by Helen Fielding (2005)
Olivia Joules, an independent journalist turned master spy, finds herself drawn to the seductive and powerful Pierre Ferramo, a man of impeccable taste, extraordinary wealth, and exotic international homes, until she begins to worry that he is an international terrorist intent on the destruction of the Western world but hiding his goal behind a sophisticated smokescreen.
Mary Jane Clark
TV reporter Eliza Blake, a widow with a child, hunts for the killer of an anchorman in her New York station. The novel has details on the day-to-day coverage of television news, including probing the sex life of politicians. A first novel.
Dick Francis
From *Publisher's Weekly*: Champion jockey Kit Fielding again proves his mettle when Henri Nanterre, the ruthless business partner of his fiancee's uncle, tries to convert their road construction company into an armaments enterprise. Nanterre threatens the life of Princess Casilia, his partner's wife, who also owns many of Kit's mounts. Nanterre is foiled, but then some of the princess's horses are found dead, killed, ironically, by captive-bullet bolt guns designed for "humane" deaths. Next come several near-lethal attacks against humans, including Kit's Danielle, and our Kit must devise a plan to thwart Nanterre for good. Soon Danielle has second thoughts about sharing the dangers of a steeplechaser's life. Maynard Allardeck, racing steward and hereditary enemy of the Fielding family, reappears and makes Kit's life even more difficult.
Ed McBain
"Downtown" starts on Christmas Eve as Florida orange grower Michael Barnes, in New York on business, runs afoul of bogus cops, thieves, the mob, and a slimy movie producer. McBain piles on the action and absurdity at a furious pace as Barnes sinks deeper and deeper into the worst New York has to offer. McBain has always been adept at infusing his hard-boiled fiction with a sardonic humor that borders on the ludicrous. In "Downtown," he proves he can still walk that tightrope as he balances the hilarity of Barnes' situation with a lean, hard-hitting narrative style. In fact, McBain's humor is so deliberately distracting, you don't realize it when he turns deadly serious. Michael Barnes may be bounced from one jam to another, but he too has a dark side, like most McBain characters. When pushed enough, he too becomes as deadly as his foes and as hard-boiled as any Raymond Chandler creation. "Downtown" is another example of Ed McBain at his best. Highly recommended.
Dick Wolf
"Detective Jeremy Fisk tracks a serial sniper using terrifying, airborne state-of-the-art technology in this dynamic next novel in the New York Times bestselling series from Law & Order creator Dick Wolf"--Publisher.