68 results for "Mystery"

Crime scene: a novel

Kellerman, Jonathan,Kellerman, Jesse
"A former star athlete turned deputy coroner is drawn into a brutal, complicated murder in this psychological thriller from a father-son writing team that delivers "brilliant, page-turning fiction" (Stephen King). Natural causes or foul play? That's the question Clay Edison must answer each time he examines a body. Figuring out motives and chasing down suspects aren't part of his beat--not until a seemingly open-and-shut case proves to be more than meets his highly trained eye. Eccentric, reclusive Walter Rennert lies cold at the bottom of his stairs. At first glance the scene looks straightforward: a once-respected psychology professor, done in by booze and a bad heart. But his daughter Tatiana insists that her father has been murdered, and she persuades Clay to take a closer look at the grim facts of Rennert's life. What emerges is a history of scandal and violence, and an experiment gone horribly wrong that ended in the brutal murder of a coed. Walter Rennert, it appears, was a broken man--and maybe a marked one. And when Clay learns that a colleague of Rennert's died in a nearly identical manner, he begins to question everything in the official record. All the while, his relationship with Tatiana is evolving into something forbidden. The closer they grow, the more determined he becomes to catch her father's killer--even if he has to overstep his bounds to do it. The twisting trail Clay follows will lead him into the darkest corners of the human soul. It's his job to listen to the tales the dead tell. But this time, he's part of a story that makes his blood run cold. Praise for Jonathan Kellerman "Jonathan Kellerman's psychology skills and dark imagination are a potent literary mix."--Los Angeles Times "Kellerman doesn't just write psychological thrillers--he owns the genre."--Detroit Free Press "A master of the psychological thriller."--People Praise for Jesse Kellerman "Gripping and compelling. but what truly separates Kellerman from the pack is his prose. Jesse Kellerman tightens the noose slowly, and we his readers can do nothing but turn the pages."--Harlan Coben, on The Genius "Kellerman has a gift for creating compelling characters as well as for crafting an ingenious plot that grabs the reader and refuses to let go."--Publishers Weekly (starred review), on The Genius"--
Ballantine Books 2017 381 pages

Bone canyon

Goldberg, Lee
A catastrophic wildfire scorches the Santa Monica Mountains, exposing the charred remains of a woman who disappeared years ago. Eve Ronin, the youngest homicide detective in the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, is assigned to the case. She discovers the bones have a horrific story to tell, and Eve unearths dark secrets that reveal nothing about the case is as it seems. With almost no one she can trust, her relentless pursuit of justice for the forgotten dead could put Eve's own life in peril. --
Thomas & Mercer 2021 265 pages

The hunt

Kellerman, Faye
"Peter and his partner, Detective Tyler McAdams, are thrown into an unsolved case and propelled into action when a body is found in Upstate New York, in the very woods where a man previously went missing ... But that's not the only crisis that Peter has to deal with. Teresa McLaughlin, the biological mother of Peter and Rina's foster son, Gabe, has fled to Los Angeles with her two other children in tow, hoping to avoid a court injunction amid a messy divorce. But L.A. is no escape from her problems--she is found by ruthless men and beaten mercilessly. When Terry wakes, barely conscious, she discovers that both of her children are gone and frantically calls Gabe for help. Unable to assist his mother immediately, Gabe enlists the help of Peter and Rina and contacts his biological father, the notorious Christopher Donatti, a former hit man from a known crime family who's now a multi-millionaire in Nevada. By bringing Donatti into the fray, Gabe, Peter, and Rina know they have made a deal with the devil--but with Terry on the verge of death, they have no choice. As these unlikely allies rally to find the kidnappers of Terry's children before things end tragically, they race headlong toward an explosive confrontation from which no one will emerge unscathed..."--Dust jacket flap.
William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers 2022 483 pages

Blindman's bluff

Kellerman, Faye
Los Angeles detective Peter Decker tackles a homicide case involving a billionaire real estate developer, his wife, and four employees. While Decker leads his homicide team throughout California and into Mexico, he thinks his own wife is on jury back at the courthouse. But a chance encounter with a court translator who needs her help leads Rina into the heart of the murder investigation, and straight into the path of a gang of ruthless killers.
William Morrow 2009 390 pages

The word is murder: a novel

Horowitz, Anthony
"A woman crosses a London street. It is just after 11 a.m. on a bright spring morning, and she is going into a funeral parlor to plan her own service. Six hours later the woman is dead, strangled with a crimson curtain cord in her own home. Enter disgraced police detective Daniel Hawthorne, a brilliant, eccentric man as quick with an insult as he is to crack a case. And Hawthorne has a partner, the celebrated novelist Anthony Horowitz, curious about the case and looking for new material. As brusque, impatient, and annoying as Hawthorne can be, Horowitz--a seasoned hand when it comes to crime stories--suspects the detective may be on to something, and is irresistibly drawn into the mystery.But as the case unfolds, Horowitz realizes that he's at the center of a story he can't control, and his brilliant partner may be hiding dark and mysterious secrets of his own."- from back cover.
Harper Perennial 2019-05-07 390 pages

Dream town

Goldberg, Lee
"Hidden Hills is a private celebrity enclave of white picket fences and horse trails that seems to exist in a dreamworld. But when reality superstar Kitty Winslow is killed within their gates and corpses are found in the vast state park outside them, LASD detective Eve Ronin realizes there is a deadly, razor-thin line between what's real and what's imagined. Eve discovers that Kitty's surreal on- and off-camera life, a blur of fact and fantasy, shockingly mirrors her own as she struggles to investigate the killings, wade into a music industry war, and battle a vicious Chilean gang--all while her life is being turned into a fictional cop show directed by her estranged father. Eve's grip on reality and the case is strained to the breaking point as the slayings continue, the media frenzy reaches a fever pitch, and the only inescapable truth she can see is death... and it's coming for her"--Dust jacket flap.
Thomas & Mercer 2024 276 pages

Movieland

Goldberg, Lee
"For decades Malibu Creek State Park was the spectacular natural setting where Hollywood fantasies were made. But when a female camper is gunned down, it becomes a real-life killing ground. Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department homicide detectives Eve Ronin and Duncan Pavone are assigned the case ... which Duncan fears is the latest in a series of sniper attacks that began long before Eve came to Lost Hills"--
Thomas & Mercer 2022 329 pages

Hidden in smoke

Goldberg, Lee
"After dozens of Hollywood apartment buildings erupt in flames during a single night of terror, arson investigators Walter Sharpe and Andrew Walker are assigned to catch the serial torcher and end his spree. But then a catastrophic fire destroys a major freeway, crippling the city and forcing Sharpe and Walker to take on another massive case. Desperate for help, they know exactly who to call: homicide detectives Eve Ronin and Duncan Pavone. Together the four detectives must quickly figure out whether the freeway disaster was a tragic accident...or the work of a mastermind with a horrific plan. As the investigations collide, an old foe with a revenge scheme enters the fray, igniting a race against time to stop a conspiracy of deception, corruption, and murder."--
Thomas & Mercer 2025 279 pages

Gated prey

Goldberg, Lee
"Los Angeles County Sheriff's detective Eve Ronin and her soon-to-retire partner, Duncan Pavone, are running a 24-7 sting in a guard-gated enclave of palatial homes in Calabasas. Their luxury McMansion is a honey trap, set to lure in the violent home invaders terrorizing the community. The trap works, leaving three intruders dead, a body count that nearly includes Eve and Duncan. Eve's bosses are eager to declare the case closed, but there are too many unanswered questions for her to let go. Was the trap actually for her, bloody payback for Eve's very public takedown of a clique of corrupt deputies? Or is there an even deadlier secret lurking behind those opulent gates? Eve's refusal to back down and her relentless quest for the truth make her both the hunter ... and the prey." --
Thomas & Mercer 2021 247 pages

The sugar house

Lippman, Laura
New York Times bestselling author Laura Lippman’s Tess Monaghan must solve one of the most baffling murders in her PI career. When Tess Monaghan agrees to talk to Ruthie Dembrow, she senses she’ll regret it. If there’s anything Tess has learned in her work both as a newspaper reporter and then as a PI, it’s to trust your instincts. Still, she can’t deny she’s intrigued when Ruthie asks her to investigate the fatal stabbing of her brother, Henry, while he was locked away for murdering a teenage runaway over a bottle of glue. Henry’s death at the hands of fellow convicts doesn’t surprise Tess, but what does is that he was convicted for murdering a “Jane Doe”—something that rarely happens in the judicial system. No ID was found on the victim’s body, and her fingerprints didn’t match up to any in the national database. How could anyone escape all the identity nets of the modern world? Ruthie is convinced if she learns the identity of her brother’s victim, maybe she can also find out why he was killed. Tess’s search takes her on a harrowing journey from Baltimore’s exclusive Inner Harbor to the seedy neighborhood of Locust Point. But it’s the shocking discovery of the runaway’s true identity that turns Tess’s hunt deadly. Suddenly, her supposedly solved murder case keeps turning up newer, fresher corpses and scarier versions of the Sugar House—places that look so sweet and safe, but only from the outside.
William Morrow 2016-04-19 16 pages

Final judgment: a Samantha Brinkman legal thriller

Clark, Marcia
"A murder investigation draws firebrand attorney Samantha Brinkman into her boyfriend's past in this novel of high-risk suspense by bestselling author Marcia Clark. When it comes to relationships and self-preservation, defense attorney Samantha Brinkman has always been cut and run. But it's different with her new lover, Niko, an ambitious and globally famous entrepreneur. Sam is putting her faith in him. She has to. He's also her new client-a suspect in the murder of an investor whose shady dealings turned Niko's good life upside down. He had the motive: revenge. As did many others who banked a fortune on the wrong man. That's a point in Niko's favor. So is his alibi for the day of the slaying. Until that alibi mysteriously disappears. As Sam's feverish search for another viable killer begins, the investigation only leads deeper into Niko's past and its secrets. From the darkest suspicions to final judgment, fighting for Niko is Sam's job. To do it, she must risk everything on a man who could make all her worst fears come true." --
Thomas & Mercer 2020 404 pages

Blood defense

Clark, Marcia
Samantha Brinkman, an ambitious, hard-charging Los Angeles criminal defense attorney, is struggling to make a name for herself and to drag her fledgling practice into the big leagues. Sam lands a high-profile double-murder case in which one of the victims is a beloved TV star, and the defendant is a decorated veteran LAPD detective. It promises to be exactly the kind of media sensation that would establish her as a heavy hitter in the world of criminal law. Though Sam has doubts about his innocence, she and her two associates (her closest childhood friend and a brilliant ex-con) take the case. Notorious for living by her own rules and fearlessly breaking everyone else's, Samantha pulls out all the stops in her quest to uncover evidence that will clear the detective. But when a shocking secret at the core of the case shatters her personal world, Sam realizes that not only has her client been playing her, he might be one of the most dangerous sociopaths she's ever encountered.
Thomas & Mercer 2016 389 pages

Nightflyers

Martin, George R. R.
"Aliens meets Psycho with a chilling mystery set on a haunted spaceship in this illustrated edition of a classic novella, soon to be an original series on SYFY, by the #1 bestselling author of A Game of Thrones. When a scientific expedition is launched to study a mysterious alien race, the only ship available is the Nightflyer, a fully autonomous vessel manned by a single human. But Captain Royd Eris remains locked away, interacting with his passengers only as a disembodied voice--or a projected hologram no more substantial than a ghost. Yet that's not the only reason the ship seems haunted. The team's telepath, Thale Lasamer, senses another presence aboard the Nightflyer--something dangerous, volatile, and alien. Captain Eris claims to know nothing about the elusive intruder, and when someone, or something, begins killing off the expedition's members, he's unable--or unwilling--to stem the bloody tide. Only Melantha Jhirl, a genetically enhanced outcast with greater strength, stamina, and intelligence than other humans, has a chance of solving the mystery--and stopping the malevolent being that's wiping out her shipmates. But first she has to keep herself alive"--
Bantam Books 2018 193 pages

Whiteout

Rucka, Greg
You can't get any further down than the bottom of the world - Antarctica. Cold, desolate, nothing but ice and snow for miles and miles. Carrie Stetko is a U.S. Marshal, and she's made The Ice her home. In its vastness, she has found a place where she can forget her troubled past and feel at peace... Until someone commits a murder in her jurisdiction and that peace is shattered. The murderer is one of five men scattered across the continent, and he has more reason to hide than just the slaying. Several ice samples were taken from the area around the body, and the depth of the drilling signifies something particular was removed. Enter Lily Sharpe, who wants to know what was so important another man's life had to be taken for it. But are either of the women prepared for the secrets and betrayals at the core of the situation?-- Provided by publisher.
Oni Press 2007