First Mystery

There has been a long-standing belief that a woman slipped into the 1951 Boston Marathon undetected and ran the race. If that could be proven it would make her the first woman to have run a marathon on American soil. She wore “red,” as claimed by a group of Canadian runners who say they tried to bring the matter to the attention of race Director Jock Semple and other race officials. But to no avail, their story was never corroborated, and so today the “Runner in Red” remains a mystery and an urban legend.

Found guilty of stealing bread to feed his starving family, Michael McGuire is offered the “Queen’s Hard Bargain”, go to prison or join the army. He chooses the army and, after training in Dublin Castle, his life is changed forever as he is selected to join the Gordon Relief Expedition that is being sent south of Egypt to Khartoum, in the Sudan.

In Trotterdown, Cornwall, a boat, The Enigma, washes in to the harbour. The skipper is dead, and Harriet Taylor is brought in to investigate. But one dead body is not the only crime the team have to deal with. Meanwhile, further up the coast in Whitby, a boat washes up on the rocks just outside the harbour. Everyone on board is dead. Whitby Police are out of their depth, so DS Jason Smith is called in to help. It soon becomes clear the cases are connected and the teams from York and Trotterdown settle down to work with each other.

It is 1946, and Frank O'Brian is a gumshoe in New York, in other words, a private investigator. Having just qualified as a lawyer when the US entered WWII, he quit to work as a field agent for the Office of Strategic Services in Europe. Upon returning to New York, he found the notion of returning to the law too tame and hung up his PI shingle. In his first big case, he is involved in murder, blackmail, and double dealing.

Despatches from the secret world behind the headlines. Former SAS legend Chris Ryan brings you his seventeenth novel, filled with his trademark action, thrills and inside knowledge. Osama Bin Laden is dead. The President of the United States knows it. The world knows it. And SAS hero Joe Mansfield knows it. He was on the ground in Pakistan when it happened. He saw Seal Team 6 go in, and he saw them extract with their grisly cargo.

It has been four years since ex-Navy SEAL Jack Haliday, had an explosive run-in with a biker gang, wounding their leader, Gunner. During those years, Jack had acquired everything he ever wanted: a beautiful wife, daughter, and a lovely home in the suburbs - everything was just about as perfect as it could get, until Gunner returned to twist Jack's world inside-out with a vengeance that he could never have prepared for. Now Jack has a score to settle and he's got some friends to help him do it.

The narrative is a confession to the murder of an unnamed person who, it is alleged, was a total stranger to the perpetrator. The glory-seeking author claims to have committed an undetectable crime, but are they telling the truth? The story-line leaves little doubt that the homicide portrayed could have actually occurred. An intriguing question is put to the listener: “Is a confession a confession if it is impossible to identify its author?” Who is this storyteller, who delights in toying with the listener? The murderer wants fame, but not at any cost.

Criminal defense investigator Cecil Younger spends his days coaching would-be felons on how to avoid incriminating themselves. When Sherrie, a returning client with a good heart but a penchant for bad boys, asks him to track down some evidence that will help with her case, Cecil agrees. Cecil treks out to the shady apartment complex she mentioned, only to find his teenage daughter, Blossom, inside. He manages to get both the box Sherrie wanted and his daughter safely home, and later discovers the "evidence" is a large pile of cash - fifty thousand dollars, to be exact.

Meet Chick Best - a middle-aged, self-absorbed, disaffected, California dot.com millionaire with a trophy wife. Though concerned about his life and family, Chick resigns himself to a miserable state of acceptance, until he experiences unrequited love at first sight - which leads to deadly consequences.

Dozens of cities worldwide are destroyed by nuclear bombs. Economies crumble and governments are scrambling. A group calling themselves "The People" demands that all militaries disband and disarm. Cliff Tanner, CIA, is in a race against time to find the group responsible because governments have started to comply. Instead of terrorists, he uncovers a covert plot by aliens to prepare the Earth for invasion. Can the governments of the Earth put aside suspicion, politics, and rivalries in time to unite against a common foe? Can what is left of our military prepare in time?

Just as Dr. Paul Hill’s quantum communication system starts receiving messages from civilizations across the galaxy, his project is abruptly defunded and shut down. Following the discovery of what appears to be unequivocal evidence to the existence of God, hidden in messages coded in the human genome, those in power believe they now hold all the answers.

Web designer Sam inadvertently stumbles onto a mystery when women—expectant mothers—go missing throughout the neighborhood. Bright lights seen in the sky are the only harbingers and then they are gone without a trace. But then the danger hits too close to home when Sam's next-door neighbor is caught in the mystery. Even Sam has experienced changes connected to all the strange events. As the mystery begins to spread, Sam and his friends begin to see the pattern and the otherworldly danger posed by those responsible. But the question remains: Why is this happening?

In the city of Prague, freelance treasure hunter Jules has finally located the bangle stolen from his dying mother, an artifact that may unravel a centuries-old secret: the location of an ancient tomb hidden from the world by one of Christ's disciples. But when a reclusive, ruthless billionaire beats him to the artifact, Jules joins forces with an institute of unconventional archaeologists who reveal to him clues penned two thousand years ago. Clues that support the claim his mother's bangle holds properties that science cannot explain.

On the muddy banks of the Calumet River, a body has been found posed next to a series of mysterious glyphs and bearing wounds from a ritualistic slaying. Chicago detective Addie Bisset knows only one man who can decipher the message left by the killer: her friend Dr. Evan Wilding. A brilliant forensic semiotician, Evan decodes the etchings as Viking Age runes. They suggest either human sacrifice or righteous punishment. But to what god? And for what sins? Only one thing is clear from the disturbing runic riddles: there are more victims to come.

Just because the coven excommunicated me, doesn't mean I'm a bad witch. Those ladies should learn to take a joke. In the meantime, though, it's left me in a bind. I need to get a real job, in a normal human occupation. Yuck. But when I see a sign at the community centre asking for an assistant - only witches need apply - I feel like my fortunes might be trending up. Sure, there's a murder to solve, a killer on my tail, and a pittance in my bank account, but at least it's not working checkout in a supermarket.

There are many unanswered questions left from Starburst, Book 1 in the mysterious and thrilling Women of the Grey series. Did Lisa survive facing Superior Mother, again? Can Superior Mother keep The Grey under her rule? Are the women of The Grey truly all the same and none different as they preach to be? With mystery and intrigue, Red Drug takes us back into the twists and turns of The Grey. Red Drug is popping with new characters and new emotions.

Es lauert tief am Meeresgrund, und es wächst unaufhaltsam. Bei einer Expedition in die Antarktis ging vor Jahren ein riesiger Meteorit über Bord. Noch immer liegt er auf dem Grund der eisigen See. Eli Glinn, Chef von Effective Engineering Solutions, leitete damals die Expedition, in deren Verlauf über hundert Menschen starben. Nun drängt die Zeit: Der Meteorit hat sich inzwischen als Alien-Lebensform entpuppt, als Samenkapsel, aus der ein gigantisches Gewächs mit Fangarmen geworden ist.

Saigo City police detective David Silver and his partner Mel Burnett have been called to an unusual crime scene: a bed where four Elaki pouchlings have been smothered. The killer appears to be the babies' alien mother, who just shot herself and is in critical condition. But there are rumors the murders were politically motivated and carried out by the Izicho - the Elaki secret police. At the same time, cops are investigating other recent attacks against both humans and Elakis.

Saigo City is caught in the grip of a savage murder spree by a perp who kills without compunction, then eliminates the evidence by torching the crime scenes. After a private residence is set on fire, killing two adults and four children, the hunt intensifies for this monster who seems intent on destroying both humans and Elakis. But there may be something else going on.

In the near future, political tensions between the United States and China are at an all-time high. Then a catastrophic explosion on the moon cleaves a vast gash in the lunar surface, and the massive electromagnetic pulse it unleashes obliterates Earth's electrical infrastructure. To plumb the depths of the newly created lunar fissure and excavate the source of the power surge, the feuding nations are forced to cooperate on a high-risk mission to return mankind to the moon.