A slight trick of the mind

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Steve Hamilton

Half a lifetime ago, Alex McKnight was a young cop in Detroit. Now he's an occasional private eye up in Paradise, Michigan, and trying hard to put the past behind him. Then he gets the call that every cop dreads: a killer he helped put behind bars is getting released, and he might just have payback on his mind. Suddenly the years fall away, and in his mind Alex is back in that hot summer in Detroit, hunting the brutal murderer of a young woman. The problem is, something about the case no longer makes sense, and Alex feels compelled to retrace the steps that led to the arrest and conviction of Darryl King. But it's not just the case that looks different: returning to Detroit, Alex finds a city that is almost unrecognizeable from the one he left, a city that is quite literally dying on its feet, where crime and decay hold sway, and law and order are in retreat. And as Alex searches for the truth among the shadows of the past, he discovers a story more shocking than the one he thought he knew and a danger more threatening than an ex-con looking for revenge.

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Jon Talton

"A cache of diamonds is stolen in Phoenix. The prime suspect is former Maricopa County sheriff Mike Peralta, now a private investigator. Disappearing into Arizona's mountainous high country, Peralta leaves his business partner and longtime friend David Mapstone with a stark choice: he can cooperate with the FBI, or strike out on his own to find Peralta and what really happened."--

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John Lutz

Her twin sister Jenine had been murdered, and Jeanette Boyington wanted St. Louis-based private eye Alo Nudger to help find the killer. Nudger knew he shouldn't take the case, knew it wasn't a good idea to get involved in an active police investigation. But he needed the work, and so he agreed to take it—and soon found himself caught in a web of deceit and danger.A murderer is stalking the streets of the Gateway City, and the only connection between his victims are the nightlines—special phone lines used by the phone company to test equipment. At night, lonely people use them to make contact with each other: to talk, to meet, perhaps, to have someone who will care, even if just for a moment, anonymously. But something has gone horribly wrong, and people are dying.Nudger is part of the network now, and discovers the very special lure of the nightlines when he falls in love with a woman he meets over them. A woman who may be the next victim...

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Richard Stevenson

Sixteen years after this 1992 story, and forced outing remains a hot button in gay politics. When an activist's claims that men he's outed are stalking him don't ring true, Albany's only gay PI drops his protection detail - and the client winds up dead. Strachey peels back the layers of his client's double cross only to find ... a triple cross. (Filmed for release by HereTV in 2005.).