Showing results by publisher "Black Rose Writing" in Mystery

In the blink of an eye, his whole life changed. Now he's back in search of answers. But will the truth destroy him? When seventeen-year-old Christian Bekker killed a poacher, he claimed it was self-defense. But the judge disagreed. He gave Christian a choice-go to prison or leave his home in South Africa and never return. Years later, following his father's suicide, conservation director Dr. Christian Bekker uncovers a plea from the grave to find out what really happened on that fateful day more than twenty years ago.

Oklahoma, 1965. Emmett Hardy is focused on drinking his failures away. And despite his general enthusiasm for the social reforms sweeping the country, the disillusioned police chief isn't surprised by his community's ongoing casual racism. But he's still shocked when he discovers the body of a Black woman with a slashed throat dumped by the railroad tracks.

Lara McAllister was adored by everyone in the small town of Grants Pass until one rainy day last year when she vanished without a trace. Some believe she simply ran away. Others believe something sinister happened. In a close-knit community where everyone knows everyone's business, is it possible that nobody saw anything?

Burr, Oklahoma, summer, 1976: On the eve of America’s Bicentennial celebration, a notorious local politician is assassinated at a campaign rally. The case seems open and shut; the killer—a young, anonymous homeless woman—is shot by police at the scene. With the death of the assassin, the lead investigator is content to write off the crime as a random act. Burr’s Chief of Police, Emmett Hardy, isn’t so sure.

When Petula Kerslake returns to her childhood home in the Catskill Mountains, she discovers that the family painting hanging above the library mantel-long suspected to be valuable-is actually worth a staggering fortune. But the Fleming Foundation, which inherited the historic mansion and its contents, immediately moves to auction off the Sarah Cole masterpiece, citing fiduciary responsibility.

Jane Roland and her painter friends are enrolled in a watercolor retreat at the picturesque Gardens and Horses Resort. They're looking forward to a week of sun-drenched landscapes, sleek racehorses, art instruction, and—best of all—laughter and conversation. Out for their first stroll, the women discover a dead thoroughbred in the pretty reflecting pool. Next evening, they find the handsome young stable man in the horse watering trough. Surely, there's a link between them?

Civil unrest sweeps the mountains of Jalisco, displacing Mexico's elite. Under the cover of darkness, Catalina steals away from her vast ranch with her two daughters. Stuffed into their saddlebags, the precious jewels of the Hernandez-Castañeda family fortune begin their journey across time and legend. Over one hundred years later, in the United States, Sophie's marriage takes its dying breath after she catches Adam cheating. The demise of her marriage shakes her to the core, and she hopes it isn't too late to build the stable family of her dreams.

Mark "Slag" Ferguson (bartender, ex-boxer) adds unlicensed private investigator to his resume. Times are tough. The new side gig seems like a smart play. Kelly Mason is a cool, enigmatic blonde whose husband has been acting strangely. She believes he’s being extorted. Can Slag help? Slag is sure he knows where the case will lead. Of course, he might be wrong.

When a disabled young man is found shot to death in the back row of a drive-in movie theater, Burr's police chief, Emmett Hardy, considers it an isolated act of depravity. As the dominos fall, however, Emmett realizes he might be searching for a type of killer who, in 1974, had yet to be named-someone who kills repeatedly, savagely, and seemingly at random. Hardy searches for the culprit even as old habits cloud his mind and clues to the killer's identity go unnoticed. The trail circles back and becomes a noose. It's up to Emmett to cut himself down before it's too late.

Private Investigator Steve Rockfish needs cash, like yesterday. The bad news is that yesterday, a global pandemic raged, and Maryland was headed toward a lockdown that would ultimately lead to cheating spouses no longer “working late”, and hence a lack of new clients. Rockfish's luck changes when a Hollywood producer reaches out, but the job is two states away and involves digging up information on a child-trafficking ring from the 1940s. What he uncovers will be used to support the launch of a true-crime docuseries. He grabs a mask and hand sanitizer and heads for South Jersey.

Hollywood's biggest movie star Summer Holiday's career crashes as her latest film becomes the most expensive flop in cinema history. Facing bankruptcy and industry exile, she's offered one last chance-star in a Netflix reality series that promises to solve an impossible mystery.

Brad and his best friend, Shelly, travel to Montana to compete in an adventure race. Midway through the competition, Shelly disappears, and a volunteer is found murdered. With the help of his detective partners, Vince, Hadley, and Eddie, Brad launches a search for his missing friend. As they delve deeper into the wilderness, they discover a startling truth—Shelly is not the only missing woman.

After a kidnap-for-hire plot results in the death of a young boy, Burr police chief Emmett Hardy blames himself and has an alcohol-fueled breakdown. His life at a crossroads, Hardy checks into the hospital for treatment, only to discover upon his release that he's been suspended from duty. When a dying prisoner contacts him about a long-forgotten unsolved case, Emmett—temporarily at loose ends—begins an informal investigation.

Small-town police chief Emmett Hardy sets out with a simple goal—find the family of a young woman who died years earlier at the hands of one of his officers. But when a friend helping with the search is murdered, Emmett’s task grows deadly. As he digs to find both the young woman’s family and the killer of his friend, he uncovers a twisted family saga rife with incest, abuse, and political corruption—a legacy of generational sin with roots reaching deep into the prairie soil.

Murder has come once more to the seaside town of Crab Cove, testing the mettle of "almost handsome" Detective Simon Grave and his "nearly invisible" partner, Sergeant Barry Blunt, who investigate a locked-room mystery with a significant twist: the prime suspects are in the locked room, not the victim, a logic-defying situation that challenges the team at every turn.

PI Steve Rockfish's morning meeting was supposed to focus on a case of straightforward harassment. Two clients had purchased a miniature golf course and instantly became victims of vandalism and projected intolerance.

Charismatic minister King Avery persuades state and federal authorities to split North Carolina into two states. He calls his Westcarolina “the first Christian state,” one he will stamp with his own beliefs. The Charlotte Press hires high-profile Texas reporter Annie Price to investigate Avery, his new state, and his God’s Gift Church. The minister, in his new role as governor of Westcarolina, attempts a variety of bizarre changes. The first one would banish Wiccans (witches) from the Christian state, a move that exposes them to potential danger.

Oakland defense attorney Joe Turner ventures to a small town in the Deep South to defend an autistic teenager accused of murdering the local high school football hero. The tense trial is seen through the eyes of the jury, a diverse group that struggles with their own preconceptions about autism and fractures under the weight of their decision. But is there a plant on the jury? And whose side are they on?

Land Where My Fathers Died is the story of a young man's search for identity, love, and his place in the world. While incarcerated six years for a murder he never committed, Jo Shelby Ferguson lost his only family in a highway accident. Upon his release from the Mississippi state penal farm, a trunk, the only earthly possession left to him, yields several bundles of old letters. Upon reading the first letter, he discovers they are written by his great-great-great grandmother.

"Fans of fast-paced thrillers will be flipping pages toward the final twist, where nothing is as it seems." -Cam Torrens, award-winning author of the Tyler Zahn mystery-suspense series The year is 2008. Americans Heather and John Ricci are about to leave Vietnam with their amazing, adopted baby boy when something unimaginable happens-the child is abducted. This, after several, grueling years of trying natural conception, multiple rounds of in vitro, and attempting to adopt from China first, then Nepal.