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It is a fact that in 1976 there was a daring bank robbery staged in Beirut, Lebanon. A huge amount of gold bullion was removed and neither the perpetrators nor the gold has ever been found. Damien Lewis uses this as the backdrop to his fictional account not only of how the heist was performed, but also the aftermath of the events as they unfold years later in his new blockbuster Cobra Gold.

Damien is no novice to the authoring world, and has been hugely successful in the UK marketplace, his writing style is accomplished, and the plot and character development masterful. This is a high octane story that propels the reader at breakneck speed through a world of intrigue, greed, and terrorism. I suspect that Cobra Gold may be his well deserved big break into the North American book market, I’ll be watching the New York Times bestseller list for this one. Continue reading »

Ricochet
by P.M. Terrell

This book had me hooked from the very first sentence.

P.M. Terrell is a master storyteller. In “Ricochet” the author uses her real-life experience in computers and software to weave a diabolical story including terrorism, murder, espionage and illegal immigration. It is fast moving from the very beginning to the end.

The story begins when Sheila Carpenter is in the wrong place at the wrong time. She and her “shopaholic” best friend, Margaret, decide to go the mall the day before Sheila is due to start the FBI academy.

While they are waiting for food, Sheila notices a person acting and dressing strangely right before everything goes black in a huge explosion. When Sheila comes to, she finds she is buried in the rubble and having trouble breathing due to the fire. Continue reading »

Harriet Klausner is Amazon’s #1 Reviewer

The Black Path
Asa Larsson

In Kiruna, Sweden, the corpse of the woman found on the frozen lake did not require an autopsy to see she was tortured. Police Inspectors Anna-Maria Mella and Sven-Erik Stainacke lead the investigation into identifying who the Jane Doe is and why she was so brutally battered.

Anna-Maria learns who the deceased is and her connections as a superstar employee at Kallis Mining, an international company with incredible connections at the top of Sweden, Europe and beyond. Chief Prosecutor Alf Bjornfot knows if they are to make a case against politically connected Mauri Kallis, he needs a special top gun at the scene. Continue reading »

Dance On His Grave by Sylvia Dickey Smith. When Sidra Smart, the fifty-year-old ex-wife of a fundamentalist preacher, inherits her brother’s detective agency, she learns that a lifetime spent on a pedestal before her husband’s congregation has left her ill prepared to face the dark world of criminal investigation.

But when Jewell Stone bursts in with vague flashbacks of a grisly 30-year-old murder committed by her father, Roy Manly, Sid plunges into a surreal world where passion burns as hot as the memories of child abuse, arson and murder.

As if murder isn’t enough to occupy Sid’s every waking thought, she must also deal with her own internal conflicts as she comes face to face with the real world now that she’s stepped down off her pedestal of ‘the preacher’s wife’.

Intrigued by Jewell’s memories, but clueless as to procedure, Sid visits veteran private investigator George Leger, and this Cajun-speaking, rot-gut drinking man soon enchants her.

After he offers to supervise Sid until she gains state licensure, she travels to the Caribbean in search of Jewell’s sister, Emma Barfield, hoping she can refute the macabre memories. Instead, Emma reinforces them, saying, “When my father dies, I swear, I will drink tequila and dance on his grave.” Continue reading »

Harriet Klausner is Amazon’s #1 Reviewer

Dr. Kay Scarpetta and her long time lover Benton Wesley are called to Rome to work with a team investigating the death of sixteen-year-old tennis star Drew Martin.

Her body was left in a prominent location so that her mutilated corpse would be found quickly; huge chunks were cut out of her body and her eyes are gouged out and sand was placed in them before they were glued shut. The killer who will come to be known as the Sandman thinks he is doing the victim a favor by putting her out of her misery.

Before they fly home Benton gives Scarpetta a ring and then she returns home to South Carolina where she has opened up her own pathology practice Coastal Forensic Pathology Associates. Continue reading »

Grady Harp is an Amazon Top 10 Reviewer

Diana Abu-Jaber continues to polish her craft as a storyteller par excellence.

Writing with artful prose, well-integrated scientific facts, an understanding of criminology details, and a gift for creating fascinating characters, she has, in Origin: A Novel, created a story that is not only a superb novel, but also one that is bound to please a wide readership. ORIGIN is a winner at every level, a novel that exercises the brain while exploring the heart.

Lena Dawson is a young woman who despite minimal formal education has become a successful interpreter of fingerprints with the criminal investigation unit in Syracuse, NY. As the novel begins she is separated from a fractured marriage with police officer Charlie, a raucous womanizer who continues to ’stalk’ Lena despite their obvious incompatibility.

Lena now lives a lone Spartan life, one more committed to her job than to a social existence. Her knowledge and sharp intuition in breaking a case of criminal implications in an apparent SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) case has sharpened her interest in other unexplained cases, and her extraordinary investigative gifts fall into place with the rather sudden onset of multiple SIDS cases. Continue reading »

Over a woe-is-me, three-martini lunch twenty years ago, a pal and fellow disgruntled stockbroker told me a tale that became the basis for my debut novel, Big Numbers.

A half-eaten olive spat from my mouth even before I heard the punchline. “Say that again?”

“Jim was a stock-jockey like the rest of us, living hand-to-mouth, until his richest client died,” my pal said. “One week after the client’s funeral, Jim started dating the rich new widow.”

I picked up my errant and twice-bitten green olive.

“And Jim married her?”

“Yup,” my friend said.

Bottoms up on my third martini. “That sounds like a novel.”

“A noir tale of greed.”

Maybe it was the times. The mid-1980s celebrated renewed and sharp economic growth, even greed in my opinion. Or maybe it was just my own greed, my desire to escape the dismally frustrating and soulfully repugnant stock and bond trade. Dialing for dollars, we used to call it. Income based solely on commissions. Believe me, avarice gets nurtured daily when you watch your salary go back to zero every month. Continue reading »

What happens when a former financial writer turns mystery novelist? A page-turning whodunnit - that’s what! Read more about Big Numbers the new novel by Jack Getze.

Read an excerpt

Who is killing Austin Carr?

About to be murdered–snatched off a private fishing yacht by a six-hundred-pound giant bluefin tuna–a down-on-his-luck stockbroker recalls the collection of events, miscalculations, and character flaws that led to his current dire predicament: Living in a truck-mounted camper on the Jersey Shore, struggling to keep up with alimony and child-support payments that no longer reflect his shrinking income, the big-smiling, wise-cracking Austin Carr has been searching for a way out of the stock and bond business.

So when his richest client tells Austin he’s dying, and the future widow–a redheaded knock-out–offers tender consolation, Austin’s increasingly desperate financial situation draws him deeper and deeper into a barbed web of bad behavior and deceit. Austin’s would-be killer, whom he dubs “Mr. Blabbermouth,” could be any one of several suspects, as Austin’s words and deeds have attracted the wrath of many in recent weeks.

The potential murderers include a wacked-out professional wrestler angry over Austin’s poor investment recommendations, a jealous sales manager who Austin regularly belittles, and even Austin’s greedy employer whose personality traits include a nasty, violent temper. Or could there be another suspect Austin overlooked entirely until he stepped on board that private yacht.

About the Author
Jack Getze is a former reporter for the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner and the Los Angeles Times.  Getze covered financial and economic issues for more than 15 years. Switching professions, Getze later sold stocks and bonds for a regional securities firm on the New Jersey Shore. He retired in 1999 to write novels. Continue reading »

Black’s Beach Shuffle
Author: Corey Lynn Fayman 

It’s 1999 in San Diego, California. Money is being made in new Internet companies like Amazon, Yahoo! and EBay. Eyebitz.com is another company looking to break into the Internet world.

Rolly Waters is an aging rock musician who has a part time day job being a private detective. His band has a few gigs a week around the city. This Saturday night his friend Fender gets the group a job playing for a gala that Eyebitz.com is having at a mansion in LaJolla near Black’s Beach.

But Rolly’s favorite guitar was left behind. When he returns in the middle of the night to retrieve it, he discovers a dead body in the pool. In a panic, he grabs his guitar and beats it out of there. On his way home he makes an anonymous 911 call to report the body.

The next morning Fender comes to Rolly’s home. Now he wants to take Rolly back to the Eyebitz.com offices for a private detective job. Rolly meets with the president of the company. Someone has stolen the encryption “Magic Key” needed to run their computers and their top secret proprietary software that is due to be released soon. Rolly is hired to locate and return the missing key. Continue reading »

And Murder for Dessert
by Kathleen Delaney

Harriet Klausner is Amazon’s #1 Reviewer

In California, realtor Ellen McKenzie and her fiancé Police Chief Dan Dunham attend the Harvest Festival Dinner at the Silver Springs Winery in nearby Santa Louisa. Though somewhat estranged from her snobby sister Ellen and Dan go to celebrate her niece Sabrina’s husband Mark Tortelli becoming the new winemaker; although Ellen did not know her niece married as she was not invited or even informed until now.

As Chef Otto explodes over minor inconveniences, his rival Chef Frank arrives to celebrate his son being named the winemaker. Frank and Otto are more than competitors as they hate each other with a passion that rivals their love of cooking. However, it is not Frank who the police, including Dan, believe killed Otto, found floating in the fermenting tank; it is Sabrina they suspect. Not one to sit idly by while her niece goes down, Ellen investigates; even though she is unprepared for a second homicide.

Ellen’s personal life adds depth to a fine amateur sleuth tale as she has doubts about marrying for the second time after years in a horrific marriage to a physician; Dan recognizes her hesitation and does his best to prove he is not her former rat of a husband. Although the killer is obvious, the investigation is still fun to follow due to Ellen’s antics. She knows she should stay out of it but cannot because blood is thicker than water.