Search:

Murder by definition / by Lehane, Cornelius,author.;
"Hardboiled crime writer Will Ford might be critically acclaimed, but he's every bit as debauched and disreputable as the ne'er-do-well private eye in his novels. So when Ford offers Raymond Ambler-crime-fiction curator at New York City's prestigious 42nd Street Library-a collection of his papers, Ambler wonders if the project will be more trouble than it's worth. Still, the disgraced author is an important talent, and Ambler's never been afraid of a fight. Ambler's ready for the controversy that greets news of the acquisition. He's not ready, however, for what he finds when he finally receives the papers: a gripping unpublished short story apparently based on a real case, with an explosive author's note. If it's true, there's been a shocking coverup at the heart of the NYPD-and a cop has got away with murder. If it's true. Ford's not talking, and Ambler's good friend Mike Cosgrove, a veteran NYPD homicide detective, is beyond skeptical. But as the pair investigate, they're drawn into the sordid underbelly of 1990s New York, packed with renegade cops, thugs and mobsters . . . and they'll be lucky to come back out alive."--
Subjects: Detective and mystery fiction.; Novels.; New York Public Library; Authors; Crime writing; Librarians; Murder; Nineteen nineties; Novelists; Police corruption; Public libraries;

Perfidia [sound recording] / by Ellroy, James,1955-; Wasson, Craig.;
Read by Craig Wasson."A pulse-pounding, as-it-happens narrative that unfolds in Los Angeles over twenty-three days beginning on December 6, 1941. The Japanese have bombed Pearl Harbor. The United States teeters on the edge of war. The roundup of allegedly treasonous Japanese Americans is about to begin. And in L.A., a Japanese family is found dead. Murder or ritual suicide? The investigation will draw four people into a totally Ellroy-ian tangle: a brilliant Japanese American forensic chemist; an unsatisfiably adventurous young woman; one police officer based in fact (William H. "Whiskey Bill" Parker, later to become the groundbreaking chief of the LAPD), the other the product of Ellroy's inimitable imagination (Dudley Smith, arch villain of The Big Nowhere, L.A. Confidential, White Jazz). As their lives intertwine, we are given a story of war and of consuming romance, a searing expose of the Japanese internment, and an astonishingly detailed homicide investigation. In Perfidia, Ellroy delves more deeply than ever before into his characters' intellectual and emotional lives. But it has the full-strength, unbridled story-telling audacity that has marked all the acclaimed work of the "Demon Dog of American Crime Fiction"--Provided by publisher.
Subjects: Historical fiction.; Suspense fiction.; Mystery fiction.; Audiobooks.; Japanese Americans; Murder; World War, 1939-1945;
© p2014., Random House Audio : Books on Tape,

Heartbreak hotel [sound recording] : an Alex Delaware novel / by Kellerman, Jonathan,author.; Rubinstein, John,1946-narrator.; Random House Audio Publishing,publisher.;
Read by John Rubinstein."Alex Delaware and Milo Sturgis investigate the death of Alex's most mysterious patient to date in the sensational new thriller from the master of suspense, #1 New York Times bestselling author Jonathan Kellerman. At nearly one hundred years old, Thalia Mars is a far cry from the patients that child psychologist Alex Delaware normally treats. But the charming, witty woman convinces Alex to meet with her in a suite at the Aventura, a luxury hotel with a checkered history. What Thalia wants from Alex are answers to unsettling questions--about guilt, patterns of criminal behavior, victim selection. When Alex asks the reason for her morbid fascination, Thalia promises to tell all during their next session. But when he shows up the following morning, he is met with silence: Thalia is dead in her room. When questions arise about how Thalia perished, Alex and homicide detective Milo Sturgis must peel back the layers of a fascinating but elusive woman's life and embark on one of the most baffling investigations either of them has ever experienced. For Thalia Mars is a victim like no other, an enigma who harbored nearly a century of secrets and whose life and death draw those around her into a vortex of violence."--
Subjects: Thrillers (Fiction); Audiobooks.; Delaware, Alex (Fictitious character); Sturgis, Milo (Fictitious character); Forensic psychologists; Police; Murder;

Them bones / by Housewright, David,1955-author.;
"A stolen dinosaur skull is at the center of a complex mystery laid at the feet of unofficial P.I. Rushmore McKenzie. There are two things that Rushmore McKenzie hates to turn down-a request from a friend and a challenge. Both of them show up in his wife's nightclub in the person of Angela Bjork, who has come to request McKenzie's help. McKenzie, once a homicide detective, now through a series of unlikely events, is a retired millionaire. But occasionally, for friends, he will do some unofficial private detective work. Over the years, he's hunted down a stolen Stradivarius, the hoard of 1930's gangster, and recovered a stolen, apparently cursed, artifact but McKenzie never imagined a case like this. An exceedingly rare dinosaur skull has been stolen. Angela, a doctoral candidate, was out on a dig site in Southeastern Montana, when she found a skeleton of an Ankylosaurus. And no sooner than when the skull was removed and placed on a truck then they were attacked, the truck and skull stolen. Worried that nothing is being done to find the stolen skull, she turns to McKenzie. Worth millions on the black market, the chance to recover it becomes fainter by the day. And the people behind the theft are likely willing to do anything, to anyone, to hold onto it"--
Subjects: Detective and mystery fiction.; Novels.; Animals, Fossil; Fossils; McKenzie, Mac (Fictitious character); Private investigators; Theft; Women doctoral students;

A distant grave / by Taylor, Sarah Stewart,author.;
"In the follow up to the critically acclaimed The Mountains Wild, Detective Maggie D'arcy tackles another intricate case that bridges Long Island and Ireland. Long Island homicide detective Maggie D'arcy and her teenage daughter, Lilly, are still recovering from the events of last fall when a strange new case demands Maggie's attention. The body of an unidentified Irish national turns up in a wealthy Long Island beach community and with little to go on but the scars on his back, Maggie once again teams up with Garda detectives in Ireland to find out who the man was and what he was doing on Long Island. The strands of the mystery take Maggie to a quiet village in rural County Clare that's full of secrets and introduce her to the world of humanitarian aid workers half a world away. And as she gets closer to the truth about the murder, what she learns leads her back to her home turf and into range of a dangerous and determined killer who will do anything to keep the victim's story hidden forever. With the lyrical prose, deeply drawn characters, and atmospheric setting that put The Mountains Wild on multiple best of the year lists, Sarah Stewart Taylor delivers another gripping mystery novel about family, survival, and the meaning of home"--
Subjects: Detective and mystery fiction.; Humanitarian aid workers; Murder;

Silent parade / by Higashino, Keigo,1958-author.; Murray, Giles,translator.; translation of:Higashino, Keigo,1958-Chinmoku no parēdo.English.;
"Detective Galileo, Keigo Higashino's best loved character from The Devotion of Suspect X, returns in Silent Parade, a complex and challenging mystery--several murders, decades apart, with no solid evidence. A popular young girl disappears without a trace, her skeletal remains discovered three years later in the ashes of a burned out house. There's a suspect and compelling circumstantial evidence of his guilt, but no concrete proof. When he isn't indicted, he returns to mock the girl's family. And this isn't the first time he's been suspected of the murder of a young girl, nearly twenty years ago he was tried and released due to lack of evidence. Chief Inspector Kusanagi of the Homicide Division of the Tokyo Police worked both cases. The neighborhood in which the murdered girl lived is famous for an annual street festival, featuring a parade with entries from around Tokyo and Japan. During the parade, the suspected killer dies unexpectedly. His death is suspiciously convenient but the people with all the best motives have rock solid alibis. CI Kusanagi turns once again to his college friend, Physics professor and occasional police consultant Manabu Yukawa, known as Detective Galileo, to help solve the string of impossible-to-prove murders"--
Subjects: Detective and mystery fiction.; Girls; Murder; Physicists; Police; Serial murder investigation;

Suburban dicks / by Nicieza, Fabian,author.;
From the co-creator of Deadpool comes a hilariously entertaining debut featuring two unlikely and unforgettable amateur sleuths. An engrossing and entertaining murder mystery full of skewering social commentary, Suburban Dicks examines the racial tensions exposed in a New Jersey suburb after the murder of a gas station attendant. Andie Stern thought she'd solved her final homicide. Once a budding FBI profiler, she gave up her career to raise her four (soon to be five) children in West Windsor, New Jersey. But one day, between soccer games, recitals, and trips to the local pool, a very pregnant Andie pulls into a gas station--and stumbles across a murder scene. An attendant has been killed, and the bumbling local cops are in way over their heads. Suddenly, Andie is obsessed with the case, and back on the trail of a killer, this time with kids in tow. She soon crosses paths with disgraced local journalist Kenneth Lee, who also has everything to prove in solving the case. A string of unusual occurrences--and, eventually, body parts--surface around town, and Andie and Kenneth uncover simmering racial tensions and a decades-old conspiracy. Hilarious, insightful, and a killer whodunit, Suburban Dicks is the one-of-a-kind mystery that readers will not be able to stop talking about.
Subjects: Detective and mystery fiction.; Domestic fiction.; Suburban life; Pregnant women; Journalists; Service stations; Murder;

Encore in death / by Robb, J. D.,1950-author.;
"The homicide cop with a passion for justice returns in the captivating crime thriller series by the #1 New York Times bestselling author. It was a glittering event full of A-listers, hosted by Eliza Lane and Brant Fitzhugh, a celebrity couple who'd conquered both Hollywood and Broadway. And now Eve Dallas has made her entrance-but not as a guest. After raising a toast, Fitzhugh fell to the floor and died, with physical symptoms pointing to cyanide, and the police have crashed the party. From all accounts, he wasn't the kind of star who made enemies. Everyone loved him-even his ex-wife. And since the champagne cocktail that killed him was originally intended for Eliza, it's possible she was the real target, with a recently fired assistant, a bitter rival, and an obsessed fan in the picture. With so many attendees, staff, and servers, Eve has her work cut out determining who committed murder in the middle of the crowd-and what was their motivation. As one who's not fond of the spotlight herself, she dreads the media circus surrounding a case like this. All she wants is to figure out who's truly innocent, and who's only acting that way ... "--
Subjects: Detective and mystery fiction.; Novels.; Dallas, Eve (Fictitious character); Celebrities; Murder; Policewomen;

The naked eye / by Johansen, Iris.; Johansen, Roy.;
"How can you catch a killer when everyone thinks he's dead? Kendra Michaels was instrumental in bringing serial killer Eric Colby to justice. And yet, despite his apparent execution at San Quentin, Kendra is convinced that Colby is still alive. The problem is that she can't prove it. Even her razor-sharp powers of observation-developed to an amazing capacity during the twenty years she spent blind and now in constant demand by law enforcement agencies-have gotten her nowhere. But then a reporter who very publicly humiliated Kendra is murdered. Visiting the crime scene in search of anything that might link the brutal homicide to Colby, Kendra instead finds evidence that points to her. Finally Colby's master plan becomes clear to her: he is framing Kendra for murder.Suspicions mount and Kendra is thrust into deadly pursuit to clear her name and catch the killer no one believes exists anymore. A killer who is always nearby, watching, waiting to make his next move, even as everyone believes him to be dead. A killer whose trail of destruction is invisible to the naked eye, despite the carnage he leaves in his wake. It will take everything Kendra has to find and stop Colby-and save her own life one more time"--Provided by publisher.
Subjects: Suspense fiction.; Mystery fiction.; United States. Federal Bureau of Investigation; Blind women; Conspiracy; Murder; Serial murderers;

Black tunnel white magic : a murder, a detective's obsession, and '90s Los Angeles at the brink / by Jackson, Rick,author.; Connelly, Michael,1956-writer of foreword.; McGough, Matthew,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."This is the story of Rick Jackson, a famed LA homicide detective and eventual cold case investigator, and the case that he's never managed to let go. In June 1990, a white male UCLA student was found stabbed to death in a tunnel near the infamous Spahn Ranch, where Charles Manson and his followers had lived. That night, Jackson and his partner, Frank Garcia, were called on the scene and soon focused their investigation on the young man's two male roommates, one Black and one white. Nothing about the case made sense, though- not the relationship between these young men, not the potential influence of Wicca (then a trend among youth, and closely tied to the moral panic around Satanism), not the justice system that tried the two roommates very differently, and not Los Angeles itself, which was and remains a fraught tinderbox of racial bias and violence. In straightforward, matter-of-fact prose, Jackson takes us through the events as he and his partner experienced them, with no foreknowledge of information that would emerge later in the case. Readers will feel as though they are a fly on the wall, piecing together the truth about what happened to Ron Baker as the detectives did themselves, day by day and clue by clue"--
Subjects: Biographies.; True crime stories.; Personal narratives.; Murder; Murder; Race relations.;