Political Crime

2022 Winner - American Fiction Award for Medical Thrillers 2022 Finalist - American Fiction Award for Political Thrillers National Indie Excellence Award Finalist in two categories: Political Thrillers and Medical Thrillers “Since finishing Escaping Mercy I have been left with a feeling of emptiness that only brilliant novels succeed in achieving when they end. Polakoff has been undoubtedly successful in creating an immersive storyline with likeable characters, and placing me into a world I thoroughly enjoyed reading.” Leigh – Reedsy Discovery. "The book itself is a marvelous work ...

Judge. Jury. Executioner. One man is taking the law into his own hands. His targets are the criminals who slipped through the justice system. Dangerous men. Violent men. Depraved, cold-blooded killers. From California to Texas, this relentless avenger hunts down the unpunished and sentences them to death. But now he's on Sonny Hawke's turf. A Texas Ranger committed to his job, Hawke will not abide vigilante justice - even if the targets deserve to die. With each murderous act of vengeance, the hunter becomes more like the vermin he's exterminating.

Elena McMahon walks off the presidential campaign she has been covering for a major newspaper to do a favor for her father. Elena's father does deals. And it is while acting as his agent in one such deal - a deal that shortly goes spectacularly wrong - that she finds herself on an island where tourism has been superseded by arms dealing, covert action, and assassination. The Last Thing He Wanted is a tour de force - persuasive in its detail, dazzling in its ambiguities, enchanting in its style.

Chris Norgren, museum curator and Renaissance art expert, heads to Berlin to assist in mounting a sensational exhibit: The Plundered Past - twenty priceless Old Masters looted by the Nazis, thought for decades to be lost forever, and only recently rediscovered. But things quickly get out of hand when Chris's patrician, fastidious boss, after smelling a forgery in the lot, turns up dead the very next day - on the steps of a dismal Frankfurt brothel, of all places.

In MI5 a scandal is brewing and there are bad actors everywhere. A key member of a Downing Street think-tank has disappeared without a trace. Claude Whelan, one-time First Desk of MI5's Regent's Park, is tasked with tracking her down. But the trail leads straight back to Regent's Park HQ itself, with its chief, Diana Taverner, as prime suspect. Meanwhile her Russian counterpart has unexpectedly shown up in London but has slipped under MI5's radar.

Framed for a high-profile murder, Abrianna Parker finds herself hurtling down a conspiracy rabbit hole in a desperate attempt to clear her name. Her only way out is to go after the most powerful man in the country. But the powers that be play dirty - and expose her billionaire adoptive father, Cargill Parker, and his criminal activity. With charges of collusion swirling on Capitol Hill, police and federal agencies force Abrianna off the grid. But she's not alone. By her side is ex-con turned private investigator Kadir Kahlifa, a man as seductive as he is dangerous.

David Portland works security for America’s British Embassy in London. His life is upended when his son Trevor dies mysteriously in Nigeria, while employed by a suspicious security/mercenary company known as SureSafe. One night, Portland sees a man in a bar wearing a bracelet - a family heirloom, which he had given his son - and attacks the man.

In the months and weeks before the fateful November 22nd, 1963, Dallas was brewing with political passions, a city crammed with larger-than-life characters dead-set against the Kennedy presidency. These included rabid warriors like defrocked military general Edwin A. Walker; the world's richest oil baron, H. L. Hunt; the leader of the largest Baptist congregation in the world, W.A. Criswell; and the media mogul Ted Dealey, who raucously confronted JFK and whose family name adorns the plaza where the president was murdered.

Whilst searching a windswept mountainside for the fabled ghost moth fungus, a young Tibetan boy unearths a mysterious relic. Moments later the People’s Liberation Army of China marches into his isolated village in the valley below and begins to dismantle an ancient way of life. As the brutal oppression grows, the boy’s precious find becomes first a symbol of hope for the villagers then a tool of survival for a people and a religion. It must be preserved at all costs.

April 28, 2015, West Baltimore, Maryland: ground zero in America's Opiate Wars. In this crime-plagued section of the city, the death of Freddie Gray has triggered the worst domestic rioting since the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. and created a terrifying new breed of criminal entrepreneur.

On July 4, 1826, as Americans lit firecrackers to celebrate the country’s 50th birthday, both John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were on their deathbeds. The young nation had outlived the men who made it, but could it survive intensifying divisions over the very meaning of the land of the free? American Radicals is a dynamic, timely history of 19th-century activists - free-lovers and socialists, abolitionists and vigilantes - and the social revolution they sparked in the turbulent Civil War era.

Daniel Miller murdered fourteen people before he vanished. His wife, Carrie, now faces trial as his accomplice. The FBI, the District Attorney, the media and everyone in America believe she knew and helped cover up her husband's crimes. Eddie Flynn won't take a case unless his client is innocent. Now, he has to prove to a jury, and the entire world, that Carrie Miller didn't know her husband's dark side. But so far, Eddie and his team are the only ones who believe that she had no part in the murders.

Where Does Justice End And Vengeance Begin? A fun outing with his fiancé Kelly turns deadly when a close friend of Cole Sage is brutally shot down during the Chinese New Year Parade in the heart of San Francisco’s Chinatown. Seeking answers to who killed his friend, Cole is pulled into a violent underworld ruled by ruthless street gangs and shadowy Tongs. Cole unknowingly uncovers a tangled web of crime, ancient oaths, and blood debts. As the city’s most dangerous criminals clash over territory, Cole must navigate through gang wars, facing off against the Firecracker Boyz and their ...

Mob head Sal Tarantino doesn't want big-time casino gambling to become legal in Rhode Island. His solution is to have the next governor comfortably in his pocket, ready to veto the legislation. That means calling in the debts owed to the mob by some of Rhode Island's most prominent politicians, to clear the way for Doug Fiore, managing partner of the state's largest law firm and soon-to-be reluctant gubernatorial candidate.

In the feeble light of a London winter, Joe Tiplady walks his dog in the snow. He is not alone. Two men are tracking him, as is a woman with wolf eyes. Soon Joe will find himself caught in a storm of violence and retribution that he does not yet understand. Around the world, a chain of events is in motion that will make Joe a priceless target. A retired Soviet general hunts for his missing daughter after a series of brutal murders. A ruthless assassin loses something so precious he will do anything to get it back.

Powell stumbles across a sinister and clandestine group intent on changing the world order. The mysterious Chairman of this group, has brought together some of the wealthiest and most powerful men on the planet. But Powell’s focus is on saving one abused woman and her children. Rose Carter has discovered evidence of the group’s existence and must be silenced. Ruthless assassins are hunting down the family and Powell must keep one step ahead if he’s to keep them alive. In a gripping thriller, the book races to a shocking climax before Powell receives help from an unexpected quarter.

A leader has fallen, and Alex Cross joins the procession of mourners from Capitol Hill to the White House. Then a sniper's bullet strikes a target in the heart of DC. Alex Cross's wife, Bree Stone, newly elevated chief of DC detectives must solve the case or lose her position. The Secret Service and the FBI deploy as well in the race to find the shooter. Alex is tasked by the new President to lead an investigation unprecedented in scale and scope. But is the sniper's strike only the beginning of a larger attack on the nation?

Governments and businesses are under attack. The Attorney General of the United States is being blackmailed. A radio talk show host is fanning the flames of discontent. All these actions are the work of a mysterious international cartel working to control the world’s economy and expand its political power. These men will use their wealth and power to undermine all who stand in their way in achieving total world domination. They will use whatever it takes to succeed, including bribery, extortion, and murder. The FBI calls on one of its most seasoned investigators to find the source of ...

In the heart of the Ottoman Empire as World War I rages, Stepan Miskjian's world becomes undone. He is separated from his family as they are swept up in the government's mass deportation of Armenians into internment camps. Gradually realizing the unthinkable - that they are all being driven to their deaths - he fights, through starvation and thirst, not to lose hope.

Laura is a young intern in Washington, D.C., working for handsome and likable Congressman Hal Gannon. Laura falls for the charming Gannon, but when she catches a stewardess at Gannon's apartment, she vows to destroy him. Private investigator Robert Brixton is a former cop who has also worked for the FBI. When Laura goes missing, Brixton is hired by Laura's family to gain insight into the case that the police might have missed.