suspense

Shadowed Souls by Mark Edward Jones

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Detective Henry Ike Pierce joins his colleagues to celebrate a destination wedding in Hawaii. Amid beautiful scenery and new friends, paradise has its surprises. A dying man on a beach utters seemingly disjointed words that may be a warning. Henry finds himself pulled into another maelstrom, pursuing elements of Miomir Kurić’s criminal enterprise, while a man seeks revenge for his father’s death, one caused by Henry Pierce.

His responsibility for the death torments Henry. The man’s lifeless face and staring eyes haunt his dreams, and Henry’s internal turmoil imperils his colleagues and endangers his loved ones. A friend warns him that our worst memories and grief hide in the shadows of our souls. This young detective’s guilt casts a long shadow.

Targeted Age Group:: Middle school and older

What Inspired You to Write Your Book?
I love Hawaii, especially Maui. The next book in my detective series needed a place for a destination wedding, so I thought of Maui. Writing about a place I enjoy visiting, made the writing all that easier.

Predator by Liz McCraine

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Some secrets don’t stay buried.

If sixteen-year-old Hannah doesn’t score big on her AP Biology exam, she won’t get into the pre-veterinary medicine program of her dreams. But between her biology teacher assigning her an absurd research project, her friend Livvy keeping secrets, and a former nemesis igniting sparks of attraction she can’t ignore, Hannah’s focus is as steady as a three-legged puppy.

Hannah is convinced the school year can’t get any harder… until Livvy is killed by a mountain lion. Struggling to accept her best friend’s demise, Hannah researches mountain lions for her project. As she digs deeper into the species’ hunting behavior, she unearths conflicting facts about her friend’s death and reaches a staggering conclusion.

Can Hannah catch the killer before it’s too late, or will she become prey in a final hunt?

Targeted Age Group:: 12-24

What Inspired You to Write Your Book?
When I was a teenager, my family moved to a rural area in northern California. One of the first things our neighbors did when we arrived was warn us about mountain lion attacks. The big cats were prevalent in the area, and livestock had been killed. Since we owned horses, and one of our mares had recently given birth, our home was a prime target for an attack. We learned to make loud noises whenever we went outside, to walk in a line with the smallest child in front, and to keep yard lights on at night. We were constantly afraid. Now that I’m older and have moved away, I no longer look over my shoulder when I go outside. But I’ll never forget that time. It seemed too easy to use the fear I felt in one of my stories, and so, PREDATOR was created.

Featured Book: The Gouge by MH David

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Ebook On Sale: Only $0.99 Sept. 1- Sept 8

Carson ran away from Cypress Creek to escape his dark past—his father was the serial killer dubbed, “The Man in the Woods”. Twenty-two years have passed, and a simple text message threatens to bring all of his secrets out into the open.

The freshly slain bodies of two teenage girls have been discovered in the woods of Cypress Creek, and the methods by which the girls were killed are identical to those found nearly twenty-two years earlier on his father’s victims. The now retired detective who worked the first case has long suspected Carson Bates knew more than what he revealed during interrogations; now is his chance to prove it.

Carson returns to Cypress Creek to finally face his past, but it is soon clear that Carson isn’t the only person in that small-town harboring dark secrets about that fateful night in the woods.

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Bloody Delta Dawn by Jerold Last

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Motorcycle gangs, corrupt cops, kidnapped dogs, drug dealers, and the unique geography and history of California’s Sacramento River Delta area, where the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers flow into San Francisco Bay, are all woven into the plot of this suspenseful thriller.

Targeted Age Group:: Adult, Young adult

What Inspired You to Write Your Book?
Mainly several plot ideas I'd had for some time just waiting to use when the time was right and a fascination with the locale, which is close to where we live, used for the setting. The Delta area is a part of California not particularly well known to tourists and to people living in the southern half of the state, with a rich history and a very different feeling than the beaches of the Los Angeles and San Diego coastal areas, the urban sprawl of the San Francisco Bay area, or the Sierra mountains.

Featured Book: Serenity by Craig A. Hart

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Shelby Alexander knew one thing …

Trusting anyone would be a huge mistake.

But can he survive alone?

When Shelby moved back to his small hometown of Serenity after retiring from boxing, he was looking for a little peace and quiet. He was getting too old for all the high-octane nonsense of his prior life.

But when he finds a badly injured girl curled up by his barn, freezing in the winter chill, he knows the jig is up. And if the local sheriff has anything to say about it, Shelby will be spending a lot his retirement in jail.

Ah, well … it’s just another day in the small town of Serenity.

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When Push Comes to Shoot by Rena Koontz

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When Push Comes to Shoot by Rena Koontz

Emma Hunter’s tyrannical brother deserved to die, even if the manner of his murder was horror-movie gruesome. As a police lieutenant, she’s duty-bound to provide whatever assistance she can in hunting down her brother’s killer, but she doesn’t mourn his loss. Business acquaintances, former friends, and even his relatives agree the world is better off without the despicable bully.
With no clues and too many suspects, it looks like the murderer might be home free—until tenacious Detective Jared Jones’ suspicions turn to Emma’s sweet sister-in-law. Emma knows for a fact that her brother’s mentally and emotionally abused wife is innocent, but conflicting loyalties prevent her from speaking up and turning the investigation in the right direction. What’s best for her brother’s widow could cost Emma everything she values—her career, her reputation, even her freedom.

Featured Book: A Fiery End by Diana J Febry

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Driving home late at night, DI Fiona Williams comes across a vehicle engulfed in flames. The driver is at the wheel, oblivious to the inferno surrounding him. There is no explanation for why the vehicle was on the road or why the quiet tradesman was murdered in such a macabre way. The only witness to the fire, claims she saw nothing. Whatever she did see goes to the grave with her when she is brutally strangled. Frustration grows when the driver’s daughter disappears. With time running out to find the daughter alive, Fiona is drawn into a web of powerful men determined to keep their deadly games secret. Juggling a family crisis and a growing suspicion her boss is corrupt, her judgement is hampered by her attraction to the man central to everything.o

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Featured Book: When Dawn Never Comes by Kim Carter Award-Winning Author

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“Could an inheritance come with a serial murderer?”

Jordan Maxwell, a twenty-seven-year-old freelance journalist, ventures to New York City to make a name for herself. With both of her parents dead, she struggles to get by living in one of the worst neighborhoods in the city. In a twist of fate, Jordan finds herself the sole heir to her great-uncle’s estate in Solomon Cove, Maine. Packing her bags, she heads to Maine where she soon realizes that her rags to riches journey might entail much more than she bargained for.

Crime and murder were unheard of in the small fishing village of Solomon Cove, a town where everyone knows everyone. It was the last place anyone expected crime, especially murder. However, the tides turn for this quaint town when the body of a young girl comes crashing in with the waves.

As the victims continue to mount, Jordan starts to believe the murders are connected to her and the family she never knew. Digging deeper into the past, Jordan must protect herself before she becomes the serial killer’s next target.

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Featured Book: AN UNFORTUNTE COINCIDENCE: A 1920s Mystery by Michael Sinclair

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The decade of the 1920s is now one hundred years ago. Flappers and speakeasies are hallmarks of that era. Family conflicts, adultery and even murder were prevalent during this period of decadence and free love. AN UNFORTUNATE COINCIDENCE is a mystery set in the stately home of an upper crust family bringing the 1920’s to life—amidst a parade of death!

It is January 1928, New York City. Megan Cary, a young and stylish librarian, lives with her moody but wealthy husband, Adam, on Central Park South. Just as Meg can no longer tolerate her husband’s philandering, Adam mysteriously dies during a weekend trip to his hometown of Albany. Meg finds a suicide note, and the police want to quickly close the case. So does Adam’s mother, Helen Cary, the stern matriarch of the brownstone house she shares with her sister and brother-in-law, as well as her daughter and son-in-law. Skeptical that Adam would kill himself, Meg hires a private detective, Sloane Shepard, whose investigation ultimately unravels family secrets as a series of surprising deaths occur over two cold and snowy weeks in Albany.

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Hostile Witness by Rebecca Forster

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Hostile Witness by Rebecca Forster

Once a hotshot attorney, Josie Bates swore off the legal limelight until her college roommate came calling. Her daughter, sixteen year-old Hannah Sheraton, is accused of murdering a judge and no one in the legal community will represent her. Josie, abandoned by her own mother as a teenager, can’t turn her back. Josie’s best hope is to get the girl sentenced to a a juvenile facility but when the D.A. decides to try her as an adult, Josie knows conviction would be as good as the death penalty. Digging deep to build a defense, Josie finds that within a tangled web of family relations, politics, and money, a teenage girl’s life is worthless — except to Josie.