Showing results by publisher "Phoenix Books" in Crime Fiction

Toby Temple is a superstar, the world's funniest man. He gets any woman that he wants, but under the superstar image is a lonely man. Jill Castle is a sensuous starlet. She has a dark and mysterious past and has an ambition even greater than Toby's. Together they rule Hollywood.

In the near future, U.S. forces are completing their final withdrawal from bases in the Philippines. The navy of the People's Republic of China lays claim to the Spratly Islands, decimating a Philippine drilling platform when its occupants refuse to knuckle under.

A young man resurfaces from Spenser's past to seek out the likeable P.I.'s guidance and help to solve the mysterious and sudden disappearance of the boy's mother. The most personal and revealing Spenser thriller of all, the hardboiled yet caring detective faces danger and a reckoning with his own past. Pastime is Robert B. Parker's electrifying masterpiece of crime fiction, both personal and revealing.

Robert Bellamy, an American naval intelligence officer, is called in on a special undercover assignment by the NSA: investigate the mysterious crash of an experimental meteorological balloon in the Swiss Alps and locate the ten known witnesses to the incident. As he crisscrosses the world searching for clues, Bellamy uncovers a murderous governmental plot and a powerful international cabal of corporate CEOs. After narrowly escaping death, he goes into hiding, hunted by an unknown lethal force.

It's not Carmen Colson and her ironworker husband Wayne's fault that they were in the real estate office when a pair of thugs walked in with extortion on their minds. But as far as aging Ojibway Indian hitman Armand Degas is concerned, the Colsons are going to have to pay dearly for seeing too much, and for the damage Wayne inflicted on Armand and his sicko partner Richie Nix with a tire iron.

On one fateful day in Britain, fortunes change hands as a suicidal Junior Minister, an avaricious tycoon, and a seasoned criminal all play parts in a scheme that moves paper money around at a dizzying pace. Meanwhile, an ambitious young reporter for the Evening Post scrambles to crack the story. This early novel from Ken Follett, the author of On Wings of Eagles and The Key to Rebecca, plunges the reader into the worlds of crime, high finance, and journalism on the way to a masterfully plotted dramatic climax.

Steel-nerved master thief Parker has his eyes on a fat prize. The prize, a slow stuffed with money—a gambling casino on the Hudson River. It is not in Parker's nature to gamble, so he leaves nothing to chance. From the phony politician to the getaway boat, from bringing guns on board to getting the money off, Parker has it all planned. There are only a few problems.

Heroine and renowned FBI profiler Karen Vail returns in an explosive thriller set against the backdrop of California's wine country. Hoping to find solace from the demons that haunt her, Vail makes her first trip to the Napa Valley. But shortly after arriving, a victim is found in the deepest reaches of an exclusive wine cave, the work of an extraordinarily unpredictable serial killer.

Tracy Whitney is on top of the world. Young, beautiful, and intelligent, she is about to marry into wealth and glamour—until a ruthless mafia gang frames her, and she is sentenced to prison. Though beaten and broken, Tracy emerges from her savage ordeal determined to avenge herself against those who have destroyed her life. With dazzling ingenuity, she embarks on a series of extraordinary escapades across the globe, as she plays for the highest stakes in a deadly game. Only one man can challenge her—a man handsome, persuasive, and every bit as daring as Tracy.

Paul Madriani was once a promising associate with a prestigious law firm, cofounded by his mentor, Ben Potter. But after a scandalous affair with Ben's wife, Paul left the firm to begin a brilliant career as a criminal defense attorney. Meanwhile, Ben's impeccable reputation has made him a leading candidate for the Supreme Court, until he is found dead on the eve of the nomination. As the evidence against Ben' s wife snowballs, Talia hires her former lover to defend her against the ruthless chief prosecutor, who wants to send her to the gas chamber.

Boston P.I. Sunny Randall goes on the road to protect a best-selling author - and uncovers a world of dark secrets - in the new novel by the grand master. Sunny Randall, the beautiful blond P.I. with a yen for dogs, painting, and her ex-husband, Richie, has won over even the most hard-core of Robert B. Parker's many fans.

Attorney Matthew Hope had hired Otto Samalson to conduct a simple marital investigation—so how does Samalson end up dead on a deserted highway? Hope's search for an answer takes him into Florida's drug underworld on the trail of a hooker—one who has the style and looks necessary to transform herself into a high-class cocaine-stealing Cinderella. What Hope uncovers is a complicated web of circumstances and a terrifying twist on a hooker's fairy tale.

A long shadow looms above the wife of filmmaker Carlton Markham. Then a hand clamps over her mouth, and a blade sinks into her back. Blood splatters on the film reel case beside her, and a young life is cut short. Lawyer Matthew Hope gets a call from Markham, who's been arrested for his wife's murder, but he says he didn't do it. Witnesses fly forward to proclaim his guilt, but Markham's not giving up on his innocence that easily. And when Hope digs deeper into the victim's business—he finds she may not have been the perfect lady that she seemed.

He wants power, and she wants revenge. The Best Laid Plans is full of manipulators, dirty dealers, and dastardly rascals, all snatching at power—political, financial, and sexual, or all of the above. Against the backdrop of Washington politics and the war in Bosnia, a handsome, charismatic attorney is determined to win the presidency at all costs, while his jilted fiancée is intent on revenge and grows a media empire to destroy him. In a world of beautiful people, money, and deception, two equally determined people are headed on a collision course.

This is the story of best friends - brothers, really - Paulie and Vincent, who grew up without fathers on Chicago’s southside. Paulie learns how to be a man from TV cop shows, while Vincent's role models are the wise guys on street corners. Paulie joins the FBI with hopes to escape his past, while Vincent becomes a private investigator who works for the “family” business. When the two men reconcile, they are torn between devotion to each other and loyalty to their respective organizations.

When Robin Nevins, the son of Hawk's boyhood mentor, is denied at an exclusive university, Hawk asks Spenser to investigate. It seems the denial is tied to the suicide of a young gay activist, and as Spenser digs deeper he is nearly drowned in a multicultural swamp of politics: black, gay, academic, and feminist. At the same time, Spenser's inamorata, Susan, asks him to come to the aid of an old college friend, K.C. Roth, the victim of a stalker. Spenser solves the problem a bit too effectively when K.C. turns the tables and begins to stalk him.

What would it take to lure a serious young newswoman from a respectable New England paper to the most notorious supermarket tabloid in America? The call of journalistic adventure? How about a promise of a salary that's triple what she's making? En route to her new job at the Weekly Galaxy, Sara Joslyn stumbles across a bloody corpse in a Buick Riviera. A big story? Not at this paper. The problem is compounded when the dead man vanishes, Buick and all.

The hardworking single mother of young daughter, Joanna Brady still feels the acute pain of loneliness and loss, the hole that was left in her heart when her policeman husband was murdered. But Sheriff Brady is the law in Cochise County, and murder has shattered the small town's fragile peace. A local gun dealer has died violently, and his stock of high-powered weapons has been cleared out. When two more slayings follow soon after, suspicion falls upon rancher Alton Hosfield.

There's the Durango in Colorado, the one in Mexico, and the one in Spain; then there's the fourth one—the California town where god and the Franciscans forgot to found a mission. Now all it has going for it is climate—and splendid isolation. Kelly Vines, a disbarred attorney, and his father-in-law Jack Adair, a former judge just released from prison, are in the market for some isolation, since whoever put Adair in jail seems to have a continuing interest in putting him out of commission.

Back in Pickax, Jim Qwilleran expects to resume a quiet life, but the people and animals of Pickax have other ideas. A noisy cardinal wakes him every morning, nosy neighbors drop by uninvited, and the Siamese cats—Koko and Yum Yum—misbehave, even sneezing on guests. As if they weren't bad enough, Qwill's long-time companion, Polly Duncan, acts as though she is in love—with another man. Worst of all, Qwill finds a body in his apple orchard. When his friend, Dennis Hough, becomes the chief suspect, Qwill embarks on a crusade to clear Hough's name and win back Polly's heart.