English Private Detectives

A dreich day for a crossing and a small ferry packed to the gills. A fracas when off loading leads to blood and tears. And one man sits dead at the wheel of the last remaining car. Macleod and McGrath return to Cromarty when a man is found dead at the wheel of his car on the small, local ferry. As the passengers are identified, the trail extends across the highlands and islands as past deeds are paid back in full. Can the now seasoned pair hunt down a killer before their butchery spreads across the land?

Some of the stories by Arthur B. Reeve seem more plausible today than to some skeptical readers back in the early twentieth century. The primary character, University Professor Craig Kennedy, used forensic methods before such criminalistics were commonplace. These include DNA analysis as well as studies of such topics as fingerprints, blood stain patterns, tool marks, and toxicology (poisons used alone or administered in non-lethal potions).

When a disgraced former pop star plummets to her death from her Osaka apartment, all signs paint a picture of a troubled young woman who took her own life. But once her parents hire Kyoko Nakamura to learn the truth, the private detective discovers not everything is as it seems. Kyoko's investigation will lead her into a world of drugs and prostitution, face to face with dangerous criminals, and through the seedy underbelly of Japan's music industry.

Out of funds and longing for a sea voyage, young doctor Ralph Leslie jumps at the chance to sign aboard a luxurious millionaire's yacht as steward of the After House. His job is easy sailing until one summer night, when the dream voyage suddenly becomes a nightmare of blood and terror. One of the ship's officers is thrown overboard; another one is killed with an axe. As panic sets in on the boat, only the young doctor remains calm enough to try to solve the murders.

Jonas Watcher had no memory of how he got there. As he started climbing up the ladder to the wharf, he found he was tangled in some sort of net. Suddenly a large heavy object dropped onto him and he fell into the bay still snared by the net, which had also captured the object. Luckily, the weight of the object had tightened the net, so he was able to pull himself out of the water and climb up to the wharf.

Duncan McGrath. They call him the man who knows all, sees all, and figures it all out. He's the most sought-after detective any police force can ask for. Duncan and his crew have been called down by the big leagues to catch the murderer wreaking havoc on this little town in Scotland. Will he and his friends be able to catch the killer?

Jonas Watcher is a private investigator from San Francisco who has been called upon to investigate a dead man in New Orleans. It's the 1930s and the Crescent City is in turmoil. Jonas is confronted with someone from his past who opens old wounds. As he tries to get the lay of the land, Jonas encounters a number of characters who may be friend or foe. He finds himself in the bayou surrounding New Orleans facing reptiles of both the four-footed variety and the two legged kind. As his investigation continues Jason encounters Louisiana politics, bayou smugglers, and someone who wants him dead. The Case of the Bourbon Street Hustler is the second book in the series and continues a case that Jonas Watcher thought was over in San Francisco three months ago.

Gus has been hired by a man to find out if his secretary is cheating on him, even though the man is married. On top of that, the man's wife has had her half-million-dollar necklace stolen. Gus is conflicted when the wife hires him to find the necklace and tie her husband to the crime. Should he follow the cheating secretary, who may have the necklace, and turn her in?

It was time for Gus to move to a better office and out of a slum area in Detroit. Police homicide detective Bernie Longmire, and Angela, Gus' daughter, agree to help him move into his new office. Going back to the old office to get ready to move, they find a woman crying at Gus' door. She has a problem: She doesn't know where her husband is at. Did he run off with another woman or is he dead in a shallow grave? They were able to get the story from her despite all the crying she was doing, and Gus took the case.

Gus Mackie was relaxing in his new office in a better part of Detroit when he saw the young girl in front of his building. She was reading the sign in the window telling the world that a private investigator worked there. Gus could see she was homeless and went to open the door as she stood looking apprehensive. She finally came in and told Gus about how she wanted to find her mother who gave her up for adoption when she was a child. The girl lived on the streets most of her life and wanted a family now.

The time of The Circles of Odin is early September, 1929, after Skeen's case of the Daedàlus Society in July and before he discovers in November a Nazi Bund in Palo Alto, south of San Francisco, Skeen's main venue of his adventures.

After having some breathing room from his last case, which brought him up against Islamic operatives in San Francisco in The Black Stone, Cyrus Skeen and his wife take a short vacation on a luxury bus, the Pickwick Stage. But the bus is held up by gangsters. Skeen goes into action and foils the hijacking. But his heroism engenders even more problems and perils.

It is February, 1929. Cyrus Skeen is hired by an Austrian aristocrat whom Skeen calls a "One-Worlder Gadabout", Count Paul Axel Heinrich Joachim von Wormuth-Esterházy, of Vienna, to find out who is trying to kill him. He gives Skeen a list he has compiled of 20 attempts to murder him, including flowerpots are dropped from above, a bottle of poisoned schnapps is given to him in a "welcome basket", and nearly being run over by a speeding automobile.

Gus Mackie's police detective friend, Bernie Longmire, comes to Gus with an offer of a special case. It has to be handled quietly since a country's fate is at stake. The country has a king and his daughter is missing. Bernie is tasked with finding her, before the king and queen go back home from the United State for an important celebration. But if they don't have the daughter with them, the king's rule may be in jeopardy.

It’s December in Cornwall, and Mousehole harbour is illuminated with its famous Christmas lights. Ally Bright is among the crowd listening to the carol singers—and then to the piercing screams that rip through the darkness. A body has been found, brutally murdered and dumped in a fisherman’s boat.

"The guys working on the new fence just found a body." Home improvement just took a unexpected twist for Kate Harrison and her family. Nothing in her experience as a private investigator prepared her for the journey that she was about to take. She needed her home back. She needed her life back. But when the truth is discovered, will it forever taint her home and her life? What demons are released when memories unfold?

Rafael Jones' love of adventure took him into police work, military service, and finally a career as a private eye. But when his first couple of cases combine to drop him into deep trouble, can his sense of adventure survive? For that matter, can he? A practical man with a kind heart, he never expected to encounter supernatural evil threatening the people he cares about.

Jarvis Mann is a private detective whose business thrived on the mundane - paying the bills by shadowing cheating spouses, getting in the middle of messy divorces, and working for the fat-cat insurance companies running down false claims. On a winter’s Sunday afternoon, a young man graces his office steps. His words coaxing with the simple declaration of “please” convinces Jarvis to help find a valuable missing Ernie Banks rookie baseball card.

Nameless had told Mitchell Krochek he'd do whatever he could to find his missing wife, Janice. She'd run away before - propelled by a gambling fever that grew ever higher - and Mitch had always taken her back. This time, when Nameless, his partner, Tamara, and the agency's chief operative, Jake Runyon, finally found her in a sleazy San Francisco hotel, she demanded a divorce. A few days later, a beaten and bloody Janice stumbled into the agency begging to go home. No one is surprised when, soon after her homecoming, she disappears again.

Things were quiet in Nameless' San Francisco agency, and his partner, Tamara, was itching to get back to work. A deadbeat father needed to be found, and Tamara needed to do some fieldwork, so she took off for his last known address. When Tamara goes missing, Nameless feels a sinking in his gut: A few years ago he had been kidnapped and left to die in a cabin in the woods, and something about Tamara's disappearance echoes too loudly.