California Historical Mysteries

Josie Bianci was killed years ago on a train during a terrorist attack. Gone forever. It’s what her sister, Kit, an ER doctor in Santa Cruz, has always believed. Yet all it takes is a few heart-wrenching seconds to upend Kit’s world. Live coverage of a club fire in Auckland has captured the image of a woman stumbling through the smoke and debris. Her resemblance to Josie is unbelievable. And unmistakable. With it comes a flood of emotions - grief, loss, and anger - that Kit finally has a chance to put to rest: by finding the sister who’s been living a lie.

The classic Western, now newly repackaged as part of Bantam's Louis L'Amour's Lost Treasures program—with never-before-seen material from Louis and his son, Beau L'Amour. "I am Johannes Verne, and I am not afraid." This was the boy's mantra as he plodded through the desert alone, left to die...

November 2, 1945 — a fourteen-year-old girl vanishes after leaving for a high school football game with friends. When Thora Chamberlain drives off with a man who says he needs a babysitter, she is never seen again. The FBI unleashes its top kidnapping investigator, a man who once helped bring down John Dillinger. What follows is one of the most astonishing manhunts in Bureau history. Agents shadow the suspect, Thomas McMonigle, from Los Angeles to his family’s home in Alton, Illinois, and back again—hoping he’ll lead them to Thora. At one point, undercover agents even give him a ...

Maggie Hope is off to California to solve a crime that hits too close to home—and to confront the very evil she thought she had left behind in Europe—as the acclaimed World War II mystery series from New York Times bestselling author Susan Elia MacNeal continues. NAMED ONE OF THE BEST...

First there were roses and the notes in her mailbox signed simply, "Admirer." Then, the accident. One minute Chris Callaway was one of Hollywood's brightest rising stars, starting a new picture that could send her career skyrocketing; the next, she was falling from the unfinished deck of her...

Investigative apprentice Lyra Brazier, the newest resident of Burning Cove, is unsettled when her boss suddenly goes on a health retreat at an exclusive spa and disappears without another word. Lyra knows something has happened to Raina Kirk, and she is the only one who can track her down. The health spa is known for its luxurious offerings and prestigious clientele, and the wealthy, socialite background Lyra desperately wanted to leave behind is perfect for this undercover job.

It’s 1910 in California and two boys go fishing at Abalone Point. Toru Hayashi, the son of a Japanese tenant farmer, sees something floating in the kelp. He calls out to his friend Alberto Machado Mendoza, the grandson of the prominent ranch owner who is also the Hayashi’s landlord. Floating in the kelp is a jar containing a human hand! The mystery soon involves memories of the famous California bandit Joaquin Murrieta and his notorious friend Three-Fingered Jack. It seems Joaquin’s head and Jack’s hand also ended up in jars many years before. Toru and Alberto set out to solve the ...

Stuart Woods returns with the sequel to The Prince of Beverly Hills—a page-turning novel of murder, political intrigue, and betrayal set in 1940s Hollywood, the era of the “Red Scare,” when almost anyone could be suspect... Rick Barron, a former Beverly Hills cop, has risen to the head of...

Former trapeze artist Amalie Vaughn moved to Burning Cove to reinvent herself, but things are not going well. After spending her entire inheritance on a mansion with the intention of turning it into a bed-and-breakfast, she learns too late that the villa is said to be cursed. When the first guest, Dr. Norman Pickwell, is murdered by his robot invention during a sold-out demonstration, rumors circulate that the curse is real.

Easy Rawlins, L.A.'s most reluctant detective, comes home one day to find Easter, the daughter of his friend Chrismas Black, left on his doorstep. Easy knows that this could only mean that the ex-marine Black is probably dead, or will be soon. Easter's appearance is only the beginning, as Easy...

Los Angeles, California, August 1964…Hilarious whodunit with quirky characters for fans of the Beatles, Golden Girls and Murder She Wrote. A clean, fun read. Beatles abound! The Cozy Beatles Mystery series is definitely a page turner! Paul held the phone away from his mouth and yelled to George and John, “Helen and her parents are going to a place where girls dance …get this, lads…wearing fringed skirts.“ I heard the phone change hands and then John came on, “Name of the place, Melon. I want it now. Out with it.“ “It’s called the Whisky a Go Go.“ “Address? Never mind, ...

An irresistible story of love and death, this Easy Rawlins mystery takes place during the devastating 1965 Watts riots. Easy's hunt for a killer reveals a new city emerging from the ashes -- and a new life for Easy and his friends...

Maggie Lodge, assistant to the reclusive advice columnist known only as Dear Aunt Cornelia to her readers, hires down-but-not-quite-out private eye Sam Sage to help track down the person who is blackmailing her employer. Maggie and Sam are a mismatched pair. As far as Sam is concerned, Maggie is reckless and in over her head. She is not what he had in mind for a client, but he can’t afford to be choosy. Maggie, on the other hand, is convinced that Sam is badly in need of guidance and good advice. She does not hesitate to give him both.

In this thrilling 1950s noir, when a beautiful woman comes into Paris Minton’s life, everything starts falling apart—leaving him no choice but to ask Fearless Jones for help. Mosley returns to mysteries at last with his most engaging hero since Easy Rawlins. When Paris Minton meets a...

Written with the voice and vision that have made Mosley one of the most entertaining writers in America, "Fear Itself" marks the return of a master at the top of his form...

From the New York Times bestselling author of Room, a young French burlesque dancer living in San Francisco is ready to risk anything in order to solve her friend’s murder—but only if the killer doesn’t get her first. Summer of 1876: San Francisco is in the fierce grip of a record-breaking...

It was an explosion that reverberated across the country—and into the very heart of early-twentieth-century America. On the morning of October 1, 1910, the walls of the Los Angeles Times Building buckled as a thunderous detonation sent men, machinery, and mortar rocketing into the night air...

Louis L’Amour’s long-lost first novel, faithfully completed by his son, takes readers on a voyage into danger and violence on the high seas. Fate is a ship. As the shadows of World War II gather, the SS Lichenfield is westbound across the Pacific carrying eighty thousand barrels of...

The art colony of Laguna Beach, 1969—sun-drenched, bohemian, deadly. When wealthy collector Amelia Hart falls to her death, the police call it suicide. Two men know better. Disgraced detective Ray Stone sees his last chance at redemption in Amelia's suspicious death. Dennis Driver, a Vietnam vet turned reporter, recognizes the violence hidden beneath this coastal paradise—the same darkness he thought he'd left in the jungles overseas. Working separate investigations into the same case, they uncover Amelia's secret life: crushing debts to a Las Vegas mobster, extremist political ties ...

Brash detective Rick Barron enters the infamous Hollywood fast lane in this thriller from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Stone Barrington series. Los Angeles, 1939. It’s Hollywood’s Golden Age, and Rick Barron is a suave and sharp detective on the Beverly Hills force...