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Mary Ann Miller: Bones Under the Ice
Pre-Order Here Jhonni Laurent is the Sheriff of Field’s Crossing, Indiana, and unsurprisingly, the first female sheriff. Her patch is rural farm country and generally not much happens. During a blizzard the body of teenager Stephanie Gattison is found in a park where the city trucks dump the snow. Did she die in the park…
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Mary Keliikoa: Hidden Pieces
Misty Pines Mystery Series Sheriff Jax Turner is a heartbroken man. Having lost his daughter to cancer, and his wife to the inevitable fall-out of his consuming grief, he’s ready to exit the world. A radio call about Allison, who’s been missing for hours, forces him to a noxious reality. Brought back from the brink of…
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David Putnam: A Fearsome Moonlight Black
Hesitant, unsure, purposeful, and determined, Dave Beckett has all the hallmarks of a rookie cop in 1979. His initial days on the job are marred by a difficult call, a suicide. It’s not the only disturbing call of that nature that he responds to in those early years. Forward eight years, Beckett is now a…
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David Whitton: Seven Down
Seven of them: Reservations, Engineering, Catering, Courtesy, Security, Management, and Systems. Seven sleeper agents at a chic hotel. They know nothing about each other. They know only about the phone call that will set them on their assigned task. Written as an interrogation of each agent in turn, we see that what starts off as…
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Halley Sutton: The Lady Upstairs
Blackmail, Corruption – All in a Day’s Work Jo, Lou and Jackal all work for the Lady Upstairs. Lou is the only one who has direct contact with Lady. She delivers the targets, and they get to work. The targets: wealthy men who are somehow on Lady’s radar. Generally, cheating, corrupt, thieving, assholes. Jackal didn’t…
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From the Archives – C.S. O’Cinneide: Starr Sting Scale
She’s 6-feet + of mean and will cut you down with nary a side look. She also has the occasional soft spot in certain circumstances, but don’t count on it to keep you safe. Candace Starr retired after her release from prison. A contract killer, she often took after her father in methodology – snapping…
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Jonathan Brown: The Big Crescendo
The L.A. Practice Joint isn’t much, but it’s got cheap rates and works for the up and comers, and those who never will be. Lou Crasher collects the money and books the rooms, meantime picking up gigs around the city as a drummer. Hi main gal is a 1965 Mustang, but lately it’s Angela that’s…
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Catharine Riggs: What She Gave Away
Admittedly, Crystal Love had a pretty tough life. Adopted by a dysfunctional couple, she was abandoned by both of them when the marriage ended. Revenge against society became Love’s lifestyle. A plus size woman in a skinny world, she imagined the worse thing that could happen to someone, and then made it come true. Kathi…
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From the Archives – Gale Massey: The Girl From Blind River
Bottom of the deck If you are Jamie Elders, you live in a dingy trailer under the thumb of your criminal uncle. Your teenage brother has problems with anger management, and your mother is an ex-con just released from prison. Jamie is 19 and knows life is better – somewhere. Meantime, she’s pretending to go…
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Lone Thiels: Fatal Crossing
Thrift Shop Suitcase Dangerous Journey Nora Sands is the London correspondent for the Danish weekly magazine Globalt. When she buys a used leather suitcase, tucked inside are old pictures of teenage girls. One of the pictures is of two girls on a Danish ferry. They disappeared in the 80s. This leads Sands to serial killer William Hickley and she realizes that the suitcase…
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Brian Panowich: Bull Mountain
Family of crime Sheriff of duty Dark. Immersive . Violent . Compelling Bull Mountain in northern Georgia is the kingdom of the Burroughs family and Hal sits comfortably on his throne. They are a vicious lot, running their criminal enterprise in ruthless patterns of violence. Dealing mainly in meth and marijuana, they rule the mountain…
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Judy Penz Sheluk: The Hanged Man’s Noose
Canadian debut author Judy Penz Sheluk has written extensively on her blog about her journey into the publishing world. It’s her way to help authors who like her, have to do much, if not all, themselves. She disclosed her path with such honesty, angst and enthusiasm you couldn’t help but be right along-side her as she…