Showing results by publisher "Audible Studios" in Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

A man who claims to be a journalist has arrived in Lost Lake with an old photograph and some questions for Tess that go back decades. His questions have put her on edge, and when he shows up peeking through her kitchen window, everyone else is right there with her. As beloved as Tess is, there are plenty of people who don't care about any so-called journalist and are happy to protect her, but how far are they willing to take it? And when will they need answers to questions that that only Tess can provide?

Detective Inspector Carol Ashton is back physically recovered from a gunshot wound, but emotionally shaken. She’s feeling the pressure of being out as a lesbian and constantly putting her life on the line. Can she do it again?

Joanna Kasimir, an old friend of Jane Lawless, left Minneapolis years ago to make it big in Hollywood and, unlike so many others, she succeeded. Unfortunately, her stardom came at a price. Early in her career, Joanna was involved with a man who quickly went from being an idle interest to a dangerous stalker. Nearly a decade has passed since she sent him to prison, but just as she is about to leave for her hometown to star in her friend Cordelia Thorn's production of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, she receives one of his ominous calling cards.

Jane Lawless is at her wit’s end, keeping her Minneapolis restaurants running while volunteering on her father’s campaign for governor. With an eleven-point lead, the race is Ray Lawless’s to lose, but all that changes when his rival posts a list of violent criminals that are back on the streets early, thanks to Ray’s work during his career as a defense lawyer.

The shock that Minneapolis restaurateur Jane Lawless is in for when Chester Garrity, her ex-husband, returns to a city that he swore he'd never see again is nothing compared to Chester's own. After their divorce many years ago, he took off with his inheritance to travel the world, leaving Jane with enough seed money to open her first restaurant, which worked out well for Jane but less so for Chester.

Ray Lawless, prominent defense attorney and father of Minneapolis restaurateur Jane Lawless, tries his biggest case yet defending an accused serial murderer and arsonist whom the media has dubbed "The Fireman." Ray's client is eventually convicted and sentenced to two consecutive life sentences, though he proclaims his innocence to the end, and a few days later, he kills himself in his cell. But someone in The Fireman's life can't let go, and, blaming Ray for the man's death, plots a meticulous revenge.

Moscow, 1993. The end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union have brought unimaginable change to Russia. With this change come new freedoms: freedom to travel abroad and to befriend Westerners, freedom to make money, and even the freedom for an underground gay scene to take root. Encouraged by the new climate of openness, twenty-one-year-old Kostya ventures out of the closet and resolves to pursue his dreams: to work in the theatre and to find love as his idol Tchaikovsky never could.

Claire Brackett spent years searching for ways to avoid the pain of her past. Following her father’s direction, she traversed the globe, seducing allies and adversaries to further his agenda. He used her as a pawn to maintain power and thwart enemies. William Brackett made one major mistake. He sent Claire on a mission to get close to FBI Agent Alex Toles. That decision would set Claire on a path that would change her life forever.

Long ago, Andrew made a childhood wish and kept it in a silver box. When it finally comes true, he wishes he hadn’t.... Long ago, Ben made a promise, and he had a dream: to travel to Africa to volunteer at a lion reserve. When he finally makes it, it isn’t for the reasons he imagined.... Ben and Andrew keep meeting in unexpected places, and the intense relationship that develops seems to be guided by fate. Or is it? What if the very thing that draws them together is tainted by past secrets that threaten everything?

The Reid and Toles families are settling into their roles at the White House. President Candace Reid is grateful to have the counsel and support of close friends Alex and Cassidy Toles. Alex assumes a position as Deputy National Security Adviser. She searches to determine the cause of the Russian president’s death. Her brother, Jonathan Krause, continues to decrypt a data disc from a lab in Kaliningrad. And her partner, Claire Brackett, infiltrates the inner circle of a power broker in Poland. Candace juggles a complex agenda while supporting her children through life changes.

After a tumultuous investigation that ended with a surprising and welcome new relationship, Detective Inspector Carol Ashton seems settled. Though she is in the closet to protect her career, life with Sybil is good—until the call that pulls Carol back to the woman who left her three years ago by returning to her husband.But now Christine's husband is dead and she's desperate for Carol's help. Though not assigned to the case, Carol agrees. Quickly drawn into Christine's world of high spending and low values, she finds herself at a personal and professional crossroads.

When Cordelia Thorn ventures to Summer Green, Wisconsin, for a reunion with some old college friends, she finds trouble in paradise. Twenty-plus years have definitely changed things. Soap opera star Diana has become an alcoholic. Curt and Annie's marriage is falling apart. Orson is hostile and surly. And Theo, the most passionate of them all, suddenly dies - of an apparent heart attack. Alarmed, Cordelia sends for her old friend Jane Lawless to do some quiet snooping. Together they follow their hunches - into the not-so-carefree past and back to the troubled present, where they find a single match could blow up all their lives....

After a messy divorce, attractive young mother Sonia is struggling to provide for herself and keep custody of her son. With her back to the wall, she resorts to smuggling cocaine into Iceland and finds herself caught up in a ruthless criminal world. As she desperately looks for a way out of trouble, she must pit her wits against her nemesis, Bragi, a customs officer whose years of experience frustrate her new and evermore daring strategies.

The first new Henry Rios novel in 20 years from six-time Lambda Literary award winner Michael Nava is a brilliantly plotted mystery that weaves together the gripping story of two gay men against the backdrop of 1980s San Francisco as the tsunami of AIDS bears down upon the city.

Ex-Chicago cop and new PI Josie Harper has been hired by an outside group to clear the name of publisher Lauren Wade, recently acquitted of the murder of her lover. That means finding the real killer, a task made more difficult by Lauren's unwillingness to cooperate and a large family problem - Lauren's parents have been kidnapped for a ransom she can no longer pay. Josie has a big challenge of her own: how to redeem herself after losing her job as a detective.

Los Angeles, 1986. A group of right-wing Christians has put an initiative on the November ballot to allow health officials to force people with HIV into quarantine camps - and it looks like it’s going to pass. Rios, now living in LA, agrees to be counsel for a group of young activists who call themselves QUEER. QUEER claims to be committed to peaceful civil disobedience. But when one of its members is implicated in the bombing of an evangelical church that kills its pastor, Rios finds himself with a client suddenly facing the death penalty.

0n a hot summer day at Bellwhether High School in Sydney, Australia, teacher Bill Pagett lies murdered, the hole in his head accomplished with neat efficiency by a Black & Decker drill. Detective Inspector Carol Ashton investigates, bringing with her a formidable reputation for competence. She soon uncovers tangled relationships and motives for murder among the six teaching staff, along with a maze of malicious anonymous letters and threatening phone calls. And then there is yet another corpse.

Aging theater actor Torald Werness' last curtain call is as a corpse. Murdered after his last performance in his last theatrical production, Minneapolis restaurateur-sleuth Jane Lawless finds his body onstage, impaled on a part of the set. Before long, a series of coincidences places Jane in the role of prime suspect. Determined to clear her name, Jane turns to her best friend, Cordelia, for help. Together, their intuition leads them to the dead man's family, a glamorous - and appropriately melodramatic - Midwestern theatrical dynasty. Jane and Cordelia must separate the theatrics from reality before Jane takes the blame for someone else's crime.

Happily settled in Florida, Sonja believes she’s escaped the trap set by unscrupulous drug lords. But when her son, Tomas, is taken, she’s back to square one...and Iceland. Her lover, Agla, is awaiting sentencing for financial misconduct after the banking crash, and Sonja refuses to see her. And that’s not all...Agla owes money to some extremely powerful men, and they’ll stop at nothing to get it back. With her former nemesis, customs officer Bragi, on her side, Sonja puts her own plan into motion to bring down the drug barons and her scheming ex-husband and get Tomas back.

Jane Lawless has a knack for cooking and a talent for detection. A case gone bad has left her with a serious head injury and vulnerable enough to accept help from former lover Dr. Julia Martinsen. The TLC is welcome, if only Jane didn’t suspect the jittery Julia of hiding something. Disquieted, Jane’s check into the doctor’s past turns up chilling details. Then a shocking death and swirling danger disrupt what’s left of Jane’s recovery, and being in love with Julia doesn’t protect either of them from a killer out for more blood.