English Private Detectives

Rafael Jones is always a little out of his depth in rural settings, but he's not just a detective, he's also undead. He can't ignore the call from the Saratoga County coroner when she mentions the bite marks found on several drowning victims during the spring and summer of 1947. However, he knows his weaknesses (sunlight, running water, and a woeful lack of country manners), so he isn't working alone. His slowly developing powers and quick wits may not be a match for something old, strong in magic, and completely cursed.

Recovering from a gunshot wound, arm still in a sling, JR Steele is drawn into a web of murders, cybercrime, and international mobsters. An Army veteran, retired police detective, and semi-retired private investigator, Steele makes ends meet by working as a gunsmith. He’s just trying to enjoy a quiet life on Florida’s Treasure Coast. But, he’s dragged into the fray by his former client Kate, a gorgeous young blonde who’s getting her PI license under his watch.

P.I. Charity Deacon uses her full workload to bury her aching heart. So despite her bad blood with the Vancouver police, she takes on a trio of unsolved cases while they attend to a high-profile homicide. But as she digs deeper, Charity becomes convinced all four killings share a sinister link...With the famous widow of one of the victims pushing for results, Charity offers a stunning deduction for the killer’s identity. But when no one supports her claims and her liaison suddenly leaves the force, Charity sets up a dangerous sting as her last resort....

It's a lazy mid-August Sunday afternoon. The nameless detective and his old friend Lieutenant Eberhardt are relaxing on the patio, drinking beer and shooting the breeze, when the doorbell rings. As Eberhardt answers the door, the detective hears two sharp echoing reports - gunshots; they could only be gunshots.

In his first chronicled adventure, the Nameless Detective hires on to handle the ransom payoff in a kidnapping case. Financier Louis Martinetti doesn't trust the police to deal with the man who snatched his 9-year-old son from his military prep school, nor is it clear that he trusts the members of his own household. On the appointed evening, Nameless takes a briefcase that contains $300,000 in cash to a secluded location chosen by the kidnapper. Then all hell breaks loose.

When Nameless is hired by Cory Beckett, a beautiful young woman who claims to be a model, to find her missing brother, Kenneth, it seems to be a routine matter. Kenneth has fled San Francisco in a drug-induced panic to avoid trial on a charge of stealing a valuable necklace from the alcoholic wife of the man for whom he works, wealthy yachtsman Andrew Vorhees.

Nameless is called in by his friend, police lieutenant Eberhardt, when a dead woman's purse contains Nameless's business card. Nameless has never met her, and cannot make a connection. Next, Nameless is hired to track and protect a disturbed man, Martin Talbot, who may be harmed by the husband of a woman who died when Talbot's car collided with theirs after Talbot fell asleep at the wheel. But despite keeping a close tail, things go horribly wrong.

He's just gotten some bad news, and its impact has made him immobile and fearful. He's always known that the racking cough was not just something that was going to go away, that the ache in his chest was indicative of something more serious. And now he's found out that he has a lesion on his lung which could be malignant. He's set to sit and wait and do nothing else until he gets the results, but is swayed into action by a call from an old buddy of his from the service, Harry Burroughs.

His name was Roy Sands, and he had everything to look forward to. He was getting out of the service and coming home to marry his beautiful fiancée. He had his debts paid, money in the bank, and a happy new life ahead of him. Then he disappeared.

A young girl is senselessly murdered. The police believe the murder to be a random homeless casualty until it is discovered she has ties to Fat Sam and his mysterious past life in the Big Easy.

Fernando, an eight-year-old boy detective, and his parrot, Ziz, travel to different countries to solve mysteries. Now they are in Cambodia and are helping a jewelry-store owner to find a precious diamond ring that has been in her family for generations....

A young widow, orphan and mother, Wilhelmina Anne Brown is just beginning to find some stability in her new home in Prince Edward Island when she is forced to deal with the death of her beloved uncle Bill Darby. Darby, a Charlottetown private investigator, leaves Anne and her 14-year-old daughter a small savings account and his business, where Anne has worked as office manager for six years. What follows is Anne's struggle to protect her family, find justice for her clients and forge a new life for herself in this pause-resisting thriller.

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.

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.

It's normal for Charles Bainbridge, chief inspector of Scotland Yard, to be called to the scene of a crime, but this is the third murder in quick succession where the victim's chest has been cracked open and their heart torn out. Bainbridge suspects there's a symbolic reason for the stolen hearts, so he sends for supernatural specialist Sir Maurice Newbury and his determined assistant, Miss Veronica Hobbes. Unfortunately, neither of them are in much shape to take the case....

In Frankly, My Dear, the fourth in the Frank Rozzani Detective Novel series, Frank and Jonesy, private investigators, are on a case that is one of the most bizarre that they have faced. Their latest client, arrested for domestic abuse, swears that he is the victim of one of the most vengeful women on the face of the earth. Frank and Jonesy must determine if their client is telling the truth. As they investigate the case, they, again, pay a personal price for their involvement.

Kacey Chance is a former actress turned detective. Luckily for her, acting skills come in handy during investigations. Kacey's latest assignment is to investigate a suspicious workplace accident. The victim, who worked at local hangout Rockburger, is seeking a large cash settlement. A stakeout at the victim's residence reveals nosy neighbors and colorful roommates who drop hints that nothing about this accident is quite as it appears.

Rational Scrutiny: Paradoxes and Contradictions in Detective Fiction discusses why Chess Hanrahan and Cyrus Skeen, the author's premier heroes and the chief subjects of this volume, are not only extraordinary men of action, but “intellectuals” of the first rank, as well. As Cline writes in the Preface, detective fiction, as a rule, employs both "intellectuals" and "doers".