by G.A. McKevett (1998)
Blue-eyed and “big-boned” private detective Savannah Reid took the mystery scene by storm in Just Desserts, Bitter Sweets, and Killer Calories. Now the sexy, Southern-born heroine with the black belt in karate is back, keeping the streets of exclusive San Carmelita, California, safe while indulging both her passion for food and her appetite for solving crime… It’s hard to get into the Christmas spirit when the Santa Ana winds are blowing at a balmy ninety degrees. It’s also hard to live in a “Baywatch” world when you’re an overly voluptuous size 14. But Savannah Reid has never been one to believe that good things come only in small packages. Right now, the only present Savannah wants wrapped up is the one of a serial rapist who dresses as Santa. Thanks to a twisted brand of holiday visits, Savannah has a full-time job teaching self-defense to San Carmelita’s terrified women. But the feisty detective is less than thrilled when Captain Bloss, her ex-boss from the San Carmelita PD, asks Savannah to be his daughter’s personal bodyguard. It seems the rapist has turned vicious cop killer, making the captain and his daughter prime targets. With enough chaos swirling around to make Tiny Tim grouchy, Savannah looks over her list of suspects to figure out just who’s been naughty. From the ex-con cop killer just released on parole to the bookie with more than a few debts to collect, Savannah considers them all, plus a few others, while she tries to keep danger from dropping down her chimney, and bringing a killer home for the holidays…
Marcia Muller
The bestselling author of Till the Butchers Cut Him Down presents her latest mystery starring Saron McCone. Investigating a terrorist bombing at the Consulate of an Arab Emirate, Sharon is thinking only of the million-dollar-reward--until she meets the consul general's daughter. When the girl disappears, Sharon risks everything to save her.
Maxine Thompson
Getting her life back together after being fired from the police force, Zipporah "Z" Saldana, sober for two years, opens up her own private investigation firm and finds herself in deep trouble when she looks into the murder of her former foster mother's grandson, a high school basketball star.
Sue Grafton
It's April 1988, a month before Kinsey Millhone's thirty-eighth birthday, and she's alone in her office catching up on paperwork when a young man arrives unannounced. He has a preppy air about him and looks as if he'd be carded if he tried to buy a beer, but Michael Sutton is twenty-seven, an unemployed college dropout. More than two decades ago, a four-year-old girl disappeared, and a recent newspaper story about her kidnapping has triggered a flood of memories. Sutton now believes he stumbled on her lonely burial and could identify the killers if he saw them again. He wants Kinsey's help in locating the grave and finding the men. It's way more than a long shot, but he's persistent and willing to pay cash up front. Reluctantly, Kinsey agrees to give him one day of her time. But it isn't long before she discovers Sutton has an uneasy relationship with the truth. In essence, he's the boy who cried wolf. Is his story true, or simply one more in a long line of fabrications? Moving between the 1980s and the 1960s, and changing points of view as Kinsey pursues witnesses whose accounts often clash, Grafton builds multiple subplots and memorable characters. Gradually we see how everything connects in this thriller. And as always, at the heart of her fiction is Kinsey Millhone, a sharp-tongued, observant loner who never forgets that under the thin veneer of civility is a roiling dark side to the soul
M.C. Beaton
"After six gruelling months back in London, Agatha Raisin returns to her beloved Cotswold village of Carsely - and to the charms of her neighbour, James Lacey. True, James is less than thrilled to see her, but Agatha is soon distracted by a sensational murder." "The victim, found in a lonely field, is hiker Jessica Tartinck, who spent her life enraging wealthy landowners by insisting on her walking club's right to hike over their properties. Now she has been found in a cornfield, battered over the head. Agatha lures the reluctant James into helping with her informal investigation, and there are many leads to follow, for Jessica's fellow walkers all seem more than able, even eager, to commit murder. And of course there are the enraged landowners."--BOOK JACKET.