Giles, my sibling, my Mephistophilis. You lie whenever it suits you, but when you lie to me, surely you can take the trouble to make it convincing?

Simon Coltraine is a professional songwriter and musician. His brother Giles - trader, rogue and amiable bully - is a crook. When Giles is killed in a car accident Simon returns to their childhood home to confront his memories and his own complicity in his brother’s schemes.

The Devil has all the best tunes.

Sue Lange again engages the mind as she entertains the senses through Uncategorized (publ: BookViewCafe.com), a collection of randomly genius short stories. Re-defining the aspect of “Theater of the Mind,” this progressive sci-fi author takes advantage of new multi-media tools that technology affords the modern reader. In this, her latest book, the short story meets old-time radio buckled up in a time machine and blasted into the future. In this thought-provoking collection, Lange grabs the reader with an “audio download” and segues into her eclectic set of short stories with the aggressive delivery of a beat poet and the timing of a stand-up comedian. Her Uncategorized readers are certain to be a good crowd, for they will find themselves laughing out loud and at the same time nodding in agreement. You can find Lange at her website.

In 1992, Vicky Gallas opened escort services in Orlando, Florida. Two years later she became the focus of an intense criminal investigation that resulted in her arrest in late 2001, and subsequent jury trial. With her fighting spirit and her unwillingness to buckle under an unrelenting pattern of intimidation, the author became the only owner of an escort service in the United States brought to trial on organized crime charges and found innocent.

In this hard-hitting memoir, Gallas reveals how racketeering and organized crime charges were brought against her based on evidence so flimsy that agents and prosecutors could not get a wiretap or a warrant to search.

The real story begins in early 1993, with the discovery of blocks on escort service telephone lines in Orlando area resort PBX systems during large convention bookings. The author unknowingly walked into the middle of one of the biggest ongoing conspiracies in US history, and as she discovered, the blocks began in the late 1980s and were not isolated to the Orlando area, but were also transpiring in Las Vegas and later in numerous other US cities. Though there have been civil suits filed in Nevada and federal courts over the blocks by other victims of the conspiracy, to this day the practice has evolved and continues unabated by the powerful group that concocted the conspiracy so long ago. The real story is the relentless pursuit of Vicky Gallas by powerful people with so much to lose if the truth were to be exposed.

For anyone fascinated with the foibles of our criminal justice system, the sensational Orlando connection, and how escort services really work, this is a must-read book. 

Author Website

Craig Edmonds, a successful stockbroker, reports the disappearance of his wife, Kirsty. What starts as a typical missing person’s case soon evolves into a full-blown homicide investigation when forensics uncover blood traces and dark-blonde hairs in the boot of the missing woman’s car. Added to this, is Craig’s adulterous affair with the victim’s younger sister, Narelle Croswell, compounded further by a recently acquired $1,000,000 insurance policy on his wife’s life. He is charged with murder but, with no body and only circumstantial evidence, he walks free when two trials resulting in hung juries fail to convict him.

Ten years later, Jacinta Deller, a newspaper journalist is retrenched. Working on a freelance story about missing persons, she comes across the all but forgotten Edmonds case. When she discovers her boyfriend, Brett Rhodes, works with Narelle Croswell, who is not only the victim’s sister but is now married to the prime suspect, her sister’s husband, she thinks she has found the perfect angle for her article. Instead, her life is turned upside down, as befriending the woman, she becomes embroiled in a warped game of delusion and murder.

THIN BLOOD is a suspense-filled mystery in a contemporary Australian setting. The novel also touches on deeper themes, like family and trust: protagonist Jacinta Deller discovers that blood is not always thicker than water, and sometimes the people you should count on are not the ones who are tied to you by blood or by marriage.

Vicki Tyley author website

1963, and panic over the spread of heroin addiction in London. While the Profumo and Challenor scandals are exposing the dark underbelly of postwar Britain, a teenage heroin and cocaine addict undergoes a cold turkey in a padded cell. His escape from custody triggers a chain of events which ends in murder and mayhem.

A lyrical and triumphant elegy to a seedy, vice-ridden London of the 1960s.

A series of unexplained deaths shatters the serenity of a Vancouver Island girls’ school, and Tempest Ivory, child psychologist and soprano, races to solve the mystery before it claims more lives. Tempest lands a coveted lead role in Rigoletto, but as she prepares for her operatic debut, the explosive secrets lurking behind the academy walls set her on a collision course with her past.

“…draws you in compellingly from the opening page…a gripping story of death and family secrets…The characters are quirky and sympathetic.” — The Paper Chase

“…a harrowing tale of blasphemy, insanity, suicide and murder.” — Snoop Sisters Mystery Bookshoppe

“…if you enjoy psychological, twist a minute books, A Hemorrhaging of Souls is definitely for you.” — I Love A Mystery

A Hemorrhaging of Souls - trailer

For more info: please visit Nicola Furlong’s website

Buy the e-book at: iTunes

What happens when two professional assassins - one a Mafia hitman and the other a former German terrorist - kill at exactly the same moment in time? For Ernst Stahl and Frank Jolino the result is a psychic bond that slowly blossoms in each man’s mind, enabling them to see into the other’s world. Frank Jolino doesn’t like what he sees, especially when he realizes that Stahl is headed to his home turf of Boston to kill a scientist who may hold the key to solving the world’s deadliest diseases. But for Stahl, there’s no other option. Virtually bankrupt and with his son in desperate need of a bone marrow transplant, he’s got little choice but to take the assignment. Jolino has other ideas. On the run from his crime syndicate for refusing to kill his ex-girlfriend-turned-government-informant, Jolino sets a plan in motion that will bring the two men face-to-face and gun-to-gun…with no guarantees either will survive.

Jon F. Merz is the author of over a dozen books including the Lawson Vampire series published by Pinnacle Books in 2002-2003 and (one of the writers on) the internationally bestselling Rogue Angel adventure series as well as several standalone thrillers and two non-fiction books.

A large company crushing the little man, pushing out the sole trader, it seems an every day scenario. But is it really? Lies, extortion, rape and murder, maybe there is something more than just dominating the market. Follow this exciting crime thriller novel day by day for free online. Coming to you on March the 23rd 2009. Get your feet wet and read a teaser at http://www.lizzydesign.org/thriller-novel-infected/ ….. don’t be scared now ….

Tourists is a satire describing the situation created when the CIA wants to build a secret air strip in the bush north of Ottawa. A lobbyist is recruited to get the deal done. The plan is threatened by publicity generated by the Taylor brothers whose land is to be expropriated. The situation is complicated by clandestine meetings held in a van driven on the Rideau Canal during Winterlude.

Hal Henderson made a good living in Ottawa for a while as a private detective. He was known to everyone as “Henny”, short for Henderson. He picked up the nickname in high school.

There were many lawyers who employed Henny’s services to dig up dirt on politicians and sneaky spouses in the nation’s capital. When Henny got greedy, he tempted some of the wrong people into compromising situations, some with drugs, most with girls. He recorded everything. The rich and famous were willing to pay Henny off, but he asked too much. The police charged him after a victim complained about blackmail. It went downhill from there.

–Excerpt

In this medical mystery thriller, Doctor Carson Hyll falls asleep and drives into a river and experiences one of the worst nightmares of his life. The young intern is knocked unconscious and has a negative near death experience so real, so frightening that he thinks he died and went to hell.

When others in the highly-religious small town of Ocean Village have similar negative near death experiences and wake up with burnt skin, they believe they went to hell and that God has abandoned them.

Matters get worse when a local Satanic cult emerges to promote their beliefs and win over the town residents. Will the heroine, Chantress, be able to stop cult leader Kyle Mabus or will he succeed in destroying all known religions in the world?

Bestselling author and psychic Sylvia Browne writes in her book, Prophecy, that, “…our beliefs are the driving force behind our behavior, our opinions, our actions. Without faith, without our beliefs, we’re lost.”

This fast-paced, criminal mystery centers on Jake Stern, a former trial lawyer turned private investigator who undergoes a dangerous adventure as he investigates a boutique estate law firm. This puzzling case is much more hazardous than expected as Jake travels from New Orleans to Philadelphia to Rio, uncovering insurance fraud, kidnapping, murder, nightclub scandals, and even romance.

“…but with that Will changed just before Marlene died, you can bet there is one hell of a battle about to take place with the Dow Jones heirs.”

“What is it?” Jake yelled to his driver.
“It’s the PCC.” Called the driver.
“Who the hell is the PCC?” Jake asked.

“It was a late New Orleans night…the air felt different from Rio….It felt like home. It was the musky smell of delta humanity…”

“Methodically, he walked back to the Cooper as if this were an out of body experience. He got into the Cooper and drove off. No one was around. No one came around. It was the ghetto.”

–Excerpt

Being a thief makes it difficult to meet the right girl. And when you do, something always gets in the way. Like finding yourself trapped underground, caught in a shoot-out, with the police after you and only a supernatural killer to protect you. And if you somehow survive all that, you’ve still got to persuade her to part with her phone number. Underlife is a fast, short, sweet, tense runaway train of a thriller.

“An impressively ambitious debut that marries the crime novel with the occult thriller…It’s a British variant on The Da Vinci Code and The Rule of Four.”

– Andrew Taylor, twice winner of the CWA Ellis Peters Dagger

Cinder Torley is an intelligent young woman who yearns to escape the stifling yoke imposed by her small town upbringing and unhappy marriage, but that doesn’t mean she killed her husband. When he goes missing one night, Cinder quickly learns who—and how few—her friends really are in this darkly comic tale of dueling schemers and incompetents.

The sheriff thinks this might be his only ticket out of back-country law enforcement. Coffee house barista Clark Norris knows a sordid, true-crime story could jumpstart his stalled writing career. Glamorous correspondent Bailey Weems sees a ratings bonanza that can make her a cable news star. And as for Velma and Naomi, who may or may not be part of the notorious Manitoba Six Canadian crime ring, they’re only in it for the black market Phen-Fen. The surprising truth about what happened to Cinder’s husband will lay waste to all these agendas, but will it prove Cinder’s innocence.

What a fun read - dark comedy that will remind you of Elmore Leonard, Carl Hiassen and Jennifer Crusie at their best…Read this book and brag to your friends that you’ve discovered the “Next Big Thing” in fiction.

– J. Schisler, on Amazon.com

It’s three thousand miles from the green fields of glory, where Henry “call me Hank” Thompson once played California baseball, to the Lower East Side of Manhattan, where the tenements are old, the rents are high, and the drunks are dirty. But now Hank is here, working as a bartender and taking care of a cat named Bud who is surely going to get him killed.

It begins when Hank’s neighbor, Russ, has to leave town in a rush and hands over Bud in a carrier. But it isn’t until two Russians in tracksuits drag Hank over the bar at the joint where he works and beat him to a pulp that he starts to get the idea: Someone wants something from him. He just doesn’t know what it is, where it is, or how to make them understand he doesn’t have it.

Within twenty-four hours Hank is running over rooftops, swinging his old aluminum bat for the sweet spot of a guy’s head, playing hide and seek with the NYPD, riding the subway with a dead man at his side, and counting a whole lot of cash on a concrete floor.

All because of two cowboys, two Russian mafia men, and some of the weirdest goons ever assembled in one place. All because of Bud. All because once, in another life, in another world, the only thing Hank wanted was to take third base—without getting caught.

Make This Into a Movie Tarantino. It Rocks! - James J. Yohe

Mulled wine, roasting chestnuts… and murder. This is the eighteenth murder mystery featuring M C Beaton’s imperfect heroine Agatha Raisin.

Agatha is dreaming of a white Christmas, but who will be joining her under the mistletoe? During the dark, grey days of early December Agatha is obsessed by only two things: Christmas, and her ex, James Lacey.

Although she says she feels nothing for James now, she feels sure that planning the perfect Dickensian Christmas for all her friends will somehow reanimate her love. Even the murder of a Mrs Tamworthy, poisoned with hemlock at the local manor house, does little to distract Agatha from organising her perfect yuletide celebrations.

And yet it should do, as Mrs Tamworthy had written to Agatha, telling her that one of her family wanted to see her dead before the year was out. Slightly guiltily (and belatedly), Agatha sets out to solve the case with the help of her new recruit, young Toni Gilmour.

Baghdad on the Bayou, the second novel in the Jacob Stern series, follows private investigator Jake Stern as he attempts to track down and rescue the kidnapped daughter of a respected law professor. Blackwater Mercenaries, led by Lt. Richard Dormand, dragged the bright young daughter away through Nuevo Laredo, Cartelito wars, and ultimately into the southern mountains of Mexico, and it’s Jake’s responsibility to save her.

“This little bitch passed out up at the preacher’s trying to dance for him. I prodded her ass with my hot-shot, but it didn’t bring her around. The preacher is pissed!”

“Blackwater Dormand has taken Tasha to Laredo, Texas. Probably across the border. It is renowned for missing girls never found.”

“I still have the element of surprise” he thought to himself. “I have to take this Blackwater out that is circling my way. I have to do it silently, so Dormand will keep wondering where I am.”

– Excerpt