Private Detective Fiction

The fictional gentleman thief is a master of disguise, a criminal genius and a moral figure well-set in righting a few wrongs himself when Justice can't be bothered. It is learned that famous thief Arsène Lupin has made it aboard a ship bound for America. The ship's guests, led by Bernard d'Andrèzy, try to weed out the thief with the information they have on him. Anyone among the elegant crew could be the criminal, and a woman's necklace just went missing from her own neck.

Christine Ryan is desperate to find her childhood friend Veronica. Veronica disappeared more than fifteen years ago, not long after having a child with a Death Row inmate, notorious serial killer Travis Dean Ford. When Ford’s widow, Jordana, is murdered in the same way as his victims, Christine fears Veronica and her daughter will be next. If they’re even still alive. Discovering that both Veronica and Jordana were members of the Lonely Hearts Club, a pen pal service for women who want to write to men in prison, Jessica realizes she needs to find Veronica before the killer does.

Down-and-out drunk Terry Lennox has a problem: his millionaire wife is dead and he needs to get out of LA fast. So he turns to his only friend in the world: private investigator Philip Marlowe. He is willing to help a man down on his luck, but later Lennox commits suicide in Mexico and things start to turn nasty. Marlowe is drawn into a sordid crowd of adulterers and alcoholics in LA's Idle Valley, where the rich are suffering one big suntanned hangover. Marlowe is sure Lennox didn't kill his wife, but how many more stiffs will turn up before he gets to the truth?

Retired private detective and current seventh grader Steve Brixton has a new career: taking out the garbage on Wednesdays for five bucks a week. But it’s hard to leave the old game behind, and on a train trip down the California coast, Steve finds himself pulled back into sleuthing. Soon he’s in over his head in four feet and eleven inches of mystery involving a fleet of priceless automobiles, a deadly assassin (or maybe just a faulty lock on a sauna door), and a secret train car filled with intrigue. Plus there’s a girl involved, which complicates everything.

A cold case dating from the 1960s draws forensic anthropologist Gideon Oliver to the Channel Islands decades later to shine a light on the mysterious connection between two men who died there on the same night.

Three cases - two missing persons and one apparent suicide - are pushing PI Jessie Cole and crime reporter Ben Morrison closer to the edge.

A Tiffany Black Travel CaperA small town where secrets abound… Tiffany, Rosie and Stone travel to the small New England town of Mapleview, to enjoy long, lazy walks, decadent breakfasts and gorgeous scenery. Unfortunately, they’re also met with trickery, murder and mayhem. When a guest’s expensive jewelry goes missing and she’s found dead a few hours later, the trio must work quickly to try to uncover the killer among them. In the process, they uncover local corruption and some unexpected secrets. Meanwhile, a chance encounter finds the trio investigating a local resident, who’s ...

If you like kick-ass, gritty action, colorful characters, and needle-sharp wit, then you’ll love Jamie Renwick’s newly published series. Vancouver socialite Kathryn Swain is dead, her death ruled a suicide by police. But not everyone believes the official report. Reluctantly brought into the investigation, a private investigator and retrievals expert, Theresa Maddux, uncovers a trail of extortion, espionage and murder spanning three decades. Discovering the true scope of the crime, Maddux must track down the killer before he eludes the law and escapes to freedom. Placing herself ...

When former police detective Ted Conkaffey was wrongly accused of abducting Claire Bingley, he hoped the Queensland rainforest town of Crimson Lake would be a good place to disappear. But nowhere is safe from Claire's devastated father. Dale Bingley has a brutal revenge plan all worked out—and if Ted doesn't help find the real abductor, he'll be its first casualty.

Hank Castor has been a law enforcement officer most of his adult life. Devastated by the unsolved murder of his wife, he abandons his career as a federal agent to pursue the killer and exact revenge. Consumed by guilt and grief in the six years since the murder, he has become moody and prone to violent outbreaks of temper. Hank’s daughter Betsy, anxious to help, throws out a lifeline Hank is not sure he wants to grasp. History professor Eldon Quist’s carefully organized world has come crashing down. Accusations of plagiarism, sexual misconduct, and foul play have stripped him of all he ...

In the fifth Black Love novel, Black deals with ghosts from his past in his next case when Pepper Red steps back into his life, an old-school gangster with ghosts of her own that he feels obligated to help her sort out. On top of that, he is trying to balance his cases with his chaotic personal life. His long-term fling has dropped an unexpected bomb in his lap. He finds himself an incredible protector of children; the more he tries to get away from that title, the more they are drawn to him for help. First, with Johnny, the nephew of an Irish gangster that unexpectedly pops up on his ...

In the days of Marco Polo, men risked their lives for spices. And in an age when black pepper was so valuable that it was sold one peppercorn at a time, there was no spice more valuable than the legendary Ko Feng. Known as the Celestial Spice, it supposedly vanished five centuries ago, and its name lives on only as culinary myth. But now a sack of it has turned up in New York City, and the leading experts of world cuisine will kill for a taste.

Private Detective Tony Crow is hired to investigate the strange happenings in Grand Rock Lake, a small Northern Minnesota town. Disappearances, deaths, drug deals in broad daylight, arrests but no convictions, and residents’ distrust of their new police officers have turned life in the idyllic lake town into a nightmare.While the nation is focused on the southern border, Tony, his partner, Don Hanson, and receptionist-turned-investigator, Denise Richardson, learn first-hand how Mexican cartel drug trafficking has infiltrated the northern border. Quiet little Grand Rock Lake could become a...

In spring 1889, Prudence and Geoffrey set sail from New York Harbor on a private yacht bound for Bradford Island, where her friend Eleanor Dickson is to be wed. The Sea Islands along the Georgia coast serve as a winter playground for the likes of the Carnegies, Rockefellers, Vanderbilts, and Dicksons. Despite her Yankee pedigree, Eleanor is marrying a Southern gentleman, Teddy Bennett, and Prudence is thrilled to be the maid of honor.

Kate Marshall’s fledgling PI agency takes off when she and her partner, Tristan Harper, are hired for their first big case. It’s a cold one. Twelve years before, journalist Joanna Duncan disappeared after exposing a political scandal. Most people have moved on. Joanna’s mother refuses to let go. When Kate and Tristan gain access to the original case files, they revisit the same suspects and follow the same leads - but not to the same dead ends. Among Joanna’s personal effects, Kate discovers the names of two young men who also vanished without a trace.

William von Becker’s multibillion-dollar fund was limited to only the luckiest investors. Or so they thought. After the house of cards collapses and the disgraced von Becker commits suicide in prison, his family asks Jason Stafford to find out where the money is - and who is targeting them with attempted kidnappings. There are plenty of angry suspects to take a look at. But with roughly three billion of von Becker’s ill-gotten dollars floating around somewhere, there are other interested parties as well.

“Chilling...satisfying...offers up tasty tidbits of San Francisco lore . . . [Russell] has a gift for dialogue, slyly using it to reveal character.”—New York Times Book ReviewSan Francisco P.I. Stuart Winter looks into the death of a young, deaf heiress who volunteered as a sign language instructor—for a gorilla who may have witnessed her murder. “Polished and provocative...a California mystery of the hard-boiled school...very well written, with a corking good plot and fine characters.”—Booklist “Remarkable...[hops] from avant-garde theater to a deaf school, from winos’ ...

In the late 1960s, two young men left a small Michigan town. One was Gunsten Pedersen, who went on to a career with the Detroit Tigers. The other was Harry Summers, a gifted infielder who disappeared from Copper Strike on a rainy June night. Now an excavation crew has unearthed Harry's bones, and with them, grim evidence of murder—a hammer imbedded in Harry's skull. Gun Pedersen, hometown hero turned recluse, has returned for Harry's funeral. But when evidence of the decades-old crime points to Gun's father, Gun is caught in a tragedy from Copper Strike's past. With his own wedding only ...

Catching a killer is a piece of cake... Or is it? When socialite Celeste Rocheford is murdered, Mindy’s best friend Beth Miller finds herself the prime suspect. Mindy must prove Beth's innocence and find the real killer – while dealing with her meddling high-school nemesis, Neve, and her former flame, Ethan Macaulay. Praise for A.R. Winters: "The perfect balance of being lighthearted, but still a serious page-turning mystery." - Jaycie D, Amazon.com "A fun cozy mystery with engaging and entertaining characters" - lq, Amazon.com "A cute light read with a final twist at the end." - Stacey...

A matriarch murdered in her bedroom. Four wholesome nieces and nephews sat in the living room. Seventeen million dollars at stake. Which one did it?Lyric Adler has been keeping devastating secrets. Now that the one person who made her keep the secrets is dead, she is ready to tell it all. When she stood before the casket of her wealthy ninety-eight-year-old aunt, Gretchen Prescott, and whispered, “I kept the secrets, but now it’s time to tell,” she was convinced her aunt had been murdered. The two hadn’t liked each other yet couldn’t stay apart, and behind their contentious ...