State's evidence

Sample

Joseph Hansen

'After forty years, Hammett has a worthy successor' The Times Dave Brandstetter stands alongside Philip Marlowe, Sam Spade and Lew Archer as one of the best fictional PIs in the business. Like them, he was tough, determined, and ruthless when the case demanded it. Unlike them, he was gay. Joseph Hansen's groundbreaking novels follow Brandstetter as he investigates cases in which motives are murky, passions run high, and nothing is ever as simple as it looks. Set in 1970s and 80s California, the series is a fascinating portrait of a time and a place, with mysteries to match Chandler and Macdonald. John Oats is dead; drowned in the treacherous waves of the Pacific. But was it accident, suicide, or murder? Between the mysteriously absent son, the bitter ex-wife and the current lover, there are plenty of people with reason to lie to Dave about what really happened that night - and why.

Sample

Daniel Pyne

Marginal Hollywood actor Jack Baylor ends an affair with the wife of his best friend, Tory, and knowing Torys anger-management issues, he retreats to the California desert town of Twentynine Palms to let the metaphorical dust settle. There he promptly begins an affair with Mona, a young mother of two. But Tory arrives in the town bent on revenge, Mona and her kids disappear, and Jacks motel room is awash with blood. Jack is promptly arrested and must escape to clear himself.

Sample

Judith Gorog

While on a trip to California with her father, Kate befriends a small girl who may be merely the victim of her own active imagination or may be in real danger.

Sample

Jonathan Kellerman

Psychologist Alex Delaware and his wife are invited to a remote island in the South Pacific to help a scientist organize his research files; three months in paradise, all expenses paid -- that is until people start getting murdered. On discovering venomous cockroaches in their room, they know they are next.