L.A. blues

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G.A. McKevett

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…

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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.

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Michael Connelly

Longtime defense attorney Mickey Haller is recruited to change stripes and prosecute the high-profile retrial of a brutal child murder. After 24 years in prison, convicted killer Jason Jessup has been exonerated by new DNA evidence. Haller is convinced Jessup is guilty, and he takes the case on the condition that he gets to choose his investigator, LAPD Detective Harry Bosch. Together, Bosch and Haller set off on a case fraught with political and personal danger. Opposing them is Jessup, now out on bail, a defense attorney who excels at manipulating the media, and a runaway eyewitness reluctant to testify after so many years. With the odds and the evidence against them, Bosch and Haller must nail a sadistic killer once and for all. If Bosch is sure of anything, it is that Jason Jessup plans to kill again.

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Richard Stark

You probably haven't ever noticed them. But they've noticed you. They notice everything. That's their job. Sitting quietly in a nondescript car outside a bank making note of the tellers' work habits, the positions of the security guards. Lagging a few car lengths behind the Brinks truck on its daily rounds. Surreptitiously jiggling the handle of an unmarked service door at the racetrack. They're thieves. Heisters, to be precise. They're pros, and Parker is far and away the best of them. If you're planning a job, you want him in. Tough, smart, hardworking, and relentlessly focused on his trade, he is the heister's heister, the robber's robber, the heavy's heavy. You don't want to cross him, and you don't want to get in his way, because he'll stop at nothing to get what he's after. Parker, the ruthless antihero of Richard Stark's eponymous mystery novels, is one of the most unforgettable characters in hardboiled noir. Lauded by critics for his taut realism, unapologetic amorality, and razor-sharp prose-style—and adored by fans who turn each intoxicating page with increasing urgency—Stark is a master of crime writing, his books as influential as any in the genre. The University of Chicago Press has embarked on a project to return the early volumes of this series to print for a new generation of readers to discover—and become addicted to.Parker goes under the knife in The Man with the Getaway Face, changing his face to escape the mob and a contract on his life. Along the way he scores his biggest heist yet: an armored car in New Jersey, stuffed with cash."Westlake knows precisely how to grab a reader, draw him or her into the story, and then slowly tighten his grip until escape is impossible."—Washington Post Book World"Elmore Leonard wouldn't write what he does if Stark hadn't been there before. And Quentin Tarantino wouldn't write what he does without Leonard. . . . Old master that he is, Stark does all of them one better."—Los Angeles Times"Donald Westlake's Parker novels are among the small number of books I read over and over. Forget all that crap you've been telling yourself about War and Peace and Proust—these are the books you'll want on that desert island."—Lawrence Block