Rowland Sinclair

CWA Dagger and Edgar award-winning author Martin Edwards takes readers back to The Lake District after seven years with a cunningly layered mystery that Publishers Weekly calls a "skillful combination of procedural and whodunnit." "Life is certainly nasty, brutish, and short-least for most of the characters in Edwards's much-awaited new installment, set on the edge of England's Lake District."-First Clue What happened to Ramona Smith? In the The Girl They All Forgot (The Crooked Shore), history always repeats itself. After a father and son commit suicide on the same day, twenty years apart, DCI Hannah Scarlet, and her Cold Cases Division reopen the investigation of Ramona Smith, a woman who disappeared twenty-one years ago. Desperate to finally find answers, Hannah and her team chase leads as meandering as the shoreline. As the body count rises, the Cold Cases Division must unravel the lives of those on The Crooked Shore before another murder plot unfolds.

Winter is hard in Beauville, where the melting snow can reveal much more than last season's dead leaves. So when a wealthy, obnoxious tourist and his ski bunny girlfriend surface in Pru Marlowe's little Berkshire town, she knows she should stay out of their way. The bad-girl animal psychic has to focus on more immediate concerns, including a wild rabbit named Henry, supposedly tamed and illegally living with an eighty-four-year-old lady in her home. Henry, who seems to be acting out and hiding, avoids responding to Pru. Yet when Pru discovers the tourist murdered and his girlfriend's high-maintenance spaniel falls to her care, she gets dragged into a complicated case of crime and punishment that involves some new friends, an old nemesis, and her own shadowed past. A recent museum art heist draws the feds into the investigation along with a courtly gentleman radiating menace, who represents secretive business interests in New York and shows a surprising awareness of Pru. Her on-again, off-again romance with police Detective Creighton doesn't stop him from warning her to steer clear of the inquiry. The spaniel, however, lures her in. Pru lives in a world where only her crotchety tabby Wallis knows the whole truth about her past, her flight from Manhattan, and her unique gift that surfaced abruptly one day. Fearing the worst, Pru now comes dangerously close to being exposed. With everything in motion, Pru, Wallis, and everyone they hold dear will be lucky to escape...by a hare.

Mondo mega money is a murder magnet. Ten months ago Allie Harper-smart, feisty, too broke to get her car fixed-rescued Thomas Bennington III-a hot, blind, college professor-from a crosswalk in her dicey Cleveland neighborhood. When Allie saved Tom and his groceries from traffic, she unwittingly retrieved his winning $550 million MondoMegaJackpot ticket. The payout steered the two of them into a wild dash from romance to mayhem and multiple murders. Nothing's changed. Sure, Allie and Tom now reside in a rented nine-thousand-square-foot lakeside mansion with a sky-lit shower and breathtakingly high-thread-count sheets. True, Otis Johnson, Allie's deliverer from last summer's would-be-kidnapper, is now their live-in bodyguard and gourmet chef. Yes, Allie's dream of creating the T&A Detective Agency to solve "mysteries of the heart" by using Tom's money, Otis' P.I. credentials, and Allie's intrepid...intrepidness... now has its first case. That's where the real trouble kicks in. Lloyd Bunker's obsession with avoiding stoplights has run him and his '67 Pontiac GTO off the road, maybe for keeps. As they race to figure out what's happened to Lloyd, T&A recruits Allie's former nemesis, Officer Tony Valerio, plus her best friend and ex-landlady Margo and television reporter Lisa Cole, to help them follow a lethal trail of escalating crimes ranging from scrapping to pushing opioids to multiple murders. It's no longer just about Lloyd. An assault on the mansion's high-tech security system by a talented hacker signals the presence of a formidable adversary, one with big bucks and a ruthless plan to destroy the lucky couple. As the action ramps up, Allie and Tom are plunged into a high-speed race against danger and death.... It's Murder to the Metal. Somebody's Bound to Wind Up Dead series: Too Lucky to Live (Book 1) Murder to the Metal (Book 2) The Devil's Own Game (Book 3) Praise for Annie Hogsett: "The original voice, humor, and unusual premise will appeal to Janet Evanovich readers." -Library Journal STARRED review for Too Lucky to Live "Fast pacing, multiple plot twists, and humor, including a Stephanie Plum-like main character, enliven the story and keep the pages turning." -Booklist for Too Lucky to Live "The bittersweet mystery, with the open-ended threat of a villainous mastermind, is reminiscent of P.J. Tracy's early 'Monkeewrench' novels." -Library Journal for Murder to the Metal

A fascinating historical mystery by Sulari Gentill, author of #1 LibraryReads pick The Woman in the Library Words of peace are sometimes the most dangerous language of all When Rowland Sinclair offers to fly internationally renowned Czech novelist and peace advocate Egon Kisch to Melbourne to kick off a speaking tour, he has no clue that the government has charged the Attorney General with preventing Kisch from stepping foot on Australian soil. Then Jim Kelly, a known Communist, is ruthlessly murdered on the Parliament House steps. It's soon evident that an extreme fascist group is also intent on keeping Kisch's words from ever reaching their countrymen's ears-even if they have to kill him, or anyone helping him gain entry. Rowland, meanwhile, reconnects with his first love, who has returned after years abroad and seeks him out. When the two are photographed in flagrante delicto by reporters, Rowland fears he has ruined her reputation, and proposes marriage-despite the fact that his heart belongs to someone else… Certain to appeal to fans of Rhys Bowen, Kerry Greenwood, and Jacqueline Winspear, this WWII Mystery features political intrigue, dark secrets, a baffling crime, and an unstoppable amateur sleuth. Blending historical facts and figures with rollicking adventure, A Dangerous Language shows how far fanatics are willing to go to ensure that their side of the story is the only story people hear.

A grizzled Lake Superior fisherman with a massive allergy to bees dies very early one morning alone on his boat. Was he stung to death? John McIntire, retired from a career in military intelligence and striving to regain a place in his boyhood home after 30 years away, is serving as township constable. He questions the easy verdict. The town of St. Adele has little experience with violent death-or murder. Nor does McIntire, despite fighting in two world wars. Worse, all the suspects are friends and neighbors, men and women he grew up with "talking Swede." The dead man, last of a Norwegian family who came to raise apples in the struggling rural township sandwiched between the Huron Mountains of Michigan's Upper Peninsula and the southern shore of Lake Superior, had no real enemies despite his gruff temper. And he had little to leave aside from a heavily mortgaged boat. So, who wanted to kill him? Saddened by violence striking Utopia, worried his British bride might cut and run, his task complicated by taciturn witnesses and six party telephone lines, the naturally humorous McIntire, while bringing a murderer to justice, struggles to evolve a new perspective on a rural community he has idealized for three decades. Rich in magnificent landscape, vivid characters stepping from a past both thoroughly Midwestern and multi-ethnic, and a secret-laden story, filled with laughter and warm insights, Past Imperfect offers a new voice of great promise reminiscent of the debuts of Steve Hamilton, A Cold Day in Paradise, and William Kent Krueger, Iron Lake.

On a blistering summer day, a bank robbery goes wrong, resulting in the deaths of all the hostages except Treva Williams. Pittsburgh psychologist and trauma expert Daniel Rinaldi is called in by the police to treat Treva. Soon an unforeseen series of events plunges the investigating officers, Sergeant Harry Polk, Detective Eleanor Lowrey, and Rinaldi into a vortex of mistaken identity, kidnapping, and surprising revelations about District Attorney Leland Sinclair's gubernatorial campaign. Is Sinclair somehow involved in the bank case? Rinaldi's attention is diverted by the suicide of a young patient and his growing attraction to Eleanor, as the recently-divorced Harry Polk spirals into an alcohol-driven, self-destructive free-fall. Then sudden death threats against Sinclair fuel a new frenzy of accusations and political maneuvering, and Rinaldi begins to make connections. Soon, what he knows-or thinks he knows-will pull him toward a shocking and possibly lethal confrontation.

Roman Britain in 91 AD is a raw frontier province, part of the mighty Empire ruled by Domitian Caesar. Though it is almost fifty years since the legions invaded, many native tribes still hate their conquerors and seize any chance to harass the Roman settlers who are flocking in to colonize the new province. Tension is especially high in the north, where Aurelia Marcella, a young innkeeper from Italy, runs the Oak Tree Inn on the road to York. A string of savage murders disrupts her peaceful life, and she and her Roman friends find themselves under attack from a secret native war-band whose aim is to drive all Romans out. When a traveler, Quintus, is nearly killed close to the inn, he and Aurelia must track down the rebel warriors and identify their mysterious masked leader, the Shadow of Death. Can they find and destroy him before his campaign of terror turns into open rebellion?

Theda Krakow is in a funk. Her sometime boyfriend is gone, her beloved cat has died, and the career leap she's made from copy editor to freelance writer has left her finances-and her spirit-flat. She desperately needs a headline. One day, strolling in her Cambridge neighborhood, Theda spies an adorable stray kitten who leads her to an old woman holed up in a decrepit house full of cats. Could this be the story to catapult Theda out of the dumps? Or deeper into something more sinister?

"Fans of academic mysteries will savor this one."-Library Journal Karen Pelletier is about to realize her dream. After six years in the English Department at New England's exclusive Enfield College, she is up for a tenured position. But when her rival for the one available tenured spot is found dead from an overdose of Peyote buttons, Karen is first on the list of suspects. Now a homicide cop with a grudge against Lieutenant Charlie Piotrowski, the love of Karen's life, is breathing down her neck. On campus, political passions rage, inflamed by the politically-correct English Department chair and by the Distinguished Visiting Professor of Whiteness Studies. Two of Karen's favorite students are caught up in the furor. Will Karen be able to survive the investigation, protect her students, and find a permanent niche in the world of academe, all without her beloved Charlie, now serving with the National Guard in Iraq?

"Superb-a pitch-perfect blend of Golden Age charm and sinister modern suspense, with a main character to die for. This is the book Edwards was born to write."-Lee Child, #1 New York Times bestselling author The first Golden Age-style mystery in the Rachel Savernake series… How close can one person get to a cruel justice system before falling victim to it? London, 1930 Sooty, sulphurous, and malign: no woman should be out on a night like this. A spate of violent deaths-the details too foul to print-has horrified the capital and the smog-bound streets are deserted. But Rachel Savernake-the enigmatic daughter of a notorious hanging judge-is no ordinary woman. To Scotland Yard's embarrassment, she solved the Chorus Girl Murder, and now she's on the trail of another killer. Jacob Flint, a young newspaperman temporarily manning The Clarion's crime desk, is looking for the scoop that will make his name. He's certain there is more to the Miss Savernake's amateur sleuthing than meets the eye. He's not the only one. Flint's pursuit of Rachel Savernake will draw him ever-deeper into a labyrinth of deception and corruption. Murder-by-murder, he'll be swept ever-closer to its dark heart-and to the gallows themselves. Dark, atmospheric, and hearkening back to the Golden Age mysteries, Gallows Court is: • Perfect for fans of Sherry Thomas and Sophie Hannah • For readers who enjoy British crime mysteries and historical fiction

"Donis Casey's voice flows like tea syrup, transporting you effortlessly to the Oklahoma frontier....A welcome invite to your great-grandmother's front porch swing." -JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING, New York Times bestselling author It's spring 1913, and love is in bloom for Alice Tucker. Walter Kelley is handsome, popular, and wealthy. But Alice's mother, Alafair, sees that Walter has a weakness for the ladies-and they for him. Only a few months earlier, Walter's late wife Louise had been stabbed in the heart and her body disposed of in Cane Creek. The murderer was never caught. The sheriff cleared Walter of the deed-he had an alibi-but Alafair is not so sure that he wasn't involved in some way. Something literally doesn't smell right. With the help of her feisty mother-in-law, Sally McBride, Alafair sets out to prove to the headstrong Alice that Walter is not the paragon she thinks he is. Alafair soon uncovers such a tangle of lies, misdirection, and deceit that she begins to think that the whole town has been downright hornswoggled!