Modern Historical Mysteries

ACT OF CONTRITION is an historical novel and modern western that pulls the reader back and forth along a 70-year timeline, spanning from the World War II battlefields of North Africa to the badlands of present day Northeastern New Mexico and Southern Colorado. Trent Carter is a sixty-four-year-old, washed up veteran and retired cop recuperating from injuries physical, mental, and emotional. He blames himself for his wife’s death, drinks and smokes too much, lives with his grown daughter and a mangy orange tomcat, and is trying to avoid the advances of an attractive local widow. He is ...

Ian Dunross, the current tai-pan of the illustrious yet financially troubled Struan empire, is racing to undo the damage his predecessor left behind and to once again stand on stable ground. And he’ll do whatever it takes—including striking a hard-fought deal with an American millionaire. But his rival, Quillan Gornt, has other plans. Suddenly caught in a dubious plot involving Soviet spies, Hong Kong’s criminal underground, and the hostile takeover of his company, Dunross holds nothing back in the fight for the Noble House.

Ian Dunross, the current tai-pan of the illustrious yet financially troubled Struan empire, is racing to undo the damage his predecessor left behind and to once again stand on stable ground. And he’ll do whatever it takes—including striking a hard-fought deal with an American millionaire. But his rival, Quillan Gornt, has other plans. Suddenly caught in a dubious plot involving Soviet spies, Hong Kong’s criminal underground, and the hostile takeover of his company, Dunross holds nothing back in the fight for the Noble House.

Survivor, genius, perfumer, killer: This is Jean-Baptiste Grenouille. He is abandoned on the filthy streets of Paris as a child, but grows up to discover he has an extraordinary gift: A sense of smell more powerful than any other human's. Soon, he is creating the most sublime fragrances in all the city. Yet there is one odour he cannot capture. It is exquisite, magical: The scent of a young virgin. And to get it he must kill. And kill. And kill...

From Martin Cruz Smith, "a master of the international thriller," comes an audacious novel of exotic locales, intimate intrigues, and the mysteries of the human heart. "A superb thriller and a remarkable evocation of a place," raves Booklist in a starred review. "A moving, believable love story in which individual lives are invested with great dignity, even in the face of national ideals."

In many ways Niles should be as American as apple pie: raised by missionary parents, taught to respect his elders and be an honorable and upright Christian citizen dreaming of the good life on the sun-blessed shores of California. But Niles is also Japanese: reared in the aesthetics of Shinto and educated in the dance halls and backroom poker gatherings of Tokyo's shady underworld to steal, trick, and run for his life. As a gaijin, a foreigner - especially one with a gift for the artful scam - he draws suspicion and disfavor from Japanese police.

When his closest friend, Benjamin Sachs, accidentally blows himself up on a Wisconsin road, Peter Aaron attempts to piece together the life that led to Sachs' tragic demise and determine the reason for his death.

We live within the ruins of an ancient civilization whose size has rendered it invisible. Remembered in myth as Atlantis, Lemuria, or other lost world archetypes, the remains of this advanced civilization have lain buried for millennia beneath the deserts and oceans of the world. Investigating the perennial myth of a forgotten fountainhead of civilization, J. Douglas Kenyon presents extensive physical and spiritual evidence of a lost great culture, the collective amnesia that wiped it from planetary memory, and the countless ways ancient catastrophes still haunt modern civilization.

Readers’ Favorite 5-Star Award A captivating historical novel with spell-binding mysteries, inspired by actual people, places and events. B.R.A.G. Medallion Honoree A compelling novel with several sub-stories in different settings and time periods that bring life to each one. Helen Ainsley is a best-selling mystery writer struggling with cancer. She returns to her childhood home in rural Brattleboro Vermont for the serenity she hopes will rekindle her imagination. Ainsley Hill Farm was originally an Inn dating back to the American Revolution. With a new-found friend, an old golden ...

What happens when love crosses centuries—and time refuses to let go? Marine biologist Colette Monroe is swept through time to 1714 Scotland—into a world of danger, secrets, and a Highland laird who could change everything. When the Loch Remembers is a time travel romance of passion, peril, and fate, where love crosses centuries and destiny ripples through the depths.

Legs inaugurated William Kennedy's cycle of novels set in Albany, New York. True to both life and myth Legs evokes the flamboyant career of the legendary gangster Jack "Legs" Diamond, who was finally murdered in Albany. Through the equivocal eyes of Diamond's attorney, Marcus Gorman (who scraps a promising political career for the elemental excitement of the criminal underworld), we watch as Legs and his showgirl mistress, Kiki Roberts, blaze their gaudy trail across the tabloid pages of the 1920s and 1930s.

Phryne Fisher has gone missing in the jungles of Papua New Guinea. Only her pearl-handled gun and a note arrive back home. She's left instruction that say that should she not turn up in six months' time, a letter must be sent to next of kin.

President William Darcy has it all: wealth, intelligence, and the most powerful job in the country. Despite what his friends say, he is not lonely in the White House. He’s not. And he has vowed not to date while he’s in office. Nor is he interested in Elizabeth Bennet. She might be pretty and funny and smart, but her family is nouveau riche and unbearable. Unfortunately, he encounters her everywhere in Washington, DC - making her harder and harder to ignore.

Some have Magick, some don’t. Some use their powers for good, some don’t. When harm is done, the Lock Keepers Guild can give offenders a second chance, but when they must, they Magickally lock up the villain and throw the key into the abyss. Which will it be this time? To the shock of Hazzard Island, the old Master Lock Keeper, Noddy, is found dead on the rocks below Dark End. The Lock Keepers Guild, guardians of the Magickal residents of the New England province, knows he has been murdered. Vulnerable now without their fourth member, the Lock Keepers send word to his great-nephew, ...

Friendship … Fraud … Forgiveness … Forever … It’s Homecoming on Hazard Island and something or someone ancient is corrupting the Magick. Hazard Island artist, Stanton Greene, died in a shipwreck in 1833. A painting lost with him has been anonymously donated to Goodestowe Gallery for the charity auction. An obvious forgery: perhaps, but the artist's trademark thumbprint is in the paint and strange clues tell of secrets and treasure. Now, The Grandmothers, Jack Chardon, and Charlie the Ghost dog have disappeared. The Lock Keepers must put things right. “Friendship; the hardest ...

San Diego Union-Tribune (U-T) Lynne Kennedy’s novel, Deadly Provenance, focuses on “Still Life: Vase with Oleanders,” a Vincent van Gogh painting that disappeared from a French chateau during World War II. In fiction, she solves this mystery. In truth, she’s still on the case. San Diego Jewish Journal Kennedy may not get to the bottom of this perplexing (real-life) mystery like her character in Deadly Provenance did, but she sure is having fun trying. “Still Life: Vase with Oleanders” is a painting by Vincent van Gogh, believed to have been confiscated by the Nazis during World ...

1945. Struggling for survival in a doomed Corsair fighter plane in the skies over the Pacific Ocean, World War II Marine pilot David Hamilton’s life suddenly and mysteriously takes a strange and ominous turn, leaving him searching for answers as he finds himself lost and alone in a different time, place, and perhaps, identity. With no choice but to enlist the help of two young strangers, David embarks on a desperate journey in a 1941 Ford Coupe that possesses its own secret past and purpose, to find his way back home and keep a promise made to the most important person in his life. As ...

B.R.A.G. Medallion Honoree Like landing at D-Day, this author recreates a murder at the tragic 1911 fire at the Triangle shirtwaist Factory (a turning point in NYC history) with such detail and terror that you feel like you’re watching it. Ken Kuhlken, author of the Tom Hickey’s California crime series Using her passions for history and science as well as her abundant writer's gifts, Lynne Kennedy has created the best kind of historical mystery. She transports us to another time and place yet offers truths that apply to the present. When a young reporter is pushed from a ninth story ...

31 June, 1943. An RAF crew prepare for their next bombing raid on Germany. It is a night that many will never forget. Len Deighton's devastating novel is a gripping minute-by-minute account of what happens over the next 24 hours. Told through the eyes of ordinary people in the air and on the ground - from a young pilot to the inhabitants of a small town in the Ruhr - Bomber is an unforgettable portrayal of individuals caught up in the wreckage of war.

A romance novel set in Haverly, a suburban town in the United States, during the mid-20th century. Step into the world of "Song of Two Worlds," where love dances on the edges of societal expectations and personal desires. In the quaint town of Haverly, Elizabeth Nola, a vibrant young soprano, finds herself at a crossroads, her heart pulled between two compelling suitors amid the whispers of a community steeped in tradition. Join her journey as she navigates the trials of love, loss, and the search for identity in a time when the heart often battles against the weight of societal pressures. ...