Financial Detective

By using true tales of thieves, swindlers, and fraudsters at work, Financial Serial Killers illustrates how these perpetrators get their hooks into investors' wallets, savings accounts, and portfolios - and never let go. The worst financial crisis since the Great Depression revealed that thousands of mom-and-pop investors had lost millions to so-called Mini-Madoffs. They are the thieves and con men who had used phony financial acumen to steal investors' money, wipe out savings, and damage lives. Financial Serial Killers reveals the cons, from the grand to picayune, that advisers cultivate with their victims - relationships that are essential to the fraud.

A stolen legacy. A desperate farmer. A murder that shatters a small-town harvest. Retired insurance investigator Hank Peavey and his sharp-eyed wife Flo are finishing their epic Route 1 journey when they arrive in Barren’s Edge, Maine—just as blueberry harvest ends and a beloved co-op manager turns up dead. What begins as a simple payment dispute unravels into systematic theft that’s devastated an entire community. Experience the satisfaction of following the money trail alongside this endearing couple as Hank’s financial expertise and Flo’s people-reading skills expose years of ...

Has cyber-crime escalated to murder? Forensic accountant Kat Munro puts her traumatic past behind her and begins dating journalist Connor O’Malley, whose investigations into online crime attract the wrong kind of attention. When a colleague’s teenage son goes missing, and his friend’s body is discovered, Kat finds herself working with DS Adam Jackson again. The murder enquiry leads Adam to an exclusive London school where allegations of drugs, gaming fraud and child pornography abound. As he gets deeper into the investigation, Adam is forced to face issues in his private life while ...

MANUFACTURED is a short true-crime novella — a single case file. Written by Frank M. Ahearn, a longtime blackmail intervention specialist and author of the New York Times bestseller How to Disappear, this novella documents one blackmail situation exactly as it unfolded — from the first inconsistencies to the moment the pressure quietly collapsed. There are no dramatic confrontations. No chases. No heroic rescues. What unfolds instead is a slow reveal: how a believable narrative takes hold, how authority reinforces the wrong assumptions, and how money begins to move based on belief ...

In this “deliciously twisty” (The Wall Street Journal) thriller with “the most clever plot twist of the year” (The Washington Post), expat Kate Moore discovers that a massive terror attack on Paris is not what it seems—from the New York Times bestselling author of The Doorman. “[The...

BANK FRAUD IN MAINE & MURDER IN THE BAHAMAS Stand-Alone Story > Is the discovery of the banker’s body in Thunderball Grotto in The Bahamas linked to the discovery of hidden cash in Maine? The banker lied to both his boss and his wife when he told them he was going to Florida to attend a banking conference. Why he deceived them about the conference and died in the turquoise waters of Thunderball is a mystery. The Bahamian authorities call his death an accidental drowning. The bank suspects an embezzlement and hires Steve Wilson to investigate. Steve’s curiosity about the source of the ...

A man is found in his car, having met a painful death. Another man is found in the woods, clearly murdered. DI Aidan Burke seeks to establish the connection between these deaths. The first man is a wealthy property developer. Little is known about the second victim. Burke's sergeant, DS Fiona Moore, sets to work gathering evidence. But the investigation turns up some unusual findings that point to serious organized criminal activity.

Manhattan. FBI Special Agent Silver Cassidy, the head of a task force that's on a collision course with disaster, finds herself fighting impossible odds to stop a serial killer before he can kill again. Struggling to balance the hunt for a savage predator with the challenges of being a single mom, Silver finds herself thrust into a nightmare of brutality that will demand every ounce of determination she possesses to survive. ----- Q&A with Russell Blake Q: Silver Justice is a departure from your usual action/adventure thrillers. Why a police procedural/serial killer epic featuring a female ...

A DEATH IN PARIS LEADS TO DANGER IN MAINE Stand Alone Mystery > Steve volunteers to help a bank in Paris investigate the unexpected death of a former colleague. His only clue is Margot’s missing laptop and its connection to her investigation of money laundering by a hostile foreign government to influence elections. The global pandemic forces Steve and Amanda to join millions of people canceling travel plans, and he works remotely from Maine to solve the mystery of Margot’s death. His search for the truth leads him down a perilous path to the owner of a numbered account in Cyprus.

A crime-based adventure set in Middle Earth territory in New Zealand’s Southern Alps. Young Kiwi drifter Arch Quaid thinks he has landed the contract of his life when he’s hired to cull deer on a high country property in the South Island of New Zealand. He quickly changes his mind when he discovers he’s the hunted, not the hunter. Caught up in the middle of it all is his new love Janine, a beautiful Maori girl, who will likely be the killer’s next target if Arch doesn’t overcome the most daunting of odds. HIGH COUNTRY CONTRACT is a thrilling, fast-paced read brought to you by ...

A TRAGIC DEATH & SECRETS TO HIDE Stand-Alone Story > Steve's visit with a classmate at his 40th high school reunion in Kentucky challenges his memory of a tragic death. He discovers old friends are not what they seem and have secrets to hide. His investigation of a potential fraud in Florida intersects with a tangled web of deceit, blackmail, and murder. Will a second-rate movie offer the killer a path to escape the past and retire in luxury?

In this emotional mystery-thriller, you'll journey with talented cellist Marie Donovan from the confines of Dallas County Jail to the posh concert halls of the rich and the alluring Seychelles Islands. The harrowing tale begins when the elegant Marie lands in dire straits after her Super Bowl star husband sails off a Dallas high rise—many say in shame after his financial deals go sour. Months later, Marie's grief turns to terror when she's jailed for murdering a lecherous opera maestro. Evidence points squarely at Marie, but she insists she's been framed. A Cellist Loses Her Freedom and ...

In the shadows of Washington DC bureaucracy, hides in plain sight, corruption and political manipulation in the big agency of the federal government. Mira DeSouza identifies discrepancies and irregularities in the ledger entries. With wire transfers vanishing without a trace and closed tax cases with no payments. Silenced from within the agency, Mira decides to seek help outside the agency. Jet is thus pulled into a case that cuts deeper than money laundering or bureaucratic corruption. Jet recognizes that these discrepancies are no coincidences. It is a deliberate manipulation with ...

A BEAUTIFUL INTERNATIONAL ASSASSIN STALKS THE WORLD'S MOST-POPULAR THRILLER WRITER! One author has already been savagely slain. Sebastian Quimper fears he will be next. With good reason. The police have a threatening letter. It claims terrorists will seek revenge because the famous Quimper “insulted” Islam in one of his books! The literary superstar will be the featured speaker at a conference in Manhattan. The N.Y.P.D. will be out in force to protect him. But Quimper’s publishers are still nervous. He sells millions of books and is the key to a huge publishing merger – if he stays ...

When Newport's most sought after investment adviser meets her death while cruising on a sail boat surrounded by several of her biggest clients, amateur sleuth Caroline Kent finds herself in the middle of another murder investigation. Newport police detective Lt. Hank Nightingale is sure he knows who murdered Althea Tanner, but Caroline is certain that the police detective is mistaken. It is up to Caroline to solve the mystery. The story is one of greed and betrayal in the city best known for its gilt and glamour and offers a tale of financial intrigue straight from today's news headlines.

An exhilarating adventure set in the Netherlands, Croatia, Italy, Luxembourg, and Turkey about stolen art, the mafia, and a father’s vengeance. When researcher Zelda Richardson begins working at a local museum, she doesn’t expect to get entangled with an art theft, knocked unconscious by a forger, threatened by the mob, or stalked by drug dealers. To make matters worse, a Croatian gangster is convinced Zelda knows where a cache of recently pilfered paintings is. She must track down an international gang of art thieves and recover the stolen artwork in order to save those she loves most....

Discover this captivating and deeply moving mystery series that will take you around the world and keep you up all night. Hackers are poised ...to take over the Internet.When young FBI special agent Jake Maguire is called to investigate a brutal murder on a Virginia bike path, he never expects the case to take him on a wild ride across the globe. But as he delves deeper into the crime, he realizes it's not just a simple murder - it's an international case of cyber crime, with a trail leading all the way to China. To help him navigate the complexities of the case, Jake teams up with an ...

A dead body on the terrace and a community full of quarrelsome neighbors always fighting for more stakes. Can Shreeja and Shiuli unmask the mystery? Shreeja and Shiuli crossed paths on the terrace of Jagat Sera Apartments. They thought that the neighbors of the dead resident must know a good deal about the motive of the murder. The investigation revealed a deeper connection of money and power. The investigation was almost shut down to prevent a riot. More the detectives dig into the lives of the residents of Jagat Sera Apartments, the more the entangled history of the community starts ...

"A rocket ride of action, political intrigue, and suspense."—San Diego Magazine "A sharp thriller. Russell has us in the palm of his hand."—Chicago Tribune "Ingeniously imagined and skillfully told, Political Suicide must be included in any list of this year's best thrillers."—San Diego Union-Tribune Will Travis is an undercover corporate investigator whose job involves low-key assignments like checking out the service at Washington, DC, hotel bars and reporting back to management. But his evening takes an unexpected turn when he interrupts an attempted murder. Soon, Will is on the ...

Millions vanished. Key personnel AWOL. A bizarre bank robbery. FBI Special Agent Heather Chase and her partner are on the case to recover the money. Except this is no ordinary robbery. No forced entry. No obvious perpetrator. No apparent victim. The money is simply gone. It soon becomes clear to Chase they’re hunting ghosts… How can this impossible mission be accomplished? Relying on her deep infiltration tactics, Chase disappears into the darkness of the underworld… the dungeon where dragons roam. She discovers a startling secret… a secret that could send the whole economy into a ...