Buddy Steel

Dr. Daniel Rinaldi is a psychologist who consults with the Pittsburgh Police. His specialty is treating victims of violent crime. Kevin Merrick, a college student and victim of an armed assault, is one of these people. A fragile, troubled kid desperate for a role model and a sense of identity, Kevin has begun dressing like Rinaldi, acting like him, even mirroring his appearance. Before Daniel can work this through with his patient, he finds Kevin brutally murdered. Stunned, he and the police suspect that he, not Kevin, had been the intended target. And now the killer is threatening Rinaldi. Feeling responsible, Rinaldi is determined to solve the crime. His journey takes him through a labyrinth of friends and colleagues, any one of whom may be the killer. It also includes an affair with a beautiful, free-spirited Assistant DA with secrets of her own. When Kevin's identity as the estranged son of a Bill-Gates-like biotech giant is revealed, his murder turns into a national story, and another person turns up dead.

Welcome to the island where people never die When Chief Inspector Andreas Kaldis's longtime assistant, Maggie, returns to her ancestral home on Ikaria for her 104-year-old grandmother's funeral, she quickly realizes not only was Yiayia likely murdered, but that a series of other long-lived Ikariots had recently died under the same suspicious circumstances. Back in Athens, Andreas and his chief detective Yianni pursue a smuggling and protection ring embedded in the Greek DEA, and its possible involvement in the assassination of an undercover cop. But then Maggie and Yianni uncover a connection between their respective leads in the elder-killings on Ikaria and the DEA corruption case, and they realize that there are international intrigues far more dangerous at play than anyone had imagined.

"A sleeper that deserves wider attention." -The New York Times As 1965 draws to a close, Constable Cody Parker of Center Springs, Texas, has a frightening sense of gathering storm clouds. His dreams prove accurate when he is ambushed and nearly killed on a lonely country road during an unusually heavy snowfall. The attack leads locals to worry that a terrifying killer known as "The Skinner" has returned. As his nephew, Cody, recovers, Constable Ned Parker struggles to connect a seemingly unrelated series of murders, and the people of northeast Texas wonder why their once peaceful community has suddenly become a dangerous place to live. Investigating, Ned, Cody, and deputy John Washington cross paths with many colorful characters: cranky old Judge O.C. Rains; the jittery little farmer Isaac Reader; the Wilson boys, Ty Cobb and Jimmy Foxx; and a mysterious old man named Tom Bell. Of course, Ned's preteen grandchildren, Top and Pepper, are underfoot at every turn. When Cody follows his main suspect across the Rio Grande into Mexico, Ned understands that to save his nephew, he will have to cross more than a river: he will have to cross over to the right side of wrong.

"Graves finds new gold in dem hills by setting her tale in Oregon mining country and drawing upon personal experience to create a unique protagonist...a small, strong gem of a book."-Entertainment Weekly While recovering from breast cancer, journalist Jeneva Leopold seeks solitude and healing at her missing uncle's gold mine in the Eastern Oregon desert. As her interest in life returns, so do Jeneva's journalistic habits. She soon overcomes the distrust of miners, ranchers, a quirky artifact hunter and a host of other rich characters. They open her eyes to profound changes in the Old West. But the Oregon desert does not give up its secrets easily. The more Jeneva learns, the more she wonders about her uncle's disappearance and why he and her mother stopped talking so many years ago. Then a death on the creek sends her on a quest for answers. What she uncovers shocks the region and nearly claims her life.