"It's 1936, and private investigator Gene Hammons has more work than he can handle. A crime syndicate, J. Edgar Hoover, a wealthy family from back East, and a wily stalker all want something from him. His capable-but-drug-addicted brother, still a homicide detective, is as much a hindrance as a help. Luckily, Hammons finds a professional ally in Pamela Bradbury, a fellow gumshoe with some new tricks to teach him. When the two pair up, there doesn't seem to be a case they can't solve, from kidnapping to blackmail to an intricate gold-smuggling operation.
But then a young nurse with red hair is sadistically raped and killed, and Gene recognizes the signs of a 'lust murderer,' having solved the case of the University Park Strangler years earlier. When he's contacted by the killer, Hammons knows he and Pamela must work quickly to catch the brutal murderer before he strikes again. The two come to each other's rescue more than once, and as deep feelings develop between them, it's not lost on Gene that their relationship might well prove dangerous—especially for Pamela, with her lovely red hair.
Rich in atmosphere and authentic period detail, The Nurse Murders is a gritty, nail-biting race to catch a killer in a city struggling to assert itself amidst the hardships, corruption, and political machinations of post-World War I America."
"It's the dead of winter on Gansett Island, and Riley McCarthy’s mood matches the lousy weather as he and his family work to bring their new business, McCarthy’s Wayfarer, back to life. He can’t deny that he's been in a funk since Nikki Stokes and her twin sister, Jordan, left the island last fall without saying goodbye. Riley, who’d been hired to fix the leaking roof at their grandmother's home, had liked talking to Nikki and had been looking forward to getting to know her better. Months later, he still thinks of her every day, even if he wishes he didn’t. She's hard to forget. As the manager for Jordan’s reality TV career, Nikki finds herself square in the middle of the kind of drama she’s had more than enough of, especially since her sister plans to go back to the husband who released a sex tape that devastated her last fall. Enough is enough for Nikki, who quits her job and heads for her happy place—her grandmother’s oceanfront home on Gansett Island—hoping she might run into the sweet, sexy guy who fixed the roof last fall. She liked talking to him and wonders if he stayed on the island for the winter. She really hopes he's still there. The minute Riley hears that Nikki has come back to Gansett Island, he has to see her. He has to know if the spark of attraction he'd felt for her is still there, and more than anything, he’d love to know why he's thought more about a woman he met exactly twice than he ever has about anyone else."
"Diamonds, greed, corrupt cops, mobsters—David Mapstone is about to be tested like never before.
A cache of diamonds is stolen in Phoenix. The prime suspect is former Maricopa County sheriff Mike Peralta, now a private investigator. Disappearing into Arizona’s mountainous high country, Peralta leaves his business partner and longtime friend David Mapstone with a stark choice: he can cooperate with the FBI, or strike out on his own to find Peralta and what really happened.
Mapstone knows he can count on his wife, Lindsey, one of the top “good hackers” in law enforcement. But what if they’ve both been betrayed? Mapstone is tested further when the new sheriff wants him back as a deputy, putting to use his historian’s expertise to solve a very special cold case. The stakes turn deadly when David and Lindsey are stalked by a trained killer whose specialty is “suiciding” her targets.
In depressed, postrecession Phoenix, every certainty has become scrambled, from the short hustle of the powerful real-estate industry to the loyalties Mapstone once took for granted. Could Peralta really be a jewel thief … or worse? The deeper Mapstone digs into the world of sunbaked hustlers, corrupt cops, moneyed retirees, and mobsters, the more things are not what they seem. Ultimately, Mapstone must risk everything to find the truth.
High Country Nocturne is an ambitious, searing, and gritty novel, with a fast-paced story as hard-edged as the stolen diamonds themselves."
"The private detective business starts out badly for former Phoenix deputy David Mapstone, who has teamed up with his old friend and boss, Sheriff Mike Peralta. Their first client is gunned down just after hiring them. The case involved the suspicious death of a young Arizona woman who fell from a condo tower in San Diego. The police call Grace Hunter's death a suicide, but the client doesn't buy it. He's her brother—or is he? After his murder, police find multiple driver's licenses, and his real identity is a mystery. Complicating the case is that the condo's owner is an Arizona state senator who was instrumental in Peralta's recent election defeat.
In San Diego, David finds the woman's boyfriend, who is trying to care for their baby and can't believe Grace would kill herself. He, too, hires the pair to solve Grace's death and reveals some darker facts. Grace was putting herself through college as a high-priced call girl, an escort for rich men who valued her looks and discretion. Before the day is out, the boyfriend is murdered, and David barely escapes with his own life. Whoever is killing their clients may be coming for them.
Neither the lovely beaches of San Diego nor the enchanting desert of Arizona can conceal the brutal danger that exists there. Solving the case will take Mapstone and Peralta into the world of human trafficking, corrupt politics, and the white supremacist movement. They no longer have badges, but they are still detectives—the night detectives."
"When his friend Peralta, newly sworn in as sheriff, is shot by a sniper, David Mapstone, former historian and new deputy sheriff, can't keep a cool, academic distance-and he'd better not. While Peralta lies comatose in the hospital, the powers that be install Mapstone as acting sheriff in his friend's place. Mapstone feels unqualified, but he's the only person whose temporary appointment won't infuriate all the other candidates, who want the sheriff's position permanently. Meanwhile, a cryptic note scrawled by Peralta before the shooting forces Mapstone to confront his own personal history, inadvertently drawing him into danger. Mapstone soon discovers that the past has deadly consequences and the mean streets of the new West have never been more sinister."
"Cincinnati homicide detective Will Borders now walks with a cane and lives alone in constant discomfort. He's lucky to be alive. He's lucky to have his job as public information officer for the department. But when a star cop is brutally murdered, Borders is assigned to find her killer.
The crime bears a chilling similarity to killings on the once peaceful college campus nearby, where his friend Cheryl Beth Wilson teaches nursing. The two young victims were her students. Most homicides are routine, the suspects readily apparent. But there are no obvious suspects in this new case.
The unlikely pair of Detective Borders and Professor Wilson must team up once again to pursue a sadistic predator before there are more killings. But finding the killer will mean uncovering some of the darkest secrets in a Midwestern metropolis where change is slow, where tradition and history lay as thick as the summer humidity, and where lethal danger can hide in the most respected of places."
"A handsome young New York professor comes to Phoenix to research his new book. When he is brutally murdered, police connect him to one of the world's most deadly drug cartels. This shouldn't be a case for historian‑turned‑deputy David Mapstone—except that the victim had been dating David's sister‑in‑law, Robin, and now she's a target too. David's wife, Lindsey, is in Washington with an elite anti-cyber-terror unit and she makes one demand of him: protect Robin.
This won't be an easy job, with the city police suspicious of Robin and trying to pressure her. With the sheriff's office in turmoil, David is even more of an outsider. And the gangsters are able to outgun and outspend law enforcement. It doesn't help that David and Lindsey's long‑distance marriage is under strain. But the danger is real and growing. To save Robin, David must leave his stack of historic crimes and plunge into the savage world of smuggling—people, drugs, and guns—in Phoenix.
Arizona's 'History Shamus' returns inSouth Phoenix Rules. It's the most gripping and personal David Mapstone Mystery yet."
"He's a man whose life is so intertwined with his job that we know him only as 'the columnist.' He writes for a newspaper in Seattle, isn't afraid to stir up trouble, and keeps his life—including his multiple lovers and his past—in safe compartments. It's all about to be violently upended when he goes out on what seems like the most mundane of assignments, looking into a staid company that 'never makes news.'
But from the moment one of his sources takes a dive off a downtown skyscraper, the columnist is plunged into a harrowing maze of murder, intrigue, and secrets that powerful forces intend to keep hidden at all costs. All he has to go on is a corporate world where nothing is as it seems, increasingly menacing encounters with mysterious federal agents, and the unsettling meme 'eleven/eleven.' Meanwhile, the paper itself is dying. The columnist joins with an aggressive young reporter to see if one explosive story can save a newspaper—and much more. They're running to make the deadline of their lives, and failure will bring lethal consequences.
Deadline Manis Jon Talton at his best, a novel that is both electrifying and intelligent, capturing the romance and harsh reality of newspaper journalism while raising important questions that will haunt listeners long after the fast-paced action ends."
"Cheryl Beth Wilson, a nurse at Cincinnati Memorial Hospital, finds a doctor brutally murdered in a secluded office. Wilson had been having an affair with the doctor's husband, a surgeon, and now she is a "person of interest," if not an outright suspect. But someone other than the police is also watching Cheryl Beth.
The murder comes as former homicide detective Will Borders is just out of surgery. But as his stretcher is wheeled past the crime scene, he knows this is no random act of violence-in fact, it has all the marks of a serial-killer case he supposedly solved years before. Unable even to walk, Borders starts to investigate, teaming up with Cheryl Beth, who is desperate to clear her name. But as the killer grows closer, the two are running out of time to unlock the secrets of the murder at the brooding, old hospital."
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