Real Estate Crime

The Cook, the Crook, and the Real Estate Tycoon, by prize-winning Chinese novelist Liu Zhenyun, is a novel of Beijing that paints a microcosm of contemporary China, dealing with classes at the two extremes: the super rich and the migrant workers who make them rich through deceit and corruption. The protagonist, Liu Yuejin, is a worksite cook and small-time thief whose bag is stolen. In searching for it, he stumbles upon another bag, which contains a flash disk that chronicles high-level corruption.

On a warm summer evening in 1991, seventeen-year-old Julia Parker was murdered in the Brooklyn neighborhood of East New York. An area known for an exorbitant level of violence and crime, East New York had come to be known as the Killing Fields. In the six months after Julia Parker’s death, 62 more people were murdered in the same area. In the early 1990s, murder rates in the neighborhood climbed to the highest in NYPD history. East New York was dying. But how did this once thriving, diverse, family neighborhood fall into such ruin?

Binge-read the three-book boxset of Witch's Guide to Haunted Properties in Los Angeles! Meet Fiorentina "Fio" Valentine, an accidental witch prone to stumble upon all the disasters in the world! She sees ghosts, and the ghosts just can't leave her alone. FREE on Kindle Unlimited! Book 1: Kickstart My Witch Meet Fio Valentine. The Napa Valley native is desperately seeking work after yet another job goes up in smoke. Her third employer in a row has gone out of business, and her only lead for gainful employment comes from the familiar voice of her late great grandma Jane, who tells Fio in a ...

Bree’s new home is luxurious and private, with a fancy Beverly Hills address. What a shame it’s not hers. Widowed, penniless, living in her car, and out of options, she’s climbed the fence and crashed in the pool house. All she wants is a good night’s sleep. But when Sophie, the absentee owner, finds her, she gets a whole lot more.

Alex Wright, a 32-year old real estate appraiser in Laguna Beach, California, finds himself in the thick of a major bank fraud. While struggling to distance himself from the scam, he discovers the dead body of his luscious client, Colette. His surfing buddy, Detective Zackery Potrero of the Newport Beach Police Department, is watching his back and shaking his head at each turn wondering how Alex can get himself in so deep! Watch for future adventures of this duo and their assortment of family and friends.

The money was gone. That much was certain. Mystery, tension, and poignancy combine to make this multi-layered novel a riveting read. The first book in the Twisted Roads Series, these stories are about the roads people travel in life, for better or worse. Well written and thoughtfully crafted, DEVELOPMENT weaves together three stories about life. About hopes and dreams. About frustrations and disappointments. And about love and redemption. It is the early 1970s, in the affluent town of Westport, Connecticut. Hank Latour finds himself in an unhappy marriage, disconnected from his two teenage ...

Here comes a new witch... She’s mean, evil, and she's too familiar with Jack. What’s Fio to do with her? FREE on Kindle Unlimited! Haunted and Hexed takes on a new meaning for Fio Valentine when she finds herself competing with a witchy newcomer to solve a case. When FBI psychic Abby Scott breezes into the office claiming to be Jack’s former lover, Fio is understandably vexed, but there’s no time to play mind games with the arrogant agent. A ghostly girl appearing in a team photo has become a harbinger of disaster for members of the women’s basketball team at Jack and Abby’s ...

In the spirit of Evicted, Bait and Switch, and The Big Short, a shocking, heart-wrenching investigation into America’s housing crisis and the modern-day robber barons who are making a fortune off the backs of the disenfranchised working and middle class - among them, Donald Trump and his inner circle.

As Bill Clinton's political and business mentor, Jim McDougal, with his knowledge of embarrassing real-estate and banking deals, bribes, and obstructions of justice, long haunted the White House. McDougal's vivid self-portrait, completed only days before his death and coauthored by veteran journalist Curtis Wilkie, reveals the hidden intersections of politics and special interests in Arkansas and the betrayals that followed.

Never set your foot in a hexed property—especially, when the land has a resident zombie ready to strike you! FREE on Kindle Unlimited! If Fio Valentine has learned one thing working for Quest Realty, it’s that dealing with haunted and hexed properties can be a real nightmare. When her friend Suze asks her to investigate an abandoned home in LA, she can’t refuse, so with Andy Russel from the Property Management Department and her spirit animal Champ, Fio takes on the case of a zombie-like ghost who may be what remains of the former owner’s estranged son. After an encounter with the ...

Late-1970s Los Angeles was rampant with killers and shady characters, but all the go-getters at Space Matters saw was possibility. Richard Kasparov was handsome and charismatic; his younger associate, Jerry Schneiderman, brilliant and nerdy. When the pair hired a veteran contractor to oversee construction, the space planning firm they operated out of a hip mansion in LA's Miracle Mile district appeared poised to transform the boundless skyline into their jackpot. After the promising team imploded, however, the orderly lines on their blueprints succumbed to treachery and secrets.

49-year-old George Kogan grew up in Puerto Rico before making his way to New York City, where he enjoyed great success as an antiques and art dealer. Until one morning in 1990, when George was approached on the street by an unidentified gunman - and was killed in cold blood. Before the shooting, George had been on the way to his girlfriends's apartment. Mary-Louise Hawkins was 28 years old and had once worked as George's publicist. But ever since they became lovers, George's estranged wife, Barbara, was consumed with bitterness.

A brand new career…another dangerous ghosts after another, and spending Halloween in the land of a vampire! FREE on Kindle Unlimited! After a harrowing start to her new job with Quest Realty’s Haunted and Hexed Property Division, accidental witch Fio Valentine is less than eager to take on yet another daunting task. As if dealing with a woman-hating ghost wasn’t hard enough, now her boss Jack Adams wants her to uncover the mystery behind a series of incidents at Quest’s new development project. The sprawling construction site in San Bernardino will have parks, malls and theaters in ...

The accidental witch, a job interview to die for—or rather, a test that could get you killed. FREE on Kindle Unlimited! In book one of an exciting new paranormal series, author Lotta Smith introduces accidental witch Fiorentina “Fio” Valentine. The Napa Valley native is desperately seeking work after yet another job goes up in smoke. Her third employer in a row has gone out of business, and her only lead for gainful employment comes from the familiar voice of her late great grandma Jane, who tells Fio in a dream to seek a position at one of the country’s largest real estate agencies...

A haunted mansion in a beautiful town… A chilling ghost awaiting for his next prey… Throw in a newbie witch realtor! FREE on Kindle Unlimited! Fio Valentine is starting to settle into her sometimes vexing job in the Haunted and Hexed Properties Management Department of Quest Realty, but when her friend Suze invites her on a weekend trip to Santa Barbara, she’s less than excited about visiting yet another haunted house. Rumored to be hosting the ghost of a wealthy businessman, the mansion could hold a clue to the disappearance of Chris Adams, the older brother of her foxy boss Jack, ...

Who’s killing tourism in Florida? When a gunman mistakes Candace McCoy for a wealthy visitor, the former detective faces her biggest challenge yet: Is the violence the start of a full-blown war on tourists? Or are the attacks a smokescreen for an even greater threat? And if CW (who made her debut in Peak Season) unmasks the killers, will it spell the end of her career, her friends, and her life? Haunted by a father who destroyed her family and a skinhead who wants to finish the job, CW must confront her violent past as well as a dangerous future as she uncovers a conspiracy that leads ...

"After Dinner Conversation" Magazine - September 2021 Evening Star: Two bullied school children decide to reveal their true selves to their classmates and suffer the consequences. Conscience Cleaners: A genuinely repentant criminal appeals to the court to have his memory erased of the crime he committed. The Room Above: A convicted criminal wakes to an erased memory and finds he is part of a strange government rehabilitation program. Appreciating Hate: Police do a wellness check to a home and find a man who has been systematically working to remove art that glorifies the vile. The Showing: ...