Maggie Sullivan Mysteries

A .38, a nip of gin and sensational legs get Depression-era private investigator Maggie Sullivan out of most scrapes – until a stranger threatens to bust her nose, she's hauled in on suspicion of his murder and she finds herself in the cross-hairs of a sadistic crime boss.Matching wits against dangerous men, with bits of information from a dime store waitress, a ragged newsboy and the girls at her rooming house, Maggie follows a path that leaves her drugged, in her DeSoto in a ditch.A gunman puts a bullet through Maggie's hat. Her shutterbug pal on the evening paper warns her off. A new cop whose presence unsettles her thinks she's crooked. Before she finds all the answers she needs, she faces a half-crazed man with a gun, and a far more lethal point-blank killer.If you like Robert B. Parker's hard boiled Spencer series and strong women sleuths, don't miss this one-of-a-kind Ohio detective from a time in United States history when dames wore hats -- but seldom a Smith & Wesson.

When Depression-era private eye Maggie Sullivan is invited to dine with a millionaire, she doesn't expect the first course to be a gun in her face. It draws her into a gold-plated web of theft, revenge, double crosses and murder.A big-time swindle has made fools of some of the city's wealthiest businessmen. The man behind it has vanished. When Maggie begins asking questions, he reappears – dead in the river. But she's already learned too much. Someone's out to silence her too.Armed with her .38 and a nip of gin, Maggie closes in on a killer as a mobster offers a hint, a cop unsettles her with his chemistry, and a woman with deadly potential plays a game by her own rules.

** 2014 SHAMUS AWARD winner **NOTE: THIS IS THE CORRECT BOOK FOR THIS COVER AND TITLETea with two spinsters thrusts 1930s private investigator Maggie Sullivan into an explosive mix of murder, political rivalries and family secrets. Pursuing their case means risking not only her life, but her detective license.The Vanhorn sisters want her to learn the fate of their father, who vanished more than a quarter century earlier in Dayton, Ohio's, catastrophic 1913 flood. They believe he was murdered. They think they know the killer. But before Maggie can question the suspect, he winds up dead.With a nip of gin to cheer her and a Smith & Wesson for company, Maggie follows a trail all but obliterated by time. It leads her to a local politician with bigger ambitions - and possibly secrets to hide. It takes her into dime stores, cheap hotels, and a violent ambush by men wearing brass knuckles.A determined cop wages a wily campaign to win her affections. A rag-tag newsboy pushes to be her assistant. As crimes of the past explode in the present, Maggie fights foes who must destroy her to destroy each other.Slide into the passenger seat of Maggie's DeSoto for an action-packed ride through a story filled with the atmosphere of early 20th century America and well-drawn characters. See why fans of this historical mystery series have dubbed the one-of-a-kind detective at its center Sam Spade in a Skirt".

When a man offers 1940s private investigator Maggie Sullivan twice her usual fee to look into a "possible" jewelry theft from his hotel safe, she's skeptical - until a maid's body tumbles out of a trash can and a jeweler known for high quality fakes is murdered.Does a hotel guest who vanished without a trace hold a piece of the puzzle? Or does it have to do with the Polish count and his family fleeing the start of WW2 in Europe? Could the cops be right that it's all a trick devised by her client?More at ease in Dayton, Ohio's, streets and alleyways than in the posh Hotel Canterbury, and chafing under the need to hide her true occupation, Maggie threads her way through an unfamiliar array of suspects: Celluloid luminaries in town for a hush-hush project; an international Lothario whose shady local past she unearths; the count's embittered valet.Meanwhile, preparations for a visit by FDR preoccupy the city's police. The Irish cop who long has wooed Maggie suddenly departs for Chicago. Alone and bruised, Maggie faces adversaries whose motives stun her... and a killer who will stop at nothing.A dash of humor leavens this historical mystery series with its early 20th century hard-boiled atmosphere and a flinty detective who wields her Smith & Wesson as skillfully as her emery board. Previous Maggie Sullivan mysteries are No Game for a Dame, Tough Cookie, Don't Dare a Dame, and two short stories.

Days before the Pearl Harbor attack plunges the U.S. into World War II, private eye Maggie Sullivan is hired to find a missing engineer in Dayton, Ohio. Has Gil Tremain been kidnaped, or has he turned traitor - to his employer and maybe his country?As Maggie pieces together his last movements, she finds there are secrets the man's ex-wife and his employers don't want uncovered. Maggie herself is attacked and an innocent witness is murdered. The ruthlessness of her opponent - or opponents - becomes even clearer when there's an attempt to abduct Tremain's young daughter. Still more chilling, Maggie's investigation suddenly attracts the attention of a local crime kingpin.The attack on Pearl Harbor presses every cop in the city into service protecting manufacturing and research facilities. Stunned by the knowledge their nation will soon be at war, even fearful the mainland itself will be bombed, people cling to family and friends. Schedules and routines shatter. Amid the disruption, alone and aware she can't count on help from the police, Maggie races to save a man who has now become a liability to his captors.Maximum Moxie, fifth book in the author's popular Maggie Sullivan mysteries series, gives readers fast-paced twists and turns along with a rare and vividly painted closeup view of a watershed event in 20th century American history.

A week before Christmas, 1942, a crook makes off with presents intended for poor kids at an after-school youth center, bashing the handyman over the head in the process. Private investigator Maggie Sullivan, no fonder of kids than she is of the cut-rate fee she accepts for the job, soon suspects there's more to the burglary than meets the eye.The handyman, recuperating at home, seems to have been addled by the blow to his head.. He keeps insisting he was attacked by an angel. As she ferrets her way to the truth, Maggie is helped by a pair of ten-year-old girls and a flamboyant local woman who in the 1920s was a notorious speakeasy owner and now is a very rich pillar of society with a tendency to take over.This SHORT STORY features characters from novels in the author's Maggie Sullivan mystery series. M. Ruth Myers received a Shamus Award from the Private Eye Writers of America for Don't Dare a Dame, the third book in her Maggie Sullivan mysteries series. The series follows a woman P.I. in Dayton, OH, from the end of the Great Depression through the end of WW2. Other novels by Myers, in various genres, have been translated, optioned for film and condensed for magazine publication. Some were written under the name Mary Ruth Myers. She has a bachelor of journalism degree from the University of Missouri J-School. Prior to becoming a novelist, she worked on daily papers in Wyoming, Michigan and Ohio. She also spent five years working as a ventriloquist. The author and her husband live in Ohio. When not writing, she plays Irish traditional tunes on the concertina with more enthusiasm than skill. (Then again, how many people do you know who even play the concertina?)

2018 SHAMUS AWARD FINALISTMurderer or independent woman?Murder at a construction site draws Ohio private investigator Maggie Sullivan into a case that makes cops mistrust her and friends doubt her. The suspect, Rachel Minsky, is Maggie's closest friend – and all signs point to Rachel's guilt. Rachel ignores the rules society imposes on women. That independence, in 1942, as well as her success in business, has made her enemies. Yet the dead man also had an unsavory secret or two, starting with his missing mistress. Who was the murderer's real target? And what is Rachel hiding from the only person who can save her? The city Maggie scours for clues to the real killer has been altered by America's recent entry into World War II. Shortages of men and material have created new motives for murder. Unsupervised children roam the streets at night while their mothers work in defense plants. Strangers outnumber familiar faces at Maggie's favorite pub. As the case and Maggie's relationship with policeman Mick Connelly heat up, Maggie finds herself caught in currents that threaten to drown her.

At the end of Dayton's first WWII blackout drill, a murder victim is found with private investigator Maggie Sullivan's name and address in his pocket. Hours earlier he sat in her office asking for help – and using a different identity.With the war draining men from all walks of life, a homicide detective long dismissive of Maggie's skills reaches out to form an eggshell-fragile alliance. Warily they work in tandem to find the person behind two vastly different deaths: An ex-con killed neatly outside a factory and a young woman left in a blood-soaked apartment.Suspects abound. Maggie's client may have links to the killer. A bitter ex-con had plenty of reason to want the man who betrayed him dead. And a sleazy pulp crime writer may be after more than a story.Maggie works frantically to unmask the murderer before he kills again. But she must also bury an old friend and watch the man who once swore to love her forever turn elsewhere. Alone, she pushes doggedly on through a landscape darkened by homefront precautions and human evil.

As WWII rages in the Pacific, relatives of a Japanese-American suspected of starting a fatal fire hire Ohio private investigator Maggie Sullivan to uncover the truth. Did he do it? Is he alive or dead? The police claim not to know what became of him, and there are hints of War Department involvement.Tosh Hashimoto and his family are among some 150 Japanese-Americans brought to Dayton by a church coalition that found jobs and housing for them throughout the community. The more Maggie learns about the night of the fire, the more she believes Tosh is being framed.Grieving the recent loss of a close childhood friend killed in battle, Maggie wrestles inner conflict over taking the case. A harrowing attack in an alley, the murder of a witness, and a racist warning gouged into her office filing cabinet fuel her resolve to push ahead.Amid rationing, shortages, extra beds for noisy newcomers wedged into corners of her once-quiet rooming house, and an unexpected change in her personal life, Maggie scrambles to determine the identity of a killer who is more than willing to kill again.

Join private investigator Maggie Sullivan for a fast-paced ride through streets and alleys of 1940s Dayton, Ohio, in the first four books of this historical mystery series that blends cozy with harboiled. The set includes the Shamus Award-winning novel Don't Dare a Dame plus these titles: No Game for a Dame, Tough Cookie and Shamus in a Skirt.NO GAME FOR A DAME – When a stranger who threatened her and wrecked her office winds up dead, 1940s private eye Maggie Sullivan finds herself taking on a crime boss.TOUGH COOKIE – A high stakes swindler Maggie is hunting is found floating in the river. Now someone wants to silence her – and the corpse is strangely active.DON'T DARE A DAME – A 25-year-old murder jeopardizes Maggie's future as a private eye as well as her life when it points toward powerful people with political connections.SHAMUS IN A SKIRT – Murder and theft at a posh hotel pits Maggie against well-heeled suspects fleeing the war in Europe.Like mysteries with touches of humor, well-developed characters and a gritty little female who holds her own with the tough guys? Maggie's your gal. More than 800 five-star reviews say once you slide into the passenger seat of Maggie's DeSoto, you won't want to get out. Buy the box set now.

Shamus Award winning author M. Ruth Myers brings her much-loved private investigator Maggie Sullivan and the detective's Ohio city into World War II in these three novels. Small historical details bring to life America's home front and create a noir atmosphere that winds around the mysteries at the heart of each.In MAXIMUM MOXIE, Maggie is hired to find a missing man with valuable engineering information. As news of the attack on Pearl Harbor focuses the rest of the city on preparations for war, Maggie braves a crime boss in his den to find the answers she needs to save the missing man's life.In DAMES FIGHT HARDER, murder at a construction site leads straight to the door of Maggie's friend Rachel Minsky, who has a secret life of which Maggie is unaware. Do wartime shortages and groups of children who roam the streets at night while their mothers work in defense plants hold clues which could prove Rachel's innocence?In UNCIVIL DEFENSE, Maggie must learn who killed a newly released convict during a countywide blackout drill in order to save the dead man's innocent friends and relatives. With the draft draining men from an already short-staffed police force, she finds herself forging an uneasy alliance with an old nemesis.Characters who took on lives of their own for readers in the first four books of this historical mystery series now change in ways that reflect the changing world around them. Maggie's male acquaintances are drafted or enlist. Jolene, the cigarette girl who, like Maggie, rooms at Mrs. Z's, trades her nightclub costume for the overalls of a job in the motor pool at a nearby Army air base. The waitress who for years has served Maggie her breakfast at McCrory's lunch counter leaves for better paying waitress work elsewhere.Amid the changes, crime, deceit and human greed continue, and so does Maggie's tenacity in helping her clients.