The Affair of the Bloodstained Egg Cosy

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Faye Kellerman

Once Dr. Emil Euler Ganz was a preeminent astrophysicist with a world-renowned reputation. But then he vanished without any warning to his family or colleagues. Fifteen years later, he reappeared as "Father Jupiter," the founder and charismatic leader of the scientific cult, The Order of the Rings. And now he's dead--a vial of sleeping pills and an empty bottle of vodka standing near his lifeless body.Was Ganz's death an accident? Suicide? Or did someone hasten Jupiter prematurely out of this world? These are the questions LAPD Lieutenant Peter Decker and his Homicide team are determined to answer as they enter the cult's fortresslike compound. But the dead leader's four "privileged" attendants make it clear that the police are not welcome there--and the mysterious disappearance of two of the Order's members, including a child, turns an already uncomfortable situation even uglier and more incendiary. Decker will need more than the wisdom and support of his wife, Rina Lazarus, to defuse a ticking time bomb of jealousy, greed, bizarre hidden pasts, and deadly secrets--one that could explode at any time into mayhem so pernicious that it threatens to destroy a multitude of misguided lives--and scores of helpless, innocent children as well.

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Tricia Fields

"At the end of State Road 170 and just past a ghost town lies Artemis, population 2,500. The townspeople had sought out this remote corner of Western Texas in hopes of living lives of solitude and independence. None of them realized that their small town would become a hot spot for Mexican drug runners, whose turf battles have turned both sides of the Rio Grande into a war zone. Still, many of the locals would rather take the law into their own hands than get help from police chief Josie Gray, even when they're up against a cartel's private army. After arresting one of the cartel's hit men and killing another, Josie finds her life at risk for doing a job that many people would rather see her quit. And when the town's self-appointed protector of the Second Amendment is murdered and his cache of weapons disappears, it's clear that she doesn't have to pick sides in this war. She's battling them both."--from cover, p. [2]

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James Lee Burke

Sadistic serial killer Asa Surette escaped the death penalty for a string of heinous murders while capital punishment was outlawed in Kansas. Dave Robicheaux's daughter Alafair wrote a series of damning articles about possible other crimes committed by Surette that could put him on death row. Now, the killer has escaped from a prison transport van and headed to Montana - where the unsuspecting Robicheaux family has gone to take in the sweet summer air.

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Ilsa Mayr

Singer Merrilee Ingram returns to her roots in the Appalachian town of Browne's Station, Kentucky, determined to recover memories of the fire that killed her mother when Merrilee was four. But Merrilee's not welcome in town, and evidence of that escalates from a warning note to a copperhead on her front porch. Despite that, Merrilee presses on, uncovering long-buried secrets and making her past more dangerous in the present than ever before.