Intrigue & Thriller Books

Human remains tangled in lilikoi roots bring the authorities to Kerala's construction site. Native Hawaiians say the passion fruit vine marks an ancient burial ground protected by guardian spirits, the 'aumakua. But these aren't ancestral bones. The fractured skull points to murder.

Secrets, sabotage, and indigenous sovereignty campaigns hinder the project Kerala leads: building an eco-dream vacation home for Ravi, CEO of a solar power company. Proud to be a tough dyke in the trades, Kerala can't believe she's so hot for the masculine genderqueer scientist. Their sexual connection is volcanic, but Ravi's craving for love and family aggravates burn scars from Kerala's past. As the lovers pursue justice for Hawaii and its people, Ravi turns his gift for harnessing the sun's strength toward cultivating his own power, and Kerala wonders if building deep, lasting love could be even more satisfying than constructing a home to last the ages.

Dr. Ward Thrasher is hoping her ex-partner, Dr. Jess Benson, will reconsider their breakup, and so she takes a new job to be closer to her. But Jess makes it clear that she's moved on and urges Ward to do the same. Helping to mend her heart is feisty new friend, senior citizen Frieda Henderfield, and the beautiful hospital CEO Abby Rosen.

Then Ward discovers fellow physician Edward Hawk has made a hobby of killing his patients, and she sets out to stop him. Before she can, Jess turns up missing, and Ward, Abby, and Frieda must save her from the psychopathic doctor. If Jess survives, will she rekindle the flame with Ward? Or has Ward's heart already been stolen by Abby?

After a tumultuous career as a criminal defense attorney, Ellery Durand enjoys life without tales of drugs, death, and double-crossing. Until she wakes up one morning to find her bank accounts frozen, her face on the front page, and the peace she's come to treasure shattered in the wake of an FBI investigation. Can she convince the agent in charge to trust her? Can she trust the feelings that grow between them?

After years investigating heinous crimes, FBI Behavioral Analyst Sarah Flores welcomes a transfer to white-collar crime and the chance to have a life of her own. Her relief is short-lived when her first case involves a terrorist plot, and all signs indicate the terrorists' attorney constructed the framework of their evil conspiracy. Attracted to Ellery from the start, can she trust her instincts to lead her to the truth or will their attraction cast doubt on everything she holds dear?

When a friend and troubled army veteran kills himself, independent Internet journalist Elle Pharell goes to Kuwait to investigate the mysterious private security firm he strangely does not remember working for until the day of his suicide. Elle hires brilliant interpreter Cass Hunt to help navigate the area. In a remote desert village, they find everything abandoned and no one to tell the story of what happened save one crazed local. Elle discovers a conspiracy involving the testing of biochemical weapons on civilians turning them into zombies.

Cass Hunt is the Gorgon, a mind control assassin sent by a shadowy corporation to thwart Elle's investigation, to even kill her if she gets too close to the truth. What Cass's handlers did not expect is an unexplainable attraction to her target. Together they must decide if it is safe to expose the truth or remain silent.

Detective Jordan Bishop is tasked with protecting Neela Sahjani, abortion doctor, stem-cell researcher, and member of the new conservative state government—a walking contradiction and a complication Jordan can't afford. When Neela seeks an emotional connection, Jordan tries to distract her from the darkness of her past with the only thing she has to offer—sex.

Neela is struggling to keep her job in an administration that no longer supports her vision while also caring for her aging mother and researching a cure for her mother's disease. The last thing she needs is a detached, risk-taking police officer looking over her shoulder.

Publishers Weekly says: "[A] touching contemporary tale of two wounded souls hoping to find lasting love and redemption together.…Powell ably plots a plausible and suspenseful story, leading readers to fall in love with the characters she’s created."

Lieutenant Abigail Hargrove comes from a long line of cops...dirty cops. She's an exemplary, detached officer when on duty with the Tacoma Police Department, but after hours, she strives in secret to atone for her relatives' corruption. Abby agrees to ride with her mounted unit during the Washington State Fair, expecting a relaxing few weeks of horses and PR work, but a bittersweet reunion with childhood friend Kira sets into motion a chain of events that makes Abby's private and public lives collide.

Wetland biologist Kira Lovell devotes her life to her daughter and to a vocal defense of the environment. A chance meeting with her first love stirs long forgotten feelings, but her life is thrown into chaos before they can rekindle their romance.A kidnapping and a murder take place behind the innocence of the midway. Abby has to solve both crimes to protect Kira, even if it means revealing more of her family's shameful past.

Honor and duty are not always black and white—and when self-styled patriots take up arms against the government, the price of honor may be a life.

Blair Powell and Jane Graves have much in common and even more that sets them apart in an invisible battle raging on home soil. Blair's father is the president of the United States, while Jane's is a domestic terrorist bent on bringing about a new world order at the expense of the present one. When Blair takes to the campaign trail to support her father's re-election, Cameron Roberts and the newest members of Blair's security detail must protect the president and his daughter from foes bent on revenge. Jane and her secret ally within the president's inner circle vow to destroy them all, at any cost.

FIRST PLACE WINNER of the 2016 Book Buyers Best Contest, sponsored by the Orange County Chapter of the Romance Writers of America (Suspense & Mystery with Romantic Elements)

Award-winning teacher Clary Stone is home for the summer, helping her family and recovering from a personal tragedy. She loves her Wisconsin city on Lake Michigan, hoping to find what's left of herself in the familiar warmth and safety. At first, the city is the same, but she soon finds things have changed. Clary becomes involved in parts of the town that she's never seen or known before. The summer's odd journey leads her to the city's homeless shelter for small children.

Leefe Ellis manages the shelter and is totally unlike anyone Clary's ever met. Homeless since the age of three, Leefe reveals another side of life with remarkable courage, honesty, and humanity. Working side by side with the little children, both realize they are fellow travelers, but neither has met another person as completely different as they are from each other. It's often confusing, sometimes frightening, but always fascinating.

Peyton Davis is part rancher, part federal prosecutor, and all Texan. Strong and steady, she's known for keeping her cool in every situation, but when she meets the beautiful and accomplished heiress to the Gantry oil fortune, she falls fast and hard. When she learns her new assignment is to investigate the Gantry family's business, her entire belief system will be tested.

Lily Gantry leads a privileged and protected life and she has no idea it's all about to blow up in her face. What she does know is that the striking rancher she met at the Cattle Baron's Ball has the potential to steal her heart. Will she feel the same way when she finds out Peyton Davis's investigation threatens not only her family's fortune, but the very foundation of her identity?

Twenty-eight days, thirteen European countries, a tour manager fighting attraction, and an accused murderer. What could possibly go wrong? European tour manger Stella Cruz has adeptly led eager tourists around Europe for far too long. Nearly thirty, she is ready to abandon a constantly changing clientele and the never-ending stream of willing bed partners. Enter Phoebe Lancaster, tall, blond, and dangerous. Arrested for the murder of her socialite girlfriend, but later released, Phoebe's presence on the tour is an unnerving mystery and a reckless temptation for Stella.

Max Winters is comfortable in her behind-the-scenes wunderkind role on Holt Lasher's crime fighting team. Eventually, she'd like more responsibility in the field, but that only happens after Holt says you're ready. When Holt's team is asked to help bust an organized car theft ring and Whitney "Dubs" Williams is released from prison with the sole purpose of helping Holt in that pursuit, Holt turns to Max to be Dubs' minder. As in, handcuffed together, 24/7 minder of an unreformed, young, hot, cocky thief. The lines blur between legal and illegal, real and façade, the longer the two women spend together. But Max isn't willing to risk her heart for the entertainment of a criminal. In order to prove herself, Dubs has to make sure her feelings can't be misinterpreted. But will she survive her grand gesture?

Blood is thicker than pride. The final book in the Elite Operative Series brings together foes, family, and friends to start a new order.

Special Agent Switch needs to get close to Greek tycoon Konstantinos Lykourgos, the prime suspect in the theft of a priceless ancient icon from a monastery on Mount Athos. His accomplice is the EOO's recurring nemesis: Theodora Rothschild, aka TQ, the Broker.

Ariadne Lykourgos, heir to her father's shipping empire, expects to have a much-needed holiday on the family yacht with her friends. But the arrival of a new crew member challenges her values and tests her loyalties.

Will Agent Switch be strong enough to keep secrets from Ariadne, and will Ariadne be able to cope with the truth?

Deep in her drunken, womanizing past, Peg Ryan made a terrible mistake. Eighteen years later, she's sober, a respected lawyer, and in love for the first time. When she takes a call from a former colleague, the distance collapses between her ugly past and her hopeful present. Suddenly, everything she values is under attack.

When Allison Mitchell meets Peg, she knows what she wants right away. She breaks up with the woman she's dating to be with her only to discover Camille won't go away easily; she's on a mission to destroy Peg and get Allison back.

Allison and Peg's new love is threatened from all directions. How will they fight back?

Cassandra "Cassie" Finnsbury has spent almost twenty-five years running for her life, hiding from everyone who knew her, and hoping it was enough to keep her daughter safe. When she learns that she no longer has to run, she is determined to find Daniela again and hires private investigator Bailey Davenport, a retired FBI agent, who is more than up to the task. Bailey finds nothing more irresistible than a mystery and a challenge, and in Cassie, she finds both.

Can Bailey find the key to unlock more than just Cassie's secrets?

Until you've been pushed past your limits, you don't know what you're capable of.

When a terrorist group brings down three passenger jets, CIA Threat Analyst Jessie Coltrane is plunged into a netherworld where it's difficult to tell friend from foe. Nothing is what it seems. Case in point? Darien Troy, the beautiful but deadly operative brought in to help neutralize the threat. Jessie is drawn to Darien. She's just not sure she can trust her.

Darien's never backed down from a challenge, but this one's suddenly very personal. As the body count increases and old secrets come to light, she'll have to decide how far she's willing to go. Because this time, more than survival is on the line.

In a stunning twist of events, Addison Riley is launched from the halls of academia to the spotlight of Supreme Court nomination. She's not entirely sure she wants the job, but the opportunity to make history ultimately trumps the trouble of having every aspect of her life examined by friends and enemies alike. Committed to the process, she's determined not to let her attraction to a beautiful woman or the threats on her life deter her from becoming the first female Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court.

Campaign advisor Julia Scott has spent her entire life working to make other people successful, and her pinnacle achievement was the recent presidential election. Now she's in charge of making sure the president's first Supreme Court appointment sails through the Senate. She's faced tough challenges before, but nothing like those posed by the infuriatingly focused Addison Riley, a woman who challenges her mind and awakens her heart.

Times are tough for sixteen-year-old Stick McLaughlin, running from a trumped up arson charge and hiding among hobos in 1918 Boston. Denied the companionship and support of lifelong soul mate Ellie, Stick edges her way through prison as "Mac," only to be thrust alone and wide-eyed into the very definitely Roaring Twenties. She swallows what's left of her pride through the final year of her sentenceserving as maid to a wealthy familybut stockpiles many invaluable lessons about rapidly-changing life in 1924.

Confrontations with bootleggers and a particularly enthralling flapper go a long way toward molding a strong, confident, clever "Mac," who hits the streets with a gang of her own, determined to claim the good life she deserves by beating the corrupt system and Boston's ethnic mobs at their own game.

Little does she know that the lost love she's mourned for years is closer than she thinks. But have time and circumstance conspired against her once and for all?

FBI agent Sera Warren has been working undercover to track a domestic terrorist group to its origins. When her cover is blown, her priority shifts from closing her case to just making it through the day alive. She ends up in the middle of a bank heist, pointing a gun at her ex-girlfriend, Torrence "Tor" Jewel. She sees a flicker of recognition in Tor's eyes as she pulls her gun and yells, "On the floor!"

Before Tor can fully register that "the one who got away" is standing in front of her, she's pushed facedown onto the floor. Sera might as well shoot her now because as soon as she gets up, Tor's going to kill her. Or kiss her. She's still undecided.

First, they have to survive their reunion, then they can worry about happily ever after.