by Patrick A. Davis (2001)
Retired Air Force investigator Martin Collins is called in when Colonel Margaret Wildman and her two young children are found brutally slain, and as he wades through a morass of clues, he uncovers a deadly conspiracy leading to the highest levels of the government and the military and links between the victims and a series of fatal airline crashes.
Judith Cutler
Fran is preparing for her forthcoming wedding to Assistant Chief Constable Mark Turner, but renovations at the rectory they plan to move into are disrupted by the discovery of a skeleton buried in the vegetable patch. As investigations into its identity progress, it's also clear that Mark's two grown-up children are less than ecstatic at the prospect of their father's forthcoming nuptials. In fact, at least one of them seems to be behaving very strangely indeed.
John Farrow
When a corpse with a bullet through its neck is found floating in a fishing hole cut into a frozen lake near Montreal, it appears to be a straightforward murder. But detective Emil Cinq Mars soon realizes this is a more complex case, where no-one is exactly who he or she seems.
Julian Symons
Kirkus Reviews - "The detective novel for a change and a most able job, this two-part dissection is first focussed on the accused as he reveals himself to the consulting psychiatrist, then on his trial and its ramifications. John Wilkins has blackouts, is unhappily married, recognizes his fantasy life in his romantic dreaming about Sheila, a local librarian, is upset about his work. A rising silk takes the defense, Wilkins' family hires a private detective, the trial produces damaging witnesses for Wilkins' murder of Sheila, and the finale is a double-play of ingenuity. British -- and of the best."
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.