A Martini Club search begins, almost casually with a marital dispute between a beautiful woman and her wandering husband. The quarrel evolves into sweeping questions about stolen art, undercover agents, religious conundrums, Fibonacci sequences, politics, and—of course—billionaires with billions to spend. Colorful locations, energetic personalities, and a chimpanzee named Chappie. All play a part in discovering the real object of the search: a find that bids fair to change how we think about our history, or faith, and our lives.
Martini Mystery is Bridget Jones Diary stumbles into the DaVinci Code, has an affair with Confessions of a Shopaholic, all while drinking with Nick and Nora Charles on the streets of New Orleans. One winter night in New Orleans, ex-showgirl and romance novelist Ellington Martini heads to the French Quarter where she is swept into a mysterious New Orleans parade. A man grabs her and whispers, "Stop the killing of the king," in her ear before collapsing on her, dead.Now Ellington's Chanel-and-cream-puff world collides with the dark and violent underbelly of her beloved city. Uncovering the truth thrusts her into a game of cat and mouse with one of the most dangerous secret societies in the world. Now she and her band of Irregulars must stop the "killing of the king," all while keeping their Louboutins clean amidst the detritus of the streets of the French Quarter.
“Another winner from Alan Eysen. If you like interesting characters, all with their own stories, this second novel in the Martini Club series is for you.” —Beverly Lawn, Author, Poet and English Professor Emerita Adelphi University. There they go again—a couple of them getting shot at—this time while flying over a dead-beat farm they were conned into buying for a million dollars. Smart, savvy, retired and bored, the Martini Club guys go looking for a little adventure and a bunch of their money back. What possibly could be valuable enough down there for somebody to shoot at them? The answer will take The Martini Club on a wild ride through space and time. But will they solve the mystery before someone gets killed?
“Super cinematic and every bit as Agatha Christie-esque as its sounds... ifyou like murder mysteries, pick this one up!” -Emily Henry, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Book Lovers Named A Most Anticipated Mystery of Summer by Betches, Essence, Crime Reads and more! The glittering RMS Queen Mary. A nightclub singer on the run. An aristocratic family with secrets worth killing for. London, 1936. Lena Aldridge wonders if life has passed her by. The dazzling theatre career she hoped for hasn’t worked out. Instead, she’s stuck singing in a sticky-floored basement club in Soho, and her married lover has just left her. But Lena has always had a complicated life, one shrouded in mystery as a mixed-race girl passing for white in a city unforgiving of her true racial heritage. She’s feeling utterly hopeless until a stranger offers her the chance of a lifetime: a starring role on Broadway and a first-class ticket on the Queen Mary bound for New York. After a murder at the club, the timing couldn’t be better, and Lena jumps at the chance to escape England. But death follows her onboard when an obscenely wealthy family draws her into their fold just as one among them is killed in a chillingly familiar way. As Lena navigates the Abernathy’s increasingly bizarre family dynamic, she realizes that her greatest performance won't be for an audience, but for her life. With seductive glamor, simmering family drama, and dizzying twists, Louise Hare makes her beguiling US debut.
Short stories and a novella from one of crime fiction's most revered writers. Whether they're cops or conmen, savage killers or creative types, gangsters or God-fearing citizens, George Pelecanos' characters are always engaged in a fight for their lives. They fight to advance or simply to survive; they fight against odds, against enemies, even against themselves. In this, his first collection of stories, the acclaimed novelist introduces readers to a vivid and eclectic cast of combatants. A seasoned claims investigator tracks a supposedly dead man from Miami to Brazil, only to be thrown off his game by a kid from the local slum. An aging loser takes a last stab at respectability by becoming a police informant. A Greek-American couple adopts an interracial trio of sons and then struggles to keep their family together, giving us a stirring bit of background on one of Pelecanos' most beloved protagonists, Spero Lucas. In the title novella - which takes its name from Hollywood slang for the last shot of the day, the one that comes before the liquor shots begin - we go behind the scenes of a television cop show, where a writer gets caught up in a drama more real than anything he could have conjured for a script. By turns heartbreaking and humane, brutal and funny, these finely constructed tales expose the violence and striving beneath the surface of any city and within any human heart. Tough, sexy, fast-paced, and crackling with energy, The Martini Shot is Pelecanos at his very best.
Jim Qwilleran and his cats Koko and Yum Yum must solve a curious caper in this mystery in the bestselling Cat Who series. Something is amiss at Maus Haus. Not just the mystery of an unsolved “suicide” which hangs over the old mansion, but something ominous in the present-day residence. When Qwilleran moves in to work on his new gastronomical assignment, strange things begin to happen. First it's a scream in the night, then a vanishing houseboy. But when his old girlfriend disappears, something has to be done. Qwilleran, Koko and Yum Yum set out to solve the mystery—and find a murderer!
Champagne Scandal: The Spirits are Calling is Book 2 in the Martini Mystery series, starring ex-showgirl and author, Ellington Martini. It's a dark and stormy night when Ellington's sister, Callie, returns from France, where she has procured the priceless jewels and costumes of iconic showgirl, Josephine Baker, for Callie's upcoming exhibition at a New Orleans museum. Ellington is hosting one of her legendary "Storm Parties", where her guests are local burlesque legends. The storm has upgraded to hurricane status when a bloodcurdling scream interrupts their wine-filled evening, sending Ellington and her Band of Irregulars into a swirling adventure of glittering showgirls, suspicious guests, flowing champagne, an oversized bedazzled banana, a rope made of Frette sheets, and even a séance, where the spirits are indeed calling. But are the spirits the ghosts of deceased performers, or just Patron and Don Julio? In order to save Callie and her irreplaceable historical treasures, Ellington must discover which of her guests committed the crime before the storm is over.
"Comic and suspenseful, The Trouble with Truffles is the third novel in Alan Eysen's Martini Club Mystery series. This time the lure is 100 acres of perfect white truffles. Irresistible." —Beverly Lawn, Author, Poet and English Professor at Emerita Adelphi University The Martini Clubbers are at it again, seeking adventure as well as money. This time, both come knocking in the form of a beautiful woman who says she represents a company that can make them a fortune in white truffle production, if it is allowed to experiment on a farm owned by the Club. After all, white truffles sell for $4,000 a pound. The members go for it. The notoriously difficult to cultivate white truffle is suddenly easily available, which brings an unexpected problem.
A legal thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of the Paul Madriani series. It started with a series of bizarre double murders. It led to the arrest of one prime suspect. And it sparked the most explosive trial in a lawyer’s career. Paul Madriani knows that the man he’s persecuting is guilty. But one disturbing fact could destroy the case . . . He may not be the only killer.
'Down Under's funniest detectives shoot from the lip with a wit as dry as their martinis' Kathy Lette A brand new mystery featuring Nick and La Contessa, the beloved characters from Matthew Benns' smash hit nationwide newspaper serial. 'Time for a martini, darling?' Wise-cracking, cocktail-swilling detective duo Nick Moore and his glamorous Italian wife, La Contessa, receive a last minute invitation from the Prime Minister to a glamorous but intimate dinner party at Kirribilli House on New Year's Eve. The intriguing guestlist includes several top diplomats, a casino billionaire, a dodgy bookie, a controversial doctor, a social media influencer and, of course, Nick and La Contessa's trusty beagle, Baxter. But a dramatic revelation from the PM sets off more fireworks inside than outside ... and that's before the bodies start to pile up. As suspicion falls on some of the most powerful people in the country, the race is on. Can Nick and La Contessa solve the case before anyone else joins the dying diplomats' club? Bonus story included! Go back to where it all began with Nick and La Contessa's first adventure in the smash hit newspaper serial We're All In This Together.
