The Mermaid Murders


Book Description

Special Agent Jason West is seconded from the FBI Art Crime Team to temporarily partner with disgraced, legendary “manhunter” Sam Kennedy when it appears Kennedy’s most famous case, the capture and conviction of a serial killer known as the Huntsman, may actually have been a disastrous failure. The Huntsman is still out there…and the killing has begun again.




The Mermaid Murder


Book Description

“Maggie Shayne’s books have a permanent spot on my keeper shelf.” —#1 NY Times Bestselling Author KAREN ROBARDS Ten years ago, a professional mermaid disappeared without a trace from the Sapphire Club in Saratoga Springs. Now, Rachel de Luca’s niece Misty is working at the same club, doing the same job. Coincidentally, (not) Misty’s college roommate has a mystery podcast about the very same cold case. Rachel’s been having visions. One of a mermaid dying. One of her nieces, lying dead in the surf on Rachel and Mason’s wedding day. So when her sister expresses worry, Rachel and Mason agree to do a little snooping—only to find their niece Misty is not where she’s supposed to be, nobody knows where she is, and she left her phone behind. Misty’s off the grid with her podcasting partner Zig, surveilling their favorite suspect in the ten-year-old disappearance of professional mermaid Eva Quaid. Misty has been on fire ever since Zig asked her to help. Investigating makes her blood flow faster. She thinks she’s found her true calling. But will she live long enough to answer? And will Rachel find her beloved niece before her visions come true—the way they always do?




Intersectionality and Decolonisation in Contemporary British Crime Fiction


Book Description

Intersectionality and decolonisation are prominent themes in contemporary British crime fiction. Through an in-depth critical and contextual analysis of selected contemporary British crime fiction novels from the 1990s to 2018, this distinctive book examines representations of race, class, sexuality, and gender by John Harvey, Stella Duffy, M.Y. Alam, and Dorothy Koomson. It argues that contemporary British crime fiction is a field of contestation where urgent cultural and social questions are debated and the politics of representation explored. A significant resource which will be valuable to researchers and scholars of the crime genre, as well as British literature, this book offers timely critical engagement with intersectionality and decolonisation and their representation in contemporary British crime fiction.




The Art of Murder Box Set


Book Description

Murder in the Eye of the Beholder THE MERMAID MURDERS Special Agent Jason West is seconded from the FBI Art Crime Team to temporarily partner with disgraced, legendary “manhunter” Sam Kennedy when it appears Kennedy’s most famous case, the capture and conviction of a serial killer known as the Huntsman, may actually have been a disastrous failure. The Huntsman is still out there…and the killing has begun again. THE MONET MURDERS The last thing Jason West, an ambitious young FBI special agent with the Art Crime Team, wants—or needs—is his uncertain and unacknowledged romantic relationship with irascible legendary Behavioral Analysis Unit Chief Sam Kennedy. And it’s starting to feel like Sam is not thrilled with the idea either. But personal feelings must be put aside when Sam requests Jason’s help to catch a deranged killer targeting wealthy, upscale art collectors. A killer whose calling card is a series of grotesque paintings depicting the murders. THE MAGICIAN MURDERS Nothing up his sleeves. Nothing but murder… Jason West, hot-shot special agent with the FBI’s Art Crime Team, is at the Wyoming home of Behavioral Analysis Unit Chief Sam Kennedy, recuperating from a recent hit-and-run accident, when he’s asked to consult on the theft of a priceless collection of vintage magic posters.




The Movie-Town Murders


Book Description

Murder: Live and in Technicolor Working undercover gives FBI Art Crime Team agent Jason West the illusion that he’s safe from his stalker, Dr. Jeremy Kyser. Though film history and preservation are not Jason’s area of expertise, he’s intrigued by the case of a well-connected UCLA film studies professor whose family believes she may have been murdered after discovering a legendary lost 1950s PI film. Meanwhile, on the other side of the country, BAU Chief Sam Kennedy gets disturbing news: the Roadside Ripper, the serial killer Sam believes murdered his college boyfriend, may not have been working alone.




Murder Between the Pages


Book Description

Best of Enemies, Worst of Allies—and Now the Killer is After Them! When the notorious author of sure-to-be scandalous roman à clef is shot dead by an invisible assailant during a signing at Concord’s staid and stately Marlborough Bookstore, it falls—for reasons still hard to explain—to feuding mystery authors Felix Day and Leonard Fuller to solve a real life murder. Despite the fact that they’re technically both suspects, it’s the perfect opportunity for Felix and Len to match wits and sleuthing skills. But while they’re busy trying to outsmart (and impress) each other, a ruthless murderer is closing in on our two intrepid investigators…




Murder in Pastel


Book Description

Ten years ago Cosmo Bari vanished, and with him, his legendary masterpiece, Virgin in Pastel. Since that day no one in the seaside art colony of Steeple Hill has heard from the eccentric painter. Surrounded by an extended family of Cosmo’s colorful compatriots, mystery writer Kyle Bari believes he has come to terms with being abandoned by his famous father, until the day Adam MacKinnon arrives with his new lover, the beautiful but poisonous, Brett. Brett has an unerring instinct for other people’s weak spots; soon the quiet colony is seething with hostility and suspicion as Brett hints he knows something about the missing artist. Kyle doesn’t take Brett seriously until the long lost Virgin in Pastel is discovered hidden in an antique dresser. A few days later the painting has vanished again—and Brett is dead. Murdered...




In Other Words...Murder


Book Description

Mystery author and sometimes amateur sleuth Christopher Holmes is now happily (all things being relative) engaged to be married and toying with starting a new career as a true-crime writer when he learns a body has been discovered in the backyard of his former home. Then, to complicate matters, Christopher’s ex turns up out of the blue, suggesting the body may belong to Christopher’s former personal assistant. It’s life as usual at Chez Holmes. In other words… Murder.




Crime Fiction in the Age of #MeToo


Book Description

Informed by fourth-wave feminism, Crime Fiction in the Age of #MeToo presents a compelling and timely reading of crime fiction in the age of #MeToo. The book explores five major fourth-wave feminist topics, #MeToo, rape culture, toxic masculinity, LBGTQ+ perspectives, and transgender. These topics have been the subject of intense feminist scrutiny and campaigning, and the book demonstrates how this attention is reflected in contemporary crime fiction and its generic and thematic preoccupations. The book opens with a chapter presenting an overview of existing critical perspectives and feminist debates, demonstrating how fourth-wave feminist ideas and debates are inspiring innovations in the genre, as well as generating fresh ways of reading past and present crime fictions. Providing an overview and context for both fourth-wave feminism and the #MeToo movement, the chapter establishes the critical and cultural framework for its analysis. The chapter also outlines the book’s methodology and approach, detailing the contents of the chapters. Each of the five subsequent chapters uses critical vocabulary and concepts from feminism and the #MeToo movement to reassess canonical works and present new readings of contemporary crime fiction, producing compelling analyses of gender and genre. Canonical authors whose works are discussed include Agatha Christie, Raymond Chandler, Josephine Tey, Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö, and Val McDermid. Examining selected contemporary novels and short stories, the chapters in Crime Fiction in the Age of #MeToo provide fresh readings of both well-known and lesser-known crime authors. The contemporary authors whose work is examined are Lauren Henderson, Susan White, Jennifer Haigh, Allison Leotta, Y.A. Erskine, Heather Fitt, John Harvey, Dorothy Koomson, Pekka Hiltunen, Nekesa Afia, Michael Nava, Stella Duffy, Alex Reeve, V.T. Davy, and Dharma Kelleher. Through its critical examination of crime fiction, Crime Fiction in the Age of #MeToo offers a powerful feminist analysis of the genre which draws links between literature and ongoing urgent social and cultural debates such as the #Metoo movement and fourth-wave feminism.




Bulletproof


Book Description

An emotional reunion changes everything in the final book in the electrifying trilogy of law, order, and love, from the author of Unbreakable and Shattered. One day Lexie Williams was a Detective with the Norfolk Police Department and married to the love of her life, the next she was living under an assumed identity and working as the activities director at Cross Creek Ranch in Wyoming. Living under the constraint of the Witness Protection Program, Lexie felt alone and terrified that she would never see her wife or daughter again. Until one fateful day when Dani showed up at the ranch with her best friend and her daughter. After grieving her wife who had died in a car crash one year earlier, Dani is finally ready to explore the possibility of dating. She meets the carefree, fearless Callie and feels an instant connection. Callie works at the ranch and the two women spend all their time together. Lexie is forced to stand in the shadows and watch Dani fall for another woman until she gets the call informing her that the man who attempted to kill her is now dead. This means Lexie can come out of hiding and reveal herself to Dani, but the long-awaited news may have come too late to reunite with the woman who has forever changed her life . . .