American Detective Fiction

In Alaska, 100 years of bad blood between the villages of Kushtaka and Kuskulana come to a boil when the body of a young Kushtaka ne'er-do-well is found wedged in a fish wheel. Sergeant Jim Chopin's prime suspect is a Kuskulana man who is already in trouble in both villages for falling in love across the river. But when the suspect disappears, members of both tribes refuse to speak to Jim. When a second murder that looks suspiciously like payback occurs, Jim has no choice but to call in Kate Shugak for help.

A completely revised edition of the first Henry Rios mystery, The Little Death, Lay Your Sleeping Head introduces Michael Nava’s singular protagonist, gay Latino criminal defense lawyer Henry Rios. Rios, beset by personal and professional problems, begins a passionate affair with the black sheep heir to a great California fortune who tells Rios an improbable tale of murder and sexual predation in his wealthy family. When the young man is found dead of an apparent drug overdose, Rios begins an investigation that ultimately reveals much more than murder.

Severed hands, five victims, one crime family, and an extra body. Detective Rugbee’s day started out like any other until the call came into dispatch about hands on the beach. He wasted no time in responding to the distress call. Upon his arrival, he found two men, one on the ground, unresponsive, lying next to fingers poking up from the sand. The men are friends and have been for decades. Since retirement, they search for treasures on the beach. This morning, they found severed hands on a dune, and the finder had a heart attack. After Rugbee secured a ride to the hospital for the men, he...

Diamonds are a girls best friend & the Russian Mafia's. The Russian Mafia are in the throes of abducting Anastasia, a seventeen year old school girl. Private detective Jack Hamma intervenes but the Mafia are the least of his problems, the Australian police are on his trail and, just to make things interesting, Anastasia falls for Jack hook, line and sinker ***Winner of the Rodney Fisher Award*** ‘A fantastic cast of characters in a smoothly written plot, with plenty of action to keep the reader interested.’ 'I finished the book. I then downloaded and read the next book in the series, ...

Don't blink A gripping thrill ride begins when Oklahoma private investigator Buck McDivit witnesses a murder and finds himself possessing an ancient artifact with mystical powers. The investigation leads him to the Spiro Mounds Archeological Museum, where he meets the gorgeous Chief Archeologist Thorn Little Deer and discovers someone recently stole the artifact he now possesses—the priceless Black Cup of Oklahoma. A deadly ex-Army Ranger with the nickname Blade may be responsible for both the theft and the murder. As Buck sets out to catch the thief, he joins a cryptid expedition to the ...

Leilani Santiago is back in her birthplace, the Hawaiian island of Kaua’i, to help keep afloat the family business, a shave ice shack. When she goes to work one morning, she stumbles across a dead body, a young pro surfer who was being coached by her estranged father. As her father soon becomes the no. 1 murder suspect, Leilani must find the real killer and somehow safeguard her ill mother, little sisters, and grandmother while also preserving a long-distance relationship with her boyfriend in Seattle.

Tragedy, indescribable courage, and heart-wrenching secrets. It was her family’s history…one that she wasn’t aware of until recently.Shay was stunned to learn about her family’s tragic past…a history shrouded in secrets and from what she’d read so far in journals that dated back hundreds of years…there was good reason for the secrecy…fear was a huge motivator no matter the century. She was equally surprised to hear from Patrick Johnston. He had questions about the Delasina family…questions that she wouldn’t mind knowing the answers to herself. Patrick was making the trip...

Someone wants Morgan Shaw dead—or so the beautiful, brilliant, and hugely popular evening news anchor of top-rated Chicago TV station WLTV believes. Fearing for her safety, she turns to P. I. Ashe Cayne for protection. Though he sympathizes, Ashe turns her down—he’s not a bodyguard. But when Morgan’s car tires are slashed and she’s threatened again, Ashe agrees to help her.

A deadly satellite combined with an unstable president could prove fatal. (Saga 2 of 10). Can Detective Blackhawk save Earth from destruction? In this spell-binding thriller, an overheard conversation leads to three deaths in one night. Det. Blackhawk has no choice but chase a killer to Mars in the 25th century. Updated -5/18/24 Be sure to get the ebook, Best Friends, an outtake companion story of Alex's early life. #B07VVMQLQ6 Next in the Domino Series: Crossroads #B01E9N6FPW

Get three PI Assistant Extraordinaire Mysteries in a bundle. More than 100,000 words, humorous mystery books. FREE with Kindle Unlimited! Ghostly Murder A murder in a locked room…The faceless ghost… Throw in a cross-dressing detective plus his assistant extraordinaire in this new mystery series! A high profile murder calls for a high profile detective. When the famous Sushi Czar is found dead in a room that’s locked from the inside, the evidence just doesn’t add up. Of course a killer ghost (supernatural killer) is no match for the deductive skills of Michael Archangel. The fabulous...

When Howard Moon Deer's girlfriend Aria storms from his cabin in the middle of the night, he just considers it another conflict in their tempestuous relationship. But when he finds her Jeep abandoned down the road with no sign of her nearby, his instincts lead him on an investigation that uncovers the dark underbelly of a trendy southwestern town.

Shortly after private eye Howard Moon Deer decides to settle down with his latest lady love, he accepts a new case that takes him away from the home front and introduces him to the dangerous passions that drive San Geronimo's thriving art scene. Howard and ex-police commander Jack Wilder have been hired to investigate Sherman Stone, a man notorious for his torrid liaisons and low-life friends. Rumor has it that he's planning to have his wealthy wife killed. But before Howard can separate fact from fiction, a local hobo is murdered, and then Sherman himself meets an untimely end.

Los Angeles, 1986. A group of right-wing Christians has put an initiative on the November ballot to allow health officials to force people with HIV into quarantine camps - and it looks like it’s going to pass. Rios, now living in LA, agrees to be counsel for a group of young activists who call themselves QUEER. QUEER claims to be committed to peaceful civil disobedience. But when one of its members is implicated in the bombing of an evangelical church that kills its pastor, Rios finds himself with a client suddenly facing the death penalty.

In Parson, Texas, a small town ravaged by a devastating hurricane and the Vietnam War, twenty-nine-year-old Lou is diligently renovating a decaying old mansion for Miss Kate, the elderly neighbor who has always been like a mother to her. Mourning her brother’s death in Vietnam, Lou dreams of enjoying a more peaceful future in Parson. But those hopes are crushed when Miss Kate is murdered, and no one but Lou seems to care about finding the killer.

Lizzie Borden took an axe, and gave her mother 40 whacks. When she saw what she had done, she gave her father 41. Or did she? Holmes and Watson, while in America find themselves face to face with Lizzie Borden when two fresh axe murders rock Fall River society. Is Lizzie to blame?

Sherlock Holmes had never met a writer who had ridiculed him as bitterly as Samuel L. Clemens had. For that matter, Holmes had never met a writer who fancied himself a detective. Yet Sam Clemens not only unraveled Holmes' investigation into the murder of the hot-blooded woman on Thor Bridge, but also, while writing as Mark Twain, belittled Holmes' highly-touted detecting skills. In this recently discovered narrative, Doctor Watson sets the record straight.

Peter Montrose, a 73 year old retired attorney, wakes up on August 27, 2020 in the body of a much younger married man in Washington, D.C. Meanwhile, Paul Skelding wakes up that same morning in a dumpy Syracuse hotel sporting the body of an old man. The two thoroughly confused men have limited time in order to figure out why their bodies were switched. Their strange dilemma makes for a fascinating adventure for both of them. ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Lance Majestik is a pen name of retired Canadian lawyer Donald W. Desaulniers who has written more than 100 novels. That author has published some of ...

It is 1887, and Alma Rosales is on the hunt for stolen opium. Trained in espionage by the Pinkerton Detective Agency - but dismissed for bad behavior and a penchant for going undercover as a man - Alma now works for Delphine Beaumond, the seductive mastermind of a West Coast smuggling ring. When product goes missing at their Washington Territory outpost, Alma is tasked with tracking the thief and recovering the drugs. In disguise as the scrappy dockworker Jack Camp, this should be easy.

A murder in a locked room… A faceless ghost… Throw in a cross-dressing detective-savant plus his assistant extraordinaire in this new mystery series! A high profile murder calls for a high profile detective. When the famous Sushi Czar is found dead in a room that’s locked from the inside, the evidence just doesn’t add up. Of course, a killer ghost is no match for the deductive skills of Michael Archangel. The fabulous cross-dressing former FBI agent can rock a set of sky high stilettos and assemble clues like puzzle pieces, but can he actually prove a ghost committed murder? Only ...

In Strawberry Yellow, he returns to the strawberry farms of his youth and encounters family intrigue, danger, and murder. The series' most compelling and evocative mystery yet is set in the strawberry fields of Watsonville, California, where young Mas first arrived as a Hiroshima survivor in the 1940s. He returns for the funeral of a cousin and quickly gets entangled in the murder of a young woman. Was his cousin murdered, too?