Rhonda Madison

Vacant homes in a new housing development are erupting into flames in broad daylight with no apparent cause. It’s a perplexing mystery for dogged arson investigator Walter Sharpe and his restless new partner, Andrew Walker, an ex-US marshal who craves action. But as they puzzle over the blazes, another home miles away burns to the ground, leaving a man’s corpse in the ashes and homicide detectives Eve Ronin and Duncan Pavone demanding answers.

I’m a no-nonsense man. As the head of a business empire, I have to be. I’m logical, cut-throat, and don’t believe in cheesy things like marriage and happy ever afters. But when my best friend asks me to be Best Man, I can't say no. En route to the wedding, I get stuck at the airport when my flight is delayed, and this obnoxious woman sits next to me. Not only does she keep drinking champagne even though she obviously can’t hold her liquor, but she seems determined to push every single one of my buttons.

Nestled on the water's edge near Seattle, Medina is the richest zip code in the Pacific Northwest. Luxurious beyond belief, this untouchably powerful enclave is home to many of the wealthiest men and women in America. But when a celebrity tech CEO is found dead at his fiftieth birthday party, suspicion begins to swirl through the community like a mist over Lake Washington.

Sami Kierce, a young college grad backpacking in Spain with friends, wakes up one morning, covered in blood. There’s a knife in his hand. Beside him, the body of his girlfriend. Anna. Dead. He doesn’t know what happened. His screams drown out his thoughts—and then he runs. Twenty-two years later, Kierce, now a private investigator, is a new father who’s working off his debts by doing low level surveillance jobs and teaching wannabe sleuths at a night school in New York City. One evening, he recognizes a familiar face at the back of the classroom. Anna.

NYPD Detective Declan Shaw gets a call: How fast can you get to the Beresford building on Central Park West? In the tower apartment, Shaw finds a woman waiting for him. She’s covered in blood. A body is lying dead on the floor of the luxurious living room. Every book in the apartment’s floor-to-ceiling shelves is by the same author: bestselling true-crime writer Denise Morrow."This is you?" Shaw asks the woman. "You're a writer?" Only one person knows the ending to this story. Is it the victim or the killer?

Doris Grandfelt, an employee at an accounting firm, was brutally stabbed to death . . . but nobody knew exactly where the crime took place. Her body was found the next night, dumped among a dense thicket of trees along the edge of an urban park, eight miles east of St. Paul, Minnesota. Despite her twin sister Lara Grandfelt’s persistent calls to the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, the killer was never found.

When former spy Maggie Bird retired to the seaside hamlet of Purity, Maine, she settled in for a quiet life with breathtaking views. But enemies from her past soon threatened to destroy everything. Maggie survived, thanks to her wits and the collective intelligence of the Martini Club, the circle of ex-CIA friends in her cocktail-sipping book club. Their handiwork, however, caught the attention of young police chief Jo Thibodeau. Now Jo and her neighborhood ex-spies have an uneasy alliance.

In my defense, I had no idea the tattooed, glasses-wearing, soulful hottie I spent one perfect day—and one unforgettable night—with was a hockey star on my father’s team. And Miles didn’t know I was the coach’s daughter. That’s the point of a “no-work-talk” date. But now? He's as forbidden to me as I am to him. When I land a new gig as the team photographer, we vow to keep it professional. We mostly succeed…except for that time after a game when he couldn’t keep his talented hands off me. But I swear, it won’t happen again.

Former spy Maggie Bird came to the seaside village of Purity, Maine, eager to put the past behind her after a mission went tragically wrong. These days, she’s living quietly on her chicken farm, still wary of blowback from the events that forced her early retirement. But when a body turns up in Maggie’s driveway, she knows it’s a message from former foes who haven’t forgotten her. Maggie turns to her local circle of old friends—all retirees from the CIA—to help uncover the truth about who is trying to kill her, and why.

The world loves Maverick Houston. Me? I’ve hated him since we were ten. It’s not exactly easy to escape your childhood nemesis when your parents are best friends who live on the same block. Through countless vacations, parties and holidays, Maverick and I have spent the past decade trading insults. Until that family dinner when his mother tells us she’s dying. When she asks us to forget the past and start fresh. That’s how I found myself on a date with the Treasure State Wildcats football star. The campus playboy.