Iris Thorne Mysteries

Cold Call is the first in the critically acclaimed Iris Thorne mystery series by Los Angeles Times bestseller Dianne Emley, now available for the first time as an e-book and trade paperback. Bonus: includes Chapter One of Slow Squeeze, the second Iris Thorne mystery.Iris Thorne traded her job teaching the deaf for a career in Los Angeles's glittering financial district, where the day starts on Wall Street time at 6:00 a.m., and-in the "greed is good" late 1980s-all of life's questions have numbers for answers.Big numbers. With her not-quite-paid-for Anne Klein suits and Triumph sports car, which leaks a little oil, Iris is a high-stakes success. Still, the only man at the office who knew the real Iris was Alley, the deaf and handicapped mailman. When Alley is killed, the police insist he was a victim of random gang violence. Iris doesn't buy it-and Alley's death has left her with a number of problems. The first is lanky, red-headed police detective John Somers… Iris's first love, back in her life after twenty years. Then there's Alley's secret legacy-a safe deposit box filled with souvenirs and some well-worn items of sentimental value: 238,000 of them, in hundreds, bundled together with rubber bands.The cops are looking for a killer. Some professional hard guys are looking for revenge. And, for a lost friend, Iris is looking for justice-a high-priced commodity in the L.A. marketplace, where life can be even cheaper than dreams. First in the Iris Thorne Mysteries series.Praise for Dianne Emley and the Iris Thorne Mysteries:"Robert B. Parker had Boston. Sara Paretsky Chicago, and now L.A. belongs to Dianne (Emley)." Nancy Pickard (award-winning author of The Scent of Rain and Lightning)"Clever… A very expert debut." Los Angeles Times Book Review"One of the best author debuts in many moons… Clever writing, characters shining with individuality… impressive." Cleveland Plain Dealer"An exciting find. Only one word for it: Wow!" The Observer (London)"Iris Thorne is here to stay." Newsday."A fun and satisfying read." West Coast Review of Books"Iris Thorne looks like a winner… (Emley's) prose takes readers on a fast ride with a carload of colorful characters." St. Louis Post-DispatchThe Iris Thorne MysteriesCold CallSlow SqueezeFast FriendsFoolproofPushoverThe Detective Nan Vining ThrillersThe First CutCut to the QuickThe Deepest CutLove Kills

Emley's "...uncanny knack for using the perfect word gives the novel a special quality....There's action to spare...[and] an almost erotic lushness to her writing...." raved The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) of Dianne Emley's third smashing Iris Thorne mystery, Fast Friends. Now she plunges her savvy heroine into a maelstrom of marriage and murder in the Los Angeles high-tech world, proving that in a city where ruthless ambition, community property laws, and earthquakes are facts of life, nothing is really Foolproof.From where she stands in her newly purchased beachfront bungalow -- complete with cozy garage for her beloved red Triumph convertible -- life looks good for Los Angeles investment counselor Iris Thorne. The only clouds an her horizon are caused by her boss from hell and the never-ending office battles at McKinney Alitzer. But one hot night, everything changes. At the Gothic hilltop mansion owned by her dear friends, entrepreneurs Bridget and Kip Cross, Bridget is brutally murdered. The sole witness is Brianna, the couple's five-year-old daughter. The sole suspect is Kip, the volatile creative genius behind Pandora, the Crosses' trailblazing computer games company.Hotheaded Kip had motive to spare: he was violently opposed to his cool, business-minded wife's plan to take Pandora public. Iris must now sort through her conflicting emotions as she faces the mounting evidence against Kip: the gunpowder burns on his hands, infidelity against Bridget, and no alibi. Then there's the unsettling matter of Slade Slayer, the brutal antihero of Kip's revolutionary games -- rumored to be Kip's alter ego. Is there enough of Slade in Kip to have ended Bridget's life? Worse still, is he a threat to Brianna, who has wiped the murder from her young memory? Bridget surprised everyone -- especially Kip -- when she left her majority stake in Pandora not to her husband, but to her daughter. And she named Iris as administrator of Brianna's trust. Suddenly, Iris finds herself responsible for a collapsing computer games company, the financial future of a little girl, and, as Brianna could hold the key to convicting her mother's killer, maybe even the five-year-old's life.Exposing the deadly tensions behind the glamorous facades of Brentwood mansions and laying bare the riddles along a dark stretch of the Pacific Coast Highway, Dianne Emley has marked the L.A. mystery with a style all her own. And with "her bold moral compass, her appealing in-your-face attitude and unsettled romantic life, Iris is a compelling heroine" (Publishers Weekly) who "deserves our undivided attention" (Los Angeles Times Book Review)."Foolproof reads the way [Emley's] heroine Iris Thorne drives her Triumph-fast and smooth with lots of deadly twists in the road. You can put the top down and cruise with this one." -Michael Connelly"An intricate, involving, suspenseful mystery. Welcome to Iris Thorne's world, where nothing is as it seems." -Robert Crais, internationally bestselling author of Taken[Emley's] fourth novel juggles computer gamesmanship, securities fraud, and murder most foul, seasoning the mix with her trademark office plotting, to come up with another winner that makes all manner of skullduggery look as natural as vanity and greed."-Kirkus (starred review)The Iris Thorne MysteriesCold CallSlow SqueezeFast FriendsFoolproofPushoverThe Detective Nan Vining ThrillersThe First CutCut to the QuickThe Deepest Cut