Crime City

Six short stories compiled into this one collection. Sound interesting? The author thinks so too! Listen to Six and the City and experience the compelling world of these mystery, thriller, and suspense short stories.

Behind every fortune is a crime. Yet for young Philly Mob boss "Little Vinny" Veccuto in the 1980s, his crimes were his passion. Centralizing his business in the back of a steak shop in Ducktown, Atlantic City, Vinny illegally reaps the riches of early casino construction. After he becomes "King of the Jersey Shore", Vinny sees his success put to the test between unbearable federal investigation, a violent drug war erupting in his own inner circle, and those closest to him in one way or another, turning their back to him.

The Pelletiers are a prominent French family living in Beirut. The patriarch, Louis, has built a successful business that he hopes to pass on to his eldest son. With no head for management, Jean nearly runs the company into the ground, then marries a materialistic young woman who insists they emigrate to Paris and join high society. But there's another reason Jean must leave—he has committed a terrible crime.

A second helping of romance, murder, and mystery is served. Add chills and thrills for seasoning, and you have a very good second episode. A second young girl is found murdered on the east side of Bay City. What clue did one of the young murdered girls leave behind? My God! Sammy, Paula small with short blonde hair!

Funny, what people seem to want. In Art, Mystery, a controversial former footballer, now export agent specializing in chrome, accepts an unusual commission—to find and export a pornographic work of Renaissance art.

After Math retails what becomes of the cast of characters introduced in Art, Mystery, joint and severally pursuing an erotic Rinascimento statuette attributed to Antonio Pollaiuolo, a pursuit that lands them in court. On the way, their collective and singular fates are unfolded and accounted for, the consequences of the truth of matters for them are brought to bear and a kind of rough justice is seen to have been done, as is appropriate in rough trade.

Railway cop and former Marine Sydney Parnell is on the hunt. So is a killer she knows only as the Alpha. They’re in a race to find Malik, an 11-year-old Iraqi boy with secrets to guard. Sydney wants to help him. The Alpha wants him dead. From the dark alleys of Mexico City to the mean streets of Denver, Sydney and her K9 partner, Clyde, use their wits and determination to chase down the ruthless killer. But when their path collides with his, Sydney realizes just how far-reaching and sinister the Alpha’s past is. And how far he’s willing to go to save his secrets.

One phone call. Two lives. Their darkest secrets. Lana needs to sell a holiday, fast. Stuck in Tenerife, in a dead end job, she never expected a response quite like Liam’s. Thousands of miles away a phone rings. Liam never intended to pick up - he’s too busy choosing the quickest way to die. But at least someone should know the truth before he goes, even if that someone is a stranger. As time runs out both are drawn to the other, expressing thoughts they never imagined they would share. When you’re about to die, will your secrets even matter?

Rip-offs are a dangerous game, but heist man Miles Keller thinks he’s found a good strategy: rob rich New York criminals and then retire early, before word’s out about his true identity. New town, new name, no worries. Retirement can’t come soon enough, though. The NYPD is investigating him for the shooting of a hit man named Jack Deen, who was targeting Lucy Gates - a former police informant and Miles’ ex-lover. Miles thinks shooting hit men counts as altruism, but in any case a murder charge would make life difficult.

Thirteen-year-old Boli and his friends are deep in the middle of a game of marbles. An older boy named Mosca has won the prized Devil's Fire marble. His pals are jealous and want to win it away from him. This is Izayoc, the place of tears, a small pueblo in a tiny valley west of Mexico City where nothing much happens. It's a typical hot Sunday morning except that on the way to church, someone discovers the severed head of Enrique Quintanilla propped on the ledge of one of the cement planters in the plaza, and everything changes.

Nichelle Tramble's first novel, The Dying Ground, was named a Best Book of 2001 by the Chicago Tribune and the San Francisco Chronicle. In this follow-up work, Maceo returns home after drifting for two years. He finds his friends tangled up in a murder case, and he must act fast to save them.

Following the tradition of crime thrillers from Joseph Uhnak and Joseph Wambaugh, New York Times best-selling author and former New York City police commissioner Bernard Kerik uses his unique insider knowledge of crime and politics to weave a story of suspense, murder, and international intrigue that's truly been ripped from today's headlines.

Immune to the consequences of immorality, five privileged young men in Bogotá bond over a shared code: worship drugs and drink, exploit women, and scorn the underclass. As males, they declare the right to freedom of pleasure. As friends, only disloyalty to each other is forbidden. When a little girl from the slums disappears, the limits of a perverse and sacred bond will be tested in ways none of them could have imagined.

Jaded reporter Andrew and his photographer boyfriend, Carlos, are sick of telling just another story. From cartel massacres to corrupt politicians, sifting the dregs of Mexico's drug war, they think they've seen it all. But when they find a body even the police are too scared to look at, what started out as just another reportage becomes the sort of story all reporters dream of. Until Carlos pushes for answers too fast and winds up murdered, leaving Andrew grief-stricken and flailing for answers, justice and revenge.

Working security for a wealthy Indian businessman sounds like easy money to PI Jim Bean. He’s charged with watching the man’s teenage daughter, the stubborn and spirited Zevah Ralen. His task is simple: keep the girl out of trouble during her father’s business trip to Las Vegas. But trouble strikes as soon as the assignment starts, when a group of kidnappers ambush Zevah outside the mall. Jim barely has time to handcuff himself to her before they’re both knocked out and transported to the kidnappers’ remote cottage hideout.

A self-labeled enigma, Detective Inspector Jack Austin is at once miserable and amusing, melancholy, and motivated. Running the Community Police Unit from his deck chair, DI Austin is known for his ability to solve crimes out of the blue. Trying to work cases while struggling with his mental issues, Austin deals with a variety of major crimes, including bicycle theft.

Orphaned and homeless in New York City at 14 years old in 2009, Carlo Juliano lived on the streets to survive until a local crime family boss, Johnny Toracio, gave him a job, his own place to live, and mentored him into a life as a gangster. For the next few years, Carlo flourished on the streets of New York befriending leaders of construction scams, art theft rings, drug cartels, biker gangs, extortion rackets, gambling, and cybercrime.

Hipsters are getting slashed to pieces in the hippest neighborhood in New York: Williamsburg, Brooklyn. While Detectives Petrosino and Hadid hound local gangbangers, slacker reporter Tony Moran and his ex, Magaly Fernandez, get caught up in a missing person’s case - one that might just get them hacked to death.

It’s presidential primary season in Washington, DC, and both parties are on edge. At campaign rallies for all the candidates around the country, there are disturbing incidents of violence and protest and shocking acts of civil disobedience. Rena and Brooks are happy to sit it out. Against this backdrop, Wendy Upton, the highly respected centrist senator, must make a choice: She’s been offered the VP slot by both parties’ leading candidates.

Nick O’Flannigan suspects that his time in the small town of Helena will be one of relaxation and reflection, even time to think about the future. A rare murder, a hanging in a park outside of town piques his interest, though. The only real clue is in a photograph he took on a short hike. But he’s found a new friend, a stranger he feels oddly connected to. The more often they run into each other, the deeper their conversations go.