Meet Me For Murder


Book Description

The true story of the predator who lured young women with promises of fame—from the national bestselling author of the “riveting” Honeymoon with a Killer (Publishers Weekly). Hopeful beauty Kristi Johnson, twenty-one, thought she was auditioning to model for a James Bond promotion. Following the directions of the man who approached her in a shopping mall, she drove to a mansion in the Hollywood Hills with a black mini-skirt and stiletto heels. Weeks later, Kristi’s body was finally photographed—by the county coroner. Her partially clad body had been found on a slope off Skyline Drive. Not one iota of forensic evidence was recovered. All investigators had was another Hollywood dream gone nightmare. But what seemed like a dead end soon found its lucky break. Responding to news reports about Kristi’s murder, calls from women came pouring in—all of them victims of bogus modeling gigs. One composite sketch later, Victor Paleologus, forty, already on parole for sexual assault, was taken into custody. Halfway through his sensational trial, Paleologus stunned everyone by entering a guilty plea and was sentenced to twenty-five years to life.




Color Me Murder


Book Description

The New York Times bestselling author of the Domestic Diva mysteries delivers a colorful new seriesfeaturing downloadable color-it-yourself cover art! By day, Florrie Fox manages Color Me Read bookstore in Georgetown, Washington D.C. By night, she creates her own intricately detailed coloring books for adults, filling the pages with objects that catch her eye. There’s plenty of inspiration in her new apartment—a beautiful carriage house belonging to Florrie’s boss, Professor John Maxwell. He offers the property to Florrie rent-free with one condition—she must move in immediately to prevent his covetous sister and nephew from trying to claim it. When the professor’s nephew, Delbert, arrives, he proves just as sketchy as Florrie feared. But the following morning, Delbert has vanished. It’s not until she visits the third floor of the store that Florrie makes a tragic discovery—there’s a trap door in the landing, and a dead Delbert inside. The esteemed Professor Maxwell is an obvious suspect, but Florrie is certain this case isn’t so black and white. Other colorful characters are on the scene, all with a motive for murder. With a killer drawing closer, Florrie will need to think outside the lines . . . before death makes his mark again. "Clearly this book was written by a genius."—Buzzfeed




Meet Me in Malmö


Book Description

This is the first in a series of the best-selling crime mysteries featuring Inspector Anita Sundstrom. The books are set in Sweden and are pacey and well-written, keeping the reader on the edge of their seat until the final page.




The Thursday Murder Club


Book Description

A New York Times bestseller | Soon to be a major motion picture “Witty, endearing and greatly entertaining.” —Wall Street Journal “Don’t trust anyone, including the four septuagenarian sleuths in Osman’s own laugh-out-loud whodunit.” —Parade Four septuagenarians with a few tricks up their sleeves A female cop with her first big case A brutal murder Welcome to... THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB In a peaceful retirement village, four unlikely friends meet weekly in the Jigsaw Room to discuss unsolved crimes; together they call themselves the Thursday Murder Club. When a local developer is found dead with a mysterious photograph left next to the body, the Thursday Murder Club suddenly find themselves in the middle of their first live case. As the bodies begin to pile up, can our unorthodox but brilliant gang catch the killer, before it's too late?




Honeymoon With A Killer


Book Description

The shocking true crime story of a California bride who took her wealthy husband for everything he had—including his life. Everything She Wanted . . . Rebecca Salcedo had an easy smile, a sexy body, and strong appetites—she wanted the world. Bruce Cleland, she decided, would buy it for her. The shy engineer quickly fell victim to her charms, getting her whatever she wanted. A new car. A boat. A house. But he wasn’t Rebecca’s only admirer . . . She Got . . . Even after Rebecca manipulated Bruce into marrying her, hoping to divorce him and take him for everything he had, she occupied herself with a series of lovers. Male strippers, women . . . they all spent time in Rebecca’s bed. But when she learned that a divorce would only get her a few pennies, she knew she had to find another way to secure Bruce’s fortune. Even Murder . . . Enlisting two family members as killers-for-hire, Rebecca set in motion her solution to the problem. While she watched, the first bullet hit Bruce in the face. Three more would follow. But while Rebecca kept the blood off her hands, she could not conceal evidence that led straight to her, culminating in a trial that would shock a community. With sixteen pages of shocking photos Praise for Honeymoon with a Killer “The sordid tale of an innocent man and the woman who plotted his murder. . . . Lasseter and Bowers provide readers with a highly detailed depiction of events leading up to and following the gruesome murder of Bruce Cleland. True crime aficionados will savor this riveting read.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review




Murder Me Now


Book Description

With Free Love, the debut novel in her wickedly diverting new mystery series Annette Meyers wowed readers as she deftly brought the sights and sounds or Prohibition Era Greenwich Village to exhilarating life. Now this accomplished author returns to the roaring twenties, as snow blankets the narrow Village streets and her irrepressible heroine, poet-cum-sleuth Olivia Brown, finds the gaiety of her days eclipsed by the shadow of a ghastly crime that hits much too close to home. MURDER ME NOW Happily ensconced in her Bedford Street brownstone, Olivia Brown is having the time of her life: writing sonnets and downing martinis, making conquests and making love. Indeed, she doubts that anything could tempt her away from her Village home until she succumbs to the lure of a house party in Croton that promises sparkling conversation, bucolic views and plenty of free-flowing gin. Yet Olivia has barely arrived at the rustic farmhouse of Fordy and Kate Vaude when the convivial atmosphere takes a decidedly nasty turn. Between the petty squabbles and the jarring silences, the backbiting and the broad hints of marital discord, Olivia can't shake the feeling that something is terribly wrong here. And then she finds the frozen corpse of the Vaudes' nanny, hanging from a tree. Clearly, the young woman was murdered, and yet as Olivia and her friend, private investigator Harry Melville, join forces to learn why and by whom, they uncover more questions than answers. And when it turns out that the mysterious nanny was not whom she pretended to be, Olivia finds herself rushing headlong into a mystery that will take her from the swank and sophisticated Yale Club to the smoke-filled lair of a bootlegger and into the menacing clutches of the gang known as the Black Hand. The deeper Olivia probes, the darker the threats. Surrounded by bold-faced danger and ominous smiles, she can't help but wonder: Is the murderer one of the thugs—or one of her friends?




Murder by the Book


Book Description

"From the prize-winning biographer--the fascinating, little-known story of a Victorian-era murder that rocked literary London, leading Charles Dickens, William Thackeray, and Queen Victoria herself to wonder: can a novel kill? In May 1840, Lord William Russell, well known in London's highest social circles, was found with his throat cut. The brutal murder had the whole city talking. The police suspected Russell's valet, Courvoisier, but the evidence was weak. And the missing clue lay in the unlikeliest place: what Courvoisier had been reading. In the years just before the murder, new printing methods had made books cheap and abundant, the novel form was on the rise, and suddenly everyone was reading. The best-selling titles were the most sensational true-crime stories. Even Dickens and Thackeray, both at the beginning of their careers, fell under the spell of these tales--Dickens publicly admiring them, Thackeray rejecting them. One such phenomenon was William Harrison Ainsworth's Jack Sheppard, the story of an unrepentant criminal who escaped the gallows time and again. When Courvoisier finally confessed his guilt, he would cite this novel in his defense. Murder By the Book combines the thrilling true-crime story with a illuminating account of the rise of the novel form and the battle for its early soul between the most famous writers of the time. It is a superbly researched, vividly written, fascinating read from first to last"--




Meet Me at Lennon's


Book Description

As university student Olivia Wells sets out on her quest to find an unpublished manuscript by Gloria Graham &– a now obscure mid-twentieth century feminist and writer &– she unwittingly uncovers details about a young woman found murdered. Strangled with a nylon stocking in the mangroves on the banks of the river in wartime Brisbane, the case soon became known as the river girl murder. Olivia's detective work exposes the sinister side of that city in 1943, flush with greenbacks and nylons, jealousy and violence brewing between the Australian and US soldiers, which eventually boiled over into the infamous Battle of Brisbane. Olivia soon discovers that the diggers didn't just reserve their anger for the US forces &– they also took it out on the women they perceived as traitors, the ones who dared to consort with US soldiers.Can Olivia rewrite history to bring justice to the river girl whose life was so brutally taken? Even if the past can't be changed, is it possible to undo history's erasure?




The Formula for Murder


Book Description

History, mystery, murder, and mad science accompany plucky Victorian newspaper reporter Nellie Bly when she travels to the haunted moors of England to investigate the mysterious death of another journalist alongside H.G. Wells, Oscar Wilde, and Arthur Conan Doyle.




The Michigan Murders


Book Description

Edgar Award Finalist: The true story of a serial killer who terrorized a midwestern town in the era of free love—by the coauthor of The French Connection. In 1967, during the time of peace, free love, and hitchhiking, nineteen-year-old Mary Terese Fleszar was last seen alive walking home to her apartment in Ypsilanti, Michigan. One month later, her naked body—stabbed over thirty times and missing both feet and a forearm—was discovered, partially buried, on an abandoned farm. A year later, the body of twenty-year-old Joan Schell was found, similarly violated. Southeastern Michigan was terrorized by something it had never experienced before: a serial killer. Over the next two years, five more bodies were uncovered around Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti, Michigan. All the victims were tortured and mutilated. All were female students. After multiple failed investigations, a chance sighting finally led to a suspect. On the surface, John Norman Collins was an all-American boy—a fraternity member studying elementary education at Eastern Michigan University. But Collins wasn’t all that he seemed. His female friends described him as aggressive and short tempered. And in August 1970, Collins, the “Ypsilanti Ripper,” was arrested, found guilty, and sentenced to life in prison without chance of parole. Written by the coauthor of The French Connection, The Michigan Murders delivers a harrowing depiction of the savage murders that tormented a small midwestern town.