A mystery/pulp thriller with a strong female lead for fans of J.A. Jance, L.T. Ryan, Steven Konkoly, Lisa Gardner, Robert Campbell, Nic Pizzolatto, Daniel Pyne.A disgraced former DEA agent haunted by her dark past must defeat drug lords in Hollywood to rescue her kidnapped daughter.Carla Cruz is a medicated single mother, and former DEA agent, living a quiet life with her teenage daughter. When she is invited to a Hollywood party, she meets two film investors who turn out to be drug lords—and one of them is the man who murdered her DEA husband ten years earlier. When the drug lords realize who she is, they force her to search for sixty million in cash stolen by her husband. They kidnap her daughter as leverage, frame Carla for murder, and give her a deadline.Getting help from the kinds of criminals she used to arrest, Carla must race across the country to track down clues in the dying small town where she and her husband were raised, digging up secrets about her painful family history so that she and her daughter will have a future.Chased by the police and the cartel, Carla must confront her past, overcome her fears, rely on criminals for help, fight the side effects of her anti-psychotic medication, and defeat the drug cartel to rescue her daughter—and herself—before they are both killed.A Memory of Fire is first in the Carla Cruz series, followed by Shooting Stars, but all books in the series can be read as standalone novels.Bruce Balfour is the national bestselling author of The Forge of Mars (Ace), its sequel, The Digital Dead, and 2024 Amazon Charts #1 bestseller Deadfall (as B.J. Balfour), and 2024/2025 Amazon Charts #1 bestseller, The River of Eternity, among other novels.

“Move over Agatha Christie, there’s a new dame in town.” Amazon reviewer. Get six brilliant and captivating stories together featuring British detectives Jack Rutherford and Amanda Lacey by master storyteller Linda Coles.Here’s what’s in this collection:The HuntedThey kill wild animals for sport. She’s about to return the favour…Dark ServiceTaylor never felt the blade pressed to her scalp. She wakes frightened and alone in an unfamiliar hotel room with a near shaved head and a warning… tell no one.One Last HitThe greatest danger may come from inside his own home.Detective Duncan Riley has always worked hard to maintain order on the streets of Manchester. But when a series of incidents at home cause him to worry about his wife's behaviour, he finds himself pulled in too many directions at once.Hey You, Pretty FaceLondon, Winter, 1999. An abandoned baby. Three girls stolen in the night. Two connected cases?When an abandoned newborn baby is discovered, DC Jack Rutherford becomes involved.Covering the holiday period almost singlehandedly, resources are at breaking point and he’s pushed to his limit.While searching for the young mother, evidence of an organized crime ring almost breaks his heart leaving Jack wondering how he can put so many wrongs, right.Can he solve the case before the girls are lost forever?Welcome to the human race…Scream Blue MurderTwo cold cases are about to turn red hot…Detective Jack Rutherford’s instincts have only sharpened with age. So when a violent road fatality reminds him of a near-identical crime from 15 years earlier, he digs up the past to investigate both. But with one case already closed, he fears the wrong man still festers behind bars.For Detective Amanda Lacey, family always comes first. But when a digger unearths a skeleton in her father-in-law’s garden, she has to balance her heart with her desire for justice. And with darkness lurking just beneath the surface, DS Lacey must push her feelings to one side to discover the chilling truth.As the sins of the past haunt both detectives, will solving the crimes have consequences that echo for the rest of their lives?Butcher Baker BankerA cold Croydon winter’s night and pensioner Nelly Raven lies dead and naked on the floor of her living room. The scene bears all the hallmarks of a burglary gone wrong.It’s just the beginning.Ron Butcher rose to the top of London’s gangland by “fixing things”. But are his extensive crooked connections of use when death knocks at his own family’s door?Baker Kit Morris will do anything to keep his family business alive. Desperate for cash, he hatches a risky plan that lands him in trouble. As he struggles to stay out of prison, he forges an unlikely friendship with an aging local thug.And then there’s the Banker, Lee Meady, a man with personal problems of his own.Just how does it all fit together?As DC Jack Rutherford and DS Amanda Lacey uncover the facts surrounding the case, the harrowing truth of the killer’s identity leaves Jack wondering where the human race went so badly wrong.More intriguing stories featuring ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances that will keep you turning the pages and wanting more.

“Move over Agatha Christie, there’s a new dame in town.” Amazon reviewer. Get six brilliant and captivating stories together featuring British detectives Jack Rutherford and Amanda Lacey by master storyteller Linda Coles.Here’s what’s in this collection:The HuntedThey kill wild animals for sport. She’s about to return the favour…Dark ServiceTaylor never felt the blade pressed to her scalp. She wakes frightened and alone in an unfamiliar hotel room with a near shaved head and a warning… tell no one.One Last HitThe greatest danger may come from inside his own home.Detective Duncan Riley has always worked hard to maintain order on the streets of Manchester. But when a series of incidents at home cause him to worry about his wife's behaviour, he finds himself pulled in too many directions at once.Hey You, Pretty FaceLondon, Winter, 1999. An abandoned baby. Three girls stolen in the night. Two connected cases?When an abandoned newborn baby is discovered, DC Jack Rutherford becomes involved.Covering the holiday period almost singlehandedly, resources are at breaking point and he’s pushed to his limit.While searching for the young mother, evidence of an organized crime ring almost breaks his heart leaving Jack wondering how he can put so many wrongs, right.Can he solve the case before the girls are lost forever?Welcome to the human race…Scream Blue MurderTwo cold cases are about to turn red hot…Detective Jack Rutherford’s instincts have only sharpened with age. So when a violent road fatality reminds him of a near-identical crime from 15 years earlier, he digs up the past to investigate both. But with one case already closed, he fears the wrong man still festers behind bars.For Detective Amanda Lacey, family always comes first. But when a digger unearths a skeleton in her father-in-law’s garden, she has to balance her heart with her desire for justice. And with darkness lurking just beneath the surface, DS Lacey must push her feelings to one side to discover the chilling truth.As the sins of the past haunt both detectives, will solving the crimes have consequences that echo for the rest of their lives?Butcher Baker BankerA cold Croydon winter’s night and pensioner Nelly Raven lies dead and naked on the floor of her living room. The scene bears all the hallmarks of a burglary gone wrong.It’s just the beginning.Ron Butcher rose to the top of London’s gangland by “fixing things”. But are his extensive crooked connections of use when death knocks at his own family’s door?Baker Kit Morris will do anything to keep his family business alive. Desperate for cash, he hatches a risky plan that lands him in trouble. As he struggles to stay out of prison, he forges an unlikely friendship with an aging local thug.And then there’s the Banker, Lee Meady, a man with personal problems of his own.Just how does it all fit together?As DC Jack Rutherford and DS Amanda Lacey uncover the facts surrounding the case, the harrowing truth of the killer’s identity leaves Jack wondering where the human race went so badly wrong.More intriguing stories featuring ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances that will keep you turning the pages and wanting more.

Derby Sale - 75% Off!A classic mystery in the style of Chandler & Hammett with a modern twist...and Derby hats.One month before the Kentucky Derby, a wealthy thoroughbred owner turns up dead. Can his widow solve the crime in time to save her prized racehorse? When she hires private detective Cal Tyson to investigate, they find big money holds a strong influence on the horse-racing industry. Several key players may have wanted Sterling Halcott dead, but why? And how far are they willing to go to protect their interests?Cal Tyson and the widow Harper Halcott must navigate mansions, parties, wealth, power, romance, and the lingering vestiges of the antebellum South in this novel set in Lexington and Louisville during the weeks leading up to a "photo finish" in the most exciting two minutes of sports, The Kentucky Derby.What People Are Saying About the Novel on Social Media:"It was so good, I couldn't put it down. Very well written and a great story.""Great book!""This is so good. I'm reading it now.""I thoroughly enjoyed this book!""Fast, lighthearted read.""A real page-turner!"

Book One of the best-selling Mackenzie and Manny mystery-thrillers. A homicide detectivehunts a killerinside a city high school.Mackenzie August's new life doesn't suit him. When he quit the LAPD to open a private cop shop, he expected to settle into a quieter lifestyle, hiring out to law firms, home by dinner. Now, however, the feisty detective is bored and missing the action of a hot homicide investigation. Sheriff Stackhouse comes knocking at the right time. Three teenage girls have been murdered in the past twelve months, victims of a brutal rite-of-passage ceremony. Clues indicate the killer has ties to the inner city school, but the police can't catch him. They need a man on the inside. They need Mackenzie, an outsider, to go undercover as a teacher... Book One of the best-selling Mackenzie and Manny mystery-thrillers.????? "Not your standard cops and robbers. Fast paced, quick-witted, and intelligent."????? "I haven't devoured a series like this in a long time." - Nathan Van CoopsStart reading Mackenzie August today!

Old evil never diesWhen private investigator Charlie Slater is found shot dead in his car on historic Lepe beach, DI Max Angel and his team find themselves torn between the present and the past. Did Slater's own chequered past lead to his death at the hands of the family he wronged? Or was it the forgotten secrets from a lifetime ago he unearthed, old evil spawned in Lager Sylt on Alderney, the only Nazi concentration camp ever to sit on British soil?As long-dormant, bitter grievances come alive amid rumours of collaboration and black-market racketeering, whispers of a government cover-up protecting the informer known as Father Coutanche suggest Slater isn't the first person to die in an ill-advised attempt to shine a light on war crimes unpunished for eighty years.Angel knows he's getting close when an agent from the Security Service MI5 hijacks the investigation, his sole aim to bury it for the next eighty years. Except nobody tells Angel to back off, least of all a jumped-up spook in a regimental tie. Angel answers to a higher power, and God help anyone who gets between him and the truth.Old Evil is the second book in the new Angel & Kincade series of crime thrillers from USA Today bestselling author, James Harper, a gripping murder mystery you won’t be able to put down until you’ve turned the final page.