Detective Science

For Nora Mulgrew, the days between the end of Salem University’s summer session and the start of fall semester are the 'dead time'. The campus is deserted, and Nora is the only resident in eerie old Nightingale Hall, a ramshackle dorm whose dark past has earned it the nickname 'Nightmare Hall'. Nora hasn’t heard any of those rumors, but her own nightmare is about to begin. An education major, Nora has spent the summer working at a day care where her favorite pupil is a darling child named Mindy.

It's been two years since the invasion. Two years since the slicks came to our planet and herded humanity together like cattle, placing us under constant watch in the few cities that remain. The lucky ones are left to their own devices. The unlucky few are rounded up and carted off to labor camps to face an unknown fate. Former homicide detective Adrian Grace was cut off from his family, but has somehow managed to survive. When one of the slicks is murdered, they ask him to find the killer.

The Reinvented Detective presents stories that complicate law and order as well as the concept of criminals, detectives, punishment, and justice for all by showing how shifting technology, the rise of sentient AIs, and shifting social attitudes may affect what is not only acceptable, but expected, within both real world and digital communities—and everything in-between. These stories reinvent detective and true crime tropes, recasting them for the 21st century, and above all, experimenting, astonishing, and entertaining.

From the Roaring '20s to the 1970s, detectives reigned supreme in police departments across the country. In this tightly woven slice of true crime reportage, Thomas A. Reppetto offers a behind-the-scenes look into some of the most notable investigations to occur during the golden age of the detective in American criminal justice.

Murder is a royal affair in this enchanting series by Sarah E. Burr. Welcome to the Realm of Virtues, where mystery and intrigue await. Before the Court of Mystery, Jacqueline Arienta Xavier reigned as the Ducal Detective.

Doug Martin always has everyone's back. But the no-nonsense cop's world plunges into turmoil after chasing two drug dealers with his long-time partner ends in flying bullets that kill his buddy and leave him with a chunk of lead on his brain. And the seasoned investigator nearly jumps out of his skin when his recently deceased partner's ghost appears, inviting him to carry on with business as usual.

Sid Jones and her best friend, Zen, like to play in their local graveyard—but they never expected their ghostly games to suddenly turn real. When Sid accidentally frees the spirit of Ezekiel “Bones” Kittow, a pirate who died nearly three hundred years prior, he asks her to help him find his long-lost treasure so his soul can finally be at rest. The only problem? He can’t remember where, or even what, the treasure is.

Celeste Crenshaw has survived her parents’ grisly murders, grueling and gender-biased police training, a battle with rogue vampires, and even her own death. While immortality might seem a dream come true, can she accept the strings attached? Celeste spends the start of her immortal life being mentored by the Elders of the Hollow Earth. They release her once they feel certain Celeste has honed her supernatural powers. But little do they know, Celeste isn’t wholly committed to granting eternal life to those deserving.

Maine doesn't like her father. It doesn't help that he's a troll. As in a literal, lives-under-a-bridge troll. When her father is killed, Maine returns home to settle his estate and learns that he wasn't any ordinary troll, but the town hero. Seems trolls can be superheroes, too. When Maine inherited her father's Mantle, she got more than a demonically possessed magical cape that reveals one's weakness. She also inherited several busloads of mythical adversaries. Thanks, Dad!

When the enemy is a blood-magic-wielding Orthodoxy, most private detectives allow someone else to deal with the problem. Not Kera MacDonagh! Unfortunately, she is presently dealing with a relationship that tries her patience. Her mother! Can she finish just one trip without one of them hurting the other or Kera becoming a raging alcoholic?

Yesterday they were five ordinary friends. Today they are all that stand between us and extinction... Havenbrook, Iowa. Typical small town America, nestled in the rolling plains of the Midwest. Life is simple here. But for high school senior Jay Anderson, it's about to get a whole lot more complicated. Accused of a crime he didn't commit, he is shocked to become an outcast throughout this small community, and becomes suspicious of the townspeople's suddenly strange behavior.

Ask Aria Morse anything, and she must answer with the truth. Yet she rarely understands the cryptic words she's compelled to utter. Blessed - or cursed - with the power of an oracle who cannot decipher her own predictions, she does her best to avoid anyone and everyone. But Aria can no longer hide when Jade, one of the few girls at school who ever showed her any kindness, disappears. Any time Aria overhears a question about Jade, she inadvertently reveals something new, a clue or hint as to why Jade vanished. But like stray pieces from different puzzles, her words never present a clear picture.

The dead carry their secrets with them.... At least until they end up at Riley Smith's door. Her latest spectral visitor is a murdered bride with a need for revenge, and not necessarily for the person who killed her. Never mind that killer is about to strike again. Riley's determined to help, but is missing Hayden, the hot, ghostly boy who's always had her back. Living, breathing Hayden is awake, which means his spirit isn't around to flirt with Riley anymore. Worse yet, the "real" Hayden doesn't remember her.

After discovering a man’s body in the Rotherhithe tunnel, Alice Carter embarks on one of the most unusual cases she will ever encounter. Politicians and civilians are dying in odd circumstances and it leaves her mentor, Max Greenstick, scratching his head. Why are they being targeted, and what links the outlandish deaths together?

The Afterlife Confessional follows Bill's journey for answers as he looks through the dizzying kaleidoscope of his clients' lives - the widower who escaped an aged-care trap to take her husband's ashes on the road trip of a lifetime; the man who spent his life paying it forward to try to make up for one shameful act; the closet dominatrix who quietly confronts her husband's infidelity by comforting those truly in need; the devoted couple who insist on going hand-in-hand into the afterlife.

Blue Bell has spent years hiding her mystical talents while running her candy shop, Sucre Bleu. But when a dead body appears outside new neighbor Ethan Moore's office, she finds herself drawn into a baffling murder. With help from her sarcastic talking cat Tiffany, quirky sister Pepper, and Ethan's slick investigating skills, Blue follows the clues. Her supernatural gifts give her an edge, but she risks exposing her secret witchy abilities.

Tori Van Camp wakes one morning on a luxurious ocean liner where she's offered whatever a person might desire: food, clothes, recreation, and the companionship of congenial people. But Tori has no memory of booking a cruise. What she does have is a vivid recollection of being shot point blank in the chest.

Where do you go to fix a problem only you know about? Lia and Stephanie have stumbled upon a new case for the detective agency to unravel. It's not stumping the police. It's not even a cold case. That's because no one outside the magical world even knows it's happening. A grimoire that possesses the reader with the spirit of a dead wizard isn't the sort of thing that makes the news, especially when the reader is a notorious recluse.

Miss Mary Morstan has been receiving pearls and she knows not why or from whom. Now she receives something else: a letter that promises to reveal the mystery and to "right the wrongs" against her. "If you distrust me," continued the correspondent, "bring two friends." She brings Sherlock Holmes and Watson.

I'm Leroy Mahoney, of Bartley and Mahoney's Investigation Agency. If you're dead and got a problem I am the one you go to see. My office is still parked on 34th and Main St. Being dead is a lot more dangerous than I was expecting. Beyond the veil, monsters are waiting to devour and entrap souls for eternity. The Guardians are there to protect the departed on their way to the afterlife. If a someone doesn’t cross over before they fade completely, they turn into a Shade. Until the dead can let go of their mortal lives and release their tethers, they can’t pass on. That’s where I come in.