Southern Crime Fiction

Book One in The Abington Series Amazon Review: From the first few pages until the very end, I was on the edge of my seat. This book is full of love, hatred, suspense, greed, disappointment, and, last of all, justice. What does a man with a medical degree, a trust fund, a best friend, and a beautiful arm decoration have to fear? And how could Teddy Williams have foreseen the destruction the latter two would cause? The best friend was closer than a brother, and the arm decoration (his wife) was like an intoxicating drug. Duplicity: A Story of Deadly Intent takes place in the fictitious ...

They took her mother 23 years ago. Now they want Ava. Forced home at Rosegate Farm by fragmented memories, Ava Cade learns her mother didn't abandon her but was murdered by a criminal network hiding secrets in plain sight. From hidden cellars to powerful men and corrupt officials, Ava unearths a conspiracy tied to land, money, and blood. With allies she barely knows and enemies lurking in the shadows, she's in a race against time. Justice is a long shot in the bayou... unless you fight for it!

Marine biologist Doc Ford has been known to help his friends out of jams occasionally, but he's never faced a situation like this. His old pal Carl Fitzpatrick has been chasing sunken wrecks most of his life, but now he's run afoul of the Florida Division of Historical Resources. Its director, Leonard Nickelby, despises amateur archaeologists, which is bad enough, but now he and his young "assistant" have disappeared - along with Fitzpatrick's impounded cache of rare Spanish coins and the list of uncharted wreck sites Fitz spent decades putting together.

Titus Crown is the first Black sheriff in the history of Charon County, Virginia. In recent decades, Charon has had only two murders. After years of working as an FBI agent, no one knows better than Titus that while his hometown might seem like a land of moonshine, cornbread, and honeysuckle, secrets always fester under the surface. But a year after Titus's election, a school teacher is killed by a former student. The student is then fatally shot by Titus's deputies. As Titus investigates the shootings, he unearths terrible crimes, and a serial killer who has been hiding in plain sight.

A young black woman, Jamila Mosely, is killed, but slain even worse by media coverage that refuses to let her be an innocent victim. Per usual, they air her most questionable photo, and hint at sketchy associations to portray her as a victim to her own devices. Detective Sawyer takes it personal. Sawyer becomes obsessed with uncovering the truth and restoring dignity to the name of a young lady not much older than her daughter Star. And yet there is still the unresolved issues with Chosen, Travis, Duke, and even her struggling marriage to contend; Sawyer has a full plate. Under the ...

On a beautiful October day in the San Fernando Valley, teenager Missy Avila was lured into the woods, beaten, tortured, and drowned. Missy's best friend, Karen Severson, publicly vowed to find the killer and even moved in with Missy's family to help. Three years later, a surprise witness exposed the murderers as Missy's two best friends—one of whom was Karen. New York Times bestselling author Karen Kingsbury delivers a story full of twists, turns, betrayals, and confessions.

Detective Dave Robicheaux becomes entangled in the affairs of the Fontenot family, descendants of sharecroppers whose matriarch helped raise Dave as a child. They are in danger of losing the land they've lived on for more than a century. As Dave tries to discover who wants the land so badly, he finds himself in increasing peril from a lethal, rag tag alliance of local mobsters and a hired assassin with a shady past.

A small town in Northern California is at risk of being destroyed by a failing levee, and Colter Shaw has been hired to locate a family swept away by the raging water, with just mere hours to survive. But is the levee at risk of failing from natural causes or is someone sabotaging it? With the help of his sister, Dorion, the duo must save the citizens before the old town washes out at the hands of a secret conspirer.

Her fiancé battles terrorists… He's one of America’s elite…Marrying him is a risk – suppose he doesn’t come home?Alex, now living in Virginia and working in Washington, DC for the Institute of Medicine, is recalled to the Big Easy to investigate a series of hospital crimes where she reconnects with her ex-husband Robert, the calm, steady surgeon.She realizes she misses him desperately as guilt consumes her…A series of emergency calls, one from the hospital, another from her home, Twist her heart and her…What will she do? She’s being pulled in so many directions… Evil ...

“A trim yet potent tale…” – Kirkus Reviews Advance praise for Carra Roe’s debut Ain’t No Sunshine: “Roe’s moving, character-driven book is compelling, well written, and decorated throughout with authentic Southern Creole vernacular, which creates a distinctively unique tone and atmosphere…spirited, captivating characters to behold…charming anecdotes and humorous country-folk foibles…an impressive work…” – Kirkus Reviews "I absolutely adore your writing style and your expert use of dialogue...You left me wanting more but in a good way. Great job." -Cortney ...

A distress call draws rescuers Sloan McPherson and the Underwater Investigation Unit to a cruise ship off the coast of Fort Lauderdale that’s sinking from a mysterious explosion. When it appears to be the work of an ecoterrorist and other ships are threatened, it becomes a race against time. More clues are discovered, and evidence is in danger of being washed away by a coming tropical storm. Sloan grows concerned that key details are being ignored, and a strange lack of urgency by authorities sets off alarms.

From the courtroom to the bedrooms in Atlanta, one fateful day in October finds the lives of lawyers, cops, and criminals intersecting in ways unforeseen. Some of those lives will be cut violently short. Intersection of Lies, the latest fast-paced thriller from author Tonya Sharp Hyche, weaves a complex web of greed, corruption, and romance that is certain to enthrall anyone who likes their murder mysteries to keep them guessing until the final pages through brilliant twists, love triangles, and the sharpest minds in one southern city. At age twenty-nine, the gorgeous, blonde city ...

From the Editor: Night in London is a feast of non-stop action. It moves with the velocity of a breaking wave. And it gains a special impact from the fact that it rings of authenticity. When Casey Christie describes the viciousness and extreme brutality of a criminal gang, he is writing from raw experience. Christie was at the cutting edge of the police drive against criminals in Johannesburg. And we meet again with the colourful crew he assembled in his first novel set in South Africa—the fearsome Black Bastards, so called because they have special police dispensation to wear all-black ...

A witch out of her element... An evil specter set on gaining immortality... A paranormally gifted girl's work is never done. April accepts the dangerous mission of uncovering the truth behind a series of disappearances on the mysterious coastal island of Turtle Key. Armed with nothing more than her resolve and unreliable supernatural "gifts," April works with her makeshift paranormal team as they face mortal danger and uncover a terrible family secret. Along the way, she grapples with the complicated relationship with her mentor, neighbors, and even her family. With suspense and powerful ...

A fresh murder in Arizona throws a family into chaos, and unravels a decades-old mystery. It’s been 20 years since the accident. A nighttime car crash on a desert road that left her parents dead and her sister disabled. Now a law enforcement officer with the Arizona Rangers, Michaela Sanchez has tried to get over the guilt she feels. She’s tried to move on. But when her brother is charged with the murder of a local activist, echoes of her family’s tragic night come crashing back. Michaela will do everything in her power to prove her brother’s innocence.

Charlie Garner has a bad feeling. His ex-wife, Meg, has been missing for over a week and one quick peek into her home shows all her possessions packed up in boxes. Neighbors claim she’s running from bill collectors, but Charlie suspects something more sinister is afoot. Meg was last seen working at the local donut shop, a business run by a shadow group most refer to as ‘The Saucer People’; a space-age, evangelist cult who believe their compound to be the site of an extraterrestrial Second Coming.

Things are going along okay with Dennis' gig at the Tishomingo Lodge & Casino in Tunica, Mississippi, "the Casino Capital of the South", until the day he looks down from the high-dive platform and witnesses a mob hit, Dixie style.

A demented killer believes he’s doing God’s work — and a teenage boy with dreams of getting his license becomes his next target. Elliot Cross doesn't just hate ambitious dreaming — he sees it as sin. In his twisted mind, anyone reaching for more is disobeying the First Commandment: Thou shalt have no other gods before me. When he volunteers to give Timmy, his daughter’s fatherless classmate, a driving lesson, it’s not a gift — it’s a trap. And the road ahead leads nowhere safe. The Driving Lesson is a short story of religious delusion, power, and cruelty — a standalone ...

Family meant everything to Ayden Stratton. It always had even when he didn’t always allow it to show. Because of that, he understood the fury in Tobias Blaise’s eyes when they learned that his sister had been dragged out the backdoor of her restaurant despite every effort to stop her from being kidnapped. Fury didn’t begin to describe what he saw in his brother’s face. Cassidy Blaise might be Tobias’s sister, but she was Benjamin’s entire world. Tobias Blaise never expected to find any woman he wanted to spend his life with, let alone one who looked at him the way Ellis did, ...

When a young woman dies in a late-night restaurant fire, the owner, Bobby Carter, is charged with arson and murder. The evidence is stacked against him, but something doesn’t add up. And his only chance for justice rests on the shoulders of small-town lawyer Leland Munroe… Leland is convinced someone’s out to frame his client. But as the trial heats up, he realizes that he's facing more than just a legal battle.