Private Detective

Smoke hides many truths … and many sins … After a case of industrial espionage leads to a manic pursuit gone fatally wrong, private investigator Thomas Blume is forced to face the agonizing pain of his role in a seemingly innocent bystander’s death. But when the victim’s wife shows up the next day suggesting a mysterious deeper conspiracy with much more going on beneath the surface, Blume is drawn into a case involving dangerous organized criminals, a seedy London underworld, and gangsters with nothing to lose. Now, with police closing in and a mob boss hunting him, can Blume ...

Izzy believes she can read minds. In a near-future army-controlled state, that should be a handy superpower, but it is always getting Izzy into trouble. Tons of Trouble. Mick the Mountain, newly released from a twenty-year stint of hard labour returns to Ostere looking for the girl, Dolorez, and the money he left behind. Times have changed. The army is in control. Dolorez hasn’t waited and the man holding the key to his deposit box had to sell it to satisfy his drug habit. When the first obstacle in Mick’s path ends up dead, Izzy knows she must find Dolorez and warn her of Mick’s ...

In this dual collection of short stories, Alexander McCall Smith brings his trademark humor and warmth to inventive tales of spying and vengeance. In one story, a spy dropped deep into enemy territory manages to disguise himself—quite convincingly—as a nun. In another, an invitation to join the Vatican Secret Service sends a prospective operative down a rabbit hole of controversy and confusion. A third story finds an author, on the brink of public ruin, seeing the error of his ways after an act of kindness saves the day.

Leger's beloved companion, Annabella, is wrongly accused of armed robbery. To clear her name, Leger must head out of the suburbs and go downtown where he will make new friends and face fresh dangers. He is reluctant to leave the neighbourhood at all as Ginger is pregnant with his kittens and due to give birth any day. However a betrayal by one of his close circle of friends convinces him it is best to concentrate on freeing Annabella but when Ginger's daughter Amber learns the truth there are tragic consequences. Will Leger be able to track down the real robber? Will he make it home in time...

It should have been an easy job: follow cheating husband Larry Ivers and catch him with his mistress. But there's never any such thing as an "easy job." Homicide-detective-turned-private-eye Ken McGreevey takes the case anyway. After his medical discharge from the Pinal County Sheriff's Department in Arizona, he's got time on his hands. When Eastern European gangsters, led by the giant Croatian gangster who helped cripple him, attack Ivers' would-be ex-wife, McGreevey and his team are plunged into the middle of a human trafficking scam Ivers is pulling for both the Russian and Mexican mobs....

When the owner of an ancient bullfighting ring—a bullring that had been transplanted piece by piece from Madrid—calls on Sam to look into a family curse, the private detective is pretty sure things are about to get weird. She isn't wrong... Her investigation into the haunted stadium soon uncovers more questions than answers. It also uncovers a bizarre mystery spanning centuries... With the help of her witchy friend, a world-class psychic medium, and an unlikely ally living deep underground, Sam will begin piecing together a tragic story of epic proportions. A story of a deal gone ...

Book #6 of the Jab Boone Murder Mystery Series A badly injured Jab Boone cannot directly lead the FBI against renegade ex-GIs targeting Muslim mosques. He is recuperating from a fractured larynx and broken ribs, suffered at the hand of Spangler the Strangler. But when Jab’s top three student trackers are tapped to find the bombers, Jab must trust a Saudi exchange student to be his voice—or have the mission result in fatal disaster!

Book #15 in the Jab Boone Murder Mystery Series Jab and his student trackers discover a commonality among missing teenage girls: they were all Girl Scouts! Worse, they deduce a heinous motive: 100 dead Girl Scouts at the 100th anniversary of the Girl Scouts. As more bodies are found, it’s up to Jab’s team to stop the person responsible—before any more Girl Scouts are killed!

Book #11 of the Jab Boone Murder Mystery Series A dying ex-GI, known as The Doorman, is killing American Indian brujos and shaman. He’s holed up deep under the Owyhee Mountains, and he has booby-trapped every entrance with explosives. Jab’s team discovers his hide-out— only to become The Doorman’s prisoners themselves!

Book #9 of the Jab Boone Murder Mystery Series Jab’s town turns against him after his student trackers discover twenty dead girls were—drug-lord daughters of the Huerta Cartel! Soon the School Board fires Jab which splits the town wide open. But Jab isn’t convinced the Cartel is responsible for the subsequent reprisals. He feels the town—and the FBI are locked with tunnel vision. Jab’s determined to find the truth—and clear his name!

It's the holidays, and Samantha Moon and her family are ready to get together and celebrate. No, they may not be your average family, but the love is just as real. It's two days before the big Thanksgiving meal when Sam receives a most unusual guest. Unusual because she hasn't seen her brother, Clayton, in twenty years. Turns out, he isn't just here for the pumpkin pies and yams. He's got a problem. He's been cursed and thinks his little sister is his best chance to fix it. With pie baking put on hold, Sam and company set out to break his curse, locate a kidnapped baby, and save the day. ...

Private Detective Evander “Andy” Mills has been drawn back to the Lavender House estate for a missing person case. Pat, the family butler, has been volunteering for a book service, one that specializes in mailing queer books to a carefully guarded list of subscribers. With bookseller Howard Salzberger gone suspiciously missing along with his address book, everyone on that list, including some of Andy's closest friends, is now in danger.

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. ...

Solving their own murders is the least of their problems… The Golden Age of Hollywood, 1938. Vivian Steele moved to California to start a new life. She opened a fashion boutique in Beverly Hills, befriended Carole Lombard, the actress, and married a successful banker. But when her husband is murdered, Vivian discovers she isn't the only one hiding a few secrets. An anonymous phone call lures Vivian to a plush hotel room where she stumbles upon the dead body of a beautiful young actress – her husband’s mistress. To add fuel to the fire, she's not alone. Preston Stone, her adversary and...

DS Kat Ballantyne is still reeling from a revelation that turned life as she knew it upside down. But when a dog walker discovers the body of a woman among the standing stones known locally as the Three Sisters, there’s no time to focus on her own troubles. Kat is drawn back to work to investigate. At first, the death appears to be an accident. But then Kat discovers an infinity symbol branded onto the dead woman’s abdomen.

Returning home from a luncheon, Hercule Poirot is met at his door by an imperious woman who introduces herself as Sylvia Rule. "How dare you? How dare you send me such a letter?" Ignoring his denials, Mrs. Rule insists she received a missive claiming he had proof she murdered a man named Barnabas Pandy and advising her to confess her crime to the police. Threatening the perplexed Poirot with a lawsuit, she leaves in a huff.

Bryce’s fellow attorney and partner in their firm, Tom Middleton, experience the death of his son who is found out to be a mule for a drug cartel trading arms for drugs. The boy is killed in a violent way, and Middleton finds out that one of the firm’s biggest clients is involved. Middleton confronts the owner and later is accused of his murder. Tom asks Bryce to be a part of his legal team. Bryce begins to investigate the murder. As he investigates, he discovers that lots of other people had the motivation to kill the deceased. Bryce finds out that Mrs. Juarez was more involved than ...

On the cusp of forty, Justine Bailen, better known as Jo, works for an all-female detective agency based in Tucson, Arizona. While staking out a cheating spouse, she learns that her long-estranged best friend from childhood, Rose, is missing, and that Rose’s mother wants to hire Jo to find her. This case is all kinds of wrong for Jo, but she has no choice but to head back to her hometown, an hour north and a world away from Tucson.

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

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 ...