Showing results by publisher "Recorded Books" in International Mystery & Crime

Prague in the 1950s is a city of numerous small terrors, of political tyranny, corruption, and surveillance. There is no way of knowing whether one's neighbor is spying for the government, or what one's supposed friend will say under pressure to a state security agent. A loyal party member might be imprisoned or executed as quickly as a traitor; innocence means nothing for a person caught in a government trap.

After what seems like several lifetimes as a policeman, Commissario Trotti can't wait to retire to the villa he jointly owns with his cousin, where his biggest concern will be keeping track of his chickens. But things keep getting in the way of his plans. Like Fabrizio Bassi, for instance.

Aimee Leduc has her work cut out for her - running her detective agency and fighting off sleep deprivation as she tries to be a good single mother to her new bebe. The last thing she has time for now is to take on a personal investigation for a poor manouche (French Gypsy) boy. But he insists his dying mother has an important secret she needs to tell Aimee, something to do with Aimee's father's unsolved murder a decade ago. How can she say no?

Commissario Trotti of Italy's Polizia di Stato is called to the scene of a brutal murder. Despite the badly disfigured face on the corpse, Trotti recognizes it as schoolteacher Rosanna Belloni, an old friend. His superiors warn him off the case, but Trotti is determined to hunt down the killer. First he must find Rosanna's missing sister, a known drug addict. But the deeper he digs, the more questions he is forced to ask himself. Is a recent, unexplained suicide in the River Po connected with the murder?

April 1990, Guadeloupe: The body white female French tourist has been discovered on a nudist beach. The victim's remains offer no clues about her final hours. What turned this woman's vacation in paradise into a final nightmare? French-Algerian judge Anne Marie Laveau is assigned the high-profile case as a top priority. As always, the story of a murdered white woman has attracted the attention of international media.

Facing a tight deadline on a computer security contract, Aimée responds to a telephone call from a stranger that leads her to an abandoned infant in a courtyard on the Ile Saint-Louis. She brings the baby home with her, calls her Stella, and awaits contact from the mother. But days pass, and no one reclaims the infant. Meanwhile, a group of environmental protestors is trying to stop the government from entering into a contract with an oil company notorious for pollution.

Father Brennan Burke is struggling, and he’s been coping the only way he knows how: self-medicating with drink. He’s barely managing, but his troubles intensify when the body of one of his parishioners washes up on the coast of Halifax. Meika Keller came to Canada after escaping past a checkpoint in the Berlin Wall. An army colonel is charged with her murder, and defense lawyer Monty argues that Meika’s death was a suicide, which is the last thing Father Burke wants to hear.

In this fabulous follow-up to the internationally acclaimed The Lazarus Effect, newspaper reporter Vee Johnson reprieves her role as Cape Town's most feisty female investigator. Vee and her ever-faithful sidekick, Chloe Bishop, have been banished from City Chronicle's newsroom to review a tourist lodge in sleepy Oudtshoorn. But Vee and Chloe are barely checked in to their rooms when the first body is discovered. hanging from a tree, with Vee's purple silk scarf used as a noose. But is it suicide or strangulation?

Voinjama Johnson is a woman on the brink of a dark, downward spiral. Suffering from misfortunes past and present, all Vee has is her work as an investigative journalist to hang on to. Now her career, like her sanity, is under fire. A revenant haunts Vee's steps - during her blackouts, the ghost of a strange teenage girl in a red woollen hat keeps reaching out to her. Desperate for answers, she and her new assistant Chlöe Bishop plunge into the disappearance of 17-year-old Jacqueline Paulsen.

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.

1980: A pivotal year in modern Chinese history as Premier Deng Xiaoping begins what he intends to be the transformation of China into an economic superpower. The most visible evidence of Deng's policy is the creation of Special Economic Zones, and one has been set up in Shenzhen, next door to Hong Kong and on Fanling's doorstep. Among Triad leaders, Uncle is the only one who recognizes that Deng's intentions could have profound repercussions on their organizations. To protect his gang and their interests, he acts to not only minimize the danger, but to turn events to his advantage.

Set between Cubas 20 years apart, Havana native Teresa Dovalpage's new mystery features an unusual detective - an ex-cop turned Santeria priest. Juan, a Cuban construction worker who has settled in Albuquerque, returns to Havana for the first time since fleeing Cuba by raft 20 years ago. He is traveling with his American wife, Sharon, hoping to catch up with Victor, his best friend from college - and, unbeknownst to Sharon, discover what has become of two of his ex-girlfriends. Juan is surprised to discover that Victor has become Victoria, and runs a popular local drag show....

South Korea, 1970s: A rash of armed robberies at local Korean banks doesn't concern the American military - until a fatality occurs, and proof surfaces that US soldiers are behind the crimes. The case has been assigned to CID Agents Jake Burrows and Felix Slabem, but they certainly won't do anything that might make 8th United States Army look bad. So Sergeants George Sueno and Ernie Bascom have decided to step in and investigate the robberies - and murder - themselves.

As 1995 dawns in the North of Ireland, Belfast is a city of army patrols, bombed-out buildings, and “peace walls” segregating one community from the other. But the IRA has called a ceasefire. So, it’s as good a time as any for Monty Collins and Father Brennan Burke to visit the city: Monty to do a short gig in a law firm, and Brennan to reconnect with family. And it’s a good time for Brennan’s cousin Ronan to lay down arms and campaign for election in a future peacetime government. But then a man goes off a bridge on a dark, lonely road; a rogue IRA enforcer is shot; and a series of car bombs remains an unsolved crime.

The Korean Demilitarized Zone, 1970s: A battered corpse is found a few feet north of the line dividing North and South Korea. When Eighth Army CID Agents George Sueno and Ernie Bascom are ordered by superiors to pull the body to the South Korean side, they have no idea of the international conflict the action will spark.

July, 1944, a full month after D-Day. Billy, Kaz, and Big Mike are assigned to investigate a double murder close to the front lines in Normandy. An American officer and a member of the French Resistance were found dead in a manor house outside the town of Trevieres. The investigation is shrouded in secrecy, due to the highly confidential nature of the American unit headquartered at the Manoir de Castilly; the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops.

When American expat and bicycle tour company proprietress Sadie Greene guides a hard-to-impress group of sophisticated seniors on a stunning trip in northeastern France, she expects some twists, turns, and sudden stops to sip the Riesling. She doesn’t anticipate a detour leading straight to murder …

From neon-lit Tokyo alleys to Moscow's frozen streets, Knox leaves no stone unturned in his relentless pursuit of justice. But with a mole in the government, a puppet presidential candidate poised for victory, and a devastating weapon primed to ignite the global tinderbox, the odds have never been more stacked against him. Knox must push himself to the limit, questioning loyalties and making impossible choices as he fights to prevent a catastrophe that could reshape the world order.

Secrets drove gifted surgeon Olivia Calderone away from Shadow Bay. Now that she's come home, will something more sinister be the death of her? Homicide Lieutenant Gabriel Garrett is a man well acquainted with shadows and darkness. With the discovery of a mass grave in his hometown that shines a light on an underworld no one realize existed, his second chance with a long-lost soulmate hangs in the balance. Will his pursuit of justice restore a love interrupted or will the truth destroy them both?

A former special agent tracks rumors of a dangerous new drug to a remote clinic in Florida, where the investigation brings him into the crosshairs of a powerful pharmaceutical company, and the race is on to expose a terrifying truth: it could rewrite the human genome.