From debut author Alex Kenna comes a pulse-pounding tapestry of secrets, retribution, and greed for fans of Jeffrey Archer.
Kate Myles was a promising Los Angeles police detective, until an accident and opioid addiction blew up her family and destroyed her career. Struggling to rebuild her life, Kate decides to try her hand at private detective work—but she gets much more than she bargained for when she takes on the case of a celebrated painter found dead in a downtown loft.
When Margot Starling’s body was found, the cause of death was assumed to be suicide. Despite her beauty, talent, and fame, she struggled with a host of demons. But as Kate digs deeper, she learns that Margot had a growing list of powerful enemies—among them a shady art dealer who had been selling forged works by Margot. Kate soon uncovers a dirty trail that leads straight into the heart of the city’s deadly underworld.
Margot died for her art—and if Kate doesn’t tread lightly, she could be the next to get brushed out.

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Brooklyn-born Lori Robbins began dancing at age 16 and launched her professional career three years later. She performed with a number of dance companies, including Ballet Hispanico, the Des Moines Ballet, and the St. Louis Concert Ballet.

Lori is the author of the On Pointe and Master Class mystery series. She won the Indie Award for Best Mystery, the Silver Falchion for Best Cozy Mystery, and was a finalist for a Mystery & Mayhem Book Award. Short stories include “Accidents Happen” in Murder Most Diabolical and “Leading Ladies” in Justice for All. She is also a contributor to The Secret Ingredient: A Mystery Writers Cookbook. Her experiences as a professional dancer, English teacher, writer, and mother of six have made her an expert in the homicidal impulses everyday life inspires.

A lifelong Sherlockian, Richard Ryan is the author of "The Official Sherlock Holmes Trivia Book" as well as a book on Agatha Christie trivia. His first six novels, "The Vatican Cameos: A Sherlock Holmes Adventure," "The Stone of Destiny: A Sherlock Holmes Adventure," "The Druid of Death," "The Merchant of Menace," "Through a Glass Starkly," and "Three May Keep a Secret" are available from MX Publishing, London. His seventh novel "The Poisoned Pawn: A Sherlock Holmes Adventure" is due out in the fall from MX. He is also the author of "B Is for Baker Street: My First Sherlock Holmes," which is available as both a traditional paperback as well as a coloring book..

He obtained his master's degree from the University of Notre Dame, where he majored in medieval literature; he is a die-hard fan of the Fighting Irish -- it doesn't matter what sport.

Dan Flanigan is a novelist, playwright, poet, and practicing lawyer. He holds a Ph.D. in History from Rice University and J.D. from the University of Houston. He taught Jurisprudence at the University of Houston and American Legal History at the University of Virginia. His first published book was his Ph.D. dissertation, "The Criminal Law of Slavery and Freedom, 1800-1868." He moved on from academia to serve the civil rights cause as a school desegregation lawyer, followed by a long career as a finance attorney in private law practice. He became a name partner in the Polsinelli law firm in Kansas City, created its Financial Services practice, chaired its Real Estate & Financial Services Department for two decades, and established the firm’s New York City office and served as its managing partner until October 2022. His legal bio may be viewed at https://www.polsinelli.com/professionals/dflanigan.

Taking a break from the law practice for two years, he and his wife, Candy, founded Sierra Tucson, a prominent alcohol and drug treatment center located in Tucson, Arizona.

Maddie Day is a talented amateur chef and holds a PhD in linguistics from Indiana University. An Agatha Award-winning author, Maddie writes the Country Store, Cozy Capers Book Group, and Cece Barton Mysteries, all from Kensington Publishing.

As Edith Maxwell, she write the Local Foods Mysteries (Kensington Publishing) and the Quaker Midwife Mysteries (Beyond the Page), as well as award-winning short crime fiction.

You can find all Maddie's/Edith's identities and work at www.edithmaxwell.com. She blogs every week day with the other Wicked Authors at wickedauthors.com and every second and fourth Fridays at mysteryloverskitchen.com. Look for her as Maddie Day/ Edith Maxwell on Facebook and @edithmaxwell and @maddiedayauthor on Twitter and Instagram.

A former journalist and magazine editor, Judy Penz Sheluk is the bestselling author of two mystery series: The Glass Dolphin Mysteries and the Marketville Mysteries. Her short crime fiction appears in several collections, including The Best Laid Plans, Heartbreaks & Half-truths and Moonlight & Misadventure, which she also edited.

Judy is a member of Sisters in Crime, International Thriller Writers, the South Simcoe Arts Council, the Short Mystery Fiction Society, and Crime Writers of Canada, where she served as Chair on the Board of Directors. www.judypenzsheluk.com

Robert Crais is the author of the bestselling Cole & Pike novels. A native of Louisiana, Crais moved to Hollywood in the late 70s where he began a successful career in television, writing scripts for such major series as Cagney & Lacey, Miami Vice and Hill Street Blues. In the mid 80s, following his success with the TV buddy genre, Crais created a series of crime novels based around the characters Cole & Pike. In addition, Crais has also written several bestselling standalone thrillers. Robert Crais lives in LA with his wife and family.

Here are the Elvis Cole novels in series order:

The Monkey's Raincoat

Val Collins is the author of the award-winning psychological thriller GIRL TARGETED and the international bestsellers ONLY LIES REMAIN , THE SILENT SPEAK and WHERE LOYALTIES LIE (March 2022). All four books feature heroine Aoife Walsh. They are all standalone thrillers and can be read in any order.

A native of Ireland, Val began reading at the age of three and still devours books at the rate of one per week. Her favourite authors range from Philippa Gregory and Sophie Kinsella to Lee Child and Linwood Barclay.

Join Val online at valcollinsbooks.com, and on social media @valcollinsbooks.

Jack Wells is a burgeoning author located in Northern Utah. He has been writing on and off since grade school, though most of his early works consist of bad poetry and even worse song lyrics. Some of his more serious writing experience includes penning amateur reviews of movies, novels (multiple genres), and video games for various websites.

The chapter excerpt from "Monochrome Noir" in "Strange Stories: Vol. 1" marks his first physical publication of an original tale. "Monochrome Noir" started out as a short story, in answer to a publishing call, but is currently being expanded into a full-blown novel. It will be released in four parts, with the first part having been published in September of 2021.

A.J. Devlin grew up in Greater Vancouver before moving to Southern California where he earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Screenwriting from Chapman University and a Master of Fine Arts in Screenwriting from The American Film Institute. After working as a screenwriter in Hollywood, he moved back home to Port Moody, BC, where he now lives with his wife and two children.

Cobra Clutch, the first book in the "Hammerhead" Jed professional wrestling mystery-comedy series, was released in spring 2018 and nominated for a Lefty Award for Best Debut Mystery and won the 2019 Crime Writers Of Canada Arthur Ellis Award for Best First Novel.

The sequel, Rolling Thunder, was released in spring 2020 to great acclaim and was featured in the Vancouver Sun, The Province, The Globe and Mail, Kirkus Reviews, Library Journal Reviews, Mystery Tribune Magazine, CrimeFictionLover.com, 49thShelf.com, and on CBC Radio's The Next Chapter.

Nick Chiarkas grew up in the Al Smith housing projects in the Two Bridges neighborhood on Manhattan’s Lower East Side.

When he was in the fourth grade, his mother was told by the principal of PS-1 that, “Nick was unlikely to ever complete high school, so you must steer him toward a simple and secure vocation.” Instead, Nick became a writer, with a few stops along the way: a U.S. Army Paratrooper; a New York City Police Officer; the Deputy Chief Counsel for the President’s Commission on Organized Crime; and the Director of the Wisconsin State Public Defender Agency.On the way to becoming an author, he picked up a Doctorate from Columbia University; a Law Degree from Temple University; and was a Pickett Fellow at Harvard. How many mothers are told their children are hopeless? How many kids with potential simply surrender to despair? That’s why Nick wrote Weepers and Nunzio's Way— for them.

Joe R. Lansdale is the author of over thirty novels and numerous short stories. His work has appeared in national anthologies, magazines, and collections, as well as numerous foreign publications. He has written for comics, television, film, newspapers, and Internet sites. His work has been collected in eighteen short-story collections, and he has edited or co-edited over a dozen anthologies.

Lansdale has received the Edgar Award, eight Bram Stoker Awards, the Horror Writers Association Lifetime Achievement Award, the British Fantasy Award, the Grinzani Cavour Prize for Literature, the Herodotus Historical Fiction Award, the Inkpot Award for Contributions to Science Fiction and Fantasy, and many others.

A major motion picture based on Lansdale's crime thriller Cold in July was released in May 2014, starring Michael C. Hall (Dexter), Sam Shepard (Black Hawk Down), and Don Johnson (Miami Vice). His novella Bubba Hotep was adapted to film by Don Coscarelli, starring Bruce Campbell and Ossie Davis.

National award-winning author Penny Goetjen writes murder mysteries where the milieus play as prominent a role as the engaging characters. A self-proclaimed eccentric known for writing late into the night, transfixed by the allure of flickering candlelight, Ms. Goetjen embraces the writing process, unaware what will confront her at the next turn. She rides the journey with her characters, often as surprised as her readers to see how the story unfolds. Fascinated with the paranormal, she usually weaves a subtle, unexpected twist into her stories. When her husband is asked how he feels about his wife writing murder mysteries, he answers with a wink, “I sleep with one eye open"

Victoria’s husband never returned home at the end of a work day. And no one seems to know what happened to him.
In the seven years since his disappearance, no witnesses have stepped forward and no credible evidence has been collected—not even his car. The few tenuous leads the police had are now ice cold. He simply vanished on a field trip with the private boarding school where he taught behind stone walls—the same school their son now attends.But someone has to know what happened. And that someone may be closer to Victoria than she realizes.

MARK EDWARD LANGLEY is the award-winning author of the Arthur Nakai Mystery Series. HIs series has won the PSWA Award for Fiction, the Firebird Award for Best Mystery and the Feathered Quill Award for Fiction and has been praised by Publisher's Weekly, Writer's Digest, and Midwest Book Review. He has also appeared in The Albuquerque Journal, the Farmington Daily Times and other newspapers around the country. His latest novel, When Silence Screams, is a finalist in the 2022 Silver Falchion Award for Best Mystery at Killer Nashville!

Mark's debut Arthur Nakai novel, "Path of the Dead," took Arthur from his quiet home in Northwestern New Mexico to the bone-chilling mountains of Montana in a race against time that was praised by bestselling author Craig Johnson of Longmire fame as being "one heck of a debut novel!

Mark also is an active member in the Western Writers of America, Mystery Writers of America, International Thriller Writers and the Public Safety Writers Association. Mark has also contributed to three anthologies and is currently writing his fourth Arthur Nakai Novel, "The Source" and the first novel of his new Skye Roanhorse series, "Bloodlines."

Mark and his wife, Barbara, divide their time between their home base in Indiana and Santa Fe, New Mexico.

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Jeffrey Fleishman is a Pulitzer Prize finalist and longtime foreign correspondent. He has had postings in Rome, Berlin, and Cairo and has covered wars in Iraq, Libya, and Kosovo. He returned to America in 2014 and is a Foreign editor of the Los Angeles Times.

Los Angeles is not itself. Rain falls hard every day. Homeless men are set on fire in their tents. Detective Sam Carver chases leads into a maze of militias and neo-Nazis. But before he gets too deep into the case, a past that has haunted him for years returns in the name of Dylan Cross. The killer who got away. Carver knows she has murdered again, but no one believes him. She leaves him clues, writes him notes, tempts him. She wants him to betray everything he is. He is drawn to her by the damage and demons they both carry. But he is certain that when they meet again, only one will survive. This is a love story of delusion and obsession, and how the dark things we desire reveal the truths that made us.

Weaned on the images of Kirby and Steranko in comics and Hammet and Himes in prose, Gary Phillips was born under a bad sign and only through writing does he hope to get out from under. For more of his work, please visit his website at: www.gdphillips.com.

LOS ANGELES, 1963: African American Korean War veteran Harry Ingram earns a living as a news photographer and occasional process server: chasing police radio calls and dodging baseball bats. With racial tensions running high on the eve of Martin Luther King's Freedom Rally, Ingram risks becoming a victim at every crime scene he photographs.

When Ingram hears about a deadly automobile accident on his police scanner, he recognizes the vehicle described as belonging to his good friend and old army buddy, a white jazz trumpeter. The LAPD declares the car crash an accident, but when Ingram develops his photos, he sees signs of foul play. Ingram feels compelled to play detective, even if it means putting his own life on the line. Armed with his wits, his camera, and occasionally his Colt .45, "One-Shot" Harry plunges headfirst into the seamy underbelly of LA society, tangling with racists, leftists, gangsters, zealots, and lovers, all in the hope of finding something resembling justice for a friend.

Master storyteller and crime fiction legend Gary Phillips has filled the pages of One-Shot Harry with fascinating historical cameos, wise-cracks, tenderness, and an edge-of-your-seat thrill ride of a plot with consequences far beyond one dead body.

Howard Linskey is the author of a series of crime novels set in the North-East, featuring detective Ian Bradshaw and journalists Tom Carney and Helen Norton. Most recently, he has written standalone thrillers including Alice Teale is Missing and Don't Let Him In. Originally from Ferryhill in County Durham, Howard now lives in Hertfordshire with his wife and daughter. --This text refers to the paperback edition.

Rodney Hobson is an experienced financial journalist who has held senior editorial positions with publications in the UK and Asia, most recently Editor of the financial news website Hemscott.
Among posts he has held are News Editor for the Business section of The Times, Business Editor of the Singapore Monitor, Deputy Business Editor of the Far Eastern Economic Review, Head of News at Citywire and Editor of Shares magazine.

He has also contributed to the Daily Mail, the Independent and Business Franchise Magazine and commented on investment on BBC TV and Radio, CNBC and Share Radio. His first book, Shares Made Simple, was published on November 10th, 2007.

He passed the Representative examination set by the financial regulatory authorities.
Rodney is married with one daughter.

Faye Snowden is the author of three published mysteries with Kensington— Spiral of Guilt (1999), The Savior (2003, 2004) and Fatal Justice (2005, 2006). She has published short stories and poems in various literary journals and small presses including The African American Review, Calliope, Red Ochre Lit, Bay Area Poets Coalition and Occam’s Razor. 

At eighteen, Faye left Louisiana to join the Navy. The Navy gave her an opportunity to spend some time living in Naples, Italy and on both US coasts—Washington, DC and northern California. After the Navy, she went to work as an information technology professional in various industries while on her way to a masters in English literature. Aside from her publications, she also managed two boys, a husband, five dogs and three writing fellowships following her Navy years. Today, Faye works and writes from her home in Northern California.

Tod Goldberg is the New York Times bestselling author of over a dozen books of fiction, including The Low Desert: Gangster Stories, Gangsterland, a finalist for the Hammett Prize, Gangster Nation, The House of Secrets, which he co-authored with Brad Meltzer, and Living Dead Girl, a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. His essays, nonfiction, and criticism appear widely, including in the Los Angeles Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal, as well as Best American Essays, and have earned five Nevada Press Association Awards. He is also the cohost, along with Rider Strong and Julia Pistell, of the popular podcast Literary Disco. Goldberg is a Professor of Creative Writing at the University of California, Riverside, where founded and directs the Low Residency MFA program in Creative Writing & Writing for the Performing Arts. You can follow him on Twitter and Instagram @todgoldberg and on Facebook at facebook.com/todgoldberg or visit todgoldberg.com.

The Mrs. Maisel of the mystery world, Sydney Lockhart, takes you on a thrill ride around San Antonio as she searches for the next killer.
She’s at it again, Sydney Lockhart is trying to solve a murder in another famous hotel while avoiding being locked up for the very crime she’s investigating. Bribes, fixed races, dirty money and unkempt places. A string of illicit deeds that trail from San Antonio to New Orleans and back again. Be it plane, train or automobile, Sydney will get to the bottom of this case in her own determined style.
It’s 1953, and detective Sydney Lockhart finds herself solving another murder. The victim is a slick bookie named Johnny Pine, who had his dirty fingers in pies from Texas to Florida. Sydney tracks Pine to the Menger Hotel in San Antonio where she discovers he’s been murdered in the room next to hers. And as usual, Sydney is a suspect. With her partner, Ralph Dixon, handling the case from Austin, or so she believes, Sydney is working alone in unfamiliar territory.

One day like any other day, I grew serious about writing. For a few years, I read like a bastard and studied every book I read. Then I began to master my craft by working in the short form: short novels, not novellas, of 40K words, I channeled what I'd learned as a copywriting--pith, speed, and razzmatazz--with what I'd learned about pacing, plotting, and suspense.

Then, to get myself in an adventuresome mood, I moved cross-country to Seattle. And here I've produced an assortment of books, applying the lessons I'd' learned. If you like a smooth fusion of style and suspense, along with some laughs on the way, here they are.

1) The Seatle BOP mysteries starring wee Chief Armstrong.

2) The Boss MacTavin series: four action mysteries with the world’s first Southern Scot.

3) The Fast and Furies series: five suspense tales of souls on the run from karma.

Theodora Madsen has everything she’s ever hoped for: a distinguished career as a homicide detective with the Dayton Police Department, a woman she loves, and a baby on the way.

While Theo and Bree nest and plan for their family’s future, two sixteen-year-old Ohio girls vanish—one from Dayton and the other from Brecksville—each leaving behind a bloody handprint. Then a routine interview goes disastrously wrong, and Theo’s injured and facing a lengthy recovery.

With her professional future uncertain and the cases growing cold, Theo scrambles to piece together the links between the girls. But the clock is ticking and time is running out.

In SOUND OF THE SINNERS we find Joe Geraghty leaving his new home in Amsterdam to attend the funeral of his former business partner and mentor Don Ridley who was found dead shortly after asking for Geraghty’s help.
With a heavy heart and weighed down with guilt, Joe returns to Hull, a city he thought was in his past.
Don’s death points to his days with the police and an off-the-books investigation into the unsolved ‘Car Boot Murder’ decades previously. As Geraghty investigates the circumstances of his friend’s death he uncovers dangerous secrets and a conspiracy of silence - Hull might have had a makeover during Joe’s absence, but clearly some things never change in the northern sea-port.
With his own life on the line, and with a debt of honour to be repaid, Joe is unable to stop in his quest for the truth, but powerful people with vested interests will always seek to ensure some stories never see the light of day.

 

Ian Skewis is an author and freelance editor as well as an Associate Editor for Bloodhound Books.

His debut novel, A Murder Of Crows, became a No.1 Bestseller and was longlisted for the Guardian's Not the Booker Prize. The audiobook, which Ian narrated, won the Gold Acorn Award for Best Audiobook.

He has also written several short stories in a variety of genres which are available FREE in paperback via his website for subscribers. To subscribe to his monthly newsletter please visit: https://www.ianskewis.com

Matt Cost was a history major at Trinity College. He owned a mystery bookstore, a video store, and a gym, before serving a ten-year sentence as a junior high school teacher. In 2014 he was released and began writing. And that’s what he does. He writes histories and mysteries.

"Love in a Time of Hate" is the third historical by Cost. "Joshua Chamberlain and the Civil War; At Every Hazard", was published in 2015, in which Emmett Collins grows into manhood during the Civil War. "I am Cuba" was published in 2020. It was recently awarded the silver award for historical fiction from Kops-Fetherling.

Cost has also published the Mainely Mystery series including "Mainely Power" (the MHC Read ME fiction book of the year), "Mainely Fear", and "Mainely Money". The fourth book in the series, "Mainely Angst", will be published in January of 2022.

Ron Katz was a trial lawyer for over four decades. A Rhodes Scholar, in 2016 he was a Fellow at Stanford University‘s Distinguished Careers Institute. 

Barb and Bernie Silver, a/k/a the Sleuthing Silvers, are a Baby Boomer detective couple who specialize in cases where age is an edge. Imagine Nancy Drew married to one of the Hardy Boys 50 years later. In The Mystery of the Fatal Firing, they go undercover at a large high tech company to investigate the ultimate case of age discrimination: murder.

Bruce Robert Coffin is the award-winning author of the Detective Byron mystery series and former detective sergeant with more than twenty-seven years in law enforcement. At the time of his retirement, from the Portland, Maine police department, he supervised all homicide and violent crime investigations for Maine’s largest city. Following the terror attacks of September 11th, Bruce spent four years working counter-terrorism with the FBI, earning the Director’s Award, the highest honor a non-agent can receive.

Winner of Killer Nashville’s Silver Falchion Awards for Best Procedural and Best Investigator, and the Maine Literary Award for Best Crime Fiction Novel, Bruce was also a finalist for the Agatha Award for Best Contemporary Novel.