by George P. Pelecanos (2001)
Derek Strange is a black ex-cop in Washington D.C. who now makes a living running his own private detective agency. He is hired to investigate the killing of an off-duty black policeman by a white police officer -- a killing that was supposedly accidental, but that has opened difficult questions about racism on the force. In the course of that investigation the white officer, Terry Quinn, becomes Strange's friend and then his partner. Together they try to uncover what really happened that night, when Quinn came upon a confusing and treacherous crime scene. Along the way they confront the kingpins of a flourishing drug trade and some of the most implacable, dead-eyed killers ever to grace the pages of a novel.
Chris Knopf
After one of Southampton real estate lawyer Jackie Swaitkowski's clients attempts to evict his sister-in-law from his own home, he turns up dead, and Jackie finds herself working on something more dangerous than real estate.
Morgan Burke
The party room. On Manhattan's Upper East Side. Everybody's fabulous. No one gets carded. Then someone dies. The Party Room is where the prep school crowd goes to drink up and hook up. The cocktails are chill and the bartender's hot. Everyone knows everyone -- except the guy that Samantha Byrne leaves with one night. The next day Sam's missing. Then she's found dead in Central Park, murdered brutally. It looks like a copycat killing of another girl who was murdered years earlier. By someone from Talcott Prep. The killer is one of them. He knows where they live. And where they play.
James Patterson
Outside New York City, the palatial home of Dr. David Strauss's parents is attacked by gunmen during a glittering party. As he watches helplessly, his wife is murdered. In Los Angeles, Strauss's brother is killed during the Academy Award ceremonies. In Manhattan, his past sweetheart, Alix Rothchild, is running for her life. Dr. David Strauss is soon obsessed with finding the explosive secret behind the murders of his family members. His dangerous odyssey takes him across Europe, and finally to the Olympics, where one of the most shattering surprises in suspense fiction will take place.
Jeffery Deaver
Rhyme's cousin has been arrested for murder. The evidence clearly shows he did it, but Rhyme agrees to check things out. It turns out he has been wrongly convicted because the killer knows every single details of the lives of both his victims and the men he sets up to take the fall.