Cape Weathers Investigation

"In close-knit Posadas County, where everyone knows everyone's business, it turns out that some people can bury secrets, and some secrets are murderous."-Kirkus Reviews It's Christmas in Posadas County. Undersheriff Estelle Reyes-Guzman is settling down to a quiet evening with her family, until her doctor husband gets a call from the retired chief-of-police: he's at a nearby motel, having pains. Then Estelle gets a call herself. She and ex-Sheriff Bill Gastner, who was visiting the Guzman home at the time, arrive at the motel parking lot. It appears that Eduardo had an exchange with two men and then collapsed, the men taking off in his car. An out-of-town couple, the woman on the verge of giving birth, were the only ones to witness the encounter, but something seems off in their story. This is the fourteenth in Havill's Posadas County mysteries.

"A must for those who like their mystery spiced with danger, dark humor, and a fascinating heroine whose toughness is tempered by compassion."-Charles Todd, New York Times bestselling author When Casey Maldonado and Death hitch a desperate ride away from one disaster, they throw themselves right into the middle of another. The semi in which they are traveling crashes. Before the Grim Reaper takes Evan the Trucker away, Evan whispers to Casey about a stash hidden in the truck that she should keep away from them. Them turns out to be a band of men who want that package no matter what it takes, and they believe Casey knows where-and what-it is. Alone and injured, with neither money nor identification, Casey escapes from the ER doctors and her pursuers and hides out in the cornfields of Kansas. Uncertain how to proceed, Casey is led by Death to a group of teenagers looking for something other than dust and crops to fill their days and nights. Using their limited resources, she is led through a maze of greed and desperation into the clutches of people who don't care who gets hurt as long as they get what they want....

"Maleeny does a nice job of showing us the cutthroat side of the movie industry. Keep 'em coming." -Booklist When a movie producer hurtles to his death from the top of the Golden Gate Bridge, an apparent suicide, it shocks the film community and puts a two hundred million dollar production in jeopardy. A female colleague comes forward claiming it was murder, but the police are skeptical. Preoccupied by a sudden drug war between the tong gangs of Chinatown and the mob, they listen to her story and send her packing. She turns to private detective Cape Weathers, who believes her just enough to let her pay his day rate. Then two Russian gangsters show up on his doorstep and tell him to drop the case or die. Cape and his partner Sally-a female assassin raised by the Triads-take on the Russian mob, a major movie studio, and a recalcitrant police department by enlisting the help of rogue cops, computer hackers, and an investigative journalist who just doesn't give a damn. But with a sniper on their trail, the challenge will be staying alive long enough to learn the truth.

Fourth book in the Cape Weather Mystery Series! If you're gonna box an octopus, best bring some extra arms… At the height of tourist season, an armored car drives off a crowded pier and sinks to the bottom of San Francisco Bay. By the time divers find the wreck, the cash is gone and the driver has vanished. The police are convinced it's an inside job, but local merchant Vera Young, whose boyfriend drove the armored car, claims it was much more than a simple heist. Vera swears the missing driver is innocent and wants him found before the police can throw him in jail. San Francisco detective Cape Weathers reluctantly takes the case but warns Vera that her boyfriend is likely guilty-or dead. What starts as a manhunt uncovers a criminal conspiracy of money laundering, illegal drug testing, and a network of corporations willing to do anything to protect their stock price. It's a case that Cape, the witty PI, can't get his arms around. And while his relationship with Vera is getting complicated, the list of people who want him dead is getting longer. Boxing the Octopus is a runaway tour of San Francisco's underworld which reminds us that when things get out of hand, having eight arms is always better than two. These quick-paced, often humorous San Francisco mysteries are: • Perfect for fans of Laura Lippman and Thomas Perry • For readers who enjoy private detective and California based mysteries

Time is running out… The nude bodies of a corrupt judge and a Jane Doe are found under the icy, black waters at Groward Bay Marina, chained to the prongs of a mammoth fork lift. A videotape points to Merlin Finn, a ruthless gang leader with a proclivity for bondage and S&M who had recently broken out of prison. In the videotape, he's wearing a black leather bondage mask. With the newspaper she works for about to be sold and her job in jeopardy, journalist Geneva Chase investigates pill mills, crooked doctors, and a massive money laundering scheme in an attempt to identify the murdered woman and find the killer. Along the way, she finds herself working with a disgraced New York cop and a host of other unlikely characters with ties to the criminal underworld. Geneva is clearly hot on the killer's trail, but when she is kidnapped and held at the mercy of the criminals she hoped to stop, it looks like her chance to uncover the darkness that has seeped through her hometown may be lost forever.