change his life forever.

A cross between Shaft, Mike Hammer, and Body Heat, Dead in the Rose City is a taut, hard-boiled detective novel in which nothing is quite what it seems. Dean Jeremy Drake, nicknamed D.J., is a Jamaican-Italian private investigator and ex-homicide detective for the Portland Police Bureau. He is six-five, hip, tough, armed with a .40 caliber Glock, and courts danger and romance with equal abandon. Those qualities are put to the test when Drake is framed for murder in the midst of two seemingly unrelated cases.