American Mysteries

On January 20, 2009, a new occupant had moved into the White House. The transition of power from the previous administration had been orderly and uneventful, and on the surface, seemed to move smoothly through the process as prescribed by the U.S. Constitution.

What millions of Americans couldn't know was that a few years before the new president was born, another man had been offered two lives to live. His choice would change the lives of every man, woman and child on our planet. Many famous assassinations had been left behind in the wake of his ascension. He destroyed many large individual fortunes and the economies of some countries.

On a quiet summer morning, 17-year-old American exchange student Quinn Perkins stumbles out of the woods near the small French town of St. Roch. She is barefoot, bloodied, and unable to say what has happened to her; Quinn's appearance creates quite a stir, especially since the Blavettes - the French family with whom she's been staying - have mysteriously disappeared. Now the media, and everyone in the idyllic village, are wondering if the American girl had anything to do with her host family's disappearance.

On a cold night in December 1956, two young girls mysteriously vanished after a night at the movies on the Southwest Side of Chicago, beginning one of the greatest searches to ever take place in the history of the city. Three weeks later, the bodies of the two lost girls, Barbara and Patricia Grimes, were found on the side of a secluded, snow-covered road, miles from where they disappeared. The discovery of their battered corpses created one of the greatest unsolved mysteries to ever baffle post-war America. Where had the girls been for the past three weeks?

Danny Marsh is a good guy and also an escaped felon. He has 24 hours to make it to freedom in Mexico. Along the way, he must evade the rabid Texas authorities and, even deadlier, the schemes of one of his closest allies, who isn't who he seems.

Recently drummed out of a prestigious local university and its forensic research laboratory for blowing the whistle on pillars of the community, Dr. Cornell Westerly is a promising forensic scientist with a brand-new diploma and a California license plate. He's an apprentice crime scene investigator in need of a steady job to pay the rent. Westerly, an expert in DNA analysis, finds that opportunity with Detective Dash Brogan of the Los Angeles Police Department, a man steeped in the hard-boiled, old-school police procedurals of bygone times.

The beloved American Girl History Mysteries features intrepid girls faced with intriguing situations. The author of this installment, Kathryn Reiss, has received the ALA Best Book for Young Adults Award. In Riddle of the Prairie Bride, it's 1878 and Ida Deming and her papa are looking forward to meeting his mail-order bride. But is this woman really who she claims to be?

Having fled the turmoil of Scotland, Elspeth Monro is learning to love her life in 1775 North Carolina. She likes her new friend and her weaving apprenticeship. But as Loyalists and Patriots strive to recruit her neighbors, a shadowy figure threatens her family.

It's 1952, and Jasper isn't allowed to ask questions or make a fuss. He's lucky to even have a home and must keep his mouth shut and his ears open to stay in his uncle's good graces. No one knows where his mother went or whether she's coming back. Desperate to see her again, he must take matters into his own hands. From the farm, he embarks on a treacherous search that will take him to the squalid hideaways of Detroit and back again, through tawdry taverns, peep shows, and gambling houses.

Two more snarky Josie Tucker mysteries! Dead Man on Campus (book three): A mysterious letter-writer causes havoc on the idyllic Bader University campus. After a professor receives numerous poison pen letters, more and more threatening in nature, Josie Tucker is on the case...grudgingly. Full Slab Dead (book four): When snarky food critic, Josie Tucker, heads to Austin, Texas, to wax philosophical about the local barbecue joints, she stumbles on to a decades' old missing person case.

Sergeant Benjamin Ross is a loving father, husband, and US Army soldier. When he is sent to Afghanistan for a deployment, he come across many dangers that lead him to his inevitable death. Sergeant Ross is then transported to a new world filled with evil priests, dragons, dungeons, bandits, and much much more.

1976 New Year's Eve, San Francisco. A Firebird transports a crew of glitter kids away from the city. Forget the trunk full of cash and illegal firearms. Forget the disco heist and sea of felonies left in their wake. They are five friends happily rolling down thunder road with no horizon in sight. They are Young Americans.

Winsor Glanvil pays court to Louise Carney, heiress to a fortune, and she agrees to marry him. The marriage is opposed by big Jack Rutledge, a jealous rival and formidable foe, so Glanvil and Louise plan to be married in a sequestered valley by a local clergyman. Rutledge and his supporters, learning of the plan, arrive in the valley ahead of the two and seize Glanvil. Glanvil is beaten mercilessly and Rutledge disfigures him, destroying one side of his face with the cutting edge of a spur. Rutledge then rejoins his gang in the clergyman’s house.

Amid the Battles of Saratoga, Tim Euston has to defend the lovely Betty-May from those who can profit from her wrongful conviction for the murder of her husband. It is September 1777, the third year of the American War for Independence. In upstate New York, Tim Euston (age 17) is playing with two boys while they help their Uncle Martin harvest wheat. In the distance they can hear the ominous rumble of cannon fire in what has to be a major battle. A British invasion force had sailed up the Saint Lawrence and marched south.

In the third year of the American Revolution, Tim Euston (17) has unknowingly moved himself and his sister Sadie (15) in with a family of traitors and killers.

One unusually sultry spring night, Jane is woken by a scream from the nursery - and rushes in to find the Tyler children's nanny murdered and the carefully locked window flung open.

It’s a smoky autumn morning when Kimber Clark gets the alert: her kindergartner’s school is on lockdown. She’s still drunk when she joins other parents outside the police tape, but not so drunk that she can’t pick up details: Zack Linzy, a high schooler, opened fire in the school cafeteria, killing four people. But that’s not possible. Zack Linzy is a freak, a boy who assaulted Kimber’s daughter, and Kimber killed him with a shovel two days ago.

TV investigative reporter Topher Davis, the only Black journalist on that beat, has exactly three weeks to do one final story before his position is eliminated due to corporate budget cuts. Enlisting the aid of his sister, SFPD Homicide Detective Lynn Sloan, he decides to investigate what the families of Blacks killed by police—and the families of the cops themselves—go through when tragic events like this occur. Instead, they find themselves involved in an ever-expanding mystery as more officers who’ve committed the same offense turn up dead.

It was May of 1777, the beginning of the third year of the American War for Independence, on territory controlled by the British. In the back of a general store, Tim (age 17) had just found the body, when the proprietor burst in, accusing him of murder. Tim got away, went to a judge, and claimed the dead man was a rebel spy.

Angel Lamb has overcome many obstacles in her three decades of life. Rescued from an abusive environment at a young age, Angel has a realistic and cynical outlook on life, yet a strong sense of right and wrong. After she loses her wife in a tragic automobile accident, Angel seeks out the assistance of a local grief support group to help her deal with the crushing loss. When violence begins to find members of the group, Angel is forced to face her painful past as well as an uncertain future. In order to survive, she will have to challenge her own black and white view of good and evil.

On the eve of trial, Assistant District Attorney Lainey Abbott gets a disturbing phone call. Her baby sister, Stephanie, who should have been back at her college dorm after visiting for the weekend, never arrived. At first, she isn’t too worried, because she’s a system insider and has plenty of resources available to locate her sister quickly, including Russ Sanders, the police detective she’s been on and off with for years. It’ll take a couple days, tops. They’ll find Steph and give her a piece of their mind for being so irresponsible. But a year later, Stephanie still hasn’t been found.