Cal Claxton

"The clever plot takes second place to the ebullience of the writing and spot-on inventiveness of the satire."-The Times St. Martha's College, Cambridge, had been staggering along on a shoestring for decades. Then alumna Alice Toon leaves her old school a huge fortune. The dons immediately fall to fighting over the spoils. The Virgins, led by Dame Maud Theodosia Buckbarrow, believe the bequests should be spent on scholarships. The Dykes-fewer in number but better street fighters-want to raise a center of Gender and Ethnic Studies. The Old Women (mostly men) dream of fine vintages to be laid down in a decent new wine cellar. Impasse! They've reckoned without the Bursar, Jack Troutbeck. She elects to infiltrate this maelstrom of politics with her own agent, Robert Amiss, a former civil servant with a talent for sorting things out. No sooner does he arrive on the scene where the Virgins are getting the upper hand than Dame Maud is murdered, leading into what Mike Ripley of The Daily Telegraph described as: "An acidly funny romp... Superbly bitchy on the none-too-fragrant groves of academe."

"A fast-paced, tightly woven who-dunnit that kept me guessing to the end. Easley's vivid landscapes and well-drawn characters evoke comparisons to James Lee Burke, and Cal Claxton is as determined and resourceful as Burke's Dave Robicheaux." -Robert Dugoni, New York Times bestselling author Cal Claxton-a former LA prosecutor now practicing law in Oregon's wine country and who works to fish-has to pinch himself when his best friend Philip Lone Deer asks him to assist guiding a group of executives from a high tech firm in Portland. For a fly fisherman, it doesn't get any better than the salmon fly hatch on the Deschutes River, Oregon's legendary trout fishing venue. The execs, however, aren't coming just to fish. They're engaging in a conflict-resolution exercise where the future of the firm is to be determined. And Cal learns, too late, that the company's CEO is bringing his wife, the woman with whom Cal had a fling after their last Lone Deer-guided fishing trip. Cal soon broke it off, but.... The trip through the remote Deschutes Canyon turns ugly when CEO Hal is murdered during the first night's camp. Everyone in the party is a suspect, especially Cal. And his knife and vest have disappeared. Does the fact that the company's value is about to explode play into the crime? What about the freight line running along the river? Could a hired killer have come and gone from the scene of the crime by hopping trains? As two local cops come down heavily on Cal, can he come up with a water-tight solution as he did in the tricky Portland case Matters of Doubt?

2019 recipient of the Derrick Murdoch award from the Crime Writers of Canada As the mountain town of Trafalgar, British Columbia, shakes off a long hard winter, famous photographer Rudolph Steiner arrives to do a feature on mountain tourism. Steiner is accompanied by his assistant and his sexy young wife, but he has another reason for the visit: to re-connect with the woman who left him 25 years ago to marry another man. That woman was a young, beautiful, naïve, internationally known super-model. Today Eliza Winters is no longer young, and definitely not naïve, but she is still beautiful and married to Trafalgar City Police Sergeant John Winters. When Steiner is found shot in his luxury hotel room, suspicion falls upon Eliza who had, inexplicably, visited Steiner there. John Winters is forced into the most difficult of dilemmas: loyalty to his job or to his wife. As the RCMP dig into secrets hidden by both Steiner and Eliza, Winters slowly comes to realize that he doesn't know his beloved wife as well as he thought. Meanwhile, Constable Molly Smith has her own troubles. A series of break-ins has the peaceful town in an uproar, her overprotective boyfriend from the Royal Mounted Police is fighting with her colleagues, and a vengeful stalker is watching her every move. When tragedy strikes at the heart of her own family, Molly can't even turn to her mother for help.

The first mystery book in a rollicking new historical cozy series! When Lady Adelaide's dinner party is visited by lady death, she'll have to partner with the irksome spirit of her dead husband to crack the case… "A lively debut filled with local color, red herrings, both sprightly and spritely characters, a smidgen of social commentary, and a climactic surprise."-Kirkus Reviews A delightful English cozy series begins in August 1924. Lady Adelaide Compton has recently (and satisfactorily) interred her husband, Major Rupert Charles Cressleigh Compton, hero of the Somme, in the family vault in the village churchyard. Rupert died by smashing his Hispano-Suiza on a Cotswold country road while carrying a French mademoiselle in the passenger seat. With the house now Addie's, needed improvements in hand, and a weekend house party underway, how inconvenient of Rupert to turn up! Not in the flesh, but in-actually, as a-spirit. Rupert has to perform a few good deeds before becoming welcomed to heaven-or, more likely, thinks Addie, to hell. Before Addie can convince herself she's not completely lost her mind, a murder disrupts her careful seating arrangement. Which of her twelve houseguests is a killer? Her mother, the formidable Dowager Marchioness of Broughton? Her sister Cecilia, the born-again vegetarian? Her childhood friend and potential lover, Lord Lucas Waring? Rupert has a solid alibi as a ghost and an urge to detect. A debaucher in life and an annoyance in death, Addie knows she can't leave Rupert to solve the murders of her sweet old gardener and a naked neighbor by himself. Enter Inspector Devenand Hunter from the Yard, an Anglo-Indian who is not going to let some barmy society beauty witnessed talking to herself derail his investigation. Something very peculiar is afoot at Compton Court and he's going to get to the bottom of it-or go as mad as its mistress trying. The Lady Adelaide Mysteries: Nobody's Sweetheart Now (Book 1) Who's Sorry Now? (Book 2) Just Make Believe (Book 3)

Nero Wolfe Award Finalist for 2018 "Oenophiles and aspiring vintners will enjoy the wine lore in this well-wrought tale of love and betrayal." -Publishers Weekly Cal Claxton's old farmhouse sits high in Oregon's Red Hills, home of scores of wineries and some of the most coveted acreage for growing the pinot noir grape in the world. Former Los Angeles prosecutor Cal settled in this haven to reboot his life as a widower, growing a small practice that includes some pro bono work in nearby Portland. Life is good, filled with food, wine, and friends. But this beautiful area is not the idyllic haven it appears to be. When Cal's neighbor, Jim Kavanaugh, the owner and gifted vintner of an up-and-coming winery, is accused of murdering his wife, his freedom-and the grape harvest-is suddenly in jeopardy along with his reputation, and his business begins to slide. No gentleman farmer, this puts the rugged winemaker's property, his only financial asset, in play. When a blackmail plot is hatched against the owner of adjacent land, it begins to look like a brutal game of real-life Monopoly is underway. Cal agrees to defend Jim, a good friend, which pulls him reluctantly into the blackmail plot. Emotions are running high over Lori Kavanaugh's bloody death. There is no shortage of suspects. There may be more than the one game in play. And defending Jim might well make Cal the next target of a vicious, cunning killer.

Next in the Rachel Savernake series, perfect for fans of the Golden age of mystery and readers of Anthony Horowitz and Sherry Thomas. Framed for murder and with nowhere to go, Jacob Flint turns to an eclectic group of people on a remote estate to save him… 1930. A chilling encounter on London's Necropolis Railway leads to murder and a man escapes the gallows after a witness gives sensational evidence. After this string of strange, fatal events, journalist Jacob Flint discovers that he has been framed for murder. To save himself, he flees to Mortmain Hall, a remote estate on the northern coast. There, an eccentric female criminologist hosts a gathering of eclectic people who have all escaped miscarriages of cruel justice. This strange group puts Jacob a little on edge, but they may be his only hope to clear his name. When a body is found beneath the cliffs near the house, it seems this gathering might be an ingenious plot to get away with murder. Are these eccentrics victims or are they orchestrators of the great deception? Jacob must now set out to uncover the labyrinthine of secrets within Mortmain Hall, alongside Rachel Savernake, woman whose relentless quest for the truth might just bring down the British establishment... Other books in the Rachel Savernake Golden Age Mysteries Series: Gallows Court (Book 1) Mortmain Hall (Book 2)

The third English language case for Mexico City independent detective Hector Belascoaran Shayne, No Happy Ending, is Paco Ignacio Taibo II at his subversive, darkly comic best. First, Hector discovers the body of a dead actor, dressed like a Roman in full breastplate and regalia, propped up on the toilet in his office. Shortly thereafter, he receives a threatening letter and a snapshot of another murdered corpse. As Hector investigates the killings, he discovers that both share a connection to a dead stuntman named Zorak who apparently perished while training a government-backed paramilitary group. Once again, the one-eyed anarchist detective finds himself up against the very institutions which persecute the downtrodden and oppress the masses. In typical Taibo fashion, Hector appears destined to lose: the ending to this remarkable absurdist tale shows his bullet-ridden body lying face down in the gutter during a rainstorm.

When nothing is as it seems, can the truth survive? Attorney Cal Claxton, now well-established in his Oregon law practice after breaking off his career as a high-powered LA prosecutor, just wants to go fishing with his daughter, Claire, and he knows the best place-the coastal area south of Coos Bay. But their vacation takes a dark turn with the discovery of a body in the river. As an investigation is launched into the suspicious death, Cal and Claire find themselves drawn into the life of the local bookshop owner and vocal environmental activist, whose grandson was convicted for murder at age sixteen. She believes he was wrongly accused and convinces Cal to reexamine the case. Together, Cal and Claire dig deep into the secrets and crumbling alliances that form the foundation of this small coastal community, and what they find could spell doom for them both...

It's winter in the Oregon wine country, and small-town lawyer Cal Claxton deserves a respite after his last grueling case. But just as the world learns about a threatening new virus variant, a woman named Willow Daniels shows up at his office, asking Cal to represent her in the settlement of her uncle's estate. The uncle's death was ruled a suicide, but Willow isn't buying it. Getting involved is against Cal's better judgment, but how can he resist this single mother who tows her young daughter in a trailer behind her bike, takes gorgeous photos of Portland's bridges, and serves delicious French cuisine from her Portland food cart? Cal soon learns that the uncle, a brilliant scientist, recently came up with an innovative device to detect viruses. The expected payoff is huge, and the list of those who stand to gain from his death gets longer and longer. Cal finds himself immersed in one of the most complex and dangerous cases he's ever investigated. When a key witness is brutally murdered, and the woman Cal loves falls ill, he realizes he's up against two killers-a ruthless murderer and a deadly virus.

THE ROAD TO REDEMPTION IS A TREACHEROUS ONE It's spring in Oregon's wine country, and small-town lawyer Cal Claxton is looking forward to watching his beloved Red Hills bloom with the promise of a bountiful grape harvest. But the arrival of an unexpected visitor forces him to revisit painful events from his previous life in Los Angeles. He feels compelled to return to the City of Angels to make up for a terrible injustice that caused an innocent man to spend thirteen years in prison. Cal's return also brings back dark memories of his wife's suicide, a tragedy that triggered his escape to Oregon and a new life. The cold case, involving the murder of a beautiful young woman, quickly becomes one of the most dangerous and baffling of his storied career. Once a chief prosecutor for the city of L.A.-a go-to person for tough criminal cases-he now finds himself alone, forced to operate with nothing but his wits in a city that is even meaner and less forgiving than when he left it. He soon discovers that the case is not what it seems and finds himself pitted against an array of suspects who will stop at nothing to keep the truth hidden. When Cal rekindles relationships with some of his former law enforcement colleagues, he finds they, too, have secrets to hide. When Cal uncovers a shocking fact about the case, a series of events is set in motion that culminates, not only in resolution of the cold case but in something far deeper and more significant for the lawyer from Oregon.