Showing results by publisher "Blackstone Publishing" in Amateur Sleuths

Lupin is back to his trademark intricately plotted crimes, stealing from the wealthy with stealth and style. He easily evades the best efforts of Inspector Ganimard and the English detective Holmlock Shears, but when it comes to Isidore Beautrelet, an amateur detective still in high school, Lupin may have met his match. Beautrelet becomes quite the thorn in his side, and he may even be clever enough to thwart Lupin. But even Beautrelet may not be the greatest threat to Lupin’s schemes.

Dorothy Martin and her husband, retired Chief Constable Alan Nesbitt, go on a trip to Orkney in Scotland to visit an old friend and see some intriguing Stone Age excavations. They realize there’s considerable dissension between the archaeologists and the principal donor for the newest dig, a wealthy and abrasive American. When a more recent corpse is found at the dig, various suspects are named, but there’s not enough evidence to bring a case against anyone.

When the bookshop she owns becomes a crime scene, mystery writer Samantha Washington discovers there is such a thing as bad publicity. After the local library in North Harbor, Michigan, is flooded in a storm, Sam offers her bookstore as a new venue for the Mystery Mavens Book Club. Unfortunately, she immediately runs afoul of the club leader, Delia Marshall, a book reviewer who can make or break careers—something Sam can ill afford with her debut historical mystery soon to be published.

Dororthy Martin is more than capable of dozing during a raging storm in her snug house in Sherebury, but the loud ping of an unexpected text on her husband Alan’s phone quickly wakes her up. Alan’s unofficial great-niece, Lucy Bowman, is coming over from the States for a conference. When Lucy arrives, she gushes about her fiance, Iain. But Alan makes a disturbing discovery about Lucy’s engagement ring, and no sooner has Iain set foot on UK soil when he’s the victim of a mysterious hit-and-run.

Ashland is known for its Elizabethan charm and touches of Shakespeare around every corner, but the surrounding Rogue Valley draws adventure enthusiasts to its outdoor wonderland of high alpine lakes, mountain ranges, and pristine rivers. Jules Capshaw and the team at Torte have been hired to cater a weekend getaway on the mighty Rogue River. Jules is going to have to put her culinary skills to the test while baking gooey chocolate chip skillet cookies over an open flame and preparing extravagant feasts under a canopy of stars.

After selling a tech startup to Facebook in a multimillion-dollar deal, blogger Coco Cline has returned to her hometown of Central Shores, Delaware, to launch her own social media consulting firm. Her new clients, Sean and Olivia Chen, are ten days away from the grand opening of their specialty consignment shop when Coco stumbles across their assistant Stacy dead behind the register. Worried that a cloud of suspicion will ruin their chances of a successful business launch, the Chens ask Coco to work alongside the inexperienced Central Shores police to speed up the investigation.

Midnight, June 13, 1942: Peter Burger stands on a foggy beach, ears primed as a submarine hull scrapes the sandy sea bottom. He has endured seventeen months in a Gestapo prison and seventeen days on a Nazi U-boat only to have landed on American shores with six boxes of explosives and no escape. After slipping into New York City, Peter finds himself at a massive military parade where he meets Grete Baum, a German-Jewish refugee grappling with loneliness and loss. Grete is drawn to Peter’s brooding vulnerability, and the pair instantly bond.

In Kris Calvin’s debut mystery, One Murder More, a beautiful legislative aide is found stabbed to death in California’s Capitol building. Maren Kane, a lobbyist for a fledgling Sacramento-based toy company, is in the midst of a legislative fight that could make or break her career. She doesn’t have time for a coffee break let alone involvement in a murder investigation.

The nude bodies of a corrupt judge and a Jane Doe are found under the icy, black waters at Groward Bay Marina, chained to the prongs of a mammoth fork lift. A videotape points to Merlin Finn, a ruthless gang leader with a proclivity for bondage and S&M who had recently broken out of prison. With the newspaper she works for about to be sold and her job in jeopardy, journalist Geneva Chase investigates pill mills, crooked doctors, and a massive money laundering scheme in an attempt to identify the murdered woman and find the killer.

A year has passed since Pete Fernandez’s latest, closest brush with death. After months of recovery, the newly sober Pete has managed to rebuild his life, contentedly running a small Miami bookstore and steering clear of the dangers of private eye work. So when an aging Cuban mobster asks Pete to find out who killed his drug-addicted jazz-pianist son and to locate his missing daughter-in-law, Pete balks. Until another victim suggests that the murder of the gangster’s son may be connected to the people who nearly ended Pete’s life.

Top surfer Dolphin Smoote gets more than he bargains for when he works up the nerve to ask out the brown-eyed beauty on a date. The search of quick coin without having to work will always lead a surfer to precarious places, and Dolphin is no exception. With the help of his lovable surfer crew who often have more to say about stylishness than anything else, Dolphin finds himself between conmen, ghosts, an impending storm from the coast of Mexico … and still no money for a second date.

Pete Fernandez has settled into an easy, if somewhat boring life as a PI. The days of chasing murderous killers are behind him. Or are they? When his sometimes partner Kathy Bentley approaches him with a potential new client, Pete balks. Not because he doesn’t need the money, but because the case involves Gaspar Varela, a former Miami police officer serving a life sentence for the murder of his wife—one of the most infamous crimes in Miami history. The client? None other than Varela’s daughter, Maya, who’s doggedly supported her father’s claims of innocence.

Pete Fernandez is a mess. He’s on the brink of being fired from his middle-management newspaper job. His fiancée has up and left him. Now, after the sudden death of his father, he’s back in his hometown of Miami, slowly drinking himself into oblivion. But when a coworker he barely knows asks Pete to locate a missing daughter, Pete finds himself dragged into a tale of murder, drugs, double-crosses, and memories bursting from the black heart of the Miami underworld - and, shockingly, his father’s past.

Pete Fernandez should be dead. His life—professional and personal—is in ruins. His best friend is dead. His newspaper career is past tense. His ex is staying with him as her own marriage crumbles. On top of that, the former journalist finds himself in the eye of a dangerous storm; investigating a missing girl with an unexpected partner and inching closer and closer to a vicious, calculating killer cutting a swath of blood across Miami—while at the same time battling his own personal demons that refuse to be silenced.

Startling new evidence in a cold case that's haunted Pete drags the exiled PI back to his hometown of Miami. But as Pete and his partner, Kathy Bentley, delve deeper into the unsolved murder, they become entangled in Miami’s obsession with a charismatic and dangerous cult leader and his even more menacing followers. At the same time, the detectives find themselves at odds with a Florida politician’s fixation on wealth, fame, and power. It all converges in the heart of the Magic City, and Pete is left scrambling to pick up the pieces—or die trying.

Hemlock Falls is one of the most picturesque villages in Upstate New York, with the Hemlock Inn, owned by the amateur sleuth Quilliam sisters, as its centerpiece. For the Quilliam sisters, there’s nothing jolly about this Christmas. Meg and Quill are near-broke. At least there’s one bright start on the horizon: A big-time magazine and television show will feature the Inn. But soon the editor’s husband skis to his death. Now, if the Quilliams are to save the Inn from a lawsuit, they’ll need to prove this was no accident.

While preparing for the 133rd anniversary of the Battle of Hemlock Falls, sisters Sarah and Meg Quilliam, proprietors of the Inn at Hemlock Falls, find themselves faced with murder when patrons of their establishment begin dying and a Civil War reenactor exposes the real history of the town.

Meg Quilliam would rather eat a rat than judge a deep-fat frying contest. But when celebrity chef Banion O’Haggerty offers to do it - for a pretty penny - and decides to stay at Quill and Meg’s Inn, it’s the start of even more turmoil. Before the new franchise even opens, Mr. Holcomb has competition: Captain Cluck is setting up shop here, too. Then, a butcher knife is missing and so is Banion! It’s anyone’s guess who will ruffle this killer’s feathers next....

For rock-and-roll writer Mick Sever, another story, another deadly island paradise is all in a day’s work. This time, Mick heads to Nassau, Bahamas, home of the legendary Highland Studio. Known for pumping out hits that burn up the charts, Highland is where the magic happens - or rather, where the magic happened until a devastating fire destroyed the entire studio. No one knows how the fire started, who started it - or whose body was found among the charred ruins.

Belle Isle, in the middle of the James River, was one of Willie’s party spots growing up wild in Oregon Hill, and it’s a short walk from where he now resides in the posh Prestwould. Now, as the 50-something night cops reporter for the local daily, he returns to his old haunts to try to unravel a mystery. When it becomes known that the dismembered member belonged to Teddy "T-Bone" Delmonico, a state college football legend, whose now-widow is running for a seat in the House of Representatives, the plot thickens.