A Dirty Business forms part of the Case Files series of short crime stories from USA Today bestselling author Rachel Amphlett.
Even for the sleazy backwater of Cooper, Nebraska, the multiple murder of an entire family, brutally bludgeoned to death in their beds, is big news.
Detective Joe Finch, raw with guilt over his partner’s traumatic shooting during a routine traffic stop, hopes the case will at least focus his mind. But then he discovers that the crime scene is the house he grew up in, and the ghosts of his own tragic childhood come rushing back to confront him.
As Finch dredges the corrupt and criminal mires of Cooper in a desperate search for the truth, the only certainty is that everyone there is lying. Caught between greedy politicians, a violent cartel boss, an ambitious reporter and a sinister cult lurking in the cornfields on the outskirts of town, Finch is soon out of his depth.
In a town where the law exists only to be bent or broken, can Finch steel himself against entrenched evil and the haunting spectre of his past―and live to serve justice in Cooper?
At 1pm, the police establish the gunman has a hostage.
By 5pm, a siege is underway.
At 9pm, DI Helen Birch walks, alone and unarmed, into an abandoned Borders farmhouse to negotiate with the killer.
One day. One woman. One chance to get everyone out alive.
She is, after all, entirely unsuitable. She's an uptown girl, used to a fancy lifestyle in the big city of Glasgow. She'll never fit in. And how is that work-shy rogue Hamish Macbeth supposed to get anything done when his new assistant is such a distraction? The village needs a police sergeant who can get on with his job, not one who's constantly swooning over his pretty young constable.
Yet PC Dorothy McIver quickly shows how determined she is to win over the locals, and she certainly seems to bring out the best in Macbeth. Then comes a brutal murder and the pair find themselves plunged into a tangled web of conspiracy that acquires a sinister strand when the chilling shadow of Glasgow's underworld creeps to the Highlands and the peaceful village of Lochdubh.
Through it all, the bond between Hamish and Dorothy grows ever stronger. Has Hamish Macbeth finally found the love of his life - and can he track down the murderer before any hope he has for a blissful future is destroyed?
A locked vault. A deadly prize within.
Upon the successful completion of a risky, undercover assignment in the States, Korso, elite covert salvage operative, is contacted by his only real ally, the mysterious hacker M. D. Dog.
Tracked down by Interpol’s cybercrime unit, Dog faces life imprisonment unless they betray a client, the merciless South American crime lord Miguel Quezada, whom Interpol are convinced ordered the Guatemalan Vice President’s assassination a year before.
Knowing Korso is the only person who can help, Dog wants him to infiltrate Quezada’s heavily-guarded private compound to recover the murder weapon – a Mayan jade dagger – hidden in a safe room somewhere on his property. Get the dagger to Interpol, and Dog goes free. Fail? And it will be the end of them both...
His ex-lover, who also happened to be Jareth's CIA handler in his Black Ops days, is in a bad way. Her sister has been taken by a mysterious cult and she needs Jareth’s help to rescue her.
Danger is guaranteed.
Death a possibility.
Ever the good soldier, Jareth can’t say no.
Under assumed identities they infiltrate the cult’s desert compound. There the pair are welcomed by the group and their sinisterly charismatic leader, Memphis Pope. It doesn't take long for it to become evident something dark is bubbling beneath the surface. Pope is armed with a twisted agenda and a band of dedicated followers ready to do his bidding.
Can Hicks find the missing girl and stop the cult from carrying out their deadly plans? Or will this mission prove to be his last?
Writing scrawled on the wall of Sheriff Jenna Alton’s office overnight leads her and her deputy David Kane to a secluded house on the outskirts of town. Inside, Jenna is devastated to find a much-loved local resident lying in a pool of blood, stab wounds covering her lifeless body. What monster would attack a defenseless woman living alone?
With no trace of the killer at the scene, the deadly message written on Jenna’s door is her only clue. But as the small town grieves, it leads her to a contractor who recently had access to the woman’s home. She races to interview him, only to discover the wreck of a car on a steep mountain road with another dead woman inside.
Jenna knows the victims were friends and regularly went to church together. She thinks a twisted killer has been watching them, waiting for the perfect time to strike. But before she can make her next move, one of her own team is found unconscious and covered in the blood of a third female victim—a knife inches away from his hand.
Pulse racing, Jenna questions her shaken deputy, who can’t explain why he was in the woman’s house. Could he really be a killer, or is someone playing an evil game? The clock ticks to uncover a dark secret that connects all three victims, but can she work it out before another innocent life is taken?
It's another beautiful day on the French Riviera until Paul Burke and a group of bicyclists participating in a vintage bike race come across a disturbing scene: two skeletons dressed in Nazi memorabilia linking major race sponsor Bosco Yablonski to one of the worst periods in history.
Although the authorities dismiss it as a hoax aimed at discrediting the sponsor, Burke isn't convinced. As he continues to cover vintage races for his newspaper, more bizarre incidents occur. And when two bodies turn up, Paul knows serious threats to Yablonski and the cyclists loom in upcoming events. But who would want to harm the race or its sponsor?
Paul soon finds himself involved in a mystery with deadly consequences as the vintage bike race escalates into a national news story.
Teacher Annabel Braddock was last seen drinking at the local pub with her best friend, Jennifer. Witnesses saw tears running down her cheeks, and friends say she was having problems with a colleague at work, and that her marriage had broken down.
But as the two women hugged goodbye, neither noticed the car speeding towards them. As the dust settled, Jennifer lay unconscious on the ground and Annabel was nowhere to be seen. She’d never abandon her little girl, so did someone snatch her?
As family crowd around Jennifer’s hospital bed, hoping she’ll wake up, police visit Annabel’s home and her inconsolable daughter, Cally, tells them she had seen a man outside staring into her room as she climbed into bed that evening. Was it her childish imagination, or had someone been watching Annabel’s home?
When Jennifer finally opens her eyes and tells the police what happened that night, it’s clear there are plenty of people with a reason to harm Annabel. With an unpredictable husband, a colleague who denies harassing her and a neighbour who seems to know her every move, could she be in imminent danger? As the hours turn to days, will little Cally ever see her precious mother again? Or will she be next?
A filter can hide all manner of secrets…
When budding true crime blogger Maggie Shaw is invited to the Influencer of the Year awards, it feels like everything is finally falling into place. The party is held on a glamorous yacht and presents the perfect opportunity for Maggie to network – the first step towards achieving her dream of turning her hobby into a full-time job. But by the end of the night, there’s one question on everybody’s lips: who killed Stella Knight?
Stella was beautiful and famous. Her life appeared to be perfect. But behind the façade, Stella had made a number of enemies – and all of them were on board.
The American Artisan is the twenty-third in a series of novellas to feature Constable David Maratse in Greenland. Each novella is set during Maratse’s career as a police constable, and features aspects of Greenlandic culture, tradition, and not least the stunning natural environment.
Constable David Maratse also features in the popular Greenland Crime series starting with Seven Graves, One Winter, and makes regular cameo appearances in the Greenland Missing Persons series.
This special Kickstarter edition introduces a new character: David ‘Dave’ Bennett.
James Ryker thought he’d gotten the gangsters out of the Norwegian town of Blodstein, so when he hears of a wave of murders, it gets his attention. Then he discovers that an unidentified teenager has been found dead in Crete, and the description of the victim raises an alarm—could the boy be Henrik Svenson, who Ryker had once rescued in Blodstein?
To get some answers, Ryker heads for Athens—and meets the seductive but duplicitous Eleni. Soon the search begins for a known associate of the elusive Eastern European drug kingpin known only as Jesper. But just as it looks like he’s about to get a break in the case, Ryker finds himself in jail for murder.
Someone is setting him up—and after two Russian agents visit him in prison, things take a turn he never expected . . .
In the 1880s a sixth daughter learns not to ask for much, even if she’s the daughter of an earl. Even if she married the richest man in her corner of Sussex. Even if she’s now a widow with a splendid Georgian mansion.
Lady Helena Whitcombe is still trying to adjust to widowhood and reconcile her family loyalties with her desires when her artist sister Odelia makes a startling suggestion. Why not make her mark on the house that’s now all hers, by commissioning a magnificent work of art from one of London’s most celebrated painters?
Lady Odelia invites Helena into the seductive world of medieval fantasies and fairy tales she has inhabited since Helena was a child. But when a shocking series of events exposes the destructive reality of a great artist’s unusual lifestyle, Helena and her lady’s maid Guttridge are called on to help—or is it to interfere?
Looming danger, the risk of scandal, and competing loyalties force Helena to re-evaluate her relationship with the sister she’s always loved the most.
What is Lady Odelia’s secret? Find out in this gripping continuation of the Scott-De Quincy Mysteries, a story that blends mystery and historical detail with Downton Abbey-style saga as the truths about Helena’s aristocratic family unfold. Read it now before the secret gets out!
In a grand townhouse rented specially for the evening, Hannah beams at her guests under the sparkling chandelier. Her sisters, her mother and aunt, her best friends... although she'll miss them all so much when she moves away, tonight is about celebrating the happy times and raising a toast to the future.
But the next morning, one of the guests is found cold and lifeless in their pristine white bed.
Hannah is desperate to call the police. After all, it must have been an accident. Perhaps too much wine, on a night where emotions were running high. But it soon becomes clear that every single person at the party has something to hide.
A mother who'll do anything for her daughters.
Best friends with dark secrets between them.
A sister with a jealous streak.
What if one of them is a killer?
And what if this is just the first victim?
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