In just five days, a rural college town in California is rocked by two sets of brutal double murders. When another set of bodies is found, Paul Madriani, special prosecutor, must find the killer- quickly. Physical and trace evidence lead to the arraignment of a college security guard on multiple charges of murder. While the evidence linking the suspect to the first four killings is solid, something is glaringly different with the last...

In the aftermath of investigating the D.C. sniper case, police detective Vance Graegan is burned out on life and love. Hoping to save his marriage, he quits the force and moves his wife and son to the other side of the country. But when the movers decide to hold his belongings for ransom, Vance is determined to ensure that his family's new beginning is not ruined. Soon, though, losing his possessions becomes the least of his problems as everything...

It's fall in the Sierra Mountains, and Anna Pigeon is slinging hash in Yosemite National Park's historic Ahwahnee Hotel. Four young people, all seasonal park employees, have disappeared, and two weeks of work by crack search-and-rescue teams have failed to turn up a single clue; investigators are unsure as to whether the four went AWOL for reasons of their own - or died in the park. Needing an out-of-park ranger to work undercover, Anna is detailed...

Savannah is more than happy to help her good friend, Detective Sergeant Dirk Coulter investigate the death of the wife of Dr. Robert Wellman, owner of a popular weightloss clinic. She was found dead at the bottom of a cliff outside the Wellman's seaside estate--and it's clear she didn't go down without a fight.

Bill Pronzini's "Nameless" detective has become one of the longest-lived, and consistently highly praised, private investigators in the annals of American crime fiction and the award-winning author proves, once again, that his skills are unmatched. Things were quiet in the San Francisco-based agency Nameless founded and his partners, Jake and Vanessa were itching to get back to work. A deadbeat father needed to be found, and Vanessa needed to do...

On her deathbed, Paul Madriani's wife made him promise to look after her younger sister Laurel Vega. Locked in a custody battle with her former husband Jack, Laurel stands to lose her two teenagers. Suddenly the heated custody battle becomes a murder trial when Jack's new wife is found murdered in the bathroom of his opulent home-only moments after a hot exchange with Laurel on her front porch. As the evidence mounts, Paul faces a chilling realization...

Widowed on the trek west to California in the early 1840s, Cat Reilly is forced to take whatever work and friends she can find.

It was just one of those Malibu nights, dark as a velvet shroud, creamy waves crashing onto the shore, breeze soft as a kitten's breath... But, when Private Investigator to the stars, Mac Reilly, hears the sound of a woman's scream over the crashing waves, his low-key beach-bum lifestyle is changed forever. A beautiful, distraught woman wearing only a black lace negligee stands in the doorway of a fabulous beach house. In her hand, a gun, and it's...

Martini delivers Paul Madriani's most challenging case yet: one pitting a drug-addicted mother against her daughter's newly rich grandfather in a contentious custody case that leads to criminal accusations and ultimately murder. Having moved to San Diego to be closer to the woman in his life, Madriani takes on the case of Jonah Hale, an elderly man in terrible straits. As a result of their only child Jessica's longtime drug addiction, Jonah and his...

California PI Kinsey Millhone investigates the death of Audrey Vance, a woman she helped arrest for shoplifting, and antagonizes just about everyone, including Audrey's fiancé, several loan sharks, a stone-cold killer, and a hapless burglar who knows more than is healthy for him.