The clock is ticking for Fiona FitzGerald. The clock is ticking both figuratively and biologically. During Fiona FitzGerald's pursuit to conceive a child, a powerful female pro-life Senator is found dead. It appears to be suicide, but Fiona is puzzled and continues to investigate. The case gets even more baffling when one shocking clue contradicts the entire investigation.

A splendid, violent spring suddenly grips Bucharest in the 1980s after a brutal winter. Tolea, a defiant and eccentric middle-aged intellectual who has been dismissed from his job as a high-school teacher on "moral grounds", is attempting to clear up the mystery of his father's death forty years after the fact. He is gradually and irresistibly drawn into a web of suspicion in which images of an underground world linger obsessively: the organization of deaf-mutes whose nightmarish presence recalls the Single Party itself; the polite and timid informer, with his modest, homely reports; the black dog who has the same name as, and seems to be a metamorphosis of, the man pursued by Tolea - an elusive photographer who has left an astonishing photo archive of Communist society. Shot through with black humor and poetry, The Black Envelope is a thoroughly modern exploration of love and guilt, vulnerability and death, estrangement, hope, and human solidarity.

A Nick Hoffman / Academic Mystery, Book 3 - Mayhem at the State University of Michigan: Is it murder...or another faculty meeting? Filled with caustic humor about university life and written with literate style and grace, The Death of a Constant Lover escalates Nick Hoffman's involvement with mayhem and faculty meetings. When the son of a professor is murdered on a campus bridge, Nick's presence at the scene puts him right where he can't afford to be: in the middle of trouble. With his tenure review coming up, he's been warned by his department chair to avoid bad publicity. But Nick is forced to wade in deeper anyway, inexorably drawn into yet another risky investigation in the surprisingly cutthroat world of academia. He may be surrounded by academics with deadly agendas, but he's armed with the hope that his wit and insight will be enough to avert the death of his career... and maybe his own as well. A Lambda Literary Awards Finalist, this new edition contains a 2020 foreword by Brad Shreve (Mitch O'Reilly series) as well as a new introduction by the author.

A Nick Hoffman / Academic Mystery, Book 4 - The fourth novel in the highly acclaimed series begins on a high note. It appears that Nick's career is finally moving in the right direction, and the celebrity that comes with solving murders has brought him more students than he can possibly handle. But things are never calm at the State University of Michigan: Nick's partner's career seems to be taking a downturn, a new faculty member is causing a lot of nasty talk, and cryptic messages are showing up in Nick's mailbox. What turns up next is a corpse - and some very unsettling thoughts for the reluctant sleuth. Lev Raphael is a Lambda Literary Awards winner and multiple nominee for several books. This new edition in his Nick Hoffman series contains a 2021 foreword by Meg Perry (Jamie Brodie series).

"No Room at the Morgue came out after Jean-Patrick Manchette had transformed French crime fiction with such brilliantly plotted, politically charged, unrelentingly violent tales as Nada and The Mad and the Bad. Here, inspired by his love of Dashiell Hammett, Manchette introduces Eugene Tarpon, private eye, a sometime cop who has set up shop after being kicked off the force for accidentally killing a political demonstrator. Months have passed, and Tarpon desultorily tries to keep in shape while drinking all the time. No one has shown up at the door of his office in the midst of the market district of Les Halles. Then the bell rings and a beautiful woman bursts in, her hands dripping blood. It's Memphis Charles, her roommate's throat has been cut, and Memphis can't go to the police because they'll only suspect her. Can Tarpon help? Well, somehow he can't help trying. Soon bodies mount, and the craziness only grows"--

[Read by Mark Peckham] A jealous widow won't rest until she gets back everything that is rightfully hers in this exciting tale by Ellery Queen. hen Barney Street, the fixer, was in Holland in World War II, his life had been saved by a German soldier. Now Barney is dead and his two million dollar estate is left entirely to the soldier who saved him, Milo Hacha. But that fortune comes with a death sentence, for Barney's widow, Estelle, won't rest until she gets back everything that is rightfully hers. She sends Steve Longacre, once one of Barney's boys, to Europe to find Hacha, trailing him from Holland to Switzerland, to Vienna, and finally to Prague. Longacre has Hacha is on the run, fleeing love, money, and a velvet-lined coffin . . .

Book by Queen, Ellery

When Frank Behr’s friend and mentor is murdered without any apparent motive, he thirsts for answers and retaliation. But before he can make headway in the dead-end investigation, a private firm approaches him with a delicate proposition: two of its detectives have gone missing, and the firm wants Behr to find out what happened to them. The search for the missing detectives takes Behr into the recesses of Indianapolis’s underworld, a place rife with brutality and vice where Behr uncovers a shocking thread connecting the missing detectives to his friend’s brutal murder, and, in the process, an ominous, deadly new breed of crime family.

Stark is an endangered species. He's the last Jewish private detective in the south Bronx and his days may be numbered. It's the summer of 1965: the Yankees are making another pennant run, the war in Vietnam is heating up, hemlines are rising and the old neighborhood is changing. These days it's easier to stumble on a mugging than to find a good bagel. Stark is not a tough guy. In the trade, he's what's known as a peeper. His business is adultery and his weapon is a camera with a long lens not a snub-nose revolver. But Stark's life is beginning to unravel. His wife left him, his secretary hates him, his mother wants to mother him, he can't shake his shrink's voice from his head and he's got a strange pain in his chest. Then things go from bad to worse. He witnesses a shocking murder and suddenly Stark goes from being the hunter to the hunted, as he races through a decaying world of bookies, transvestites, loan sharks, slum lords and thugs for hire. "Stark in the Bronx" is the dazzling first novel by acclaimed historian Saul Landau. A kind of comic noir, Landau's atmospheric novel is both thrilling and hilarious: imagine the "Maltese Falcon" narrated by Woody Allen.Praise for Saul Landau and Stark: "Saul Landau, like the narrator of 'The Great Gatsby, marvels at how the rich so joyously make messes secure in the knowledge that others will clean up. But what if, one day, they don't?" -- Gore Vidal"You'll believe him, laugh with him, weep and get off your ass." -- John Berger, author "Ways of Seeing"

Warren Adler is the acclaimed author of 25 novels, published in 30 languages. Two of his books, "The War of the Roses" and "Random Hearts" were made into major motion pictures. He lives in Jackson Hole, Wyoming and New York City. Fiona FitzGerald, senator's daughter turned Washington, D.C., homicide detective, is called in to investigate when the daughter of a prominent lawyer is found murdered. All clues begin to point to a revered Supreme Court Justice with a sadomasochistic fetish. The Ties That Bind is the sixth book in Warren Adler's Fiona FitzGerald series. The first mystery, American Quartet, was on The New York Times list of top ten crime novels of the year. Try the other Fiona mysteries: American Quartet, American Sextet, Senator Love, Immaculate Deception, and The Witch of Watergate. "Adler sets well-connected Washington homicide dick Fiona FitzGerald another high profile puzzle most satisfying." .Kirkus Reviews "The Welcome return of an intense, likeable heroine." .St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Warren Adler is the acclaimed author of 25 novels, published in 30 languages. Two of his books, "The War of the Roses" and "Random Hearts" were made into major motion pictures. He lives in Jackson Hole, Wyoming and New York City. Fiona FitzGerald, senator's daughter turned Washington, D.C., homicide detective, is called in to investigate when the stunning wife of the Austrian Ambassador is kidnapped and murdered. Soon, bones belonging to a vanished young girl are discovered, and both murders share the same starling clues that point to a powerful and seductive Senator. Besides solving the mystery, will Fiona submit to the powerful sexual forces of "Senator Love?" Senator Love is the third book in Warren Adler's Fiona FitzGerald series. The first mystery, American Quartet, was on The New York Times list of top ten crime novels of the year. Try the other Fiona mysteries: American Quartet, American Sextet, Immaculate Deception, The Witch of Watergate and The Ties That Bind. "A fast-paced political mystery Adler's depiction of Washington rings true. Sure to entertain." .Booklist "Tightly-plotted everything that fans of political intrigue could want." .Mystery News "A fingernail chewer plus... a quirky mix of politics, police, protocol and high-noon drama." .San Antonio Express-News "Well-written and worldly a particularly satisfying crime novel." .Pittsburgh Press

The message was painted on the house of a controversial Jewish defense lawyer representing neo-Nazis. As this hate-crime escalates to murder, LAPD Detective Jessie Drake is called in on the case. To find the killer, Jessie must confront personal prejudice and uncover dangerous truths about her city and her own past--before the angel of death marks her also.

Conflict in the City is a fast-paced, lively, "can't wait to keep reading" novel in the tradition of Donald Westlake's Parker novels by wayof Roddy Doyle's The Commitments.Mixing and blending the genres of detective noir and music, Conflict in the City takes place in greater Los Angeles, home to both classic and modern fictional L.A. detectives like Raymond Chandler's Phillip Marlowe and Michael Connolly's Harry Bosch. Los Angeles is also the center of the music universe, where the Doors, Van Halen, and N.W.A., among so many others, got their starts.It's in this world that we find Johnny "Whoops" Watson and Billy Bates, young guitarists/singers and their band, Conflict, playing clubs in modern LA, where the days of rock's zenith and ascendance in the 1960s and 1970s has faded but the hopes and dreams of aspiring musicians haven't. Conflict is struggling and chaos ensues when someone linked closely to the band is killed. Billy and Johnny become swept up in the mystery, ill-prepared as they are to confront it. The novel is the first in a series.

Small-time actor, Sheridan Haynes, had a rather unhealthy preoccupation with Sherlock Holmes. So when the chance came for him to play the famous detective in a TV series, it seemed his dreams had come true. And when London was plagued by a series of unsolved murders, well, it seemed only natural for him to take his role into real life. Was this a case of a laughable and misguided actor, or was Sheridan actually on to something?

A fortune in fire-white diamonds encrusted every inch of the fabulous crown of India. And now four relentless men abandoned all reason in the ruthless quest for possession of the fabled diadem.

After serving his Brooklyn district for years, Congressman Sullivan discovers that his once comfortable Irish-American majority has given way to a diverse district of blacks and Hispanics. Challenged by a more liberal opponent, he tries everything possible to maintain his seat only to painfully learn that he and his views are outdated and irrelevant to today's world. But he doesn't bow out of the race gracefully, and the fierce ensuing campaign brings new insights to the meaning of democracy and the terrors of a swiftly changing world. If, as it is said, all politics are local, this compelling story transcends politics and puts a human face on how the American democratic system really operates. Unforgettable characters and a powerful plot offer a remarkable and tense story of how tragic endings affect new beginnings.

Moses Wine is a neurotic private eye whose shrink involves him in the death of a comic. Moses' investigation takes him on a wild roller-coaster ride from the swank beaches of Los Angeles to the dangerous streets of the South Bronx, along the way meeting a cast of crazies.

A Nick Hoffman / Academic Mystery, Book 6 - It's winter, but academic madness is in full bloom at the State University of Michigan. Untenured professor Nick Hoffman is desperately trying to keep out of the way as three senior professors battle to be the chair of his department. They all hate each other and all demand his support in an atmosphere of intense crisis. The situation implodes when an emergency meeting turns the department upside down. Nick is left desperate to make a quick getaway, so his partner Stefan suggests an idyllic week at a Caribbean Club Med. The island of Serenity, however, proves to be anything but serene. Once again, Edith Wharton scholar Nick Hoffman, who grew up in New York City and was never even mugged, finds himself face-to-face with murder. In this sixth novel in the series, Lev Raphael, Lambda Award winner, amuses and delights on campus and on vacation. Included in this new edition, a foreword by Anthony Bidulka (Russell Quant Mysteries). "Author Lev Raphael knows quite a lot about the dismal swamps of academe and the sunlit beaches of the Caribbean. The time he has obviously spent in these places make it possible for him to write vividly - and wittily - about both, with his tongue planted firmly in his cheek." - Lambda Book Report "Funny, cynical, and bittersweet, the new Nick Hoffman mystery will be eagerly pounced on by Raphael's many fans." - Lauren Henderson, My Lurid Past "Lev Raphael has done it again - another mordantly witty mystery featuring everyone's favourite acerbic English professor, Nick Hoffman. Relax with Tropic of Murder and take an entertaining, exotic Club Med vacation without even having to get out of your favorite chair." - Dean James, Decorated to Death "Beguiling and funny." - Washington Post "Raphael keeps us turning pages with mouthwatering descriptions of buffets and a paradise brimming with cheerful attendants; he ratchets up tension with rumors of ghosts and some very substantial fellows threatening to trade blows." - Booklist "Raphael's wit is sharp as ever." - Kirkus Reviews

A Nick Hoffman / Academic Mystery, Book 5 - Evil Stalks the Halls of Academe! Welcome to the hothouse world of academia where egos bruise as easily as peaches and vendettas grow like weeds. Nick Hoffman's State University of Michigan is a place where the Borgias and the Marx Brothers would be equally at home. Heading into the Christmas season, SUM is being torn apart by bizarre attempts to make it more diverse while an autocratic new provost pushes for a White Studies program and Nick faces not only a tenure battle but conflicting requests for support in a battle for department chair. With his professional life a mix of seasonal chaos and departmental warfare, Nick discovers that he's not only attracted to the outrageously sexy Juno Dromgoole and disturbed by these disorienting new feelings in his life, but also the target, along with Juno, of a vicious harassment campaign that escalates into stalking, assault, and attempted murder. This new edition contains a 2022 foreword by Martha C. Lawrence (Murder in Scorpio). "Lev Raphael's lacerating wit fillets the fatted calves of academia, roasts them with the hot breath of satire, then serves them up in the sauciest of mysteries." - Val McDermid "Nick Hoffman is back, relegated to the basement of his college so he won't get into trouble. But when someone torches his mailbox, Nick gets the hint that an arsonist is carrying a flame for him. As ever, Lev Raphael is witty, biting and on the nail when it comes to the groves and gripes of academe." - Ian Rankin "Lev Raphael is one of the most sophisticated mystery authors alive, and his latest, Burning Down the House, is witty and charming." - Cleveland Plain Dealer "If conditions on university campuses really are as bizarre and insidiously political as depicted in novelist-critic Lev Raphael's new Burning Down the House, higher education must be at an all-time low. As the author amusingly presents it, the faculty at State University of Michigan is an assortment of eccentric, conniving, self-promoting, not to mention homicidal, half-baked do-nothings." - Los Angeles Times

An express train rushing toward the north of England; a group of exceedingly mysterious characters; suspicious happenings in rapid succession; a humorous yokel; a bicycle accident; a lady in distress; and after much mystery a satisfactory conclusion, making this Farjeon story one of the best of its kind. Young Freddy Reeve wants an adventure, but may get more than he bargained for when he encounters the lovely Miss Lydia Leveridge, who provokes more questions than she answers. Freddy finds himself questioning the actions of various fellow passengers, but is quickly thrust into the wake of a criminal plot. He jumps at the chance to save the girl, which brings even more trouble than he imagined. The fast-paced plot leads to a dangerous climax, where several lives are on the line. The 5.18 Mystery was first published in 1929.