Fred Carver

Forced into early retirement by a bullet to the knee, ex-cop Fred Carver undertakes a missing persons case that quickly places him in mortal danger   When the criminal's bullet shattered his knee, Fred Carver's colleagues called him lucky. Between his pension and the insurance check, they said, he had a nice, easy retirement to look forward to. But Fred Carver would rather have his knee. His career finished, his marriage over, he takes a halfhearted stab at private detective work, and is already sick of it by the time he meets Edwina Talbot, a beautiful woman who wants him to find her dead lover.   Of course, Edwina doesn't believe her lover is actually dead. Every piece of evidence at the crime scene pointed to suicide, but as far a she's concerned her man is just missing and Fred Carver is going to bring him back. Carver wants nothing to do with it, but he can't say no to a little adventure. Some men just aren't built for taking it easy.  This ebook features an illustrated biography of John Lutz including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the author's personal collection.   Tropical Heat is the 1st book in the Fred Carver Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

A serial killer claims the life of Fred Carver's eight-year-old son, sending the ex-cop on a mad hunt for vengeance   A year ago, Fred Carver was nothing but a disabled ex-cop whose career, marriage, and family were all little more than fading memories. But then, while working as a private detective, he met Edwina Talbot, and ten months of life together has made him happier than he has been in years. But fate does not let men like Fred Carver stay happy for long.   On the eve of a visit from his ex-wife and their two children, tragedy upends his new life. As if Florida in July weren't hot enough, a madman is on a killing spree with a homemade flamethrower. After Fred's eight-year-old son becomes the third victim, a man who has spent his life trying to catch murderers now has some killing to do of his own.   This ebook features an illustrated biography of John Lutz including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the author's personal collection. Scorcher is the 2nd book in the Fred Carver Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

Florida PI Fred Carver is back-in the final set of crime thrillers from the New York Times–bestselling author. After a criminal's bullet shattered not only his knee but also his career as an Orlando cop and his marriage, Fred Carver starts over as a private detective. Spark: A retired schoolteacher turns to Carver after receiving an anonymous note that her husband was murdered. Her case takes the PI into the depths of Solartown: a stately Florida retirement community where seventy is the new forty, golf carts are the only way to get around, and death from natural causes is nowhere to be found. Torch: Carver has to approach his latest case from every angle-as members of a love triangle start suddenly dying and disappearing, beginning with the woman who hired him minutes before her death. Burn: When he is accused of stalking a woman he swears he's never met, building contractor and recent widower Joel Brant asks Carver for help clearing his name. But as the PI digs into the case, he begins to wonder who's stalking whom? Lightning: An explosion at a Florida clinic causes Carver's lover, Beth, to miscarry. The police arrest an anti-abortion fanatic, but when the violence continues, Carver pursues the bomber on his own.

When a client dies in a car explosion, Orlando detective Fred Carver learns the man may not have been who he said he was   For Bert Renway, it starts out as a simple proposition: a fat bundle of money to spend a few weeks impersonating Frank Wesley, a local tycoon. But after a while Bert grows suspicious of the easy money, and seeks help in the shape of Fred Carver, an ex–Orlando policeman turned private investigator. Like Bert, Carver smells trouble, and agrees to help him find out who his employers are and why they want him to play Wesley.   Neither of them is suspicious enough. A few minutes after Bert leaves, an explosion sounds in the parking lot-the new client's car gone up in a burst of flame. When they pull his body from the wreckage, dental records identify him not as Bert Renway, but as Frank Wesley. Carver doesn't care. He's on the case no matter who the man was.  This ebook features an illustrated biography of John Lutz including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the author's personal collection.  Kiss is the 3rd book in the Fred Carver Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

When a client dies in a car explosion, Orlando detective Fred Carver learns the man may not have been who he said he was For Bert Renway, it starts out as a simple proposition: a fat bundle of money to spend a few weeks impersonating Frank Wesley, a local tycoon. But after a while Bert grows suspicious of the easy money, and seeks help in the shape of Fred Carver, an ex–Orlando policeman turned private investigator. Like Bert, Carver smells trouble, and agrees to help him find out who his employers are and why they want him to play Wesley.   Neither of them is suspicious enough. A few minutes after Bert leaves, an explosion sounds in the parking lot-the new client's car gone up in a burst of flame. When they pull his body from the wreckage, dental records identify him not as Bert Renway, but as Frank Wesley. Carver doesn't care. He's on the case no matter who the man was.   This ebook features an illustrated biography of John Lutz including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the author's personal collection. Flame is the 4th book in the Fred Carver Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

When a nervous husband asks him to track down his heroin addict wife, Fred Carver learns that not every client can be trusted   When he meets Bob Ghostly, it's hardly the first time that Fred Carver has been asked to find a missing spouse. But Ghostly's tale about a beautiful woman who fled for no apparent reason doesn't quite convince Carver, who presses for more detail. Finally Ghostly admits it. His wife was beautiful, intelligent, and kind, but she was also a heroin addict. She fled their Florida home with half their savings-nearly $10,000-and he's afraid she's going to put it straight into her veins.   Carver goes looking for the troubled young bride, but when she shows up on her own-terrified and looking for protection-a routine case becomes one that could prove lethal for the well-meaning PI.   This ebook features an illustrated biography of John Lutz including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the author's personal collection.  Bloodfire is the 5th book in the Fred Carver Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

Investigating cocaine smuggling in the Florida Keys, Fred Carver stumbles on a crime far worse than drug pushing   When Henry Tiller barges into Fred Carver's office, the old man seems crazy. He tells a paranoid story about one of his neighbors on the sunny Florida Key where he makes his home-a wealthy man whom he suspects of using his yacht to run drugs. A young boy recently washed up on the beach, Tiller says, and he's certain it was murder. Carver is uninterested until he learns that the old man's grandson died a few years earlier: another casualty of cocaine addiction. It's only been three years since Carver's own son was murdered, and he's too sentimental to turn down the case.   When Tiller turns up dead himself, a victim of a suspicious hit-and-run, a little smuggled cocaine becomes the least of Carver's troubles.  This ebook features an illustrated biography of John Lutz including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the author's personal collection.  Hot is the 6th book in the Fred Carver Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

Fred Carver investigates a series of suspicious deaths in a stately Florida retirement community   Hattie Evans, a retired schoolteacher, isn't one to fuss. When her husband drops dead of a heart attack, she does her best to move on without too many tears. After all, Jerome was seventy years old. But an anonymous note, asserting that her husband was murdered, shakes her resolve, and she seeks out help. The police are useless, save that they send her to Fred Carver-a former Orlando cop who turned PI when a bullet shattered his left knee.   Her case takes Carver into the depths of Solartown: an old-age mecca where seventy is the new forty, golf carts are the only way to get around, and death from natural causes is nowhere to be found.  This ebook features an illustrated biography of John Lutz including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the author's personal collection.  Spark is the 7th book in the Fred Carver Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

When a client dies in an apparent suicide, Florida detective Frank Carver suspects murder   Donna Winship is an ordinary woman with a typical problem. No longer in love with her husband, she has taken to spending evenings and long afternoons with a new man. Fearful that her husband will learn the truth and be overwhelmed with jealousy, she contacts Fred Carver, an ex-cop turned PI, and asks him to tail her. Minutes after he agrees, Donna drives her car into a speeding tractor trailer. Dead on impact.   The local police are happy to call it a suicide, but Carver is determined to serve his client, even in death. More bloodshed follows, as Donna's husband kills himself and her lover disappears without a trace. No love triangle is simple, but this one could cost Fred Carver his life.  This ebook features an illustrated biography of John Lutz including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the author's personal collection.  Torch is the 8th book in the Fred Carver Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

When he is accused of stalking a woman he swears he's never met, a local businessman asks Fred Carver for help clearing his name   Joel Brandt swears he's never met the woman before. His wife dead six months before, the small-time businessman is perplexed when Del Moray police inform him that a local woman, Marla Cloy, has accused him of harassing her. According to her, Joel has been lurking outside of her house, following her car, even assaulting her at the grocery store. Brandt says it's all a lie, but the police don't believe him.   He goes to Fred Carver, an ex-cop turned PI, for help clearing his name. The harder Carver looks, the less he understands. There is no apparent connection between the two people, and yet one of them is trying to destroy the other's life. When this game turns deadly, who will be the first to go?  This ebook features an illustrated biography of John Lutz including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the author's personal collection.  Burn is the 9th book in the Fred Carver Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

After an explosion causes his lover to miscarry, Fred Carver hunts for the man who planted the bomb   Fred Carver's lover, Beth, is not a woman who wants to be tied down. When she learns that she is pregnant with the detective's child, she resists his attempts to marry her and initially wants to have an abortion. Finally, love wins out, and they decide to raise the child together. Stopping by the abortion clinic to cancel her appointment, Beth is caught in an explosion that spares her life but takes her unborn child.   The police are content to lock up a local anti-abortion fanatic whose house is full of explosives, but Fred Carver isn't convinced. When he and Beth start receiving death threats, he takes the matter into his own hands-seeking revenge against the man who took his child and nearly murdered the woman he loves.  This ebook features an illustrated biography of John Lutz including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the author's personal collection.  Lightning is the 10th book in the Fred Carver Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

The first three crime thrillers in an award-winning series starring a tough Florida PI-from the New York Times–bestselling author of Single White Female. After a criminal's bullet shattered not only his knee but also his career as an Orlando cop and his marriage, Fred Carver starts over as a private detective. Tropical Heat: The police think Willis Davis committed suicide, but beautiful real-estate broker Edwina Talbot is convinced her missing lover is alive and hires Carver to find him. Following a twisted trail from luxurious beach resorts to the swamps of the Everglades, Carver runs afoul of violent Cubans, a DEA agent, and assorted criminals, all while falling hard for his lovely client. Scorcher: When Carver's young son becomes the third victim of a serial killer with a homemade flamethrower, the tortured private eye won't rest until he's avenged the boy's death. Kiss: After his elderly uncle's suspicious death at Sunhaven Retirement Home, Lt. Alfonso Desoto hires Carver to find out what's going on behind the closed doors of the facility. Soon he's tangling with everyone from a rough head nurse to a brutally sadistic thug.

The second set of crime thrillers starring a tough Florida PI from the New York Times–bestselling author of Single White Female. After a criminal's bullet shattered not only his knee but also his career as an Orlando cop and his marriage, Fred Carver starts over as a private detective. Flame: When his newest client is killed in a car explosion only minutes after hiring him, Carver learns the man may not have been whom he claimed. Bloodfire: Carver is hired by a distraught husband to find his missing wife-a heroin addict who fled with nearly $10,000. But when the terrified woman begs Carver for protection, the truth about his client's motives comes out, and now both of them must go on the run. Hot: After an old man tells Carver a tale of his wealthy neighbor in the Florida Keys using a yacht to smuggle cocaine, he turns up dead, the victim of a suspicious hit-and-run, and it's up to the PI to bring his killers to justice.