detective

Tokyo Zangyo by Michael Pronko

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After a manager in Japan’s premier media company ends up dead in front of company headquarters, Detective Hiroshi enters the high-pressure, hard-driving world of Tokyo’s monolithic corporations to find the killer. Hiroshi scours the off-record spending, lavish entertaining and unspoken agreements that keep Japan, Inc. running with brutal efficiency through “zangyo” or unpaid overtime. Working overtime himself, Hiroshi probes the dark heart of Japanese business, a place he’s tried to avoid all his life.

Targeted Age Group:: 18 and over

What Inspired You to Write Your Book?
As an American living in Tokyo, I’m stunned by how much work takes over people’s lives. “Zangyo” means overtime in Japanese, and it’s a commonly used word. As a teacher, I keep in touch with my students after they graduate and start working. They tell me how they are compelled to work long hours, up to the point they quit. That’s the background, but the specific inspiration was a tragic story of a young girl who killed herself after working over 100 hours of overtime, being criticized by her boss, and losing hope. Mysteries and detective stories are often editorials, skewed and darkly ironic ones, but with an opinion in there.

Innocence Taken – Pray He Kills You Quickly by Victoria M. Patton

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Innocence Taken – Pray He Kills You Quickly by Victoria M. Patton

Two dead girls, another one missing, and a secret that will rip a tight-knit community apart.

When a missing teen’s body shows up dismembered on the side of the road, Lt. Damien Kaine must crush her parent’s hopes of her safe return. The parents are pushing for details and answers. Two things he can’t give. The abduction of a second girl brings only one clue. The girls look like.

As Damien searches for a sadistic killer, a disturbing pattern emerges. The more he digs into the community’s history, the more missing girls he finds.

With the lack of evidence or movement forward on the case, a quirky FBI profiler is pulled in to assist with the investigation. Damien wrestles with disdain for the agent and an equally strong sexual attraction to her, as he deals with mounting frustrations.

Tensions rise with the abduction of another girl. Damien and his team are in a race against time to save her. But the case is about to take a frightful turn. What they uncover will not only rock them to their core, it will haunt them forever.

Yellowhead Blues by R.E. Donald

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Just west of the Rocky Mountains, a frightened horse with a bloody saddle is found running loose on the Yellowhead highway. Former RCMP investigator Hunter Rayne is on the road in his eighteen-wheeler when he is flagged down to help calm the horse and find its missing rider.

The horse with the bloody saddle leads Hunter and a good-natured French Canadian cowboy into a complicated murder mystery. The police are none too happy with his interference, but Hunter strongly believes the RCMP have arrested the wrong man and sets out to uncover who stood to gain from the death of a wealthy ranch owner.

His belief in the suspect’s innocence is shared by a rookie female RCMP constable who joins him in the search for the truth. She befriends the dead man’s young fiancé in an effort to get answers, and discovers that the vulnerable Texas beauty is not who the victim believed her to be.

Yellowhead Blues was one of three finalists for the 2020 Whistler Independent Book Award in Fiction. It has earned an average of 4.7 stars in ratings on Amazon.com, and is the fifth novel in a unique mystery series set on the highways of North America.

Targeted Age Group:: Adult

What Inspired You to Write Your Book?
I love mysteries. I especially love mystery series that feature realistic characters and situations, with stories that make me believe those characters actually exist. Of course, that's the type of books I have always aspired to write.

Among the excellent crime series that inspired me to write the Highway Mysteries are Elizabeth George's Inspector Lynley series, Martha Grimes' Richard Jury series, Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch series and John Lescroart's Dismas Hardy series.

As for the unique setting of the Highway Mysteries, I spent a good part of my life working in the transportation industry, and was fortunate to get to know many of the interesting people working as truck drivers, customs brokers and other support workers who help get goods to every corner of North America.

The Girl And The Field Of Bones by A.J. Rivers

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The Girl And The Field Of Bones by A.J. Rivers

There are secrets only the dead can tell.
And some of these secrets refuse to remain buried.

Since the death of her mother, FBI agent Emma Griffin has devoted her life to uncover the truth behind even the most shocking mysteries.
Now Emma must confront the dangerous, but unavoidable truth behind what she witnessed in the temple. The people behind this secret society call themselves the Order.

The Order has committed one too many atrocities to ignore.
But their vow of secrets and silence locked behind vaulted doors has made Emma’s mission of confronting the truth, almost impossible.
When another mystery resurfaces and death comes knocking close to home, Emma begins to feel entrapped by a maze. A mysterious field with the dead buried beneath.
The lives of the past and the present lay on the line. The only way to save them is to fight the terrifying monsters head on.
But what do you do when the evil you are fighting lurks in the shadows and refuse to come out?

There is no more running, and you cannot hide.
The only option is to fight like mad to survive.

Featured Book: Last Girls Alive by Jennifer Chase

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Half-buried in the muddy earth and surrounded by puddles of water lies the naked body of a beautiful young girl. Her pale skin looks like porcelain in the early morning light. Her fragile arms bent and crooked like a broken doll.

When Detective Katie Scott is called to the discovery of a young girl buried on the grounds of a former children’s home in Pine Valley, California, she’s hopeful it’s the end to a devastating cold case she’s been working on. No one has seen Candace Harlan since she ran away from Elm Hill Manor five years ago. Her death will be a tragedy, but it will also bring peace to those who miss her most. But the girl in the ground is not Candace.

The victim is almost identical to Candace in every way, but fear grips Katie as she takes in the black ink that decorates the girl’s back—a terrifying message tattooed on her skin after she drew her last breath.

Forcing down traumatic memories of losing her own parents, Katie is certain someone mistook this poor soul for Candace, and that this crumbling home for lost girls is at the heart of this terrible crime. She sets to work digging into the tragic history of the owners who lost so many children of their own and tracking down the last six residents and the staff who cared for them—but no one wants to talk, let alone remember.

The next day, a second girl’s body is found down by the creek at high water, the same words etched into her skin. Katie’s worst fear is confirmed: someone is picking off the last of the Elm Hill girls one by one. But what does the tattoo mean? And what monster would target these innocent girls who have already been through so much?

Katie must dig deep to confront her own fears and protect the vulnerable—but as the body count rises further, will there be anyone left to save?

An absolutely gripping, dark, and totally unputdownable serial killer thriller that will keep you racing through the pages all night long. Fans of Lisa Regan, Rachel Caine and Melinda Leigh will read in one sitting!

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The Girl And The Secret Society by A.J. Rivers

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The Girl And The Secret Society by A.J. Rivers

This is the bizarre and shocking case of Lakyn Monroe.
In the midst of filming her show, Lakyn Monroe vanished without a trace.
Four months have passed, and the unusual disappearance of the internet celebrity has garnered nationwide attention. With not a clue to the reasoning behind her disappearance, the beautiful girl with the world at her feet would soon become just another missing face.

It has been months since the horror of Windsor Island. FBI agent Emma Griffin has fully settled back in Sherwood. Balancing her time between the Bureau, the local police, and making sense of her ex-boyfriend’s mysterious death.

When her cousin Dean shows up for an impromptu visit and brings along a strange missing person’s case. One that he still can’t untangle, she’s willing to help him puzzle it out.
As they work together to uncover the truth behind what happened to Lakyn Moroe.
They get drawn into a string of murders and disappearances. Cases that seem unrelated, but as more clues are uncovered, more questions arise.

When the cases start to intertwine leading back to one man. A “disturbed and unstable” man that is fighting for his life against the executioner’s time. They start to discover the sinister secret behind Lakyn’s disappearance. Faced with an insurmountable opponent, they must fight against the clock to rescue the missing and save innocent lives.

Emma must not only uncover but expose the monsters lurking in the shadows.
As more is uncovered, a photo of a blonde woman throws Emma right back into her past.

Evil has many faces. This one you will never see coming.

Dangerous Waters by A.J. Rivers

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Dangerous Waters by A.J. Rivers

She was terrorized, afraid, and desperate for help.
But her hopeless pleas would never be answered. No one would come to her rescue.
Now her body lays lifeless, floating in the water.
The girl could not escape the deadly and sinister secrets that Windsor Island holds…

It’s been a year since the body of FBI agent Emma Griffin’s ex-boyfriend was found on the beach.
His death remains as mysterious as ever, the truth has yet to be revealed.
Emma still cannot escape the feeling of guilt, regret, and grief that follows her daily.
Until a girls night with her best friend brought an unexpected surprise.
A week-long-all-expense paid vacation to an exclusive island resort.
Being in paradise should be the perfect way to clear her mind… But, when a body turns up and girls start to go missing. Disturbing secrets about the resort are coming to the surface. Turns out paradise is just an illusion, and the truths behind the dangers on this island are far more disturbing than Emma and her friends could ever imagine.
Emma isn’t content to let any secrets lie hidden. She’s going to find the culprit behind the murder and the disappearance.
Even if it means she gets taken too.

Will Emma be able to survive “paradise” and get off the island alive?

Can’t Stop The Funk by H. Max Hiller

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Can’t Stop The Funk by H. Max Hiller

Detective Cadillac Holland is the cop you call when the case that needs solved might not even be crime. It’s an election year and the local king of gentrification and out of town condominium developers threaten to bring disaster capitalism in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. The ideas the Ninth Ward’s newest builders have about the future of the city’s most troubled neighborhood could once again displace the city’s poorest citizens, many of whom are still grappling with the storm’s economic aftermath. Detective Holland is asked to find the motive behind the offer to buy the homes being built by the Make It Right Foundation, and what he finds stirs the city’s treacherous political waters in ways nobody ever imagined possible.

The Girl And The Hunt by A.J. Rivers

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The Girl And The Hunt by A.J. Rivers

Catch me.

The words that taunted FBI Agent Emma Griffin on the blood-soaked train ride from Sherwood continue to follow her.
Drawn to Feathered Nest, she discovers that the horror is far from over and whoever is behind the dare has no intention of his brutal game slowing down any time soon.
While in Feathered Nest, she revisits Cabin 13 to figure out the truth behind the necklace and search for more clues to discover the secret of the dead man that she found on its doorstep.

As she tugs the threads of the mysteries that have haunted her, the life Emma thought she knew starts to unravel around her.
How well did she really know her mother and father?
How much can she trust Greg?
Are the secrets in Feathered Nest really her own?

Lives depend on Emma’s skill and instinct. Some she has the chance to save. Others are long lost, but she can ensure they are remembered for what they were.
As she pieces together the stories of her past, she begins to realize they are far bigger than she could have imagined. But only Emma can determine how they end.

There is no turning back now. It is catch or be caught. Hunt or be hunted.
A huge storm is brewing, and Emma must face it head on if she wants to survive long enough to learn the hidden secrets of her past.

Lori Daniels Mystery: Pillow Talk by Tom Preschutti

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Lori Daniels Mystery: Pillow Talk by Tom Preschutti

Police Detective Lori Daniels has a knack for picking the wrong guy as a lover. This complicates her next big assignment.

One former lover from high school is now the front man for a major illegal drug distributor. Another former lover is the captain of the Police Internal Affairs Division, who vows to have Lori kicked off the police force, even if it means framing her as a gang informant. Her present lover is the hotshot detective from another precinct, who is super successful in bringing down the drug gangs, and also has a super ego to match.

Strategies devised by the State Police, City Police, Internal Affairs, and a Drug Gang, including using moles and informants, all go haywire. In the end, the trust between friends, along with steady and reliable police work, leads to the capture of a major drug lord.