by William Marantz (2010)
When country-singer-turned-talkjock Val Virgo (aka Izzy Miller) receives a phone-in death threat from a self-styled aboriginal militant, he laughs it off as a sick joke. When he wakes up in a hospital bed, having narrowly survived the bombing of his apartment, he is no longer amused. Why would any self-respecting "terrorist" go after a glorified disk jockey? In search of the answer to this vital question Virgo takes a trip down memory lane, to the mean streets of his misspent youth, one step ahead of the mad bomber, finding love along the way. The race against time comes to an explosive conclusion when our hero discovers a long-lost enemy virtually on his doorstep - one hour too late
Simon Beaufort
PC Helen Anderson commits a cardinal error when she takes files for an upcoming court case home to study. For those files are not supposed to leave the police station - and the minute they fall into the wrong hands, Helen's ordinary, uneventful life begins to spiral out of control ... culminating in a gruesome and extraordinary murder.
Judith Cutler
Fran is preparing for her forthcoming wedding to Assistant Chief Constable Mark Turner, but renovations at the rectory they plan to move into are disrupted by the discovery of a skeleton buried in the vegetable patch. As investigations into its identity progress, it's also clear that Mark's two grown-up children are less than ecstatic at the prospect of their father's forthcoming nuptials. In fact, at least one of them seems to be behaving very strangely indeed.
Roy Lewis
Asked to advise on the antiques collection of a mysterious widow, Arnold Landon enlists the aid of an old friend, Carmela Cacciatore of the Carabinieri Art Squad. But it is in Northumberland that Arnold finally learns the truth and faces the deadly menace of the Shadowmaker.
Ross Thomas
"It was while jogging along the beach just east of the Paradise Cove pier that Artie Wu tripped over a dead pelican, fell, and met the man with six greyhounds." Thus begins what may be the most popular of Ross Thomas's unique stories.