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

In Dhaka, Bangladesh, a garment factory burns to the ground, claiming the lives of hundreds of workers, mostly young women. Amid the rubble a bystander captures a heart-stopping image - a teenage girl lying in the dirt, her body broken by a multi-tory fall, and over her mouth a mask of fabric bearing the label of one of America's largest retailers, Presto Omnishops Corporation. When the photo goes viral, it fans the flames of a decades-old controversy about sweatshops, labor rights, and the ethics of globalization.

In Taiwan, the Mid-Autumn Festival is a time for prioritizing family. When 25-year-old Jing-nan's gangster uncle, Big Eye, asks a favor, Jing-nan can't exactly say no, especially because two goons are going to follow him around to make sure he gets it done right. The favor is this: Big Eye's 16-year-old daughter, Mei-ling, has a biker boyfriend from the wrong side of the tracks and Big Eye wants Jing-nan to bring her to Taipei, away from the bad influences, and straighten her out.

Danish Red Cross nurse Nina Borg has dedicated her life to helping Copenhagen's most desperate: illegal immigrants, abused women, and others underserved by society. But Nina's do-gooder complex often takes her into dangerous situations and communities beyond the margins of the law's protection.

It's May, and the snow has hardly melted in Goteborg, Sweden, but things are heating up quickly for Detective Inspector Irene Huss. The staff of the Violent Crimes Unit is stretched thin, with everyone on edge as they race to solve two murders amid the city's ongoing gang violence. Soon Irene and her colleagues are on a hunt that pulls them into the world of anonymous online predators.

Daniel and Vanessa Parker are an American success story. He is a Washington, DC power broker, and she is a doctor with a thriving practice. But behind the facade, their marriage is a shambles, and their teenage son, Quentin, is self-destructing. In desperation, Daniel dusts off a long-delayed dream - a sailing trip around the world. Little does he know that the voyage he hopes will save them may destroy them instead.

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.

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.

Guy Collins, a British hack, is hunting for an election story in Lagos. A decision to check out a local bar in Victoria Island ends up badly - a mutilated female body is discarded close by and Collins is picked up as a suspect. In the murk of a hot, groaning, and bloody police station cell, Collins fears the worst. But then Amaka, a sassy guardian angel of Lagos working girls, talks the police station chief around. She assumes Collins is a BBC journo who can broadcast the city's witchcraft and body-parts trade that she's on a one-woman mission to stop.

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....

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.