Inside Writing Mystery, Noir & Detectives

A maverick celebrity chef reluctantly agrees to let the CIA use his hugely popular international food, culture, and travel TV series as cover for a dangerous espionage mission.When the CIA approaches celebrity chef Sebastian Pike about using his award-winning food and culture travel show as cover for espionage, the outspoken bad-boy host says no. When they point out how roaming the globe interviewing foodies, heads of state, rock stars, journalists-in-exile, poets, subversives, supermodels—even the pope—gives him perfect cover, Pike smiles and says, “F@#! no.”They push. Promising it’s only one mission. Vowing he won’t be in danger. Calling him the MVB: Most Valuable Bystander. They’d embed their top agent in his crew to do the spy work.It’s still no. But when they hit him with the patriotism card, he weakens. And when romantic sparks crackle between him and the female agent, Pike’s all in, kicking off a romantic spy thriller in which the globetrotting celebrity chef uses his TV series to help sneak Putin’s accountant out of Russia before he’s exposed as a mole for US intelligence.The high-stakes mission quickly puts Pike in harm’s way. So much for MVB. There’s danger, there’s double dealing, there’s torture, there’s shooting with real bullets. Plus, a minefield of complications from the hot romance that grows between Pike and his gutsy CIA handler-producer, Cammie Nova.From Paris to Provence, this chef is no bystander. Beyond their attraction, Pike and Nova become an operational team, not only to survive the perils they face but to pull off an operation fraught with one twist after another, capped by a shocking, emotional climax.The Accidental Joe: The Top-Secret Life of a Celebrity Chef - Kindle edition by Straw, Tom. Mystery, Thriller & Suspense Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.

The Queen of the Rex Ball at New Orleans’ raucous and world-famous Mardi Gras—beautiful, vibrant, and dressed in an ivory silk lamé gown with chevrons and gold beading—collapses and dies. Was foul play involved?Jenna Depreaux, a maiden in the Queen’s court, is rich, popular, and jealous. By any measure —birth, social standing, looks—she should have been selected queen. Or so she believes. Is there blood on her hands?Detective Decker O’Day is on the case. A tough kid from the Irish Channel, he is the son of a cop who was beaten to death on the job and a mother who lost her way to alcohol and promiscuity. He teams up with Detective Gail Waites. She carries her own baggage: a Black woman and a lesbian, her daughter is found dead under mysterious circumstances—nude and drugged, and dumped outside University Hospital.Meanwhile: Two gunmen kill fifty-three souls at a Jewish Synagogue in town. A popular anchor at the local TV news station disappears without a trace. A woman is killed when an unidentified pair drops a cinderblock from an overpass, smashing the windshield of her car.As the bodies pile up, as New Orleans society closes ranks, O’Day and Waites must avoid attempts on their own lives and puzzle together the disparate crimes. Are the events connected? Conflicts arise and tempers flare in this taught and picaresque psychological thriller.

When a popular mystery novelist dies suspiciously, his writing partner must untangle the author’s connection to a serial killer in award-winning John Copenhaver’s new novel set in 1950s McCarthy-era Washington, DC.In May 1954, Lionel Kane witnesses his apartment engulfed in flames with his lover and writing partner, Roger Raymond, inside. Police declare it a suicide due to gas ignition, but Lionel refuses to believe Roger was suicidal.A month earlier, Judy Nightingale and Philippa Watson—the tenacious and troubled heroines from The Savage Kind—attend a lecture by Roger and, being eager fans, befriend him. He has just been fired from his day job at the State Department, another victim of the Lavender Scare, an anti-gay crusade led by figures like Senator Joseph McCarthy and J. Edgar Hoover, claiming homosexuals are security risks. Little do Judy and Philippa know, but their obsessive manhunt of the past several years has fueled the flames of his dismissal.They have been tracking their old enemy Adrian Bogdan, a spy and vicious serial killer protected by powerful forces in the government. He’s on the rampage again, and the police are ignoring his crimes. Frustrated, they send their research to the media and their favorite mystery writer anonymously, hoping to inspire someone, somehow, to publish on the crimes—anything to draw Bogdan out. But has their persistence brought deadly forces to the writing team behind their most beloved books?In the wake of Roger’s death, Lionel searches for clues, but Judy and Philippa threaten his quest, concealing dark secrets of their own. As the crimes of the past and present converge, danger mounts, and the characters race to uncover the truth, even if it means bending their moral boundaries to stop a killer.Amazon.com: Hall of Mirrors: A Novel (A Judy Nightingale and Philippa Watson Mystery): 9781639366507: Copenhaver, John: Books

It’s a sunny January morning in San Francisco, and John Callaghan, head of the powerful Callaghan crime syndicate, is about to be murdered.The mystery isn’t why—over the years, he’s made any number of enemies—but rather who. Many candidates are emerging, each with a story to tell: his violent nephew, his skeptical, world-weary lawyer, and his seemingly inept actor son-in-law. There are other complications: a greedy widow demanding money, an ambitious young upstart looking to move up, and rumors of a rat in the union crew.Can the most dangerous man in San Francisco survive the threats inside his own crime family?

From the internationally bestselling author of I Am Not Who You Think I Am—a New York Times Thriller of the Year—comes Lilith, an incendiary powerhouse of a novel that strikes straight at the wounded heart of America.Mother. Hero. Villain. Killer.After her son Lydan suffers traumatic injuries in a school shooting, single mom Elisabeth Ross grows enraged at men in power. If they won’t do anything to help end this epidemic of violence, she will. Believing it’s her destiny, she sets out to awaken the world to the cowards these men are and commits her own shocking act of violence.Going by the name Lilith—the first wife of Adam who fled Eden rather than serve a man—she posts a video of her crime that reverberates throughout society.Praised by some, demonized by others, and hunted by the FBI and vigilantes alike, Elisabeth must keep her identity a secret as she tries to care for her son.As events take startling twists, Elisabeth begins to question her act of violence and the very roots and mythology of violence itself. Was her act justified or has she become the monster that the original Lilith was accused of being?As the FBI draws closer, and Lydan starts to display odd, terrifying behavior, Elisabeth plots to avoid capture and keep her son safe at all costs, fearing she’ll never escape what she’s done without losing her son forever.Written with Rickstad’s singular command of language, human insight, and unnerving suspense, Lilith is a tale of our times. Tragic and profound, it echoes in the mind and lingers in the blood.

It’s 1920 New Orleans and Jesse Pike is slowly ascending the New Orleans upper-class social scene. He’s the owner of the most popular brothel in the entire city, and rubs shoulders with businessmen, corrupt politicians, and stage stars alike. He’s also the leader of a violent street gang that pulls off the biggest heist of liquor since the beginning of prohibition. Jesse sets up a scheme to sell the booze, and use the profits to help him start a legitimate business. However, several obstacles get in his way: Clyde, the mentally disturbed oldest Pike sibling, is released from prison and takes issue with how Jesse runs things; Jesse's aging mentor refuses to let him leave behind crime; and an overzealous young DA decides to reopen an investigation into the liquor heist to increase his chances of being elected mayor. Jesse is forced to make a decision: does he walk away from a life of crime and his family forever? Or will he continue down the road of violence that has begun to erode his psyche, much as it has Clyde's?The Pike Boys, according to a reviewer, is a "compelling story of the Pike family's struggles against poverty, violence, substance abuse, mental illness, and their quest to rise above it all while living in the crime-ridden New Orleans of the gangster era." It has all the thrills, plot twists, and quick pace of conventional gangster fiction, with the heart, depth, and nuance of a literary novel. In between the shootouts, violence, and debauchery, there is the overarching question of "can people actually change?" The reader will see that the answer is not so simple—especially when you live in a place like New Orleans.(Good for fans of Mario Puzo and Dennis Lehane; and lovers of Sopranos, Godfather, and Peaky Blinders!)

The thriller series continues with busy trauma surgeon, Dr. Kyle Chandler, pursuing is side hobby of private investigation. A wealthy client has requested Kyle to attempt to track down two historical items related to a supposed family curse. Despite his initial hesitancy about the investigation, Kyle sets off to France to take on the case. On his journey on to Paris, and then on to Boston, multiple interested parties threaten Kyle, as they desperately want these two items. With the help of his girlfriend, Caroline Martinelli, the growing danger of the situation puts the couple at risk as they inch closer to finding the two lost items. Chance occurrences become the clues to uncover the truth -- and the truth nearly costs them their lives.

In his debut novel, "Trust No One," Michael Hearns introduced readers to the captivating world of Vice Intelligence and Narcotics detective Cade Taylor. The subsequent books, "Grasping Smoke: A Cade Taylor Novel" and "One More Move: A Cade Taylor Novel," were widely acclaimed solidifying Cade Taylor as a remarkable action-driven character in the literary realm. Now, in "Choices and Chances: A Cade Taylor Novel,"South Florida undercover detective Cade Taylor makes a triumphant return in Hearns' latest addition to the series. Cade finds himself embroiled in a complex homicide case that thrusts him smack dead into the heart of the investigation. Reluctantly, he must collaborate with an old police academy classmate turned homicide investigator, all while evading the intrusive interference of a federal agent that jeopardizes his standing with both the police department and the Drug Enforcement Agency. As the case unfolds, Cade discovers a Caribbean connection that stretches from South Florida to Philadelphia, making it the most intricate case of his career. The danger is palpable, and every twist and turn tests Cade's mettle in dangerous heart-stopping moments keeping him and the reader on the edge of their seats. Staying true to the Dark Tropics literary genre he pioneered, Hearns immerses readers in the vibrant energy of South Florida, revealing that sunshine isn't always the best disinfectant. Sometimes, it's the scouring of cold steel brass shells and lead bullets that reveal the truth.