Episodes

Sloan McPherson, the protagonist of Andrew Mayne’s The Girl Beneath the Sea, just wants to live her life as an evidence-recovery diver for Lauderdale Shores PD, a mom to her daughter and a supportive member of her problematic family. But the discovery of a recently murdered young woman during a dive in a canal leads... Read more »

Upending Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s “Little Girl,” Samantha Brinkman, the protagonist in Marcia Clark’s series that concludes—for now, at least—with Final Judgement, “When she was good/She was very good indeed/But when she was bad, she was even better.” As a defense attorney, Sam is relentless; but when she’s defending her boyfriend, you can add ruthless, fierce... Read more »

Occupied Paris, 1940 and Kate Rees—an Oregonian sharpshooter by way of England—has been given a rifle and an assassination assignment in Three Hours in Paris, Cara Black’s first stand-alone thriller. The stakes—and the odds against her—couldn’t be higher, but Kate, raised on an Oregon ranch during the depths of the Depression, is descended from pioneers... Read more »

It is in the best interest of Rachel Marin, the protagonist in Hide Away, Jason Pinter’s new crime fiction novel, to keep a low profile. But when a woman falls to her death in what initially looks like a suicide, the potential that the authorities might shortchange justice for expediency is more than Rachel can... Read more »

NYPD Homicide Detectives Sheryn Sterling and Rafael Mendoza return in Don’t Look Down, Hilary Davidson’s second installment in her Shadows of New York Series. The case the partners are called to seems like a slam-dunk: Cosmetics entrepreneur Jo Greaver is seen fleeing from an apartment where a man has been shot to death. And yet…well,... Read more »

Like England in 1943, Maggie Hope—the protagonist of Susan Elia MacNeal’s The King’s Justice, the ninth in her series—while keeping that famous stiff upper lift, isn’t doing quite so well on the inside. Having left the world of espionage, Maggie is simultaneously doing her best to get the serial killer she helped convict give up... Read more »

When veterinarian Cassie Larkin happens on a man brutally attacking a young women in No Bad Deed, Heather Chavez’s debut mystery, Cassie wonders how she would have acted if her children had been in the car. We’ll never know, because they weren’t and Cassie’s actions set her—and her family—on a collision course with a relentless... Read more »

Matthew Rose—the protagonist in The Blaze, Chad Dundas’s new mystery—sustained a traumatic brain injury while serving in Afghanistan, so when he returns to his hometown to settle his father’s affairs, it’s as if he’s someplace he’s never been that is also strangely familiar. He meets up with Georgie Porter, an old friend who was actually... Read more »

The year is 1926 and Sheriff Lily Ross, the protagonist of Jess Montgomery’s historical procedural series, is exhausted. Lily—who assumed the office of Sheriff when her husband died in the line of duty—may be mourning her husband, trying to mother her children, and officially running for the office of Sheriff, but there is work to... Read more »

In Lost Hills, the debut novel in a new series by Lee Goldberg, Eve Ronin, the youngest woman ever promoted to homicide detective in the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department’s history, didn’t get there by dint of her hard work: It was a video of her physically schooling an action-hero actor who assaulted his girlfriend that... Read more »

In Under Occupation, Alan Furst’s new historical espionage novel, Paul Ricard lives in a garret apartment, writes espionage thrillers and does his best to survive the German Occupation of Paris. And then a man is shot—probably by the Gestapo—and dies at his feet, but not before stuffing a piece of paper with a schematic drawn... Read more »

The idea for The Secret Empress, Frank R. Heller’s first thriller, was a “what if” moment while contemplating the Dragon Throne in Beijing’s Forbidden City. “What if” the last Emperor of China’s wife and child had not died in childbirth…

In Below the Radar, Dana Ridenour’s new novel, FBI undercover agent Lexie Montgomery—still healing from her last assignment—isn’t ready for a new investigation. Too bad. A Dutch law enforcement official who had infiltrated a radical animal rights’ group has gone missing and Lexie’s expertise makes her the perfect candidate for the assignment in The Netherlands... Read more »

Political operatives live for the game, and none more so than Josie Kendall—née Josephine Robideaux of Louisiana—in Michael Bowen’s False Flag in Autumn. Even when the stakes couldn’t be higher, Josie sticks to her guns. Literally

What was supposed to be a quiet weekend in the Cotswolds for Detective Superintendent Duncan Kincaid and Detective Inspector Gemma James in A Bitter Feast, Deborah Crombie’s new crime fiction novel, turns into a busman’s holiday. It’s not just lunch on the menu for the gala event they’re attending, but secrets and murder as well... Read more »

In The Lying Room, the new stand-alone thriller from Nicci French—the husband-and-wife writing team of Nicci Gerrard and Sean French—Neve Connolly, wife and mother of three, is having a very bad few days. It starts when she arrives for an assignation at the pied a terre of her lover and discovers he’s been murdered. As... Read more »

The year is 1803 and in Hudson’s Kill, the second in Paddy Hirsch’s series about early New York City, all the usually warring factions, Protestant Nativists—those born in the U.S.—Irish Catholics and African Americans find themselves with a common enemy: Muslim immigrants The argot of the time lends rhythm and color to the... Read more »

In When Hell Struck Twelve, the 14th installment in James R. Benn’s series of World War Two mysteries, the Allied Invasion of France is underway, but the war is far from over for U.S. Army Captain, and special detective for General Eisenhower, Billy Boyle and his friend and fellow warrior, Lieutenant Piotr Kazimierz—known as Kaz.... Read more »

It’s hard to think of a more natural investigator than an interior decorator. Someone like Cissy Huntington, the protagonist in Sherri Leigh James’s Blood Red and Iced Blue, literally knows where all the skeletons are. After all, she designed the closets in which they reside

Every side of the legal equation—the defense attorney and the prosecutor—in The Murder List, Hank Phillippi Ryan’s new stand-alone mystery, wants to be the on the side of the angels. But there is only one good guy, one winner; isn’t there? Photo of Hank Phillippi Ryan ©Lynne Wayne

You have to give Alex Segura credit. In Miami Midnight, his fifth and final—or so he says—Pete Fernandez mystery, Alex takes Pete to Hell and back…more than once

Who knew there could be danger in the sparking joy that organizing can bring? In her new novel, Careful What You Wish For, Hallie Ephron explores exactly that in the eternal push-pull of those who can’t pass a yard sale without stopping, and those who need to bring order to their lives

The characters in Because You’re Mine, Rea Frey’s new novel, seem to have made peace with their pasts; but have their pasts made peace with them?

The Better Sister, Alafair Burke’s 18th novel, is a tale of two sisters, the husband they shared and the son of one sister being raised by the other. Oh, and murder, too Photo of Alafair Burke ©Nina Subin