The Drowning Pool

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Ross Macdonald

Isobel Blackwell comes calling on private investigator Lew Archer unexpectedly, just minutes before her husband is scheduled to meet with the detective. She is concerned about her stepdaughter, Harriet. The young woman is about to come into a large trust fund, and she wants to marry a handsome, penniless artist named Burke Damis. Isobel has no objection to the marriage, but Harriet's father, Colonel Blackwell, is staunchly opposed. He asks Archer to investigate Damis, and Archer agrees, partly because he's attracted to Mrs. Blackwell. Murders past and present crowd the investigation as various leads take Archer to Mexico, Lake Tahoe, the San Francisco Bay Area, and Los Angeles.

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G.A. McKevett

Blue-eyed and “big-boned” private detective Savannah Reid took the mystery scene by storm in Just Desserts, Bitter Sweets, and Killer Calories. Now the sexy, Southern-born heroine with the black belt in karate is back, keeping the streets of exclusive San Carmelita, California, safe while indulging both her passion for food and her appetite for solving crime… It’s hard to get into the Christmas spirit when the Santa Ana winds are blowing at a balmy ninety degrees. It’s also hard to live in a “Baywatch” world when you’re an overly voluptuous size 14. But Savannah Reid has never been one to believe that good things come only in small packages. Right now, the only present Savannah wants wrapped up is the one of a serial rapist who dresses as Santa. Thanks to a twisted brand of holiday visits, Savannah has a full-time job teaching self-defense to San Carmelita’s terrified women. But the feisty detective is less than thrilled when Captain Bloss, her ex-boss from the San Carmelita PD, asks Savannah to be his daughter’s personal bodyguard. It seems the rapist has turned vicious cop killer, making the captain and his daughter prime targets. With enough chaos swirling around to make Tiny Tim grouchy, Savannah looks over her list of suspects to figure out just who’s been naughty. From the ex-con cop killer just released on parole to the bookie with more than a few debts to collect, Savannah considers them all, plus a few others, while she tries to keep danger from dropping down her chimney, and bringing a killer home for the holidays…

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James Patterson and Mark Pearson

For Hannah Shapiro, a beautiful young American student, this particular nightmare began eight years ago in Los Angeles, when Jack Morgan, owner of Private - the world's most exclusive detective agency - saved her from a horrific death. She has fled her country, but can't flee her past. The terror has followed her to London, and now it is down to former Royal Military Police Sergeant Dan Carter, head of Private London, to save her all over again. In central London, young women are being abducted off the street. When the bodies are found, some days later, they have been mutilated in a particularly mysterious way. Dan Carter's ex-wife, DI Kirsty Webb, is involved in the investigation and it looks likely that the two cases are gruesomely linked. Dan Carter draws on the whole resources of Private International in a desperate race against the odds. But the clock is ticking... Private may be the largest and most technologically advanced detection agency in the world, but the only thing they don't have is the one thing they need - time.

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Lawrence Block

Nobody knows better than Matthew Scudder how far down a person can sink in this city. A young prostitute named Kim knew it also—and she wanted out. Maybe Kim didn't deserve the life fate had dealt her. She surely didn't deserve her death. The alcoholic ex-cop turned p.i. was supposed to protect her, but someone slashed her to ribbons on a crumbling New York City waterfront pier. Now finding Kim's killer will be Scudder's penance. But there are lethal secrets hiding in the slain hooker's past that are far dirtier than her trade. And there are many ways of dying in this cruel and dangerous town—some quick and brutal ... and some agonizingly slow.