As a war correspondent, Sean Kelly travels South Viet Nam from the Delta to the DMZ. He writes about the people he meets and the operations he goes on with them, the only difference is that what he reports to the people back home is the sanitized version of what really happens.
As America races toward the supposedly bright new decade of the 1950s, disillusioned white private dick, Matt Moulton finds himself faltering in the dark. Should he serve an amnesiac client whose recovering memories of paid murder intensify his own wartime guilt as an assassin? Should he risk endangering the person he loves, a beautiful black woman, for information on that case and an apparently related one? Does he imagine he can save her and himself from the corruption, the intolerance, and the apathy that linger in that violent nation's shadows? Taking place in a misty, sulky San Francisco, "Past Tense" appeals to readers who love their thrillers hardboiled. It brings pulp fiction back from the past, but here, the genre seems more modern and yet more noir-like than ever before.
In Concord, Louisa May Alcott farms pigs after success with¿Little Women, but as New England's freezing winter approaches, death isn't far away. Concord's Misses, armed with wit and elegance, money and secrets, are present when Miss Emily Collier dies at her forty-second birthday party. Louisa is embroiled in the intrigue. They will lie to her, set traps, and blackmail to avoid justice. And Louisa is now an outsider in what was once her home. To test her mettle, local Justice of the Peace Captain Briers, a man compromised by lust for one of the Misses, enlists her to bring order to the twisted loyalties, land feuds, and secrets fuelling a seditious desire for revenge not seen in Middlesex County since the witch trials.
June, 1943 Betty Ahern isn't a novice PI anymore. After solving several dangerous cases, she is hired for what she hopes will be simpler one. A soldier home from Europe on medical furlough wants her to find his birth mother. Left at a church and raised an orphan at Father Baker's Home for Boys, his only clue is a silver St. Christopher medal with a French inscription on the back. Betty tracks down the unmarried daughter of a wealthy businessman who mysteriously vanished from society for several months in the early 1920s. Against her better judgment, Betty tells her client, who rushes off to meet her. But when the woman is found murdered, and her client is arrested for the crime, Betty must switch from locating a missing mother to clearing his name. Aided by some new partners, Betty once again delves into the secrets of Buffalo's elite. What she finds threatens to rip open secrets long buried. Can she find a killer and reunite a family? Or will the hunt cost Betty and her client everything, including their lives?
Everyone has a secret, and in 1964, Dot Morgan's new job at KDUD Radio is filled with them. Her boss, Holden Ramsey, is a terrible flirt, but he's also engaged to a beautiful socialite. When Dot finds out he's hiding involvements with other women, these secrets lead to a grisly murder. Can Dot figure out who is murdering the women in Holden's life before she finds herself next on the hit parade?
Isabella Clemens' father Howard dies suddenly. Two small photographs found in his wallet throw every belief she holds about her own life and his, into disarray. These faded pictures unlock a web of secrets. Without Question is a mystery underpinned by a story of cold-blooded crime, great love, and immense sacrifice.
In November 1919 a woman is found dead. Police assume she fell from the back porch of a three-decker in East Boston. At the funeral home, they discover she was shot. Medical examiner Magrath is furious at newly hired police detective Peter Attwood for the mistake. Since the police strike in September, experienced Irish detectives like McNally have been blackballed and inexperienced men like the Harvard student have been hired. Frances Glessner Lee is determined to help both Magrath and young Peter who is grandson to her widowed friend. Lives of Boston Brahmins and Irish clash as they hunt for the truth. This is the second in a series of fictional stories roughly based on the Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death. Over twenty miniature crime scenes were used from the 1940s to the present to train police detectives. Set in the 1920s, these stories imagine Frances Glessner Lee working with Dr. George Magrath to learn about "legal medicine" as forensic science was known at the time. Working with Magrath provided the foundation for the miniatures for which Frances Glessner Lee has become known as the "Mother of Forensic Science."
When William Lorrimer is found dead from a gunshot wound to the head, the inquest has no difficulty in returning a verdict of suicide. Lorrimer had lost the love of his life to another man, and he had written a letter to his former lover explaining why and how she had ruined his life. There could be no doubt that he killed himself. But when a mysterious stranger arrives in the village of Little Marsham, suspicions of murder soon begin to circulate. The woman, who has a close link to Lorrimer, is convinced that the verdict of the inquest was wrong. Lorrimer, she says, was murdered. At first, her claims are not taken seriously, but when she is found dead in the local churchyard, there can be no doubt that this time it is murder. Everett Carr has reasons of his own to be in Little Marsham, and when he hears of this brutal murder, he suspects that the truth of William Lorrimer's death has not yet come to light. As Carr begins to ask questions, it becomes clear that more than one person had a reason to murder Lorrimer, and that there is more than one secret in the village which someone might be prepared to kill to keep hidden. As his investigation brings him into personal danger, Carr finds himself in a desperate race to find a killer who may strike again at any moment...
Summer 1781. Passy, France. George Washington's two least likely spies for liberty, Rebecca Parcell and Daniel Alloway, are determined to marry and leave their undercover past behind- until a plot to bribe Benjamin Franklin leads to murder. Becca is eager to reach Paris to marry Daniel, who's gone ahead to take up a new post there. But their idyllic prenuptial life unravels when they accept an invitation to reside with Dr. Benjamin Franklin, America's brilliant, enigmatic ambassador to France. It's bad enough that someone is stealing Dr. Franklin's correspondence and sending it to London. But then he receives a mysterious letter offering him a bribe to help England. And when a murdered man is found on the roof of Dr. Franklin's home outside of Paris, and he calls upon Becca and Daniel his two new houseguests-former spies for George Washington-to investigate. The duo find themselves searching for the murderer through the labyrinth of 18th century Paris, a city brimming with danger, secrets, and the ever-present whispers of revolution. With time running out, Becca and Daniel must determine whether the killer is a member of Dr. Franklin's inner circle or a cunning outsider. And as the couple race from the cobblestone streets of Paris to the gilded halls of Versailles, they discover that their own lives are in grave danger and that the stakes for Dr. Franklin and America are even higher than they could have imagined. Will Becca and Daniel find the killer before the murderer strikes again, and will they ever manage to marry?
Rome, 58 AD.¿ ¿ The dinner party didn't turn out the way Aemilius Valerius expected. He didn't expect a place at the main table. He didn't expect to drink that much. He didn't expect to hook up with one of the scarier dancers. And he most certainly didn't expect to trip over the bloody corpse of his host on the floor of the informal dining room.¿ ¿ One man's grisly murder is another man's opportunity. Valerius teams up with the investigator, a plebeian with a chip on his shoulder, to discover the killer. Mad Uncle Maro promised it would be a smart career move, but that was before a second senator turned up dead. Now everything points towards a corrupt legion, an imperial assassin, and the emperor's mother. It might have been smarter to accept that honorary priesthood, stupid hat or not.¿
In the spring of 1919, a young man assumes the alias of Marsden Fisher and travels to Maidenstone Hall, the Yorkshire country residence of the Earl and Countess of Scarborough, to tutor their daughter Alice. Searching for the truth about the death of his lover, Alice's late brother Simon, Marsden arrives to find that nothing is as he expected it to be. The house has been half destroyed by fire, the family's financial ruin is imminent, and only a small core of frightened but loyal servants remain to serve them. Alice and her twin sister Beatrice are feuding so terribly that they cannot be in the same room together. It is clear the family is hiding a terrible secret and the lies surrounding Simon's death convince Marsden to fear for his own safety. The longer he stays at Maidenstone, the more he fears the family will discover his true identity and his relationship with Simon, but Marsden cannot leave until he discovers the truth: about Simon, and the terrible screams that echo through the Hall at midnight.
On a frigid January day on London's Whitehall in 1843, a Scottish woodturner named Daniel M'Naghten guns down Edward Drummond, believing him to be British Prime Minister Robert Peel. M'Naghten, who sympathizes with the Chartist cause in Great Britain, claims he intended to murder the Prime Minister-a Tory-because he blames Peel for persecution by the Tories in his home city of Glasgow. Queen Victoria, incensed at the most recent attempt on a high government official's life, demands that M'Naghten be hanged. M'Naghten, however, demonstrates every accepted sign of insanity, which would save him a visit to Tyburn Tree. Queen's Counsel Alexander Cockburn is hired to defend M'Naghten, and he recruits legendary thief-taker Vicar Brekonridge to travel to Glasgow to investigate M'Naghten's claims, with the goal of supporting an insanity plea. He sends young law clerk Simon Daughtrey to Glasgow with Brekonridge, and together they uncover contradictory evidence suggesting that M'Naghten's motivations in the murder of Edward Drummond might be considerably more sinister than mental illness. With M'Naghten's trial days away, Brekonridge and Daughtrey race to find the truth behind the assassination of Edward Drummond.
Lady Ravenna Birchfield yearns to put her dark past behind her. Nine months after losing her husband, she wants to return to London to lead a quiet life of charity work and fencing lessons. But those plans fall apart when her old friend, Foreign Secretary Lord Hawkestone, pays a visit and doesn't leave her drawing room alive. Now with other politicians mysteriously falling ill, and her stepson in line to become England's next foreign secretary, Ravenna becomes the focus of the investigation. Hoping to protect her stepson, and her secrets, she does some digging of her own in a race to discover the killer before her past is exposed. As the investigation draws her deeper, Ravenna finds herself trapped in the charming Lord Braedon's web. He has a reputation for breaking hearts, and in spite of her attempts to keep him at arm's length, his persistence is winning her over. Surrounded by spies, lies, and an international plot, Ravenna discovers the killer is much closer than she'd ever imagined.
In 1936 Britain is facing a political and constitutional crisis. The fascist British Union are edging towards power, the king's American mistress threatens to destabilise the monarchy, and secretive forces are manipulating events for their own ends. Hugh Clifton is trapped in his role as an MI5 informer within the fascist headquarters, taking over Room Z and recruiting his lover Sissy as one of his agents. Investigating a simple burglary, they uncover murder and a rapidly spiraling web of intrigue. The Agents of Room Z race to unravel competing conspiracies that entangle the government, the church, and the king in a deadly struggle for the very future of the country.
A death at the county poorhouse is unremarkable in 1900. Unless the corpse presents as a drowning victim and there is no water on the property. Widowed undertaker Carrie Lisbon has traveled to Duncan, the county seat, to attend the Annual Sheriff's Benefit Ball. But before the country hoe-down can begin, Sheriff Del Morgan asks her again to be his "keen observer" as he examines the body of Abbey Taylor, a resident of the county home whose death is more than a little suspect. At the heart of the mystery is the county poorhouse and its shadowy past, a bitter matron, an oily administrator, and a young bride, all of whom have something to hide. Under a withering August heat wave, Carrie and Del pursue meager pieces of the puzzle. Their search for answers leads them to a clan of noble miscreants who live in the hills, through a tangle of genealogies and tragic histories, and brings them way too close to each other. Along with her gangly Uncle Sav, his half-blind cousin Grace, and Marta, the beautiful and disgraced almshouse drudge, Carrie will grapple with a deadly illness, her own guilty conscience, and a new set of social trials as she decides the fate of her relationship with Morgan and discovers what really happened to Abbey Taylor. She'll need all her wits to survive the outcome.
Fire! St. Patrick's Day, New York City, 1899. Spectators along Fifth Avenue, unaware of impending doom, enjoy the parade and the bands playing Irish tunes. Suddenly marchers halt at the immense and luxurious Windsor Hotel, watching terrified women at upper-floor windows cringe at the flames-and then leap. Within two hours, the fire kills close to one hundred people. What set it off? An ember from a cigar? Robbers who sparked the fire as a distraction? Broken boilers in the basement? Spunky hotel guest Marguerite Wells decides she and her two wealthy friends can discover what started the terrible inferno while three newly jobless hotel maids struggle to figure out how they can survive. Inspired by the true story of the shocking fire that leveled one of Manhattan's elegant hotels twelve years before the infamous Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, Inferno on Fifth prompts readers to ask how they would react in the defining seconds of an irreversible tragedy.
In late summer of 1948, L.A. private detective Michael Garrett is hired to travel to El Paso, Texas, to represent his client at an auction. At stake is a jade statuette believed to be of great historical value but said to come with an Aztec curse four centuries old. Willis Canton Ordway fears the curse, but wants the statuette anyway. And he ends up on a hotel bed with his throat slit. Standing over the bloody body is a cool-looking blonde with hard eyes. Garrett wants to believe she is innocent, and yet he notes, "With blondes, you can't ever be sure."
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