Chapter One WHEN BRUCE MESSANE’S PHONE WOKE HIM at half past midnight, he knew it couldn’t possibly be good news— good news never came this late. He tried to guess what calamity was waiting for him on the other end of the line. Best-case scenario was more supply chain issues and shipping delays, a constant…
A thriller is often made or broken by the intensity of the villain. The City of Secrets’s Angel of Death is preternaturally evil, mysterious, and casts a pall on everyone whose lives are touched by them. Ringo, a confidential informant tells his Homicide handler that he’s leaving town because of a very-real specter: “This motherfucker…
Santa Monica’s Farmers Market Maggie is in great shape and understands the importance of eating local, fresh, and clean, even if she doesn’t always adhere to the philosophy. You’ll find her here most Saturday mornings scouring the stalls (and fighting the city’s top chefs) for exotic gems like Persian mulberries, heirloom avocados, fraises des bois,…
Chapter 1 The ocean was singing in the hushed, undulating tones of low tide on this still, damp night. Nature’s beguiling lullaby swelled and ebbed in Kira Tanner’s body, transfixing her as powerfully as the mist-furred brilliance of the sickle moon hanging in a starless sky. Its cool light frosted the water and spread a…
New York Times bestseller P. J. Tracy returns with Deep into the Dark, a brand new series set in L.A. and featuring up-and-coming LAPD Detective Margaret Nolan and murder suspect Sam Easton. I have been a fan of P.J. Tracy since the first Monkeewrench novel and have read virtually all the books since. Twisty, dark,…
I’m that weirdo you occasionally see at an airport gate or in a waiting room; totally anomalous because I’m not a lonely planet orbiting around my digital sun. You can’t even see evidence of a digital sun on my person, which makes me rarer than a unicorn and appreciably suspicious. Of course, you might not…
Every Wednesday, we here at Criminal Element will put together a list of Staff Picks of the books that published the day before—sharing the ones that we are looking forward to reading the most! This week, Jo Spain’s latest thriller combines with Reed Farrel Coleman’s next Jesse Stone novel highlight an amazing week of books!…
Traci Lambrecht collaborated with her mother, PJ Lambrecht, under the pseudonym PJ Tracy until PJ’s death in 2016. Together, they wrote several romance novels under a variety of names before turning to crime fiction. Their books are national and international bestsellers and have won accolades including the Anthony, Barry, Gumshoe, and Minnesota Book Awards. Their…
Every Wednesday, we here at Criminal Element will put together a list of Staff Picks of the books that published the day before—sharing the ones that we are looking forward to reading the most! The 21st Meg Langslow Mystery from Donna Andrews and a new Royal Spyness Mystery from Rhys Bowen highlights a killer week…
“Listen to your mother.” Excellent words of advice, so today on the occasion of Mother’s Day, we are going to give some of our mothers the opportunity to make crime fiction book and TV recommendations. Of course, it just wouldn’t be right unless I started with my own lovely and talented mother whose favorite authors…
