Modern Historical Mystery Fiction

It is the Whitsun weekend of 1931 in the once-fashionable resort of Frencham-on-Sea. A housewarming party at Seaview One, the thoroughly modern home of Sir James and Lady Theodora Phillips, goes horribly wrong when Lady Theodora is found drowned in the swimming pool. Suspicion falls immediately on one of the servants, but the police are unable to make the charge stick. Two of the house guests, Clarice Thompson and Cliff Thorley, begin to notice the undercurrents of tension and rivalry among the guests, and that one person in particular is acting very suspiciously.

When Kendyll tours a creaky old manor, she's sold the moment she sways into the haunting ballroom. Hiring a considerate local contractor to breathe life into the plantation, she's pulled back into a recurring childhood dream and captivated by the gentle stranger's empathy. But the land's bones are calling for redemption, and the price the courageous woman must pay to heal their unresolved wounds could crush her with an agonizing choice.

This new collection of mystery stories set in New Orleans features O'Neil De Noux's recurring characters - 1940s Private-eye Lucien Caye, 1890s NOPD Detective Jacques Dugas as well as NOPD Homicide Detectives John Raven Beau, and Dino LaStanza (he's back!). There are also a couple ghost stories, a maniac story, the gold bug of Jean Lafitte, a man with moon hands and a future-cop story with a guy named Max.

Wrongfully accused, Spar has been condemned to suffer the brutality of the guards and the conditions on Devil’s Island. But they haven’t broken his will, and now, escaping, he has one mission in life: revenge. Spar’s out to kill the man who put him into the devil’s hands. But he’ll have to take on a gallery of rogues who are as treacherous as the waters of the Caribbean.

Tex Larimee is a grizzled Arizona sheriff who’s leaving the deserts of Cactus County behind, blazing a trail east to mix it up with The Slickers in the canyons of Manhattan. Tex’s welcome to New York is a rude one. Robbed of his cash, gun and badge, he’s locked in a room in back of a run-down bar. Breaking out of the bar, he goes looking for his best friend...only to find him dead, his throat cut. And the cops accuse Tex of committing the murder.

Clark’s investigation begins with cocaine and leads to cold-blooded murder - the discovery of one, and then another, headless corpse. Who is behind the slaughter? Are the killings tied to the drug traffic? Or is a deeper, darker, and even more sinister conspiracy unfolding in the carnival?

US Navy Lieutenant Steve Craig is in one hell of a mess. Being accused of murder is bad enough, but the local police are convinced he’s killed his own father. And now, for Steve Craig, the plot is about to get down and dirty. Steve’s safe from the cops as long as he stays aboard his Navy ship - but the word safe isn’t in his vocabulary. He slips off the vessel and vanishes into the seamy underside of the city, determined to find out who took his father's life...even if it means risking his own.

Bill Norton might be new to Ketchikan but he’s no tenderfoot. In fact, he’s one of the sharpest FBI agents this side of the Yukon - savvy, tough and resourceful. Norton’s come to this rough-and-tumble town to look into a case of a missing person - his own boss - who vanished investigating a heroin smuggling operation. What Norton finds is a string of corpses, a gallery of rogues, and a fleet of fishing boats that specialize in red herrings. He also finds himself warming up to the heart-stopping halibut heiress Elaine Halloway.