murder

Cold Valley Nightmare by Anna Willett

A troubled past resurfaces when an investigative journalist agrees to help find a missing child.

The Australian bush is unforgiving, and there is not much hope when a four-year-old boy, Clem, apparently disappears into it without a trace. When the police begin to suspect the boy’s step-father, his lawyer hires Damon, a specialist private investigator, to help defend him.

No stranger to missing person cases, Damon agrees to let his partner, Lucy, interview the family. There she finds a strong connection to the boy’s mother, and determines to find Clem no matter the cost. Having lost her own parents young, and nearly lost her brother, she hopes it will help her to exorcise her own demons.

Refusing to believe that Clem is dead, Lucy begins a search that will take her into the seedier side of a rural community with many secrets. In so doing, she will stumble across criminal activity that will put her in serious danger.

But it will also stretch her fledgling relationship to Damon, the only person she has ever really trusted. Can she find Clem? Can she find an inner peace? Can she let Damon in?

If you enjoy suspense thrillers you are in for a treat with COLD VALLEY NIGHTMARE. It is a standalone, but you can also read about Lucy’s backstory in the bestseller SMALL TOWN NIGHTMARE, which is FREE with Kindle Unlimited and available in paperback.

White Death by George A Bernstein

By Book Lovers Magazine

White Death by George A Bernstein

Detective Al Warner is back at work, recovered from his deadly final encounter that ended the hunt for The Prom Dress Killer.
Meanwhile, Ashton Kerry is furious his in-laws, who both died in a flaming boating accident, left him nothing in their will—but his wife’s massive trust fund provides all he can spend. Determined to have his own stash so he can ditch his family and be with his mistress, he enlists the Cuban mafia to ship cocaine via his company, packaged as brochures. Kerry is paid a nice percentage of their value. But in setting this up, the Cubans murder five of his employees, drowning them in a fake auto accident. Then Kerry’s ties to the Cubans become more complicated–and dangerous–than he ever expected.
Warner’s gut tells him the accidental drowning of five factory workers is highly suspicious, and his “gut” is seldom wrong. It’s one of two cases the “Hero of Miami” is zeroing in on. The other puzzler is the exploding rash of deadly ODs from fentanyl-laced heroin—White Death. The drug is so lethal, Warner suspects the fatalities may be intentional. Soon everything erupts into a series of stunning revelations and deadly confrontations, with Warner once again thrust into mortal danger.

Summary & Analysis of I’ll Be Gone in the Dark by ZIP Reads

By Book Lovers Magazine

Summary & Analysis of I’ll Be Gone in the Dark by ZIP Reads

***UPDATED SINCE THE CAPTURE OF THE GOLDEN STATE KILLER!***
In her chilling and exhaustive true crime memoir, Michelle McNamara traces the trail of the Golden State Killer–a man who viciously raped and murdered dozens of people in California more than 40 years ago–and who evaded police just as long.

What does this ZIP Reads Summary Include?
– Synopsis of the original book
– Detailed Chapter-by-chapter summaries
– A guide to the detectives, victims, and crimes linked to the killer
– Gripping retellings of some of the original murders
– An in-depth editorial review
– Special addendum covering the capture of the killer
– Background on the author

About the Original Book:
In I’ll Be Gone in the Dark, Michelle McNamara leaves no stone unturned in her decade-long search for the Golden State Killer. Teaming up with detectives and amateurs alike, this case seemed to affect everyone who got close to it. Her book is expertly crafted and immediately draws you in. It is part memoir, part true crime novel, and will have you checking your locks before you go to bed.

DISCLAIMER: This book is intended as a companion to, not a replacement for, I’ll Be Gone in the Dark. ZIP Reads is wholly responsible for this content and is not associated with the original author in any way.

The Man in the Blue Fez by Rik Stone

By Book Lovers Magazine

The Man in the Blue Fez by Rik Stone

Victory or Death … there is no in-between

From a former death camp in the snowy Russian mountains of 1973, Jez Kord is sent into the freezing wastelands to prove himself fit. Returning to camp, the sky is filled with helicopter gunships and he watches a venomous assault end with the flaming liquid of napalm bombs swallowing up the entire complex. He makes a run for it, but a unit of Spetsnaz elitists are hot on his heels.

Jez’s wife Anna is on assignment in Turkey. Adam Mannesh and his twisted band of misfits have designs on a drug empire that Anna has been tasked to take down. Adam comes to her assistance, but betrays her. Now the only chance of survival hangs on Jez evading the Siberian pursuit.

The Man in the Blue Fez is the third book in the series of explosive Birth of an Assassin thrillers. If you enjoy suspense thrillers with complex characters and an endless flow of death defying situations, then you’ll love being drawn into these classic tales of betrayal and intrigue from Rik Stone.

A Step Ahead of Death by Scott McPherson

By Book Lovers Magazine

A Step Ahead of Death by Scott McPherson

Jack Sharp is just an ordinary family physician living in Nebraska. As a former missionary and military physician, his background is anything but ordinary, but he finds quiet satisfaction in the normal routine of a simple life. However, his uncomplicated life is thrown into chaos when he discovers the body of a murdered young woman dumped beside a bike path.
Jack finds himself juggling the drama of the murder investigation with the concerns of his patients and his medical practice. His medical expertise seems to be an asset in the case, but a dear friend, Kathy, needs his help when she receives dramatic news of her own.
Alicia Winters is running for her life and is doing her best to stay hidden. The compassion and generosity of an old farmer and his daughter initially arouse her suspicions, but soon lead her to examine her own motives. As her pursuers close in, she finds herself running out of options and must choose between saving her life and risking it for these people who have come to mean everything to her.
Meanwhile, detectives Rebecca Sweate and Justin Samuelson are piecing together the details of the murder, but what they’re discovering is leading them to the last person anyone would suspect. When another girl goes missing, the detectives uncover startling facts from Jack’s past that link him not only to the murdered girl but to a broader international conspiracy whose head doesn’t mind running over anyone who gets in the way.

Dangerous Habits by Susan Hunter

By Book Lovers Magazine

Dangerous Habits by Susan Hunter

After receiving a mysterious message from a dead nun, journalist Leah Nash reopens the investigation into her teenage sister’s death. As she starts closing in on the answers, someone starts closing in on her. Leah races down dangerous paths in this twisting tale of hidden motives and long buried secrets—until she finds the stunning truth.

Visiting Lilly by Toni Allen

By Book Lovers Magazine

Visiting Lilly by Toni Allen

Why should a man at a Surrey police station go ballistic because someone tries to visit Lilly, his elderly grandmother?

Detective Inspector Jake Talbot is intrigued, and this little puzzle might serve to distract him from sorrows of a Christmas past. Soon he is entangled with Frankie, an odd young man who claims to have met Lilly in her youth. Talbot dismisses the notion of time travel, but then discovers the Ministry of Defence has been monitoring Frankie since his friend disappeared ten years previously. Forced to work with the MOD, Talbot unearths family secrets and betrayals. The families act ruthlessly to prevent him from discovering the facts, colluding to ruin him.

If Frankie is innocent, Talbot won’t let him be victimised. An uneasy understanding grows between them as they follow the evidence, for only the truth will allow Frankie to visit Lilly.

Juicy Jersey by Lizz Lund

By Book Lovers Magazine

Juicy Jersey by Lizz Lund

Summertime, and the living is… not as easy as Mina had hoped. But, she finally has a full-time job, working alongside her new boyfriend, Jack (that is, Chef Jacque, when they’re at Squirrel Run Acres.) That’s good, right? Except that poor Mina and Jack have been working together a lot lately–specifically fourteen hour shifts in a sizzling kitchen–for months.

When tempers flare hotter than fat on a fire, Jack steps up and splurges for a romantic get-away to Cape May Point, New Jersey. All is forgiven and soon sunset beaches wink from the distance, until Mina’s stuck with dog sitting duties for Jim, her buddy Bauser’s three-legged dog. Complicating the canine conundrum is Bauser’s last minute plea to deliver Jim to a client location, in Bumville, New Jersey. No biggie, except that Bumville lies in the polar opposite direction from Cape May. And Vito and Miriam also happen to be visiting the client–who is none other than Vito’s niece, Helena Pryzchntchynzski. Oy.

Further jeopardizing their journey through Jersey is Jim’s discovery of Babette Bernstein. Her murder launches a connect-the-dots of corpses that ripples dangerously around Mina and Jack. Oh–and the kidnappings, plural–are a little scary, too.

Will Mina and Jack escape the bad guys? Will they survive their first vacation together? More importantly, will they finally have one?

If you’re in the mood for funny fiction, a cast of chatty pets, and unsolved murders–read on. Juicy Jersey packs a roller coaster ride of murders, mayhem and mojitos. Come root for Mina, boo the bad guys and nibble a nosh, courtesy of the author’s recipes in the back of the book, vetted by Lund’s real-life favorite chef, her husband, Chef Andrew.

The Tegen Cave by Inge-Lise Goss

By Book Lovers Magazine

The Tegen Cave by Inge-Lise Goss

On the run from her old flame’s organized crime family, Sara Jones hides in Billings, Montana, and finds a new boyfriend. But when people around her start dying from poisonous spider bites after she receives a mysterious package with a spider concealed inside, she worries that the crime family has found her. Life takes an even more bizarre turn when she seems to be not only immune to the spider venom, but also surrounded by a sinister group of people using spiders to incapacitate their prey. Even her new boyfriend starts acting suspiciously. Just who can she trust?
Then to make matters worse Sara’s twenty-fifth birthday approaches, and her dark heritage begins to emerge. She is forced to make a life-or-death decision. And somehow, she must find a way to deal with the crime family.