"Sheila Dawson has made history as the first female police chief in Pecan Springs, Texas. She's also cracked many a mystery in collaboration with local sleuth China Bayles--that's why everyone thinks she's such a smart cookie. Now, Sheila puts those smarts to work, sifting through secrets to find a killer on the prowl... Larry Kirk, Pecan Springs' computer guru, has been shot dead in his kitchen. At first Police Chief Sheila Dawson believes it to...

"Jay's entertaining first novel pays homage to George Simenon and his legendary detective, Inspector Maigret.... The main draw is the charming, indomitable Inspector Mazarelle, who enjoys puffing on his old pipe, stopping for cognac in the middle of the day, and dining on sausages and lentils or his favorite dish, duck confit, at the Café Valon. Mystery fans will look forward to seeing more of him in the promised sequel." -- AMAZON.COM (Publisher's...

When someone starts savagely murdering women near her home, Allison Taylor Mackenna, a survivor of another serial killer, finds her life in danger once again, and worries that her husband, Mack, may be the guilty party.

A man is making a crude leather mask with slits for eyes and mouth, and an iron spike fixed in the middle of the forehead. It is a 'death mask', once used by Icelandic farmers to slaughter calves. He has revenge in mind. Meanwhile, with Detective Erlendur absent, his colleague Sigurdur Oli is in the spotlight. A school reunion has left Sigurdur Oli dissatisfied with life in the police force. Iceland is enjoying an economic boom and young tycoons are...

McDermid is as smooth a practitioner of crime fiction as anyone out there. . . . She' s the best we' ve got."— New York Times Book Review Internationally best-selling crime writer Val McDermid' s work speaks for itself: her books have sold millions of copies worldwide, won numerous accolades, and attracted a devoted following of readers around the globe. Her latest, Cross and Burn , picks up where The Retribution left off: following the best...

Pericles "Perry" Christo is a PI with a past--a former cop, who lost his badge and his family when a corruption scandal left him broke and disgraced. When wealthy Upper East Side matron Julia Drusilla summons him one cold February night, he grabs what seems to be a straightforward (and lucrative) case. The socialite is looking for her beautiful, aimless daughter, Angelina, who is about to become a very wealthy young woman. But as Christo digs deeper,...

With the help of a lawyer friend in Texas, China Bayles investigates a cold case involving a valuable piece of Mexican art after suspecting that it may be connected to the death of another friend. "When China's and Ruby's friend Karen Prior is mugged in a mall parking lot and dies a few days later, China begins to suspect that her friend's death was not a random assault. Karen was a filmmaker supervising a student documentary about the fifteen-year-old...

"An evening's work deciding on the class schedule for her scrapbooking shop has put Carmela in the mood to kick up her heels. But after some strange noises draw her into Oddities , the neighboring antiques shop, Carmela's night is abruptly put on hold when a bloody body falls out of a curio cabinet --and into her arms. While shop owner Marcus Joubert was known for being an eccentric with a penchant for eclectic merchandise, Carmela never thought he...

"Spring 1915. As the Great War burns its way across Europe, Jack McColl, a spy for His Majesty's Navy, is stationed in India, charged with defending the Empire against Bengali terrorists and their German allies. In England, meanwhile, suffragette journalist Caitlin Hanley begins the business of rebuilding her life after the execution of her brother, an Irish republican sympathizer whose plot Jack McColl--Caitlin's ex-lover--had foiled. The war is...

"Another One Goes Tonight [is an] impeccably constructed mystery featuring the unpredictable but ever-entertaining Detective Superintendent Peter Diamond...there are plenty of red herrings to sniff out and misdirections to blindly follow. A classic whodunit."  —The New York Times Book Review 
En route to investigate a late-night disturbance, a patrol car spins off the road, killing one of the cops...