California Crime

A murdered woman. An antique Art Deco necklace. A reason to celebrate And a reason to mourn. The future couldn’t have been brighter now that Joan had sold her business and had planned an around the world trip with her husband. With the sale completed, she had the money and the time to do exactly what she’d always wanted to do. Along with her husband, family, ex-business partner, and several friends, she attended an outdoor concert to celebrate the sale. It was the culmination of everything she’d ever wanted. When she briefly left the concert at intermission, she decided to walk away ...

On October 12, 2005, a massive fire broke out in the Wines Central wine warehouse in Vallejo, California. Within hours, the flames had destroyed 4.5 million bottles of California's finest wine worth more than $250 million, making it the largest destruction of wine in history. The fire had been deliberately set by a passionate oenophile named Mark Anderson, a skilled con man and thief with storage space at the warehouse who needed to cover his tracks.

She was leaning against the door. Her smile was a sickly twisted grimace; the sort a prisoner gives a judge when he's asked if he has anything to say before he's sentenced. Russell Haxby is a ruthless used-car salesman obsessed with manipulating and cavorting with married women. In this classic of hard-boiled fiction, Charles Willeford crafts a wry, sardonic tale of hypocrisy, intrigue, and lust set in San Francisco in the early '50s.

City Developer Murdered at Historic Castle Anna's Cafe is flourishing. But the town of Dolphin Bay is in uproar as a city developer proposes new construction on the scenic Coastal Walk. Locals flock to the town meeting to protest. Hours later, the man is dead, stabbed to death in a room full of people. The police face a big challenge since everyone present had a motive to kill. When Anna’s friend and local resort owner Charlie Robinson becomes the top suspect, she reluctantly steps in to help. Can she ignore his sordid reputation and trust he is innocent? New secrets are revealed and ...

The day starts like any other in LA. The sun burns hot as the Santa Ana winds blow ash from mountain fires to coat the glittering city. But for Private Investigator Joe Pike, the city will never be the same again. His ex-lover, Karen Garcia, is dead, brutally murdered with a gun shot to the head.

Umiko Wada never set out to be a private detective, let alone become the one-woman operation behind the Kodaka Detective Agency. But so it has turned out, thanks to the death of her former boss, Kazuto Kodaka, in mysterious circumstances. Keen to avoid a similar fate, Wada chooses the cases she takes very carefully. A businessman who wants her to track down his estranged son offers what appears to be a straightforward assignment. But she should have known that the simplest cases are never really simple at all. Soon she finds herself pulled into a labyrinthine conspiracy.

Alex Wright, a 32-year old real estate appraiser in Laguna Beach, California, finds himself in the thick of a major bank fraud. While struggling to distance himself from the scam, he discovers the dead body of his luscious client, Colette. His surfing buddy, Detective Zackery Potrero of the Newport Beach Police Department, is watching his back and shaking his head at each turn wondering how Alex can get himself in so deep! Watch for future adventures of this duo and their assortment of family and friends.

After ten long years as a private detective, Stockton native Jake Carter is finally closing his LA agency. In just a few days he’ll put the missing teens and cheating spouses behind him and join the city's corporate world full of cushy jobs and hefty paychecks. But when his former partner is found dead in a Stockton homeless camp, murdered by a ruthless serial killer who’s targeting the city’s most vulnerable population, Carter will put his dreams on hold and return to his hometown to find the madman responsible before he strikes again. But solving this case won’t be so easy. ...

"I LOVED THE IMAGINATION OF THIS AUTHOR!" ~ Satisfied Kindle Reader "FIVE STARS!" ~ Multiple Fans "ALICE CROWLEY IS ONE OF OUR GREATEST LIVING WRITERS!" ~ G. Taylor There is only one way for Donna McBride to save her cheating husband, Tyson, and that is by going deep under covers to extract clues from wet and wild witnesses! In this 9,000-word suspense tail of domination, alpha males, and beastly demons, there is nowhere to run but in between the sheets. With the help of Lorraine, Donna's best friend, plus Lorraine's fist yoga coach Jasper and a dirty cop named Jeremy, the clothes are going...

Delve into the hidden underbelly of crime as we unveil the secrets of the Los Angeles Mafia Crime Family. From its elusive origins to its far-reaching influence, prepare to uncover the tangled web of power, intrigue, and betrayal that defined this criminal empire.

This suspenseful true story of a drug cartel hitman who got away with murder after murder in California's Central Valley over three decades reveals how the criminal justice system fails our most vulnerable immigrant communities. On the surface, 58-year-old Jose Martinez didn't seem evil or even that remarkable - just a regular neighbor, good with cars and devoted to his family. But in between taking his children to Disneyland and visiting his mom, Martinez was also one of the most skilled professional killers police had ever seen.

After a long Labor Day weekend, 73-year-old Eugene Washington is found dead in his Leimert Park home. At first blush, his death seems unremarkable- heat wave combined with food poisoning from a holiday barbecue. But something in the way Washington died doesn’t make sense. LAPD Homicide Detective Elouise "Lou" Norton is called to investigate the death and learns that the only family Washington had was the 6,000-member congregation of Blessed Mission Ministries, led by Bishop Solomon Tate. But something wicked is lurking among the congregants of this church.

Detective Valentine investigates the murder of a scathing judge of a singing competition. An unknown assailant strikes and kills the popular judge with her own Emmy. As Valentine investigates the homicide, she discovers the victim had earned the nickname "The Dream Crusher" and gathered numerous enemies. After she digs deeper, she finds a rival judge, an arrogant producer, an estranged brother, and a host of others with more than enough motive to deliver the deadly blow. When bodies start to pile up and her suspect list grows, Valentine must uncover the murderer before her own voice is ...

Alan Woolsham was at the top of his game. He was an acclaimed television star in England and had come to New York to film four special TV shows dealing with British antiques. The shows were to be taped at the Whitney Museum, and Alan hoped to open up a whole new viewing audience for his wildly successful show. But things didn’t go as planned. Murder does have a way of changing things. So much for stardom in the States. Marty and her husband, Jeff, were in New York City for what the hype promised to be a television and museum extravaganza about British antiques. Marty, an art and antique ...

Phoebe Siegler first meets Charles Heist in a shabby trailer on the eastern edge of Los Angeles. She’s looking for her friend’s missing daughter, Arabella, and hires Heist to help. A laconic loner who keeps his pet opossum in a desk drawer, Heist intrigues the sarcastic and garrulous Phoebe. Reluctantly, he agrees to help. The unlikely pair navigates the enclaves of desert-dwelling vagabonds and finds Arabella is in serious trouble - caught in the middle of a violent standoff that only Heist, mysteriously, can end.

A modern-day noir featuring a twisty cat-and-mouse chase, this dark debut thriller tells the story of a woman who makes a living taking down terrible men...then finds herself in over her head and with blood on her hands. The only way out? Pull off one final con.

Detective Sydney Valentine chases down clues to uncover the identity of a physician's killer. The doctor is bludgeoned to death in his medical office. Without warning, Detective Sydney Valentine's lieutenant assigns her a new and annoying new partner. While the two detectives pursue the investigation into the bloody murder of this high-profile physician, they discover he's going through a nasty divorce. When the body of a John Doe turns up in an alleyway and strange connections between the murders emerge, the likelihood of a simple case looks grim. False Claims is the fourth book in the ...

Oakland, California, 1983: a city churning with violent crime and racial conflict. Officer Hanson, a Vietnam veteran, has abandoned academia for the life-and-death clarity of police work, a way to live with the demons that followed him home from the war. But Hanson knows that justice requires more than simply enforcing the penal code. He believes in becoming a part of the community he serves - which is why, unlike most officers, he chooses to live in the same town where he works. This strategy serves him well...to a point. He forges a precarious friendship with the drug king of East Oakland.

Can a woman haunted by torture and a man battling his own demons find love while outrunning a dangerous motorcycle club? Cayenne, road name Kai, is on the run from dangerous enemies, haunted by the trauma of being kidnapped and tortured. Suffering from PTSD and depression, her one responsibility is a weekly call to her brother, Spider, whose life depends on her existence. But when she sets up camp by a river in an isolated area, she expects to be alone. That is, until Rick and his loyal German Shepherd, Smoke, arrive and disrupt her precarious existence. Initially an enigma, Rick becomes a ...

Homicide Detective Sydney Valentine investigates the death of a Jane Doe found in the backyard hot tub of a high-end home. When Valentine arrives at the scene, she discovers nothing is as it initially appears—far from it. Valentine's pursuit of Jane Doe's identity uncovers secrets some would prefer to keep hidden. Her investigation reveals treachery and deceit as more crimes change or end the lives of those connected to the victim. Throughout it all, Detective Valentine must face her own personal and professional challenges. She digs deeper to expose the truth behind what set everything ...