Showing results by publisher "Tantor Media" in Mystery

On Thanksgiving Day, LAPD homicide detective Kate Delafield and her partner, Ed Taylor, are called to an apartment building on the edge of Beverly Hills to investigate a premeditated and pitiless murder. No one appears particularly grieved by the shocking end to old-time Hollywood director Owen Sinclair. Surely not three other tenants of the Beverly Malibu, who worked in the motion picture industry during the blacklist years and loathed Sinclair.

It's opening night at the theatre and Addison Harper has front-row seats with Sergeant Jake Murphy. This might just be his perfect date. The variety show promises spooky Halloween fun, ghoulish drag queens, frightening musical numbers, and the scariest thing of all: audience participation. Of course, the unlucky victim dragged from the safety of his seat is a mortified Addison. In a production full of twists and turns, he has no idea what's coming next but nobody could have anticipated witnessing a sudden, absolutely unscripted, and very real death.

The last thing Lance expected to find while helping Franks look for a new house was a ghost. Shelia just wanted to graduate and get on to college, but that never happened. The last thing she remembers is being at home on the couch, then waking up in a deep hole in the middle of nowhere. She wants answers. How did she get there and why?

A deadly, unstable shooter. A trap Malcolm and Seong-Jae can't escape. And more than one life on the line as they find themselves facing down one of the Golden Ratio Killer's proxies in a high-stakes hostage situation that could ramp up the serial murderer's mathematical body counts exponentially. And if Malcolm and Seong-Jae aren't careful, they'll be among the tally.

When someone starts killing police officers in the city, Detective Angus Young prioritizes finding out who's attacking those he works with. He's determined to take down the killer before any more officers are targeted. Having the skill to speak to the ghosts of the dead is usually helpful to a medical examiner, but not when the ghosts can't identify who killed them. Keeping Angus safe is Lance's first priority as he does everything he can to try and help fit the clues together and bring peace to those who have died.

Yorkshire, 1898. When twenty-one-year-old Lilianne Loxley is sent to Lord Bexton's isolated estate to work off her uncle's debts, she expects drudgery—not danger. With her gift for mimicry, she becomes Bexton's secretary—and his reluctant forger. Soon she's trapped in a scheme to create a "lost" novel by Emily Brontë, a deception that could make—or destroy—fortunes. The house is full of secrets: footsteps echo in empty corridors, lemon-scented ghosts haunt her sleepless nights, and a portrait seems to watch her every move. Yet it's the living who unsettle her most.

A witty, witchy fantasy murder mystery packed with ancient magic and fiendish puzzles. When Cornelia's twin sisters are taken by the Wickermere Reaper, Mallory, Diana, and Theodore must race against time to uncover the buried secrets of the Broadwicks before it's too late.

Peter's first play is having its world premiere at Pleasant Woods's community theater. His handsome one and only, JP, has the lead. Rehearsals have begun. And New York City's award-winning, hotshot helmer, Xander Sherwood Deva, is directing. Unfortunately the controlling, arrogant, poison-barbed, egomaniacal diva has everyone on edge. No wonder he finally pushes someone over it . . .

It's steaming August in post-war Philadelphia. Clifford Waterman, dishonorably discharged from the Army for "an indecent act with a native" in Cairo, can't go back to his job as a police detective and is struggling to make a go of it as a private investigator. He's soon hired to help a young man caught in a gay bar raid who can't afford the $500 bribe a corrupt judge demands to make a "morals charge" go away.

When Detective Sergeant Blake Harte is given the opportunity of a relaxing week away at a spa manor, he jumps at the opportunity. He can take one person with him - and who more than Harrison Baxter deserves time away from Harmschapel after everything he has been through? But once at the Manor of the Lakes, the rest and relaxation they both crave is quickly brought to an end, when Blake and Harrison witness a man being murdered, by a mysterious hooded figure who appears to have the ability to walk on water.

Four years retired, Kate Delafield has a twenty-year-old case roaring back on her, a case from which she had recoiled, withdrawn herself. A homophobic homicide far too reminiscent of a recent, haunting, life-changing investigation of the murder of a young lesbian at the Nightwood Bar. Now she suffers in secret, knowing she is personally culpable for the mishandling of evidence. The key decisions about the conduct of her life and her police career that have brought her directly to this time, this place in the high desert where she has taken herself.

Newly retired Jayne Marple and Arnolda "Arnie" Palmer met playing Scrabble, and it was love at first tile. While this is their second chance at love, they're also working together to make the Elsinore Detective Agency a success.

Seventy-two guns are stolen from a San Francisco police storage facility, causing murders in the city to spike. The shooters appear unrelated. Their only connection is that each uses a gun stolen from police storage. The police have no leads. Mei Ling, recently brought in as head of the SFPD's Computer Forensics Team, recognizes a device installed in the same storage facility - one used for hacking. She's convinced this could be a new connection to help crack the case. But how? When the bullets start flying through the window of her own home, Mei knows she's onto something.

Lillian Byrd has been searching her soul after the gut-wrenching experience of killing someone in self-defense. Scrabbling to make ends meet, she takes a job as a quasi-detective, solving life's little mysteries for a pair of eccentric women in one of Detroit's last prestigious neighborhoods. When she spots a corpse on the next-door lawn, she jumps back into honest work as an investigative journalist.

Busy concentrating on family issues, Jimmy hasn't taken a new case in nearly three months, and when a call comes in from Philip Connelly, who wants proof that his wife, Myra, is cheating, Jimmy is torn. Take the case or say no. He rejects it, only to learn a week later that Philip has been found dead in a park on Staten Island. The police believe it was suicide, but Myra - a self-admitted adulteress - is convinced he was murdered.

Fifteen years ago, NYPD officer Joseph McSwain was gunned down while trying to stop a robbery. His murder was never solved. Until now. For his son, Hell's Kitchen private detective Jimmy McSwain, his father's death has defined him, defied him, and denied him his chance at happiness. But the shooting death of a young officer named Denson Luke has reignited the investigation into the mysterious Blue Death conspiracy. Jimmy still must earn a living, so he cannot ignore a family in distress. New neighbors Carmen Ramirez and her young son, Sonny, are clearly running from danger.

The dual forces of good and evil take center stage in the fourth installment in the Jimmy McSwain Files, one that finds the tortured, sexy detective battling an unforeseen enemy: happiness. Yet murder will soon rear its desperate chill, hurtling Jimmy into the highest society and the lowest of lives.

The Harold Calloway Theatre on West 47th Street is home to the new play Triskaidekaphobia, and its playwright has been receiving threatening messages. Theater owner and lead producer Wellington Calloway has hired Jimmy to investigate, but it's a case not without its complications. His mother is the head usher there, and Jimmy grew up on its aisles. His ex, Remy, is also the costume designer for the show, a man he hasn't seen in years.

Lillian Byrd's battered Chevrolet Caprice is convulsing through the last of its death throes; her pet rabbit, Todd, ails; and as usual she's single—and flat broke. For a few extra bucks she signs on to help an old friend, retired police detective Erma Porrocks, renovate her house, but of course nothing ever goes smoothly in the life of Lillian Byrd. The end of her first day on the job yields a partially demolished wall, a mysterious stash of cash, and a fresh corpse. And Lillian's attentions are diverted by the appearance of a drop-dead gorgeous neighbor.

Elizabeth Sims presents Book 6 in the Lillian Byrd Crime series.