Black Cat Mystery Magazine #9

Black Cat Mystery Magazine #9

The ninth issue of Black Cat Mystery features a stellar lineup of new stories (and one classic reprint). Here are—LAST RITES, by Stacy WoodsonTHE JERICHO TRAIN, by John M. FloydCORAL COVE, by B.A. PaulTHE ALLEY, by Ann AptakerSONNY’S ENCORE, by Michael BrackenSWITCH AND BAIT, by Cynthia WardBECOMING ZERO, by James A. HearnTHE MURDER OF JONATHAN GREYSTONE, by Barry FultonYOU GOTTA BE IN IT!, by Elliott CaponTHE YOU-DON’T-KNOW-THE-HALF-OF-IT-DEARIE BLUES, by Michael KurlandA FIGHTER BY HIS TRADE, by Graham PowellClassic reprint:SMELLING LIKE A ROSE, by Gil Brewer

Chasing the Dime

Chasing the Dime

The phone messages waiting for Henry Pierce clearly aren't for him: "Where is Lilly? This is her number. It's on the site." Pierce has just moved into a new apartment, and he's been "chasing the dime"--doing all it takes so his company comes out first with a scientific breakthrough worth millions. But he can't get the messages for Lilly out of his head. As Pierce tries to help a woman he has never met, he steps into a world of escorts, websites, sex, and secret passions. A world where his success and expertise mean nothing...and where he becomes the chief suspect in a murder case, trapped in the fight of his life.

Blood Work

Blood Work

From the #1 bestselling author of the Harry Bosch and the Lincoln Lawyer series and who "is the master of the universe in which he lives" (Huffington Post), comes the gripping novel that inspired the film starring Clint Eastwood.When Graciella Rivers steps onto his boat, ex-FBI agent Terrell McCaleb has no idea he's about to come out of retirement. He's recuperating from a heart transplant and avoiding anything stressful. But when Graciella tells him the way her sister, Gloria, was murdered, Terry realizes he has no choice. Now the man with the new heart vows to take down a predator without a soul. For Gloria's killer shatters every rule that McCaleb ever learned in his years with the Bureau-as McCaleb gets no more second chances at life...and just one shot at the truth.*Winner of the Grand Prix de Littérature Policière- International Category*Winner of the Macavity Award for Best Mystery Novel*Winner of the Anthony Award for Best Novel

Caught

Caught

The bestselling author and creator of the hit Netflix drama The Stranger delivers a twisted #1 New York Times bestseller about a man who—with the best of intentions—opens the wrong door...Reporter Wendy Tynes is making a name for herself, bringing down sexual offenders on nationally televised sting operations. But when social worker Dan Mercer walks into her trap, Wendy gets thrown into a story more complicated than she could ever imagine.Dan is tied to the disappearance of a seventeen-year-old New Jersey girl, and the shocking consequences will have Wendy doubting her instincts about the motives of the people around her, while confronting the true nature of guilt, grief, and her own capacity for forgiveness...

The Last One at the Wedding

The Last One at the Wedding

From the author of the runaway hit, Hidden Pictures, comes a stunning new work of domestic suspense“Part conspiracy thriller, part family drama, The Last One at the Wedding kept my heart racing and my mind reeling.” ―Riley Sager"The ultimate middle-class Dad battles the 1% for his daughter's soul in the best thriller I've read all year." ―Grady HendrixFrank Szatowski is shocked when his daughter, Maggie, calls him for the first time in three years. He was convinced that their estrangement would become permanent. He’s even more surprised when she invites him to her upcoming wedding in New Hampshire. Frank is ecstatic, and determined to finally make things right.He arrives to find that the wedding is at a private estate—very secluded, very luxurious, very much out of his league. It seems that Maggie failed to mention that she’s marrying Aidan Gardner, the son of a famous tech billionaire. Feeling desperately out of place, Frank focuses on reconnecting with Maggie and getting to know her new family. But it’s difficult: Aidan is withdrawn and evasive; Maggie doesn’t seem to have time for him; and he finds that the locals are disturbingly hostile to the Gardners. Frank needs to know more about this family his daughter is marrying into, but if he pushes too hard, he could lose Maggie forever.An edge-of-your-seat thriller that delves deep into the heart of one family, The Last One at the Wedding is a work of brilliant suspense from a true modern master.

The Fury

The Fury

A masterfully paced thriller about a reclusive ex–movie star and her famous friends whose spontaneous trip to a private Greek island is upended by a murder — from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Silent Patient This is a tale of murder.Or maybe that’s not quite true. At its heart, it’s a love story, isn’t it?Lana Farrar is a reclusive ex–movie star and one of the most famous women in the world. Every year, she invites her closest friends to escape the English weather and spend Easter on her idyllic private Greek island.I tell you this because you may think you know this story. You probably read about it at the time ― it caused a real stir in the tabloids, if you remember. It had all the necessary ingredients for a press sensation: a celebrity; a private island cut off by the wind…and a murder.We found ourselves trapped there overnight. Our old friendships concealed hatred and a desire for revenge. What followed was a game of cat and mouse ― a battle of wits, full of twists and turns, building to an unforgettable climax. The night ended in violence and death, as one of us was found murdered.But who am I?My name is Elliot Chase, and I’m going to tell you a story unlike any you’ve ever heard.

Desert Star

Desert Star

LAPD detective Renée Ballard and Harry Bosch team up to hunt the brutal killer who is Bosch’s “white whale”—a man responsible for the murder of an entire family. A year has passed since LAPD detective Renée Ballard quit the force in the face of misogyny, demoralization, and endless red tape. But after the chief of police himself tells her she can write her own ticket within the department, Ballard takes back her badge, leaving “the Late Show” to rebuild and lead the cold case unit at the elite Robbery-Homicide Division. For years, Harry Bosch has been working a case that haunts him—the murder of an entire family by a psychopath who still walks free. Ballard makes Bosch an offer: come volunteer as an investigator in her new Open-Unsolved Unit, and he can pursue his “white whale” with the resources of the LAPD behind him. First priority for Ballard is to clear the unsolved rape and murder of a sixteen-year-old girl. The decades-old case is essential to the councilman who supported re-forming the unit, and who could shutter it again—the victim was his sister. When Ballard gets a “cold hit” connecting the killing to a similar crime, proving that a serial predator has been at work in the city for years, the political pressure has never been higher. To keep momentum going, she has to pull Bosch off his own investigation, the case that is the consummation of his lifelong mission. The two must put aside old resentments and new tensions to run to ground not one but two dangerous killers who have operated with brash impunity. In what may be his most gripping and profoundly moving book yet, Michael Connelly shows once again why he has been dubbed “one of the greatest crime writers of all time” (Ryan Steck, Crimereads).

The Heiress

The Heiress

New York Times bestselling author Rachel Hawkins returns with a twisted new gothic suspense about an infamous heiress and the complicated inheritance she left behind.THERE’S NOTHING AS GOOD AS THE RICH GONE BADWhen Ruby McTavish Callahan Woodward Miller Kenmore dies, she’s not only North Carolina’s richest woman, she’s also its most notorious. The victim of a famous kidnapping as a child and a widow four times over, Ruby ruled the tiny town of Tavistock from Ashby House, her family’s estate high in the Blue Ridge Mountains.But in the aftermath of her death, her adopted son, Camden, wants little to do with the house or the money—and even less to do with the surviving McTavishes. Instead, he rejects his inheritance, settling into a normal life as an English teacher in Colorado and marrying Jules, a woman just as eager to escape her own messy past.Ten years later, his uncle’s death pulls Cam and Jules back into the family fold at Ashby House. Its views are just as stunning as ever, its rooms just as elegant, but the legacy of Ruby is inescapable.And as Ashby House tightens its grip on Jules and Camden, questions about the infamous heiress come to light. Was there any truth to the persistent rumors following her disappearance as a girl? What really happened to those four husbands, who all died under mysterious circumstances? And why did she adopt Cam in the first place? Soon, Jules and Cam realize that an inheritance can entail far more than what’s written in a will––and that the bonds of family stretch far beyond the grave.

Use of force

Use of force

Mar Mediterraneo. Mentre i lampi accendono il mare in tempesta e i tuoni si abbattono fragorosi, il Comando generale della guardia costiera italiana risponde a una disperata richiesta di aiuto. Ma la comunicazione è disturbata e l'imbarcazione non si trova. Qualche giorno dopo, la Marina rinviene un corpo al largo di Lampedusa: è un terrorista sparito dai radar delle agenzie di intelligence tre anni prima. L'uomo potrebbe essere collegato a un laptop ritrovato dagli americani che contiene file e progetti per una serie di attentati. Non c'è tempo da perdere e la CIA mette in campo il suo uomo migliore, Scot Harvath, ex Navy SEAL dell'unità d'élite antiterrorismo, che però non riesce a impedire lo scoppio della prima bomba a un grande raduno in Nevada. Quando altri feroci attacchi, tutti collegati tra loro, devastano Santiago de Compostela e Parigi, inizia una serrata caccia all'uomo tra Libia, Malta e Italia. In una folle lotta contro il tempo, Harvath e i suoi dovranno ricorrere a ogni possibile espediente per sventare i piani efferati del Califfato e capire quali ambigui rapporti intercorrano tra lo Stato Islamico, i trafficanti di uomini nordafricani, le milizie libiche filoislamiche e le più temibili organizzazioni criminali italiane. Adrenalinico, diabolico, perfetto come una macchina da guerra, Use of force è un thriller magistralmente costruito, firmato da una nuova e brillante voce del techno-thriller, sempre ai primi posti delle classifiche dei libri più venduti d'America.

Golden Prey

Golden Prey

THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERLucas Davenport’s first case as a U.S. Marshal sends him into uncharted territory in the thrilling new novel in the #1 New York Times-bestselling series.The man was smart and he didn’t mind killing people. Welcome to the big leagues, Davenport. Thanks to some very influential people whose lives he saved, Lucas is no longer working for the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, but for the U.S. Marshals Service, and with unusual scope. He gets to pick his own cases, whatever they are, wherever they lead him.And where they’ve led him this time is into real trouble. A Biloxi, Mississippi, drug-cartel counting house gets robbed, and suitcases full of cash disappear, leaving behind five bodies, including that of a six-year-old girl. Davenport takes the case, which quickly spirals out of control, as cartel assassins, including a torturer known as the “Queen of home-improvement tools” compete with Davenport to find the Dixie Hicks shooters who knocked over the counting house. Things get ugly real fast, and neither the cartel killers nor the holdup men give a damn about whose lives Davenport might have saved; to them, he’s just another large target.Filled with his trademark razor-sharp plotting and some of the best characters in suspense fiction, Golden Prey is further reason why “Sandford has always been at the top of any list of great mystery writers” (The Huffington Post).

Stolen Prey

Stolen Prey

A senseless slaughter leads Lucas Davenport down a twisted path in this thriller from the #1 New York Times bestselling author. Lucas Davenport has seen many terrible murder scenes. This is one of the worst. In the Minnesota town of Wayzata, an entire family has been killed—husband, wife, two kids, dogs. On the wall, in blood: “Were coming.” No apostrophe. There’s something about the scene that tugs at Lucas’s cop instincts—it looks an awful lot like the kind of scorched-earth retribution he’s seen from Mexican drug gangs. But this is a seriously upscale town, the husband ran a modest software company, the wife dabbled in local politics. None of it seems to fit. Until it does...

Lethal White

Lethal White

An unsettling cold case investigation ensnares Cormoran Strike and his partner in a web of dangerous secrets in this #1 New York Times bestseller, the inspiration for HBO Max's acclaimed series C.B. Strike.  When a troubled young man named Billy asks Cormoran Strike to help him investigate a crime he witnessed as a child, the private eye is left deeply troubled. While Billy is obviously mentally distressed and cannot remember many concrete details, there is something sincere about him and his story. But before Strike can question him further, Billy bolts from his office in a panic. Trying to get to the bottom of Billy's story, Strike and Robin Ellacott -- once his assistant, now a partner in the agency -- set off on a twisting trail that leads them through the backstreets of London, into a secretive inner sanctum within Parliament, and to a beautiful but sinister manor house deep in the countryside. And during this labyrinthine investigation, Strike's own life is far from straightforward. His newfound fame as a private eye means he can no longer operate behind the scenes as he once did. Plus, his relationship with his former assistant is more fraught than it ever has been; Robin is now invaluable to Strike in the business, but their personal relationship is much, much trickier than that. The most epic Robert Galbraith novel yet, Lethal White is "addictive, murderous fun" for British mystery lovers and crime fiction fans alike (Vox).

The Big Empty

The Big Empty

Elvis Cole and his enigmatic partner, Joe Pike, race to find a terrifying, unidentified killer in this twisting, unpredictable thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling author Robert Crais.Traci Beller was thirteen when her father disappeared in the sleepy town of Rancha, not far from Los Angeles. The evidence says Tommy Beller abandoned his family, but Traci never believed it. Now, ten years later, Traci is a high-profile influencer with millions of followers and the money to hire the best detective she can find: Elvis Cole.Elvis heads to Rancha where an ex-con named Sadie Givens and her daughter, Anya, might have a line on the missing man.  But when Elvis finds himself shadowed by a gang of vicious criminals, the missing persons cold case becomes far more sinister.Elvis calls his ex-Marine friend, Joe Pike, for help, and they follow Tommy Beller's trail into the depths of a monstrous, hidden evil. The case flips on its head, victims become predators, predators become prey, and the question becomes:  Can Elvis Cole save them all from this nightmare?

The Goodbye Man

The Goodbye Man

THE INSPIRATION FOR THE UPCOMING CBS ORIGINAL SERIES TRACKER In this twisty thriller from the New York Times bestselling master of suspense, reward-seeker Colter Shaw infiltrates a sinister cult after learning that the only way to get somebody out...is to go in.In the wilderness of Washington State, expert tracker Colter Shaw has located two young men accused of a terrible hate crime. But when his pursuit takes a shocking and tragic turn, Shaw becomes desperate to discover what went so horribly wrong and if he is to blame.Shaw's search for answers leads him to a shadowy organization that bills itself as a grief support group. But is it truly it a community that consoles the bereaved? Or a dangerous cult with a growing body count? Undercover, Shaw joins the mysterious group, risking everything despite the fact that no reward is on offer. He soon finds that some people will stop at nothing to keep their secrets hidden...and to make sure that he or those close to him say “goodbye” forever.CBS, CBS Eye Design, and related logos are trademarks of CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license.TRACKER is a trademark of Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. Used under license.

Eyes of Prey

Eyes of Prey

Lucas Davenport, "one of the best hard-case cops on the crime scene today" (Houston Post) returns in John Sandford's #1 New York Times bestselling Prey series...Lieutenant Davenport’s sanity was nearly shattered by two murder investigations. Now he faces something worse…Two killers. One hideously scarred. The other strikingly handsome, a master manipulator fascinated with all aspects of death. The dark mirror of Davenport’s soul…This is the case that will bring Davenport back to life. Or push him over the edge. With a New Introduction by John Sandford

Hidden Prey

Hidden Prey

“One of the strongest in Sandford’s Prey series.”—Entertainment Weekly“Good, dark, perverse, bloody fun.”—The Washington Post Book WorldTheories abound when a Russian gets himself killed on the shore of Lake Superior—shot with fifty-year-old bullets. But when it turns out he had very high government connections, state troubleshooter Lucas Davenport gets the call. Well, Lucas and a mysterious Russian cop with secrets all her own. Together, they’ll follow a trail back to another place and another time, and battle the shadows they discover there—shadows that turn out to be both very real and very deadly.

Dark of the Moon

Dark of the Moon

The first Virgil Flowers novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author John Sandford.“Virgil Flowers, introduced in bestseller Sandford’s Prey series, gets a chance to shine...The thrice-divorced, affable member of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA), who reports to Prey series hero Lucas Davenport, operates pretty much on his own..”*He’s been doing the hard stuff for three years, but he’s never seen anything like this. In the small rural town of Bluestem, an old man is bound in his basement, doused with gasoline and set on fire. Three weeks before, a doctor and his wife were murdered. Three homicides in Bluestem in just as many weeks is unheard of. It’s also no coincidence. And it’s far from over...

Bad Blood

Bad Blood

The fourth thrilling novel in #1 New York Times bestselling author John Sandford's Virgil Flowers series.Two bodies in two days. One is murder. The other is suicide. Virgil Flowers never imagined that discovering the connection would lead him into the perverse history of the Minnesota farm community, and almost unimaginable darkness.