The Big Nowhere

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Brett Battles

Jonathan Quinn has a few rules. He'll get rid of bodies that have to disappear; nothing ever gets traced back to him. But when Quinn is called to a busy Los Angeles port where a shipping container has just come in from the sea, it's clear his rules have been violated. Inside the crate is a dead man--a man who once saved Quinn's life. And while no one knows how CIA agent Steven Markoff died, Quinn has to do more than clean. He has to find Markoff's girlfriend, Jenny. To tell her that Markoff is dead. To find out why--and why someone sent Markoff's body to him? Until a week ago, Jenny Fuentes was an assistant to an ambitious congressman. Now Jenny is missing, too, and a lot of man power is making sure she isn't found.

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Roger Ormerod

Retired Detective Inspector Richard Patton and his wife Amelia return to the world of crime when Patton is asked by his wife's old college friend to investigate a burglary that leads to a murder and threatens Patton's loyalty to Amelia's friend

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Helen Knode

Ann Whitehead is sick of her job. She's a movie critic for a counterculture rag in Los Angeles and she needs a break badly. Instead of a break, she gets a murder. A woman dies in Ann's bathtub: the victim is a film school grad and Industry hopeful. It's the kind of story Ann was born to write, but the disgraced LAPD detective leading the investigation is determined to stop her. The search for the killer turns into a search for the victim's missing script, the story of another woman murdered in 1944. Suddenly there are two killers, and a complicated conspiracy spanning decades. Ann is smack in the middle and everyone she meets wants into the film business--whatever the price.

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Karen Joy Fowler

Rima Lanisell is at a loose end, following the death of her father. She has come to California to stay with her godmother, Addison Early, who once knew Rima's father well. Addison is a best-selling mystery writer. Over the years, she has tried to protect her work and her privacy as her fans have become ever more intrusive.