Showing results by publisher "Crossroad Press" in Mystery

In tiny Blacklin County, Texas, a curse is nothing more than a four-letter word hollered in a barroom or muttered in the heat. So Sheriff Dan Rhodes is more curious than concerned when he dutifully responds to a complaint of witchcraft. When Dr. Samuel Martin, the local dentist - and unpopular landlord - claims he's been hexed by a tenant, Rhodes does his best to smooth things out between the distressed D.D.S. and the would-be witch. But in two shakes of a black cat's tail, the good doctor disappears...and his wife turns up bludgeoned to death.

Big, sort-of-sloppy, brew-loving P.I. opens up his files on some of his most fascinating cases. Here are 10 stories and two novelettes, giving Nameless fans a page-turning potpourri of his toughest and most dangerous adventures. Case File is a 12-pack to be popped open and enjoyed on an off-duty afternoon. So sit back and spend some time with one of America's favorite P.I.'s who has caught more criminals - an imaginations - than any other gumshoe in recent American fiction.

Kay Farrow, a color-blind photographer who sees the world in black, white, and shades of gray, probes the mysterious death of her beloved mentor on a quest that takes her to the darkest intersections of San Francisco's Mission District. When distinguished photojournalist Maddy Yamada is struck by a motorcyclist at two in the morning in a seedy area far from her Marina apartment, Kay Farrow's grief is tempered by suspicion. What could have drawn the reclusive Maddy so far from home at such an hour?

Math Professor Sophie Knowles shares her teaching venue with many other math and science faculty, most of whom she gets along with. But one in particular gives Sophie and her teaching assistant, Rachel, a hard time, thus annoying both women. When this colleague, a professor of chemistry, is found dead, poisoned in his office, Rachel is the prime suspect. It’s up to Sophie to put her talent for designing and solving puzzles to use to find his killer.

When minor league baseball comes to White Sands Beach, not everyone welcomes the club. Birders are upset by the location of Sand Skeeter Ballpark, but will they resort to murder to protect the birds nesting areas? When a woman dies at the ballpark, during the final game of the season, tabloid reporter and amateur sleuth Cassie O'Malley finds herself on the case. Tag along as Cassie and her unusual band of cohorts attempt to untangle the clues in A Minor Case of Murder.

In a quiet home in the Fort Lauderdale suburbs, a woman psychically witnesses a murder. In a posh estate a few miles away, a man lies dead. The only clues are a collection of tarot cards sent to the victim's home and a nuisance call from a Fort Lauderdale woman who claims to have had a vision of the killing. For Detective Wayne Sheppard, the killing of famous criminologist Andrew Steele and the disappearance of his beautiful wife is about to test everything he has ever believed and everything he knows about logic, police work, and scientific truth.

In the East China Sea, six Japanese submarines are attacked and believed destroyed. To the world, it seems like an accident. But to one man, former submarine commander Dick Donchez, it is the first act of war. He alone knows the truth, that the old guard of Red China has stolen the subs to wage a massive attack against the new Free China. Vice Admiral Michael Pacino can't prove Donchez's theory. The US government will not officially retaliate. But when a full-scale battle erupts, Pacino is quickly given command of the Navy's latest undersea weapon.

Jeanne Clinton was a pretty and well-liked woman, though in her younger days, she'd been known to be a bit wild. But she married an older man and settled down to a quiet, respectable life. Now, she is dead...brutally murdered in her home. Dan Rhodes, the thoughtful, hard-working sheriff of Blacklin County, Texas, has enough to worry about already: a rash of burglaries in town and an election coming up against a hot-shot opponent. Now, he's got to find a killer among the residents of his little town - a wily killer, bound and determined not to be caught.

The nightmare fear of the US had come true. One of our finest submarines, the U.S.S. Tampa, on a top-secret spying mission, had fallen into Chinese Communist hands. The Communists, fighting for survival in a savage civil war, now held not only the sub, the crew, and the gutsy Commander Sean Murphy hostage, but US power and prestige as well. America had one last desperate card to play.

Submarine commander Aiexi Novskoyy has been sprung from prison by a multibillion-dollar organization with a very special mission in mind. The company has designed a new submarine - the Vepr - which they will use to wreak havoc on international trade. To test its new weapon, Alexi must sink a cruise ship carrying the entire brass of the US Navy - effectively decapitating the American fleet.

Cassie O'Malley is back in a Christmas mystery that will keep you laughing and guessing until the final showdown. At odds with her new boss, tabloid reporter Cassie O'Malley finds herself covering the shopping mall at Christmas. Cassie wants nothing to do with the assignment. Then Big Mack turns up dead in the men's room, his throat slit. Sensing an opportunity for 15 minutes of fame, mall security guard Oliver Berryhill spins a heroic tale of his confrontation in the men's room with the loan shark. The police are skeptical, but Big Mack's son, the even bigger Little Mack is determined to avenge his father's murder.

A stingy ex-husband, a teenage daughter, and a rusted-out Ford Escort have multiplied her troubles. Tripping over a dead body while on her morning jog seems like another incident for the minus column. But then her new editor at the newspaper gives her a regular column detailing the investigation. He's handsome, single, and just a bit mysterious. Suddenly, Colleen's life is on the plus side.

Rick's Diner is owned and run by four long-time friends, Rick, Rachel, Logan and Macy. It's a dream life for them, until a mystery comes along. That's when Rachel's sleuthing senses kick in, and when that happens, all heck breaks loose.

Sheriff Dan Rhodes knows it's going to be a bad day when Bert Ramsey arrives at the jail with a neatly wrapped arm and lays it on Dan's desk. He has another out in the truck, he tells the sheriff, and "a couple of legs, too, but they don't match up". Then Bert Ramsey is shot to death, and serious crime takes over. A tattoo on the body discloses that Ramsey was once a member of Los Muertos, a violent motorcycle gang from the city, and current members of the gang turn up in Blacklin County.

H. J. Mavity, painter of paperback romance covers, has a perplexing riddle to solve when her ex-boyfriend, Rick Dell, collapses at her feet after telling her that the words "ninety-nine clop clop" hold the clue to a lot of money. Although Dell has clearly been murdered, H. J.'s avarice gets the better of her and she determines to risk the ire of whoever has killed Dell to go after the money. First, however, she must understand the riddle and who better to help her than her ex-husband, Ben Spanner, a gifted mimic whose voice is known to millions through TV and radio commercials.

Jack Dwyer, ex-cop turned amateur actor, is delighted when his agent lands him a role in a local production of Long Day's Journey into Night. The real drama starts, however, when Michael Reeves - the play's angry, bullying director - is found murdered, and Dwyer's friend Stephen Wade, a sweet has-been of an actor, is charged with the crime. Dwyer knows that Wade has been set up. But who did it? And why?

Peeps takes movie reviewing to new heights of viciousness. On this prime-time TV show, two caustic critics look at the hits and misses among the new movies, trading wits, insults - even punches. But even a series with high riatings like Peeps can stare at cancellation - not by the networks, but by murder. Because Dunphy has just been found with a knife in his back in the dressing room of Tobin, his co-host and sparring partner. The cops' script says Tobin - who'd secretly shared the affections of Dunphy's wife and brawled on air with Dunphy the night before - has the motivation for the part of star suspect.

Math Professor Sophie Knowles becomes involved in the restoration of the campus bell tower, which has been closed for decades, ever since a student died there in a tragic accident. Sophie is curious when history seems to repeat itself - one of her students, Jenn, who was chosen to play the carillon in the new bell tower is beaten and left in a coma. Are students associated with the bell tower cursed? Sophie is determined to get to the bottom of Jenn's tragedy, which may mean digging back in history and finding out what happened 25 years ago.

PI Truman Smith has become a loner after failing to find his sister Jan during a recent search of Galveston Island. He jogs on the Seawall, plays with his cat, and reads lots of Faulkner books. He is pulled from his self-imposed retirement when his old high school football buddy Dino asks him to find a young girl named Sharon. As Tru begins his investigation, dead bodies begin to appear and Tru himself is attacked.

Carmody, a sometimes detective who also works as a freelance bodyguard and smuggler, operates off the Mediterranean island of Majorca. There he deals with thieves, smugglers, murderers, and other desperate men. By the author of Breakdown.