Oblivion: A Novel. Peter Abrahams. 2005. 352p. HarperCollins. From Kirkus Reviews: After losing his memory, high-profile investigator Nick Petrov returns recklessly to the dangerous case he was working on. Pricey p.i. Nick (his claim to fame is a TV movie in which he was portrayed by Armand Assante) accepts the small case of missing teenager Amanda Rummel because something touches him in the demeanor of Amanda’s distraught mother, Liza. But from the beginning of his investigation, he finds that Liza, who works for Candyland Escorts, is less than candid with him. For starters, Amanda’s friend Beth says that Amanda claimed to be adopted, her real mother mysteriously killed. This facet of the case resonates with Nick, who’s divorced and has a shaky relationship with son Dmitri. Ex-wife Katherine is still bitter about the breakup and Nick’s affair with police chief Elaine Kostelnik (Kim Delaney in the TV movie). Bad headaches, unlike anything Nick has ever experienced, periodically interfere with his work, but he methodically searches Liza’s house while she’s away and makes copious lists of his conclusions and theories. He learns that Liza had an older sister who died years earlier, and his guess is that she was Amanda’s biological mother. He finds the girl but blacks out in the middle of explaining his identity and mission. He wakes up in a hospital with no memory and a diagnosis of brain hemorrhage. After getting his bearings, he realizes that the fastest way (maybe the only way) to get his memory back is to retrace the steps of his aborted investigation. Abraham draws extra tension from dicey scenes that put the reader two steps ahead of the oblivious Nick. There’s also an offbeat romance with his African-American nurse, Billie (he’s drawn to the clacking of her beadedbraids), as Nick’s splintered probe runs through a large cast of unpredictable characters, including a chain-smoking madam, volatile p.i., and skittish volleyball coach. Abrahams (Their Wildest Dreams, 2003, etc.) creates palpable empathy for the bruised Nick, and his pitch-perfect prose is a joy.

Omerta. Mario Puzo. 2000. 336p. Random House. Omerta introduces a new Mafia family worthy of the Corleones and the Clericuzios: the family of Don Raymonde Aprile. Their story begins in Sicily in 1967, when the dying Don Vincenzo Zeno—“the last of the true Mafia chiefs”—entrusts the young Raymonde Aprile with the task of raising his soon-to-be-orphaned two-year-old son, Astorre. Following this brief prologue, the novel moves forward nearly 30 years to the world of contemporary New York. Don Raymonde is now retired and has realized one of the great dreams of the career criminal: He has become legitimate. In the grand tradition of the American robber barons, he has extricated himself from all illegal activities, helped his children establish themselves in safe, prestigious professions, and become “a gentleman banker and pillar of society.” Three years after his retirement, he is shot to death on the steps of St. Patrick’s Cathedral by a pair of professional hit men. In the aftermath of the Don’s death, Astorre, his adopted son, takes center stage. Astorre, on the surface, is a harmless sort: a wedding singer, horseman, and ladies’ man who earns his living by managing the Aprile family’s macaroni franchise. He is also a “Qualified Man,” trained in the ways of the old Mafiosi and steeped in the Sicilian traditions of honor and vengeance. Astorre attempts to follow his late guardian’s instructions by protecting the Aprile heirs and by preserving the integrity of their multibillion dollar banking interests. But at the same time, he follows the dictates of the ancient code of Omerta and ruthlessly pursues the men responsible for Don Raymonde’s murder. Astorre’s quest brings him into contact with a vivid, often vile gallery of supporting characters. Among them are a rival Mafia chieftain with his own undisclosed agenda; a South-American drug lord with a demented desire to own and operate his own nuclear arsenal; an FBI agent whose obsessive dedication leads to tragic consequences; two lethal, deeply compromised NYPD homicide detectives; and a pair of charming, athletic fraternal twins who specialize in murder for hire. Astorre’s encounters with these and other, violent and corrupt players nearly cost him his life and culminate in a bloody confrontation in which justice—Sicilian style—prevails. Omerta is a spare, tightly plotted novel that encapsulates the changing nature of the Cosa Nostra in little more than 300 pages, moving from the hill towns of Sicily—where patriarchal chieftains rule with Biblical authority—to the boardrooms of Manhattan, where modern bandits wear three-piece suits and theorize about “synergy” and “global syndication.” Omerta may not be Puzo’s masterpiece—it’s slightly less involving than its predecessors, and a number of passages have an underdeveloped, slightly unfinished quality—and it’s unlikely to eclipse the popularity of The Godfather. Still, it’s a gripping book by a gifted writer who was both a craftsman and a storyteller and who opened up a corner of the world that no other novelist saw as clearly, or wrote about as well.

Only in LA. Murray Sinclair. 1982. 213p. (A Ben Crandel Mystery). A&W Publishers. Ben Crandel finds himself in the toughest spot of his life: his adopted son, Petey, has been kidnapped, and it’s up to the alcoholic, womanizing, down-on-his-luck screenwriter to clean up his life and find the boy. In the process Crandel has two steamy affairs, encounters the usual political dirty work, several murders, bodynappings and vicious hit men who couldn’t care less about a boy and his dog (Petey’s beloved bassett hound has also been stolen). Pictured: Black Lizard Paperback edition (1988)

Ordeal by Innocence. Agatha Christie. 1958. 256p. (The Crime Club). Collins.The Argyle family is far from pleased to discover one of its number has been post-humously pardoned for murder—if Jacko Argyle didn’t kill his mother, who did? The front door of the family home was locked..Dr. Arthur Calgary takes a ferry across the Rubicon River to Sunny Point, the home of the Argyle family. A year before, the matriarch of the family was murdered and a son, Jack, was convicted and sentenced to spend the rest of his life in prison. Throughout the trial Jack had maintained his innocence, claiming he was hitchhiking on the night of the murder and he had been picked up by a middle-aged man in a dark car. Unable to locate this mystery man the police viewed Jack’s as a lie. Calgary was the stranger in question, but he arrives to late for Jack—who succumbs to pneumonia after serving just six months of his sentence. Feeling a sense of duty to the Argyles, Calgary is surprised when his revelation has a disturbing effect on the family—it means one of the family is a murderer.

Other Daughter, The. Lisa Gardner. 1999. 404p. Bantam Books. What you don’t know can kill you. In Texas a serial killer is executed, taking to his grave the identity of his only child. In Boston a nine-year-old girl is abandoned in a hospital, then adopted by a wealthy young couple. Twenty years later, Melanie Stokes still considers herself lucky. Until... Until the terrifying visions begin. Until a has-been reporter starts investigating her past. Until the first note arrives saying YOU GET WHAT YOU DESERVE. Melanie had lost all memory of her life before the adoption, and now someone wants to give it back. Even if it includes the darkest nightmare the Stokes family ever faced: the murder of their first daughter in Texas. As Melanie pursues every lead, chases every shadow in the search for her real identity, two seemingly unrelated events from twenty years ago will come together in a dangerous explosion of truth. And with her very life at stake, Melanie will fear that the family she loves the most may be the people she should trust the least.

Perfect Child, A. Geoffrey Wilson. 1999. 337p. Dominion Press. More than just a fascinating, fast-paced detective story—at its core a love story between a father, a son, and a wife, as they discover who they are, and what having a family really means. Compulsively readable, tough and compassionate. Peter Martin is a reluctant detective in the truth business, who can’t ignore what he ultimately discovers. Gritty and sensitive; explores the human condition at the hallucinatory interface of biology and technology in the increasingly cybernetic society of our post modern era. Dr. Peter Martin, psychiatrist and errant detective, comes to believe that the murders of several brilliant and beautiful scholar-athletes at the nation’s top universities are linked. He discovers that the student’s genetic material has been harvested in order to create “designer” babies for wealthy patrons who are otherwise unable to have the “best” and ”perfect” children that they desire. In the process, Martin also runs across Kevin Reynolds, an adopted boy usually in trouble with the law, involved in an emotional search for his biological parents. In the end, Martin is fighting for his own life, and the life of his family, and the legacy of the students who have been sacrificed in the cause of science gone wrong. Takes the Frankensteinian world envisioned by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley one horrifying step further. A must-read novel for anyone who wants an entertaining, thrilling, and smart investigation of the technological trends that are changing the fundamentals of life, love, and family, as we know them.

Person or Persons Unknown. Althea Fraser. 2005. 224p. (A Rona Parish Mystery). Severn House Publishers. From Kirkus Reviews: Biographer Rona Parish is finishing up a series of articles when a chance meeting fills her quiet life with danger. Zara Crane, an adopted child unconcerned with her biological parents until she became pregnant, approaches Rona and her artist husband Max Allerdyce at a party. She’s discovered that her mother, Gemma Grant, had been murdered, possibly by Zara’s biological father. Rona is reluctant but finally agrees to give the project six weeks if she can write about her findings. Gemma, a junior reporter for a radio station, had been rooming with Selina O’Toole, now a well-known London-based correspondent. Using the code name Morrison for her lover, Gemma claimed he emigrated to Australia without knowing she was pregnant. Rona is disconcerted to find that among Gemma’s former boyfriends are Jonathan Hurst, her twin Lindsey’s current lover, and Phillip Yarborough, whose wife is takes painting classes with Max. Max, who suspects Phillip of spousal abuse, is busy working on a portrait of politician James Latymer, and Rona doesn’t want to mention the threatening phone calls and e-mails she’s received since a news story about her search, and her fears intensify when Selina is pushed in front of a bus. Clear your calendar: Sympathetic characters draw you in to an absorbing search that keeps you guessing until the last chapter.

Pick Your Poison. Leann Sweeney. 2004. 266p. (A Yellow Rose Mystery). Signet. Out of school, out of work, and out of motivation, Abby Rose is contemplating her life and wondering what to do next. It’s the kind of situation that would get some girls down, but luckily Abby’s got a heart the size of Texas—and a bank account to match. But when she discovers the gardener dead in her greenhouse, Abby realizes what she needs to do with herself: she needs to solve a murder... About the Author: Leann Sweeney was born and raised in Niagara Falls and educated at St. Joseph’s Hospital and Lemoyne College in Syracuse, NY. She also has a degree from the University of Houston in behavioral science and worked for many years in psychiatry. Currently a school nurse, she began writing about fifteen years ago, fulfilling her lifelong dream. After perfecting her writing skills with classes and a small fortune in writing books, she joined MWA and Sisters in Crime. Her short fiction won many awards and several mysteries were published in small market mystery magazines. One novel and another mystery novella went straight to audio. Leann is married with two fabulous grown children, a wonderful son-in-law and a beautiful daughter-in-law. She has lived in Texas for almost thirty years and resides in Friendswood, Texas with husband Mike and her three cats. By the Same Author: Dead Giveaway (2005), A Wedding to Die For (2005), Shoot From the Lip (2007), and Pushing Up Bluebonnets (2008).

Pied Piper, The. Ridley Pearson. 1998. 356p. Hyperion. In Seattle, they’re calling him The Pied Piper—someone who comes in the night and takes children away. To newly promoted Police Lieutenant Lou Boldt and police psychologist Daphne Matthews, it’s clear this isn’t about a single lunatic or random kidnappings—these crimes are well orchestrated, well executed, and, most chilling of all, occurring in cities across the country. Theye discover that someone on the force is feeding the villain with inside information. By the author of Beyond Recognition. Synopsis © Fiction Digest.

Playdate With Death, A. Ayelet Waldman. 2002. 240p. Prime Crime. Why would buff personal trainer Bobby Katz commit suicide when he was happily in love with Betsy, the fiancee he’d met through Narcotics Anonymous, saving for their wedding, bidding on a set of golf clubs on the Internet, and awaiting delivery of a new Palm Pilot? Former public defender turned full-time mom Juliet Applebaum (The Big Nap, 2001, etc.), who counted herself lucky to be one of his clients, decides he might have been murdered. Her snooping puts her in touch with his e-mail buddy “Louise,” who’d been helping Bobby track his birth parents—to the dismay of his adoptive family, who’d kept his adoption a secret from him until their other son blurted out the truth. With help from p.i. and gun enthusiast Al Hockey, Juliet locates Bobby’s birth mom, a virulently anti-Semitic married woman, whose affair long years ago with a Jew passed the Tay-Sachs gene on to Bobby. Or did it? Could a Gentile be a Tay-Sachs carrier? As Juliet learns more about the disease, and delves more deeply into Bobby’s birth and adoptive families and NA friends, she endangers not only her own kids, but slow-to-react Al, before the LAPD comes to agree that Bobby was emphatically not a suicide. Funny tidbits about bringing up toddlers and the liberal mom’s dilemma over giving her kids toy guns to play with. Juliet’s got charm, spunk, and-given her new partnership with Al-a reason to get out of the house.—From Kirkus Reviews; © 2002 Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Plight of the Children. Sharolett Koenig. 2000. 288p. Koenisha Publications. Eighteen-year-old Tim MacCulfsky’s parents are killed in a car accident. When he discovers that he was adopted at the age of almost four, he decides to search for his birth parents. But the plot thickens as he learns that his was a black-market adoption, and the lawyer who handled the case fifteen years ago was recently murdered. Tracking a people trail, instead of a paper trail, the only person who knows anything about his past leads Tim on a wild-goose chase halfway across the country to avoid the murderer. The mystery takes a twist from the start, when Tim picks up a hitchhiker named Rhonda—an uncooperative, obnoxious, fun-loving fifteen-year-old runaway he can’t get rid of.

Poor Tom Is Cold. Maureen Jennings. 2002. 278p. Thomas Dunne Books. Maureen Jennings’s first two novels (Except the Dying, 1997; and Under the Dragon’s Tail, 1998) have wowed readers and reviewers alike for their vivid portrayal of Toronto at the turn of the twentieth century. Many have been impressed by Jennings’s detailed understanding of the social structure at the time, while others are impressed by the fully drawn characters. In this third adventure featuring the lovable Detective William Murdoch, he becomes involved with the death of Constable Oliver Wicken - a man who was the sole support of his mother and invalid sister. In spite of the hardship his death will cause, it appears that he has committed suicide. The evidence according to the coroner is irrefutable. He was shot in the temple with his own revolver and a farewell note is found beside his body. At the inquest, a young woman testifies that she was secretly engaged to Wicken but she had broken off the engagement that very night. The case is closed, verdict: death by his own hand. Unexpectedly, more evidence is revealed and Detective Murdoch is asked to investigate further. His inquiries take him far afield and he begins to suspect that the Eakin family, whose house adjoins the one where Wicken died, is more involved with the case than they admit. Murdoch witnesses the young Mrs. Eakin, the third wife of the elderly Nathaniel, being committed to the Provincial Lunatic Asylum. Is she indeed insane, as the family says she is, or has she been deliberately driven to the brink of insanity for wicked reasons? Murdoch, of necessity, is obliged to question her about the constable’s death. This interview has dire consequences that force the investigation to its tragic conclusion. Whether describing a tooth extraction, the unquestioning prejudice toward the few Chinese immigrants, or the well-intentioned, but bizarre, treatment of mentally ill women, Maureen Jennings once again brings the period vividly to life. About the Author: Maureen Jennings’ first novel, Except the Dying, received a certificate of commendation from Heritage Toronto. It was also nominated for an Anthony Award and the Crime Writers of Canada Arthur Ellis Award for best first novel. She lives in Toronto with her husband.

Porkpie. Paul McGoran. 2009. 276p. Lulu.com. From Kirkus Reviews: Helena Swann, the adopted daughter of a rich communications tycoon, is awaiting divorce papers in Las Vegas. Before heading to the San Francisco mansion she shares with her half-sister Angela, the sole heiress of the family fortune, she stumbles upon a grisly murder scene. Determined not to get involved, she leaves town. On the flight home, she meets a charming and handsome man, Sam “Porkpie” Porter, who, unbeknownst to Helena, is responsible for the mutilated bodies she left behind in the desert. In short order, Porkpie ingratiates himself with Brad Styles, Helena’s fiancé, and talks his way into a consulting job at Sharples Communications, where Angela is acting president. After a whirlwind romance, Angela marries the mysterious new man, despite Helena and Porkpie’s affair. Before long, a private investigator from Las Vegas arrives in town with suspicions about Porkpie and his assistant, a former jail-house lover named Mickey Cullion. Things begin to unravel for the conman as he escapes San Francisco, leaving behind his faithful new wife, a bloody hotel room and his embezzlement scheme. He evades his nationwide notoriety as a dangerous killer by going underground, only to resurface once more, this time in pursuit of Helena. To spin this sprawling saga, McGoran uses eight different narrative voices—everyone from Helena, to the private investigator, to Porkpie’s South Beach girlfriend gets a chance to tell the story. But while multiperspectival narratives can be energizing, here it’s a cumbersome juggling act. Furthermore, the novel’s namesake, Porkpie, never gets a chance to speak—readers learn about his crimes from a homicide detective who relates scenes from Porkpie’s journal. It’s hard to believe that a coldblooded career criminal would be so careless as to keep a diary, and the narrative device doesn’t allow readers to deeply understand Porkpie or his magnetism. Fast-paced and well-written, but ultimately a letdown.

Price of Guilt, The. Margaret Yorke. 1999. 304p. Little Brown (UK). Louise Widdows, a hit-and-run victim, is released from hospital to find that husband Colin has decamped with their savings. An unexpected legacy provides Louise with Lilac Cottage, into which she moves, taking pains to ensure that Colin cannot find her. Her worries, however, are far from over. Bullies assault her on a train; she still pines for a son she gave up for adoption years ago; Colin’s previous absences, she now notices, coincided with several girls’ deaths; and someone is staying in her new friend Dorothy’s house, uninvited, while Dorothy is away. Journalist Andrew Sherwood and his son, Nicky, offer Louise some comfort, but her unhappy life comes to a messy end when she’s found pummeled to death at the foot of her stairs. Colin flees to France, Dorothy’s maid quits without notice, and there are several clever twists before Andrew and Nicky and a warmhearted librarian place floral tributes on Louise’s doorstep. — From Kirkus Reviews. Copyright © 2000, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Pushing Up Bluebonnets. Leann Sweeney. 2008. 282p. (A Yellow Rose Mystery). Signet. When asked to help identify a young woman who may not survive an attempted murder, Abby discovers a possible connection between the girl and a prominent Houston family—the questions about her past are getting stickier than pecan pie. Abby’s about to learn the hard way that when she crawls out on a limb, she’d better be certain there’s not someone behind her with a saw and a mean spirit. About the Author: Leann Sweeney was born and raised in Niagara Falls and educated at St. Joseph’s Hospital and Lemoyne College in Syracuse, NY. She also has a degree from the University of Houston in behavioral science and worked for many years in psychiatry. Currently a school nurse, she began writing about fifteen years ago, fulfilling her lifelong dream. After perfecting her writing skills with classes and a small fortune in writing books, she joined MWA and Sisters in Crime. Her short fiction won many awards and several mysteries were published in small market mystery magazines. One novel and another mystery novella went straight to audio. Leann is married with two fabulous grown children, a wonderful son-in-law and a beautiful daughter-in-law. She has lived in Texas for almost thirty years and resides in Friendswood, Texas with husband Mike and her three cats. By the Same Author: Pick Your Poison (2004) Dead Giveaway (2005), A Wedding to Die For (2005), and Shoot From the Lip (2007).

Rag & Bone. Michael Nava. 2001. 304p. Putnam. From one of the most highly praised writers in mystery fiction, a swan song for a flawed hero. In six novels, Michael Nava’s stories featuring gay Mexican-American lawyer Henry Rios have resonated across a wide spectrum of readers, but his seventh, and final, Rios novel is the most haunting one of all. “Counsel, your time has expired,” the presiding justice said. He was very nearly right. For fifty-seven seconds, I died. Recuperating from a heart attack, Rios learns with astonishment that his estranged sister had had an illegitimate daughter when she was young, and that the girl is grown now, with a son of her own and an abusive husband. When the man is shot dead, and the bruised wife confesses, Rios immediately assumes the battered wife acted in self-defense, but gradually small discrepancies emerge, and before long Rios finds himself on the path to a much darker, more complex truth ... a truth that will lead him to some life-altering events of his own. Filled with memorable characters and exquisite writing, Rag and Bone is further proof that “if you haven’t discovered Nava yet, an uncommonly rich experience awaits” (Kirkus Reviews). About the Author: Michael Nava’s award-winning novels also include The Little Death, Goldenboy, How Town, The Hidden Law, The Death of Friends, and The Burning Plain. Nava is a lawyer in San Francisco.

Rage of Innocents, A. Kay Mitchell. 1998. 224p. St. Martin’s Press. Paula’s last hope of conceiving a child of her own has gone, and Social Services has ruled that she is too old to adopt. Then a new doctor offers a miracle that will cost nothing but money and a little pain. Placid and round of belly, she waits in her private room for a miracle to happen. Lucy is sixteen, suspicious by nature, and homeless. But she’s also six months pregnant, so when she’s picked up by the Malminster police and taken to a refuge she stays there grudgingly. But trouble is brewing in Malminster. Tempers are fraying; the body of a pregnant woman is found in a rain-swollen ditch; a man is stabbed to death by a gang of kids; a housewife is brutally raped in her own home. And as Chief Inspector Morrissey investigates the alarming crime rate, he discovers a horrifying secret that lies at its core.

Rat’s Nest. Charles West. 1990. 188p. Walker & Co. From Publishers Weekly: Bev and Polly, two gay male gangsters, mutilate the breasts of one victim, prostitute Joybelle Jones. The hero, John Tallis, feeling indirectly responsible for the butchery, revives the young girl’s spirits by enrolling her in acting lessons. This psychological turnaround takes place within 48 hours—only one of several major breaches of credibility. Of the two other “bad” damsels, one winds up shot and the other is blown up by a car bomb. The “good” ladies fare no better. Meanwhile Tallis, a rich writer/building demolitionist, is trying to learn why his fiancee was murdered; in doing so he is repeatedly assaulted and has to rough up two burly drag queens who threaten him with scissors. If West can cast aside his homophobia and misogyny, he might well create fast-driving mysteries. Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

U.K. 1st Edition

Red Fox, The. Anthony Hyde. 1985. 279p. Hamish Hamilton (UK). In his widely acclaimed, intelligently written first novel, Anthony Hyde gives us the thrilling story of a search—from Canada to Georgetown to Paris to Leningrad, and finally to an isolated Russian village—for a missing man, a missing fortune, and the key to a tantalizing mystery half a century old. This book sets the standard for Cold War suspense novels.

Regrets Only. Nancy Whitman Geary. 2004. 336p. Warner Books. Born in Boston and raised in the rowdy, loving atmosphere of a big, Irish family, Lucy O’Malley was destined to follow in her father’s footsteps and become a police officer. Now, newly assigned to the homicide unit of the Philadelphia Police Department, she has little time and even less interest in mingling with the city’s upper crust. All that changes when Lucy falls in love with Archer Haverill, the rebellious only son of a prominent Main Line family. Then Archer’s estranged mother, psychiatrist Morgan Reese, is discovered dead on the premises of one of the city’s oldest, most exclusive men’s clubs. Reluctantly, Lucy is pulled into the tangled web of this fractured family and its rarefied community. As she delves into Morgan’s life, Lucy learns that this powerful woman had a complicated life rife with secrets and regrets. An ambitious rival analyst coveted her prestigious position, a psychotic patient stalked her, and a short-lived love affair from her graduate school days has left a legacy of fear and jealousy. Lucy soon finds herself facing an array of suspects determined to protect their own pasts, and even to hide the truth from their own children. A dangerous brew of money, class, and raw emotions, the case forces Lucy to confront the tortured history of her own family...as it pushes her closer and closer to someone capable of ruthless murder.

Requiem for a Dove. Marjorie Eccles. 1990. 192p. Doubleday. A woman, who was suffering from terminal cancer, is found dead in a canal. When it turns out that she was strangled, and that she withdrew a large sum of money right before she was murdered the case gets very interesting.

Santa Ana Wind, The. Sharon Ashton (pseudonym of Helen Van Slyke). 1974. 181p. Doubleday. A newly married woman becomes convinced that the sudden onslaught of near-miss “accidents” is connected with her past as an adopted child. She thought that her marriage to the dashing young doctor would be the answer to her prayers, it was not; from the moment she arrived at the fabulous family estate in Southern California, Madrugada disturbed her; the hostility of Roger’s tyrannical father and the remote coolness of the others initimidated her; matters were made worse by her haunting obsession that her own hidden past was somehow tied in with Madrugada; had her first meeting with Roger been mere coincidence, or was there more to it than that?

Search Angel. 2005. Mark Nykanen. 320p. Hyperion. A riveting suspense thriller about the reuniting of birth mothers with their adopted children and the madman who preys on them after two highly praised psychological thrillers, Mark Nykanen returns with his most spellbinding story yet. Suzanne Trayle is a “search Angel” whose success in tracking down and reuniting birth mothers with their adopted children has earned her national fame. Known as “The Orphan’s Private Eye,” Suzanne has reunited thousands of mothers with their children, but has failed to find the son she put up for adoption thirty years ago. About the Author: Mark Nykanen won four Emmys and an Edgar Allan Poe Award as a correspondent for NBC News. This is his third novel, following on the heels of his previous highly acclaimed thriller, The Bone Parade. He lives in Nelson, British Columbia.

Search For Maggie Hare, The. Elizabeth Byrd. 1976. 207p. Macmillan (UK). In the Victorian elegance of her Edinburgh home, Dorothea, an orphan raised in the graces of the upper class, trys to learn if the infamous mass-murderer, Maggie Hare, is her real mother.

Serpent’s Tracks, The. Maurizio Salva. 2009. 108p. iUniverse, Inc. As Commissioner Alberto Ruggeri stands in the rain, flashes of lightning and a floodlight show a murdered man on a merry-go-round. Someone shot the victim, identified as a Romanian mason, once to the temple. A three-story building and a wooded area flank the playground that is now a crime scene. Now, Ruggeri must try to find out who the laborer is, why he was killed and who is to blame. His investigation leads him to the building nearby and its odd cast of characters. By picking apart statements from witnesses, Ruggeri discovers that the victim was killed in the woods and that a dog chased the killer. One witness even says she saw someone leave the body in the playground. But even these details do little to reveal why the laborer was killed and by whom. As Ruggeri continues to investigate, he comes upon mysteries within mysteries, including another murder victim. Join Ruggeri in a mystery full of quirky characters and unexpected twists. Another person just might turn up dead if the detective is unable to follow The Serpent’s Tracks. About the Author: Maurizio Salva was born in Alessandria, Italy, where he still lives. He works for the city council and is a consultant for family business activities. He is al the author of I Minuto al calar del sole and La verità che uccide. The Serpemnt’s Tracks is his first translated work.

Shadows at the Spring Show. Lea Wait. 2005. 256p. (An Antique Print Mystery). Schribner. From Kirkus Reviews: Suburban New Jersey is usually such a peaceful place. So why is Maggie Summer getting threatening calls and letters? A history professor and antique-print dealer, Maggie is overloaded with work as she plans an antique show to benefit Our World Our Children, a local adoption agency. Maggie is agonizing over the decision of whether to adopt a child herself as she waits for her boyfriend Will Brewer, who knows he doesn’t want children, to arrive for the show. Things start to go wrong when OWOC director Carole Drummond receives a letter threatening sabotage if the show isn’t cancelled. An adopted teenager who disappears after his mother is shot in the hip makes a good suspect until his body is found in the woods. Initially the campus and town police can’t do much to help protect the show, but once Maggie’s van blows up in the parking lot, the police come running. The most likely suspects include three adopted teenagers with major issues to resolve, a college secretary with a police record, Will, Maggie and Al Stivali, head of college security. When the organizers refuse to be dissuaded by threats, the show goes on and disaster is only narrowly averted before the culprit is caught. An excellent primer on how to organize an antique show, but a damp squib in the mystery department.

Shadow of Guilt. Patrick Quentin (Joint pseudonym of Hugh Callingham Wheeler & Richard Wilson Webb). 1959. 190p. Random House. Possibly there is an ideal moment for a man to tell his wife that he’s in love with another woman and wants a divorce. George Hadley decided that his ideal moment would come after his adopted daughter’s wedding. He knew how much store his wife set upon the proper ceremony for the proper occassion.

Shell Game. Carol O’Connell. 1999. 374p. (A Mallory Novel). GP Putnam’s Sons. From Kirkus Reviews: Kathy Mallory (Killing Critics, 1996, etc.), the savage street-kid turned half-tamed NYPD detective, is back after a one-book hiatus (Judas Child, 1998). Mallory’s rules can be disconcerting to her admirers, infuriating to her superiors, and terrifying to her enemies, although they seem perfectly reasonable to her. When an elderly magician dies before a TV audience of millions, no one aside from Mallory believes its murder. What’s more, it’s obvious to her—and her alone—that the malefactor will strike again. “My perp loves spectacle,” she tells her partner as they stake out the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade. It turns out she’s right, of course. And right about the first death, too—no accident at all but a homicide cleverly disguised. Yet who’d want to kill a harmless, likable, venerable magician? One of a group of other venerable magicians, Mallory decides. Among them is the mysterious, still charismatic Malakhai, whose dead wife seems to accompany him wherever he goes, drinking his wine, smoking his cigarettes, sharing his conversationan illusionist’s trick as bewildering to Mallory as it is irritating. But if the magicians constitute the sum total of usual suspects, what could possibly make sense as a motive? As Mallory, indefatigable as ever, pursues her investigation, she discovers how inextricably her perp is connected to another crime, this one 50 years old, shrouded in enigma and drenched in treachery and betrayal. At the close, the brilliantly devious culprit is made to suffer—brought to the special kind of justice shaped by Mallory’s rules. Too long for its thinnish plot and tending, every so often, to mark time. Mallory, however, retains all her feral, sullen, paradoxically endearing components, so it’s probable that series fans won’t mind the muchness overmuch. © 1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. Other Titles in the “Mallory” Series: Mallory’s Oracle (1994); The Man Who Cast Two Shadows (1995); Killing Critics (1996); Stone Angel (1997); Crime School (2002); Dead Famous (2003); Winter House (2004); and Find Me (2006).

Shoot/Don’t Shoot. J(udith) A Jance. 1995. 281p. (A Joanna Brady Mystery). William Morrow & Co. An assassin’s bullet shattered Joanna Brady’s world, leaving her policeman husband to die in the Arizona desert. But the young widow fought back the only way she knew how: by bringing the killers to justice...and winning herself a job as Cochise County Sheriff. Still mourning her loss, Joanna Brady needs to be strongand supportive for her nine-year-old daughter, Jenny. She also has responsibilities to the people who elected her Sheriff. Joanna has the head and instinct for her new job, but not the experience—which is what brings her to Phoenix for a pre-Thanksgiving crash course in police training ... and into the mystery of an imprisoned husband her gut tells her did not murder his estranged wife. Suddenly Sheriff Brady has a lot more to worry about than classes and the visiting family pre-holiday chaos. For her impromptu investigation is drawing a serial killer too close for comfort—and closer, worse still, to Joanna’s little girl. About the Author: J. A. Jance is the New York Times bestselling author of the J. P. Beaumont series, the Joanna Brady series, three interrelated thrillers featuring the Walker family, and Edge of Evil. Born in South Dakota and brought up in Bisbee, AZ, Jance lives with her husband in Seattle, WA, and Tucson, AZ.

Shoot From the Lip. Leann Sweeney. 2007. 288p. (A Yellow Rose Mystery). Signet. The thought of working with a hot-shot producer and her TV crew is about as appealing to Abby as sticking her hand in a bucket of leeches. But Reality Check is a program that claims to turn American dreams into the real thing, and Abby figures that if anyone deserves that kind of bonanza, it’s Emma Lopez, who has been raising her three younger siblings since her mother disappeared. Abby is determined to help Emma realize her dream of a reunion-even when it becomes clear that someone out there doesn’t believe in happy endings. About the Author: Leann Sweeney was born and raised in Niagara Falls and educated at St. Joseph’s Hospital and Lemoyne College in Syracuse, NY. She also has a degree from the University of Houston in behavioral science and worked for many years in psychiatry. Currently a school nurse, she began writing about fifteen years ago, fulfilling her lifelong dream. After perfecting her writing skills with classes and a small fortune in writing books, she joined MWA and Sisters in Crime. Her short fiction won many awards and several mysteries were published in small market mystery magazines. One novel and another mystery novella went straight to audio. Leann is married with two fabulous grown children, a wonderful son-in-law and a beautiful daughter-in-law. She has lived in Texas for almost thirty years and resides in Friendswood, Texas with husband Mike and her three cats. By the Same Author: Pick Your Poison (2004), Dead Giveaway (2005), and A Wedding to Die For (2005), Pushing Up Bluebonnets (2008).

Short Squeeze: A Mystery. Chris Knopf. 2010. 288p. Minotaur Books. From Kirkus Reviews: Pot-smoking Jackie Swaitkowski, attorney to sleuthing Southampton carpenter Sam Acquillo gets a wild, wacky case of her own. Each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way, but few can rival Sergey Pontecello, his sister-in-law Eunice Wolsonowicz, and her daughter Wendy and adopted son Oscar, aka Fuzzy. His late wife’s sister has taken up residence in his home and won’t budge, Sergey tells Jackie; he wants to evict her. In a subsequent late-night phone call, he complains that Eunice has now locked him out of the master bathroom. Jackie soothes her client only to learn the next day that he’s been found dead, “pretty chewed up,” as Southampton Town cop Joe Sullivan puts it. In one pocket Pontecello is carrying Jackie’s business card, in another a severed nipple that turns out to have been the property of Edna Jackery, a scuba-shop bookkeeper and hit-and-run victim whose body parts have a disconcerting way of escaping the ministrations of family mortician Alden Winthrop III and his son Denny. Clearly, Watson, these are deep waters, and although no case that kicks off with this kind of a bang can possibly maintain such a sublime level of invention, Knopf does his best to keep his motor-mouthed heroine from stealing the show. All in vain. Manic Jackie may have a law degree and a place in the Hamptons, but she’s still worthy kin to her more downscale Trenton sister Stephanie Plum. About the Author: Chris Knopf is author of the Sam Acquillo Hamptons Mystery series, including The Last Refuge, Two Time, Head Wounds, and Hard Stop, which won the Benjamin Franklin Award for Best Mystery. A copywriter by trade, Chris is a principal of Mintz & Hoke Communications Group. He lives with his wife, Mary, and dog, Samuel Beckett, in Avon, CT, and Southampton, NY, where he sets sail on the sacred Little Peconic Bay.

Sick as a Parrot. Liz Evans. 2004. 256p. (A Grace Smith Investigation). Orion Publishing (UK). Adopted at birth, Hanna Conti attempts to trace her family. She turns up a mother who, 20 years earlier, was convicted of murder. Convinced that her mother is innocent, Hannah hires PI Grace Smith to prove it. Grace uncovers the story of the very messy murder of Janet Hepburn, a teacher at St. Martin’s Comprehensive, but there are a lot of people who’d rather she stopped digging. On Grace’s side (or possibly not) is an ex-cop with a shady past and Betterman177, a mysterious emailer who sends tantalizing clues about what was happening at St. Martin’s two decades ago. To add to these complications, Grace has been conned into bird-sitting a psychotic parrot, and Terry Rosco, the most chauvinistic cop in Seatoun, is trying to move into Grace’s spare room. And, oh yes—someone keeps trying to kill her. About the Author: Liz Evans is in her early forties. She has worked in all sorts of companies from plastic moulding manufacturers to Japanese banks through to film production and BBC Radio. She was born in Highgate, went to school in Barnet and now lives in Hertfordshire.

Sight Unseen. Suzanne Barr. 2005. 355p. Five Star. As a child, Richard overheard his ailing mom and her best friend, Iris Burke, discuss the latter and her spouse adopting him if she dies. Not long afterward, she passes away, but Ashton refuses to allow Richard into their home. Bitter, Richard is adopted by the working class Johnsons whom he detests because he believes they are beneath him, before joining the military. Almost two decades later, Ashton hires architect Richard Johnson, who brings a military contract with him that saves the Burke firm. Ashton introduces Richard to his daughter Susan, nursing a broken heart. Susan and Richard fall in love, marry, and have a daughter. However, Susan begins seeing the violent side of her spouse and worries about the safety of their child. She plans to leave Richard when little Ashley is abducted. Though Richard has no redeeming qualities and a doctor who purposely misdiagnoses Iris for years gets off relatively soft, fans will appreciate this tense suspense thriller. The story line is action-packed as Richard cleverly manipulates the Burke family to do his bidding as he plans to avenge the hurt he suffered when Iris failed to adopt him. Filled with twists, fans will appreciate this taut tale with the life of an infant at stake. — Harriet Klausner

Silent Joe. T Jefferson Parker. 2001. 384p. Hyperion. The #1 Los Angeles Times bestselling author of Red Light and The Blue Hour returns with a moody, sexy, suspenseful novel about a scarred man, the father he idolized, and the secret he uncovers. With the horrible remnants of a childhood tragedy forever visible across his otherwise handsome face, Joe Trona is scarred in more ways than one. Rescued from an orphanage by Will Trona, a charismatic Orange County politician who sensed his dark potential, Joe is swept into the maelstrom of power and intimidation that surrounds his adoptive father’s illustrious career. Serving as Will’s right-hand man, Joe is trained to protect and defend his father’s territory—but he can’t save the powerful man from his enemies. Will Trona is murdered, and Joe will stop at nothing to find out who did it. Looking for clues as he sifts through the remains of his father’s life—his girlfriends, acquaintances, deals, and enemies—Joe comes to realize how many secrets Will Trona possessed, and how many people he had the power to harm. But two leads keep rising to the surface: a little girl who was kidnapped by her mentally disturbed brother, and two rival gangs who seem to have joined forces. As Joe deepens his investigation—and as he is forced to confront the painful events of his troubled childhood—these two seemingly disconnected threads will intersect. Just how and why form the crux of this intricate, intelligent mystery that satisfies the mind as well as the heart—and reveals yet again the impeccable detail, vivid characterization, and emotional complexity that make a T. Jefferson Parker novel impossible to resist. About the Author: T. Jefferson Parker is an award-winning journalist and author of seven previous novels, including the bestsellers Red Light, The Blue Hour, Laguna Heat, and Where Serpents Lie. He lives in Fallbrook, California.

Simeon Chamber, The. Steven Paul Martini. 1988. Donald I Fine. San Francisco lawyer Samuel J. Bogardus has no way of knowing that the seemingly routine adoption case steered to him by his dottering mother is about to ensnare him in a web of intrigue, black-market art and murder spanning four centuries. Bogardus’s client believed her natural father died years ago in a bizarre accident. But now, she’s received word that he’s still alive and tied to a hidden fortune. Sam’s investigation uncovers a web of conspiracy so shocking that it’s enough to make the lawyer take the law into his own hands. Powerful suspense from the bestselling author of Compelling Evidence and Prime Witness.

Sliver of Truth. Lisa Unger. 2007. 368p. Shaye Areheart Books. From Booklist: Unger’s popular debut, Beautiful Lies (2006), introduced readers to Ridley Jones, a New York freelance writer who rescues a toddler who wanders onto a busy Manhattan street. The press attention Ridley’s heroic act attracts brings to the surface a series of startling truths, which Ridley’s adoptive parents have kept from her all her life. (They gained custody of Ridley through Project Rescue, an organization with links to organized crime.) Ridley’s late, beloved uncle Max, it seems, was really her father, a complicated man with a dark, twisted side. In this sizzling sequel, a shadowy figure in a trio of photos prompts Ridley to wonder whether Max is indeed dead. Unger’s plot bursts from the starting gate and never lets up, as Ridley pieces together the puzzle that is her past. Just a footstep or two behind her is rogue FBI agent Dylan Grace, who has his own distressing motivations for wanting to know Max’s whereabouts. The deeper Ridley digs, the more she doubts herself and the “uncle” she thought she knew. But Ridley (who suggests a more serious version of Janet Evanovich’s self-deprecating Stephanie Plum) is never deterred: “Sometimes there is only one choice in the pursuit of the truth; sometimes turning away just isn’t an option.” — Allison Block; © American Library Association. All rights reserved.

Small Vices. Robert B Parker. 1997. 308p. Putnam. Peerless shamus Spenser’s 24th case (Chance, 1996, etc.) is almost his last, thanks to an assassin who’s a lot more like him than he’d like to acknowledge. Cone, Oakes and Baldwin, Boston’s largest law firm, doesn’t like loose ends, and when Rita Fiore and Marcy Vance, the former prosecutor who put Ellis Alves away for murder and the former public defender who couldn’t save him from the big house, meet in the firm’s tony corridors and share doubts about the case, they end up hiring Spenser to make sure the evidence is solid. Nobody, including Alves, a career criminal with an attitude about white folks, wants to talk to Spenser, but it isn’t long before he smells several rats anyway. Why didn’t the upscale couple (since married) who said they saw Alves drag Pemberton College coed Melissa Henderson into his car call the police ’til after Melissa was dead? Why would a lowlife like Alves have dumped her body on the well-tended Pemberton campus? Why do the parents of Melissa’s boyfriend, tennis hopeful Clint, deny that they ever knew Melissa? Interesting questions—interesting enough to get Spenser the obligatory string of warnings by local thugs and crooked cops and a dead-eyed killer in a gray suit. But Spenser won’t lay off, even though his personal shrink Susan Richman, avid to adopt a baby, switches to reminders that Ellis Alves undoubtedly belongs in jail for something. So the Gray Man comes after Spenser with his trademark .22, short-circuiting every surprise (hey, this isn’t Nicolas Freeling) except the question of how Spenser’s going to recover and nail his would- be executioner and the people who hired him—and then live with himself afterwards. It’s a tribute to Parker’s professionalism that he takes a device as old as Sherlock Holmes—the death and rebirth of the detective—and infuses it with renewed urgency and moral weight, showing the thoroughbred form that put him and Boston on the p.i. map in the first place.— Kirkus Associates, LP. (January 15, 1997) Copyright c1997, All rights reserved

Son of a Gun. Randye Lordon. 2003. 278p. (A Sydney Sloane Mystery). St Martin’s Minotaur. New York City private investigator Sydney Sloane has enough drama in her own family to make her normally shy away from such cases professionally. But this one is different. Her friend and father of her godchild, Captain John Cannady of the NYPD, has been critically shot in the hallway of his own apartment building, with few traces of the shooter left behind. Just after the shooting, his wife Peggy got a call from a man claiming to be the son she gave up for adoption after an unfortunate teen pregnancy. His claims and his desire for revenge chills the already upset wife. With four days to find some sort of solution, Sydney agrees to track down the long-ago child and protect the family of the man clinging to life in the hospital. With her own family undergoing a tramatic situation of its own, Sloane’s skills are put to their ultimate test.

Square in the Face. April Henry. 2000. 320p. HarperCollins. Square in the Face is the second book in April Henry’s delightfully entertaining, acclaimed mystery series in which danger often takes an unexpected shape. Claire Montrose can’t believe her good luck. Once upon a time, she was a mousy employee in the Oregon State License Plate Devision with the odd job of deciding which vanity plate applications passed the good-taste test. Now she has a charming artist boyfriend in New York City and a quirky group of friends and family that keeps her happily settled in Portland. But when a former coworker and friend urgently needs her help, Claire agrees to do a little sleuthing. Years ago, Lori gave up her child to a secretive adoption agency. Now Lori’s young son is ill, and the doctors say his only hope is a bone marrow transplant from a sibling. Lori talks Claire into finding her long-lost daughter. Unfortunately, as Claire scours the city for the information that could save the boy’s life, she has little to go on besides her common sense and her own two feet. The closer Claire gets to the truth, the more twisted and perilous the search becomes. Using her wits, charm, and savvy sleuthing skills, she digs up old secrets—but someone is willing to kill to keep them buried. Meanwhile, Claire has a problem closer to home: a mother addicted to television shopping channels. April Henry’s Square in the Face is a captivating, crime-solving adventure starring the inimitable Claire Montrose, a woman with the deductive powers and scrappy determination to discover the hidden meaning of any license plate and to rescue a friend from a desperate fate.

Stalemate. Iris Johansen. 2006. 352p. (Eve Duncan Series #6). Bantam. Eve Duncan has turned down the job twice already. Her skill and devotion in identifying murder victims and helping bring their killers to justice may be world-renowned. But Eve works exclusively for law enforcement and the families of the innocent, and the man on the other end of the phone is many things—none of them law-abiding or innocent. One of the world’s most wanted men, little is really known about Luis Montalvo except that he is extraordinarily dangerous and that he never takes no for an answer. Now he wants Eve’s help in the worst way. For he believes they have something in common—and he’s about to prove it with a grisly warning. Eve will leave everything and everyone behind, even the man she trusts and loves the most, to travel to the Colombian jungle to identify the skull he has recovered. She has agreed to this devil’s bargain to save an innocent family, but also for a reason she can’t admit to anyone. For the man in the jungle has promised to be able to give Eve what she wants most of all—the key to unlocking the darkest and most painful mystery of her past. But as she gets closer to identifying the skull, she finds herself caught between two ruthless killers with no way out. Now, with everything on the line, Eve Duncan must make the most chilling choice of all. And if she’s wrong…she’s dead. By the Same Author (Eve Duncan Series Titles): The Face of Deception (1998), The Killing Game (1999), The Search (2000), Body of Lies (2002), Countdown (2005), Quicksand (2008), Blood Game (2009).

Stone Angel. Carol O’Connell. 1997. 341p. (A Mallory Novel). GP Putnam’s Sons. From Kirkus Reviews: Seventeen years after her mother, Dr. Cass Shelley, was stoned to death by an angry mob in Dayborn. Louisiana, Kathy Mallory, who fled the scene to become a New York street kid and, eventually, an NYPD sergeant, is back to find out who provoked the mob and what became of her mother’s corpse. Since Mallory is Mallory, she’s in town less than an hour on All Saints’ Day when Ira Wooley, an autistic savant who was the world’s most unreliable witness to the killing, has his hands savagely wounded; Deputy Travis, who’s never told everything he knows about the killing, has his chance to talk cut off by a massive stroke; Babe Laurie, the revivalist who’d be a leading suspect if ancient cases had suspects, has been murdered; and Mallory is sitting in the pokey, thumbing her nose at dogged Sheriff Tom Jessop and lecturing acting deputy Lilith Beaudare about how to stand up to her boss. Mallory’s loyal friend Charles Butler, following her down from the city with the idea of helping her out, naturally remains a consistent two leaps behind her, though he does get to spend time with some flavorsome locals—manly spinster Augusta Trebec, mute sculptor Henry Roth, enterprising innkeeper Betty Hale (who’s turned the stoning into something of a local holiday), and the rest of the equally nasty Laurie clan- -en route to a dizzyingly complicated windup involving spiritualism, child abuse, and good old-fashioned greed. O’Connell (Killing Critics, 1996, etc.) adroitly borrows P.D. James’s trick of working the frontier where homicide shades over into the routine of sudden death. But Mallory’s fans will be disappointed by the supporting role she’s elbowed into here. © 1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. Other Titles in the “Mallory” Series: Mallory’s Oracle (1994); The Man Who Cast Two Shadows (1995); Killing Critics (1996); Shell Game (1999); Crime School (2002); Dead Famous (2003); Winter House (2004); and Find Me (2006).

Stone Council, The. Jean-Christophe Grange. Translated by Ian Monk. 2001. 408p. (Original Title: Le Concile de Pierre). Harvill Press (UK). As a child, Diane Thiberge had been the victim of an assualt. Now aged 30, an ethnologist specialising in the study of predatory animals, and a woman adept in the martial arts, she believes she has at last found a meaning and purpose to her life when she decides to adopt a five-year-old Thai boy, Liu-San, whom she christens Lucien. On her return to France, however, Lucien is involved in an accident and is declared to be brain-dead. A series of murders make Diane realise that her son is no ordinary child, but someone who, through no fault of his own, has fallen prey to sinister paranormal forces. In a denouement that takes her from Paris and Germany to the remote mountain fastnesses of Mongolia, she resolves to fight for her son’s survival.

Stone Maiden, The. Velda Johnston. 1980. 184p. Dodd Mead. Katherine Derwith places an ad in New York newspapers seeking “anyone having information about an infant abandoned in Manhattan 28 years ago.” Among those who answer her ad is a newspaper reporter who, while offering to help Katherine find the truth of her origins, has sinister reasons of his own for not wanting her to succeed—reasons which involve a secret that could mean death to anyone who stumbled on the truth.

Swiss Courier, The: A Novel. Tricia Goyer & Mike Yorkey. 2009. 336p. Revell. It is August 1944 and the Gestapo is mercilessly rounding up suspected enemies of the Third Reich. When Joseph Engel, a German physicist working on the atomic bomb, finds that he is actually a Jew, adopted by Christian parents, he must flee for his life to neutral Switzerland. Gabi Mueller is a young Swiss-American woman working for the newly formed American Office of Strategic Services (the forerunner to the CIA) close to Nazi Germany. When she is asked to risk her life to safely “courier” Engel out of Germany, the fate of the world rests in her hands. If she can lead him to safety, she can keep the Germans from developing nuclear capabilities. But in a time of traitors and uncertainty, whom can she trust along the way? This fast-paced, suspenseful novel takes readers along treacherous twists and turns during a fascinating—and deadly—time in history. About the Authors: Tricia Goyer is the author of several books, including Night Song and Dawn of a Thousand Nights, both past winners of the ACFW’s Book of the Year Award for Long Historical Romance. Goyer lives with her family in Montana. Mike Yorkey is the author or coauthor of dozens of books, including the bestselling Every Man’s Battle series. Married to a Swiss native, Yorkey lived in Switzerland for 18 months. He and his family currently reside in California.

Taken. Kathleen George. 2001. 336p. Delacorte Press. The child was taken in broad daylight, on a warm June morning, in a crowded shopping area in downtown Pittsburgh. Marina Benedict first saw the baby with his mother. Then, just minutes later, she saw him again, in the arms of a man she was certain was not the child’s father. In a single life-altering act—as baffling as it was inescapable—Marina followed them. Thus begins Kathleen George’s breathtaking novel, a heart-pounding thriller that brings together dozens of frayed and frail lives around the fate of one baby boy. Marina had every reason not to get involved. She’d just left her therapist’s office, reeling from her decision to finally end her shattered marriage. But the sight of a baby had always caught her attention and filled her with longing—for the child she herself has been unable to conceive. And when she sees the child again, she knows—knows beyond all knowing—that he has been abducted. Without hesitating, without thinking, Marina follows the kidnapper into one of Pittsburgh’s bleakest neighborhoods. Within hours, the city is galvanized by a single news story: a child, the son of a rookie pitcher for the Pirates, is missing. And suddenly Marina Benedict is at the heart of a bewildering mystery, one that grows darker and more complex with each passing day. For as the search builds to a crescendo, dozens of lives are drawn into the drama—Richard Christie, lead detective on the case, struggles with his own demons as he tries to unravel a mystery that has torn his city apart. And Marina Benedict, pulled from the safety of her ordinary life by a devastating crime, will not emerge unscathed. Once Marina tried to save a life and it changed her forever. Now she will risk her life again—for a child who is still out there somewhere, still in need of saving. A thriller of extraordinary menace and power, Taken slowly unravels a mystery that is as complex as it is heartbreaking. Like the woman who is at the center of this tale, Taken is at once alluring and deeply original: a story that takes the classic fast-paced thriller and infuses it with sensuality, insight, and compassion. About the Author: Kathleen George, a director and theater professor at the University of Pittsburgh, is also the author of The Man in the Buick, a collection of stories. Her fiction has appeared in many publications, including North American Review and Mademoiselle. Taken is her first novel.

Tangled June. Neil Albert. 1997. 246p. (A Dave Garrett Mystery). Walker & Co. In this sixth Dave Garrett mystery, the disbarred lawyer turned private eye investigates someone he knows intimately: himself. The story (inspired, Albert acknowledges, by his own search for his birth parents) is a real family affair, a trip into the past that makes Garrett question everything he believes about himself—and helps him resolve some nagging problems. Full of quirky characters and written in an unusual style—the chapters are narrated, in roughly alternating order, by Garrett and his transsexual secretary (and former lover), Lisa—Tangled June is a unique mystery (not many detectives investigate themselves) that will appeal not only to Albert’s fans but to anyone in the mood for something a little offbeat.— David Pitt (Copyright © 1997 American Library Association. All rights reserved.)

Tears of Things, The. Ralph M McInerny. 1996. 341p. St Martin’s Press. Fans of the enduring Father Dowling novels will be riveted by this 18th mystery, which addresses the issues of adoption and abortion. After two murders rock the parish of St. Hillary’s, Father Dowling realizes that Nancy, one of his parishoners, and Jerome, the main suspect in the first murder, must reveal the secrets of their affair 20 years earlier—before others suffer its consequences.

Tell Me the Truth About Love. Mary Cable. 1991. 197p. Atheneum. From Publishers Weekly: A worn plot and some thin characters are given fresh appeal by the coolly appraising voice of Cable’s ironic, detached narrator. A scandal is threatening Decatur and Lydia Smithson, patrician owners of the vast Gallegos Ranch in New Mexico. Their diletante son David (married to the impeccably correct Bishy) has instigated a lawsuit seeking to obtain custody of his parents on the grounds that they are habitual drunkards and therefore incompetent. What he really wants is their ranch, which the Smithsons have willed to a questionable religious sect. Lydia requests aid from the rest of her family but her plea only unleashes a flood of bitter and hostile memories from her other daughter-in-law Alex, who, as the child of low-ranking foreign service officers, was never considered suitable Smithson material. In a dispassionate voice Alex recalls her improbable affair with David 19 years earlier that resulted (unknown to David) in the birth of a son, subsequently given up for adoption. Now the teenager is heir to some enormously valuable property, and his appearance at the ranch, under pressure, forces some painful confrontations. A fine eye for detail and some elegantly drawn portraits save this story of a family in transition from becoming unbridled melodrama. Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Thicker Than Blood. John Lutz. 1993. St Martin’s Press. A return to state-of-the-art p.i. writing for Lutz, whose sour-stomach shamus, Alo Nudger (Diamond Eyes, 1990, etc.) finds himself, again, with a lying client—Ozark-bred Norva Beane, who says Dale Rand suckered her in a junk-bond deal. Nudger’s bugging reveals that Rand is probably raping his adopted daughter Luanne, and various tails indicate that he’s in cahoots with drug king King Chambers. Norva, for some reason, seems more concerned with Luanne’s welfare than with Rand’s thievery, and along with bulky Bobber Beane, her Possum Run kin, she begins menacing Rand. Then Luanne dies and the hillbilly duo hire Nudger to track her murderer—seems Luanne was the daughter they gave up for adoption years back. Three more will die before Nudger’s stomach can settle down again and he and homicide cop Hammersmith can identify all the toe tags in the morgue. Tough, wry (Nudger is dabbling in the stock market—to girlfriend Claudia’s disgust), and unsentimental: what fans of the hard-boiled detective story have been yearning for.— Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Three Cries of Terror. Ann Ashton. 1980. 205p. Doubleday.

Three Weeks to Say Goodbye. CJ Box. 2009. 352p. Minotaur Books. Jack and Melissa McGuane have spent years trying to have a baby. Finally their dream has come true with the adoption of their daughter, Angelina. But nine months after bringing her home, they receive a devastating phone call from the adoption agency: Angelina’s birth father, a teenager, never signed away his parental rights, and he wants her back. Worse, his father, a powerful Denver judge, wants him to own up to this responsibility and will use every advantage his position of power affords him to make sure it happens. When Jack and Melissa attempt to handle the situation rationally by meeting face-to-face with the father and son, it is immediately apparent that there’s something sinister about both of them and that love for Angelina is not the motivation for their actions. As Angelina’s safety hangs in the balance, Jack and Melissa will stop at nothing to protect their child. A horrifying game of intimidation and double crosses begins that quickly becomes a death spiral where absolutely no one is safe. About the Author: C.J. Box is the author of the bestselling, Edgar Award–winning Blue Heaven, as well as seven Joe Pickett novels. His work has won him the Anthony, Macavity, Barry, and Gumshoe awards, as well as the French Prix Calibre .38. He has also been an Edgar Award and Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist. Open Season was a 2001 New York Times Notable Book. He lives outside of Cheyenne, WY, with his family. Visit the Author’s website.

Ticket to Ride: A Mystery. Janet Neel. 2005. 287p. St Martin’s Press. On the beach, west of King’s Lynn, a dog discovers the shallow graves of eight bodies: all male, all young, all identifying papers removed. All had suffocated to death and been hastily dragged through the mud to their temporary graves. An unfortunate fate for the asylum seekers, identified by their clothing as being from the former Yugoslavia. Jules Carlisle, the youngest and most recently qualified member of Paul Jenkins Solicitors knows very little about illegal immigration and asylum and would like to keep it that way. But when she takes on the case of Mirko Dragunovic, an illegal immigrant who arrives in great distress claiming his brother is one of the eight found dead, she finds herself intrigued by his plight and concerned for his welfare. Mirko absconed on a Home Office scheme while being hired as cheap labour on a farm in Norfolk. Reluctant to give personal details due to his illegal citizen status, Mirko has knowledge of the human traffic operation that was bringing his brother to the UK. Jules is torn between helping this man who defected for love, and following the correct procedure in keeping with MI5. But it seems the case is even more complicated that she at first suspects. And it isn’t long before she finds herself drawn inexorably into great danger, and back into the territory of the abused childhood she thought she had escaped forever.

Time to Say Goodbye. Pat MacEnulty. 2005. 256p. Serpent’s Tail Publishing Ltd. Time to Say Goodbye tells the story of a suburban wife and mother with a deadly past and the detective who is determined to find out the truth. When a motel maid in Gainesville, FL, is brutally murdered, Detective Bullock believes the crime may be linked to three 25-year-old murders. Later, when another woman disappears, Bullock discovers a connection that his superiors don’t want him to pursue. Working on his own time, Bullock follows a lead to a realtor in North Carolina. Another kidnapping takes him back to Florida and into the eye of a hurricane where he must battle the elements to save lives. Pat MacEnulty’s first mystery, Time to Say Goodbye is a triumphant invasion of the traditionally male world of noir writing. About the Author: Pat MacEnulty lives in Charlotte, North Carolina. She is the recipient of an Individual Artist Fellowship from the Florida Arts Council.

To Perish in Penzance. Jeanne M. Dams. 2001. 224p. Walker & Co. She was about twenty, with long blond hair, and her body was found a few days after she fell from the cliffs to her death on the rocks below. The action of the water and sea life made circulating a picture of her impossible, but even with a description, no one identified her; no one reported a girl gone missing from any of the nearby villages. She’d been fashionably dressed, obviously out for a night of partying. All the police knew was her approximate age, that she’d had a child a few months before she died, and that she weighed only about ninety pounds. The cliff from which she fell was miles from anywhere. Her death was a mystery that had haunted Alan Nesbitt, Dorothy Martin’s now-retired Chief Constable husband, since 1968. It was a failure that he’d carried for years. It was raining in Sherebury, but the sun was out in Cornwall. A perfect time to take a vacation...and a perfect chance for Dorothy Martin. It didn’t matter that the incident had happened more than thirty years earlier; Dorothy was going to get to the bottom of the mystery for Alan...and uncover a new one while she was at it. About the Author: Jeanne M. Dams lives in South Bend, Indiana. The Body in the Transept, which introduced Dorothy Martin, won the Agatha Award for Best First Novel. Dams is also the author of Green Grow the Victims and other Hilda Johansson mysteries published by Walker & Company.

Trio. Cath Staincliffe. 2002. 256p. Severn House Publishers Ltd (UK). Set in Manchester, England, in 1960, three young Catholic women find themselves pregnant and unmarried. In these pre-Pill days, there is only one acceptable course of action: adoption. So Megan, Caroline and Joan meet up in St. Ann’s Home for Unmarried Mothers to await the births of their babies. Three little girls are born, and placed with their adoptive families. Trio follows the lives of these mothers and daughters over the ensuing years.

True Crime: A Novel. Michael Mewshaw. 1991. 288p. Poseidon Press. From Library Journal: The main character of this outstanding, more than just a mystery, novel is Tom Heller Jr., who makes a plush living writing true crime books. When his father, “Big Tom,” is murdered, Tom Jr. leaves the comforts of life and family in Rome to return to Baltimore. The murders of the father and son of his wealthy college girlfriend soon seem more than coincidental to Tom, as he launches his own investigation into the crimes. Delving into his past in Baltimore’s poorest sections, Tom must confront feelings he thought long buried. The more Tom learns about the past and about the way the important people in his life view him, the more uncomfortable he becomes with the ambiguities of his profession and with his opinion of himself. —Dean James, Houston Acad. of Medicine/Texas Medical Ctr. Lib.; Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Tryst, The. Michael Dibdin. 1989. 168p. Faber & Faber (UK). “One of my patients thinks somebody’s trying to kill him,” Aileen Macklin says to her husband over breakfast. A psychiatrist with a fading marriage, Aileen is haunted by the glue-sniffing lad who comes to her in a panic, begging to be admitted to a psychiatric hospital for protection. Gary Dunn clearly needs help: ravaged by his squalid existence, he is paralyzed with fear about a murder he has witnessed and convinced he may be next. Unfortunately for Gary, he may just be right. And unfortunately for Aileen, she becomes far more involved in his case than professional ethics would recommend. About the Author: Michael Dibdin is the author of many novels, including the Aurelio Zen mysteries And Then You Die, Dead Lagoon, and Ratking, which won the Crime Writers Association Gold Dagger Award, and The Last Sherlock Holmes Story. He lives in Seattle Washington.

Vanishing Point. Marcia Muller. 2006. 336p. (Sharon McCone Series #23). Mysterious Press. Long-time fans of the series will enjoy many elements of this book: Sharon and Hy finally marry; Sharon’s birth mother and adopted mother meet one another; Sharon’s agency expands with some new operatives; and Rae finds herself back doing some detection. In addition, there’s a dark, detailed plot that builds from a very old, cold case. For a Nevada wedding, the nuptials between Sharon McCone and sexy fellow investigator Hy Ripinsky are downright tasteful: no Elvis impersonators, no plastic flowers, no embarrassing last-minute bailout by a bride well known for her phobia to commitment. This time, McCone has displayed the smarts she uses in her successful detective firm and chosen a guy who respects her as a professional and shares her passions. But living together in her beloved little house on Church Street may be another matter entirely, especially when Hy suggests they need a bigger place. The looming crisis of who will compromise first is delayed when Hy heads out of town on business and McCone dives into one of her most baffling cases yet - the disappearance of Laurel Greenwood, who vanished twenty-two years before without a trace. Laurel’s grown-up daughter is desperately seeking closure and wants McCone to find out the fate of the young mother and artist who never returned from a day of landscape painting in a Central California coastal town. The case is cold, and the evidence McCone begins uncovering is chilling. Secrets kept for two decades now emerge to create a portrait of a woman who’s perfect on the surface and anything but a paragon beneath it. And when someone takes potshots at McCone to scare her into dropping her inquiries, the detective’s resolve hardens. She intends to uncover the truth - the whole truth - even when it awakens her suspicions that the bonds of marriage can easily become chains, and that escaping them may lead to desperate acts…or murderous ones. By the Same Author: With the revelation of her protagonist’s status as an adoptee in Listen to the Silence, subsequent books in the series address this aspect of the character’s relationship with both her adoptive and birth familes: Listen to the Silence (2000); Dead Midnight (2002); The Dangerous Hour (2004); The Ever-Running Man (2007); Burn Out (2008); Locked In (2009).

Voice of the Violin, The. Andrea Camilleri. Translated by Stephen Sartarelli. 2003. 304p. Viking Press. Inspector Salvo Montalbano, with his compelling mix of humor, cynicism, and compassion, has been compared to Georges Simenon’s Inspector Maigret, Dashiel Hammett’s Sam Spade, and Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe. In this latest novel, Montalbano’s gruesome discovery of a lovely, naked young woman suffocated in her bed immediately sets him on a search for her killer. Among the suspects are her aging husband, a famous doctor; a shy admirer, now disappeared; an antiques-dealing lover from Bologna; and the victim’s friend Anna, whose charms Montalbano cannot help but appreciate. But it is a mysterious, reclusive violinist who holds the key to this murder. By the Same Author: The Snack Thief (2003).

Voodoo River (An Elvis Cole Mystery). Robert Crais. 1995. 298p. Hyperion. Robert Crais has established Elvis Cole, his wisecracking private eye with a tough exterior but a soft heart, in the consciousness of mystery readers and reviewers everywhere. In Voodoo River, Elvis Cole returns in his most exciting adventure yet. Hired to uncover the past of Jodi Taylor, an actress in a hit television series, Elvis leaves his native Los Angeles to journey to deepest Louisiana to search for Jodi’s biological parents. Soon he discovers the real reason he’s been sent there—but not before run-ins with an amazing cast of characters, including a crazed, Raid-spraying housewife; a Cajun thug who looks like he’s been built out of spare parts; and a menacing, hundred-year-old river turtle named Luther.

Waif of the River. Jeffrey Farnol. 1952. 294p. Sampson Low (UK). A young woman, unconcious and near to drowning, rescued from the muddy waters of London’s river Thames; an impetuous young man who, by quarrelling with his adopted father and his best friend, nearly ruins his life; the disappearance of one of two sisters whose guardians employ a bodyguard of Italian thugs; the mysterious and handsome “Bet” who can handle a boat like a man; and Jasper Shrig, the famous Bow Street runner.

Wars & Winters. Alfred Coppel. 1993. 250p. Donald I Fine. A Nazi dagger in the mail lures a middle-aged Californian back to Germany, where he was adopted and where his recurring nightmares seem to be set—in a chilly post-reunion thriller by the author of A Land of Mirrors (1988), etc. The dagger in question, a particularly rare bit of SS regalia, has been seen before. It was among the souvenirs belonging to journalist Brian Lockwood’s late adopted father, a career officer who played a mysterious role in the Nuremberg trials. The knife disappeared on a visit to the Lockwood house by Brian’s louche Uncle Dean, a sticky-fingered dealer in art objects and antiques. Now here it is back again. Lockwood, recuperating from a mild heart attack and a divorce, knows that the return of the dagger has something to do with Uncle Dean, but does it also have something to do with the shadowy figures lurking around Brian’s Monterey peninsular home? And is there a link to Brian’s journalistic investigation into the activities of the Stasi, ex-East Germany’s horrid secret police? There is an unsigned note from Uncle Dean packed with the knife. It urges Brian to follow the lead of the name on the hilt. Unpleasant things begin to happen to the people around Lockwood before he can even leave the neighborhood to begin his investigation. But he is not put off. He expects to find out not only whose knife he has, but why his adopted mother loathed him, why his father’s career went off the rails, why his father adopted him in the first place, and who it is he dreams about when his sleep is disturbed by childhood terrors having to do with his abandonment in a German wetland. Sedate and rather agreeably gloomy in the old mid-century spy fashion. If only it weren’t quite so predictable. — © 1993 Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Web of Secrets. Ernesto Patino. 2009. 198p. L & L Dreamspell. Some family history is too dangerous to be revealed. Sarah Baker’s search for the truth about her adoption uncovered a tangled web of deadly secrets. A phone call from a blackmailer turned Sarah’s life upside down. The man claimed to know the circumstances of her illegal adoption thirty years ago. He also revealed some shocking facts about her real parents. Rather than have the blackmailer go public with the information and risk her husband’s career, she agreed to a one-time payoff. Their situation was far from resolved, and doubts about her heritage put a strain on their once ideal marriage. Sarah still didn’t have verification of the truth. She needed more details. Were there any brothers or sisters, or other family members nearby? Had the same blackmailer approached them too? Hiring a Private Investigator seemed the only option, but it meant opening a Pandora’s box. Sarah needed confirmation and closure, and was willing to take the risk. Ex-FBI investigator turned P.I. Joe Coopersmith was up to the task, but working on a thirty-year-old mystery wouldn’t be easy. Joe didn’t realize it might also turn deadly.

Wedding to Die For, A. Leann Sweeney. 2005. 272p. (A Yellow Rose Mystery). Signet. From the author of Pick Your Poison comes a crazy case of matrimonial murder and a broken-hearted bride-to-be when a family guest gets hit over the head with a gift. The bad reception only gets deadlier for Houston PI Abby Rose, enlisted to resolve the wedding fiasco. About the Author: Leann Sweeney was born and raised in Niagara Falls and educated at St. Joseph’s Hospital and Lemoyne College in Syracuse, NY. She also has a degree from the University of Houston in behavioral science and worked for many years in psychiatry. Currently a school nurse, she began writing about fifteen years ago, fulfilling her lifelong dream. After perfecting her writing skills with classes and a small fortune in writing books, she joined MWA and Sisters in Crime. Her short fiction won many awards and several mysteries were published in small market mystery magazines. One novel and another mystery novella went straight to audio. Leann is married with two fabulous grown children, a wonderful son-in-law and a beautiful daughter-in-law. She has lived in Texas for almost thirty years and resides in Friendswood, Texas with husband Mike and her three cats. By the Same Author: Pick Your Poison (2004), Dead Giveaway (2005),  Shoot From the Lip (2007), and Pushing Up Bluebonnets (2008)..

Whatever Doesn’t Kill You. Gillian Roberts. 2001. 288p. Minotaur Books. Private investigator Emma Howe’s hiring of young Billie August (see Time and Trouble, the first book in Roberts’ new series) was an act of desperation. She needed an assistant and could pay very little; Billie needed a job and would take what she could get. But both women were surprised to find that in spite of Billie’s inexperience and the difficulty of working under Emma, they were slowly coming to respect one another. Now they are faced with two cases of more than the routine surveillance of suspected insurance fraud perpetrators. A young man of deficient mental ability has been accused of the murder of a woman who had befriended him on their daily jogging route. Emma has handed this case to Billie; the evidence against him is convincing and she has no hope that the younger woman can come up with anything new, but the youth’s mother is willing to pay, so let Billie handle it. Emma herself takes on another case that seems to lead to a dead end—a young woman who knows she is adopted wants to find her birth mother; her adoptive mother refuses to cooperate. There’s not much hope that either case will come up with anything helpful, but both the youth’s mother and the adopted woman are anxious to try, and the fees will pay the month’s rent at least. If either detective could extract information from the frightened young man, it would be gentle Billie rather than impatient Emma, who has a tendency to bully. Billie, whose own five-year-old son requires a knowing touch, gradually calms the troubled youth; Emma, meanwhile, is making progress on her own case, and the two detectives are not only amazed to find that the two seemingly so-different cases are moving closer and closer together, but that they may, indeed, be successful in each. What they also find, however, almost too late, is that the secrets they are uncovering are leading them into peril of their own lives. About the Author: Gillian Roberts is well known for her Amanda Pepper series. This is her second book in a new series to feature Howe and August. She lives in Marin County, California with her husband.

When Darkness Falls. James Grippando. 2007. 336p. HarperCollins. From Booklist: If Miami criminal defense attorney Jack Swyteck thinks his latest case is weird, he ain’t seen nothin’ yet. His client, a homeless man who calls himself Falcon, posts $10,000 bail in cash. That has Jack scratching his head, but when a body is found in the trunk of the abandoned car that Falcon calls home, Jack is prepared to go to the mat to defend his client—until, that is, Falcon kidnaps Jack’s best friend, and Jack is propelled into an investigation that pushes his abilities to the limit. Although previous Swyteck novels have not been as compelling as most of Grippando’s stand-alone thrillers, the series is solid and reliable. This one, which delves into the mystery of the Disappeared, the 30,000-plus Argentineans who (because of their opposition to the military regime) vanished between 1975 and 1983, is deeper than its predecessors. And that’s good, because Grippando is at his best when he’s telling a story that’s more than a mere whodunit. The novel feels darker, more dramatic, than the previous Swyteck adventures, and it’s by far the best in the series. — David Pitt. © American Library Association. All rights reserved.

Where Secrets Lie. LC Hayden. 2001. 243p. Top Publications. At her mother’s deathbed, Lisa learns a horrible truth—at birth she was the subject of an illegal adoption. Overwhelmed with this revelation, Lisa becomes obsessedwith finding her biological parents. Her search takes her into the world of one of the wealthiest men in america, James Johnson. A man with a diabolical secret which, if discovered, will destroy him. Lisa, unaware of this, continues to dig and each step brings her closer to learning the truth...and to death. About the Author: Elsie (L.C.) Hayden is a retired school teacher from El Paso, Texas who has been a prolific writer for over twenty-five years. Her first novel, Who’s Susan?, was published in 1997, followed by When Colette Died in 1999. Hayden lives with her husband and family in El Paso, Texas, where she is at work on her next novel.

Where’s Miss Mary?. Liz Hamlin. 2005. 261p. Trafford Publishing Co. When Ruth McBain becomes a widow in her mid-forties, she makes a drastic change in her life: she decides to become a foster mother to six-year-old Lark, a little girl about whom she knew nothing other than that the child had been in and out of several foster homes. Despite her determination to keep Ruth at arm’s length, Lark forms an unusually close relationship with Mary Burdock, a neighbor os Ruth’s only a couple of houses down the street. Miss Mary’s husband, Frank, however, does not share his wife’s affection for Lark, and Lark is forbidden from visiting Miss Mary whenever Frank is at home. When Lark reports that is apprears that Frank Burdock is mistreating his wife, her stories are dismissed and she learns that she might be removed from Ruth’s care if she continues to pry into the Burdocks’ private affairs. When the Burdocks retun from a mmonts-long trip to Florida, things take a turn for the worse for Lark. About the Author: Liz Hamlin has written many books, including The Women on Country Club Drive, The Women in No Man’s Land, I Remember Valentine, and Dorie and Me. and has served as Vice President and President of the Eastern Shore Writers Association, headquartered in Easton, Maryland. She is a member of the International Women’s Writing Guild.

Who Is Simon Warwick?. Patricia Moyes. 1978. 168p. Holt, Rinehart & Winston. Millionaire Lord Charlton has altered his will in favor of his nephew, Simon Warwick, who had been adopted by American parents when his own were killed in World War II. But when the Millionaire dies, two men turn up claiming to be the nephew. After one of them is found dead, Chief Superintendent Henry Tibbett is faced with a double mystery: Who is the murderer and who is the nephew?

Wicked Game. Lisa Jackson & Nancy Bush. 2009. 384p. Zebra Books. Twenty years ago, wild child Jessie Brentwood vanished from St. Elizabeth’s high school. Most in Jessie’s tight circle of friends believed she simply ran away. Few suspected that Jessie was hiding a shocking secret - one that brought her into the crosshairs of a vicious killer. Two decades pass before a body is unearthed on school grounds and Jessie’s old friends reunite to talk. Most are sure that the body is Jessie’s, that the mystery of what happened to her has finally been solved. But soon, Jessie’s friends each begin to die in horrible, freak accidents that defy explanation. Becca Sutcliff has been haunted for years by unsettling visions of Jessie, certain her friend met with a grisly end. Now the latest deaths have her rattled. Becca can sense that an evil force is shadowing her too, waiting for just the right moment to strike. She feels like she’s going crazy. Is it all a coincidence—or has Jessie’s killer finally returned to finish what was started all those years ago?

Winter House. Carol O’Connell. 2005. 320p. (A Mallory Novel). GP Putnam’s Sons. From Publishers Weekly: An ice pick is the murder weapon of choice in O’Connell’s new noir featuring glacier-cool detective Kathy Mallory. A former homeless child/thief adopted by a kind-hearted New York cop, Mallory has parlayed her familiarity with the shady side of society into a successful—if somewhat unorthodox—career as a sleuth (she picks complex locks with aplomb and her investigative methods flirt with the limits of the law). When Nedda Winter, missing for 58 years following the massacre of her family at their New York mansion, reappears at the scene of the crime—now the site of a brand-new homicide—Mallory (“[s]till feral in many ways”) digs her red lacquered nails right into the case. Cleo and Lionel Winter are mystified by their sister Nedda’s return, certain they were the only survivors of the long-ago stabbing rampage. Mallory, working alongside sartorially challenged homicide detective Riker and psychologist Charles Butler, suspects the reason lies with Cleo’s ex-husband, Sheldon Smyth, a slick estate lawyer with exclusive access to the Winter family’s multimillion-dollar trust. But Smyth’s dubious deeds are just the tip of the ice pick in the hands of O’Connell, known for her idiosyncratic characters and labyrinthine plots in eight previous thrillers including Mallory’s Oracle and Dead Famous. Vivid prose keeps the pages turning in this intricate tale of betrayal, buried secrets and lives chopped short in the name of greed. © 2004, Reed Business Information. Other Titles in the “Mallory” Series: Mallory’s Oracle (1994); The Man Who Cast Two Shadows (1995); Killing Critics (1996); Stone Angel (1997); Shell Game (1999); Crime School (2002); Dead Famous (2003); and Find Me (2006).

Without Conscience. David Stuart Davies. 2008. 224p. (Johnny Hawke Novel #2). Minotaur Books. From Kirkus Reviews: In war-torn England, fledgling PI Johnny Hawke has his hands full with a runaway youth and a cross-dresser’s baffling murder. It’s 1942. Swaggering soldier Harryboy Jenkins turns a night away from the base into an AWOL felony when he murders the vicar who gives him a ride and then drives the man’s car into London for a spree. Meanwhile, rookie detective Johnny Hawke is hired by angry wife Sandra Riley to catch her two-timing husband Walter in the act. Johnny finds Walter in full drag and makeup, with no secret girlfriend. Feeling sorry for him, he listens to his tale of woe over drinks. When they hit the street, Walter is accosted by a purse snatcher who shoots him dead when he resists. Not far away, young Peter Blake is having a hard time with his new adoptive family. Arthur Booth is a rough disciplinarian, and neighborhood boys tease fragile Peter mercilessly. As he’s done before (Forests of the Night, 2007, etc.), Peter runs away to Johnny’s flat. When Sandra Riley learns of her husband’s murder, the tough facade melts and she tearfully hires Hawke to find the killer. Harryboy takes up with a thrill-seeking young beauty named Rachel who seems only slightly fazed when he shoots a policeman dead. Just as Hawke gets a bead on Harryboy as Walter’s killer, Peter runs away. Hawke’s sleek, intermittent first-person narrative nicely counterpoints the rest of the story, presented by an omniscient voice. Subtly involving despite an undistinguished plot. About the Author: An internationally recognized expert on Sherlock Holmes and Sie Arthur Conan Doyle, David Stuart Davies is the editor of the crime fiction magazine Sherlock and the author of several books on Sherlock Holmes. He also edits the Crime Writers’ Association’s monthly Red Herrings magazine. Forests of the Night (2007) was his first Johnny Hawke novel. He lives in West Yorkshire, England. Visit his Web site at www.davidstuartdavies.com.

Witness for the Defense. Jonnie Jacobs. 2001. 320p. Kensington Publishing Corporation (UK). Lawyer Kali O’Brien’s seemingly routine adoption case takes a disturbing turn when controversial radio host Bram Weaver, claiming to be the father of the baby being adopted by Kali’s clients, initiates a custody battle and is later murdered.

Woman Without a Past. Phyllis Whitney. 1991. 302p. Doubleday. Molly Hunt, a successful novelist, is surprised to discover that she had an unknown twin sister living in Charleston, South Carolina. At the historic family plantation, she meets her beautiful and fragile twin, Amelia, their reclusive mother, and a cast of intriguing and disturbing characters who both question her identity and, in their way, confirm it. For her arrival has set in motion a series of strange and frightening events. In the intoxicating magnolia-scented world of her original family, haunting memories of an unsolved murder threaten the family’s very existence, as well as her own. Author Photograph © Ken Bennett Photography