Minotaur Books,US – förlag

The peaceful town of Painters Mill is shattered when an Amish grandmother is brutally murdered on an abandoned farm. When Chief of Police Kate Burkholder arrives on the scene, she learns that the woman’s seven-year-old granddaughter is gone, abducted in plain sight. The girl’s family is a pillar of the Amish community, well-respected by all. But Kate soon realizes they’re keeping secrets - and the sins of their past may be coming back to haunt them.Kate’s investigation brings her to an isolated Old Order Amish settlement along the river, where tradition is upheld with an iron fist. The killer remains close, and one step ahead, drawing more victims into a twisted game of revenge. Left behind at each new crime scene are cryptic notes that lead Kate to a haunting discovery - one that threatens to change everything she thought she knew about the family she’s fighting for, her own Amish past, and time is already running out. . .

Newlywed Chief of Police Kate Burkholder is awakened by an urgent midnight call summoning her to a suspicious fire in the woods. When she arrives at the scene, she discovers a charred body. According to the coroner, the deceased, an Amish man named Milan Swanz, was chained to a stake and burned alive. It is an appalling and eerily symbolic crime against an upstanding husband and father.Kate knows all too well that the Amish prefer to handle their problems without interference from the outside world, and no one will speak about the murdered man. From what she’s able to piece together, Swanz led a deeply troubled life and had recently been excommunicated. But if that’s the case, why are the Amish so reluctant to talk about him? Are they protecting the memory of one of their own? Or are they afraid of something they dare not share?When her own brother is implicated in the case, Kate finds herself not only at odds with the Amish, the world of which she was once a part, but also the English community and her counterparts in law enforcement. The investigation takes a violent turn when Kate’s life is threatened by a mysterious stranger.To uncover the truth about the death of Milan Swanz, Kate must dive deep into the Anabaptist culture, peering into all the dark corners of its history, only to uncover a secret legacy that shatters everything she thought she knew about the Amish themselves - and her own roots.

When Paris Peralta is arrested in her own bathroom—covered in blood, holding a straight razor, her celebrity husband dead in the bathtub behind her—she knows she'll be charged with murder. But as bad as this looks, it's not what worries her the most. With the unwanted media attention now surrounding her, it's only a matter of time before someone from her long hidden past recognizes her and destroys the new life she's worked so hard to build, along with any chance of a future.Twenty-five years earlier, Ruby Reyes, known as the Ice Queen, was convicted of a similar murder in a trial that riveted Canada in the early nineties. Reyes knows who Paris really is, and when she's unexpectedly released from prison, she threatens to expose all of Paris's secrets. Left with no other choice, Paris must finally confront the dark past she escaped, once and for all.Because the only thing worse than a murder charge are two murder charges.

In the Nihonbashi district of Tokyo an unusual statue of a Japanese mythic beast - a kirin - stands guard over the district from the classic Nihonbashi bridge. Late at night, the body of a murdered man, stabbed in the chest, is found on the bridge, under the statue of the winged beast. However, that was not the crime scene - the man was killed a few hundred feet away and his body moved to that position. The same night, a young man named Yashima is injured in a car accident attempting to flee from the police. Found on him is the wallet of the murdered man. The two have no known connection.Tokyo Police Detective Kyoichiro Kaga is assigned to the team investigating the murder - and must bring his skills to bear to uncover what actually happened that night on the Nihonbashi bridge. Why was the murder victim moved? What, if any, connection is there between the murdered man and Yashima, the young man caught with his wallet? Kaga's investigation takes him down dark roads and into the unknown past to uncover what really happened and why.Wings of the Kirin is another mind-bending mystery from the modern master of classic crime, finalist for both an Edgar Award and a CWA Dagger, the internationally bestselling Keigo Higashino.

After moving to Cambridge, England, Molly Kimball has found a lot to love, including - of course - her family’s ancestral bookshop, Thomas Marlowe-Manuscripts and Folios. And though she’s not quite ready to use the “L” word when it comes to her boyfriend Kieran, she’s definitely fallen for his intimidating family’s library.His family is paying her handsomely for an updated catalog, when Molly discovers the original manuscript of a Gothic novel, A Fatal Folio. Though purportedly written by an ancestor of Kieran’s, it was published under the pen name Selwyn Scott, and no one has ever been sure of the author behind the pseudonym. Kieran’s cousin, Oliver, offers to pay Molly to help him look into Selwyn’s identity. A professor specialising in Gothic literature, he’s eager to publish a paper on the mystery - especially because a troublesome student, Thad, is threatening to file a complaint against him and prevent his long-awaited promotion.On Guy Fawkes Night (sometimes known as Bonfire Night), Molly, Kieran, and her friends set out to enjoy the costumes, fireworks, and fun. All goes as planned - at least until a stray firework starts a panic, and the group stumbles upon a prone body, their face covered by a mask. It’s Thad: and he’s been stabbed to death.It soon becomes clear Oliver isn’t the only one with a motive, and Molly must once again put on a few masks of her own to sleuth out Thad’s killer, prove Oliver’s innocence, and discover what Selwyn’s novel might have to do with this most atmospheric mystery…

Single mother Jenna arrives on the tranquil shores of Athelsea fueled by the desperate hope to find Chloe, her teenage daughter who’s disappeared from their London home. She has no idea why–all she knows is that Chloe had changed in the previous two weeks, haunted by something, or someone, and the ferry ticket here is the only clue she has.As she explores the village and interacts with the locals, Jenna soon realizes a macabre secret is being hidden in plain sight. A dark legend of a vengeful woman called the Bone Queen is spoken of in hushed tones amongst the villagers, some of whom are frantically trying to suppress the tale that has long terrorized their lives.As Jenna starts to learn more about the Bone Queen and her previous victims, the village’s grip on reality begins to loosen and no one can say for sure who, or what, is responsible for the deaths and disappearances on Athelsea. Suffering from what she can no longer distinguish between paranoid hallucinations or real manifestations, Jenna must act quickly before Chloe is next…The Bone Queen has left her mark, and one day she’ll collect.

Providing protection to a former state supreme court justice who has been framed for bribery, the California Fourth Durango team is up to their eyeballs in trouble when the judge's history clashes with that of Durango's.

The year is 1838, and after more than ten years in the planning, the famous United States Exploring Expedition is set to launch into uncharted waters from the coast of Virginia. A convoy of seven ships filled with astronomers, mapmakers, naturalists, and the sailors charged with getting them around the world, the "Ex. Ex." is finally underway, with much fanfare. Aboard the convoy as ship's linguist is Wiki Coffin. Half New Zealand Maori and half American, Wiki speaks numerous languages and is expected to help the crew navigate the Pacific islands that are his native heritage. But just before departure Wiki, subject to the unfortunate bigotry of the time, is arrested for a vicious murder he didn't commit. The convoy sails off, but just before the ships are out of reach Wiki is exonerated, set free to catch up with his ship and sail on. The catch: the local sheriff is convinced that the real murderer is aboard one of the seven ships of the expedition, and Wiki is deputized to identify the killer and bring him to justice.

Wiki Coffin, linguist aboard the U.S. Exploring Expedition, the famous voyage meant to put America at the fore-front of 19th century scientific discovery, brings many skills to his job. Whether he's translating native languages, assisting his good friend Captain George Rochester as unofficial first mate, or upholding the rule of law as deputy to the sheriff of the port of Virginia, Wiki is never far from the action aboard the seven ships that make up the expedition. But, when they encounter a wrecked sealing ship and its desperate crew on the shoals of remote, uninhabited Shark Island, Wiki has little idea just how many of his skills are about to be put to the test. As soon as they board the wreck, a dead body turns up with a dagger firmly inserted between its shoulder blades. And it's not just any dead body: the victim of the brutal murder is none other than the enigmatic captain of the doomed voyage. What's more, Wiki's colleague and nemesis Lieutenant Forsythe is suspected of the crime. Knowing full well that Forsythe is capable of such violence, Wiki nonetheless believes him innocent and is duty-bound to prove it for the good of the expedition.Was the murder a case of mutinous sealers taking the law into their own hands? Did the secrets of several mysterious long-ago voyages finally come back to haunt a dishonest and dishonorable captain? Or is Shark Island home to something more sinister than a few lonely goats? Something isn't quite right about the crew of the wrecked ship, and Wiki will stop at nothing to find out just what it is that they're hiding, and, in the process, unmask a vicious killer.

"The Cruel Stars Of Night" opens one snowy day when thirty-five-year-old Laura Hindersten goes to the police to report that her father, a local professor, is missing. Inspector Ann Lindell and her colleagues can find no motive for the man's disappearance. And when the corpses of two elderly men do turn up, neither of the dead men is the missing academic.Unexpectedly, the police get help from one of the professor's colleagues, who believes there is an astonishing link between the murders and the disappearance of Professor Hindersten. But as the pressure on Lindell increases dramatically, she is shocked to discover that the killer has many more diabolical schemes in store.

The storm led me to Padthaway. I could never resist the allure of dark swirling clouds, windswept leaves sweeping down cobbled lanes or a view of the sea stirring up its defiant nature. The sea possessed a power all of its own and this part of Cornwall, an isolated stretch of rocky cliff tops and unexplored beaches both enchanted and terrified me. It is not a lie to say I felt drawn out that day, led to a certain destiny...So begins this new mystery series featuring young Daphne du Maurier, headstrong, adventurous, and standing at the cusp of greatness. Walking on the cliffs in Cornwall, she stumbles upon the drowned body of a beautiful woman, dressed only in a nightgown, her hair strewn along the rocks, her eyes gazing up to the heavens. Daphne soon learns that the mysterious woman was engaged to marry Lord Hartley of Padthaway, an Elizabethan mansion full of intriguing secrets.As the daughter of the famous Sir Gerald du Maurier, Daphne is welcomed into the Hartley home, but when the drowning turns out to be murder, Daphne determines to get to the bottom of the mysteries of Padthaway - in part to find fresh inspiration for her writing, and in part because she cannot resist the allure of grand houses and long buried secrets.

Sit on a quiet hillside at dawn among the wildflowers; take a picture of a car coming up a deserted highway from the south. Simple orders for Inspector O, until he realizes they have led him far, far off his department's turf and into a maelstrom of betrayal and death. North Korea's leaders are desperate to hunt down and eliminate anyone who knows too much about a series of decades-old kidnappings and murders - and Inspector O discovers too late he has been sent into the chaos. This is a world where nothing works as it should, where the crimes of the past haunt the present, and where even the shadows are real. A corpse in Pyongyang's main hotel - the Koryo - pulls Inspector O into a confrontation of bad choices between the devils he knows and those he doesn't want to meet. A blue button on the floor of a hotel closet, an ice blue Finnish lake, and desperate efforts by the North Korean leadership set Inspector O on a journey to the edge of a reality he almost can't survive.

In a London neighbourhood known for its artists and bohemian style, six year old Tracey Rudd is abducted from her home without any warning, or sign of violence. She is the third child abducted under similar circumstances in recent weeks. But this case is different. She is the daughter of notorious contemporary artist Gabriel Rudd, best known for the grotesque "Dead Puppies," a work centred around his wife's suicide five years earlier. While Rudd exploits Tracey's abduction as an inspiration for a major new work in his upcoming exhibit, D.C.I. David Brock and Detective Sergeant Kathy Kolla hunt for the missing girls' kidnapper, who is suspiciously connected to the eccentric community of artists, dealers, and collectors in the neighbourhood.

With an introduction by Leslie S. Klinger, editor and compiler of all three volumes of "The Annotated Sherlock Holmes", this collection of ten original stories brings light to one of the least examined periods in the life of the great detective - his time in the former colonies, the United States. This Holmes is a youthful one - a young man not yet set upon his course in life and in his famous lodgings at 221B Baker Street. In Richard Lupoff's "Inga Sigerson Weds", he's come to America to represent the family at his sister's wedding. In "My Silk Umbrella", Mark Twain narrates his fateful encounter with Holmes at a baseball game in Hartford, Connecticut; Steve Hockensmith narrates the meeting of the young William Gillette and the object of his later, most famous turn upon the stage; and, Peter Tremayne reveals the intersection of Holmes and the Irish in the 19th century American midwestern landscape. With further stories by Marta Randall, Rhys Bowen, Peter Beagle, and others, the legend, the mythology and even the history of the world's greatest detective is further enhanced by these charming, clever and mystifying tales.

Looking forward to the joys of connubial bliss, newlyweds Lady Emily and Colin Hargreaves set out toward Turkey for an exotic honeymoon. But on their first night in the city, a harem girl is found murdered - strangled in the courtyard of the Sultan's lavish Topkapi Palace. Sir Richard St. Clare, an Englishman who works at the embassy in Constantinople, is present and recognizes the girl as his own daughter who was kidnapped twenty years earlier. Emily and Colin promise the heartbroken father they'll find her killer. As a woman, Emily is given access to the forbidden world of the harem and quickly discovers that its mysterious, sheltered walls offer no protection from a ruthless murderer: soon, the Valide (mother to the Sultan) is found strangled with a silken bowstring and the head Eunuch is brutally slain. When the killer strikes again, kidnapping a concubine and threatening to kill her unless Emily agrees to meet him in secret, she cannot wait for Colin or the authorities to come to her rescue. In a heart-stopping finale, Emily must rely on her own sharp wits if she is to stop a killer bent on taking revenge no matter how many innocent lives he leaves in his wake.

Originally published in hardcover: New York: Minotaur Books, 2010.

St. Louis Police Lt. George Hastings is loyal to the people under his command. When they're right, he backs them all the way. Sometimes it gets him in trouble. So after a round of butting heads with the top brass, Hastings and his team catch a lousy detail - keeping an eye on Senator Alan Preston, a political star looking to storm the national stage in the upcoming presidential elections. There's only one problem with Preston's plans. It seems that John Reese, a veteran and former CIA agent whom Preston prosecuted while a U.S. Attorney, has escaped from prison and may be looking to settle the score. Preston won't reveal any details. All he'll say is that Reese is a traitor who should've been executed a long time ago. But as Hastings guards the senator, he uncovers a much different story about Reese, one that isn't as cut-and-dried as Preston would like everyone to believe, one that would give a man like Reese plenty of reason to want revenge at any cost.As Hastings races to stop Reese, he quickly finds that he's not the only one hunting this most dangerous prey and that Reese isn't the only one caught in the crosshairs of politicians and professional killers in The Silent Places, another pulse-pounding read from James Patrick Hunt.

James Church's "Inspector O" novels have been hailed as "crackling good" ("The Washington Post") and "tremendously clever" ("Tampa Tribune"), while Church himself has been embraced by critics as "the equal of le Carre" ("Publishers Weekly", starred). Now Church - a former Western intelligence officer who pulls back the curtain on the hidden world of North Korea in a way that no one else can - comes roaring back with an unputdownable new series featuring Inspector O's nephew, Bing, the director of state security in a region in northeast China bordering North Korea. When clues point to a connection between a beautiful woman's disappearance and Bing's sensitive assignment to bring an agent across the North Korean border, O reluctantly helps him navigate an increasingly complex and deadly maze. James Church has crafted a story with beautifully spare prose and layered descriptions of a country and a people he knows by heart.

London in 1856 is gripped by a frightening obsession. The specimen collecting craze is growing, and discoveries in far off jungles are reshaping the known world in terrible and unimaginable ways. When the glamorous Lady Bessingham is found murdered in her bedroom, surrounded by her vast collection of fossils and tribal masks, Adolphus Hatton and his morgue assistant Albert Roumonde are called in to examine the crime scene - and the body. In the new and suspicious world of forensics and autopsy examinations, Hatton and Roumonde are the best. But the crime scene is not confined to one room. In their efforts to help the infamous Inspector Adams track down the Lady's killer, Hatton and Roumonde uncover a trail of murders connected to a packet of seditious letters that, if published, would change the face of society and religion irrevocably. Denise Meredith's measured prose and eye for exquisite detail moves seamlessly from the filthy docks on the Isle of Dogs to the jungles of Borneo and the drawing rooms of London's upper class. Her slow-burning mystery builds to a shocking conclusion, consuming Victorian London - and victims - as it goes.

"Hell Hole" is the fourth book in the mystery series featuring former hardened military PD and current Sea Haven, New Jersey police officer John Ceepak and his partner, wise-cracking Danny Boyle. In "Hell Hole", Ceepak is confronted with his most personal case yet when he must investigate the alleged suicide of a military corporal who recently returned from Iraq. When it turns out that this 'locked stall' rest stop suicide is anything but an open-and-shut case, Ceepak and Boyle realize that the corporal might have been privvy to information that opens up a much larger conspiracy that strikes at the heart of our involvement in the Middle East.

Every year, the people of Santa Fe gather together for the burning of a four-story-tall puppet called Zozobra, a local custom that started 300 years ago. The next morning, as the sounds of the Fiesta de Santa Fe celebration still echo through the streets, Detective Sergeant Gilbert Montoya discovers a skull in the ashes of Zozobra. With the help of newspaper editor Lucy Newroe, he must find the identity of the victim and the person responsible, in a case that will take them into every level of Santa Fe society.

Nicolaos walks the mean streets of Classical Athens as an agent for the promising young politician Pericles. His mission is to find the assassin of the statesman Ephialtes, the man who brought democracy to Athens and whose murder has thrown the city into uproar. It's a job not made any easier by the depressingly increasing number of dead witnesses. But murder and mayhem don't bother Nico; what's really on his mind is how to get closer (much closer) to Diotima, the intelligent and annoyingly virgin priestess of Artemis, and how to shake off his irritating twelve year-old brother Socrates. "The Pericles Commission" is the first in an exciting new series by first-time novelist Gary Corby, who takes us to Ancient Greece at one of the most exciting times in history. In this wonderfully approachable, historically rich novel, Athens is brought vividly to life in a mystery engaging from the first page to last.

While out on a walk, Eleanor Trewynn, her niece Megan, and her neighbour Nick spot a young, half-drowned Indian man floating in the water. Delirious and concussed, he utters a cryptic message about his family being trapped in a cave and his mother dying. The young man, unconscious and unable to help, is whisked away to a hospital while a desperate effort is mounted find the missing family in time. The local police inspector presumes that they are refugees from East Africa, abandoned by the smugglers who brought them in, so while the countryside is being scoured for the family, Eleanor herself descends into a dangerous den of smugglers in a desperate search to find the man responsible while there is still time.

P.I. Bay Tanner is in the midst of restoring her Hilton Head home after a hurricane when Winston Wolfe, a bestselling true crime writer, approaches her with a most unusual missing person's case. The seemingly simultaneous disappearance of Morgan Tyler Bell and his personal assistant from his private island as well as the suicide of his housekeeper has never been completely put to rest. And Bell's sizable estate has been held up in court and will remain so until he's declared legally dead. Wolfe says he wants to help his old friend's family. Yet, this is exactly the kind of story that has made him wealthy, so as deep as his loyalties run his true motives may run deeper still. "Jericho Cay" is packed with southern charm, and local colour making it a terrific addition to one of the most absorbing mystery series in bookstores today.

When young attorney Becky Baldwin hires Cora Felton to make a blackmail payment drop, it couldn't go worse: she stumbles over a corpse and a puzzle, and someone steals the money. Becky won't tell her who the client is, but the most likely suspect is Cora's least favourite ex-husband, Melvin, who claims he's being framed by a psychopath with a grudge. Soon Cora finds herself in a no-win situation. Solving the murder will either put Melvin's neck in the noose, or incur the wrath of a cunning, cold-blooded killer who delights in playing deadly mind games and may be targeting her niece Sherry and Sherry's new baby girl.

Growing up without parents or a home Willis Gidney was an expert at the scam. At age 12 he was taken in by the captain of the DC Police who managed to instil a small amount of ethics in him. He became a private investigator. Now, when his best friend asks him to find his missing daughter, Gidney is compelled to help, even though she's been missing for twenty-five years. He finds someone who may be the young woman's mother - and within hours she is killed by persons unknown. The police accuse Gidney of the murder and throw him in jail. Maybe Gidney should quit while he's behind. But when his investigation puts him up against a ruthless multi-national corporation, a two-faced congressman, and a young woman desperate to conceal her past, Gidney has no time for second thoughts. In fact, he may have no time left at all. This is a wonderful debut novel, with an original P.I. and an engaging cast of characters. Thomas Kaufman will satisfy private eye novel fans, also adding a fresh perspective to the genre.

Several years ago, Rushmore McKenzie became an unexpected millionaire and set about doing not much of anything. Now, showing up at his doorstep is the insurance company that paid the settlement that made him rich - and they want a favour. Someone has stolen a very expensive gem from a local art museum and is willing to ransom it back. The only condition is that McKenzie has to be the go between. And this is no ordinary gem - it is a jade with a history going back to the Qing Dynasty and a reputed curse that stories claim has ruined or killed everyone who has ever owned it. McKenzie agrees to help but what starts out as a simple ransom quickly becomes complicated. Suddenly other parties - including the State Department and a mysterious woman named Heavenly - start showing up, wanting McKenzie to turn over the gem to them. When the murdered body of one of the thieves turns up in a snow drift, it looks like the cursed Jade Lily has claimed its latest victim. And there may well be more to follow...

Detroit, 1911. Seven months have passed since Will Anderson's friend Wesley McRae was brutally murdered and Will and the woman he loves, Elizabeth Hume, barely escaped with their lives. Will's hand, horribly disfigured from the sulphuric acid he used to help save them, causes him constant pain, forcing him into a morphine addiction. He lives for nothing except revenge against the people who contributed to Wesley's murder - first among them crime boss Vito Adamo. When Will stumbles upon the bloody body of Adamo's driver, he knows he will be a suspect, particularly since he was spotted outside the dead man's apartment that same night. He sets out to find the killer, and the trail leads him to a vast conspiracy in an underworld populated by gangsters, union organizers, crooked cops, and lawyers. Worse, it places him directly in the middle of Detroit's first mob war. The Teamsters want a piece of Will's father's car company, Detroit Electric, and the Gianolla gang is there to be sure they get it.To save their families, Will and his ex-fiancee Elizabeth Hume enlist the help of Detroit Police Detective Riordan, the teenage members of what will one day be known as the Purple Gang, and Vito Adamo himself. They careen from one danger to the next, surviving shootouts, kidnappings, and police brutality, while barrelling toward a devastating climax readers will not soon forget.