Showing results by narrator "Chris Andrew Ciulla" in Mystery

Psychologist and criminologist Dr. Gretchen White is a specialist in antisocial personality disorders and violent crimes. She’s helped solve enough prominent cases for detective Patrick Shaughnessy that her own history is often overlooked: Gretchen is an admitted sociopath once suspected of killing her aunt. Shaughnessy still thinks Gretchen got away with murder. It’s not going to happen again.

One murdered, one missing. Both are almost identical. Detective Nik Pohl has seen every shade of darkness in his career. Not used to playing by the rules, he finds himself frozen out by his superiors. What’s worse, now he’s being blackmailed by a shadowy businessman into investigating a seemingly crimeless disappearance. A young woman, Viola, left her home months ago, leaving a letter to her parents saying she wouldn’t be coming back. With a little digging Nik discovers the case of an almost identical-looking woman, who went missing in similar circumstances.

The Chameleon, an Artificial Intelligence expert, can create a deepfake of almost anyone—living or dead. Even more frightening is the Chameleon’s ability to seek out disturbed souls and laser-focus their rage. A talent she employs to compel her subjects to commit violence on her behalf. Kylee Kane, a security consultant for Welch HOA Management, finds the Chameleon’s first victim, Andy Fyke, crumpled at the bottom of a flight of stairs. Kylee suspects the fall’s no accident and is tied to Andy’s campaign to prohibit rentals in his Hilton Head Island community.

She was leaning against the door. Her smile was a sickly twisted grimace; the sort a prisoner gives a judge when he's asked if he has anything to say before he's sentenced. Russell Haxby is a ruthless used-car salesman obsessed with manipulating and cavorting with married women. In this classic of hard-boiled fiction, Charles Willeford crafts a wry, sardonic tale of hypocrisy, intrigue, and lust set in San Francisco in the early '50s.

It isn’t every day that Detective Chris Bailey is handed a triple homicide. They may have their share of problems in the scenic wooded hills of Tennessee, but news that a young man—a child, really—wiped out his entire family sends a ripple of shock through the whole community. Seventeen-year-old Colin Simon is witnessed fleeing the scene, gun in hand. He’s arrested for murder, but refuses to explain any of it. Not even what he did with the gun. The police have their suspect, so is it case closed?

Lauren, Drew, and Rob go on a relaxing vacation that turns into a nightmare. As Lauren sunbathes by the lake, she sees the man from next door lugging something heavy into a boat. The night before, Lauren thought she heard a woman screaming. What is their rich and famous neighbor hiding? Women are vanishing in this beautiful corner of Tennessee, full of woods and water. Detective Chris Bailey has his hands full. He’s investigating a drowning from last summer. The woman was never identified. But a pattern is emerging.

For nearly a decade, twenty-nine-year-old Hudson Miller has made his living in the boxing ring, but a post-fight brawl threatens to derail his career. Desperate for money, Hudson takes a gig as a bouncer at a dive bar. That’s when life delivers him another hook to the jaw: his estranged father, Leland, has been murdered in what appears to be a robbery-gone-bad at his salvage yard, Miller’s Pull-a-Part.

They call him el Carnicero—the Butcher. He is the most powerful drug lord on the planet, and when the city of New York incurs his wrath, he utters a single word: “¡Venganza!” With military precision, he strafes Central Park with 4,000 pounds of cocaine, killing hundreds of innocent people enjoying a summer afternoon.

Richard Hudson, woman chaser and used-car salesman, has a pimp's awareness of the ways women (and men) are most vulnerable. One day Richard decides to make an ambitious film, which turns into a fiasco. Enraged, he exacts revenge on all who have crossed him.

Joseph Antonelli has never lost a case he should have won and has won nearly every case he should have lost - yet he's about to see his client, Justin Friedrich, convicted for a crime he didn't commit. His wife was found shot to death in the bedroom of their yacht in the San Francisco marina, and Friedrich doesn't stand a chance. But then the real killer approaches Antonelli. Famous and enigmatic, James Michael Redfield, the head of a high tech company that leads the world in the development of artificial intelligence, Redfield gives Antonelli evidence proving Friedrich's innocence.

Moving to a new city was supposed to be a fresh start for her family. Now it’s a nightmare. Her little girl was supposed to be at day care when Kelsey arrived to pick her up. But they have no record of her daughter ever being there. And to make matters worse, her husband is missing too - he won’t pick up his phone, and the school he supposedly works at says he never accepted their job offer.

Two young children have been violently abducted in broad daylight, with nothing connecting them but their disappearance. Detective Nik Pohl knows there must be a missing link, but every time he gets close to the answer people show up hurt, or worse.... The kidnappings must be connected. Could it be the recent property scandal that one young girl’s father is embroiled in, or something even bigger?

A newly minted graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Medical School in 1890, Dr. Thomas Parks heads to the big timber country of Puget Sound to practice trauma medicine. An hour after stepping off the boat, he's nearly crushed to death by a less-than-sure-footed mule and finds himself a patient rather than a physician. As he convalesces, he discovers that his host, a venerable physician friend of his father's, is running an elaborate medical scam, selling worthless concoctions nationwide, with enormous sales.

When a mutilated body is found hanging in a seedy motel in Philadelphia, forensics specialist Liam Dwyer assumes the crime scene will be business as usual. Instead, the victim turns out to be a woman he’d had an affair with before breaking it off to save his marriage. But there’s a bigger problem: Liam has no memory of where he was or what he did on the night of the murder.

After Jake quits the drug business, his realtor/ex-wife, Nina, gets him a job as a housesitter for her wealthy clients. Jake celebrates by throwing a party in the mansion he was hired to look after. Unfortunately, the guest list gets out of hand, leaving Jake to contend with a hallucinogenic-vitamin-dispensing yogi, a dead guy in the bathroom, and the Norwegian - a criminal force of nature with a grudge against Jake.

Trial lawyer Jimmy “Royal” Payne was his own worst enemy - until now. Haunted by personal tragedy and wanted by the cops, Payne needs to skip town. What he doesn’t need is Tino Perez, a gutsy twelve-year-old Mexican boy in search of his missing - and undocumented - mother. But Payne’s ex-wife, an L.A.P.D. detective he still loves, makes him a deal: help the boy or go to jail. Soon Payne is following Tino into the darker side of the American dream.

The third collection in the Music and Murder Mystery Series, Back in Black features one story for each song from the seminal hard rock album of the same name. This book showcases ten brilliant mystery writers at the top of their game, including Reed Farrel Coleman, Heather Graham, Tori Eldridge, Ward Larsen, and Andrew Child, among others.

Refereeing homeowner association spats over acceptable mulch color was never part of Kylee Kane’s post-Coast Guard retirement plans. The irate combatants are trying the security consultant’s patience when gunfire erupts and a SWAT team swarms in. How did they arrive before any possible report of an active shooter? Two days later, Kylee discovers a ghost boat. Not a soul onboard. Among the missing are presidents of HOAs managed by her employer. Are the incidents linked?

Detective Chris Bailey thought he’d heard it all. But he’s never had a call like this. Bailey is called to Ivy Manor, out in the sticks. An eerie old pile like this—ringed by dark woods and deep lakes on all sides—is sure to conjure rumors. And now the new owner’s found a bloody handprint, smeared across the front porch. Then a body finally surfaces—but Bailey can’t make it match his crime scene. This man’s been dead way too long to have left the fresh red print. So where’s the second victim? The search is on. And the clock is ticking.