Private Detective Fiction

When two young sisters disappear from a strip mall parking lot in a small Pennsylvania town, their devastated mother hires an enigmatic bounty hunter, Alice Vega, to help find the girls. Immediately shut out by a local police department already stretched thin by budget cuts and the growing OxyContin and meth epidemic, Vega enlists the help of a disgraced former cop, Max Caplan. Cap is a man trying to put the scandal of his past behind him and move on, but Vega needs his help to find the girls, and she will not be denied.

Ten years ago, Spenser helped a teenage girl named Mattie Sullivan find her mother's killer and take down an infamous Southie crime boss. Now Mattie - a college student with a side job working for the tough but tender private eye - dreams of being an investigator herself. Her first big case involves a 15-year-old girl assaulted by a much older man at one of Boston's most prestigious private clubs. The girl, Chloe Turner, only wants the safe return of her laptop and backpack. But like her mentor and boss, Mattie has a knack for asking the right questions of the wrong people.

Bizarre New Orleans Death Ceremony Ends in Murder French Quarter paranormal investigator Wyatt Thomas meets a new client at an bizarre death ceremony in a revamped Canal Street movie theater. The man gives Wyatt a bag of cash and a single clue: a solid gold Krewe of Rex, 1948 Mardi Gras doubloon. His only request is for Wyatt to find the person or persons who murdered his mother. The case isn't simply cold, it's 50-years old. When his client is shot dead on the way out the door, Wyatt must go into hiding, solve both murders, or suffer the same fate

After a near-fatal adventure in another world—a world of dragons, no less—Samantha Moon is ready for her first real vacation in nearly a decade. With a little money in her pocket from the sale of a mansion left to her by her vampire sire, Sam sets her sights on a whirlwind European tour. First stop: Ireland. When a dark shadow races across her hotel suite, followed by something evil watching her son from a suit of armor, Samantha Moon is about to discover that her trip to the Emerald Isle is going to be anything but relaxing... it's going to get deadly. After all, something wicked has ...

At Shoreline Vines, high on the Cornish cliffs, the Harper family are preparing to welcome glamorous investor Celine Chevalier to their vineyard. They desperately need Celine’s backing to keep their business afloat. But everything is jeopardised when a body is found in one of their fields. Police believe the death was a tragic accident but the victim’s family suspect otherwise and turn to the Shell House Detectives to investigate.

To understand what is in the mind and what is not is to understand everything. Is reality as simple as it seems? For Jack Riley, whiskey-soaked SOB and unlicensed PI, it is not. Two of his clients are found hanging by the neck from the same rope. Jack suspects their unfaithful spouses who are engaged in an intense affair. His probing leads to the Implicate Order, a shadow gallery of ruthless souls behind an infamous diamond mine collapse. Complicating his investigation, Jack is certain that he exists and is the only real thing. You, me, and everything else in the world actually are in the ...

Life has hit Black Love hard; professionally and personally. After losing his present girlfriend in an attempt to save a former girlfriend the District Attorney turned amateur sleuth returns from Danville, IL to his home in Chicago and finds himself conflicted with being the District Attorney, at a crossroads in life he resigns and meets Trigger Brown a new flame. It doesn’t take long before he finds himself embarking on his next mystery. As a favor to Trigger he agrees to help Bunchy Edwards’ a missing person’s detective, whose own daughter has gone missing. Making his way through ...

Private Detective Evander “Andy” Mills has been drawn back to the Lavender House estate for a missing person case. Pat, the family butler, has been volunteering for a book service, one that specializes in mailing queer books to a carefully guarded list of subscribers. With bookseller Howard Salzberger gone suspiciously missing along with his address book, everyone on that list, including some of Andy's closest friends, is now in danger.

London's gourmet detective is contemplating an empty bank account and, worse, an empty stomach, when a phone call solves both problems at once. Over lunch, Desmond Lansdown, world-renowned actor and burgeoning restaurateur, hires the detective for a chef-hunt, sending him to Italy to eat until he can decide which cook Lansdown should hire. It's a demanding gig, but this detective is never one to shy away from hard work. However, it doesn't take long for this plush assignment to turn prickly.

A Mexican assassin, known as La Culebra, or The Snake, has taken his trade north of the border. He injects an incurable toxin called ricin through a spring-loaded umbrella tip. The FBI discovers one of his future victims is Jab Boone! Against his wishes, Jab and his wife, Tippy, are placed in witness protection. But, when it is La Culebra vs. Jab Boone, the outcome is not what Jab – or anyone else – expected!

Leonard Dyke's writing style didn't offend. But all of his work featured unhappy endings: murders. When four people die, including the author, police finally call on Nero Wolfe. Wolfe baits a trap, and when it springs shut, he finds that truth is stranger (and bloodier) than fiction.

The fire at a boarded-up Catholic church raged hot and fast, lighting up Boston's South End and killing three firefighters who were trapped in the inferno. A year later, as the city prepares to honor their sacrifice, there are still no answers about how the deadly fire started. Most at the department believe it was just a simple accident: faulty wiring in a century-old building. But Boston firefighter Jack McGee, who lost his best friend in the blaze, suspects arson.

Catching a killer is a piece of cake... Or is it? When Mindy's much-despised ex-boyfriend Liam is wrongly accused of being a killer, Mindy and Beth need to leave their aversion behind and clear Liam's name. But when the killer decides that Mindy needs to disappear, the duo must pull out all the stops to uncover the truth. Praise for A.R. Winters: "The perfect balance of being lighthearted, but still a serious page-turning mystery." - Jaycie D, Amazon.com "A fun cozy mystery with engaging and entertaining characters" - lq, Amazon.com "A cute light read with a final twist at the end." - ...

Sometimes Treasure Wants to Remain Hidden, Especially if It's Cursed As the mysterious death of a treasure hunter is hastily deemed an accident, Ivy and Everett are summoned to delve deeper into the enigmatic circumstances surrounding his demise. Was the victim's fate sealed by a cursed treasure he was never meant to uncover? Could someone have deliberately concealed the accursed treasure, aware of the peril it posed? Or, perhaps, was the man ensnared in a more familiar trap, betrayed by someone he once trusted? In a captivating tale of intrigue, deception, and the allure of hidden riches, ...

San Francisco, 1952. Detective Evander “Andy” Mills has started a new life for himself as a private detective—but his business hasn’t exactly taken off. It turns out that word spreads fast when you have a bad reputation, and no one in the queer community trusts him enough to ask an ex-cop for help. When James, an old flame from the war who had mysteriously disappeared, arrives in his offices above the Ruby, Andy wants to kick him out. But the job seems to be a simple case of blackmail, and Andy’s debts are piling up. He agrees to investigate, despite everything it stirs up.

Nero Wolfe has left his comfortable brownstone for the promise of a remarkably rare black orchid at a flower show - but before Wolfe and his perennially hardy sidekick, Archie Goodwin, have a chance to stop and smell the roses, a diabolically daring murder takes place right under their noses and puts a blight on the proceedings. Now Wolfe's fancy turns to thoughts of weeding out a murderer - one who's definitely not a garden-variety killer.

Ex-police officer Sebastian Clifford is quickly finding that life as a private investigator is never quiet. His doors have only been open a few weeks when DCI Whitney Walker approaches him to investigate the brutal attack that left her older brother, Rob, with irreversible brain damage. For nearly twenty-five years, Rob had no memory of that night, but lately things are coming back to him. Whitney's worried that her brother might–once again–be in danger.

Lieutenant Ethan Hendricks’ greatest nightmare just also happens to be his grandfather’s newest business venture. Logan Hendricks is thrilled about his brand new detective agency’s first case, but things weren’t turning out the way they were supposed to, including the attempted murder of one of his brand new employees. But he figures their next case, which involves finding a missing sister, should go a lot smoother. How dangerous could it be? Ethan Hendricks wasn’t quite as confident about his grandfather’s new hobby, or that the supposedly straight-forward case of a missing ...

With a rich man footing the bills and a handsome lover on the side, Isabel Kerr seemed to have the perfect setup. Now the well-kept lady is stone-cold dead, and the cops have nabbed a Manhattan private eye who just happens to be an acquaintance of Nero Wolfe.

In the fifth Black Love novel, Black deals with ghosts from his past in his next case when Pepper Red steps back into his life, an old-school gangster with ghosts of her own that he feels obligated to help her sort out. On top of that, he is trying to balance his cases with his chaotic personal life. His long-term fling has dropped an unexpected bomb in his lap. He finds himself an incredible protector of children; the more he tries to get away from that title, the more they are drawn to him for help. First, with Johnny, the nephew of an Irish gangster that unexpectedly pops up on his ...