It came in a plain brown wrapper, no return address - an audiocassette recording of a horrifying, soul-lacerating scream, followed by the sound of a childlike voice delivering the enigmatic and haunting message: . Bad love. Bad love. Don't give me the bad love... For Alex Delaware, the chant, repeated over and over like a twisted nursery rhyme, is the first intimation that he is about to enter a living nightmare. Others soon follow: disquieting laughter echoing over a phone line that suddenly goes dead, a chilling trespass outside his home in the middle of the night, a sickening act of vandalism. He has becoine the target of a carefully orchestrated campaign of vague threats and intimidation rapidly building to a crescendo as harassment turns to terror, mischief to madness. Searching his memory for the phrase bad love, Alex recalls a symposium he attended over a decade ago commemorating the work of Dr. Andres de Bosch, the celebrated child psychologist who ran a clinic for troubled adolescents. With the help of his friend LAPD detective Milo Sturgis, Alex discovers a seemingly random series of violent deaths - a hit-and-run, a suicidal leap from a high rise, and a brutal mutilation-murder - that may somehow be related to de Bosch. As he delves deeper into the history of the clinic, the escalating pattern of violence becomes inescapably clear. And if Alex fails to decipher the twisted logic of the stalker's mind games, he will be the next to die. Taut, penetrating, terrifying, Bad Love is vintage Kellerman.

A strange crime gets V.I. Warshawski involved with some of Chicago’s most rich and powerful players in this thriller from New York Times bestselling author Sara Paretsky. When a group of Chicago tweens holds a ritual in an abandoned cemetery, they stumble on an actual corpse—stabbed through the heart in a vampire-style slaying. V.I. Warshawski arrives on the scene to escort the girls home–but protecting them places her at the tangled center of the investigation. And the girls include daughters of some of Chicago’s most powerful families: the grandfather of one, Chaim Salanter, is among the world’s wealthiest men; the mother of another, Sophy Durango, is running for the United States Senate. For V.I., the questions multiply faster than the answers. Is the killing linked to a hostile media campaign against Durango—or to Salanter’s childhood in Nazi-occupied Lithuania? As V.I. struggles to find an answer, she finds herself fighting enemies who are no less terrifying for being all too human.

Discover the first novel in New York Times bestselling author Laura Lippman's outstanding Tess Monaghan series! When a former Baltimore reporter must solve the murder of a notorious attorney, she discovers Charm City is rife with dark, sordid, and dangerous secrets. In a city where someone is murdered almost every day, attorney Michael Abramowitz's death should be just another statistic. But the slain lawyer's notoriety—and his taste for illicit midday trysts—make the case front-page news in every local paper except the Star, which crashed and burned before Abramowitz did. A former Star reporter who knows every inch of this town—from historic Fort McHenry to the crumbling projects of Cherry Hill—now-unemployed journalist Tess Monaghan also knows the guy the cops like for the killing: cuckolded fiancé Darryl "Rock" Paxton. The time is ripe for a career move, so when rowing buddy Rock wants to hire her to do some unorthodox snooping to help clear his name, Tess agrees. But there are lethal secrets hiding in the Charm City shadows. And Tess's own name could end up on that ever-expanding list of Baltimore dead.

New York Times Bestseller Award-winning and New York Times bestselling author Laura Lippman’s Tess Monaghan—first introduced in the classic Baltimore Blues—must track down a missing wife and unravel the secrets in her marriage that led her to flee. “A hair raising ride.”—Boston Globe Mark Rubin's family is missing—and the police won't get involved because all the evidence indicates that his wife left willingly. So the successful Baltimore furrier turns to Tess Monaghan, hoping she can help him find his wife and three children. Tess doesn't quite know what to make of Rubin, who doles out vitally important information in grudging dribs and drabs. According to her client, he and his beautiful wife, Natalie, had a flawless, happy marriage. Yet one day, without any warning or explanation, Natalie gathered up their children and vanished. Tapping into a network of fellow investigators spread across the country, Tess is soon able to locate the runaway wife and the children who have been moving furtively from state to state, town to town. But the Rubins are not alone. A mysterious man is traveling with them, a stranger described by witnesses as "handsome" and "charming" but otherwise unremarkable. And the deeper Tess digs, the more she suspects that the motive behind Natalie's reckless flight lies somewhere in the gap between what Rubin will not say and what he refuses to believe. An intricate web of betrayal and vengeance is already beginning to unfold, as memory begets rage, and rage begets desperation…and murder. Suddenly, much more than one man's future happiness and stubborn pride are in peril. For the lives of three innocent children are dangling by the slenderest of threads.

NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE WASHINGTON POST "A proper hero for these times . . . To us, V.I. is perfect." -- THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW "Sara Paretsky's gloriously kick-ass private eye, V.I. "Vic" Warshawski, is back . . . in a political-rot thriller that's the definition of perfection in the genre." -- THE WASHINGTON POST Chicago's legendary detective, V.I. Warshawski, knows her city's rotten underbelly better than most, but she's unable to avoid it when her goddaughter drags her into a fight over lakefront land use, in this propulsive novel from New York Times bestseller Sara Paretsky. Chicago may be the city of broad shoulders, but its political law is "Pay to Play." Money changes hands in the middle of the night, and by morning, buildings and parks are replaced by billion-dollar projects. Chicago PI V.I. Warshawski gets pulled into one of these clandestine deals through her impetuous goddaughter, Bernie Fouchard. Bernie tries to rescue Lydia Zamir, a famed singer-songwriter now living on the streets; Zamir's life fell apart when her lover was murdered next to her in a mass shooting at an outdoor concert. Not only does Bernie plunge her and V.I. headlong into the path of some ruthless developers, they lead to the murder of the young man Bernie is dating. He's a computer geek working for a community group called SLICK. V.I. is desperate to find a mysterious man named Coop, who roams the lakefront in the middle of the night with his dog. She's sure he holds the key to the mounting body count within SLICK. Coop may even know why an international law firm is representing the mass murderer responsible for Lydia's lover's death. Instead, the detective finds a terrifying conspiracy stretching from Chicago's parks to a cover-up of the dark chapters in America's meddling in South American politics. Before she finds answers, this electrifying novel pushes V.I. close to the breaking point: People who pay to play take no prisoners.

"Readers can find comfort in the dedication V.I. gives the cries for help she hears from friends, neighbors, and strangers... Very few series authors deliver as masterfully as Sara Paretsky.” — San Francisco Book Review Legendary detective V.I. Warshawski uncovers a nefarious conspiracy preying on Chicago’s weak and vulnerable, in this thrilling novel from New York Ti[Bokinfo]

New York Times Bestseller: A Chicago PI trying to help her elderly neighbors ends up tangled in politics and a murder in this "fast-paced, complicated mystery" ( New York Daily News ). V.I. "Vic" Warshawski and her neighbor share responsibility for a currently pregnant dog--but Mr. Contreras complains that her detective work keeps her too busy to help with little Peppy. Still, that doesn't stop him from adding more to her plate by asking her to investigate the disappearance of his friend, a fellow retiree. At the same time, Vic's trying to look out for a vulnerable eighty-year-old down the street whose property is considered an eyesore by the newcomers gentrifying the neighborhood. When Mr. Contreras's friend turns up dead in a canal, and the old lady on the block winds up in the hospital, Vic is swept into a world of organized labor, money, and politics--and discovers a distressing personal connection to the case. Vic may not always succeed as a guardian angel--but when things go wrong, she can chase down the demons--in this suspenseful novel from the Mystery Writers of America Grand Master and "crime-fiction pro" ( People ). "Paretsky's emphasis on character comes at no expense of action: Vic's investigation is as physical as it is mental, taking her inside Chicago's industrial world and up against bad guys who use everything from bats to heavy machinery to thwart her. Among today's PIs, nobody comes close to Warshawski." -- Publishers Weekly "The richest and most engaging yet of Ms. Paretsky's thrillers." -- The New York Times "Densely textured, adroitly plotted." -- Kirkus Reviews "One monster of a plot." -- Booklist

Among the first, and perhaps the most compelling, female private investigators of contemporary fiction, Sara Paretsky's incomparable character V. I. Warshawski at last returns to the page in her first full-length appearance since 1994's "Tunnel Vision." Hard Time is the work of a master--a riveting novel of suspense that is indisputably Paretsky's best V.I. Warshawski novel yet. Multimedia conglomerate Global Entertainment has purchased the "Chicago Herald-Star," forcing the paper's staff to scramble to stay employed. Reporter Murray Ryerson, V.I.'s longtime friend and sometime rival, manages to reinvent himself as the host of a television show on Global's network. On her way home from a party celebrating Murray's debut, V.I. almost runs over a woman lying in the street. Stopping to help, V.I. soon learns that her Good Samaritan act will drop her squarely in a boiling intrigue. In a case that forces her to go head-to-head with one of the world's largest providers of private security and prison services, a case that exposes dark hidden truths behind the razzle-dazzle of the entertainment industry, V.I. will be ahead of the game if she gets out alive.

“V.I. Warshawski is back—intelligent, tough, sarcastic and trouble-prone as ever.... Body Work isn’t just a satisfying whodunnit; it’s a rich, well-written why-dunnit, striking some surprising chords that will resonate long after you finish the final page.”—St. Louis Post-Dispatch Chicago’s Club Gouge attracts an eclectic audience, from bohemian types to Ukranian mobsters to young men just back from the war. And tonight, V.I. Warshawski is in the crowd too. The edgy stage show stars The Body Artist, who invites audience members to draw on her naked flesh. But things get a lot edgier when a woman sketches a picture on the Body Artist—and one of the veterans flies into a drunken rage. Next thing V.I. knows, she’s cradling the woman’s dying body in an alley, and a PTSD-stricken soldier is presumed guilty. But he’s also comatose after a drug overdose, and the mystery of what exactly set him off—and what kinds of shady activities are really happening at Club Gouge—will lead V.I. to a truth as explosive as the IEDs that lurk on the roadsides of Iraq. Bonus in this Edition: A Short Story Featuring V.I. Warshawski

Chicago politics—past, present, and future—take center stage in this complex and compelling V.I. Warshawki novel from New York Times bestselling author Sara Peretsky. Tracking down missing persons is part of V.I. Warshawski’s job. But Lamont Gadsden has been missing for more than forty years—last seen heading out into the 1967 blizzard, in the midst of Chicago’s racial unrest. V.I. figured the search would be futile. She didn’t realize it would be lethal...or lead to troubling discoveries about her own family. And when her young cousin Petra disappears, an angry preacher, a jailed gangbanger, and politics from both past and present interconnect—and plunge V.I. into a mystery as unsettling as the ’60s themselves. A New York Times Notable Crime Book of the Year One of NPR’s Top Five Crime Novels of the Year

Chicago’s V. I. Warshawski confronts crooked politicians and buried family secrets in this gritty mystery from New York Times bestselling author Sara Paretsky. No one would accuse V. I. Warshawski of backing down from a fight, but she’d happily avoid tangling with Chicago political bosses. Yet that’s what she ends up doing when she responds to a plea for help from an old high school flame, Frank Guzzo. Frank’s mother Stella was convicted of killing his kid sister, but now that she’s out of prison, she’s looking for exoneration. Even though the Warshawskis and Stella never got along, V. I. agrees to make a few inquiries after she sees how hard life has been on Frank and her other childhood friends. Only, that small favor leads her straight into the vipers’ nest of Illinois politics—and soon her main question isn’t about Stella’s case but whether or not she’ll make it out of this investigation alive... A Washington Post Best Mystery of 2015 Includes a Bonus Short Story!

Former government assassin Cameron Winter thinks he's finally found peace--and love--with therapist Gwendolyn Lord. But when she tells him about a baffling "locked room" murder in Tulsa, Winter's instincts pull him back into the shadows. The deeper he investigates, the more dangerous the case becomes--linking two impossible murders, a ruthless billionaire, and a ghost from his past. As his old life collides with his new one, Winter must decide how far he's willing to go to protect the woman he loves.

They say that a man needs a woman to go to hell with. Cassidy had two. One was Mildred, the wife who kept him chained with ties of fear and jealousy and paralyzing sexual need. The other was Doris, a frail angel with a 100-proof halo and a bottle instead of a harp. With those two, Cassidy found that the ride to hell could be twice as fast. Cassidy's Girl has all the traits that made its author a virtuoso of the hard-boiled: a fiercely compelling ploy; characters who self-destruct in spectacularly unpredictable ways; and an insider's knowledge of all the routes to the bottom.

A dreamlike masterpiece of crime, honor, and perverse loyalty by the legendary author of Shoot the Piano Player. Nat Harbin is a family man. His family happens to be a gang of burglars. Now Nat has met a woman so hypnotically seductive that he will leave his partners and his trade to possess her. But you don't get away from family that easily. The Burglar has the hallmarks that made David Goodis one of the great practitioners of the hard-boiled crime novel: a haunting identification with life's losers, and a hero who finds out who he is only by betraying everything he believes in.

Greg Rucka has earned a devoted following for his edgy Atticus Kodiak thrillers, Finder , Keeper , and Smoker . Now, in an electrifying new suspense novel, Rucka puts us in the heart and brain of Kodiak's friend and lover, Bridgett Logan, a young woman living life on her own terms--and living it on the edge. Shooting at Midnight . It began with a promise made to a friend, made when they were both teenagers. Now, years later, the friend wants to collect. All Bridgett Logan has to do is keep her word and the vow she made: Commit a murder. Now two men are desperately trying to find Bridgett. One to save her. The other--to kill her.

After decades of madness in the Bronx, Isaac Sidel visits the craziest state in the country Isaac Sidel is too popular to be America's vice president. Once the New York Police Department commissioner, he became the most beloved mayor in the city's history--famous for his refusal to surrender his Glock, and for his habit of disappearing for months at a time to fight crime at street level. So when baseball czar J. Michael Storm asks Sidel to join him on the election's Democratic ticket, the two wild men romp to an unprecedented landslide. But as the president-elect's mandate goes off the rails--threatened by corruption, sex, and God knows what else--he tires of being overshadowed by Sidel, and dispatches him to a place from which tough politicians seldom return: Texas. In the Lone Star state, Sidel confronts rogue astrologers, accusations of pedophilia, and a dimwitted assassin who doesn't know when to take an easy shot. If this Bronx bomber doesn't watch his step, he risks making vice-presidential history by getting killed on the job.

SOMEBODY'S DONE FOR Calvin Jander is just about done for when his boat capsizes and he's forced to tread water, hoping for a sight of land. When he does find the shore, he's just barely alive. And that's when Vera finds him. She takes him to her shack, gets him some clothes and food. Then Jander's real trouble starts, because Vera is Hebden's daughter. Hebden and his two partners are holed up in a deserted house on a lonely stretch of New Jersey coastline, and they aren't welcoming visitors. When they discover Jander, it's all he can do to keep them from killing him. But as Vera gradually begins to get under his skin, death by shotgun begins to look like the easy way out.

Dame Edna Everage - housewife, megastar, investigative journalist, social anthropologist, children's book illustrator, chanteuse, swami, monstre sacre, polymath, adviser to British royalty, grief counselor, spin doctor, and gifted woman in the world today. The seeds of stardom were planted in Melbourne, Australia when her career as a performing artiste was strictly a cult following. In the 1960's, she did a series of one-woman shows and occasional stage and TV appearances in England with Barry Humphries. She spends her time visiting world leaders and jet-setting between her homes in Malibu, London, Sydney, and Switzerland. Her hobbies are having afternoon tea with Stephen Hwking and doing compassionate photography.

A high-caliber police procedural mystery from the acclaimed author Warren Adler, well-known for the iconic novel turned international box-office hit The War of the Roses. The poison pen of Polly Dearborn, an infamous Washington Post investigative reporter, has gone silent. When Polly is found hanging from her balcony in the Watergate apartments, Washington's elite and powerful rejoice-the Witch of Watergate is dead! But Polly's voice reaches beyond the grave, and her final articles may contain clues to some big secrets. Homicide detective Fiona Fitzgerald, well-versed in the behind-the-scenes dealings of Washington, doesn't buy the suicide angle. But secret alliances between the police, the Post, and the mayor make Fiona's job difficult. What's worse is that her new and unlikable partner, Charleen Evans, seems to be working against Fiona when she takes control of the evidence herself. All challenges aside, Fiona knows the political world and is determined to find the truth. The Witch of Watergate is the fourth book in the Fiona Fitzgerald Mystery series.

A high-caliber police procedural mystery from the acclaimed author Warren Adler, well-known for his iconic novel turned international box-office hit "The War of the Roses." Old money, old secrets. The elderly mother of the Governor of Virginia, an icon of Washington society, is found dead and sexually assaulted in her posh Washington, DC, residence. Metropolitan Police detective Fiona Fitzgerald investigates the horrifying crime. As a senator's daughter, she has the advantage of knowing the world of Washington's privileged. Young Martine, the accused, has no advantages. He was not raised in a family with political leverage and did not understand Washington's politicians' inner workings and secrets. Then there is the devoted servant, the status-hungry daughter-in-law, the drugs, power, and money-but where does the truth lie within this complicated family drama? Through it all, Fiona wrestles with her feelings about marriage as she considers marriage to a former general, who is now mounting a massive offensive for her hand. Will an inside look at one Washington marriage-and all of its dirty little secrets-help her choose? Fiona must battle both privilege and prejudice as she uncovers the inevitable truth behind the political facade. Death of a Washington Madame is the third book in the Fiona Fitzgerald Mystery series.