What if, under the PATRIOT Act, federal bureaucrats could take murder cases away from local cops—then bury those cases so they're never investigated again? What if government agents could bug your home, your car, your place of business—your entire life—with nothing more than spoken permission from a secret panel of judges? What if the Department of Homeland Security could pull police officers off the street and hold them in cells indefinitely as material witnesses—because they're working on "sensitive" investigations? They can . . . The PATRIOT Act and the Homeland Security Act give enormous power to our nation's top federal law enforcement officials. They operate under the presumption that these officials are honest, diligent, and fair. But what if they're not? In THE COLD HIT, Detective Shane Scully suspects that the regional boss of the Department of Homeland Security is thwarting a major murder investigation. But why? Robert Allen Virtue can act without oversight or accountability. There's no way to question him; there's no way to way to check up on him; there's no way to find out if he's exceeding his authority. Virtually at will, he can bug anyone he considers a threat to national security, take over criminal investigations, and jail cops. Even if he is breaking the law, there's no way to know it. There's nothing to rely on but his integrity. His professional commitment. His good name. Virtue. That may be a very big mistake. Shane and his partner are investigating "the Fingertip Killer," a serial murderer preying on homeless Vietnam vets in Los Angeles. A bullet taken from one victim's skull matches the bullet that killed another man ten years earlier—an unexpected ballistics match linking one unsolved case to another that police call a "cold hit." When the earlier victim turns out to have been an LAPD cop, the investigation becomes very personal for Shane. But there's a problem: Robert Allen Virtue wants him taken off it. To solve the cop's murder, and possibly the Fingertip case, Scully must go behind the powerful bureaucrat's back and deep undercover—where he will begin unraveling a deadly far-reaching conspiracy that threatens to destroy everything he loves: his career, his freedom, and his family.

Renowned sex-crimes prosecutor and bestselling author Linda Fairstein sends her acclaimed heroine—the stylish and steely-nerved D.A. Alexandra Cooper—on a hunt for a killer inside New York City's glitzy art world. Alexandra Cooper has seen many murder victims, but few more disturbing than the silk-clad body of a woman, her hands and feet tied to a ladder, pulled from the turbulent waters at Manhattan's northern tip. With her colleagues, including NYPD detectives Mike Chapman and Mercer Wallace, Alex races against the clock and hopes for a "cold hit"—a DNA match that would reveal the identity of the murderer by linking the crime to someone already in the police database. But as the case pulls her into the exclusive world of East Side auction houses and cutting-edge Chelsea galleries, Alex discovers she may be marked as an expendable commodity in a chilling and deadly scheme...

Renowned sex-crimes prosecutor and bestselling author Linda Fairstein sends her acclaimed heroine—the stylish and steely-nerved D.A. Alexandra Cooper—on a hunt for a killer inside New York City's glitzy art world. Alexandra Cooper has seen many murder victims, but few more disturbing than the silk-clad body of a woman, her hands and feet tied to a ladder, pulled from the turbulent waters at Manhattan's northern tip. With her colleagues, including NYPD detectives Mike Chapman and Mercer Wallace, Alex races against the clock and hopes for a "cold hit"—a DNA match that would reveal the identity of the murderer by linking the crime to someone already in the police database. But as the case pulls her into the exclusive world of East Side auction houses and cutting-edge Chelsea galleries, Alex discovers she may be marked as an expendable commodity in a chilling and deadly scheme...

Cold Hit On a steamy August evening, Assistant DA Alexandra Cooper is called to a crime scene. The body pulled from the water is that of a young woman with her hands and feet bound to a ladder. Her elegant clothes and manicured nails suggest affluent connections, but just how well-connected she is surprises even Alex. Soon she and her NYPD detective colleagues are hunting for a killer in a world where priceless art meets big money in a lethal mix... The Deadhouse University professor Lola Dakota's abusive husband is finally stopped when the police hear of his plans to hire a hitman and set a trap for him. It goes well, and he is soon safely behind bars. But less than a couple of hours later Lola is murdered. Alex Cooper is brought in to help, and finds herself in the strange world of academia at Columbia University. Amongst all the usual scandal is an unusual research site on an island near Manhattan - the remains of a Victorian penitentiary and morgue - the Deadhouse.

Five foreigners have died in Bangkok. Were they drug overdose victims or victims of a serial killer? Calvino believes the evidence points to a serial killer who stalks tourists in Bangkok. The Thai police, including Colonel Pratt, don't buy his theory. Calvino teams up with an LAPD officer on a bodyguard assignment. Hidden forces pull them through swank shopping malls, rundown hotels, Klong Toey slum, and bars in the redlight district as they try to keep their man and themselves alive. As Calvino learns more about the bodies being shipped back to America, the secret of the serial killer is revealed.

The Kincaid Family Christmas Reunion is threatened by murder ... Cold Snap is the seventh Lucy Kincaid Novel from New York Times bestselling author Allison Brennan. ALL ROADS HOME On his way home to San Diego, P.I. Patrick Kincaid takes a detour through San Francisco to check on the wellbeing of a family friend who's mysteriously been unreachable. What he doesn't expect is to be shot at before he can find out why attorney Elle Santana won't ask the police for help in finding a missing girl. Soon, he's on the run from both good guys and bad as he and Elle race to find the witness and take down a sweatshop run by a corrupt businessman with a penchant for violence. LEAD TO DEAD ENDS Newly sworn FBI Agent Lucy Kincaid can't remember the last time she spent the holidays with her whole family, but getting home by December 25th is proving to be a bit of a problem. A blizzard shut down the airports and she and her boyfriend Sean Rogan are stuck in a Denver hotel ... with a dead body. And if that wasn't all, back in San Diego Colonel Kincaid ends up in the hospital, where an even greater danger awaits ... a man with a vendetta who will kill anyone who gets in his way. This Christmas, the Kincaid family needs nothing less than a miracle to survive. And time is running out.

CP Local 02-08-2006 $31.95.