Kenneth L. Levinson
~Adam Larsen may attract danger like a magnet, but no one's ever tried to blow him up before.~
As Denver lawyer Adam Larsen and his legal assistant enter a wealthy client's mansion for an evening appointment, they are literally blown off their feet. The bomb in her private bathroom killed her instantly--and leaves Adam wondering why she wanted so urgently to meet with him. Known to her many enemies as The Empress, mining magnate Helen Emerson had been in the midst of a bitter dispute with a coal miners union, and now her children persuade Adam to fight their battle for them. He soon finds himself embroiled in hostile negotiations, receiving death threats, and dealing with a gun-toting femme fatale. And then matters get complicated...
Marthanne Shubert
~Snowbirds from new Jersey come to Florida to get away from it all...until they discover that too many dark secrets came with them.~
Florida P.I. Gin Ritchey lives on a boat and takes life easy whenever she can. Trouble is, she never overheard a conversation she didn't find interesting. Her snowbird neighbors from New Jersey, three couples and a widower with a sexy young girlfriend, spend a lot of time outdoors where she can share their lives vicariously.
When the widower dies mysteriously, everyone suspects the girlfriend, but Gin isn't so sure. There's something suspicious about the situation, and when she talks to Bunny (who was born Agnes), she figures out how a seemingly natural death could really have been murder. All she has to do is prove it.
Before Gin can put the puzzle together, another of the snowbirds is dead. Her husband is the obvious suspect in both deaths, but Gin isn't convinced he did it. Her investigations reveal some secrets the snowbirds would have rather kept, but not in time to prevent yet another attempted murder. When she finally learns the reason for the first death, all becomes clear--or does it?
Kenneth L. Levinson
~Murder strikes at a writer's convention in the midst of a record-setting blizzard, stranding the conventiongoers at a luxury hotel with a cold-blooded killer.~
Everyone is intrigued by the murder mystery the Executive Board of the Colorado Fiction Writers Association has created for its 2008 writer's convention. The problem is, the board has done no such thing. The Abody in the back of the auditorium at the Marquis Hotel is a real corpse, dressed in articles of clothing someone has deliberately stolen from each of the Board members. Arthur Upton, CFWA President and a former New York cop, senses that the stolen clothes make this murder something personal. Lakewood Police Detective, Mitch Cameron, has a problem of his own. Two items from his Weapons of Destruction display have vanished. He soon finds one of them, a garrotte, wrapped tightly around the dead man's throat. Cameron knows that the other weapon, a nine inch stiletto, is still somewhere in the hotel, where a record-setting blizzard has stranded him without backup. As night closes in, the snow continues to fall relentlessly--and Cameron and the board know they must confront a cold-blooded killer.
Jaye Watson
~When a cherry pie smells strongly of almond, one must taste cautiously...~
Emaline has been taking care of her elderly, cranky grandfather for so long, she wonders if she'll ever have a life again. When he demands a sumptuous meal, she obliges, even baking him his favorite pie--cherry. It's Johnny Banister's last meal, but the medical examiner finds nothing suspicious. So why does Emaline seek a way to dispose of the flavoring bottle? And why does she worry that Detective Harry Jordan wants more than the pleasure of her company when he asks her to dinner?
Ed Goldberg
~The counterculture lives, and dies hard, as Lenny Schneider gets caught up in murder and politics at a lefty community radio station in Portland, Oregon.~
Portland, Oregon, is about as far from his home turf as New York PI Lenny Schneider can get. Talk about culture shock: the air is fresh and clean, the rain unending, the drivers are (mostly) polite and slow, bagels are fat and fluffy, and everybody's friendly (sort of).
Lenny came to town in search of a baseball hero's missing daughter, and mooched a bed at an old buddy's place. Next thing he knows, he's involved in controversy, intrigue, and murder. Walter, a radio show host with a talent for getting under people's skins, needs Lenny's help in discovering who's trying to frame him.
Trouble is, Lenny starts wondering who's really his friend, who's really telling him the truth, and who's really out to get him, too.
Norma Williams
~Kate expects to impersonate her sister Laura for just a few hours. But once she reaches Victor Korbeck's small private island, murder changes everything...~
Kate Marsden has stepped into her sister's shoe--literally. She hopes to impersonate Laura just long enough to face financier Victor Korbeck and find out why he has ordered Laura to bring her seven-year-old son to his island--the boy he refuses to acknowledge as his grandson. Kate seems to pass scrutiny by the family members and employees. Even Mitchell, Korbeck's hostile security chief , seems to be taken in by her masquerade. Or is he? Does he despise her for who she is--or for who he believes her to be? When a killer strikes, will Mitchell be her defender, or her nemesis?
Marthanne Shubert
~A classic locked room mystery. A dead body, no way out, and no one but the cops--and Gin Ritchey--cares who killed him, Good riddance.~
P.I. Gin Ritchey and the other marina inhabitants are surprised to find that a murder has taken place right across the canal. The victim is detestable talk-show host Win Lovatt, a man with myriads of enemies. A fair few people, in fact, are of the opinion that the killer has done a public service; Gin herself is not sure she cares if the murderer is caught or not. Enter Lovatt?s widow, the beautiful Lolita. The police are convinced that she murdered her husband, with whom she had a yelling match just before she went home to Mother. They would arrest her out of hand if they could find out how she got out of the locked and shuttered house after the killing.
With the help of a fat yachtsman who spied the murderer from the top of his forty-foot mast and a wealth of information gleaned from many of Lovatt's non-fans, Gin solves the mystery, but can't make up her mind whether to share what she's learned with the cops or not.
Kenneth L. Levinson
~A civil lawsuit turns decidedly uncivil when death takes control of the case.~
Daniel T. Scadman, the meanest lawyer in Colorado, is murdered during a pre-trial deposition at the office of Denver lawyer, Adam Larsen. As Scadman's successor moves the case toward trial Larsen's client, Josie Ballantine, who also happens to be his girlfriend, abruptly fires Larsen, placing her faith--and apparently much more--into the eager hands of her young insurance lawyer. After Larsen confronts a corrupt court reporter, someone tries to frame him for her murder. Before the fog clears, Larsen receives a desperate plea from Josie. A secret from her past has emerged, turning the Quinlan real estate trial into a disaster. Ready or not, Larsen must act.
Jaye Watson
~Office parties can be deadly dull. Or just deadly...~
Emaline Banister couldn't hear who was blackmailing whom in the women's room at work. The holidays were approaching and she was distracted by the need to make a dish that everyone could eat, including the people with odd dietary restrictions. Besides, Detective Harry Jordan was still hanging around, and she wasn't sure if he was attracted to her or still wondering if she was a murderer. When Mary O'Neill died at the party, after eating Emaline's salad, she was once again under suspicion. But this time she knew she hadn't done it.
Sheila Simonson
~Lark Dailey's Independence Day holiday turns tragic when her host succumbs to a poisoned cocktail.~
Lark Dailey faces a weekend at the mountain lodge of her mother’s mentor, poet Dai Llewellyn, without enthusiasm, but Lark’s detective-lover Jay finds the proximity of a notorious pot-farm interesting. The setting, a remote Sierra lake, is idyllic, perfect for canoeing and wind-surfing, not to mention fireworks. Neither Lark nor Jay expects the Fourth of July to end in murder.
Surrounded by old friends, ex-lovers, devoted servants--and someone who does not love him--the poet collapses. He has been poisoned by tincture of larkspur in his Campari. The irony is not lost on Lark, whose bookstore is called Larkspur Books, nor on Jay, who is tapped to investigate.
Jay’s investigation is complicated by the murder of two key witnesses and by bizarre embellishments in all three killings. The embellishments suggest that something less straightforward than greed is driving the killer, something like madness. The tangle of suspicion widens to include not only the poet’s weekend guests but even Lark’s charming, book-loving clerk.
Lark worries that her mother, who comes to town after the San Francisco funeral, may be in danger too, because someone does not like poets, and Mary Dailey, a noted poet, is Llewellyn’s literary executor. Her co-executor may have his own reasons for wanting to control the relics of Dai Llewellyn’s past. As Jay awaits a search warrant, a cocktail party of survivors gathers to honor Lark’s mother, and Lark determines to crash it in time to prevent another poisoning. Unfortunately, she’s not sure who the murderer is.
