Showing results by publisher "Blackstone Audio, Inc." in Women Sleuths

A lifetime of craving cuddlier companionship than her hectoring mother has led 40ish Bettina Bilby to board her neighbors' felines - an expectant tabby, a pampered blue-eyed Balinese, a depressed ginger Persian with a cod-liver-oil addiction, and Adolf, an imperious mouser with a patchwork face - for a long holiday weekend.

Settled in to their new home after they lost their house in a fire, and fully established in their new shared offices, private investigator Sharon McCone and her business partner husband, Hy, are finally starting to feel comfortable. That calm is shattered when Hy's former colleague, Gage Renshaw - a shady troublemaker whom they presumed dead - reappears, and it's unclear what he wants from his prosperous former associate.

Dying of cancer and worried about his immortal soul, that rascal Jack confesses his long list of sins to the Reverend Nigel. The stunned but sympathetic clergyman convinces Jack that his most heinous sin was perpetrated on his daughters, who believe that he committed suicide. Both men agree that seeing their father suddenly reappear, only to die a painful death shortly after, would cause additional harm.

Private investigator and former beauty queen Madeline Maclin thought she'd seen it all in her small North Carolina town of Celosia. Yet Evil Turns, fifth in the lively series by Jane Tesh, opens with a young man's body covered in strange occult symbols found in a local vineyard, putting Mac on notice that there is more than one witch in the neighborhood.

A summer in England sounds like a great idea for the Harper family - and the house exchange makes it so affordable. Now they've swapped their New England home for a lovely cottage in a village near London. Why, the house even comes with a cat, a shy marmalade named Esmond. Everything seems purrfect...until someone tries to kill Mr. Harper. Now the genteel village feels sinister, the snooty next-door neighbor is acting suspicious, and the house is filled with its real owner's secrets.

When Kate Reilly arrives in Long Beach, California, a week ahead of the Grand Prix, she is immediately plunged into a new social scene - as well as a murder investigation. Her cousin, Billy, is found dead, with Kate's card in his pocket. The cops want to know why, and sponsors and race organizers - anxious to keep racing's image clean - want Kate to investigate. Doubting she can solve another murder, especially that of a relative she despised, Kate reluctantly agrees.

In Manhattan, being recently dumped by her soul mate becomes the least of Charlotte (Charlie) Morgan's problems after she is viciously pushed off a subway platform in front of an oncoming train. Her modeling career seems over, and she may not walk again. Throughout her lengthy hospital stay, the police have no success finding her assailant or determining a motive. A handsome detective recovering from similar injuries is assigned to be her physical therapy partner.

Reckoning and ruin. That's what Savannah is to private eye Tai Randolph, who has gladly rebooted her life in Atlanta and is celebrating several landmarks: A year running the Confederate-themed gun shop she inherited with its busy schedule of reenactments. A year with her sexy, ex-SWAT lover, Trey, now working a corporate security gig, who's having to reboot his own life and brain after a terrible auto accident. A year of confronting a checkered list of ruffians and outright villains, mostly now put behind bars.

Former police chief Katherine Sullivan has been called brilliant, brave, compassionate, and quirky, but after decades of crime fighting, this resilient grandmother with an artist's soul is discovering that retirement can be just as deadly as being on the job. When Katherine returned to her hometown, her only thought was to comfort her recently divorced daughter. That was before a young woman was found murdered on the estate of the town's richest family.

When single mom and computer security specialist Kate Ford is suddenly and mysteriously put on administrative leave, she finds herself drawn into the drama of a lurid kidnapping case with ties to her company. Kate has enough on her plate dealing with a condition that leaves her extra-sensitive to stimuli, but the case is too juicy to leave untouched.

What would it be like to return to your hometown after 25 years in prison for a crime you have maintained you did not commit? And why would you? Walter Desmond is back in Trafalgar, British Columbia, having been officially exonerated when new evidence showed corruption at worst, incompetence at best, by the Trafalgar City Police conducting the investigation.

Fresh from her introduction to the dangerous world of criminals and cons in Jump the Gun, smart, sexy, and movie-crazy Annabelle Starkey flies to Portland, Oregon, to visit to her newly relocated parents. They, like Annabelle, are rebooting their lives, although the directions their new starts will take are not yet clear. Annabelle is now part of a fledgling detective agency headquartered in New York, home turf to her boyfriend, Mickey, just retired from the NYPD.

Cat is out running in a neighborhood park when she crashes over the faceless body of Bernie Love. Bernie was the finance guy for the scary Provenza family and a friend to Cat's shady uncle Joey, a Ferrari-wheeling cop. As she hauls out her phone, Cat is assaulted by someone with a Rolex, a stun gun, and a wheelbarrow. When the cops show up, the killer is gone—and so is the body.

Racer Kate Reilly is suited up and ready for the start of the legendary 24 Hours of Daytona. But what lies ahead is not just a racing challenge but a harrowing test of her will and nerve off the course. Even before the green flag waves over Daytona International Speedway, Kate receives word that her boyfriend, Stuart, is hospitalized nearby in a coma, fighting for his life after a hit-and-run. Stunned by the news, Kate can do nothing better for Stuart than complete her scheduled laps driving her team's car.

Erica Donato - Brooklyn girl, urban history grad student, and single mom - is researching the 1930s, when Brownsville was the home of the notorious organized criminals the newspapers called Murder, Inc. She quickly learns that even in rapidly changing Brooklyn, Brownsville remains much as it was. It is still poor, it is still tough, and it still breeds fighters and gangs.

Someone is killing the nuns of Ireland. The grisly discovery of an elderly sister of Saint Brigid's monastery strangled, bled dry, and thrown into a bog is just the beginning. Soon a beautiful young nun is found decapitated and hung from a barren tree. It doesn't take long before the members of the struggling monastic community of Kildare realize that not only are the nuns being hunted by a serial killer, but the murderer is performing the gruesome slayings in the manner of the ancient druid sacrifices.

It's been a year since professional thief Crissa Stone last pulled a job, and she's spent that time under the radar, very carefully not drawing attention to herself. That kind of life is safe, but it's boring, and it's lonely, and it's not very lucrative. So when Crissa starts to get antsy - and low on funds - she agrees to act as a thief for hire, partnering with a wealthy art collector to steal a truckload of plundered Iraqi artifacts before they're repatriated to their native country. But what's supposed to be a "give-up" robbery with few complications quickly turns deadly.

Hemlock Falls is a pretty little town in upstate New York. Sarah Quilliam, with her talent for business, runs the Inn at Hemlock Falls, while her sister Meg keeps the guests happy with her culinary abilities. But when it comes to murder, the Quilliam sisters have to rely on other skills - spotting clues, solving crimes, and catching culprits.

Helena Houndswood is the epitome of class - at least when the camera's rolling. Behind the scenes, the celebrated expert on stylish living is just a garden-variety snob with a heart of stone. She's furious to learn that a group of decidedly déclassé Hemlock Falls women has won the design contest sponsored by her television show, It's a Beautiful Life. Now one winner is missing and another is dead - but just how far would Helena go to avoid mixing with the unwashed? After all, murder is so tacky.

Called the Fiddleback, he is an inhuman predator with a taste for human prey and an appetite for torture. Dallas cop Courtney Bedell is the only person who has ever seen this killer and lived to tell about it. Now, to save herself and those she loves, Courtney must match wits with a madman unlike any she’s ever known - and lure the Fiddleback into a web of her own design.