by Julian Symons (1988)
Kirkus Reviews - "The detective novel for a change and a most able job, this two-part dissection is first focussed on the accused as he reveals himself to the consulting psychiatrist, then on his trial and its ramifications. John Wilkins has blackouts, is unhappily married, recognizes his fantasy life in his romantic dreaming about Sheila, a local librarian, is upset about his work. A rising silk takes the defense, Wilkins' family hires a private detective, the trial produces damaging witnesses for Wilkins' murder of Sheila, and the finale is a double-play of ingenuity. British -- and of the best."
Mary Roberts Rinehart
The Halls, Lancasters, Talbots, Wellingtons, and Daltons--five close-knit and well-to-do families living on exclusive Crescent Place--retreat into terrified paranoia when first old Mrs. Lancaster is found hacked to death with an axe and then other victims are discovered
Anne Holt
It is only the beginning of May but in Oslo a brutal heat wave has coincided with an alarming increase in violent crime. In the latest instance, police investigator Hanne Wilhelmsen is sent to a macabre crime scene on the outskirts of town. An abandoned shed is covered in blood. On one wall an eight-digit number is written in blood. There is no body--nor any sign of a victim. Is it a kid's prank or foul play? Is it even human blood? As more bloody numbers are found in isolated locations throughout Oslo, Hanne's colleague Håkon Sand makes a startling discovery: the digits correspond to the filing numbers of foreign immigrants. All are female, all are missing. Is there a serial killer on the loose in Oslo? Meanwhile, as the trail heats up, the victim of a horrific unsolved rape case and her father have each decided to take justice into their own hands. Hanne and Håkon soon discover that they aren't the only ones on the hunt for the killer.
Velda Johnston
Musically talented, but not the prodigy her doting mother believes her to be, twenty-year-old Sara Hargeaves is content to pick up extra money playing cocktail piano at a local San Jimenez hotel lounge--and even happier when she attracts the attention of handsome Dr. Manuelo Covarrubias. When attraction quickens into passion, Sara goes to play for Manuelo's plastic surgery patients at his fashionable California sanatorium. Cherished, looking forward to marrying her sophisticated lover, Sara is stunned when her world falls apart overnight. Manuelo jilts her--and then he is murdered. Dubbed by journalists a "young Jean Harris," Sara is wrongfully jailed for Manuelo's murder. Now, four years later, she escapes from prison to be with her dying mother--only to arrive too late. Befriended by an attractive young law student, Mike Rolfe, Sara must risk her new chance at love and happiness by returning to the sanatorium. Hunted by the police, hounded by memories of the past and present regrets, Sara knows her only hope of lasting freedom lies in uncovering the truth about who really killed Manuelo four years ago, while avoiding an all-too likely reunion with her dead ex-lover. (book cover description)
Hillary Bell Locke
"How can you make money from a painting that you don't own, can't steal, and couldn't fence even if you succeeded? What if you convince people you already had stolen it? An assortment of shady and brutal players in Collar Robber think that--leaving a corpse or two along the way--they can use that bright idea to gouge fifty-million dollars from Jay Davidovich's employer ... As Davidovich and Jakubek face brawls on street corners and in court rooms, confrontations in brothels, confessionals, and Yankee Stadium luxury suites, and Tasers, machine guns, and religious vestments used as weapons, they have to remember that "take no prisoners" isn't always a metaphor"--Jacket.