by George P. Pelecanos (1994)
Constantine, a drifter, hitches a lift from a driver who stops en route to collect some money. But the man who owes it doesn't have it, so he enrolls the two of them in a plot to rob a liquor store. What follows is robbery, a doublecross and Constantine's vengeance.
Thomas Perry
Six years ago, Jack Till helped Wendy harper disappear. But not her ex-boyfriend and former business partner, Eric Fuller, is being framed for her presumed murder in an effort to smoke her out, and Till must find her before tango-dancing assassins Paul and Sylvie Turner do.--From publisher's description.
John Baker
Sam Turner is trying to turn his life around. Newly divorced, he's kicked the habit of his wife and now he's working on the booze. Introducing himself at a group meeting one night, he succumbs to a sudden impulse to say he's a private detective, and the Sam Turner Detective Agency is born. Terry, one of the men from the meeting, comes to Sam because he thinks his wife is having an affair. Can he hire Sam on retainer? Piece of cake, Sam thinks. Follow her, snap a few photographs, pocket the money - how hard can it be? The case starts out so smoothly, Sam's convinced that life is really looking up. But then Terry is brutally stabbed to death, and the police begin to think they have a serial killer on their hands. Suddenly Sam's career as a private detective is taking off by leaps and bounds.
Elizabeth Gunn
Ambitious Tucson police detective Sarah Burke, still smarting from a painful divorce, tries to concentrate on a body found in a parking lot. The case takes a bizarre turn when Sarah's young niece, neglected by her substance-abusing mother, disappears. The search is complicated by interference from the drug ring the suspected murderers had been working for, and Sarah's romantic interest in a troubled colleague rebuilding his life after injury.
Christobel Kent
Investigating the alleged suicide of an eminent architect and Holocaust survivor, private investigator Sandro Cellini discovers links between the victim's final hours and a missing art student, a connection that triggers an urgent race to protect other possible victims.