Beginnings: The Omniscients by Kevin Marstall

BEGINNINGS – The Omniscients – Book 2 Los Angeles, CA - It’s late 1993, as Detective Jason Markham embarks on a new investigation, one that will challenge his patience, his methods, and ultimately his mind. A heinous crime, an innocent victim, and a partner with whom working together is more difficult than solving the case. Struggling to train his attention on the clues in the continuing series of burglaries, instead Jason’s heart and mind remain focused on his personal investigation into the disappearance of the woman he loves. Driven to find her and know that she is safe, Markham’s actions stretch his physical, emotional, and mental state dangerously to its limits. New and old friends alike lend their support to Jason, but the detective’s tumultuous battle rages on against his new partner, his generations of memories that seem just beyond his grasp, and worst of all his own sense of self.

Discoveries: The Omniscients by Kevin Marstall

DISCOVERIES – The Omniscients Los Angeles, CA - It’s 1993 and Detective Jason Markham faces a new case, unlike any he’s seen before. A nameless victim, no clues, and not a soul to care about the man’s unfortunate death. To make matters worse, sleepless nights, haunted by his memories, have him on the edge, and now a few chance encounters send his previously ordered life spiraling dangerously out of control. Love, friendship, betrayal, all swirling around him and threatening to consume his mind, Jason’s heart desires to trust but is thrust into conflict with generations of wisdom passed down to him from his father and grandfathers before him.

Where There's a Will: Inspector Stone Mysteries #1 by Alex R Carver

The kidnapping of a child is every parent's worst nightmare, for the Keatings though it isn't a nightmare, it's a reality. Inspector Stone is tasked with finding Alice Keating and bringing her home safely. Hard enough under normal circumstances, but between investigating an unrelated armed robbery, family problems, and the machinations of an ambitious underling, it's almost impossible. Unbeknown to either Stone or Alice's parents, the kidnappers have more in mind than collecting a ransom. And when it turns out that the Russian Mafia might be involved in the kidnapping, things begin to spiral out of Stone's control. Can Stone find Alice before the kidnappers make good on their threats? If not it won't just be Alice that becomes a victim to their deadly plans...

SpaceCooler by Mark Fenton

Two cops are sent to man a space station prison for a year. One is going with a vendetta the other is in for the ride of his life.

Unexpected Interference by Pepper Winslow

Her discovery of evidence tampering in a high-profile rape case leads Cricket on a vigilante mission, but her plan for justice is uprooted when a mysterious group surfaces. Trigger warnings: References to sexual assault, murder, female-instigated violence, and, most triggering of all, making fun of men, piled high and tucked into a spicy cussword sandwich. Cricket McCorkle is the new admin for Bill Williamson, a semi-retired criminal defense attorney with a freaky Sir Walter Raleigh obsession. Between three-hour lunches at the City Club, he’s usually in his office writing his hoity-toity historical novel. Cricket’s primary duty is operating the Keurig, but the boss can only drink so many decaf hazelnut numbers in a day and it’s literally pushing a damn button. She’s bored out of her mind. But things get more interesting when Williamson takes a case as a favor to the South Carolina governor, and Cricket discovers an injustice that her past won’t let her ignore. Even if it means she can never come home.

Shantanu by Devansh Kamdar

Shantanu, a hardened hitman known for his cold precision, is thrust into a web of moral turmoil when underworld kingpin Kshitij Bhosale assigns him a special target who will forever change his destiny. As Shantanu navigates through the sinister underbelly of the mafia, he is joined by a cast of unforgettable characters, including Vasu, the enigmatic strategist; Aabhay, the ambitious enforcer; and Puneet, the power-hungry gangster—each playing their part in this high-stakes game. Shantanu, the gripping debut installment in the Rakhta Charitra series, combines fierce action and masterful storytelling to tell the tale of one man’s fight to reclaim his goodness. Grab your copy now and get ready to embark on a thrilling journey!

The Long Game by D.W. Howard

Lieutenant Michael Domenicalli and his team have been called to the scene of a riot and a double homicide the Queen’s Women’s Medical Clinic. What appears to be a simple case becomes murky as details begin to connect the double homicide to the Clockwork Murders the team thought they solved years before.

A Good Rush of Blood by Matt Phillips

A mother's sins haunt a teenage runaway in this scorching mystery of criminal conspiracy, street-level justice, and unlikely courage. Creeley Nash has been running her entire life. That includes running drugs for a wannabe kingpin. On a drug run to Palm Springs—the town where Creeley escaped her no-good mother as a teen—she’ll encounter a sun-drenched facade beneath which lurks a web of dark secrets. A Good Rush of Blood follows Creeley as she unravels the mystery of her estranged mother’s murder conviction. Peopled with bent cops, grizzled reporters, hardened drug dealers, eccentric sidekicks and sexy librarians, this sweaty, fast-paced neo-noir finds stellar noir scribe Matt Phillips (Countdown, Know Me from Smoke) at the apex of his dirty, lethal game.

Love Kills Twice by Rien Gray

She needs an assassin. They’re the best in the business. Falling in love was never part of the deal. Desperate to escape her abusive husband, Justine hires a contract killer. Campbell’s services come at a high price, and their dark, seductive charisma leads Justine right into their bed. Hiding an affair while Campbell designs the perfect murder has Justine walking a tightrope of stress, but each time the two of them sleep together, it’s harder not to get attached. Campbell struggles with their own traumatic past, convinced that the truth will drive Justine away. There’s a faint hope that things could work, save for one problem: Justine’s husband wants her dead too. Revenge is easy—heartbreak could cost both of them everything.

Ice Upon a Pier by Ladz

Chipped Cup

My warped sense of morality embarrasses me. Ruta Pawlak is one of the most successful contract killers Pier-Upon-Pier City has ever seen. Convicted of five murders that landed her multiple life sentences, her kill count allegedly sits between fifteen and two hundred people. Some were just for practice, others for revenge, and others she executed for money to keep her potentially world-record setting reading collection going. For the first time, a biographer sits down with the legendary killer to hear her story in her own words. Get the details on her relationship with her depraved bosses and her eclectic arsenal of murder weapons from ice magic to poison to even the sun itself. From her impoverished upbringing to her introduction to the Syndicates to her bizarre affair with fellow killer Frieda Masters to Ruta’s eventual downfall, this account goes beyond headlines and court proceedings, weaving a story of love, family, survival, and murder. This novella is perfect for fans of true crime, fantasy, noir, The Last Podcast on the Left, and the interview portions of AMC’s Interview with the Vampire series. Humans killing other humans wasn’t natural. Human killing monsters, however, might be.

I will Paint the Night by Sam Muller

Allii has a busy schedule Stay alive Find the killer of her beloved stepmother Stop her father's people from decimating her mother's people. Allii is 17. She has no family to back her, no army to protect her, no manifest destiny awaiting her. Just Spooky, a daemon-dog who thinks humankind is beyond redemption. I will Paint the Night is a murder mystery set in a fantasy land of magic and dragons, a tale of betrayal, dysfunctional families, and friendships that save worlds.

The Pilgrim: Inferno Redux by Rohit Prasad

Roy Aron stepped off a sun-kissed beach and plunged into the fiery pits of hell. He had a life-altering vision. To actualize his epiphany, he metaphorically descended the bowels of hell to grapple with man’s ruinous frailties. He followed in the footsteps of Dante Alighieri as he witnessed each of the nine sins: limbo, lust, gluttony, greed, wrath, heresy, violence, fraud and treachery. He came upon unexpected and macabre sagas, engaged in intriguing and enthralling events, which bore testimony to all that these sins manifest, and observed how the sinners end up sundering devastation around them. After observing the lowest of lows, he pulled himself out of these depths and vowed to fight the intoxicating attraction of sin. Roy undertook this odyssey, again and again, every year to make himself a better husband, a better father and a better human being. Journey with him through the heart of darkness, live through these bizarre and metamorphic incidents and emerge in the sunshine of hope.

Becoming Bill by Molly Garcia

Big Bill has featured in the first two Adam & Sarah books as a homeless man who helps the police when their case involves those who are rough sleeping and vulnerable. We learned more about Bill’s background in “Bedding Down,” where he’s left waiting on a placement in temporary accommodation. Bill has decided it’s time to accept a place in sheltered housing after being reunited with his daughter and having health problems. This is Bill’s story. From a successful job as an agent to rough sleeping, his addiction to alcohol and losing his wife and daughter, his job, and his home. This book will detail his journey as Bill is about to settle down and start a new chapter in his life.

Breach of Trust by Molly Garcia

Adam & Sarah - Book 1 Adam & Sarah are drawn together to investigate a spate of murders when it becomes apparent that all the victims were sex offenders. With a long suspect list, can they narrow it down in time to catch a killer before they strike again?

The Toy Maker by Melanie Flynn

A missing woman. A serial killer on the loose. A smart-mouthed private investigator on the case. What could go wrong? Rylee Scott is a New York private investigator with a secret: she's psychic and allergic to her cat. But only one of these secrets has the power to break her. When she's hired to find a missing woman, she finds herself racing against the clock to save her before she becomes the next victim of a prolific serial killer, the Toy Maker, who turns his victims into beautiful and horrific life-size versions of classic toys. After years of living under the radar, Rylee will have to enlist the help of the NYPD if she has any hope of bringing the woman home safe. Calum Reese is an NYPD detective with a southern accent, a chip on his shoulder and a secret of his own. On the hunt for the Toy Maker, he finds himself working with a certain private investigator who knows things she shouldn't and refuses to play by his rules. Can they put aside their differences to catch the killer before more bodies drop? Or will they be drowning in corpses before long?

The Persistence of Vapor by Ralph Clementi

Thomas Marcelli, lead archaeologist at an excavation outside a small town in Jordan, is astonished when his assistant informs him that the local newspaper has just printed a sensationalistic account of their recent find. The article claims that the coprolite that was uncovered the previous day is a holy relic of Jesus. Over the next two days the site becomes overrun by hundreds of curious spectators. Chaos ensues and the coprolite gets stolen. The artifact quickly enters the dark underworld of stolen art and antiquities. Eventually, through a string of murders and deceptions, it is acquired by Michael Steadman, a major dealer of stolen art in the United States. He multiplies his profits substantially by selling counterfeits of "the holy relic of Jesus" that he crudely carved from locally collected rocks. In the meantime the news of the discovery and theft of the coprolite unleashes a flood of conspiracy theories. This misinformation continues to spread despite repeated assertions by the archaeologists that there is no evidence of a connection between the coprolite and Jesus. Then matters worsen. Fraudulent enterprises appear that advertise nonexistent tours to the site where the "the holy relic of Jesus" was found. Religious leaders, deeply troubled by these scams, try to intercede to protect their congregants from being cheated. However, their efforts backfire when the religious leaders become the targets of new conspiracy theories. Set in the U.S. and the Middle East, the novel traces the impact that the coprolite has on the people it touches. The story is part adventure and part intellectual journey and rides on a universal theme that underlies so much of human behavior: facts and logic often take a back seat to a blind hunger for the satisfaction of emotional needs.

Defending Jessica by Benna Bos

From the author of the Lesfic Bard Award winning novel “Investigating Helen” comes another stand-alone installation in the Murder by the Bay Mystery Series… Few people accused of murder are as unlikable as Veronica Turner’s client, Jessica French. So to give the haughty heiress the best defense possible Veronica needs help from her favorite true crime podcast. But when she meets the newest sound tech for “Murder by the Bay”, she is instantly enthralled. She wants nothing more than to get close to the stunning, shy woman. Focused on her new job, Kaia Kent pays little attention to the pushy attorney defending their latest podcast subject. But Veronica just keeps coming around, and every time she does, Kaia finds herself slipping a little further away from dislike and toward serious attraction. With an innocent woman to defend, a murderer on the loose, and opposites that are smashed together in a whirlwind of fear, intrigue, and passion, defending Jessica will prove to be anything but easy.

Fox Hunt (Fox Meridian Book 1 by Niall Teasdale

A spree killer with a purpose? A creative dispute taken to extremes? It’s up to Tara ‘Fox’ Meridian to untangle the mess before more people die. Fresh back from a training visit to Luna City on the Moon, Fox Meridian is called to the murder of the main writer on an internet video show, Murder is My Business. Business has become very cutthroat. While it seems that the case may resolve down to a ratings war between two channels, as the trail of deaths continues, Fox begins to believe that the killer may have a more personal agenda, and that events from her past may be coming back to haunt her. Soon her job and her life are on the line as she races to stop the deaths and save her friend.

Wuntz Upon a Crime by Scott R Harrington

The devil is in the details, especially when gods are committing the crimes Crime is usually straightforward in sleepy Midwest communities, like Mt. Pleasant. That is, unless you have an ancient god or two passing through town. For thousands of years, they’ve been hiding in plain sight, with powers and motivations that are incomprehensible to most mortals. Recently fired from a super-secret government agency, Detective Jake Wuntz knows a few things about keeping these specially powered individuals under control. However, his ex-girlfriend, Katrina, knows nothing of the supernatural. But, she does have some unresolved issues with Jake and enough clout to force him to bring her along as they investigate an impossible murder. With the help of a rival detective and a colorful cast of locals, can they solve a murder, stop a heist, and subdue a three-thousand-year-old menace in their own hometown?

Teeth of the Cocodrilo by E.R. Yatscoff

A punch of an adventure novel!" – Christina Hoag, author of Skin of Tattoos “Aaron Landers is in paradise - problem is, it’s going to get him killed. Ever wondered what it would be like to have the Mexican mafia, police, and drug smugglers looking for you – and wanting you dead?.” – Jeff Buick, bestselling author. “Entertaining, heart-pounding, and realistic!” -Laurie Stevens bestselling author Intrigue, obsession, hot romance, international crime, and murder set along the beautiful Mayan Riviera. Fate plays its hand to bind ex-firefighter Aaron Landers and Mexican state police Commandant Luis Gutierrez, when he saves the lives of Luis' sons in Cancun. Aaron falls hard for the alluring Maria Vasquez who comes with a vengeful, estranged husband and a sordid past with Luis. Opportunity arrives in easy money scams for Aaron and the Commandant, but the small crimes turn on them and explode into murder and revenge.

Quiet, Pretty Things by Megan Stockton

Small town detectives investigate a string of puzzling local murders, and tensions rise as fatal mistakes inadvertently direct the killer's focus onto them.

Murder in the Gilded City by Angela Kaufman

A violent attack threatens to put a damper on tourist season in the affluent city of Saratoga Springs, NY. Police are quick to make arrests, reassuring the public that everything is under control. But Levi Kingston, a private investigator with an addiction to vinyl albums and a guilty conscience, isn't convinced. As Kingston uncovers layers of corruption in the city of image, Jesse, a young witness to the attack, is getting attention from the public, including a vigilante militia group. There is a fine line between justice and vengeance, and in the gilded city of Saratoga Springs, those who can't get one will settle for the other.

SHE by Tiffany Christina Lewis

For a rare moment in his life, newly promoted Det. Sergeant Michael Taylor is failing. The same day he began supervising an all-star group of four detectives, Taylor and his partner Det. Alex Jamison, get the case of an 18-year-old young man, shot dead in a fellow classmates’ bed. The seemingly perfect victim has one problem: girls. The case is made more challenging by the fact that the high schoolers involved are living secret lives and trying to save their own skin at every turn. At the same time, Taylor is being emotionally destroyed by his love interest, Azlynn Matthews. In turn, he is aiming his vexation at the detectives on his team. Due to his domineering and forceful management style, the team is on the verge of breaking down. Taylor must now combat his personal failures in order to pull his team back together, prevent the woman he wants from leaving him, and catch a maddening killer.

The Manila Vigilante by JM Alvarez

The crime rate in Manila was the lowest in decades. Drug addicts and pushers are virtually nonexistent. Newspapers are almost out of business for lack of bad news except for the occasional scandals of stars and politicians whose popularity were fading. So, news of the brutal massacre of a doctor and his family in Ermita, Manila came like an electric shock. Ex Marine Brando. the godfather and close friend of the slain doctor, vowed to hunt down the culprits one by one. As he identifies the perpetrators, he soon discovers that he was just scratching the surface of a powerful drug empire. The spectacular killings of two of Manila's most wanted criminals made the Manila Vigilante the stuff of headlines and quickly became a legend.. In the tradition of Marvel's 'The Punisher' and Charles Bronson's 'Death Wish' comes their Filipino counterpart: 'The Manila Vigilante', a fast paced crime action thriller from JM Alvarez.

The Next Right Thing by Celine Perron

Indie Recs Indie

Twenty-seven-year-old Rena Moretti has lived her life the only way she knows how: by being a good girl and avoiding scrutiny. As the by-product of an illicit affair gone wrong, she figures she doesn’t have much room for error. A budding journalist with an ambition for big things, Rena is comfortable in her own skin, enjoying the simple pleasures of her comfy apartment and the confidence of her best friend. But when Rena becomes the victim of a random hit-and-run accident, her life gets turned upside down on all fronts. After the accident, everyone wants Rena to make a safe return to the life she had before—but Rena is increasingly convinced she has to do the exact opposite if she wants to find any closure. She becomes obsessed with a young man that she’s convinced was involved in her crime, but in pursuit of connection, Rena is dragged into the criminal dealings of a local gang. The Next Right Thing is a moral crime thriller which proves to be equal parts dangerous and thought provoking. Bringing with it victims of crime, countless moral dilemmas, and an elusive gang leader. Rena must now decide whether the right thing is always the best thing. In this page turner, readers will follow along as Rena chooses to overcome her fears and finds inside her a bravery she never knew. But can she make the right choice before it’s too late?

The Goldilocks Planet by Paula Bernstein

Indie Recs Indie

Obstetrician Hannah Kline and her brand new fiancé, LAPD Detective Daniel Ross are about to begin house hunting, when Daniel is put in charge of a high profile murder investigation. Dr. Edwin Larramore was at the top of his game. A full professor of Astronomy at the prestigious Technological Institute, and a leader in the search for extra solar planets, he has just been awarded the Nobel Prize for an extraordinary discovery. Who would want to kill him? There turns out to be no shortage of suspects. The victim had an unhappy pregnant wife, an angry ex-wife, who is also his chief academic competitor, a jealous department chairman, and several under-appreciated and disgruntled graduate students. Daniel has his work cut out for him. Hannah has been very helpful in several of Daniel’s previous cases, but this time her hands are tied. Larramore’s pregnant wife is her patient, and medical ethics prevent her from telling all she knows. When Hannah discovers a crucial clue, and her patient’s pregnancy becomes high risk, Hannah has to resolve her conflicting loyalties.