"A master of the spy genre crafts an exemplary detective novel, starring a former CIA agent turned private investigator, that already has the feel of a classic Robert Littell has been widely praised as one of the best writers in the espionage genre. Now, he's turned his formidable skills towards crime fiction in A Nasty Piece of Work, a novel that has echoes of the great Raymond Chandler. Former CIA agent Lemuel Gunn left the battlefield of Afghanistan...

"Has Philip Marlowe finally met his match? It's early fall when a heatwave descends on Los Angeles. Private Detective Philip Marlowe is called to the Montgomery estate, an almost mythic place sitting high on top of Beverly Hills. Wealthy socialite Chrissie Montgomery is missing. Young, naïve, and set to inherit an enormous fortune, she's a walking target, ripe for someone to get their claws into. Her dying father and his sultry bottle-blonde girlfriend...

A seasoned claims investigator tracks a supposedly dead man from Miami to Brazil, only to be thrown off his game by a kid from the local slum. An aging loser takes a last stab at respectability by becoming a police informant. A Greek-American couple adopts an interracial trio of sons and then struggles to keep their family together, giving us a stirring bit of background on one of Pelecanos' most beloved protagonists, Spero Lucas. In the title novella--which...

"In the latest captivating installment of M.L. Longworth's acclaimed Verlaque & Bonnet Provencıal Mystery series, the newlywed investigators contend with their most sinister challenge yet: a centuries-old curse ... Chef Bear Valets has just opened his own restaurant, La Fontaine, in Aix-en-Provence. It's an immediate success--great reviews and a loyal clientele, including Verlaque and Bonnet. But when he decides to extend his restaurant's seating...

"It is 1906, and in New York City, the Italian crime group known as the Black Hand is on a spree: kidnapping, extortion, arson. Detective Isaac Bell of the Van Dorn Agency is hired to form a special "Black Hand Squad," but the gangsters appear to be everywhere--so much so that Bell begins to wonder if there are imitators, criminals using the name for the terror effect. And then the murders begin, each one of a man more powerful than the last, and...

"Young mother Chelsea Clark leaves the house for a girls' night out... and vanishes. Her family knows she would never voluntarily leave her two small children. Her desperate husband--the prime suspect--hires attorney Morgan Dane to find his wife and prove his innocence. She teams up with private investigator Lance Kruger--unaware she has become the next target"--

Light in shadow: Interior designer Zoe Luce specializes in working with recently divorced clients. Suspecting that one of them harbors a dark secret, she enlists P.I. Ethan Truax to uncover the truth. Truth or dare: Newlyweds Zoe Luce and Ethan Truax both have secrets it would be better not to share, but it isn't clear that their new relationship can bear the burden. Falling awake: After being fired from the Belvedere Center for Sleep Research, dream...

"If the marshlands could speak, whose name would they whisper? On Memorial Day,1992, three decorated Navy officers disappeared in the sleepy beach town of Hansville, Washington. Thirty years later, their medals were found in the marshlands of Foulweather Bluff. So were their bones. For private investigator Thomas Austin, this case hits close to home. The son of a JAG lawyer, Austin grew up around the Navy. To solve the case, he must piece together...

"In the summer of 1914, Detective Isaac Bell is asked to investigate a cache of missing rifles but discovers something much more sinister. Whoever broke into this Winchester factory wasn't looking to take weapons; they wanted to leave a radio transmitter, set to summon a fleet of dreaded German U-boats. Someone is trying to keep American supplies from reaching British shores. Bell must hunt down a new piece of technology that is allowing the Germans...