Showing results by author "Lee Harris" in All Categories

When ex-nun Christine Bennett can't get into her friend Mr. Herskovitz's apartment to accompany him to Yom Kippur services, she discovers that he's been murdered. The police arrest someone almost immediately, but Chris isn't ready to end her own investigation.

Every year, the Morris Avenue Boys - chums since childhood - gather for a Father's Day reunion dinner. Now late in middle age, these men can bask in the rewards of honest success. So which of them seizes the opportunity that fateful evening to pull out an ice pick and stab to death the group's most celebrated member, novelist Arthur Wein? As investigator (and former nun) Christine Bennett peels back the layers of the past, 40 years' worth of secrets emerge from the shadows....

Newly promoted to detective first-grade with the NYPD, Jane Bauer, is back to work after a nearly fatal run-in with a killer. But while she’s happy to be back on the job, her new assignment - another cold case - seems to hold little promise of being solved. Eight years ago, Anderson Stratton, a schizophrenic, was found dead of starvation in his apartment. Nothing on the scene indicated foul play, and although he left no note, the death was ultimately ruled a suicide.

What really happened that tragic Valentine's night on Lake Erie? No one knows. Three old buddies - reckless Matty, successful Clark, clever Val - decided to cap Val's birthday celebration with a stroll across the frozen lake. They never returned. Matty's scarf was found snagged on broken ice. After the thaw, only the bodies of Clark and Matty are recovered - the latter with a bullet in it. Val remains missing, now a murder suspect. His desperate wife pleads with ex-nun investigator Christine Bennett to find him and prove his innocence.

Island old-timers are stunned by the shooting death of Blue Harbor's popular fire chief, followed by the mysterious torching of his house. Rumors soon begin to flare up about the chief's rumored affairs with a vacationing lady lawyer and a girl half his age. But when former nun (now sleuth) Christine Bennett and her police detective husband start asking questions, a thick fog of evasiveness closes in. For this is not the first fire to scorch Blue Harbor.

Former nun Christine Bennett is looking forward to the christening of her friend Maddie's baby. But when she goes to the church basement of the town that was flooded out 30 years before, Christine stumbles upon the skeletal remains of a body - the grim result of a 30-year-old murder. Trying to sort out the sordid puzzle from the past, Christine manages to unravel the dark secrets of the once close-knit community, and also reveals a killer who's not afraid to kill again....

Investigator (and former nun) Christine Bennett is appalled when a young woman claims to be the natural daughter of Sister Joseph, beloved Superior at St. Stephen's and Chris's dearest friend. But after the girl is murdered, all the evidence leads the police to believe she was telling the truth - and that Sister Joseph is the prime suspect. Can evidence ever lie? Chris prays that it can. But it seems only a miracle can save Sister Joseph from a life behind bars....

For his favorite charity, the high school drama club, Willard Platt fakes his own murder as an April Fool stunt. But the repeat performance later that day is the real thing. And some, including the next-door neighbor, say he deserved it. Investigator (and ex-nun) Christine Bennett is haunted by the sad state of Willard's survivors. His widow roams the road at night. His son has a troubled marriage and bizarre secret life. Behind this suburban family's respectable facade, violent passions are seething.

A phone call warning Christine Bennett that a body will be found is traced to the apartment of an attractive couple about to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary.... Listen to The Silver Anniversary Murder to find out more!

On December 30, Susan Stark was dropped off in front of her parents' house. She hasn't been heard from since. Not a good scenario, especially in New York. Former nun (now crime investigator) Christine Bennett fears the worst. Armed with only a few phone numbers and a photo of Susan, she steps into the missing girl's life - and meets a Susan that neither her parents nor her boyfriend knew existed…

For suburban sleuth Christine Bennett, the chance to visit the Holy Land is a dream come true. Her best friend Melanie Gross will be in Jerusalem at the same time for the Bar Mitzvah of her very wealthy cousin. Although he’s long past the customary age of 13, Gabe is planning a lavish party and is flying family and friends over from the States to celebrate. Not accustomed to traveling, Christine is thrilled to have Melanie along to share the experience.

Christine Bennett has left the cloistered world of nuns for the profane world of New York State, where murder and madness are often linked. At a town meeting, Christine volunteers to investigate a 40-year-old murder case long since closed. Now she'll move heaven and earth to exonerate a pair of retarded savant twins, now senior citizens, of their mother's murder on Good Friday in 1950.

When Christine Bennett is invited on a sightseeing trip to Arizona, she jumps at the chance for a little adventure. But the excursion reminds her of a former high school classmate, Heinz Gruner, who died 20 years earlier on Cinco de Mayo while hiking Picacho Peak near Tucson. Chris decides to contact Heinz’s mother, who has been wondering all these years how her beloved son, an experienced hiker, plunged to his death. Her one wish is to find out the truth-whether it was an accident, as the police report claimed, or murder.

Until someone killed her, the only mystery about adorable Iris Grodnik was why she had never married. But for 15 years, her strange disappearance and murder during a Passover Seder has remained a troubling piece of family history. So when Iris's relatives ask ex-nun Chris Bennett - now the wife of a New York City cop - to make one last attempt to learn the truth, she reluctantly consents. Iris's old friends and suitors have scattered, and Chris soon suspects that some of the relatives are not telling her all they know about Iris's life and death.

When NYPD detective Jane Bauer and her team check in for their new assignment, they reopen a cold case that’s a real killer. Ten years earlier, police responding to a spate of late-night 911 calls from Greenwich Village discovered a young African American undercover cop, Micah Anthony, shot dead on Waverly Place. The killer left no clues, and the murder remains an inscrutable mystery...except for two things: Anthony had infiltrated a lucrative gun-trading operation in the city, and it seemed likely that he knew and trusted the killer.

An off-duty police officer is shot and ex-nun Chris Bennett and her police-detective boyfriend find this motiveless murder puzzling. Praying for a break, Chris pursues a killer along strange paths: a pilgrimage that takes her from a suburban convent to a Brooklyn fruit market, and deep into the sacrosanct world of the NYPD - and ultimately back to the deadly place where it all began.

Suburban sleuth Christine Bennett is moved and intrigued by two poignant mementos treasured by her late Aunt May. The first is a sad little note mourning the death of a young man lost in a Connecticut wood; the other, an obituary honoring a wealthy local manufacturer who committed suicide just after his splendid 50th birthday celebration. Why did her aunt never mention these virtually simultaneous tragedies? Chris’ investigative instincts are irresistibly whetted - especially by the bizarre discovery that the victims, though strangers, were found wearing each other’s sneakers.

After 20 years of loyal service, Detective Jane Bauer is just two months and one case away from leaving the NYPD for a cushy desk job. Her last assignment: working for a special unit that tackles unsolved crimes. At a crossroads in her personal life, Jane relishes the chance to lose herself in a challenging investigation. Four years ago, Arlen Quill was found dead in the entryway to his apartment building - leaving no clues, no witnesses, and no leads.