Intrigue & Thriller Books

Imma Bruno, a spunky retired librarian in the Pocono vacation town of Garden and founding member of the Tuesday Night Book Club, gets far more than she anticipated when she begins to investigate the curious question of why her reclusive neighbor was spotted at a Fabergé egg exhibit in New York City, and seems to be avoiding the town ladies.

Avery Hutchins was just a little girl when her father died on 9/11. She loved spending time in the Pocono mountain town with her grandparents and their friends growing up. When she travels to her grandparents’ home, she makes a discovery about her father’s death that will force her to face an impossible choice between doing what is right and finally finding a way to regain a part of herself she had lost.

Alessia Cavalii is a rising star in the competitive international wine scene, and one of only twenty-six female master sommeliers in the world. Her home is a gorgeous, renovated winery on the sun-soaked southern coast of Italy, she has a career she adores, and she has finally managed to end a long-term toxic relationship. But Alessia is hiding a dangerous secret—and she’s edging dangerously closer to losing the beautiful life she’s worked so hard to create.

Parker Haven is a captain in the US Army and stationed at the NATO military camp in Italy. A detective with the military police, she’s recruited to help solve a string of murders in the city and becomes inexplicably drawn into Alessia’s world. As the intrigue surrounding the case—and Alessia—spins dangerously out of control, Parker must choose between her military career and the woman she’s falling in love with.

How can we be sure we truly know the people we love?

Reprint. Previously published as The Last First Kiss.

When Natalie Brewer finally forged the courage to leave her husband, Allen, she thought she’d be able to live life on her own terms. But to Allen, they are still married, and they are to remain that way till death do them part. When Allen begins to stalk her, Natalie does the only thing she can do—she runs.

Horse rancher Vaughn Ruger is having a bad day. Two of her best broodmares have escaped, and two of her ranch hands are no-shows. What’s worse, her ranch is already on the brink of going under, and just one more thing will send it all spiraling. With so many problems on her mind, she almost passes up the woman on the side of the road crying in her vehicle. Almost.

Vaughn and Natalie have chemistry they can’t ignore, but neither is safe to act on it. They join forces to help each other, but the outside world keeps knocking at the door, threatening more trouble and making the love and the life they want together impossible.

Diana Dillon and her eleven-year-old daughter, Ryder, are moving back to Diana’s father’s farm in rural Illinois hoping for a new start. There’s something mysterious about the Dillon farm that Diana can’t quite remember, not even as vague memories begin to surface after she encounters an ominous stranger on her way to the farm during a heavy snowstorm.

Deputy Melonie “Mel” Defoe has just returned home from military service in the Middle East. She’s new to the local sheriff’s office, joining at the insistence of her father, former sheriff Norman Defoe. Though it’s not exactly the job she’s dreamed of, she is drawn into the web of mystery surrounding the apparent attack on newcomers Diana and Ryder Dillon and the unusual occurrences at the farm no one can explain.

With Diana healing from the attack and Ryder trying to adjust to life on the farm with her grandfather, can Mel discover the mystery behind the Dillon farm before they all fall victim to the deadly and cursed land?

Cain Casey has much to be thankful for—a loving wife in Emma, three beautiful children, and an ever-expanding family. Her business continues to grow, giving her the power to keep it all safe, but is it? Unknown federal agents are not playing by the government’s rules, and the Russian mob comes seeking revenge for the losses Cain’s inflicted. Cain and Emma have agreed to partner with the local feds to root out their rogue agents, but their goals for the endgame are completely different. Cain wants to remove the threat the way she knows is best—permanently. There is also Nicola Antakov, who she plans to handle the same way. 

Cain Casey is the devil you know. She loves her family and will do anything to keep them safe and whole.

TJ knows she doesn’t fit in the ultraconservative Crusade of the Redeemer Church, no matter that her father is their chief of security, but leaving is difficult to say the least. Still, she has a plan. Until it gets shot to hell when her secret ex-girlfriend is taken to conversion camp where she will absolutely spill the beans. With his job on the line, her father sends TJ away until the storm blows over.

Bailey split her childhood between Portland with her mom and Tulsa with her Patriot Army dad. But she’s stayed out of Oklahoma ever since they decided together it was too risky for her to be there. She strongly prefers the blue state culture of Oregon anyway. But when her dad calls her with a job offer she can’t refuse, she risks going back into the red to protect her childhood crush, TJ.

When TJ and Bailey get caught in the political crossfire, escape is the only plan. On the run and fighting for their lives is not the time to be falling for each other. But the danger is closer than either of them knows, and when TJ is betrayed by those she loves the most, it could spell the end of their chance at forever.

When bodies start washing up on the shore in Salem Harbor, Massachusetts, an elite task force of FBI agents, profilers, and detectives join forces in a remote log cabin to decode the clues and stop the killer from targeting another victim.

Agent Tala Marshall overcame a childhood of deep generational wounds to become the country’s best criminal profiler. Now she faces her most challenging case yet, racing against the clock to profile the elusive killer before they strike again. She must partner with Wilder Mason, a local detective convinced that the murders are connected to the Salem Witch Trials of 1692, and Tala builds a connection to the task force that helps her come to terms with her tumultuous past. But Wilder wants more and is determined to find the key to both the case and Tala’s guarded heart.

Can they find the undercurrent that connects Salem’s past and present before another victim washes to shore?

Special Liaison to the FBI Louisa Linebach may have defied all odds by identifying the bodies of three missing men in the Kenai Peninsula, but she won’t be satisfied until the man she’s sure is responsible for their murders is behind bars.

Mr. Drew is secretive, smart, rich, and well-connected, and it’s going to take more than regular police procedure to catch him. Louisa has a plan—a stakeout with Kenai Fjords National Park as home base. As Louisa watches Mr. Drew’s crew coming and going, she begins to put together how the operation works with the help of Seward Police Chief Mikey Harper; Louisa’s love-interest, medical examiner Anna Fenway; and National Parks Service ranger Dolly Agapov, who has a very personal reason for wanting the mysteries surrounding Mr. Drew solved.

The case is turned upside down when Dolly’s grandchild, Ryne, goes missing—and it’s not clear whether Ryne’s been ensnared by the crime ring, or if they’re risking their life to help Louisa. Only one thing is for sure. If Louisa doesn’t catch Mr. Drew soon, the body count will rise.

Some choices break hearts. Others leave a body count.

Police detective Cami Lyons is finally doing okay following the devastating breakup of her relationship with crime reporter Alicia Flynn. Her work is mainly petty theft investigations and chasing down vandals, until a body is found in a nearby forest and everything changes. She has no choice but to pivot to homicide detective, and she’s in way over her head.

Alicia made a terrible mistake. When her existential crisis spiraled out of control, she left everything behind—her home, her family, her job, her longtime girlfriend—and ended up on the other side of the world. Time hasn’t healed her wounds and now she’s back. But the truth of all she’s lost may be too much to face.

With the captain, the mayor, the public, and the media breathing down Cami’s neck, her priority is figuring out who’s terrorizing their town, and fast. Sorting out her lingering feelings for Alicia? Definitely not a priority.

Hoping to leave her past behind after ending her emotionally abusive relationship, Cally Pope moves to Halesbrook, a sleepy town in Gloucestershire. Content with her plans to open a glamping business in the forest and live a quiet life, she’s sworn off any kind of romantic entanglement.

Laurie Flanagan has lived in the forest all her life and has her dream job working for the forestry commission. She longs for the kind of relationship her parents have, but she hasn’t met someone who fits the bill. When she meets Cally, she feels an instant connection, only it seems Cally doesn’t feel the same way at all.

When increasingly violent acts of sabotage threaten to derail the opening of Forest Glamping and put Cally in grave danger, Laurie is the only one who believes the violence isn’t random. Together, Laurie and Cally try to figure out what’s going on, but the closer they get to answers the more Cally can’t shake the feeling her ex, Jules, has something to do with it. But Jules is dead. Isn’t she…?

Danica Wallace, one of southern Louisiana’s top detectives, must solve a series of missing person cases in the small town of Sugar Mill Farm, and the lack of progress has her seeking answers from a bottle. Bones are discovered in a nearby sugar cane field and Danica fears the worst. 

When Lyra Aarden, a beautiful and accomplished bioarcheologist, stumbles upon the remains, she’s sure the bones belong to more than one person.

Desperate for answers, Danica asks her former lover, forensic anthropologist Dr. Eleanor Stafford, to consult on the case. As Danica, Lyra, and Eleanor work to uncover buried secrets, they’re set on a dangerous collision course with a serial killer.

Can they solve the case, or will unexpected feelings and unwelcome jealousies lead them straight into the crosshairs of a killer?

Elementary school teacher Cary Smith thinks she has finally outrun her secrets. She’s avoided attention all her life, but the moment beautiful Tina Flores joins the faculty, Cary wants to be noticed. Although the school has a zero-tolerance policy toward anything “immoral,” Cary dares to pursue Tina, and they begin a relationship nobody can know about—not Cary’s friends, co-workers, or ex-girlfriend.

But then strange things begin to happen, and before long, Cary isn’t sure who she can trust. When someone begins leaving ominous messages and finally breaks into her apartment,   Cary fears losing her job or even her life. With her stalker inching closer to the truth, she’s forced to face the past she’s tried desperately to forget.

Detective Jo Shaw has it all worked out. She’s good at her job, she has loads of mates, and she likes being single. She doesn’t need complications, but an emergency call to the stabbing of a young woman brings plenty of those. Jo has to risk her career to save the woman’s life, and a bad night gets worse when the trauma surgeon turns out to be Isla Munro, Jo’s only real love, who walked out on her fifteen years ago and never came back.

With the victim’s children missing and the husband the prime suspect, Jo’s investigation is stonewalled by a community living in fear. As one dead end leads to another, she and Isla are forced to put their differences aside and work together. But the case is far more dangerous than Jo realizes, and her determination to sort the truth from the lies may put her own life on the line.

Forty years ago, Sydney Hansen’s best friend was murdered. His killer left her a menacing note. Now the man Syd suspected was behind the killing has died—and she receives another threat, attached to a photo of her thirteen-year-old great-niece. Terrified but angry, she turns to the NYPD and Detective Gale Sterling to reopen the case.

Gale has been handling cold cases for over a decade, burying herself in her work and caring for her elderly father, a former detective himself. But this case isn’t like the others. Maybe it’s Sydney Hansen—she finds her beauty captivating. Or maybe it’s the bullet she takes for Syd one night when their date turns into an impromptu stakeout.

Syd and Gayle just want to protect the innocent and bring a killer to justice, but as their feelings for each other grow the once cold case turns dangerously hot.

The cops blow it off, another Black transgender woman who surprised a customer with what was under the dress—bad luck she was pushed out of the car and then hit by another vehicle. But Micky Knight witnessed it, crossing the street at the right—or wrong—time, only yards away from what didn’t look at all like an accident to her. The woman was dressed more like a librarian than a sex worker. It’s not her case, she was just walking home from a local bar. No ID was found on the victim, and the only clue is an appointment card with cryptic initials, CJ at CC. Micky has a good idea what they mean—Cordelia James at CrescentCare, a local health clinic that sees many transgender clients. Cordelia, a doctor and her ex. Micky doesn’t want to get involved, but there will be no justice if she doesn’t. As she investigates, she uncovers a family in turmoil and ugly secrets—ones people will kill for.

Tig Weston’s beloved classics department is evolving, expanding its course offerings to entice a new and more diverse generation of students. Not everyone is willing to accept these changes, though. Tempers flare, and when the body of a prestigious alum turns up outside Denny Hall, Tig doubts she can bring her department through the crisis.

Sergeant Adriana Kent always pictured classical scholars as tweedy bookworms, but suddenly her campus police officers are being called to Denny on a near-daily basis. Arguments in the halls, threatening emails, and even a fistfight, for God’s sake. What should have been the most sedate department on campus seems to be going through a volatile transformation. And the most visible proponent of that transformation? The decidedly unstuffy and very sexy Professor Antigone Weston.

Kent and Tig seem to be on opposing sides in this battle until the stakes become more personal. But before they can even think about a future together, they’ll need to fight to protect the campus from a killer.

Cassandra Hunt is the Gorgon, an assassin/spy. She was programmed via mind control by Thora, her handler, for Olympicorp, a shadowy, cultish conglomerate bent on world domination. Everything changed when she met reporter Elle Pharell. They survived Olympicorp’s mass experiment gone awry and fell madly in love.

Now, in exchange for Elle’s safety, Cass works with a global intelligence collective seeking to apprehend members of Olympicorp. But things don’t go as planned when Elle is abducted. Untangling Olympicorp’s sinister intentions is Cass’s only chance of seeing Elle alive again, and Thora offers to help, for a price. 

Elle wakes up at a secret medical facility with no recollection of how she got there, and the staff won’t answer questions about her lost memories. The one question she can’t get out of her head? Who is the mysterious woman she only remembers as the Gorgon?