Hairstylist Marla Shore untangles a snarl of secrets when she’s suspected of poisoning her client’s coffee creamer in this debut cozy mystery. Hairstylist Marla Shore is already having a bad hair day when one of her clients dies in the shampoo chair at her salon. Then Detective Dalton Vail accuses her of putting poison in the woman’s coffee creamer. Grumpy Bertha Kravitz might not have been Marla’s favorite customer, but she wouldn’t have murdered the lady. With her reputation at stake, Marla decides it’s up to her to unmask the killer. Combing the woman’s privileged world for clues, Marla discovers the town is crawling with potential suspects. Bertha’s son is resentful about being written out of her will. Her shady business partner has secrets to hide, and then there’s the niece, who inherits Bertha’s fortune. But Marla might have to look closer to home for the culprit. Her janitor has vanished without a trace, and one of her stylists leads an upscale lifestyle that doesn’t match her income. As the case grows more snarled, Marla determines to unravel the clues. She’d better hurry before the smart detective discovers her scandalous secret, or he’ll pin her with a motive and lock her away in a place where a bad hair day will become permanent. “Marla the beautician is a delight!”—Tamar Myers, author of the Pennsylvania Dutch Mysteries

Finalist for the 2015 Epigram Books Fiction Prize Death of a Perm Sec is a mystery about the demise of the permanent-secretary of the housing ministry, Chow Sze Teck, accused of accepting millions of dollars in bribes over his career. Set in 1980's Singapore, the novel examines the civil servant’s death, which first appears to be suicide by a cocktail of alcohol, morphine and Valium. But upon investigation by a CID inspector who might not be what he seems, the family discovers there may be far more sinister circumstances behind his death, that reach to the very top of government. The novel exposes the dark heart of power politics,from the country’s tumultuous post-independence days to the socio-political landscape of the 1980s.

When the quiet Little Vestry of St. Matthew's Church becomes the blood-soaked scene of a double murder, Scotland Yard Commander Adam Dalgliesh faces an intriguing conundrum: How did an upper-crust Minister come to lie, slit throat to slit throat, next to a neighborhood derelict of the lowest order? Challenged with the investigation of a crime that appears to have endless motives, Dalgliesh explores the sinister web spun around a half-burnt diary and a violet-eyed widow who is pregnant and full of malice--all the while hoping to fill the gap of logic that joined these two disparate men in bright red death. . . .

"Welcome To My Mortuary!" Those were the words of William Lee "Cody" Neal, 43, to Angela Fite on July 5, 1998, after luring the pretty 28-year-old to the Denver, Colorado townhouse he'd turned into a den of torture and slaughter. With twisted pleasure, he showed her two dead female bodies on the floor and a third, live one--naked, gagged and bound, and spread-eagled on a mattress. "Anybody Stupid Enough To Believe Me Deserves To Get Screwed!" Neal who called himself "Wild Bill Cody," was seductive and skillful at separating love-struck women from their money, and ultimately, their lives. 43-year-old divorcee Rebecca Holberton let Neal move into her townhouse and "loaned" him $70,000. On June 30, 1998, he repaid her by crushing her skull with an ax and wrapping her in plastic. On Friday, July 3, he brought another girlfriend, Candace Walters, 48, to the townhouse, clubbing her to death and desecrating the body. On Sunday, yet another acquaintance, Suzanne Scott, 21, watched helplessly as Angela Fite was murdered by Neal, who then sodomized and raped his bound captive. "Here's What Happens When You Mess With Me!" Apprehended by police, Neal, who proclaimed himself better than Ted Bundy, insisted on representing himself at the trial. Though the evidence against him was overwhelming, it was the testimony of Suzanne, who had survived Neal's unspeakable torture, that finally put this monster on Colorado's death row. Includes 16 Pages Of Shocking Photos

A Maryland soul food chef catches a bitter killer while catering her high school reunion in this “sweet-tart and wickedly wholesome” mystery (Publishers Weekly). Halia Watkins loves her life as proprietor of Mahalia’s Sweet Tea, serving the best soul food in Prince George’s County, Maryland. And what better way to celebrate than catering her own high school reunion? Soon she’s serving up her signature macaroni and cheese and famous chicken wings to a host of appreciative ex-classmates. Some folks have blossomed since graduation. But Halia’s high school nemesis Raynell Rollins—currently married to a former football star—hasn’t changed nearly enough. When Raynell is found dead the morning after the reunion, the roll call of possible suspects could fill the school gymnasium. Extra-marital affairs, mega-church scandals and sports secrets—Raynell had her perfectly manicured hand in a lot of sticky situations. With her young cousin’s bungling assistance, Halia is on course to track down the killer. But if she doesn’t make the grade, she’ll be the alumna most likely to meet an untimely end. Features delicious recipes including Double Crust Chicken Pot Pie and Chocolate Marshmallow Cake!

As seen on Investigation Discovery’s Epic Mysteries series—from the New York Times bestselling author who “writes with muscle and heart” (Gregg Olsen, #1 New York Times bestselling author). One morning in July 1974, Anita Andrews, the owner and bartender at Fagiani’s Cocktail Lounge in Napa, California, was found dead in her bar—raped, beaten, and stabbed to death in a bloody frenzy. Meanwhile a month after Anita’s murder, young Michele Wallace, was driving down a road in the mountains near Crested Butte, Colorado, when she gave two stranded motorists, including a man named Roy, a ride. She was never seen alive again. Fourteen years later, Charlotte Sauerwin, engaged to be married, met a smooth-talking man at a Laundromat in Livingston Parish, Louisiana. The next evening, her body was found in the woods; she’d been raped, tortured, and her throat slashed. The three murders would remain unsolved, eating at the hearts, minds and lives of the women’s families, friends and communities. Then in the early 1990s, a rookie Gunnison County sheriff’s investigator named Kathy Young began looking into the Wallace case and identified a suspect named Roy Melanson, a serial rapist from Texas. It would lead her and other investigators looking into murders and rapes in other states to a serial killer who struck again and again with seeming impunity. Smooth Talker is the story of Melanson, his depredations, and the intrepid police work that went into bringing him to justice not just in Colorado, but California and Louisiana. “Steve Jackson is one of the greats in the true crime author world.”—C.L. Swinney, bestselling author of The Peninsula Serial Killer