by James Lee Burke (2000)
When Dave Robicheaux discovers that his mother was a hooker who was murdered by two cops working for the Mob, his quest to find her killers begins. It brings him into contact with Jim Gable, whose mansion stands at the top of Purple Cane Road and who has intimate knowledge of Dave's wife's past.
Louise Millar
Some people seem to have more than their fair share of bad luck, and Kate Parker is one of them. So when Kate and her son Jack move to Oxford to start a new life, Kate is determined that events of the past will not come back to haunt them. Despite the support she receives from her overbearing in-laws, she starts to feel threatened. Somehow her comfortable family home doesn't feel quite safe - it's almost as though someone is watching them.
Jo Bannister
Though Brodie Farrell runs a business called "Looking for Something?" she tries to avoid missing people cases. But she can't refuse when Superintendent Jack Deacon asks her to find the long-lost aunt of two girls after their mother is murdered. Deacon sets about tracking the missing father who is also suspected of the murder.
Max Allan Collins
Hired by Marilyn Monroe to listen to threatening phone calls from a movie studio that wants to fire her, private investigator Nate Heller discovers a conspiracy to murder the iconic star and faces a career-ending challenge when Monroe turns up dead. Marilyn Monroe, the ultimate goddess of the silver screen, is at the peak of her popularity, internationally famous, universally admired by women and desired by men. But she's also famously insecure and temperamental and is being pilloried in the press for delaying the production of Something's Got to Give. When the head of Twentieth Century Fox threatens to cancel her contract, Marilyn hires "PI to the stars" Nathan Heller to tap her phones and record conversations that might prove to be important if there's a lawsuit. Less than three months later, Monroe is dead from an overdose and, officially, a suicide. But Heller isn't buying it. He knows that in the weeks before, the star was anything but suicidal. He knows, too, about her affair with JFK, about the secret connections between the Kennedys and the Mob ... and about Bobby Kennedy's blood feud with Jimmy Hoffa. In short, Heller knows too much to accept this bum rap on a beautiful, gifted woman loved by the whole world ... including Nathan Heller. So he investigates, though his efforts might enrage some very famous, very powerful, very dangerous people. But they can't keep Heller from finding out the astounding truth behind Marilyn Monroe's untimely demise.
Richard Haley
Wealthy financier Gil Bentley, anxious that his daughter's boyfriend isn't marrying her just for money, hires Frank Crane to ascertain Stuart Knight's background. Crane discovers that Knight is concealing his past; he's also seeing another woman, and seems to have far too much money. It appears that Knight was implicated in a major robbery some years before, and some of those involved are now being murdered.