Private Investigators Fiction

Sailing the Caribbean is every yacht owner's dream. Azure waters, golden sunshine, and warm winds greet sailors in every port. But that dream is shattered when one boat returns from a race without its captain. The story is that the skipper fell overboard, but the clues point to something much more sinister, and one of the crew is arrested. And that crew member happens to be a friend of Miami Jones.

Leonard Dyke's writing style didn't offend. But all of his work featured unhappy endings: murders. When four people die, including the author, police finally call on Nero Wolfe. Wolfe baits a trap, and when it springs shut, he finds that truth is stranger (and bloodier) than fiction.

Ex-Police Scotland detective Bob Hoon has made himself some powerful enemies. Following his brutal search for the missing daughter of an old army colleague, Hoon is being hunted by the Loop, a secretive criminal cabal with members in very high places and a tendency to eliminate all those who stand against it. Unfortunately for them, Hoon has never been one to back down from a fight, and he isn’t about to start now. Instead, he’s going to burn their whole damn organization to the ground. But first, he’s going to have to get inside.

After narrowly escaping with his life at the hands of a murderous Hollywood pimp, detective Happy Doll, bullet-ridden but healing, has landed on a remote Mexican beach. In a humble shack and with his dog for company, Doll settles into a peaceful idyll of Buddhist study. But then trouble, as it always does, comes to paradise. Doll is the witness to a murder for which he is framed, and now, with an expired passport and the Mexican authorities on his tail, he must sneak across the border back to L.A. by any means necessary, with the goal of bringing the true murderer to justice.

There was always something slightly dangerous about Joan. So, when she turns up at private inves­tigator Henry Kimball’s office asking him to investigate her husband, he can’t help feeling ill at ease. Just the sight of her stirs up a chilling memory: He knew Joan in his previous life as a high school English teacher, when he was at the center of a tragedy.

Nach dem Tod seiner Frau braucht der ehemalige Polizeikommissar Rolf "Wolf" Larsen einen Neuanfang. Von der Großstadt Oslo zieht er nach Bø, einem kleinen Ort in der abgeschiedenen norwegischen Provinz Telemark, wo er sich als Privatdetektiv selbstständig macht. Sein erster Fall beginnt scheinbar harmlos: Wolf soll herausfinden, ob der Ehemann von Sofia Jacobsen sie betrügt. Doch während seiner ersten Observierung wird sein Zielobjekt getötet, und Wolf entgeht nur knapp demselben Schicksal.

Newly appointed police inspector Domenic Jejeune doesn't mind ruffling a few feathers. His success has elevated him into a poster boy for the police. The problem is Jejeune doesn't really want to be a detective at all; he much prefers watching birds. Recently reassigned to the small Norfolk town of Saltmarsh, Jejeune's two worlds collide with the grisly murder of a prominent ecological activist.

In what may be her most unsettling novel to date, Sue Grafton's T Is for Trespass is also her most direct confrontation with the forces of evil. Beginning slowly with the day-to-day life of a private eye, Grafton suddenly shifts from the voice of Kinsey Millhone to that of Solana Rojas, introducing listeners to a chilling sociopath. Rojas is not her birth name. It is an identity she cunningly stole, an identity that gives her access to private caregiving jobs.

Five years after the crashof TWA Flight 800, the government has declared it a result of mechanical failure. But John Corey, an ex-NYPD detective who is now a contract agent with the Federal Anti-Terrorist Task Force, is persuaded by Kate Mayfield, his wife and task force partner, that the case deserves a second look.

After the teenage daughter of a prominent Minnesota politician goes missing, a huge manhunt is launched to find her. But when Cork O’Connor’s grandson Waaboo stumbles across the shallow grave of a young Ojibwe woman while hunting blueberries, nobody seems to care. Nobody, that is, except Cork and the newly formed Iron Lake Ojibwe Tribal Police Department. As Cork and the tribal officers dig into the circumstances of her murder, they discover a link to the missing girl that suggests these are not isolated incidents, but evidence of something much more sinister.

September 1909, and Lady Hardcastle and her maid, Florence, have been invited to Lord Riddlethorpe’s country estate for a week of motor racing and parties. They both agree that it sounds like a perfectly charming holiday. But when one of the drivers dies in a crash during the very first race, they discover that what seemed like an uncharacteristic error in judgement may have a more sinister explanation...

With 12 hellhounds after her, pregnant Charley Davidson takes refuge at the only place she thinks they can't get to her: the grounds of an abandoned convent. But after months of being cooped up there, Charley is ready to pop. Both metaphorically and literally, since she is now roughly the size of a beached whale. Fortunately a new case has captured her attention, one that involves a murder on the very grounds the team has taken shelter upon.

The prestigious Lavender bed-and-breakfast in Chiddlinghurst, England, has stylish decor, lovely gardens, and a deadly problem. Norah Travis, a beautiful young woman, has been found murdered in one of their rooms. Detective Inspector Graham, a crusader for justice with a penchant for tea and a dark side of his own, is assigned to the case.

Artemus Black doesn't believe in fate...but even a hardened Hollywood PI can question destiny when cases turn ugly. With an assistant who mocks him relentlessly, an obese cat that loathes him, a romantic life that's deader than Elvis, money problems, booze, nicotine, and anger management issues, how much worse can it get? The answer is plenty, and Black finds himself in a web of deceit, betrayal, and murder - and bad hair days.

Everyone knew the kind of girl Jean Timberlake was: wild, looking for trouble. But she certainly wasn't looking for murder. She was found dead on the beach 17 years ago, and an ex-boyfriend named Bailey Fowler was convicted of her murder and imprisoned, and then escaped. Now private eye Kinsey Millhone steps into a case that should have never been closed, in a town where there's no such thing as a private investigation.

Miami Jones knows that South Florida has its fair share of sharks, and not all of them live in the ocean. When a young boy is dumped in the water off the coast, Miami goes looking for answers. What he finds is a world of crooked bookmakers, slick Las Vegas Casino moguls and a desperate band of brothers playing a forgotten sport. Forgotten by everyone except the person who wants the players dead. Miami takes Florida sliding down a sinkhole rather personally, so now he’ll stop at nothing to prevent the circling sharks from consuming his beloved home. There is darkness, even in the sunshine state.

Undercover investigator Jeff Hinkley is assigned by the British Horseracing Authority to look into the activities of a suspicious racehorse trainer, but as he’s tailing his quarry, Jeff bears witness to a bloody murder. Could it have something to do with the reason the trainer was banned in the first place—the administration of illegal drugs to his horses?

Ed Edwards is in the used-car business, a business built on adjusted odometers, extra-fine print, and the belief that "buyers better beware". Burdened by an aging, alcoholic mother constantly on his case to do something worthier of his lighter skin tone and dreaming of a brighter future for himself and his plucky little sister, Ed is ready to get out of the game. When Dave, his lazy, grease-stained boss at the eponymous dealership Smiling Dave's sends him to repossess a Cadillac, Ed finally gets the chance to escape his miserable life.

Non ci ha messo molto, Agatha Raisin, a scoprire che gestire un’agenzia investigativa nei Cotswolds non è esattamente come ritrovarsi in un film noir. Invece di fascinose donne in difficoltà e uomini con impermeabili e fedora, si ritrova a dover trattare con vecchiette cui è sparito il gatto o con ragazzini che scappano con l’auto del padre… Per fortuna (?) però poi è arrivata Catherine Laggat-Brown, ricca, generosa e assai preoccupata perché sua figlia ha ricevuto una serie di minacce di morte.

Si dice che i primi mesi di matrimonio siano i più difficili… e James e Agatha lo possono confermare. Invece di godersi la felicità coniugale, i neosposi vivono in cottage separati e si lanciano accuse reciproche di infedeltà. Quando poi, dopo una lite particolarmente violenta nel locale pub, James scompare, tutti sospettano che Agatha si sia sbarazzata di lui. E a ciò si aggiunge il fatto che Melissa, la presunta amante di James, viene ritrovata morta di lì a poco.