Showing results by publisher "Wordwooze Publishing" in Mystery

Here is a time when the old west became new - the 1930s-50s - as Louis L'Amour witnessed it first-hand in Southern California before and after World War II. Many people think the age of gunmen, scheming land barons, murderous bad guys, and the determined men who stood up against them, went out with the end of the Old West around the 1890s. But, in L’Amour’s own time in the New West, there were far more bad men toting guns and making grabs for far more wealth and valuable land than in the fabled days of the Old West.

Ryan Morgan, a married man, comes to Banning in a panic. He is being blackmailed with incriminating photos of Ryan with an attractive coworker. To Banning, with years of experience as a private eye, there is nothing unusual about that. What is unusual is that the photos show the pair in places where they have never been.

The head of one of the largest investment banking and securities firms in the United States has been assassinated in Times Square in the middle of New York City’s annual celebration of Halloween, the Festival of the Dead. Louis Martelli, NYPD, is one of the first detectives on the scene.

George Barrett is a detective in the Sioux Bend Police Department. For the first time in six years, George and his family are going on vacation to the most exclusive resort in the west—Moonlight Cove Resort in Wild River, Wyoming. The first morning there, George and his daughter, Karen, go for a run. Near the end of the trail, Karen hears music. When she follows the sound, she discovers two young people tied to pine trees, with arrows in their stomachs. One victim was the son of the Lakota County sheriff and the other was the daughter of the executive director of Moonlight Cove.

In one of the first crime novels ever set behind the scenes of big-time television, Clarence Budington Kelland has plotted a thrilling adventure of danger and death which climaxes in a series of fast-moving surprises. Peter Mortain, one of the youngest directors in this very young medium, was beleaguered enough, directing the first episode of the most expensive variety show ever produced. He had a cast whose first appearance on television made them skittish, a thousand technical details to handle, and a star…who was also his boss!

Gloria Morris is a respected private detective with an explosive sense of honor who cherishes frisky ladies, reads Poe and Twain, believes in justice, and kicks a lot of ass. Her investigation into the disappearance of a popular and notorious seductress, whose pervasive presence affects the lives of two compelling women, takes her to San Francisco’s sexual underground and the discovery of treasonous political intrigue.

In this dual series mystery, Lanie Anders and Cosmo Hill (Piney Falls Mysteries) are excited to share a Christmas celebration with Lanie's newly identified cousin, only to discover he's changed his plans at the last minute. Feather Jones (Charming Mysteries) and her boyfriend, Tug, are in Piney Falls, Oregon to celebrate the holiday, their first away from Charming as a couple. Upon arrival, they are shocked to learn that their hotel room is no longer available because a murder occurred there earlier in the day.

Barker, the mysterious homeless detective with no memory of his past, returns in the wild, third installment of the Barker Mysteries. Sequestered in a thrown-together shack beneath the soggy planks of California’s Old Fisherman’s Wharf, Barker and his gaggle of street dogs have kept largely to themselves since the events of Monterey Pulp.

It’s 1993—a year of optimism, change, and killer music—when Kees VanSpyker, a penniless Gulf War veteran and would-be guitar hero, takes a job with the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) to infiltrate a Wisconsin mink ranch and find out what happened to the last guy they sent there who subsequently vanished. Kees just wants to earn enough cash to take his guitar and follow the stampede to Seattle, but finding out what happened proves hairier than he bargained for. Sinister doings and suspects abound on the ranch, in Madison, and among the ALF members themselves.

One frightened blonde, eight chorus girls, a singer and three strippers... Hundreds of rancorous Reenactors itching to fight the Civil War all over again... Harry Horne hot on the trail of a stolen million somewhere on the battlefield.... A dozen big-city mobsters with .45s in Civil War regalia hot on Harry’s trail... It’s a recipe for excitement, sex, and lots of action.

In the fourth book of the Piney Falls Mysteries Series, the wedding event of the decade is about to take place in Piney Falls. From the decorations to the cake and music, every single citizen has contributed in some way to make this day perfect. Until Cosmo and Lanie begin their lives together, everyone is on their best behavior, trying to assure no mystery disrupts the one thing they’ve all worked in unison to achieve.

The wheels on the Syndicate's deadliest racket–taking over unions to leverage the old protection racket on whole industries–have begun to steam-roll over the shipping business in the quiet California town of Pacific Port. They send an S.O.S. for the one-man army–P.I. and ex-spy Morocco Jones.

Archibald Cloyd was an ubergeek and as pedantic as it is possible to be. Hollywood hired him at thousands of dollars a week as the technical director on a movie about Napoleon. Wilson Page, Archibald's secretary, figured he didn't deserve anything better than being nursemaid to a strutting egomaniac.

Morocco Jones figured this assignment would be a breeze. After all, sending a guy who specialized in busting up crime syndicates and international spy rings to Los Angeles to track down some two-bit blackmailer seemed like using a cannon to kill a mosquito. To Morocco, it seemed like a good excuse for a nice little Hollywood vacation—catch a bit of sun, bed a few starlets, and relax poolside with a large snifter of brandy.

Following the death of his estranged brother Tim, Riley Greenham is forced to return to his hometown of Madden. Riley learns that Tim died as a result of a severe heart condition.

In a historic mansion outside of Piney Falls, dark rumors have swirled for over a century. Strange occupants, mysterious disappearances and unexplained deaths have frightened the locals away from Naybor Manor.

Wisecracking Jane Teach had pirate blood, a take-charge attitude, and a penchant for sticking her nose in the wrong places. Sober-minded Bill Popple was from one of Long Island's first families, a conservative-minded young man who walked the straight and narrow. When they met it was loathing at first sight, definitely not a match made in heaven. But with six people trying to kill them over a dead bootlegger's lost fortune and a pirate's treasure secretly buried 300 years ago, they both needed each other.

What happens when a Korean War vet recovering from serious injuries wins a ghost town in a contest, meets a hard-riding, gun-toting cowgirl, and is threatened by three dangerous people all within a few days? Answer: cock-eyed characters, pixilated dialogue, zany romance, and heart-stopping suspense. Thus begins one of Clarence Budington Kelland's finest and rarest novels, previously only published as a seven-part serial in the legendary and best-selling magazine of its era, The Saturday Evening Post.

Gloria Morris is a scholarly, vehement, and hard-boiled private detective, a force of nature who doesn’t suffer fools. She’s also a lover, and her inamorata understands her swagger and quest for justice. Gloria must locate the runaway heiress to an industrial empire, a volatile young woman who is happy being on the lam in San Francisco, free of her family’s dark secrets and business responsibilities. She feels she can protect herself, and perhaps she can, but people connected to her are dying, and someone is pulling the strings.

Piper Moonlight is tired of constantly looking over her shoulder, afraid of the remaining Fallen Branch cult members. She decides the best place to land is in Piney Falls, Oregon, where the cult originated. At least everyone there knows her story and she'll be safe. When she arrives, she finds employment under the watchful eye of Cosmo Hill, also a former Fallen Branch member, at his bakery. Cosmo doesn't trust Piper or her story. He enlists the help of his fiancée, marketing wonder and super sleuth Lanie Anders, to uncover the truth of Piper's past.