A Boston homicide detective sets out to find a young girl's killer-and confronts the dark world of city politics and organized crime.

Three in one complete mystery novels.

A 1920s cruise ship is bound for murder in this cozy mystery by the author of The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes. Novelist Dunsten Mollock has no intention of going on a cruise just yet. He has come to the pier simply to see off his sister and brother-in-law, who are about to embark on a transatlantic cruiser for a European honeymoon. But when Mollock forgets to give his sister a copy of his new book, he finds himself accidentally bound for Europe. But that’s not the only surprise. Only two days after departing New York, a beautiful countess is discovered strangled in her cabin. Fortunately, Mollock’s friend Walter Ghost is on board. The astute scientist, explorer, and former intelligence officer always appreciates a good puzzle. He just needs to solve this one quickly and find the killer before someone else gets scratched off the passenger list . .

Originally published: Atlanta, Ga.: Peachtree Publishers, 1981.

Small town politics are always the same comfortably dull sandbox bickering-even when your small town is the gateway to the nation's capital. Or so thought Paige Smith, editor of the Spectator weekly. His love life was in the tank, and he wasn't getting any younger, but the speed was about right for him until the April morning that the County Board meeting was gaveled to order by a fatal gunshot. Before long, it was clear that none of the people who'd filled his political columns for years were who they seemed-and things were getting dangerous for a quiet man who'd never been threatened by anything more lethal than a deadline. '.a fictionalized version of the [Arlington] County Board and those in the political spotlight. hilarious, but. unsettling." Arlington Sun Gazette, 4/8/04

Adam Dalgluish is called to the elegant Steen Psychiatric Clinic to investigate why the head of the clinic, Enid Bolan was found with a chisel through her heart.

In 1998, the horrific murders of Matthew Shepard -- a gay man living in Laramie, Wyoming -- and James Byrd Jr. -- an African American man dragged to his death in Jasper, Texas -- provoked a passionate public outrage. The intense media coverage of the murders made moments of violence based in racism and homophobia highly visible and which eventually led to the passage of The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act in 2009. The role the media played in cultivating, shaping, and directing the collective emotional response toward these crimes is the subject of this gripping new book by Jennifer Petersen. Tracing the emotional exchange from news stories to the creation of law, Petersen calls for an approach to media and democratic politics that takes into account the role of affect in the political and legal life of the nation.