Mystery Thriller Fiction

Debauched, divorced, and courting death, Billy Ray Schafer is a comedian who has forgotten how to laugh. Over the course of seven spun-out days across the American Southwest, he travels from from hell gig to hell gig in search of a reason to keep living in this bleak and violent glimpse into the psyche of a thoroughly ruined man. Ex-inmate, ex-husband, ex-father - comedian is the only title Schafer has left. Trapped in the wreckage of his wasted career, Billy Ray knows the answer to the question: What happens when the opportunity doesn't come - or worse - it comes and goes?

Alyson Tinsdale is giving her son the childhood she never had: a stable family, loving home, and a great school in a safe neighborhood. When they move into the home of her dreams in one of Denver's most sought-after developments, Alyson works hard to fit in and impress the other mothers. Bonnie Sloan is the neighborhood matriarch. With her oldest son headed to Yale, and her youngest starting kindergarten, Bonnie is now pursuing her own long-held political aspirations. But it's her middle child, Elijah, and their private family struggles, that cast a shadow over her plans.

To most people, Maj. John Rexford is a retired marine living in the Catskill Mountains of New York on disability. Even John's girlfriend, Maggie, has no idea he's really a CIA spook recruited in Afghanistan and assigned to kill enemies on US soil. With exemplary skills in hand-to-hand combat and small-arms weaponry, John Rexford completes a string of successful kills, eliminating terrorists and their money supply in the New York metropolitan area.

Workaholic Detective Aiden Carlisle isn't looking for love - and certainly not at the law-enforcement seminar she reluctantly agreed to attend. But the first lecturer is not at all what she expected. Psychologist Dawn Kinsley has just found her place in life. After a failed relationship with a police officer, she has sworn never to get involved with another cop again, but she feels a connection to Aiden from the very first moment. Can Aiden keep herself from crossing the line when a brutal crime threatens to keep them apart before they've even gotten together?

At age 26 Agatha Raisin has already come a long way. She has clawed her way up since leaving the Birmingham slum where she was born. She's lost her Birmingham accent, run away from her drunken husband, and found a job at a public relations office as a secretary. Then her boss asks Agatha to go to the home of Sir Bryce Teller to tell him that he is soon to be arrested for the murder of his wife and that the agency no longer wants to represent him.

The identity comes first: Evie Porter. Once she’s given a name and location by her mysterious boss, Mr. Smith, she learns everything there is to know about the town and the people in it. Then the mark: Ryan Sumner. The last piece of the puzzle is the job. Evie isn’t privy to Mr. Smith’s real identity, but she knows this job isn't like the others. Ryan has gotten under her skin, and she’s starting to envision a different sort of life for herself. But Evie can’t make any mistakes—especially after what happened last time.

For fans of Louise Penny, C. J. Box, and Nevada Barr comes a haunting crime novel set in Glacier National Park, where one man finds himself on a collision course with the dark heart of the wild and the even darker heart of human nature.

Amelia Peabody inherited two things from her father: a considerable fortune and an unbendable will. The first allowed her to indulge in her life's passion. Without the second, the mummy's curse would have made corpses of them all.

DI Nikki Galena faces her toughest challenge yet. Can she save her team and herself from a cruel and determined adversary who will stop at nothing to harm Nikki and her colleagues? First she must work out who wants revenge against her or one of her detectives. Full of twists and turns, this is a crime novel that will keep listeners riveted until the stunning ending.

Social worker Alison Taylor has a passion for protecting children. But now it seems she needs protecting. When her tormentor's attentions take a violent turn, she calls in reinforcements--her police-detective brother, Cole, and his new partner, ex-Navy SEAL Mitch Morgan. As her relentless stalker turns up the heat and the danger intensifies, Mitch takes a personal interest in the case. Because protecting Alison has become more than a job; his future depends on keeping her safe.

When a maid in the upper class Ellison household is strangled, Inspector Pitt is called in to investigate. He finds a world ruled by strict manners and social customs, where the inhabitants of the Ellison's neighborhood appear to be more outraged by the thought of scandal than they are by murder. Inspector Pitt finds a most unlikely ally in Charlotte, the Ellison's spirited daughter. But as the murders continue, Charlotte and Pitt find themselves drawn together by more than the investigation.

Sex crimes Detective Aiden Carlisle is slowly getting used to being in a committed relationship with Dawn Kinsley - a relationship that isn't always easy since Dawn is not only a psychologist but also a former victim in one of Aiden's cases. Aiden's private and professional lives collide when Dawn's newest patient gets in trouble with the law. Will she be able to stay objective enough to solve the case without pushing Dawn away? The same case also throws Deputy District Attorney Kade Matheson's well-ordered life into chaos.

The Pyramid is the long-awaited addition to Henning Mankell's critically celebrated and internationally best-selling Kurt Wallander mystery series: the book of five short mysteries that takes us back to the beginning. Here are the stories that trace, chronologically, Wallander's growth from a rookie cop into a young father and then a middle-aged divorcé, illuminating how Wallander became a first-rate detective and highlighting new facets of a now canonical character.

Melissa North had assumed that after eight years of not setting eyes on each other, her youthful attraction to - or an infatuation with - Julian Delamere, once Viscount Dagenham and now earl of Carsely, would have faded to nothing and gasped its last. Unfortunately, during the intervening years, she has failed to find any suitable suitor who measures up to her mark, and she is resigned to ending her days an old maid. Then she sees Julian across a crowded ballroom, and he sees her, and the intensity of their connection shocks her.

From the authors of the Tom Clancy Jack Ryan series and the #1 bestselling Tier One Series (now in development for television), comes the fourth installment of their Tier One spin-off series, the bestselling Sons of Valor series. Ripped from the headlines, False Flag will bring the much loved Sons of Valor team back into the fight, this time to stop a war that will change the balance of power in the Middle East forever.

#1 New York Times bestselling author Brad Thor returns with an exhilarating new Scot Harvath thriller.

In the seaside village of Sechelt, Emma O’Brea prepares a dinner to celebrate six years of marriage: ­a union she has polished to gleaming perfection, along with her showcase home. The next morning her husband leaves for work, never to return. At the same time, in nearby Vancouver, a simple-minded stock boy named Eddie Addison defends his tattered pride against the unwitting slights of a college girl, unleashing his rage in an act that will have far-reaching consequences.

Jack's a retired ex-cop from New York, seeking the simple life in Cherringham. Sarah's a Web designer who's moved back to the village to find herself. But their lives are anything but quiet as the two team up to solve Cherringham's criminal mysteries. This compilation contains episodes 43 - 45. A Score to Settle: When Cherringham choir stalwart Arthur Chisholm is robbed in the middle of the night, it seems he's just the victim of bad luck. But as more of his fellow choir members are burgled, Jack and Sarah realise that these crimes are no coincidence.

After tracking down a crazed sniper last year, homicide detective Mike Houston opted to leave Boston for the isolated mountains of Maine. He adjusted nicely to chopping his own firewood, relaxing in his log cabin, and simply enjoying the solitude of the mountains. But then his former partner, Lt. Anne Bouchard, pays him a visit and dangles the words serial killer in front of him. And suddenly he finds himself back in the game beside her - though not "officially".

Robyn Peltier moved to Los Angeles after her young husband's sudden death. Though she's still grieving, the challenges of her new life as the PR consultant to Portia Kane - the world's most famous celebutante wannabe - can sometimes be amusing, even distracting. But when her client is gunned down in a nightclub, Robyn is suddenly on the run as the prime suspect in the murder. And as more bodies pile up around her, it seems like only Hope Adams, Robyn's best friend, and Hope's somewhat spooky boyfriend Karl are on Robyn's side. But it's not the police Hope is worried about, and the only way Hope can keep her friend alive is by letting her enter a world she's safer knowing nothing about.