Showing results by publisher "Recorded Books" in Crime Fiction

As a twelve-year-old escaping a disordered and unhappy home and parents who loved hard but couldn’t make it work, Travis left the Midwest to spend a summer with his grandparents in the Deep South. There he met Delia, the love of his life, who, tragically, was beyond his reach for two reasons—she was his aunt and she was sixteen years old. That summer made Travis guilty of crimes discovered and undiscovered. For his public wrongs, he did time, six years in a Nebraska reform school. For his undiscovered wrongs, he suffers mightily and wants desperately to be shriven.

Tomás Cruz swore he would never be like his father, an abusive cocaine junkie whose gangland exploits are notorious throughout the underbelly of northern Argentina. When Samuel Cruz is sentenced to thirteen years in prison, he leaves a laundry list of unfinished cartel business. Seba, Tomás’s revered older brother, has no choice but to abandon his straight life and take over his father’s underworld debt. Now fifteen years has passed, Seba has been arrested, and the ruthless cartel boss is holding his wife and daughter as collateral—just in time for the holidays.

Heiress Stella Burke is plagued by insincere suitors and nonstop headaches. Exhausting all other medical aides for her migraines, Stella reads Fasting for the Cure of Disease by Linda Hazzard and determines to go to the spa the author runs. Stella’s chauffer and long-time friend, Henry Clayton, is reluctant to leave her at the spa. Something doesn’t feel right to him, still Stella submits herself into Linda Hazzard’s care. Stella soon learns the spa has a dark side and Linda a mean streak. But when Stella has had enough, all ways to leave are suddenly blocked.

Never one to play by any rules, Yoshi Lomax is determined to make good at an internship with one of Manhattan’s most prestigious law firms. She’s being mentored by the brilliant twin brother legal lights who are her parents’ friends. And with her unexpected knack for helping the city’s wealthy, powerful clients finagle their way out of major trouble, even she is surprised at how bright her future shines. Until Yoshi discovers the firm uses any means necessary to get their clients off—including kidnapping, life-destroying scandal, and murder.

In this tale of love and loyalty, jealousy, betrayal, and hate, Imani Mosley finds herself at the center of it all. In addition to restructuring her family’s legitimate luxury charter business, Imani is rebuilding their weapons- and drug-trafficking business. Her brother, Hareem, who jealously thinks that he should be in charge, believes the way to expand is to eliminate his enemy, a mysterious woman known only as Diamond. Despite Imani’s warnings that his actions might start a war, Hareem sets out to prove that he’s right.

Crime reporter Mari Alvarez was never able to solve her mother’s murder ten years ago. But when a woman is gunned down on the doorstep of her West Tampa neighborhood, Mari can’t shake the eerie sense of connection. Now there have been two murders in two days. Each crime scene awash with arcane clues―and without a trace of DNA from the killer. And for each victim, a doll. The first is missing an eye. The second is missing a heart. But are these clues leading to the killer…or messages for Mari?

In the eighties and nineties, Wesley Evans, better known as Ruby, was Brooklyn’s wealthiest, longest reigning kingpin. Accomplishing all it took to make history, including rubbing elbows with celebrities and expanding his businesses out of state, he avoided all the bounties put on his head and the NYPD’s handcuffs. Ruby set the bar in Brooklyn, and when he finally became a legit family man, he left behind rules. Ten years later, Brooklyn’s kingpins have followed in Ruby’s footsteps. Life is good; Brooklyn’s people are good—and then Felix Brown, a.k.a. Straw, comes to power.

Following back-to-back, long-term undercover assignments in Indianapolis and Dallas, the latter resulting in four dead, FBI Special Agent Jake Kruse returns to Los Angeles to take on another undercover operation. Posing as an office supply salesman, Jake befriends a Chinese American business owner believed to be working for an intelligence officer operating out of the Chinese consulate in Los Angeles. Within weeks, the probe reveals a public corruption and human trafficking operation involving politicians and Hollywood executives.

A dead man in a cemetery isn’t news—unless he’s found on top of a grave, with a bullet through his head. The body belongs to Jude Henley, who was supposed to be buried below. Instead, the grave contains the remains of Staci Gale, thought to have run away nearly three decades ago. Then an old VCR tape arrives at the sheriff station, showing Staci before her death—bound and terrified—with a note, claiming to be from the killer’s apprentice …

C. N. Phillips returns with the next tale in the saga of five crime families that run the streets of New York’s five boroughs. The uneasy alliance they once shared has been compromised, and now no one is truly safe from retribution. Caesar knew the peace he started had an expiration date, but he never thought the end would be so explosive. With the Pact completely dissolved and the Chinese angered beyond measure at the loss of their leader, they want Boogie’s head bloody and served on a stick. Caesar is willing to protect him at all costs.

Young, irreverent, and reckless, Yoshi is struggling to make good at her prestigious college and keep her demanding mother off her back, while living the good life with her peers. But between the overwhelming workload and hostile professors, she’s on the verge of flunking out. Yet that’s the least of her troubles when her roommate, Gia, winds up in a coma, and Yoshi finds her diary - and a library’s worth of shocking, extremely valuable secrets....

Raised by a crack addict, Lil' Bert has a chip on his shoulder and murder in his heart. As the leader of Philly's most dangerous drug gang, he is determined to keep the city’s murder rate skyrocketing to unprecedented proportions.

The pressures of fame and an obsessive stalker have driven pop star Olivia Smith to take shelter at Halcyon Hall, an exclusive spa on a remote island off the coast of Maine. Yet from the moment she arrives, there are rumors about women disappearing and stories about the resort’s grisly past. Then a note arrives from her stalker, proving that nowhere is truly safe....

Graduate student Wendy Zemansky was hoping for a normal semester at an isolated university in upstate New York. Since coming off disability and starting medication for bipolar disorder, Wendy longs to feel like a “real” functioning adult, a respected colleague in her writing program. But when her roommate goes missing, Wendy plunges into an investigation that is roadblocked by vainglorious professors, specious doctors, and dubious friends.

Sixteen-year-old Addison is on the run. She’s leaving her life on New York’s streets behind for a new one with Rafe, armed with just his phone number on a scrap of paper. She’s taking the subway to meet him in New Jersey. He’ll take care of her. Or so she thinks....

A masked robber, a gunshot, an endless nightmare left in its wake. Wynter Moore was just four years old when she witnessed the murder of her mother. For 25 years, she's tried to blunt the trauma with ambition. Yet each year, she shuts down her popular Iowa restaurant to return to her small hometown of Pike, Wisconsin, to grieve. Only this time, her visit will be marked by new danger and shocking discoveries about the past - and about her mother.

Forced to trade her college plans for dealing on the streets of LA, Precious Cummings has a new priority: Stay on top of the game and carry on her murdered lover’s kingpin legacy. With the empire growing under her watch, and her late father’s dry-cleaning business still booming, Precious sets her sights on owning more legit businesses. When an offer of a night club unexpectedly comes her way, Precious’s goals are set in motion overnight. Then suddenly, Miami and new territory calls....

The self-appointed saviour of Lagos' sex workers, Amaka may have bitten off more than she can chew this time as she finds herself embroiled in a political scandal. When a plane crash kills the state gubernatorial candidate, the party picks a replacement who is assured of winning the election: Chief Ojo. But Amaka knows the skeletons that lurk in Chief Ojo's closet, including what took place at the Harem, the secret sex club on the outskirts of Lagos that he frequents.

College admissions season at Seattle's Elliott Bay Academy is marked by glowing acceptances from top-tier institutions and students as impressive as their parents are ambitious. But when Stanford alerts the school it's allotting only one spot to EBA for their incoming class, three mothers discover the competition is more cutthroat than they could have imagined.

Two years before Hong Kong is to be returned to the People’s Republic of China, the Communist government has its eye on the New Territories, and tensions are running high among the triads. A turf war breaks out in Macau and quickly spreads to Hong Kong. In response, the Organized Crime Triad Bureau of the Hong Kong Police, backed by the Chinese government, begins a major crackdown on gang activities. Several triad leaders ask Uncle to intervene and bring an end to the violence. As Uncle begins mediation talks, his own territory of Fanling is attacked by a neighboring gang.