Gripping Thriller

At the center of the novel is a private investigator named Archie Lightman. Archie and his partner Delia Sanchez stumble upon a pattern of killings in which the victims are all criminals who---in an age of rampant plea bargaining---are often too lightly punished for their crimes. The investigation leads them to a support group modeled along the lines of a traditional 12-step program called COSOVO, Circle of Survivors of Violent Offenses. Its members the surviving kin of murdered loved ones.

1999: In the small town of Rutherford, Kansas, four teenagers work the night shift in a local store for the summer. Three are loners. One is new in town. Together they’re a perfect fit. 2010: Tupper, the owner of the store and a pillar of the community, dies. Of the night shift, only three return to their hometown for his funeral.

When Athene walks into Mary’s cafe and asks for directions to a holiday cottage she has rented, Mary tells her it burned down 20 years earlier. Since Athene has nowhere to stay, Mary suggests that she checks into a local pub for the night. What Athene doesn’t know is that the burnt-out house was where Mary’s friend, Bella, lived - the only person she ever loved, who died in terrible circumstances. Brought on by Athene’s arrival, Mary feels her past leaking into the present. There’s a secret to Bella’s death, something she’s kept buried for years.

When Karen Finch's 17-year-old daughter, Sophie, arrives home after a night out drunk and accompanied by police officers, no one is smiling the morning after. But Sophie remembers nothing about how she got into such a state. Twelve hours later Sophie's friend Amy has still not returned home. Then the body of a young woman is found. Karen is sure that Sophie knows more than she is letting on. But Karen has her own demons to fight. She struggles to go beyond her own door without a panic attack.

Joelle Lawton wishes for a simpler life . . . a life where her husband doesn't cheat, her children don't resent her, and her career doesn't pose veiled threats. She wishes she could get past the depression that seeped into her life over a year ago, after the loss of her third child.

When Rory Richards wakes up from a failed suicide attempt, he learns that his wife, Maggie, has vanished without a trace. All Rory can remember about the previous night is that the two had the fight of a lifetime. The dispute causes him to storm out of the house and steal prescription pills from his neighbors in an attempt to overdose. After that, everything is a blur.

Kyle Roche is a man who people hire to fix problems. But this time, he’s been hired to protect a woman who doesn’t officially exist anymore. And he’s the only man who can find her and keep her safe in less than 24 hours. The daughter’s name is Savannah Nicholls. She had to go into Witness Protection because of a tragic mistake. She moved to the small town of Pagosa Springs nine days ago, but even hidden as she is, she’s in mortal danger. Savannah’s mother says her daughter is just a nice girl, from a good family, that she’s never gotten in trouble in her life.

The last time Katy saw Jude was on a school trip: Jude was attacked by a stranger, and Katy ran away. Twenty years later, Jude is back, and her reappearance coincides with a series of unsettling incidents: a stranger appears in the downstairs flat, Katy's house is vandalized, her mother is mugged, and her home ransacked. Jude also seems to know an uncomfortable amount about Katy's current life.

Jerome Prentice is a good guy. Loyal to a fault, he always stays on the right side of the law. But everything changes the night he is awoken by the sound of masked kidnappers entering his home. Holding him at gunpoint, they drag his beloved wife, Alicia, out of the house with a promise to kill her if he goes to the police. Their demand: betray the company he’s worked for his entire adult life.

I’ve recently started seeing demons and have even had to fight a few. I suspect it has something to do with my bat-shit crazy mother. She killed my father when I was young, claiming he was a demon. I figured she was nuts. Now I’m not so certain. I’ve returned home to uncover the truth about my past, when my old flame, Kate, asks for my help. I haven’t heard from her in 16 years, but I owe her. A mysterious cult has kidnapped her teenaged daughter, and I’m the only chance she has to get her back.

Washington, DC, is a town full of powerful people hiding ugly secrets. The blackmailer, a renaissance man, keeps his promise: Pay me, I'll return the juicy evidence I have against you, and you'll never hear from me again. Jack McCall, a former operative for the US intelligence community and now a private investigator, hunts this wily and diabolical madman.

At 16, Jameson Wills has never known his father. When he finds an old journal in the attic, though, he discovers some malicious truths about the man who disappeared long ago. As he reads about his father’s secret addiction to arson, Jameson begins to wonder if the desire to burn is in his blood. But searching for a connection to his father might lead him down a path of no return.

Gabriel, a devoted single father, seeks a haven for his daughter, Anne, during a raging blizzard. They stumble upon a state-of-the-art smart home, a beacon of hope. But what begins as a refuge turns into a nightmare when the house locks them in, its sophisticated technology refusing to release them.

After five years away from her hometown of Fawn Lake, Detective Freya Sinclair isn’t expecting a warm welcome from the people she’s sworn to protect. She became a detective to bring serial killers like her parents to justice, but the tight-knit North Carolinian community can’t see past her twisted roots. Minutes after stepping foot back home, the body of a dark-haired young girl is pulled from the river and Freya races to the scene.

Heinrich Muller is a private detective with a past he’d rather forget. When he is asked to investigate the murder of an antiques dealer with a history of dealing Nazi memorabilia it opens a case that is as personal as it is professional. Muller’s investigations soon take him to Europe, where he chases down dealers in Nazi memorabilia and comes up against Europe’s far-right parties. He soon uncovers a plot to find the missing gold train. Teaming up with him is a beautiful Polish civil rights campaigner and a troubled teen boy Muller tries to pull away from the influence of a neo-Nazi militia.

James Davis never asked what drew the stranger to his boyhood home that fateful night. After his father’s drunken tantrum turned deadly, he vowed to take his mysterious savior’s bloody secret to the grave. Now a grown man, James thinks his past trauma is far behind him, until the stranger returns with a grim mission...

Ian McAllister has searched the world over, hunting for that all-elusive perfect photograph. He finds it on a tourist trip to North Korea when he stumbles upon a young street kid foraging for roots. Unaware that this single act will brand him a spy and cost his freedom, Ian takes the shot. Now, he must pay the penalty.

"Your son is missing," they say, and life as I know it is over. "Where would he go?" the police ask. "Where would he be?" my daughter begs. My heart races as images flash in my mind. The cabin we rent every autumn, surrounded by fiery-red maple trees. Voices raised. Tears falling. A marriage falling apart. And worst of all my husband telling our child, Theo, to run. The rest is a blank in my memory. If I close my eyes I can almost see it. A betrayal that has left me alone, in tatters, grieving for what we had.

"I would do anything for you to get well again, baby girl." It’s a promise. Even though I know it means asking her father for help, going back there, risking everything. Whatever the cost, there’s no hesitation in my mind. Because that’s what you do when you’re a mother. You put your child’s life before your own.

She’d been running for so long, it felt like her legs were on fire. Her heart was pounding so hard, she was sure it would give out. Around her, the snow was falling, casting an eerie silence over the town. A crack behind her, a foot snapping a branch, it warned her that he was still coming. She whipped around and saw the knife gleaming in his hand....