The War may be over, but secrets linger.

While World War II has been over for two years, its horrors linger within society, and chance encounters expose the still-festering wounds. Like most Americans, Beatrix Patterson and her husband Thomas Ling are trying to accept the past in order to focus on the future and a family.

Despite her desire for a quiet life, Beatrix must become a pursuer of truth once again when asked to expose suspected war criminals who may have killed thousands, a diabolical scheme to rob Indigenous Americans of their relics, and a person practicing voodoo as a means to murder a respected member of the Santa Barbara religious community.

Who can she trust to speak the truth when everyone involved seems to be hiding something that could ruin their lives?

Each book in the Beatrix Patterson Mysteries is written as a stand-alone. Readers do not need to read every book in the series to follow along.

As a newly minted private investigator, Nicole Graves expects to take on legal cases for corporate clients. But when her client’s son, Brad Rexton, is killed trying to protect his wife, Ashley, from a home invasion-turned-kidnapping, the firm is hired to investigate. Nicole soon discovers that Ashley is not the person she claims to be, but her real identity remains a mystery.

Meanwhile, a long-delayed and undesired inheritance is finally deposited into Nicole’s bank account. Within a few days, someone dear to Nicole is kidnapped in the same manner as Ashley. The perpetrators demand Nicole’s full inheritance as ransom. She’s willing to hand the money over but finds it’s not so easy. The kidnappers have an uncanny ability to track her every move, and they suspect a trap. When their most terrifying threat is delivered to her door, Nicole is faced with a terrible choice: Should she count on the police or risk going it alone? Each Nicole Graves books can be read in the series or as a stand-alone novel.

One child could change the future of humanity.

Eleven years after a virus swept through the world, small, spread-out gangs are all that's left of humanity. Veena Osborne and her mentor, Abraham Jones, lead the Tierrans through the daily trials of surviving in post-apocalyptic San Diego. Together, they cling to the daily disciplines of faith and life that keep them safe and alive.

When Nate Sinclair stumbles out of a NASA-sponsored suspended animation experiment and into a world changed by catastrophic fires and pandemics, he finds his way to the Tierrans, and to Veena. The miraculous preservation of Nate through all the trials of the world might be enough to keep a sterile humanity alive, but the spreading knowledge of his immunity threatens to push the surviving humans into all-out war.

This apocalyptic novel is sure to entice fans of P.D. James (The Children of Men), Lauren James (The Quiet at the End of the World), and Clare Morrall (When the Floods Came) with its vibrant characters and intense storylines.

Paul Dodge is ready to return to his normal job as a Parole Agent in Virginia after a much-needed—and not very restful—personal hiatus. When a local street woman is found dead, he's assigned to work the case despite his personal objections.

Now working a case outside of his normal expertise with a new team and a boss he isn't sure he can trust, Dodge tries to make the best of the bad situation. The sooner the case is closed the sooner he can get back to his parole work rather than poking his nose into the life of a serial killer.

With the killer growing in confidence and an old flame back in town, Dodge's personal and professional lives get tested and tangled. When accusations fly and tensions rise, time is running out for Dodge to find justice for the victims and stop a psychopath before the body count rises again.

Don't Miss the other books in the Paul Dodge series:

Trust Misplaced

Last Rays of Daylight

While they are a series, the Paul Dodge novels can be read and enjoyed in any order.

It’s February 1942. War grips the world. Asian hate runs rampant, and New Orleans is a dangerous place for Chinese-English scientist Thomas Ling as he collides with self-proclaimed psychic Beatrix Patterson. She's a good liar with an excellent memory, which in truth is her only gift—well, that and conning the well-heeled out of their money and secrets.

Hired by the US Army to use her connections to expose Nazi saboteurs and sympathizers, Beatrix recruits the reluctant Thomas. Together, they pit their skills against a government conspiracy, terrorist cells, kidnappings, and murderous plots. As Beatrix grapples with the truth of her own past, she must come to terms with her ruse. Exposing the Nazi war machine about to invade the country could cost Beatrix everything she's worked so hard to build. But the information she and Thomas uncover could change the outcome of the war.

The question remains: will anyone believe a liar and a suspected traitor?

Does it really matter where you come from?

In 1953, a war widow’s difficult mother dies before revealing the identity of her daughter’s father and his cultural heritage. As Dee sorts through what little her mother left, she unearths puzzling clues that raise more questions: Why did Leora send money every month to the Basque Relief Agency? Why is her own daughter so secretive about her soon-to-be-published book? And what does an Anglican priest know that he isn’t telling?

All of this head-spinning mystery breaks a long, dry period in Dee’s life and leads her to embark on an odyssey. She might just as well lose her job and see where the counsel of her new spiritual advisor and the attentions of an enigmatic ex-coworker lead her.

The Sheep Walker’s Daughter pairs a colorful Basque immigrant history of loss, survival, and tough choices with one woman’s search for identity and fulfillment. Dee’s journey will take her through the Northern and Central California valleys of the 1950s and reach across the world to the Basque Country.

Can Nellie rescue her broken-hearted daughter, and give badly needed direction to her headstrong granddaughter who is on a path to disaster?

Rachel, a middle-aged novelist and university professor in North Carolina, finds herself in a downward spiral when she learns that her brother Dennis, from whom she’s been estranged for decades, is dying. The news brings back memories she has long repressed.

As she reflects on how early trauma changed the trajectory of her life, Rachel remembers her youth and begins to rethink her role as a woman, a daughter, a wife, and a mother, reexamining the life she’s found herself living.

At times, Rachel's attempts to mine her own complicated past and to weave her memories into the fabric of her professional and creative work are laugh-out-loud funny; at other times, they're painful, though always off-beat and deeply intimate.

A depressed eighteen-year-old

An old couple with a terrible secret

A new exploration on an ancient mountain

In the bowels of the mountain, two boulders leaned against a wall in a small chamber. Everything was as it had been for years upon years. No sounds from the explorers working on the surface above penetrated to the chamber. It was the deepest of the deep places. Then the air changed. The change was barely discernible, but it was there.

One of the boulders moved. Slowly, impossibly, it stood upright. A grating sound came from it, and the other boulder slowly moved upward. For a long time, the boulders stood next to each other, motionless. Finally, as if hearing a cue only they could hear, they moved forward out of the small chamber.

"Full of page-by-page surprises" – Kirkus Reviews

When Nicole Graves arranges a summer-long swap of her Los Angeles condo for a London couple’s house, she thinks it’s the perfect arrangement. She’s always dreamed of seeing the real London; she’s also hopeful the time away with her husband Brad will be good for their troubled marriage. But things don’t turn out the way Nicole expects: The Londoners fail to arrive in L.A. and appear to be missing. Then people begin following Nicole and making threats, demanding information she doesn’t have. Soon, Nicole realizes she’s in serious trouble––but she can’t get Brad or the police to believe her. When the confrontations turn deadly, Nicole must either solve the case or become the next victim.

The Brueggen Stones: When two brueggen stones are dropped. Over Shagger’s dreary rock. Gefcla’s evil will be stopped.

Lynn’s life isn’t interesting, until she falls on a Chicago sidewalk and sees yellow, orange, and green lights flitting past. The next time she opens her eyes, she’s in a forest that has huge roots coming out of the ground. A man with tennis ball-sized eyes howls at her—and that’s just the beginning.<br><br>Chell and the other Stalli warriors are on a hopeless series of raids against a ruthless enemy who outnumbers them. Keshua has given them a foretelling rhyme, but they have no idea how to fulfill it, they feel deathly ill anywhere near a brueggen stone.

Is Lynn the answer to saving them? And will she realize it in time to help?

Under the Golden Mists: “Help me!” the girl’s voice sobs. It’s only a dream, Lacht tells herself. But what if it isn't?

Under Wasso Lake live the Wassandra. The underwater people have abnormally long arms and fingers and aren’t to be trusted—at least that’s what Stalli guide, Crispin, tells Lacht and her family as he takes them to a village on the shores of the lake.

Lacht is intrigued; especially when she hears the Wassandra want help to find a missing child. Then dreams of the frightened girl begin troubling her.

When they arrive at the golden lake, Lacht thinks it’s the most beautiful place she’s ever seen—until a bizarre discovery terrifies her.

“Help me!” cries the Wassandra girl in one last dream, but can Lacht find the courage to face the horrifying creature she sees in that dream?

The Opal Cavern: Curl says she’d rather die than spend the rest of her life trapped under Wasso Lake. What if her wish is coming true?

Nineteen-years-old and still longing to see new things, Curl plans an exploration trip with Lynn’s sons, Mindik and Chera. Their goal is to find Tarth’s legendary Opal Cavern.

Lacht has recurrent, heavy feelings that her Wassandra friend shouldn’t go, but nobody listens and the team leaves.

Then Wave learns something from an old Wassandra diary that can mean life or death for Curl. A rescue team rushes off but they don’t know how long it will take to find her.

They do know that if they don’t find her soon, time will run out before they can get her back.

The Stone Walkers: A depressed eighteen-year-old. An old couple with a terrible secret. A new exploration on an ancient mountain

In the bowels of the mountain, two boulders leaned against a wall in a small chamber. Everything was as it had been for years upon years. No sounds from the explorers working on the surface above penetrated to the chamber. It was the deepest of the deep places. Then the air changed. The change was barely discernible, but it was there.

One of the boulders moved. Slowly, impossibly, it stood upright. A grating sound came from it, and the other boulder slowly moved upward. For a long time, the boulders stood next to each other, motionless. Finally, as if hearing a cue only they could hear, they moved forward out of the small chamber. The Stone Walkers were walking again.

We labor in the dark, not knowing how close we come to tapping gold or triggering disaster. Only God knows.

When her parents marry off Kansas-born Nellie Belle to the ranch foreman, she never questions that motherhood will follow. But at the dawn of the progressive era, dissatisfied Nellie seizes an opportunity to move west and start a new life. Desperate to find a sense of self-worth, Nellie leaves behind her husband and son and takes her two daughters to the Northwest. She charges forward to become the first woman court reporter to travel the circuit in the region. But in the process she loses her daughters, one to death, and one to vaudeville.

In small-town makeshift courtrooms and growing cities boasting new halls of justice, Nellie touches many lives, independent-minded lawmen, enterprising women, hard-working immigrants, a senator, a number of cads, and a cross-dresser. She earns the respect of a tight legal community with their own ideas of early twentieth-century justice. But when her prodigal youngest returns home with a babe in arms, she must do what she can to pull together the remains of her scattered family.

Can Nellie rescue her broken-hearted daughter, and give badly needed direction to her headstrong granddaughter who is on a path to disaster?

From multi-award-wining author Deborah Hining come two novels about The Women of Jacob's mountain who have a strength and sense of adventure unknown even to themselves.

Two book boxed set of the award winning titles A Sinner in Paradise and A Saint in Graceland

Trouble has a way of finding Blanche Murninghan...

When Blanche “Bang” Murninghan visits an exhibit of ancient Mayan ruins in Mexico City, she sees that all is not ancient. One of the mummies has a pink hair clip embedded in its hay-like do, and the texture of the skin is not quite right.

Blanche, a part-time journalist, starts to dig for answers and gets tangled in the mystery of the mummy at the Palacio Nacional.

Her cousin and traveling companion, Haasi Hakla, aids and abets—and puts the reins on Blanche. All the while, the two eat and drink their way across the city, following one hunch after another with a cast of colorful characters that include a prescient elderly chilanga, an amiable overworked detective, and a stunning doctor of shady deeds.

The cousins are willing to risk kidnapping and attempted murder to get at the truth—but first, Blanche stops for another excellent beer and Haasi delights in one more taco al pastor.

Trouble Down Mexico Way is the second book in the Blanche Murninghan cozy mystery series. Each of the books can be read as a stand-alone. Foreword Reviews is in love with the "spunky heroine" and Kirkus Reviews says, "There’s a reason Blanche Murninghan’s cousin Jack calls her 'Bang.' When she gets mad, it’s an event to rival a Santa Maria Island sunset—and it happens about as often."

Fans of Jana Deleon's Miss Fortune Mystery series and Tonya Kappes A Camper and Criminals Cozy series will fall hard for the colorful characters and exciting misadventures in the Blanche Murningnan Mysteries.

Paul Dodge is no stranger to the dark side of crime. As a parole agent and a member of the local Sex Crimes Task Force, he knows what depravity lies in the shadows. But when an investigation into a local sexual predator leads him to a photo of a judge’s daughter and another young girl ends up dead, Dodge quickly realizes he doesn’t know who to trust.

In the most dangerous case of his career, Dodge races to detangle a growing web of lies and corruption. His life and career are both on the line in this high-stakes case, and a single misstep could end them both.

“Help me!” the girl’s voice sobs.

It’s only a dream, Lacht tells herself.

But what if it isn't?

Under Wasso Lake live the Wassandra. The underwater people have abnormally long arms and fingers and aren’t to be trusted—at least that’s what Stalli guide, Crispin, tells Lacht and her family as he takes them to a village on the shores of the lake.

Lacht is intrigued; especially when she hears the Wassandra want help to find a missing child. Then dreams of the frightened girl begin troubling her.

When they arrive at the golden lake, Lacht thinks it’s the most beautiful place she’s ever seen—until a bizarre discovery terrifies her.

“Help me!” cries the Wassandra girl in one last dream, but can Lacht find the courage to face the horrifying creature she sees in that dream?

Peter wants nothing more than to settle into a normal life with his fiancée, Kate Simpson. But the Fates seems to have other plans as he finds himself in a deadly confrontation with North Korean agents intent on stealing his latest invention; a pulsed energy weapon that promises to revolutionize small arms technology and upend the international balance of power.

After suffering a heartbreaking loss at the hands of the North Koreans, Peter is devastated. Vowing retribution, he has only one option. With his faithful companion Diesel by his side, Peter must retreat to a remote section of Idaho wilderness known as the Zone of Death—a large, uninhabited tract of Federal land where one can literally get away with murder.

Somehow, he must entice the North Korean assassins to follow him. There Peter will need all his skills as a hunter to kill… or be killed.

"Valiant Savage is a pulse-pounding action thriller that’s anchored by its charming everyman hero and a fascinating historical mystery."
– Foreword Reviews

The Cascadia Independence Movement, a radical political group, aspires to succeed where others have failed and split off the Pacific Northwest as an independent nation. With a sympathetic politician occupying the seat of president pro tempore of the Senate, CIM hatches a daring plan.

Eliminating the President, Vice President, and Speaker of the House in a coordinated attack would be difficult enough, but to do so and get away with the crimes would border on the impossible. They plot to frame the commander of The Strategic Global Intervention Team, James Nicolaou, for the murders and steal a revolutionary weapon under development by Peter Savage, which will assure success.

With Commander Nicolaou missing and the subject of a nationwide dragnet with orders to shoot to kill. With his faithful canine companion, Peter crisscrosses the northwest in a race against time to save his friend and avert a political coup the likes of which haven’t been witnessed since the Lincoln assassination plot.

Four kingdoms are locked in a horrible war—a war that, if lost, will surrender innocent lives to the power and control of King Kayne, the barbaric and bloodthirsty king of the South. The kings and queen of the North, East, and West have no choice but to join forces against the South if they’re going to hold onto everything they hold dear.

But the northern Queen’s brother has a different ambition in mind, and sees the South as a route to power. While Kayne spends his time traveling across the Great Sea, seeking out herbs and potions to enhance his abilities, Kristofer rises amongst the ranks to become his right hand and leads the people in the king’s absence.

Bewildered and devastated by Kristofer’s betrayal, Queen Elora of the North and lifelong ally King Rian of the West join their armies to fight against him. As they seek to save their kingdoms, Elora and Rian face an excruciating struggle between the love they once had for Kristofer and their duty to deal the fatal blow.

Fans of Christopher Paolini, Laura Sebastian, and Chloe Gong are sure to devour this action-packed debut from D.S. Churchill.

Four kingdoms are locked in a horrible war—a war that, if lost, will surrender innocent lives to the power and control of King Kayne, the barbaric and bloodthirsty king of the South. The kings and queen of the North, East, and West have no choice but to join forces against the South if they’re going to hold onto everything they hold dear.

But the northern Queen’s brother has a different ambition in mind, and sees the South as a route to power. While Kayne spends his time traveling across the Great Sea, seeking out herbs and potions to enhance his abilities, Kristofer rises amongst the ranks to become his right hand and leads the people in the king’s absence.

Bewildered and devastated by Kristofer’s betrayal, Queen Elora of the North and lifelong ally King Rian of the West join their armies to fight against him. As they seek to save their kingdoms, Elora and Rian face an excruciating struggle between the love they once had for Kristofer and their duty to deal the fatal blow.

Excerpt from When Kingdom Comes:

Elora stood frozen, staring at her brother. It was Rian’s voice beside her that brought her back. “Call off your men, Kristofer. This is a slaughter.” His voice was low, angry, and filled with hatred.

Kristofer’s deep laugh surrounded them. “This is war. Slaughter is inevitable.”

Fans of Christopher Paolini, Laura Sebastian, and Chloe Gong are sure to devour this action-packed debut from DS Churchill.

There’s an app for everything, even meeting a new nemesis.

Up-and-coming teen superhero Cortex is on top of the world—at least, until his villain dumps him. If he’s going to save his reputation, he needs a new villain to fight, and fast. Meanwhile, the villainous Vortex has once again gotten a little overeager and taken out a hero prematurely. Will any young hero be able to keep up with her? Maybe she should work on finding a steady relationship with an enemy she won’t kill in the first round.

Enter Meta-Match, a nemesis pairing site for heroes and villains. The two match right away, and after throwing punches at each other behind coffee shops, practicing their fight choreography, and hiring henchmen to do their bidding (mostly just getting them coffee), they realize they have a lot more in common than names that annoyingly rhyme. After all, they're still rising through the ranks in their respective circles, and their reputations need good press.

But not everything in the superhero world is as it seems. Can a hero really trust a villain to do the right thing? And can a villain trust a hero not to screw them over? As darkness from the past threatens them both, they may need each other for the fight to come—one with much higher stakes than their choreographed meet-ups on weekends.

Told entirely through texts, transcriptions, and direct messages, this darkly humorous chat fiction rom-com goes behind the scenes of the superworld.

Kevin and Himari didn't plan to be heroes.

Henchmen and sidekicks aren't supposed to fall in love. Or save the world. They're supposed to brew coffee, take pics of their hero or villain for social media, and stay in the background.

That was the plan for sidekick slash frat boy Kevin and henchwoman slash tech genius Himari, until a taxidermy-collecting villain robs Kevin's hero of his powers and leaves Himari's villain wounded. Now it's up to the sidekicks and henchmen to save the world.

Without powers, they'll go up against the Shadow Assassins (a deadly organization that can't work a PowerPoint to save their lives), road trips slash kidnappings, and weird initiation rituals that may or may not involve singing campfire songs. Himari and Kevin will battle the odds, their insecurities, and a strangely polite Midwestern villain as they discover if they have what it takes to profess their love through Mexican food metaphors—and save the world from a nuclear disaster.

The sequel to Dear Hero, this darkly humorous chat fiction novel told entirely through texts, transcriptions, and direct messages goes behind the scenes of the superworld.

Reeling from the sudden death of a close friend, James Butler and Erica Walsh are pulled back into the shadow world of Mexican cartels and the CIA. Seeking to avenge the murder of their friend with only his haphazard notes to guide them, they puzzle through the possible connections searching for anything concrete. As they investigate his murder, and his notes, they find unsettling links between drug trafficking, American gangs, the CIA, and the opioid epidemic.

Determined to find the truth hidden among cases they thought were long closed, Butler and Walsh call on friends and colleagues to help them survive the crosshairs that got their friend killed. With the threat spreading across more of their contacts, they must uncover the truth before they are buried in lies.

A turbulent telling of one woman’s immersion in her faith, and one man’s journey to acceptance.

Seeking comfort in the isolation of the western landscape, young single mother Pansy Blackwell brings her son Butch to the Siskiyou Mountains. Fully engulfed in the Jehovah’s Witnesses assurances for a soon-to-arrive end of the world, Pansy raises her son to conform to the constrictive requirements of their religion. But as Butch discovers the wonders of the world around him with an endlessly patient and kindhearted rancher, he embraces the cowboy culture and struggles to live as his authentic self.

In the late 20th Century, rural communities in America were often hostile to the rising-awareness of LGBT people, and Butch is soon cast aside by his church for homosexuality. In The Gift, Scott Terry crafts a memorable and historically-accurate tale of religious extremism and the struggle for acceptance, before the truth of those times are swept under the forgotten rug of history.

Beatrix Patterson has faced monsters before, but in a world teetering on the edge of social change, she comes up against her most complicated case yet. In one chaotic morning, her friend has been arrested following a fight during a strike at the railroad, the railroad owner was found murdered, and another close friend admits to being blackmailed.

Amid growing tensions between the Union Pacific Railroad and workers' strikes, Beatrix must go undercover before more people are killed or injured. But as she dives into this investigation, she finds one consistent group at the center.

In order to bring down the racial supremacist group digging its claws into Santa Barbara, California, she must put her intense loathing aside to stop the threat before it can reach Thomas, their baby girl Birdy, and the life they're building. With deadly secrets everywhere she turns, Beatrix has to keep her cards close to her chest if she hopes to escape this case unscathed.

Eliza Fox must be smarter than the police and a step ahead of the killer.

When an exchange student is found dead in the music practice rooms of Wexford College, there are few suspects and no clear answers. Martina Noto's parents will fly into California from Rome as soon as they can, but until then the nearest relatives are Martina's cousins: Private Investigator Eliza Fox and her mother, Francesca Noto-Fox.

As detectives Byron Comstock and Jessica Fonseca get familiar with the case, Eliza is determined to help catch Martina's killer. She quickly begins her own investigation and is soon caught up in the twists and turns of finding the murderer, a far cry from her usual work as a paralegal. Often out of her depth, Eliza must overcome her own inexperience and learn to trust her instincts as she fumbles through her first high-stakes case.

Filled with both humor and suspense, this is one traditional mystery novel you don't want to miss.